Multi-Parameter Analysis of Biobanked Human Bone Marrow Stromal Cells Shows Little Influence for Donor Age and Mild Comorbidities on Phenotypic and Functional Properties

Heterogeneous populations of human bone marrow-derived stromal cells (BMSC) are among the most frequently tested cellular therapeutics for treating degenerative and immune disorders, which occur predominantly in the aging population. Currently, it is unclear whether advanced donor age and commonly associated comorbidities affect the properties of ex vivo-expanded BMSCs. Thus, we stratified cells from adult and elderly donors from our biobank (n = 10 and n = 13, mean age 38 and 72 years, respectively) and compared their phenotypic and functional performance, using multiple assays typically employed as minimal criteria for defining multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs). We found that BMSCs from both cohorts meet the standard criteria for MSC, exhibiting similar morphology, growth kinetics, gene expression profiles, and pro-angiogenic and immunosuppressive potential and the capacity to differentiate toward adipogenic, chondrogenic, and osteogenic lineages. We found no substantial differences between cells from the adult and elderly cohorts. As positive controls, we studied the impact of in vitro aging and inflammatory cytokine stimulation. Both conditions clearly affected the cellular properties, independent of donor age. We conclude that in vitro aging rather than in vivo donor aging influences BMSC characteristics

Recommendations on the development, use and provision of Research Software

These recommendations describe challenges relating to research software and provide recommendations for the development, use and provision of this type of software. The relevance of research software to modern research should be clearly underlined, especially in the context of political debate on digital transformation in the sciences and humanities. This document was prepared by the Research Software Working Group, established in 2016, within the Alliance initiative

Unmanned Aerial Systems for Investigating the Polar Atmospheric Boundary Layer—Technical Challenges and Examples of Applications

Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) fill a gap in high-resolution observations of meteorological parameters on small scales in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL). Especially in the remote polar areas, there is a strong need for such detailed observations with different research foci. In this study, three systems are presented which have been adapted to the particular needs for operating in harsh polar environments: The fixed-wing aircraft M^2AV with a mass of 6 kg, the quadrocopter ALICE with a mass of 19 kg, and the fixed-wing aircraft ALADINA with a mass of almost 25 kg. For all three systems, their particular modifications for polar operations are documented, in particular the insulation and heating requirements for low temperatures. Each system has completed meteorological observations under challenging conditions, including take-off and landing on the ice surface, low temperatures (down to −28 °C), icing, and, for the quadrocopter, under the impact of the rotor downwash. The influence on the measured parameters is addressed here in the form of numerical simulations and spectral data analysis. Furthermore, results from several case studies are discussed: With the M^2AV, low-level flights above leads in Antarctic sea ice were performed to study the impact of areas of open water within ice surfaces on the ABL, and a comparison with simulations was performed. ALICE was used to study the small-scale structure and short-term variability of the ABL during a cruise of RV Polarstern to the 79°N glacier in Greenland. With ALADINA, aerosol measurements of different size classes were performed in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, in highly complex terrain. In particular, very small, freshly formed particles are difficult to monitor and require the active control of temperature inside the instruments. The main aim of the article is to demonstrate the potential of UAS for ABL studies in polar environments, and to provide practical advice for future research activities with similar systems

Unmanned Aerial Systems for Investigating the Polar Atmospheric Boundary Layer—Technical Challenges and Examples of Applications

Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) fill a gap in high-resolution observations of meteorological parameters on small scales in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL). Especially in the remote polar areas, there is a strong need for such detailed observations with different research foci. In this study, three systems are presented which have been adapted to the particular needs for operating in harsh polar environments: The fixed-wing aircraft M2AV with a mass of 6 kg, the quadrocopter ALICE with a mass of 19 kg, and the fixed-wing aircraft ALADINA with a mass of almost 25 kg. For all three systems, their particular modifications for polar operations are documented, in particular the insulation and heating requirements for low temperatures. Each system has completed meteorological observations under challenging conditions, including take-offand landing on the ice surface, low temperatures (down to-28 °C), icing, and, for the quadrocopter, under the impact of the rotor downwash. The influence on the measured parameters is addressed here in the form of numerical simulations and spectral data analysis. Furthermore, results from several case studies are discussed: With the M2AV, low-level flights above leads in Antarctic sea ice were performed to study the impact of areas of open water within ice surfaces on the ABL, and a comparison with simulations was performed. ALICE was used to study the small-scale structure and short-term variability of the ABL during a cruise of RV Polarstern to the 79° N glacier in Greenland. With ALADINA, aerosol measurements of different size classes were performed in Ny-Alesund, Svalbard, in highly complex terrain. In particular, very small, freshly formed particles are difficult to monitor and require the active control of temperature inside the instruments. The main aim of the article is to demonstrate the potential of UAS for ABL studies in polar environments, and to provide practical advice for future research activities with similar systems. © 2020 by the authors

ZIH Colloquium - RSE

06th October 2022, 15:00 MESZ, Room A317 Willersbau: Stephan Janosch (Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics Dresden) - „Research Software Engineering (RSE) - About software in science and the people behind“ Software is an essential tool in science. You might use standard commercial or open source tools but also custom built software, so called research software. What is the difference between commercial and research software? Who makes research software and how is its development funded? How important is maintenance in regards to reproducibility of scientific results? Stephan Janosch presents an overview about people, processes and results. Where possible he also looks on national (e.g. NFDI) and international level. His talk gives a broad overview about the current situation featuring references to current developments and answers to the questions above. Stephan Janosch is a computer scientist by training. He joined the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) in 2009 in Software Engineering Facility. From 2011 on he supported the Genome Engineering Facility where we worked closely with researchers and technicians in the lab. He is a co-funder of the non profit German RSE association (de-RSE.org) and never stopped caring for scientific software. Since a few years is also active in research data management (RDM).</p

Insights into German Research Software Engineering Landscape

A presentation in order to establish an RSE working group within the Dresden Concept Scientific Area Network (SAN)<div>Change Through Digitalisation</div

Robust embedded egomotion estimation

This work presents a method for estimating the egomotion of an aerial vehicle in challenging industrial environments. It combines binocular visual and inertial cues in a tightly-coupled fashion and operates in real time on an embedded platform. An extended Kalman filter fuses measurements and makes motion estimation rely more on inertial data if visual feature constellation is degenerate. Errors in roll and pitch are bounded implicitly by the gravity vector. Inertial sensors are used for efficient outlier detection and enable operation in poorly and repetitively textured environments. We demonstrate robustness and accuracy in an industrial scenario as well as in general indoor environments. The former is accompanied by a detailed performance evaluation supported with ground truth measurements from an external tracking system

Pump-probe Microscopy Investigations on Fs-laser Ablation of Thin Ta2O5/Pt Layer Systems

AbstractA femtosecond laser is used for selective structuring of biocompatible sensorchips consisting of a Ta 2 O 5 /Pt layer system on glass substrate. It was observed, that for low fluences the Ta 2 O 5 can be selectively lifted-off from the Pt, while high fluences enable a removal of both layers. The underlying physical effects are investigated by pump-probe microscopy allowing the observation of the whole ablation process ranging temporally from femtoseconds to microseconds. Results show the formation of a gas-liquid mixture at 3 ps, causing the Ta 2 O 5 to bulge after some ns. The Ta 2 O 5 is disrupted in small particles after 50ns