Disappearing repositories -- taking an infrastructure perspective on the long-term availability of research data

Currently, there is limited research investigating the phenomenon of research data repositories being shut down, and the impact this has on the long-term availability of data. This paper takes an infrastructure perspective on the preservation of research data by using a registry to identify 191 research data repositories that have been closed and presenting information on the shutdown process. The results show that 6.2 % of research data repositories indexed in the registry were shut down. The risks resulting in repository shutdown are varied. The median age of a repository when shutting down is 12 years. Strategies to prevent data loss at the infrastructure level are pursued to varying extent. 44 % of the repositories in the sample migrated data to another repository, and 12 % maintain limited access to their data collection. However, both strategies are not permanent solutions. Finally, the general lack of information on repository shutdown events as well as the effect on the findability of data and the permanence of the scholarly record are discussed

Empower your Research Data Management – Community Building für Forschungsdatenrepositorien

Forschungsdatenrepositorien sind zentrale Infrastrukturen für die Umsetzung der FAIR Data Principles und stellen sicher, dass Forschungsdaten langfristig zugänglich sind (“preserve your data”) und erfolgreich nachgenutzt werden können (“empower your research”). Einen umfassenden und strukturierten Überblick über die internationale Landschaft der Forschungsdatenrepositorien gibt re3data, das Registry of Research Data Repositories (https://www.re3data.org/). Wissenschaftliche Communities, Förderorganisationen, Bibliotheken und andere wissenschaftliche Infrastrukturen nutzen re3data und empfehlen den Dienst zur Auswahl geeigneter Infrastrukturen für die Speicherung von und Recherche nach Datensätzen. re3data beschreibt derzeit fast 3000 Repositorien auf Grundlage eines ausführlichen Metadatenschemas (https://doi.org/10.2312/re3.008). Das Poster thematisiert die Entwicklung und die Erfolge von re3data, welches sich im Laufe der letzten 10 Jahre zur umfassendsten Quelle für Informationen und Metadaten über Forschungsdatenrepositorien entwickelt hat – von den Anfängen des Services, der aus zwei DFG-geförderten Projekte hervorging, über die darauf folgende Zusammenarbeit und Fusion mit DataBib bis hin zu der Partnerschaft mit DataCite und den aktuellen Projekten. Beleuchtet wird außerdem das Wachstum der Forschungsdaten-Communities über alle Fachbereiche hinweg. Darüber hinaus werden die aktuellen Kollaborationen und Aktivitäten des DFG-Projektes re3data COREF (Community Driven Open Reference for Research Data Repositories) vorgestellt mit besonderem Fokus auf die wissenschaftlichen Communities (https://coref.project.re3data.org/)

Genomic prediction of the recombination rate variation in barley - A route to highly recombinogenic genotypes

Meiotic recombination is not only fundamental to the adaptation of sexually reproducing eukaryotes in nature but increased recombination rates facilitate the combination of favourable alleles into a single haplotype in breeding programmes. The main objectives of this study were to (i) assess the extent and distribution of the recombination rate variation in cultivated barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), (ii) quantify the importance of the general and specific recombination effects, and (iii) evaluate a genomic selection approach’s ability to predict the recombination rate variation. Genetic maps were created for the 45 segregating populations that were derived from crosses among 23 spring barley inbreds with origins across the world. The genome‐wide recombination rate among populations ranged from 0.31 to 0.73 cM/Mbp. The crossing design used in this study allowed to separate the general recombination effects (GRE) of individual parental inbreds from the specific recombination effects (SRE) caused by the combinations of parental inbreds. The variance of the genome‐wide GRE was found to be about eight times the variance of the SRE. This finding indicated that parental inbreds differ in the efficiency of their recombination machinery. The ability to predict the chromosome or genome‐wide recombination rate of an inbred ranged from 0.80 to 0.85. These results suggest that a reliable screening of large genetic materials for their potential to cause a high extent of genetic recombination in their progeny is possible, allowing to systematically manipulate the recombination rate using natural variation

Pathophysiology of elevated ascites fluid cholesterol in malignant ascites

The existence of marked elevations of ascitic fluid cholesterol has been observed in patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis compared to patients with cirrhosis and has been found useful in differential diagnosis. This finding could be caused by an enhanced movement of plasma lipoproteins into the peritoneal cavity. To test this hypothesis we determined the fasting concentrations of total, high density lipoprotein (HDL)- and low density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol, apolipoprotein-A1 (apo-A1) and apolipoprotein-B (apo-B) in serum and ascites of 17 patients with cirrhosis and 16 patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis. The movement of proteins from plasma to ascites was calculated from the ascites/serum concentration ratios of six different sized proteins with a molecular mass ranging from 54 kDa to 971 kDa. Mean values (mg/dl) for total cholesterol (92.6 vs. 21.0), HDL-cholesterol (15.6 vs. 1.8), LDL-cholesterol (63.4 vs. 16.1), apo-A1 (50.2 vs. 13.6) and apo-B (41.2 vs. 12.9) in ascites were significantly higher in peritoneal carcinomatosis than in cirrhosis. These differences could only partially be explained by the higher serum concentrations of these parameters in peritoneal carcinomatosis, but were mainly due to a lower selectivity for the movement of plasma proteins and lipoproteins into ascites (mean ascites/serum (A/S) ratio: 0.30–0.77) in peritoneal carcinomatosis as compared to cirrhosis (mean ascites/serum ratio: 0.11–0.21). In both groups about 85% of the total cholesterol in serum and ascites consisted of HDL- and LDL-cholesterol. These findings support the hypothesis that elevations in ascitic cholesterol in peritoneal carcinomatosis compared to cirrhosis are mainly caused by the increased movement of plasma HDL and LDL into the peritoneal cavity