Charakterisierung der Resistenz von Winterweizensorten gegenüber Steinbrand (Tilletia caries)

Attack with common bunt (Tilletia caries) is a potential threat to wheat production in organic farming. The situation may even become worse if (in agreement with EU-legislation) only organically produced seed is used in organic farming. The targeted use of resistant varieties could be a way to alleviate the problem. However, knowledge regarding bunt resistance of wheat varieties on the one hand and aggressiveness in populations of the bunt pathogen on the other hand is still insufficient. In the frame of a federal research programme for organic farming (BÖL),30 winter wheat varieties and breeding lines were studied at five different locations using spores of local origin in order to assess the natural level of resistance (WÄCHTER et al. 2004). In addition, the different spore accessions were analysed with a set of differential varieties supplied by B. Goates (USDA-ARS, Aberdeen, ID). Since the impact of bunt is only obvious after ear appearance, utilization of early (leaf) symptoms (KOCH & SPIESS, 2002) and immunological detection of T. caries in planta with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (EIBEL 2002) were evaluated as diagnostic tools to characterise the level of resistance

The Chlamydia psittaci Genome: A Comparative Analysis of Intracellular Pathogens

Chlamydiaceae are a family of obligate intracellular pathogens causing a wide range of diseases in animals and humans, and facing unique evolutionary constraints not encountered by free-living prokaryotes. To investigate genomic aspects of infection, virulence and host preference we have sequenced Chlamydia psittaci, the pathogenic agent of ornithosis.A comparison of the genome of the avian Chlamydia psittaci isolate 6BC with the genomes of other chlamydial species, C. trachomatis, C. muridarum, C. pneumoniae, C. abortus, C. felis and C. caviae, revealed a high level of sequence conservation and synteny across taxa, with the major exception of the human pathogen C. trachomatis. Important differences manifest in the polymorphic membrane protein family specific for the Chlamydiae and in the highly variable chlamydial plasticity zone. We identified a number of psittaci-specific polymorphic membrane proteins of the G family that may be related to differences in host-range and/or virulence as compared to closely related Chlamydiaceae. We calculated non-synonymous to synonymous substitution rate ratios for pairs of orthologous genes to identify putative targets of adaptive evolution and predicted type III secreted effector proteins.This study is the first detailed analysis of the Chlamydia psittaci genome sequence. It provides insights in the genome architecture of C. psittaci and proposes a number of novel candidate genes mostly of yet unknown function that may be important for pathogen-host interactions

Dark Matter in the Milky Way's Dwarf Spheroidal Satellites

The Milky Way's dwarf spheroidal satellites include the nearest, smallest and least luminous galaxies known. They also exhibit the largest discrepancies between dynamical and luminous masses. This article reviews the development of empirical constraints on the structure and kinematics of dSph stellar populations and discusses how this phenomenology translates into constraints on the amount and distribution of dark matter within dSphs. Some implications for cosmology and the particle nature of dark matter are discussed, and some topics/questions for future study are identified.Comment: A version with full-resolution figures is available at http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~mwalker/mwdsph_review.pdf; 70 pages, 22 figures; invited review article to be published in Vol. 5 of the book "Planets, Stars, and Stellar Systems", published by Springe

2017 HRS/EHRA/ECAS/APHRS/SOLAECE expert consensus statement on catheter and surgical ablation of atrial fibrillation: executive summary.

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Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes

Cancer is driven by genetic change, and the advent of massively parallel sequencing has enabled systematic documentation of this variation at the whole-genome scale(1-3). Here we report the integrative analysis of 2,658 whole-cancer genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types from the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We describe the generation of the PCAWG resource, facilitated by international data sharing using compute clouds. On average, cancer genomes contained 4-5 driver mutations when combining coding and non-coding genomic elements; however, in around 5% of cases no drivers were identified, suggesting that cancer driver discovery is not yet complete. Chromothripsis, in which many clustered structural variants arise in a single catastrophic event, is frequently an early event in tumour evolution; in acral melanoma, for example, these events precede most somatic point mutations and affect several cancer-associated genes simultaneously. Cancers with abnormal telomere maintenance often originate from tissues with low replicative activity and show several mechanisms of preventing telomere attrition to critical levels. Common and rare germline variants affect patterns of somatic mutation, including point mutations, structural variants and somatic retrotransposition. A collection of papers from the PCAWG Consortium describes non-coding mutations that drive cancer beyond those in the TERT promoter(4); identifies new signatures of mutational processes that cause base substitutions, small insertions and deletions and structural variation(5,6); analyses timings and patterns of tumour evolution(7); describes the diverse transcriptional consequences of somatic mutation on splicing, expression levels, fusion genes and promoter activity(8,9); and evaluates a range of more-specialized features of cancer genomes(8,10-18).Peer reviewe

HiN : Alexander von Humboldt im Netz

Inhalt: - Rex Clark: If Humboldt had a Laptop. Moving Knowledge Networks from Print to Digital Media - Wolf von Engelhardt: Goethe und Alexander von Humboldt - Bau und Geschichte der Erde - Gerhard Kortum: Humboldt der Seefahrer und sein Marinechronometer. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Nautik und Meereskunde - Ulrike Leitner: Unbekannte Venezuela-Karten Alexander von Humboldts - Jose Alberto Navas-Sierra: Comercio y reinserción internacional: los “casos” latinoamericano y colombiano (Una hipótesis de Humboldt) - Sandra Rebok: Alexander von Humboldt y el modelo de la Historia Natural y Moral - Michael Zeuske: Humboldt, Historismus, Humboldteanisierung. Der „Geschichtsschreiber von Amerika“, die Massensklaverei und die Globalisierungen der Welt - Ottmar Ette: Nachwort nach dem 11. September 200

Digital twin framework for enabling serial construction

Modularized construction with precast concrete elements has many advantages, such as shorter construction times, higher quality, flexibility, and lower costs. These advantages are mainly due to its potential for prefabrication and series production. However, the production processes are still craftsmanship, and automation rarely occurs. Fundamental to the automation of production is digitization. In recent years, the manufacturing industry made significant progress through the intelligent networking of components, machines, and processes in the introduction of Industry 4.0. A key concept of Industry 4.0 is the digital twin, which represents both components and machines, thus creating a dynamic network in which the participants can communicate with each other. So far, BIM and digital twins in construction have focused mainly on the structure as a whole and do not consider feedback loops from production at the component level. This paper proposes a framework for a digital twin for the industrialized production of precast concrete elements in series production based on the asset administration shell (AAS) from the context of Industry 4.0. For this purpose, relevant production processes are identified, and their information requirements are derived. Data models and corresponding AAS for precast concrete parts will be created for the identified processes. The functionalities of the presented digital twin are demonstrated using the use case of quality control for a precast concrete wall element. The result shows how data can be exchanged with the digital twin and used for decision-making