640 research outputs found
Quirós Castillo, Juan Antonio (ed.). Social Inequality in Early Medieval Europe. Local Societies and Beyond
Diplomatische Studien zu den St. Galler Privaturkunden des frühen Mittelalters (ca. 720-980)
Up to the present day more than 800 early medieval charters, dating from before 1000, have been preserved in the archive of the former Abbey of St Gall. This book offers the first comprehensive diplomatic analysis of this extraordinary collection of original documents.Bis zum heutigen Tag werden im Stiftsarchiv St. Gallen weit über 800 Urkunden aus der Zeit vor dem Jahr 1000 aufbewahrt. Vorliegendes Buch bietet die erste systematische diplomatische Untersuchung dieses außergewöhnlichen Bestandes an Originaldokumenten
Host-Plant Selectivity of Rhizobacteria in a Crop/Weed Model System
Belowground microorganisms are known to influence plants' performance by altering the soil environment. Plant pathogens such as cyanide-producing strains of the rhizobacterium Pseudomonas may show strong host-plant selectivity. We analyzed interactions between different host plants and Pseudomonas strains and tested if these can be linked to the cyanide sensitivity of host plants, the cyanide production of bacterial strains or the plant identity from which strains had been isolated. Eight strains (four cyanide producing) were isolated from roots of four weed species and then re-inoculated on the four weed and two additional crop species. Bacterial strain composition varied strongly among the four weed species. Although all six plant species showed different reductions in root growth when cyanide was artificially applied to seedlings, they were generally not negatively affected by inoculation with cyanide-producing bacterial strains. We found a highly significant plant species x bacterial strain interaction. Partitioning this interaction into contrasts showed that it was entirely due to a strongly negative effect of a bacterial strain (Pseudomonas kilonensis/brassicacearum, isolated from Galium mollugo) on Echinochloa crus-galli. This exotic weed may not have become adapted to the bacterial strain isolated from a native weed. Our findings suggest that host-specific rhizobacteria hold some promise as biological weed-control agents
TCT-758 The WISE trial - A multi center trial of the WIRION Embolic Protection System in carotid stenting
The scenario coevolution paradigm: adaptive quality assurance for adaptive systems
Systems are becoming increasingly more adaptive, using techniques like machine learning to enhance their behavior on their own rather than only through human developers programming them. We analyze the impact the advent of these new techniques has on the discipline of rigorous software engineering, especially on the issue of quality assurance. To this end, we provide a general description of the processes related to machine learning and embed them into a formal framework for the analysis of adaptivity, recognizing that to test an adaptive system a new approach to adaptive testing is necessary. We introduce scenario coevolution as a design pattern describing how system and test can work as antagonists in the process of software evolution. While the general pattern applies to large-scale processes (including human developers further augmenting the system), we show all techniques on a smaller-scale example of an agent navigating a simple smart factory. We point out new aspects in software engineering for adaptive systems that may be tackled naturally using scenario coevolution. This work is a substantially extended take on Gabor et al. (International symposium on leveraging applications of formal methods, Springer, pp 137–154, 2018)
Basisinformationen für eine nachhaltige Nutzung landwirtschaftlicher Reststoffe zur Bioenergiebereitstellung
Der Ausbau von erneuerbaren Energien ist ein wesentlicher
Baustein auf dem Weg zu einer nachhaltigen und sicheren
Energieversorgung und zur Minderung von Treibhausgasemissionen.
Auf europäischer und nationaler Ebene hat sich die
Bundesregierung zur Umsetzung einer Reihe von energie- und
klimapolitischen Zielen verpflichtet. Der Anteil von erneuerbaren
Energien soll bis zum Jahr 2020 auf mindestens 18 Prozent
und im Verkehrssektor auf mindestens 10 Prozent des
Endenergieverbrauchs steigen. Bioenergie und Biokraftstoffe
spielen hier eine wichtige Rolle.
Um die gesellschaftliche Akzeptanz für den Ausbau von Bioenergie
sicherzustellen, muss die Nutzung von Biomasse
nachhaltig erfolgen. Im Bereich Bioenergie sind die europaweite
zügige Umsetzung der Nachhaltigkeitsanforderungen
für Biokraftstoffe und flüssige Biobrennstoffe sowie deren
kontinuierliche Weiterentwicklung im Lichte neuer wissenschaftlicher
Erkenntnisse wichtig.
Die Nutzung von – bislang ungenutzten – Rest- und Abfallstoffen
im Bereich Biokraftstoffe bietet Vorteile: eine günstigere
Klimabilanz sowie die Vermeidung von Nutzungskonkurrenzen und indirekten Landnutzungsänderungen.
Stroh gehört zu den Reststoffen mit dem größten bislang ungenutzten Potenzial: In
Deutschland fallen im langjährigen Durchschnitt insgesamt rund 30 Millionen Tonnen Getreidestroh
pro Jahr an, wenngleich die Verfügbarkeit sich in den Regionen unterscheidet
und vereinzelt regionale Knappheiten auftreten können. Ein Großteil des Getreidestrohs ist
noch ungenutzt und bietet eine große Chance für die energetische Nutzung.
Aus diesem Grund wird die Mobilisierung dieser Ressourcen von der Bundesregierung unterstützt,
unter anderem durch die doppelte Gewichtung von Biokraftstoffen, die aus Reststoffen
wie Stroh produziert werden.
Die nachfolgenden Beiträge sollen weitergehende Informationen über landwirtschaftliche
Reststoffe (Potenzial nachhaltig verfügbarer Reststoffe, Strohnutzungskonzepte, ökonomische Aspekte) vermitteln
Leoligin, the major lignan from Edelweiss, inhibits intimal hyperplasia of venous bypass grafts
Improvement of antibiotic prescription in outpatient care: a cluster-randomized intervention study using a sentinel surveillance network of physicians
Objectives To assess the effectiveness of implementing guidelines, coupled with individual feedback, on antibiotic prescribing behaviour of primary care physicians in Switzerland. Methods One hundred and forty general practices from a representative Swiss sentinel network of primary care physicians participated in this cluster-randomized prospective intervention study. The intervention consisted of providing guidelines on treatment of respiratory tract infections (RTIs) and uncomplicated lower urinary tract infections (UTIs), coupled with sustained, regular feedback on individual antibiotic prescription behaviour during 2 years. The main aims were: (i) to increase the percentage of prescriptions of penicillins for all RTIs treated with antibiotics; (ii) to increase the percentage of trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole prescriptions for all uncomplicated lower UTIs treated with antibiotics; (iii) to decrease the percentage of quinolone prescriptions for all cases of exacerbated COPD (eCOPD) treated with antibiotics; and (iv) to decrease the proportion of sinusitis and other upper RTIs treated with antibiotics. The study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT01358916). Results While the percentage of antibiotics prescribed for sinusitis or other upper RTIs and the percentage of quinolones prescribed for eCOPD did not differ between the intervention group and the control group, there was a significant increase in the percentage of prescriptions of penicillins for all RTIs treated with antibiotics [57% versus 49%, OR = 1.42 (95% CI 1.08-1.89), P = 0.01] and in the percentage of trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole prescriptions for all uncomplicated lower UTIs treated with antibiotics [35% versus 19%, OR = 2.16 (95% CI 1.19-3.91), P = 0.01] in the intervention group. Conclusions In our setting, implementing guidelines, coupled with sustained individual feedback, was not able to reduce the proportion of sinusitis and other upper RTIs treated with antibiotics, but increased the use of recommended antibiotics for RTIs and UTIs, as defined by the guideline
Gene Flow in Genetically Modified Wheat
Understanding gene flow in genetically modified (GM) crops is critical to answering questions regarding risk-assessment and the coexistence of GM and non-GM crops. In two field experiments, we tested whether rates of cross-pollination differed between GM and non-GM lines of the predominantly self-pollinating wheat Triticum aestivum. In the first experiment, outcrossing was studied within the field by planting “phytometers” of one line into stands of another line. In the second experiment, outcrossing was studied over distances of 0.5–2.5 m from a central patch of pollen donors to adjacent patches of pollen recipients. Cross-pollination and outcrossing was detected when offspring of a pollen recipient without a particular transgene contained this transgene in heterozygous condition. The GM lines had been produced from the varieties Bobwhite or Frisal and contained Pm3b or chitinase/glucanase transgenes, respectively, in homozygous condition. These transgenes increase plant resistance against pathogenic fungi. Although the overall outcrossing rate in the first experiment was only 3.4%, Bobwhite GM lines containing the Pm3b transgene were six times more likely than non-GM control lines to produce outcrossed offspring. There was additional variation in outcrossing rate among the four GM-lines, presumably due to the different transgene insertion events. Among the pollen donors, the Frisal GM line expressing a chitinase transgene caused more outcrossing than the GM line expressing both a chitinase and a glucanase transgene. In the second experiment, outcrossing after cross-pollination declined from 0.7–0.03% over the test distances of 0.5–2.5 m. Our results suggest that pollen-mediated gene flow between GM and non-GM wheat might only be a concern if it occurs within fields, e.g. due to seed contamination. Methodologically our study demonstrates that outcrossing rates between transgenic and other lines within crops can be assessed using a phytometer approach and that gene-flow distances can be efficiently estimated with population-level PCR analyses
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