Effekte von Kompostapplikationen auf Fußkrankheiten und Grünmasseertrag von Wintererbsen

Abstract: Effects of compost applications on foot diseases and biomass yield of winter peas. A field experiment was conducted to assess the effects of compost applications on the growth and health of winter peas from September 2009 to May 2010. A total of 5 t DM ha-1 of a 12 month old yard waste compost were applied in plots that were either uninoculated or inoculated with Phoma medicaginis grown on infested oat kernels. The control treatment received no compost and was left uninocu-lated. Main plots received all four treatments and were replicated four times. Compost slightly reduced the incidence of Mycosphaerella pinodes and Phoma medicaginis in March and the foot disease severity in May. Overall fresh matter production was significantly reduced by inoculation. These reductions were compensated by compost applications. There was great variation among main plots in the performance of the peas. Where peas performed poorly in the controls (i.e. low fresh matter yield) com-posts improved the performance considerably. Where performance was high, there were no more additional benefits of adding compost to the system

A direct relationship between oscillatory subthalamic nucleus-cortex coupling and rest tremor in Parkinson's disease

Electrophysiological studies suggest that rest tremor in Parkinson's disease is associated with an alteration of oscillatory activity. Although it is well known that tremor depends on cortico-muscular coupling, it is unclear whether synchronization within and between brain areas is specifically related to the presence and severity of tremor. To tackle this longstanding issue, we took advantage of naturally occurring spontaneous tremor fluctuations and investigated cerebral synchronization in the presence and absence of rest tremor. We simultaneously recorded local field potentials from the subthalamic nucleus, the magnetoencephalogram and the electromyogram of forearm muscles in 11 patients with Parkinson's disease (all male, age: 52-74 years). Recordings took place the day after surgery for deep brain stimulation, after withdrawal of anti-parkinsonian medication. We selected epochs containing spontaneous rest tremor and tremor-free epochs, respectively, and compared power and coherence between subthalamic nucleus, cortex and muscle across conditions. Tremor-associated changes in cerebro-muscular coherence were localized by Dynamic Imaging of Coherent Sources. Subsequently, cortico-cortical coupling was analysed by computation of the imaginary part of coherency, a coupling measure insensitive to volume conduction. After tremor onset, local field potential power increased at individual tremor frequency and cortical power decreased in the beta band (13-30 Hz). Sensor level subthalamic nucleus-cortex, cortico-muscular and subthalamic nucleus-muscle coherence increased during tremor specifically at tremor frequency. The increase in subthalamic nucleus-cortex coherence correlated with the increase in electromyogram power. On the source level, we observed tremor-associated increases in cortico-muscular coherence in primary motor cortex, premotor cortex and posterior parietal cortex contralateral to the tremulous limb. Analysis of the imaginary part of coherency revealed tremor-dependent coupling between these cortical areas at tremor frequency and double tremor frequency. Our findings demonstrate a direct relationship between the synchronization of cerebral oscillations and tremor manifestation. Furthermore, they suggest the feasibility of tremor detection based on local field potentials and might thus become relevant for the design of closed-loop stimulation systems

Tropical methane emissions: A revised view from SCIAMACHY onboard ENVISAT

Methane retrievals from near-infrared spectra recorded by the SCIAMACHY instrument onboard ENVISAT hitherto suggested unexpectedly large tropical emissions. Even though recent studies confirm substantial tropical emissions, there were indications for an unresolved error in the satellite retrievals. Here we identify a retrieval error related to inaccuracies in water vapor spectroscopic parameters, causing a substantial overestimation of methane correlated with high water vapor abundances. We report on the overall implications of an update in water spectroscopy on methane retrievals with special focus on the tropics where the impact is largest. The new retrievals are applied in a four-dimensional variational (4D-VAR) data assimilation system to derive a first estimate of the impact on tropical CH_4 sources. Compared to inversions based on previous SCIAMACHY retrievals, annual tropical emission estimates are reduced from 260 to about 201 Tg CH_4 but still remain higher than previously anticipated

A hybrid ecological momentary compassion-focused intervention for enhancing resilience in help-seeking young people:A prospective study of baseline characteristics in the EMIcompass trial

BACKGROUND: Young people are a target population for mental health–related early intervention and prevention. Although evidence for early intervention is promising, availability of and access to youth mental health services remain limited. Therefore, the development of an evidence-based hybrid intervention is urgently needed. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to present a manual for a hybrid intervention, combining an ecological momentary intervention and face-to-face sessions aimed for enhancing resilience in help-seeking young people based on compassion-focused interventions, and explore whether participants’ baseline characteristics are associated with putative mechanisms and outcomes of the EMIcompass intervention. Specifically, we aimed to explore initial signals as to whether participants’ sociodemographic, clinical, and functional characteristics at baseline are associated with putative mechanisms (ie, change in self-compassion, change in emotion regulation, working alliance, training frequency); and whether participants’ sociodemographic, clinical, and functional characteristics, self-compassion, and emotion regulation at baseline are associated with clinical outcomes (ie, psychological distress and general psychopathology at postintervention and 4-week follow-ups) in the experimental condition and obtain first parameter estimates. METHODS: We recruited young people aged 14 to 25 years, with psychological distress, Clinical High At-Risk Mental State, or first episodes of severe mental disorder for an exploratory randomized controlled trial with assessments at baseline and postintervention and 4-week follow-ups. A structured manual was developed and optimized based on a pilot study’s manual, a scoping review of existing literature and manuals, exchange with experts, the team’s clinical experience of working with compassion-focused interventions, and the principles of ecological momentary interventions. This analysis focuses on the experimental condition receiving the EMIcompass intervention. RESULTS: A total of 46 young individuals were randomized to the experimental condition. There was evidence for initial signals of effects of age (B=0.11, 95% CI 0.00-0.22), general psychopathology (B=0.08, 95% CI −0.01 to 0.16), and clinical stage (B=1.50, 95% CI 0.06-2.93) on change in momentary self-compassion and change in emotion regulation from baseline to postintervention assessments. There was no evidence for associations of other baseline characteristics (eg, gender, minority status, and level of functioning) and putative mechanisms (eg, overall self-compassion, working alliance, and training frequency). In addition, except for an initial signal for an association of momentary self-compassion at baseline and psychological distress (B=−2.83, 95% CI −5.66 to 0.00), we found no evidence that baseline characteristics related to clinical outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicated the reach of participants by the intervention largely independent of sociodemographic, clinical, and functional baseline characteristics. The findings need to be confirmed in a definitive trial. TRIAL REGISTRATION: German Clinical Trials Register NDRKS00017265; https://www.drks.de/drks_web/navigate.do?navigationId=trial.HTML&TRIAL_ID=DRKS00017265 INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): RR2-10.2196/2746

Longitudinal Recordings Reveal Transient Increase of Alpha/Low-Beta Power in the Subthalamic Nucleus Associated With the Onset of Parkinsonian Rest Tremor

Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies suggest that different subcortico-cortical circuits control different aspects of Parkinsonian rest tremor. The basal ganglia were proposed to drive tremor onset, and the cerebellum was suggested to be responsible for tremor maintenance (“dimmer-switch” hypothesis). Although several electrophysiological correlates of tremor have been described, it is currently unclear whether any of these is specific to tremor onset or maintenance. In this study, we present data from a single patient measured repeatedly within 2 years after implantation of a deep brain stimulation (DBS) system capable of recording brain activity from the target. Local field potentials (LFPs) from the subthalamic nucleus and the scalp electroencephalogram were recorded 1 week, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years after surgery. Importantly, the patient suffered from severe rest tremor of the lower limbs, which could be interrupted voluntarily by repositioning the feet. This provided the unique opportunity to record many tremor onsets in succession. We found that tremor onset and tremor maintenance were characterized by distinct modulations of subthalamic oscillations. Alpha/low-beta power increased transiently immediately after tremor onset. In contrast, beta power was continuously suppressed during tremor maintenance. Tremor maintenance was additionally associated with subthalamic and cortical power increases around individual tremor frequency. To our knowledge, this is the first evidence of distinct subthalamic LFP modulations in tremor onset and tremor maintenance. Our observations suggest the existence of an acceleration signal for Parkinsonian rest tremor in the basal ganglia, in line with the “dimmer-switch” hypothesis

High susceptibility to fatty liver disease in two-pore channel 2-deficient mice

Endolysosomal organelles play a key role in trafficking, breakdown and receptor-mediated recycling of different macromolecules such as low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol, epithelial growth factor (EGF) or transferrin. Here we examine the role of two-pore channel (TPC) 2, an endolysosomal cation channel, in these processes. Embryonic mouse fibroblasts and hepatocytes lacking TPC2 display a profound impairment of LDL-cholesterol and EGF/EGF-receptor trafficking. Mechanistically, both defects can be attributed to a dysfunction of the endolysosomal degradation pathway most likely on the level of late endosome to lysosome fusion. Importantly, endolysosomal acidification or lysosomal enzyme function are normal in TPC2-deficient cells. TPC2-deficient mice are highly susceptible to hepatic cholesterol overload and liver damage consistent with non-alcoholic fatty liver hepatitis. These findings indicate reduced metabolic reserve of hepatic cholesterol handling. Our results suggest that TPC2 plays a crucial role in trafficking in the endolysosomal degradation pathway and, thus, is potentially involved in the homoeostatic control of many macromolecules and cell metabolites

Diagnostic accuracy of contrast-enhanced MR angiography in severe carotid stenosis: meta-analysis with metaregression of different techniques

Contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography (CE-MRA) has become a well-established noninvasive imaging method for the assessment of severe carotid stenosis (70–99% by NASCET criteria). However, CE-MRA is not a standardised technique, but encompasses different concurrent techniques. This review analyses possible differences. A bivariate random effects meta-analysis of 17 primary diagnostic accuracy studies confirmed a high pooled sensitivity of 94.3% and specificity of 93.0% for carotid CE-MRA in severe carotid stenosis. Sensitivity was fairly uniform among the studies, while specificity showed significant variation (I2 = 73%). Metaregressions found significant differences for specificity with two covariates: specificity was higher when using not only maximum intensity projection (MIP) images, but also three-dimensional (3D) images (P = 0.01). Specificity was also higher with electronic images than with hardcopies (P = 0.02). The timing technique (bolus-timed, fluoroscopically triggered or time-resolved) did not result in any significant differences in diagnostic accuracy. Some nonsignificant trends were found for the percentages of severe carotid disease, acquisition time and voxel size. In conclusion, in CE-MRA of severe carotid stenosis the three major timing techniques yield comparably high diagnostic accuracy, electronic images are more specific than hardcopies, and 3D images should be used in addition to MIP images to increase the specificity

Integration of the End Cap TEC+ of the CMS Silicon Strip Tracker

The silicon strip tracker of the CMS experiment has been completed and inserted into the CMS detector in late 2007. The largest sub-system of the tracker is its end cap system, comprising two large end caps (TEC) each containing 3200 silicon strip modules. To ease construction, the end caps feature a modular design: groups of about 20 silicon modules are placed on sub-assemblies called petals and these self-contained elements are then mounted into the TEC support structures. Each end cap consists of 144 petals, and the insertion of these petals into the end cap structure is referred to as TEC integration. The two end caps were integrated independently in Aachen (TEC+) and at CERN (TEC--). This note deals with the integration of TEC+, describing procedures for end cap integration and for quality control during testing of integrated sections of the end cap and presenting results from the testing