Die effektiven Konsuln Österreich (-Ungarns) v. 1825-1918

I report about education and duties of Austrian consuls from 1825-1918 and their biographies.Ausbildung, Pflichten und Arbeitsplätze österreichisch-ungarischer Konsuln von 1825-1918 mit Biografie

Metaomic studies of the dietary impact on the structural and functional diversity of the rumen microbiome

Ruminant production efficiency and related emission of greenhouse gases are mainly determined by the rumen microbiome. The structure and activity of the microbial communities in turn are mostly influenced by the animals feed intake. The most widely used forage sources for ruminant production in Europe are corn silage, grass silage and grass hay. Progress in animal production requires optimized feeding strategies which presuppose an improved understanding of the dietary impact on the complex bionetwork residing in the rumen. A broad range of different methods are applicable to investigate archaea and bacteria which represent the most active members of the rumen microbiome. Most rumen studies available are restricted to nucleic acid-based approaches with limited functional insights. To improve knowledge about the prokaryotic communities and their adaptation responses to different animal feeds, it is essential to focus on the actual functions out of numerous possibilities that are encoded by the genomes of the rumen microbiome. Therefore proteins are best suited since representing the actual function of investigated cells combined with phylogenetic information. The major aim of this project was the feasible, first-time establishment of a metaproteomics-based characterization of the ruminal prokaryotic communities to further investigate the dietary impact on the prokaryotic rumen metaproteome. The first part was providing an overview about research that used state of the art technologies to investigate the microbiome of the gastrointestinal tract of farm animals. Yet, Omics-technologies and their combination are rarely employed in livestock science. The considered studies relied mainly on stand-alone, DNA-based molecular methods which clearly emphasized the importance of introducing contemporary methods such as shotgun metaproteomics to study the rumen microbiome and to gain deeper, more complete insights into the actual functions carried out by the specific members of the prokaryotic communities. The second part of the current project focused on a suitable, mass spectrometry-based analysis of the prokaryotic communities in the rumen ecosystem. Metaproteomic studies are challenged by the heterogeneity of the rumen sample matter that contains, besides archaeal and bacterial cells, also eukaryotic cells of rumen fungi and protozoa as well as enormous amounts of plant cells from ingested feed and epithelial cells of the animals. Shotgun metaproteomic studies require the extraction of proteins preferably of the desired target organisms to increase the coverage of the respective metaproteome and the reliability of subsequent protein identifications. This entails the avoidance of undesired proteins present in the rumen samples. In contrast to nucleic acids, proteins cannot be enriched or amplified by PCR thus, optimized sample preparation protocols are necessary in order to retrieve enhanced amounts of prokaryotic instead of plant-derived or other eukaryotic cells before protein extraction and subsequent LC-MS/MS analysis. The final step and the major aim of this project was the in depth analysis of the metaproteome of archaea and bacteria and their adaptive response to the most common forages, corn silage, grass silage and grass hay accessing as well host-related influences and variations between different ecological niches within the rumen. Improved mass-spectrometric measurements and the construction of a customized, sample-specific in-house database for enhanced bioinformatic quantification of proteins yielded comprehensive datasets comprising 8,163 bacterial and 358 archaeal proteins that were identified across 27 samples from three different rumen fractions of three Jersey cows, fed rotationally with three different diets. The functional and structural data of the metaproteomic analysis was further flanked by 16S rRNA gene-based analyses of the archaeal and bacterial community structures and the metabolomes of the rumen fluid fractions were quantified by nuclear magnetic resonance. So far, to the best of our knowledge, there are no studies investigating the metaproteome expressed by the entirety of archaeal and bacterial communities in the different phases of the rumen ecosystem under varying dietary influence. Dietary treatments revealed significant variations in the metaproteome composition and community structures of ruminal bacteria. Host-related effects were not significant. In conclusion, within this project the application of shotgun metaproteomics to characterize the prokaryotic rumen metaproteome was successfully implemented and the obtained results clearly emphasized the benefits of using complementary, state of the art methods to study the microbiome of complex ecosystems like the rumen. Considering the specific functional niches of the rumen microbiome have been shown to be of great importance.Die Produktionseffizienz von Wiederkäuern und die damit verbundene Emission von Treibhausgasen werden hauptsächlich durch das Pansenmikrobiom bestimmt. Struktur und Aktivität der mikrobiellen Gemeinschaften wiederum werden hauptsächlich durch das Tierfutter beeinflusst. Die am häufigsten verwendeten Futtermittel für Wiederkäuer in Europa sind Maissilage, Grassilage und Heu. Fortschritte in der Tierproduktion erfordern optimierte Fütterungsstrategien, die ein besseres Verständnis der Auswirkungen der Ernährung auf das komplexe Pansenmikrobiom voraussetzen. Eine breite Palette verschiedener Methoden steht zur Verfügung, um Archaeen und Bakterien, die aktivsten Mitglieder des Pansenmikrobioms, zu untersuchen. Verfügbare Pansenstudien verwendeten jedoch meist Nukleinsäure-basierte Ansätze mit eingeschränkter funktioneller Einsicht. Um neue Erkenntnisse über die prokaryotischen Gemeinschaften und deren Anpassung an verschiedene Futtermittel zu erlangen, ist es unerlässlich, sich auf die von einer Vielzahl in den Genomen des ruminalen Mikrobioms kodierten Möglichkeiten, auf die tatsächlich vorhandenen Funktionen zu konzentrieren. Dazu eignen sich Proteine am besten, da sie die tatsächliche Funktion der zu untersuchenden Zellen in Kombination mit phylogenetischer Information darstellen. Ziel dieses Projektes war eine praktikable, proteinbasierte Charakterisierung der prokaryotischen Gemeinschaften im Pansen, um in weiteren Schritten die Auswirkungen verschiedener Futtermittel auf das ruminale Metaproteom zu untersuchen. Der erste Schritt war es, eine Übersicht bezüglich der bereits vorhandeen Studien des Mikrobioms im Gastrointestinaltrakt von Nutztieren nach aktuellem Stand der Wissenschaft zu erstellen. Die Kombination verschiedener Omik-Technologien wurde jedoch selten in der Nutztierwissenschaft eingesetzt. Die betrachteten Studien stützten sich hauptsächlich auf einfache, DNA-basierte molekulare Methoden, was die Notwendigkeit der Einführung zeitgemäßerer Methoden, wie der Shotgun Metaproteomik, zur Untersuchung des Pansenmikrobioms klar hervorhob. Der zweite Teil des vorliegenden Projektes bestand darin, eine geeignete massenspektrometrische Untersuchung des Pansenmikrobioms zu ermöglichen. Die Herausforderung bei metaprotomischen Untersuchungen besteht in der Heterogenität der Pansenmaterie, die neben archäischen und bakteriellen Zellen auch eukaryotische Zellen von Pilzen und Protozoen sowie große Mengen an Pflanzenzellen aus aufgenommenem Futter- und Epithelzellen der Tiere enthält. Shotgun metaproteomische Studien erfordern die Extraktion von Proteinen der Zielorganismen, um die Abdeckung des jeweiligen Metaproteoms und die Zuverlässigkeit der nachfolgenden Proteinidentifikationen zu erhöhen. Dies beinhaltet die Vermeidung von unerwünschten Proteinen die in den Pansenproben vorhanden sind. Im Gegensatz zu Nukleinsäuren können Proteine nicht durch PCR angereichert oder amplifiziert werden. Daher sind optimierte Probenvorbereitungsprotokolle erforderlich, um vor der Proteinextraktion und der anschließenden LC-MS/MS-Analyse erhöhte Mengen an prokaryotischen anstelle von pflanzlichen oder anderen eukaryotischen Zellen zu erhalten. Der letzte Schritt dieses Projekts war die eingehende Analyse des Metaproteoms von Archaeen und Bakterien und ihre adaptive Reaktion auf die häufigsten Futtermittel, Maissilage, Grassilage und Heu. Des Weiteren wurden der Einfluss der Wirtstiere und die Unterschiede zwischen den ökologischen Nischen untersucht. Verbesserte massenspektrometrische Messungen und das Erstellen einer probenspezifischen Datenbank für die bioinformatische Quantifizierung ergaben umfassende Datensätze mit 8163 bakteriellen und 358 archäischen Proteinen aus 27 Proben von drei Pansenfraktionen, drei Kühen und drei Futtermitteln. Um möglichst umfassende und akkurate Ergebnisse zu erzielen, wurde die metaproteomische Untersuchung mit einer 16S rRNA-basierten Analyse der Archaeen- und Bakteriengemeinschaften ergänzt. Zusätzlich wurden die Metabolite im Pansensaft der jeweiligen Proben via Kernspinresonanz bestimmt. Nach meinem besten Wissen ist dies die erste Untersuchung diätischer Auswirkungen auf das prokaryotische Metaproteom im Pansen unter Berücksichtigung der verschiedenen ökologischen Nischen. Es zeigten sich signifikante Einflüsse der diätischen Behandlungen auf das Metaproteom und die bakterielle Gemeinschaftsstruktur im Pansen. Der Einfluss individueller Versuchstiere war nicht signifikant. In diesem Projekt wurde die Einführung der Shotgun Metaproteomik zur Untersuchung der Pansenmikroorganismen erfolgreich umgesetzt. Zudem verdeutlichen die erzielten Ergebnisse die Vorteile der Kombination verschiedener moderner Methoden zur Untersuchung mikrobieller Gemeinschaften. Eindeutige diätische Einflüsse auf das Pansenmikrobiom und grundlegende Unterschiede zwischen den ökologischen Nischen wurden erfasst

Visual-Vestibular Feedback for Enhanced Situational Awareness in Teleoperation of UAVs

This paper presents a novel concept for improving the situational awareness of a ground operator in remote control of a Unmanned Arial Vehicle (UAV). To this end, we propose to integrate vestibular feedback with the usual visual feedback obtained from a UAV onboard camera. We use our motion platform, the CyberMotion simulator, so as to reproduce online the desired motion cues. We test this architecture by flying a small-scale quadcopter and run a detailed performance evaluation on 12 test subjects. We then discuss the results in terms of possible benefits for facilitating the remote control task

Cutoffs and k-mers: implications from a transcriptome study in allopolyploid plants

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Transcriptome analysis is increasingly being used to study the evolutionary origins and ecology of non-model plants. One issue for both transcriptome assembly and differential gene expression analyses is the common occurrence in plants of hybridisation and whole genome duplication (WGD) and hybridization resulting in allopolyploidy. The divergence of duplicated genes following WGD creates near identical homeologues that can be problematic for <it>de novo </it>assembly and also reference based assembly protocols that use short reads (35 - 100 bp).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here we report a successful strategy for the assembly of two transcriptomes made using 75 bp Illumina reads from <it>Pachycladon fastigiatum </it>and <it>Pachycladon cheesemanii</it>. Both are allopolyploid plant species (2n = 20) that originated in the New Zealand Alps about 0.8 million years ago. In a systematic analysis of 19 different coverage cutoffs and 20 different k-mer sizes we showed that i) none of the genes could be assembled across all of the parameter space ii) assembly of each gene required an optimal set of parameter values and iii) these parameter values could be explained in part by different gene expression levels and different degrees of similarity between genes.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>To obtain optimal transcriptome assemblies for allopolyploid plants, k-mer size and k-mer coverage need to be considered simultaneously across a broad parameter space. This is important for assembling a maximum number of full length ESTs and for avoiding chimeric assemblies of homeologous and paralogous gene copies.</p

Comparative genomics of the genus porphyromonas identifies adaptations for heme synthesis within the prevalent canine oral species porphyromonas cangingivalis

© 2015 The Author(s). Porphyromonads play an important role inhuman periodontal disease and recently have been shownto be highly prevalent in canine mouths. Porphyromonas cangingivalis is the most prevalent canine oral bacterial species in both plaque from healthy gingiva and plaque from dogs with early periodontitis. The ability of P. cangingivalis to flourish in the different environmental conditions characterized by these two states suggests a degree of metabolic flexibility. To characterize the genes responsible for this, the genomes of 32 isolates (including 18 newly sequenced and assembled) from18Porphyromonad species fromdogs, humans, and other mammals were compared. Phylogenetic trees inferred using core genes largely matched previous findings; however, comparative genomic analysis identified several genes and pathways relating to heme synthesis that were present in P. cangingivalis but not in other Porphyromonads. Porphyromonas cangingivalis has a complete protoporphyrin IX synthesis pathway potentially allowing it to synthesize its own heme unlike pathogenic Porphyromonads such as Porphyromonas gingivalis that acquire heme predominantly from blood. Other pathway differences such as the ability to synthesize siroheme and vitamin B12 point to enhanced metabolic flexibility for P. cangingivalis, which may underlie its prevalence in the canine oral cavity

Draft genome sequences of 26 Porphyromonas strains isolated from the canine oral microbiome

� 2015 Coil et al. We present the draft genome sequences for 26 strains of Porphyromonas (P. canoris, P. gulae, P. cangingavalis, P. macacae, and 7 unidentified) and an unidentified member of the Porphyromonadaceae family. All of these strains were isolated from the canine oral cavity, from dogs with and without early periodontal disease

Origin and evolution of water oxidation before the last common ancestor of the Cyanobacteria

Photosystem II, the water oxidizing enzyme, altered the course of evolution by filling the atmosphere with oxygen. Here, we reconstruct the origin and evolution of water oxidation at an unprecedented level of detail by studying the phylogeny of all D1 subunits, the main protein coordinating the water oxidizing cluster (Mn4CaO5) of Photosystem II. We show that D1 exists in several forms making well-defined clades, some of which could have evolved before the origin of water oxidation and presenting many atypical characteristics. The most ancient form is found in the genome of Gloeobacter kilaueensis JS-1 and this has a C-terminus with a higher sequence identity to D2 than to any other D1. Two other groups of early evolving D1 correspond to those expressed under prolonged far-red illumination and in darkness. These atypical D1 forms are characterized by a dramatically different Mn4CaO5 binding site and a Photosystem II containing such a site may assemble an unconventional metal cluster. The first D1 forms with a full set of ligands to the Mn4CaO5 cluster are grouped with D1 proteins expressed only under low oxygen concentrations and the latest evolving form is the dominant type of D1 found in all cyanobacteria and plastids. In addition, we show that the plastid ancestor had a D1 more similar to those in early branching Synechococcus. We suggest each one of these forms of D1 originated from transitional forms at different stages towards the innovation and optimization of water oxidation before the last common ancestor of all known cyanobacteria

Transcriptomic Evidence That Longevity of Acquired Plastids in the Photosynthetic Slugs Elysia timida and Plakobranchus ocellatus Does Not Entail Lateral Transfer of Algal Nuclear Genes

Sacoglossan sea slugs are unique in the animal kingdom in that they sequester and maintain active plastids that they acquire from the siphonaceous algae upon which they feed, making the animals photosynthetic. Although most sacoglossan species digest their freshly ingested plastids within hours, four species from the family Plakobranchidae retain their stolen plastids (kleptoplasts) in a photosynthetically active state on timescales of weeks to months. The molecular basis of plastid maintenance within the cytosol of digestive gland cells in these photosynthetic metazoans is yet unknown but is widely thought to involve gene transfer from the algal food source to the slugs based upon previous investigations of single genes. Indeed, normal plastid development requires hundreds of nuclear-encoded proteins, with protein turnover in photosystem II in particular known to be rapid under various conditions. Moreover, only algal plastids, not the algal nuclei, are sequestered by the animals during feeding. If algal nuclear genes are transferred to the animal either during feeding or in the germ line, and if they are expressed, then they should be readily detectable with deep-sequencing methods. We have sequenced expressed mRNAs from actively photosynthesizing, starved individuals of two photosynthetic sea slug species, Plakobranchus ocellatus Van Hasselt, 1824 and Elysia timida Risso, 1818. We find that nuclear-encoded, algal-derived genes specific to photosynthetic function are expressed neither in P. ocellatus nor in E. timida. Despite their dramatic plastid longevity, these photosynthetic sacoglossan slugs do not express genes acquired from algal nuclei in order to maintain plastid function