Aufgaben- und Organisationsstruktur der Umweltpolitik in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland

Der Schutz der Umwelt und eine darauf ausgerichtete (Umwelt-)Politik gehören zu den wichtigsten Zukunftsaufgaben der Menschheit. Umweltpolitik wird dabei verstanden als Gesamtheit aller Handlungen, die darauf abzielen, Umwelteingriffe zu vermeiden, zu vermindern und eingetretene Umweltschäden zu beseitigen. Wesentliche Ziele sind in diesem Zusammenhang die Realisierung eines integrierten Umweltschutzes, d. h. die Einbeziehung aller Politikbereiche, und die Orientierung am Leitbild der nachhaltigen Entwicklung. Politische Querschnittsaufgaben wie die Umweltpolitik sind im Gegensatz zu herkömmlichen Fachaufgaben jedoch grundsätzlich dadurch charakterisiert, daß sie nicht in der Federführung desjenigen Ressorts liegen, welches die Probleme bewältigen soll. Seit Etablieren der staatlichen deutschen Umweltpolitik vor rund 30 Jahren wurde zwar im Bereich der sichtbaren Umweltbelastungen viel erreicht. Der geforderten Querschnitts- und Präventionsaufgabe der Umweltpolitik wurde aber aufgrund staatlicher Strategie-, Regelungs- und Vollzugsdefizite nicht Rechnung getragen. Diese Kritik konkretisiert sich letztendlich im Begriff des umweltpolitischen Staatsversagens

Sex differences in life history, behavior, and physiology along a slow-fast continuum: a meta-analysis

Tarka M, Günther A, Niemelae PT, Nakagawa S, Noble DWA. Sex differences in life history, behavior, and physiology along a slow-fast continuum: a meta-analysis. BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY AND SOCIOBIOLOGY. 2018;72(8): UNSP 132.The pace-of-life syndrome (POLS) hypothesis predicts that behavior and physiology covary with life history. Evidence for such covariation is contradictory, possibly because systematic sources of variation (e.g. sex) have been neglected. Sexes often experience different selection pressures leading to sex-specific allocation between reproduction and self-maintenance, facilitating divergence in life-history. Sex-specific differences in means and possibly variances may therefore play a key role in the POLS framework. We investigate whether sexes differ in means and variances along the fast-slow pace-of-life continuum for life history and physiological and behavioral traits. In addition, we test whether social and environmental characteristics such as breeding strategy, mating system, and study environment explain heterogeneity between the sexes. Using meta-analytic methods, we found that populations with a polygynous mating system or for studies conducted on wild populations, males had a faster pace-of-life for developmental life-history traits (e.g., growth rate), behavior, and physiology. In contrast, adult life-history traits (e.g., lifespan) were shifted towards faster pace-of-life in females, deviating from the other trait categories. Phenotypic variances were similar between the sexes across trait categories and were not affected by mating system or study environment. Breeding strategy did not influence sex differences in variances or means. We discuss our results in the light of sex-specific selection that might drive sex-specific differences in pace-of-life and ultimately POLS

Eignung unterschiedlicher Herkünfte für die ökologische Haltung von Masthähnchen - Feldprüfung

Die Eignung unterschiedlich langsam wachsender Herkünfte für die ökologische Hühnermast wurde unter dem Aspekt der Tiergesundheit und des Verhaltens untersucht. In zwei Durchgängen wurden insgesamt 5721 Tiere der Herkunft Hubbard JA 757, dreier weiterer, langsamer wachsende Herkünfte und zweier Rasseherkünfte auf je acht Betrieben in je zwei bis vier Gruppen von 27 bis 565 Tieren gemästet. Die mittleren täglichen Zunahmen lagen zwischen 18,3±3,3 g (Rassetiere) und 40,6±6,9 g (Hubbard), die Verluste bei 2,3 ± 2,6 %. Über alle Herkünfte wurden im Mittel weniger als 5 % lahme Tiere festgestellt. Veränderungen der Fußballen (47,7 %), Läsionen der Fersenhöcker (7,3 %), Verschmutzungen des Brustgefieders (67,5 %) und Läsionen der Brusthaut (7,5 %) konnten bei allen Herkünften außer den Rassetieren beobachtet werden. Auch Hautverletzungen kamen bei den Hybriden häufiger vor (37,8 %) als bei den Rassetieren (1,4 %). Unter Einbeziehung der Daten des Projekts 06OE217, bei dem dieselben Herkünfte auf einem Versuchsbetrieb eingestallt waren, wurden signifikante Herkunftsunterschiede gefunden (p<0,0001), wobei die Rassetiere und die langsamer wachsenden Herkünfte meist niedrigere Schadensprävalenzen aufwiesen als die Herkunft Hubbard. Die zusätzlich auf dem Versuchbetrieb gehaltene Herkunft Ross wies meist nochmals weniger Tiere ohne Schäden auf. Je höher die tägliche Zunahme, desto mehr Tiere wiesen Schäden auf (p<0,0001). Das Gewicht und die Brustbreite beeinflussten den Gesundheitszustand der Tiere ebenfalls negativ. In Verhaltenstests waren keine Unterschiede zwischen den Hybridherkünften in ihrer Furchtsamkeit gegenüber einem neuen Objekt oder einem Menschen festzustellen. Vor dem Hintergrund des engen Zusammenhangs zwischen Wachstumsgeschwindigkeit, Brustbreite und dem Auftreten von Gesundheitsproblemen, sollte das Auftreten von Schäden regelmäßig erfasst und stärker diskutiert werden, welche Niveaus in der ökologischen Hühnermast noch tolerabel sind

Oligomerization of a Glucagon-like Peptide 1 Analog: Bridging Experiment and Simulations

AbstractThe glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) analog, liraglutide, is a GLP-1 agonist and is used in the treatment of type-2 diabetes mellitus and obesity. From a pharmaceutical perspective, it is important to know the oligomerization state of liraglutide with respect to stability. Compared to GLP-1, liraglutide has an added fatty acid (FA) moiety that causes oligomerization of liraglutide as suggested by small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) and multiangle static light scattering (MALS) results. SAXS data suggested a global shape of a hollow elliptical cylinder of size hexa-, hepta-, or octamer, whereas MALS data indicate a hexamer. To elaborate further on the stability of these oligomers and the role of the FA chains, a series of molecular-dynamics simulations were carried out on 11 different hexa-, hepta-, and octameric systems. Our results indicate that interactions of the fatty acid chains contribute noticeably to the stabilization. The simulation results indicate that the heptamer with paired FA chains is the most stable oligomer when compared to the 10 other investigated structures. Theoretical SAXS curves extracted from the simulations qualitatively agree with the experimentally determined SAXS curves supporting the view that liraglutide forms heptamers in solution. In agreement with the SAXS data, the heptamer forms a water-filled oligomer of elliptical cylindrical shape

Genomic and strontium isotope variation reveal immigration patterns in a Viking Age town

The impact of human mobility on the northern European urban populations during the Viking and Early Middle Ages and its repercussions in Scandinavia itself are still largely unexplored. Our study of the demographics in the final phase of the Viking era is the first comprehensive multidisciplinary investigation that includes genetics, isotopes, archaeology, and osteology on a larger scale. This early Christian dataset is particularly important as the earlier common pagan burial tradition during the Iron Age was cremation, hindering large-scale DNA analyses. We present genome-wide sequence data from 23 individuals from the 10th to 12th century Swedish town of Sigtuna. The data revealed high genetic diversity among the early urban residents. The observed variation exceeds the genetic diversity in distinct modern-day and Iron Age groups of central and northern Europe. Strontium isotope data suggest mixed local and non-local origin of the townspeople. Our results uncover the social system underlying the urbanization process of the Viking World of which mobility was an intricate part and was comparable between males and females. The inhabitants of Sigtuna were heterogeneous in their genetic affinities, probably reflecting both close and distant connections through an established network, confirming that early urbanization processes in northern Europe were driven by migration

Genomic Analyses of Pre-European Conquest Human Remains from the Canary Islands Reveal Close Affinity to Modern North Africans

The origins and genetic affinity of the aboriginal inhabitants of the Canary Islands, commonly known as Guanches, are poorly understood. Though radiocarbon dates on archaeological remains such as charcoal, seeds, and domestic animal bones suggest that people have inhabited the islands since the 5th century BCE, it remains unclear how many times, and by whom, the islands were first settled. Previously published ancient DNA analyses of uniparental genetic markers have shown that the Guanches carried common North African Y chromosome markers (E-M81, E-M78, and J-M267) and mitochondrial lineages such as U6b, in addition to common Eurasian haplogroups. These results are in agreement with some linguistic, archaeological, and anthropological data indicating an origin from a North African Berber-like population. However, to date there are no published Guanche autosomal genomes to help elucidate and directly test this hypothesis. To resolve this, we generated the first genome-wide sequence data and mitochondrial genomes from eleven archaeological Guanche individuals originating from Gran Canaria and Tenerife. Five of the individuals (directly radiocarbon dated to a time transect spanning the 7th–11th centuries CE) yielded sufficient autosomal genome coverage (0.21× to 3.93×) for population genomic analysis. Our results show that the Guanches were genetically similar over time and that they display the greatest genetic affinity to extant Northwest Africans, strongly supporting the hypothesis of a Berber-like origin. We also estimate that the Guanches have contributed 16%–31% autosomal ancestry to modern Canary Islanders, here represented by two individuals from Gran Canaria

Archaeogenetic analysis of Neolithic sheep from Anatolia suggests a complex demographic history since domestication

Yurtman, ozer, Yuncu et al. provide an ancient DNA data set to demonstrate the impact of human activity on the demographic history of domestic sheep. The authors demonstrate that there may have been multiple domestication events with notable changes to the gene pool of European and Anatolian sheep since the Neolithic. Sheep were among the first domesticated animals, but their demographic history is little understood. Here we analyzed nuclear polymorphism and mitochondrial data (mtDNA) from ancient central and west Anatolian sheep dating from Epipaleolithic to late Neolithic, comparatively with modern-day breeds and central Asian Neolithic/Bronze Age sheep (OBI). Analyzing ancient nuclear data, we found that Anatolian Neolithic sheep (ANS) are genetically closest to present-day European breeds relative to Asian breeds, a conclusion supported by mtDNA haplogroup frequencies. In contrast, OBI showed higher genetic affinity to present-day Asian breeds. These results suggest that the east-west genetic structure observed in present-day breeds had already emerged by 6000 BCE, hinting at multiple sheep domestication episodes or early wild introgression in southwest Asia. Furthermore, we found that ANS are genetically distinct from all modern breeds. Our results suggest that European and Anatolian domestic sheep gene pools have been strongly remolded since the Neolithic

Prevalence, associated factors and outcomes of pressure injuries in adult intensive care unit patients: the DecubICUs study

Funder: European Society of Intensive Care Medicine; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100013347Funder: Flemish Society for Critical Care NursesAbstract: Purpose: Intensive care unit (ICU) patients are particularly susceptible to developing pressure injuries. Epidemiologic data is however unavailable. We aimed to provide an international picture of the extent of pressure injuries and factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries in adult ICU patients. Methods: International 1-day point-prevalence study; follow-up for outcome assessment until hospital discharge (maximum 12 weeks). Factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injury and hospital mortality were assessed by generalised linear mixed-effects regression analysis. Results: Data from 13,254 patients in 1117 ICUs (90 countries) revealed 6747 pressure injuries; 3997 (59.2%) were ICU-acquired. Overall prevalence was 26.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] 25.9–27.3). ICU-acquired prevalence was 16.2% (95% CI 15.6–16.8). Sacrum (37%) and heels (19.5%) were most affected. Factors independently associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries were older age, male sex, being underweight, emergency surgery, higher Simplified Acute Physiology Score II, Braden score 3 days, comorbidities (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, immunodeficiency), organ support (renal replacement, mechanical ventilation on ICU admission), and being in a low or lower-middle income-economy. Gradually increasing associations with mortality were identified for increasing severity of pressure injury: stage I (odds ratio [OR] 1.5; 95% CI 1.2–1.8), stage II (OR 1.6; 95% CI 1.4–1.9), and stage III or worse (OR 2.8; 95% CI 2.3–3.3). Conclusion: Pressure injuries are common in adult ICU patients. ICU-acquired pressure injuries are associated with mainly intrinsic factors and mortality. Optimal care standards, increased awareness, appropriate resource allocation, and further research into optimal prevention are pivotal to tackle this important patient safety threat

Correction to: Prevalence, associated factors and outcomes of pressure injuries in adult intensive care unit patients: the DecubICUs study

The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake