The cost of risk management and multifunctionality in forestry: a simulation approach for a case study area in Southeast Germany

Forest management faces growing uncertainty concerning environmental conditions and demand for ecosystem services. To help forest managers consider uncertainty, we applied a robust and multi-criteria approach to select the optimal composition of a forest enterprise from 12 stand types. In our simulation, the forest enterprise strives for either financial return or a multi-criteria forest management considering financial return, carbon storage and forest ecosystem stability. To quantify the influence of climate change on these decision criteria, we used the concept of analogous climate zones. Our results provide recommendations for long-term strategies for tree species selection in a Southeast German forest enterprise. The results show that considering both uncertainty and multifunctionality in forest management led to more diversified forest compositions. However, robust and multi-criteria optimisation required the forest enterprise to pay a premium in terms of lower income. Financial returns decreased when forest composition accounted for uncertainty or multiple objectives. We also found that adaptation measures could only partly financially compensate the effects of climate change. As the study is limited to two tree species, including additional tree species, variants of mixing proportions and further silvicultural strategies in the optimisation appears a promising avenue for future research.

     

Report on Salmonella isolates submitted to the German National Reference Laboratory for running analyses and tests on zoonoses (Salmonella) in the year 2009

The present report deals with Salmonella strains received at the German National Reference Laboratory for Salmonella (NRL-Salm) for routine diagnostic in the year 2009. Hence, the working group continues the previous report from Friedrich et al. (2010) about the documentation on the serovar distribution of Salmonella received at the NRL-Salm in the years 2004-2008. As in the recent years, most of the Salmonella strains originated from livestock and food. In the year 2009 the NRL-Salm received 4765 isolates, most of them (85,1 %) were routine diagnostic. Salmonella ser. Typhimurium, its monophasic variant S. enterica subspecies enterica serovar 1,4,[5],12:i:- and Salmonella ser. Enteritidis were the most prevalent serovars. The number of S. enterica subsp. enterica serovar 1,4,[5],12:i:- isolates increased in 2009, in comparison to the years 2004-2008, and became the second most prevalent serovar serotyped at the NRL-Salm.     

Neutral, single-component nickel (II) polyolefin catalysts that tolerate heteroatoms

More than half of the 170 million metric tons of polymers produced each year are polyolefins. Current technology uses highly active cationic catalysts, which suffer from an inability to tolerate heteroatoms such as oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur. These systems require scrupulously clean starting materials and activating cocatalysts. A family of catalysts has been developed whose members are tolerant of both heteroatoms and less pure starting materials. These heteroatom-tolerant neutral late transition metal complexes are in fact highly active systems that produce high-molecular-weight polyethylene, polymerize functionalized olefins, and require no cocatalyst.     

Requirement of salicylic Acid for the induction of systemic acquired resistance

It has been proposed that salicylic acid acts as an endogenous signal responsible for inducing systemic acquired resistance in plants. The contribution of salicylic acid to systemic acquired resistance was investigated in transgenic tobacco plants harboring a bacterial gene encoding salicylate hydroxylase, which converts salicylic acid to catechol. Transgenic plants that express salicylate hydroxylase accumulated little or no salicylic acid and were defective in their ability to induce acquired resistance against tobacco mosaic virus. Thus, salicylic acid is essential for the development of systemic acquired resistance in tobacco.     

Hemoglobins S and C interfere with actin remodeling in Plasmodium falciparum-infected erythrocytes

The hemoglobins S and C protect carriers from severe Plasmodium falciparum malaria. Here, we found that these hemoglobinopathies affected the trafficking system that directs parasite-encoded proteins to the surface of infected erythrocytes. Cryoelectron tomography revealed that the parasite generated a host-derived actin cytoskeleton within the cytoplasm of wild-type red blood cells that connected the Maurer's clefts with the host cell membrane and to which transport vesicles were attached. The actin cytoskeleton and the Maurer's clefts were aberrant in erythrocytes containing hemoglobin S or C. Hemoglobin oxidation products, enriched in hemoglobin S and C erythrocytes, inhibited actin polymerization in vitro and may account for the protective role in malaria.     

A common explosion mechanism for type Ia supernovae

Type Ia supernovae, the thermonuclear explosions of white dwarf stars composed of carbon and oxygen, were instrumental as distance indicators in establishing the acceleration of the universe's expansion. However, the physics of the explosion are debated. Here we report a systematic spectral analysis of a large sample of well-observed type Ia supernovae. Mapping the velocity distribution of the main products of nuclear burning, we constrain theoretical scenarios. We find that all supernovae have low-velocity cores of stable iron-group elements. Outside this core, nickel-56 dominates the supernova ejecta. The outer extent of the iron-group material depends on the amount of nickel-56 and coincides with the inner extent of silicon, the principal product of incomplete burning. The outer extent of the bulk of silicon is similar in all supernovae, having an expansion velocity of approximately 11,000 kilometers per second and corresponding to a mass of slightly over one solar mass. This indicates that all the supernovae considered here burned similar masses and suggests that their progenitors had the same mass. Synthetic light-curve parameters and three-dimensional explosion simulations support this interpretation. A single explosion scenario, possibly a delayed detonation, may thus explain most type Ia supernovae.     

NompC TRP channel required for vertebrate sensory hair cell mechanotransduction

The senses of hearing and balance in vertebrates rely on the sensory hair cells (HCs) of the inner ear. The central element of the HC's transduction apparatus is a mechanically gated ion channel of unknown identity. Here we report that the zebrafish ortholog of Drosophila no mechanoreceptor potential C (nompC), which encodes a transient receptor potential (TRP) channel, is critical for HC mechanotransduction. In zebrafish larvae, nompC is selectively expressed in sensory HCs. Morpholino-mediated removal of nompC function eliminated transduction-dependent endocytosis and electrical responses in HCs, resulting in larval deafness and imbalance. These observations indicate that nompC encodes a vertebrate HC mechanotransduction channel.     

Rapid testing and quantification of Salmonella in ileocaecal lymph nodes of Austrian pigs slaughtered for consumption

Traditionally, quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) is based on culture-dependent technologies. However, molecular quantification could forge additional, detailed information. A prerequisite of quantitative real-time PCR in animal science is a tissue preparation method where large volumes of tissue material can be reduced and particularly target cells can be concentrated. An easy-to-use sample preparation method for food (Matrix-Lysis) was recently adapted to tissues and now permits quantification of target cells from up to 5 g of organic matrix. The aim of this study was to examine the suitability of Matrix-Lysis for quantification of Salmonella in porcine ileocaecal lymph nodes (ICLNs). After demonstrating constant recovery rates, ICLNs from 540 pigs were examined for Salmonella spp. with Matrix-Lysis. Samples were also analysed using ISO 6579:2002, a combined enrichment/qPCR method and a lateral flow test. It could be shown that qPCR coupled with Matrix-Lysis can contribute to QMRA in food safety by enabling reproducible quantitative data, even at low contamination rates.