The centennial legacy of land-use change on organic carbon stocks of German agricultural soils.

Converting natural vegetation for agriculture has resulted in the loss of approximately 5% of the current global terrestrial soil organic carbon (SOC) stock to the atmosphere. Increasing the agricultural area under grassland may reverse some of these losses, but the effectiveness of such a strategy is limited by how quickly SOC recovers after conversion from cropland. Using soil data and extensive land-use histories gathered during the national German agricultural soil inventory, this study aims to answer three questions regarding agricultural land-use change (LUC): (i) how do SOC stocks change with depth following LUC; (ii) how long does it take to reach SOC equilibrium after LUC; and (iii) what is the legacy effect of historic LUC on present day SOC dynamics? By using a novel approach that substitutes space for time and accounts for differences in site properties using propensity score balancing, we determined that sites that were converted from cropland to grassland reached a SOC equilibrium level 47.

Impact of long-range attraction on desorption kinetics.

Desorption of molecules from surfaces is widespread both in nature and technology. Despite its omnipresence and conceptual simplicity, fundamental details can be surprisingly complex and are often poorly understood. In many cases, first-order kinetics is assumed, which implies that the adsorbates do not interact with each other and desorption is the rate-limiting process.

Biomolecular evidence for changing millet reliance in Late Bronze Age central Germany.

The Bronze Age of Central Europe was a period of major social, economic, political and ideological change. The arrival of millet is often seen as part of wider Bronze Age connectivity, yet understanding of the subsistence regimes underpinning this dynamic period remains poor for this region, in large part due to a dominance of cremation funerary rites, which hinder biomolecular studies. Here, we apply stable isotope analysis, radiocarbon dating and archaeobotanical analysis to two Late Bronze Age (LBA) sites, Esperstedt and Kuckenburg, in central Germany, where human remains were inhumed rather than cremated.

A slow-fast trait continuum at the whole community level in relation to land-use intensification.

Organismal functional strategies form a continuum from slow- to fast-growing organisms, in response to common drivers such as resource availability and disturbance. However, whether there is synchronisation of these strategies at the entire community level is unclear. Here, we combine trait data for >2800 above- and belowground taxa from 14 trophic guilds spanning a disturbance and resource availability gradient in German grasslands.

Healthcare‑associated infections in intensive care unit patients with and without COVID-19: a single center prospective surveillance study.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic led to a global increase in healthcare-associated infections (HAI) among intensive care unit (ICU) patients. Whether this increase is directly attributable to COVID-19 or whether the pandemic indirectly (via staff shortages or breaches in infection prevention measures) led to this increase, remains unclear. The objectives of this study were to assess HAI incidence and to identify independent risk factors for HAI in COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 ICU patients.

An Investigation of the Suitability of Viscosity Detection in Estimating IgG Content in Mare Colostrum.

An adequate supply of colostrum is important for the prevention of hypogammaglobulinaemia in foals. In addition to the quantity of colostrum consumed and the time of consumption, the quality of the colostrum, the immunoglobulin (Ig) G concentration, is crucial. The aim of this study was to determine whether the viscosity of equine colostrum was a suitable estimate of IgG concentration.

Motivating vaccination with financial incentives.

Governments and organizations often offer cash payments for vaccination. How effective are such payments? A literature review shows that incentives usually increase vaccination, especially for nonhesitant populations and when using guaranteed payments. Concerns about negative unintended consequences are unsupported.

A new approach to estimate soil organic carbon content targets in European croplands topsoils.

Adopting land management practices that increase the stock of soil organic carbon (SOC) in croplands is widely promoted as a win-win strategy to enhance soil health and mitigate climate change. In this context, the definition of reference SOC content and stock values is needed to provide reliable targets to farmers, policymakers, and stakeholders. In this study, we used the LUCAS dataset to compare different methods for evaluating reference SOC content and stock values in European croplands topsoils (0-20 cm depth).

Evidence-based guidance on reflective pavement for urban heat mitigation in Arizona.

Urban overheating is an increasing threat to people, infrastructure, and the environment. Common heat mitigation strategies, such as green infrastructure, confront space limitations in current car-centric cities. In 2020, the City of Phoenix, Arizona, piloted a "cool pavement" program using a solar reflective pavement seal on 58 km of residential streets.

Financial incentives for vaccination do not have negative unintended consequences.

Financial incentives to encourage healthy and prosocial behaviours often trigger initial behavioural change, but a large academic literature warns against using them. Critics warn that financial incentives can crowd out prosocial motivations and reduce perceived safety and trust, thereby reducing healthy behaviours when no payments are offered and eroding morals more generally. Here we report findings from a large-scale, pre-registered study in Sweden that causally measures the unintended consequences of offering financial incentives for taking the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

New perspectives on fertility in transwomen with regard to spermatogonial stem cells.

Objective: Germ cells of transwomen are affected by gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT). Fertility will be lost after surgical intervention; thereby, fertility preservation becomes an increasingly imortant topic. This study investigated if the absolute number of spermatogonia in transwomen is comparable at the time of gender-affirming surgery (GAS) to that in pre-pubertal boys.

PanoMRT: Panoramic infrared thermography to model human thermal exposure and comfort.

As summer heat waves become the new normal worldwide, modeling human thermal exposure and comfort to assess and mitigate urban overheating is crucial to uphold livability in cities. We introduce PanoMRT, an open source human-biometeorological model to calculate Mean Radiant Temperature (T), Physiologically Equivalent Temperature (PET), and the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) from thermal equirectangular 360° panoramas and standard weather information (air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed). We validated the model for hot, dry, clear summer days in Tempe, Arizona, USA with in-situ observations using a FLIR Duo Pro R thermal camera on a rotating arm and the mobile human-biometeorological instrument platform MaRTy.

Monetary incentives increase COVID-19 vaccinations.

The stalling of COVID-19 vaccination rates threatens public health. To increase vaccination rates, governments across the world are considering the use of monetary incentives. Here we present evidence about the effect of guaranteed payments on COVID-19 vaccination uptake.

New Insights Into Extended Steroid Hormone Profiles in Transwomen in a Multi-Center Setting in Germany.

Background: Little information is available on steroid hormone profiles in transwomen on the day of gender affirming surgery (GAS) after gender affirming hormone therapy (GAHT).

Aim: We compared extended serum steroid hormone profiles of 77 transwomen with 3 different treatment regimens in order to get more insight on how GAHT changes the hormone system.

Methods: Samples were obtained from 3 independent clinics.

Predicting ecosystem responses by data-driven reciprocal modelling.

Treatment effects are traditionally quantified in controlled experiments. However, experimental control is often achieved at the expense of representativeness. Here, we present a data-driven reciprocal modelling framework to quantify the individual effects of environmental treatments under field conditions.

Roots are key to increasing the mean residence time of organic carbon entering temperate agricultural soils.

The ratio of soil organic carbon stock (SOC) to annual carbon input gives an estimate of the mean residence time of organic carbon that enters the soil (MRT ). It indicates how efficiently biomass can be transformed into SOC, which is of particular relevance for mitigating climate change by means of SOC storage. There have been few comprehensive studies of MRT and their drivers, and these have mainly been restricted to the global scale, on which climatic drivers dominate.

Serum and intratesticular inhibin B, AMH, and spermatogonial numbers in trans women at gender-confirming surgery: An observational study.

Background: Anti-Müllerian hormone and inhibin B are produced by Sertoli cells. Anti-Müllerian hormone secretion indicates an immature Sertoli cell state. Inhibin B serves as a marker of male fertility.

Performance evaluation of a staggered three-layer DOI PET detector using a 1 mm LYSO pitch with PETsys TOFPET2 ASIC: comparison of HAMAMATSU and KETEK SiPMs.

In this study, we propose a staggered three-layer depth-of-interaction (DOI) detector with a 1 mm crystal pitch and 19.8 mm total crystal thickness for a high-resolution and high-sensitivity small animal in-beam PET scanner. A three-layered stacked LYSO scintillation array (0.

Modelling the productivity of Siberian larch forests from Landsat NDVI time series in fragmented forest stands of the Mongolian forest-steppe.

The monitoring of the spatial and temporal dynamics of vegetation productivity is important in the context of carbon sequestration by terrestrial ecosystems from the atmosphere. The accessibility of the full archive of medium-resolution earth observation data for multiple decades dramatically improved the potential of remote sensing to support global climate change and terrestrial carbon cycle studies. We investigated a dense time series of multi-sensor Landsat Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data at the southern fringe of the boreal forests in the Mongolian forest-steppe with regard to the ability to capture the annual variability in radial stemwood increment and thus forest productivity.

Prosociality predicts health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Socially responsible behavior is crucial for slowing the spread of infectious diseases. However, economic and epidemiological models of disease transmission abstract from prosocial motivations as a driver of behaviors that impact the health of others. In an incentivized study, we show that a large majority of people are very reluctant to put others at risk for their personal benefit.

The Cofactors of Nitrogenases.

In biological nitrogen fixation, the enzyme nitrogenase mediates the reductive cleavage of the stable triple bond of gaseous N2at ambient conditions, driven by the hydrolysis of ATP, to yield bioavailable ammonium (NH4+). At the core of nitrogenase is a complex, ironsulfur based cofactor that in most variants of the enzyme contains an additional, apical heterometal (Mo or V), an organic homocitrate ligand coordinated to this heterometal, and a unique, interstitial carbide. Recent years have witnessed fundamental advances in our understanding of the atomic and electronic structure of the nitrogenase cofactor.

Prognostic value of O-(2-[F]-fluoroethyl)-L-tyrosine PET in relapsing oligodendroglioma.

Purpose: To assess the relationship between F-18-fluoro-ethyl-tyrosine positron emission tomography (FET-PET) parameters of relapsing oligodendroglioma and progression-free survival.

Material And Methods: The relationship of clinical parameters, FET-PET parameters (SUV, TBR, BTV time-activity curves) and progression-free survival was analyzed using univariate and multivariate analysis in 42 adult patients with relapsing oligodendroglioma. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to assess survival.

[Measurement of IgG concentration in bovine colostrum by immunoturbidimetric assay in comparison to ELISA-based assessment].

Objective: The aim of the presented study was to compare the results of IgG measurements using a turbidimetric immunoassay (TIA), a newly developed laboratory-independent method for direct immunoglobulin determination in colostrum, with measurements obtained via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

Material And Methods: In colostrum samples from 59 cows, IgG concentration was measured using TIA and ELISA.

Results: Correlation analysis according to Pearson revealed a correlation coefficient of r = 0.