The Transferability of Spectral Grain Yield Prediction in Wheat Breeding across Years and Trial Locations.

Grain yield (GY) prediction based on non-destructive UAV-based spectral sensing could make screening of large field trials more efficient and objective. However, the transfer of models remains challenging, and is affected by location, year-dependent weather conditions and measurement dates. Therefore, this study evaluates GY modelling across years and locations, considering the effect of measurement dates within years. Based on a previous study, we used a normalized difference red edge (NDRE1) index with PLS (partial least squares) regression, trained and tested with the data of individual dates and date combinations, respectively. While strong differences in model performance were observed between test datasets, i.e., different trials, as well as between measurement dates, the effect of the train datasets was comparably small. Generally, within-trials models achieved better predictions (max. R2 = 0.27-0.81), but R2-values for the best across-trials models were lower only by 0.03-0.13. Within train and test datasets, measurement dates had a strong influence on model performance. While measurements during flowering and early milk ripeness were confirmed for within- and across-trials models, later dates were less useful for across-trials models. For most test sets, multi-date models revealed to improve predictions compared to individual-date models.

Intergovernmentalism and the crisis of representative democracy: The case for creating a system of horizontally expanded and overlapping national democracies.

Technocratic intergovernmentalism has undermined the preconditions for its own success as a democratic project of transnational cooperation. It has triggered populist reactions within nation states and helped to discredit the intermediary institutions (parties and parliaments) that connect democratic will-formation and joint decision-making. This rise of populism and its alignment with nationalism, in consequence, hampers joint decision-making in the international realm. We argue that representative democracies can overcome the negative spiral between technocratic intergovernmentalism and nationalist populism by mutually granting their citizens the right to elect representatives not only in their domestic parliament, but also in the parliaments of 'consociated democracies'. Such a system of horizontally expanded and overlapping national democracies can serve three functions: it re-empowers citizens in a world of cross-border flows, it curbs the self-destructive polarization of party systems and it facilitates cooperation among democracies within the European Union (EU) and beyond. Finally, we discuss three competing approaches: Liberal Multilateralism, Deliberative Transnationalism and Republican Intergovernmentalism. We point to common ground, but also show how our approach avoids their main pitfalls.

[Complications and success rates of subclavian vein catheterization depending on experience]. / Komplikationen und Erfolgsraten des Vena-subclavia-Katheters in Abhängigkeit der Erfahrung.

BACKGROUND: The infraclavicular puncture of the subclavian vein is a standard procedure for anesthetists. Meanwhile the literature and recommendations are clear and the use of real-time ultrasound guidance is the standard procedure; however, anesthetists will always get into special circumstances were they have to use the landmark technique, so this competence must be preserved. Feared complications of infraclavicular subclavian vein puncture are pneumothorax and arterial puncture. Up to now there is no clear learning curve for the infraclavicular subclavian vein puncture in the landmark technique performed by anesthetists. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine the influence of the puncture experience on the success rate and mechanical complications, such as pneumothorax and arterial puncture in patients who received an infraclavicular subclavian vein puncture with the landmark technique. Three levels of experience were defined for comparison: inexperienced 0-20 punctures, moderately experienced 21-50 and experienced over 50 punctures. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Post hoc analysis of a previously published noninferiority study to examine the influence of ventilation on the pneumothorax rate in the subclavian vein puncture using the landmark technique. This analysis included 1021 anesthetized patients who were included in the original study between August 2014 and October 2017. Demographic data as well as the number of puncture attempts, puncture success, the overall rate of mechanical complications, pneumothorax rate and arterial puncture rates were calculated. RESULTS: The overall rate of mechanical complications (pneumothorax + arterial puncture) was significantly higher in the inexperienced group (0-21) compared to the experienced group (>50, 15% vs. 8.5%, respectively, p = 0.023). This resulted in an odds ratio of 0.52 (confidence interval, CI: 0.32-0.85, p = 0.027). Likewise, the rate of puncture attempts in the group of inexperienced (0-20) with 1.85 ± 1.12 was significantly higher than in the group of experienced (>50, 1.58 ± 0.99, p = 0.004) and resulted in an odds ratio of 0.59 (CI: 0.31-0.96, p = 0.028). Although the puncture attempts of the moderately experienced (21-50) compared to the inexperienced (0-20) was not significant lower, we found an odds ratio of 0.69 (CI: 0.48-0.99, p = 0.042). The rate of successful puncture was 95.1% in the experienced group versus 89.3% in the inexperienced group (p = 0.001), which resulted in an odds ratio of 2.35 (CI: 1.28-4.31, p = 0.018). When viewed individually, no significant differences were found for pneumothorax and arterial puncture. CONCLUSION: In this post hoc analysis of the puncture of the subclavian vein using the landmark technique, we found a significant reduction of puncture attempts and overall mechanical complications. At least 50 punctures seem to be necessary to achieve the end of the learning curve; however, the landmark technique should only be used under special circumstances, when real-time ultrasound is not available. Anesthetists who want to complete their repertoire and learn the landmark technique should always perform a static ultrasound examination before starting the puncture in order to reduce complications due to anatomical variations or thrombosis.

The larval head anatomy of Rhyacophila (Rhyacophilidae) with discussion on mouthpart homology and the groundplan of Trichoptera.

The external and internal features of the larval head of Rhyacophila fasciata (Trichoptera: Rhyacophilidae) were described in detail. Anatomical examinations were carried out using a multimethod approach including histology, scanning electron microscopy, confocal laser-scanning microscopy, microcomputed tomography, and computer-based three-dimensional reconstructions. Additionally, the information on the larval head of Limnephilus flavicornis (Limnephilidae) and Hydropsyche angustipennis (Hydropsychidae) available in the literature were reinvestigated. These anatomical data were used to address major questions of homology and terminology, that is, the ventral closure of the head capsule, the sclerites, and appendages of labium and maxilla and their muscles. These topics were discussed by summarizing the main hypotheses present in the literature and a critical inclusion of new findings. Consequently, the inner lobe of the maxilla very likely represents the galea. The distal maxillary sclerite (palpifer) is an anatomical composite formation at least including dististipes and lacinia. Based on these homology hypotheses several potential groundplan features of the larval head of Trichoptera were reconstructed. The head of Rhyacophila shows several presumably plesiomorphic features as for instance the prognath orientation of the mouthparts, the well-developed hypocranial bridge, the triangular submentum and eyes composed of seven stemmata. Derived features of Rhyacophila are the reduced antennae, the anterior directing of three stemmata and the shift of the tentorio-stipital muscle to the mentum.

Tentorial mobility in centipedes (Chilopoda) revisited: 3D reconstruction of the mandibulo-tentorial musculature of Geophilomorpha.

Mandibular mechanisms in Geophilomorpha are revised based on three-dimensional reconstructions of the mandibulo-tentorial complex and its muscular equipment in Dicellophiluscarniolensis (Placodesmata) and Hydroschendylasubmarina (Adesmata). Tentorial structure compares closely in the two species and homologies can be proposed for the 14/17 muscles that attach to the tentorium. Both species retain homologues of muscles that in other Pleurostigmophora are traditionally thought to cause swinging movements of the tentorium that complement the mobility of the mandibles. Although the original set of tentorial muscles is simplified in Geophilomorpha, the arrangement of the preserved homologues conforms to a system of six degrees of freedom of movement, as in non-geophilomorph Pleurostigmophora. A simplification of the mandibular muscles is confirmed for Geophilomorpha, but our results reject absence of muscles that in other Pleurostigmophora primarily support see-saw movements of the mandibles. In the construction of the tentorium, paralabial sclerites seem to be involved in neither Placodesmata nor Adesmata, and we propose their loss in Geophilomorpha as a whole. Current insights on the tentorial skeleton and its musculature permit two alternative conclusions on their transformation in Geophilomorpha: either tentorial mobility is primarily maintained in both Placodesmata and Adesmata (contrary to Manton's arguments for immobility), or the traditional assumption of the tentorium as being mobile is a misinterpretation for Pleurostigmophora as a whole.

Fluctuations around equilibrium laws in ergodic continuous-time random walks.

We study occupation time statistics in ergodic continuous-time random walks. Under thermal detailed balance conditions, the average occupation time is given by the Boltzmann-Gibbs canonical law. But close to the nonergodic phase, the finite-time fluctuations around this mean are large and nontrivial. They exhibit dual time scaling and distribution laws: the infinite density of large fluctuations complements the Lévy-stable density of bulk fluctuations. Neither of the two should be interpreted as a stand-alone limiting law, as each has its own deficiency: the infinite density has an infinite norm (despite particle conservation), while the stable distribution has an infinite variance (although occupation times are bounded). These unphysical divergences are remedied by consistent use and interpretation of both formulas. Interestingly, while the system's canonical equilibrium laws naturally determine the mean occupation time of the ergodic motion, they also control the infinite and Lévy-stable densities of fluctuations. The duality of stable and infinite densities is in fact ubiquitous for these dynamics, as it concerns the time averages of general physical observables.

Social communication with virtual agents: The effects of body and gaze direction on attention and emotional responding in human observers.

In social communication, the gaze direction of other persons provides important information to perceive and interpret their emotional response. Previous research investigated the influence of gaze by manipulating mutual eye contact. Therefore, gaze and body direction have been changed as a whole, resulting in only congruent gaze and body directions (averted or directed) of another person. Here, we aimed to disentangle these effects by using short animated sequences of virtual agents posing with either direct or averted body or gaze. Attention allocation by means of eye movements, facial muscle response, and emotional experience to agents of different gender and facial expressions were investigated. Eye movement data revealed longer fixation durations, i.e., a stronger allocation of attention, when gaze and body direction were not congruent with each other or when both were directed towards the observer. This suggests that direct interaction as well as incongruous signals increase the demands of attentional resources in the observer. For the facial muscle response, only the reaction of muscle zygomaticus major revealed an effect of body direction, expressed by stronger activity in response to happy expressions for direct compared to averted gaze when the virtual character's body was directed towards the observer. Finally, body direction also influenced the emotional experience ratings towards happy expressions. While earlier findings suggested that mutual eye contact is the main source for increased emotional responding and attentional allocation, the present results indicate that direction of the virtual agent's body and head also plays a minor but significant role.

Evaluation of the effect of static magnetic fields combined with human hepatocyte growth factor on human satellite cell cultures.

Tissue engineering is a promising research field, which aims to create new functional muscle tissue in vitro, by utilizing the myogenic differentiation potential of human stem cells. The objective of the present study was to determine the effect of static magnetic fields (SMF), combined with the use of the myogenic differentiation enhancing hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), on human satellite cell cultures, which are one of the preferred stem cell sources in skeletal muscle tissue engineering. We performed almarBlue® proliferation assays and semi-quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for the following myogenic markers: desmin (DES), myogenic factor 5 (MYF5), myogenic differentiation antigen 1 (MYOD1), myogenin (MYOG), myosin heavy chain (MYH) and α1 actin (ACTA1) to detect the effects on myogenic maturation. Additionally, immunohistochemical staining (ICC) and fusion index (FI) determination as independent markers of differentiation were performed on satellite cell cultures stimulated with HGF and HGF + SMF with an intensity of 80 mT. ICC verified the muscle phenotype at all time points. SMF enhanced the proliferation of satellite cell cultures treated with HGF. RT-PCR analysis, ICC and FI calculation revealed the effects of HGF/SMF on the investigated differentiation markers and stimulation with HGF and SMF verified the continuing maturation, however no significant increase in analysed markers could be detected when compared with control cultures treated with serum cessation. In conclusion, HGF or HGF + SMF stimulation of human satellite cell cultures did not lead to the desired enhancement of myogenic maturation of human satellite cell cultures compared with cell cultures stimulated with growth factor reduction.

Area coverage of radial Lévy flights with periodic boundary conditions.

We consider the area coverage of radial Lévy flights in a finite square area with periodic boundary conditions. From simulations we show how the fractal path dimension d(f) and thus the degree of area coverage depends on the number of steps of the trajectory, the size of the area, and the resolution of the applied box counting algorithm. For sufficiently long trajectories and not too high resolution, the fractal dimension returned by the box counting method equals two, and in that sense the Lévy flight fully covers the area. Otherwise, the determined fractal dimension equals the stable index of the distribution of jump lengths of the Lévy flight. We provide mathematical expressions for the turnover between these two scaling regimes. As complementary methods to analyze confined Lévy flights we investigate fractional order moments of the position for which we also provide scaling arguments. Finally, we study the time evolution of the probability density function and the first passage time density of Lévy flights in a square area. Our findings are of interest for a general understanding of Lévy flights as well as for the analysis of recorded trajectories of animals searching for food or for human motion patterns.

Aging effects and population splitting in single-particle trajectory averages.

We study time averages of single particle trajectories in scale-free anomalous diffusion processes, in which the measurement starts at some time t(a)>0 after initiation of the process at t=0. Using aging renewal theory, we show that for such nonstationary processes a large class of observables are affected by a unique aging function, which is independent of boundary conditions or the external forces. Moreover, we discuss the implications of aging induced population splitting: with growing age t(a) of the process, an increasing fraction of particles remains motionless in a measurement of fixed duration. Consequences for single biomolecule tracking in live cells are discussed.

Transient aging in fractional Brownian and Langevin-equation motion.

Stochastic processes driven by stationary fractional Gaussian noise, that is, fractional Brownian motion and fractional Langevin-equation motion, are usually considered to be ergodic in the sense that, after an algebraic relaxation, time and ensemble averages of physical observables coincide. Recently it was demonstrated that fractional Brownian motion and fractional Langevin-equation motion under external confinement are transiently nonergodic-time and ensemble averages behave differently-from the moment when the particle starts to sense the confinement. Here we show that these processes also exhibit transient aging, that is, physical observables such as the time-averaged mean-squared displacement depend on the time lag between the initiation of the system at time t=0 and the start of the measurement at the aging time t(a). In particular, it turns out that for fractional Langevin-equation motion the aging dependence on t(a) is different between the cases of free and confined motion. We obtain explicit analytical expressions for the aged moments of the particle position as well as the time-averaged mean-squared displacement and present a numerical analysis of this transient aging phenomenon.

Impact of static magnetic fields on human myoblast cell cultures.

Treatment of skeletal muscle loss due to trauma or tumor ablation therapy still lacks a suitable clinical approach. Creation of functional muscle tissue in vitro using the differentiation potential of human satellite cells (myoblasts) is a promising new research field called tissue engineering. Strong differentiation stimuli, which can induce formation of myofibers after cell expansion, have to be identified and evaluated in order to create sufficient amounts of neo-tissue. The objective of this study was to determine the influence of static magnetic fields (SMF) on human satellite cell cultures as one of the preferred stem cell sources in skeletal muscle tissue engineering. Experiments were performed using human satellite cells with and without SMF stimulation after incubation with a culture medium containing low [differentiation medium (DM)] or high [growth medium (GM)] concentrations of growth factors. Proliferation analysis using the alamarBlue assay revealed no significant influence of SMF on cell division. Real-time RT-PCR of the following marker genes was investigated: myogenic factor 5 (MYF5), myogenic differentiation antigen 1 (MYOD1), myogenin (MYOG), skeletal muscle α1 actin (ACTA1), and embryonic (MYH3), perinatal (MYH8) and adult (MYH1) skeletal muscle myosin heavy chain. We detected an influence on marker gene expression by SMF in terms of a down-regulation of the marker genes in cell cultures treated with SMF and DM, but not in cell cultures treated with SMF and GM. Immunocytochemical investigations using antibodies directed against the differentiation markers confirmed the gene expression results and showed an enhancement of maturation after stimulation with GM and SMF. Additional calculation of the fusion index also revealed an increase in myotube formation in cell cultures treated with SMF and GM. Our findings show that the effect of SMF on the process of differentiation depends on the growth factor concentration in the culture medium in human satellite cultures. SMF alone enhances the maturation of human satellite cells treated with GM, but not satellite cells that were additionally stimulated with serum cessation. Therefore, further investigations are necessary before consideration of SMF for skeletal muscle tissue engineering approaches.

On the control of visual fixation durations in free viewing of complex images.

The mechanisms for the substantial variation in the durations of visual fixations in scene perception are not yet well understood. During free viewing of paintings, gaze-contingent irrelevant distractors (Exp. 1) and non-gaze-related time-locked display changes (Exp. 2) were presented. We demonstrated that any visual change-its onset and offset-prolongs the ongoing fixation (i.e., delays the following saccade), strongly suggesting that fixation durations are under the direct control of the stimulus information. The strongest influence of distraction was observed for fixations preceded by saccades within the parafoveal range (<5° of visual angle). We assume that these fixations contribute to the focal in contrast to the ambient mode of attention (Pannasch & Velichkovsky, Visual Cognition, 17, 1109-1131, 2009; Velichkovsky, Memory, 10, 405-419, 2002). Recent findings about two distinct "subpopulations of fixations," one under the direct and another under the indirect control of stimulation (e.g., Henderson & Smith, Visual Cognition, 17, 1055-1082, 2009), are reconsidered in view of these results.