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The contemporary crustal stress state is primarily driven by gravitational volume forces and plate tectonics. However, there are various smaller-scale sources such as geological structures and stiffness contrast that perturb stresses and deviate them from the regional pattern. For example, borehole stress analysis in numerous cases has revealed abrupt rotations of horizontal stress orientation of up to 90° when faults are crossed. Herein, we investigate the rotation of principal stress axes at a fault by means of a 2D generic numerical model. We focus on the near field of the fault and the damage zone with a fault parameterized as a rock stiffness contrast. A substantial influence of the far-field stress field in terms of the differential stress and in terms of the stress ratio RS=S1/S_3 is shown. Furthermore, the contrast in material properties is the basis for any stress rotation, and in particular the stiffness is demonstrated to have a significant influence. Eventually, the impact of the angle between the fault strike and the orientation of SHmax is demonstrated. Our results show that the stress rotation is negatively correlated with the ratio of principal far-field stresses. A small angle between the far-field stress orientation and the fault facilitates stress rotation. A high contrast in rock stiffness further increases the stress rotation angle. Faults striking perpendicular to the maximum principal stress orientation experience no rotation at all. However, faults oriented parallel to the maximum principal stress orientation experience either no rotation or a 90° rotation, dependent on the ratio of principal stresses and the rock stiffness contrast. A comparison with observations from various boreholes worldwide shows that in general the findings are in agreement, even though the dip angle proves to have an influence on the stress rotation, in particular for shallow-dipping faults.

Introduction Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is associated with a high burden of disease and notable economic costs. Standard treatments (e.g. medication or cognitive therapy) have been shown to be effective, but some patients remain unresponsive. With the knowledge that MDD patients have been shown to display an attentional cognitive bias towards negative stimuli, Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM)-training to focus attention on positive information is thought to improve emotional processing and depressive symptoms. Some studies imply reduced duration and occurrence of microstate D in MDD compared to healthy controls. However, the effect of CBM on microstates is still unclear. Objectives (1) To replicate previous findings that duration and occurrence of microstate D is reduced in patients with MDD compared to healthy controls in an independent sample and (2) to investigate the effect of an active CBM-training versus a control-training on microstates and its association with symptom improvements. Methods Thirty patients receiving outpatient treatment with MDD according to DSM V (aged 18-60) will be recruited in Essen and Aachen. The control group will consist of 30 healthy age-and-sex-matched participants. Psychological testing will be administered and all participants will be randomized to either an active or a control training. During the next visit, resting state EEG and a GoNoGo Task with positive, neutral and negative pictures will be measured. The participants will take a tablet home to undergo 10 sessions of CBM within 14 days. The training will be consisted of a dot-probe-task. In the active condition the probe will be more likely to appear behind a positive versus a neutral picture, while appearing randomly in the control condition. After 14 days, a second EEG will be recorded. Results Differences in duration and occurrence of microstate D between patients and healthy controls will be analyzed by conducting ANCOVAs with age and sex as covariates. ANCOVAs for repeated measurements will be calculated to study effects of time (pre- vs. post-training) and group (patients vs. healthy controls in active training; patients in active vs. patients in control-training), on duration and occurrence of microstate D. Conclusions CBM-training is proposed to be an effective treatment option for MDD patients, reflected in a reduced topographical bias of microstate D in EEG. Disclosure of Interest None Declared

Abstract Background The purpose of this randomized trial is to evaluate the early removal of postoperative drains after robot-assisted minimally invasive oesophagectomy (RAMIE). Evidence is lacking about feasibility, associated pain, recovery, and morbidity. Methods/design This is a randomized controlled multicentric trial involving 72 patients undergoing RAMIE. Patients will be allocated into two groups. The “intervention” group consists of 36 patients. In this group, abdominal and chest drains are removed 3 h after the end of surgery in the absence of contraindications. The control group consists of 36 patients with conventional chest drain management. These drains are removed during the further postoperative course according to a standard algorithm. The primary objective is to investigate whether postoperative pain measured by NRS on the second postoperative day can be significantly reduced in the intervention group. Secondary endpoints are the intensity of pain during the first week, analgesic use, number of postoperative chest X-ray and CT scans, interventions, postoperative mobilization (steps per day as measured with an activity tracker), postoperative morbidity and mortality. Discussion Until now, there have been no trials investigating different intraoperative chest drain strategies in patients undergoing RAMIE for oesophageal cancer with regard to perioperative complications until discharge. Minimally invasive approaches combined with enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) protocols lower morbidity but still include the insertion of chest drains. Reduction and early removal have been proposed after pulmonary surgery but not after RAMIE. The study concept is based on our own experience and the promising current results of the RAMIE procedure. Therefore, the presented randomized controlled trial will provide statistical evidence of the effectiveness and feasibility of the “drainless” RAMIE. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05553795. Registered on 23 September 2022.

Seismic hazard during subsurface operations is often related to the reactivation of pre-existing tectonic faults. The analysis of the slip tendency, i.e., the ratio of shear to normal stress acting on the fault plane, allows an assessment of the reactivation potential of faults. We use the total stresses that result from a large-scale 3D geomechanical–numerical model of Germany and adjacent areas to calculate the slip tendency for three 3D fault geometry sets with increasing complexity. This allows us to draw general conclusions about the influence of the fault geometry on the reactivation potential. In general, the fault reactivation potential is higher in Germany for faults that strike NW–SE and NNE–SSW. Due to the prevailing normal stress regime in the geomechanical–numerical model results, faults dipping at an angle of about 60∘ generally show higher slip tendencies in comparison to steeper or shallower dipping faults. Faults implemented with a straight geometry show higher slip tendencies than those represented with a more complex, uneven geometry. Pore pressure has been assumed to be hydrostatic and has been shown to have a major influence on the calculated slip tendencies. Compared to slip tendency values calculated without pore pressure, the consideration of pore pressure leads to an increase in slip tendency of up to 50 %. The qualitative comparison of the slip tendency with the occurrence of seismic events with moment magnitudes Mw>3.5 shows areas with an overall good spatial correlation between elevated slip tendencies and seismic activity but also highlights areas where more detailed and diverse fault sets would be beneficial.

Based on the Baltic Earth Assessment Reports of this thematic issue in Earth System Dynamics and recent peer-reviewed literature, current knowledge of the effects of global warming on past and future changes in climate of the Baltic Sea region is summarised and assessed. The study is an update of the Second Assessment of Climate Change (BACC II) published in 2015 and focuses on the atmosphere, land, cryosphere, ocean, sediments, and the terrestrial and marine biosphere. Based on the summaries of the recent knowledge gained in palaeo-, historical, and future regional climate research, we find that the main conclusions from earlier assessments still remain valid. However, new long-term, homogenous observational records, for example, for Scandinavian glacier inventories, sea-level-driven saltwater inflows, so-called Major Baltic Inflows, and phytoplankton species distribution, and new scenario simulations with improved models, for example, for glaciers, lake ice, and marine food web, have become available. In many cases, uncertainties can now be better estimated than before because more models were included in the ensembles, especially for the Baltic Sea. With the help of coupled models, feedbacks between several components of the Earth system have been studied, and multiple driver studies were performed, e.g. projections of the food web that include fisheries, eutrophication, and climate change. New datasets and projections have led to a revised understanding of changes in some variables such as salinity. Furthermore, it has become evident that natural variability, in particular for the ocean on multidecadal timescales, is greater than previously estimated, challenging our ability to detect observed and projected changes in climate. In this context, the first palaeoclimate simulations regionalised for the Baltic Sea region are instructive. Hence, estimated uncertainties for the projections of many variables increased. In addition to the well-known influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation, it was found that also other low-frequency modes of internal variability, such as the Atlantic Multidecadal Variability, have profound effects on the climate of the Baltic Sea region. Challenges were also identified, such as the systematic discrepancy between future cloudiness trends in global and regional models and the difficulty of confidently attributing large observed changes in marine ecosystems to climate change. Finally, we compare our results with other coastal sea assessments, such as the North Sea Region Climate Change Assessment (NOSCCA), and find that the effects of climate change on the Baltic Sea differ from those on the North Sea, since Baltic Sea oceanography and ecosystems are very different from other coastal seas such as the North Sea. While the North Sea dynamics are dominated by tides, the Baltic Sea is characterised by brackish water, a perennial vertical stratification in the southern subbasins, and a seasonal sea ice cover in the northern subbasins.

Location, specific topography, and hydrographic setting together with climate change and strong anthropogenic pressure are the main factors shaping the biogeochemical functioning and thus also the ecological status of the Baltic Sea. The recent decades have brought significant changes in the Baltic Sea. First, the rising nutrient loads from land in the second half of the 20th century led to eutrophication and spreading of hypoxic and anoxic areas, for which permanent stratification of the water column and limited ventilation of deep-water layers made favourable conditions. Since the 1980s the nutrient loads to the Baltic Sea have been continuously decreasing. This, however, has so far not resulted in significant improvements in oxygen availability in the deep regions, which has revealed a slow response time of the system to the reduction of the land-derived nutrient loads. Responsible for that is the low burial efficiency of phosphorus at anoxic conditions and its remobilization from sediments when conditions change from oxic to anoxic. This results in a stoichiometric excess of phosphorus available for organic-matter production, which promotes the growth of N2-fixing cyanobacteria and in turn supports eutrophication. This assessment reviews the available and published knowledge on the biogeochemical functioning of the Baltic Sea. In its content, the paper covers the aspects related to changes in carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus (C, N, and P) external loads, their transformations in the coastal zone, changes in organic-matter production (eutrophication) and remineralization (oxygen availability), and the role of sediments in burial and turnover of C, N, and P. In addition to that, this paper focuses also on changes in the marine CO2 system, the structure and functioning of the microbial community, and the role of contaminants for biogeochemical processes. This comprehensive assessment allowed also for identifying knowledge gaps and future research needs in the field of marine biogeochemistry in the Baltic Sea.

The digital transformation in the field of sensors and sensor systems fosters an increasing exchange and interoperation of measurement data by machines. The data of measurement need to be uniformly structured based on The International System of Units (SI) with appropriate information on measurement uncertainty. This work presents a concept for an online validation system that can be used by humans and software to efficiently classify the agreement of XML-structured data with relevant recommendations for measurement data. The system is within the TraCIM (Traceability for Computationally-Intensive Metrology) validation platform which was developed for software validation in metrology where high standards of quality management must be met.

The contemporary stress state in the upper crust is of great interest for geotechnical applications and basic research alike. However, our knowledge of the crustal stress field from the data perspective is limited. For Germany basically two datasets are available: orientations of the maximum horizontal stress (SHmax) and the stress regime as part of the World Stress Map (WSM) database as well as a complementary compilation of stress magnitude data of Germany and adjacent regions. However, these datasets only provide pointwise, incomplete and heterogeneous information of the 3D stress tensor. Here, we present a geomechanical–numerical model that provides a continuous description of the contemporary 3D crustal stress state on a regional scale for Germany. The model covers an area of about 1000×1250 km2 and extends to a depth of 100 km containing seven units, with specific material properties (density and elastic rock properties) and laterally varying thicknesses: a sedimentary unit, four different units of the upper crust, the lower crust and the lithospheric mantle. The model is calibrated by the two datasets to achieve a best-fit regarding the SHmax orientations and the minimum horizontal stress magnitudes (Shmin). The modeled orientations of SHmax are almost entirely within the uncertainties of the WSM data used and the Shmin magnitudes fit to various datasets well. Only the SHmax magnitudes show locally significant deviations, primarily indicating values that are too low in the lower part of the model. The model is open for further refinements regarding model geometry, e.g., additional layers with laterally varying material properties, and incorporation of future stress measurements. In addition, it can provide the initial stress state for local geomechanical models with a higher resolution.

The Earth System Model Evaluation Tool (ESMValTool) is a community diagnostics and performance metrics tool designed to improve comprehensive and routine evaluation of Earth system models (ESMs) participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP). It has undergone rapid development since the first release in 2016 and is now a well-tested tool that provides end-to-end provenance tracking to ensure reproducibility. It consists of (1) an easy-to-install, well-documented Python package providing the core functionalities (ESMValCore) that performs common preprocessing operations and (2) a diagnostic part that includes tailored diagnostics and performance metrics for specific scientific applications. Here we describe large-scale diagnostics of the second major release of the tool that supports the evaluation of ESMs participating in CMIP Phase 6 (CMIP6). ESMValTool v2.0 includes a large collection of diagnostics and performance metrics for atmospheric, oceanic, and terrestrial variables for the mean state, trends, and variability. ESMValTool v2.0 also successfully reproduces figures from the evaluation and projections chapters of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) and incorporates updates from targeted analysis packages, such as the NCAR Climate Variability Diagnostics Package for the evaluation of modes of variability, the Thermodynamic Diagnostic Tool (TheDiaTo) to evaluate the energetics of the climate system, as well as parts of AutoAssess that contains a mix of top–down performance metrics. The tool has been fully integrated into the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) infrastructure at the Deutsches Klimarechenzentrum (DKRZ) to provide evaluation results from CMIP6 model simulations shortly after the output is published to the CMIP archive. A result browser has been implemented that enables advanced monitoring of the evaluation results by a broad user community at much faster timescales than what was possible in CMIP5.

Abstract We review the physics opportunities of the Future Circular Collider, covering its e+e-, pp, ep and heavy ion programmes. We describe the measurement capabilities of each FCC component, addressing the study of electroweak, Higgs and strong interactions, the top quark and flavour, as well as phenomena beyond the Standard Model. We highlight the synergy and complementarity of the different colliders, which will contribute to a uniquely coherent and ambitious research programme, providing an unmatchable combination of precision and sensitivity to new physics.

Abstract Mountain social‐ecological systems (MtSES) are vital to humanity, providing ecosystem services to over half the planet's human population. Despite their importance, there has been no global assessment of threats to MtSES, even as they face unprecedented challenges to their sustainability. With survey data from 57 MtSES sites worldwide, we test a conceptual model of the types and scales of stressors and ecosystem services in MtSES and explore their distinct configurations according to their primary economic orientation and land use. We find that MtSES worldwide are experiencing both gradual and abrupt climatic, economic, and governance changes, with policies made by outsiders as the most ubiquitous challenge. Mountains that support primarily subsistence‐oriented livelihoods, especially agropastoral systems, deliver abundant services but are also most at risk. Moreover, transitions from subsistence‐ to market‐oriented economies are often accompanied by increased physical connectedness, reduced diversity of cross‐scale ecosystem services, lowered importance of local knowledge, and shifting vulnerabilities to threats. Addressing the complex challenges facing MtSES and catalyzing transformations to MtSES sustainability will require cross‐scale partnerships among researchers, stakeholders, and decision makers to jointly identify desired futures and adaptation pathways, assess trade‐offs in prioritizing ecosystem services, and share best practices for sustainability. These transdisciplinary approaches will allow local stakeholders, researchers, and practitioners to jointly address MtSES knowledge gaps while simultaneously focusing on critical issues of poverty and food security.

The flux of reduced substances, such as methane and ammonium, from the sediment to the bottom water (Fred) is one of the major factors contributing to the consumption of oxygen in the hypolimnia of lakes and thus crucial for lake oxygen management. This study presents fluxes based on sediment porewater measurements from different water depths of five deep lakes of differing trophic states. In meso- to eutrophic lakes Fred was directly proportional to the total organic carbon mass accumulation rate (TOC-MAR) of the sediments. TOC-MAR and thus Fred in eutrophic lakes decreased systematically with increasing mean hypolimnion depth (zH), suggesting that high oxygen concentrations in the deep waters of lakes were essential for the extent of organic matter mineralization leaving a smaller fraction for anaerobic degradation and thus formation of reduced compounds. Consequently, Fred was low in the 310 m deep meso-eutrophic Lake Geneva, with high O2 concentrations in the hypolimnion. By contrast, seasonal anoxic conditions enhanced Fred in the deep basin of oligotrophic Lake Aegeri. As TOC-MAR and zH are based on more readily available data, these relationships allow estimating the areal O2 consumption rate by reduced compounds from the sediments where no direct flux measurements are available.

Effective disaster management is a core feature for the protection of communities against natural disasters such as floods. Disaster management organizations (DMOs) are expected to contribute to ensuring this protection. However, what happens when their resources to cope with a flood are at stake or the intensity and frequency of the event exceeds their capacities? Many cities in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, were strongly hit by several floods in the last years and are additionally challenged by demographic change, with an ageing society and out-migration leading to population shrinkage in many parts of Saxony. Disaster management, which is mostly volunteer-based in Germany, is particularly affected by this change, leading to a loss of members. We propose an agent-based simulation model that acts as a "virtual lab" to explore the impact of various changes on disaster management performance. Using different scenarios we examine the impact of changes in personal resources of DMOs, their access to operation relevant information, flood characteristics as well as differences between geographic regions. A loss of DMOs and associated manpower caused by demographic change has the most profound impact on the performance. Especially in rural, upstream regions population decline in combination with very short lead times can put disaster management performance at risk.

For understanding water and solute transport processes, knowledge about the respective hydraulic properties is necessary. Commonly, hydraulic parameters are estimated via pedo-transfer functions using soil texture data to avoid cost-intensive measurements of hydraulic parameters in the laboratory. Therefore, current soil texture information is only available at a coarse spatial resolution of 250 to 1000 m. Here, a method is presented to derive high-resolution (15 m) spatial topsoil texture patterns for the meso-scale Attert catchment (Luxembourg, 288 km2) from 28 images of ASTER (advanced spaceborne thermal emission and reflection radiometer) thermal remote sensing. A principle component analysis of the images reveals the most dominant thermal patterns (principle components, PCs) that are related to 212 fractional soil texture samples. Within a multiple linear regression framework, distributed soil texture information is estimated and related uncertainties are assessed. An overall root mean squared error (RMSE) of 12.7 percentage points (pp) lies well within and even below the range of recent studies on soil texture estimation, while requiring sparser sample setups and a less diverse set of basic spatial input. This approach will improve the generation of spatially distributed topsoil maps, particularly for hydrologic modeling purposes, and will expand the usage of thermal remote sensing products.

The identification of catchment functional behavior with regards to water and energy balance is an important step during the parameterization of land surface models. An approach based on time series of thermal infrared (TIR) data from remote sensing is developed and investigated to identify land surface functioning as is represented in the temporal dynamics of land surface temperature (LST). For the mesoscale Attert catchment in midwestern Luxembourg, a time series of 28 TIR images from ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) was extracted and analyzed, applying a novel process chain. First, the application of mathematical–statistical pattern analysis techniques demonstrated a strong degree of pattern persistency in the data. Dominant LST patterns over a period of 12 years were then extracted by a principal component analysis. Component values of the two most dominant components could be related for each land surface pixel to land use data and geology, respectively. The application of a data condensation technique ("binary words") extracting distinct differences in the LST dynamics allowed the separation into landscape units that show similar behavior under radiation-driven conditions. It is further outlined that both information component values from principal component analysis (PCA), as well as the functional units from the binary words classification, will highly improve the conceptualization and parameterization of land surface models and the planning of observational networks within a catchment.

Chronic stress has been connected to a reduced effort and motivational deficits. To study effort-based motivation in rodents, operant conditioning is often employed. However, caloric restriction is typically imposed simultaneously. Since caloric restriction is a stressor in its own right, this procedure interferes with data interpretation. Here, we investigate whether chronic social defeat stress (CSD), lasting 10 consecutive days, would alter effort-based reward motivation in mice trained under ad libitum food conditions. Utilizing operant FED3 boxes in home cages, mice were trained within eight days to nose poke for palatable food. After training completion, operant memory was retained for at least 16 days, and mice demonstrated sustained effort, as assessed with a progressive ratio schedule, to obtain reward pellets. Directly after CSD exposure (10th day), mice exhibited reduced effort for palatable food rewards, but also displayed reduced nose poking in general. The effects of CSD on effort were short-lived, with no lasting impact on effort-based reward motivation one week post-stress. As corticosterone (CORT) levels were increased at day 10 of CSD, but not at day 17, we hypothesized that CORT might mediate the acute effects of CSD on effort-based reward motivation. Indeed, CORT administration [100 μg/ml], supplied via the drinking water, mirrored the CSD-induced CORT spike and temporarily reduced reward motivation. Our findings emphasize that CSD does not result in long-term deficits in reward motivation, suggesting a resilient adaptive response in mice under unrestricted feeding conditions. This study underscores the necessity of considering temporal dynamics of stress impacts and highlights the modulating effects of CORT. These insights contribute to a deeper understanding of the resilience mechanisms in motivational impairments and pave the way for further research into factors facilitating this resilience.