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The Scientific Collaboration on Past Speciation Conditions in Lake Ohrid (SCOPSCO) project is an international research initiative to study the influence of major geological and environmental events on the biological evolution of lake taxa. SCOPSCO drilling campaigns were carried out in 2011 and 2013. In 2011 we used gravity and piston coring at one of the five proposed drill sites, and in 2013 we undertook deep drilling with the Deep Lake Drilling System (DLDS) of Drilling, Observation and Sampling of the Earth's Continental Crust (DOSECC). In April and May 2013, a total of 2100 m sediments were recovered from four drill sites with water depths ranging from 125 to 260 m. The maximum drill depth was 569 m below the lake floor in the centre of the lake. By retrieving overlapping sediment sequences, 95% of the sediment succession was recovered. Initial data from borehole logging, core logging and geochemical measurements indicate that the sediment succession covers >1.2 million years (Ma) in a quasi-continuous sequence. These early findings suggest that the record from Lake Ohrid will substantially improve the knowledge of long-term environmental change and short-term geological events in the northeastern Mediterranean region, which forms the basis for improving understanding of the influence of major geological and environmental events on the biological evolution of endemic species.

Interferon-γ (IFN-γ) is an important cytokine involved in the regulation of allergen-induced immune responses. We examined the role of IFN-γ in a Brown–Norway rat model of bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) and airway eosinophilia, and its effects on the mRNA expression of T helper type 1 (Th1)/Th2 cytokine. Ovalbumin (OA)-sensitized animals were given either exogenous IFN-γ (105 U/rat over 3 days, intraperitoneally) or anti-IFN-γ blocking antibody (DB-1 0·3 mg/rat, intravenously) prior to exposure to OA aerosol and were studied 18–24 hr later. In sensitized animals, OA induced significant BHR, accumulation of eosinophils, T lymphocytes and neutrophils in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid, and also increased eosinophils and CD8+ T cells in the airways. Exogenous IFN-γ attenuated allergen-induced BHR (P

We show that almost all n-bit Boolean functions have bounded-error quantum query complexity at least n/2, up to lower-order terms. This improves over an earlier n/4 lower bound of Ambainis, and shows that van Dam's oracle interrogation is essentially optimal for almost all functions. Our proof uses the fact that the acceptance probability of a T-query algorithm can be written as the sum of squares of degree-T polynomials., 8 pages LaTeX

We use the venerable "fooling set" method to prove new lower bounds on the quantum communication complexity of various functions. Let f:X x Y-->{0,1} be a Boolean function, fool^1(f) its maximal fooling set size among 1-inputs, Q_1^*(f) its one-sided error quantum communication complexity with prior entanglement, and NQ(f) its nondeterministic quantum communication complexity (without prior entanglement; this model is trivial with shared randomness or entanglement). Our main results are the following, where logs are to base 2: * If the maximal fooling set is "upper triangular" (which is for instance the case for the equality, disjointness, and greater-than functions), then we have Q_1^*(f)>=(1/2)log fool^1(f) - 1/2, which is essentially optimal by superdense coding. No super-constant lower bound for equality seems to follow from earlier techniques. * For all f we have Q_1^*(f)>=(1/4)log fool^1(f) - 1/2, which is optimal up to a factor of 2. * NQ(f)>=log \fool^1(f)/2 + 1. We do not know if the factor 1/2 is needed in this result, but it cannot be replaced by 1: we give an example where NQ(f)~0.613 log fool^1(f)., 10 pages LaTeX. Version: corrected an error in Section 2, slightly weakening the result

Fragestellung: In Deutschland gilt die altersbedingte Makuladegeneration (AMD) mit etwa 50% als häufigste Ursache für schwere Sehbehinderungen. Die Therapiemöglichkeiten sind in den letzten Jahren vor allem durch die Anti-VEGF-Therapie gravierend verbessert worden. Die leitlinienkonforme[for full text, please go to the a.m. URL], 26. Internationaler Kongress der Deutschen Ophthalmochirurgen

Transparent polyethylene films can now be produced with antimicrobial and electrically conductive properties as well. This can be achieved by combining several films with the relevant property profiles. The surface conductivity of the films can also be increased by using a suitable new coating technique. The article describes the newly developed special compounds required for this and demonstrates their industrial feasibility.

Background: In Germany neovascular AMD is the leading cause for severe visual impairment. In 2/3 of patients visual acuity can be maintained by intravitreal injection of VEGF inhibitors. Based on clinical studies at least 7–8 injections are required in the first year. The PONS study is evaluating[for full text, please go to the a.m. URL], 26. Jahrestagung der Retinologischen Gesellschaft

We study a motion planning problem where items have to be transported from the top room of a tower to the bottom of the tower, while simultaneously other items have to be transported in the opposite direction. Item sets are moved in two baskets hanging on a rope and pulley. To guarantee stability of the system, the weight difference between the contents of the two baskets must always stay below a given threshold. We prove that it is $¿^p_2$ -complete to decide whether some given initial situation of the underlying discrete system can lead to a given goal situation. Furthermore we identify several polynomially solvable special cases of this reachability problem, and we also settle the computational complexity of a number of related questions. Keywords: Planning and scheduling; Computational complexity; Polynomial hierarchy

Report within SAFEGUARD work package 3.1, Final Version 2012-08-17

In the (non-preemptive) Generalized Min Sum Set Cover Problem, we are given $$n$$ ground elements and a collection of sets $$\mathcal{S }= \{S_1, S_2, \ldots , S_m\}$$ where each set $$S_i \in 2^{[n]}$$ has a positive requirement $$\kappa (S_i)$$ that has to be fulfilled. We would like to order all elements to minimize the total (weighted) cover time of all sets. The cover time of a set $$S_i$$ is defined as the first index $$j$$ in the ordering such that the first $$j$$ elements in the ordering contain $$\kappa (S_i)$$ elements in $$S_i$$ . This problem was introduced by Azar et al. (2009) with interesting motivations in web page ranking and broadcast scheduling. For this problem, constant approximations are known by Bansal et al. (2010) and Skutella and Williamson (Oper Res Lett 39(6):433---436, 2011). We study the version where preemption is allowed. The difference is that elements can be fractionally scheduled and a set $$S$$ is covered in the moment when $$\kappa (S)$$ amount of elements in $$S$$ are scheduled. We give a 2-approximation for this preemptive problem. Our linear programming relaxation and analysis are completely different from the aforementioned previous works. We also show that any preemptive solution can be transformed into a non-preemptive one by losing a factor of 6.2 in the objective function. As a byproduct, we obtain an improved $$12.4$$ -approximation for the non-preemptive problem.

European food safety legislation allows for a new type of meat inspection in swine. This ‘risk-based meat inspection without incision’ or ‘supply chain meat inspection’ (SCMI) uses food chain information to derive a veterinary prognosis on the pigs’ health prior to delivery to the slaughterhouse and allows for visual inspection of pig carcasses. Slaughter companies who want to implement SCMI must develop their risk-based system and have it approved by the competent authority. In the Dutch-German border region, slaughter companies implementing SCMI and suppliers delivering pigs in such a system have to consider the prerequisites of a number of competent authorities. In turn competent authorities have to cope with the special conditions and requirements of a cross border economic region. Within the INTERREG-IV-A project SAFEGUARD issues were addressed that arise from the conduct of SCMI in a cross border context. The main objective was to elaborate an up-to-date comparison between Germany and the Netherlands. We used an iterative approach of collecting information from project partners, external experts and scientific literature and providing feedback to the project group during a number of meetings and workshops. We discovered, among others, important differences in ‘involvement of private parties’, ‘data exchange and communication’ and ‘use of epidemiological data’. We conclude that the existence of SCMI systems using different ‘epidemiological data’ from the holding is a barrier to inter-company acceptance of finishing pigs for slaughter. Further, current systems of data exchange fail to give a complete picture of a farm’s health if farms switch deliveries between slaughterhouses. We suggest, that data exchange of food chain information and meat inspection results should be reorganized and harmonized. Further research is needed to assess economic consequences of these issues.