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Technology assessment (TA) is a paradigmatic case for the manifold and, at times, ambiguous processes of identity formation of researchers in inter- and transdisciplinary settings. TA combines the natural, technical, and social sciences and follows the multiple missions of scientific analysis, public outreach, and policy advice. However, despite this diversity, it also constitutes a genuine community with its own discourses, conferences, and publications. To which extent “being a TA practitioner” also provides for a genuine scholarly identity is still unclear. Building on interviews with technology assessment practitioners at an academic TA institute, we ask what inter/trans/disciplinary identification patterns emerge in this field. Our analysis shows that TA practitioners adopt multiple identities, from “enthusiastic TA practitioner” to “strong interdisciplinarian” or “disciplinarian” – with distinct identity troubles inherent in all these options. We find that generational affiliation plays a vital role in identity formation. It relates to different primary orientations (towards research or advisory practices), inter/disciplinary backgrounds, contracting modes, and lengths of time spent at the TA institute. We conclude firstly, that disciplinary categories figure strongly in transdisciplinary identities; secondly, that the relation of chronos and identity warrants more substantial consideration: as time spent at a transdisciplinary institute as or as perceived options for “futuring one’s identity”; thirdly, that our understanding of academic generations could profit from a more sociological conception; and, fourthly, that TA’s multidisciplinary setup and threefold orientation towards science, society, and policy result in multiplying possible identities and thus making it difficult to form a stable community.

Summary In Austria, data on vaccine hesitancy is scarce. Available studies suggest around 1-11% of parents refuse vaccination, while many more are hesitant and consider refraining from some but not all of the recommended vaccinations. However, the key drivers for vaccine hesitancy in Austria are largely unknown. To learn more about vaccination coverage, attitude towards and knowledge around immunization as well as views on mandatory vaccination, we conducted a survey in a rural Austrian lay population including adults and children. Two paper-based questionnaires, one for adults 16 years or older and one for children aged 6-15 years, were developed, then sent to all houses of a rural community in Austria as well as handed out at the local primary and middle school, respectively. Self-reported coverage rates of children and adults were found to be low. Within the surveyed population 3% of children had never been or do not get vaccinated. More than half (57%) of the survey participants had a positive attitude towards vaccines, 21% were without reserves, 16% were found skeptical and 5% had a generally negative attitude. Knowledge about immunization in general was poor. Younger adults and people with secondary education appear to be most skeptical and negative towards vaccination. Children’s attitudes were closely linked to those of their parents. The major concern around vaccination in adults was fear of side effects. In adults, 54.2% support mandatory vaccination for Health Care Workers and 20.7% are against it. 39% of adults and 37% of children wanted more information on vaccination, preferably provided by physicians. Knowledge about disease prevention by vaccination should be improved and children could also benefit from an early age-appropriate vaccine education to strengthen health literacy. Physicians are the most trusted source of health information. Medical doctors should be aware of their very important role in transmitting trusted health information. This should include an up-to-date education in communicable disease prevention and immunization during their whole medical career. Furthermore, the curricula of health-care workers may need to be improved and harmonized concerning prevention and vaccination. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s00508-020-01777-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Synthetic biology is an emerging technoscience, which, so far, lacks a broader public debate. To foster early societal dialogue, a range of public engagement events have been initiated over the past decade. This article discusses the configurations of the emerging debate on synthetic biology in the context of the EU FP7 project SYNENERGENE. Drawing on notions of frames and framing in media studies and policy analysis, we ask which distinct frames are invoked and become dominant in current discussions about synthetic biology. Our analysis indicates significant reconfigurations in the framing of synthetic biology compared with previous biotechnology debates. Frames that traditionally served to problematize biotechnology, that is, ethics, risks, and economics, become less dominant. Instead, the potential to contribute to social progress is placed in the foreground. Moreover, discussions on ethics, risks, and governance frequently occur on an abstract level, invoking generic statements that could be made for any new technology.

Responsible Research and Innovation calls for comprehensive public and stakeholder involvement. Its specific requirements, however, have raised criticism concerning the limitation of engagement opportunities for actors like Civil Society Organizations that do not share mainstream perspectives on technological innovations. Our article investigates the engagement of critical Civil Society Organizations in public debates and dialogues on synthetic biology and asks how they contribute to opening up respective debates. Based on three case studies, we show how Civil Society Organizations engage in and frame the debate on synthetic biology in different organizational formats. We find that Civil Society Organizations have explicitly challenged visions of a sustainable future by airing concerns about its risks and adverse impacts and engage in ontological debates about synthetic biology. Yet, we argue that different engagement formats are needed to ensure a diverse public debate on synthetic biology.

Responsible research and innovation (RRI) approaches that have emerged in the past ten years point to the importance of engaging the public in dialogues about research. The different variants of RRI share the notion that societal actors, including citizens, need to work together – that is, engage in two-way communication during the research and innovation process – in order to better align both the process and its outcomes with the values, needs and expectations of society. Yet, sponsors and organizers of dialogues about research often face difficulties in recruiting sufficient numbers of participants or ensuring a sufficient level of diversity of participants. This paper asks what motivates or hinders individual citizens as members of the broader public to participate in such dialogues. It presents empirical findings of the European Union-funded project Promoting Societal Engagement Under the Terms of RRI (PROSO), which aimed to foster public engagement with research for RRI. PROSO used a quasi-experimental, qualitative approach directly involving citizens to address this question. The core of the innovative methodology were focus group discussions with European citizens about hypothetical opportunities to take part in dialogues about research. Three hypothetical scenarios of different dialogue formats (varied by whether they seek to inform the participants, consult or enable deeper collaboration on a scientific issue) were used as stimuli to explore the participants’ willingness (motivations and perceived barriers) to engage with scientific research. Our findings show a preference towards dialogue formats that give citizens a more active role and a greater say in research policy or research funding. They further suggest that those who seek to broaden citizen participation in dialogues about research should consider the role of relevance, impact, trust, legitimacy, knowledge, and time and resources as factors that can motivate or discourage citizens to take part. Based on our findings, we discuss possibilities to promote citizen participation in dialogues about research as part of putting RRI into practice.

Over past decades, the notion of policy advice in technology assessment (TA) has widened, going beyond traditional advice in the form of expert opinions by adding a broad range of brokerage activities. Concomitantly, the roles of scientific policy advisors have diversified. Based on an empirical study of advisory practices at the Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, we ask which advisory roles TA practitioners adopt. Our study shows that practitioners take up multiple roles: the decisionist advisor, the deliberative practitioner, the governance facilitator, the engaged academic, and the agenda-setter. These roles vary, inter alia, in the dominant modes of policy advice and the aspired function in politics and society and correlate with specific project and advisory constellations but also with paradigmatic beliefs of TA practitioners. Our analysis further exemplifies how these roles differ in a) the reference to and interpretation of core principles such as scientificity, neutrality and relevance and b) their strategies of managing the boundary between science and politics. Thus, the article goes beyond the mere statement “TA has politics” by illustrating how the politics of TA manifests in distinct ways in different roles of TA practitioners in policy advice.

With the increasing call for proactive and long-term policy-making, a variety of approaches and instruments of anticipatory policy advice have been devised, implemented and analyzed. However, so far, very little is known about the temporal aspects of such instruments. This article explores the temporal ordering of the future in three prominent instruments of anticipatory policy advice: Strategic Environmental Assessment, Technology Assessment and Foresight. Based on 25 cases of SEA, TA, and Foresight processes in Austria, the article first presents the specific time horizons that are applied in the instruments. Time horizons in anticipatory policy advice frequently span around 10–20 years and have an upper limit of 50 years into the future. In a second step, the article explores and discusses how the chosen time horizons explicitly and implicitly base on varying time scales that are related to the subject matter, epistemic considerations, human experiences, political aspects, and spatial contexts. Owing to these time scales, multiple dynamics of limiting and expanding the future in time are to be found in anticipatory policy advice. Overall, the article illustrates that the tendency to shorten time horizons prevails, contradicting the very purpose of instruments of anticipatory policy advice.

We analyse the recent history of unemployment and labor reallocation in the German economy using a variant of Lucas and Prescott’s (1974) reallocation model, modified to include unemployment benefits, rest unemployment, and aggregate shocks. We focus on the implied effects of the Hartz reforms and the Great Recession in the model, and compare them with the corresponding movements in German data. We find that the model’s qualitative predictions for reallocation and unemployment correspond well with the observations. When we calibrate the model to assess its quantitative performance, however, we find that it significantly overestimates the changes of both reallocation and unemployment since the introduction of the Hartz reforms.

African swine fever virus threatens pig production worldwide due to the lack of vaccines, for which generation of both deletion and insertion mutants is considered. For development of the latter, operational ASFV promoters of different temporal regulation and strengths are desirable. We therefore compared the capacities of putative promoter sequences from p72, CD2v, p30, viral DNA polymerase and U104L genes to mediate expression of luciferase from transfected plasmids after activation in trans, or p30-, DNA polymerase- and U104L promoters in cis, using respective ASFV recombinants. We identified sequences with promoter activities upstream the viral ORFs, and showed that they differ in both their expression intensity regulating properties and in their temporal regulation. In summary, p30 and DNA polymerase promoters are recommended for high level early regulated transgene expression. For late expression, the p72, CD2v and U104L promoter are suitable. The latter however, only if low level transgene expression is aimed.

Although most non-segmented negative-strand RNA viruses (NNSVs) replicate in the cytoplasm, NNSV proteins often exert host manipulatory functions in the nucleus. Matrix (M) proteins of henipaviruses and other paramyxoviruses shuttle through the nucleus, where host factors may bind for M modification or host-cell manipulation. Acidic leucine-rich nuclear phosphoprotein 32 family member B (ANP32B) is an interactor of Hendra and Nipah virus M. Both accumulate in the nucleus in an ANP32B-dependent manner. Here we demonstrate that the nuclear localization signal (NLS) of ANP32B is dispensable for HeV M binding. Specific purification of M-ANP32B but not of M-ANP32A complexes revealed that neither the negatively charged acidic nor the leucine-rich regions of ANP32 proteins per se mediate interactions with henipavirus M proteins. Whereas pneumovirus M did not interact with ANP32B, Newcastle disease virus (NDV, genus Avulavirus), Sendai virus (SeV, genus Respirovirus), Measles virus (MeV, genus Morbillivirus) and Canine distemper virus (CDV, genus Morbillivirus) M were able to form complexes with ANP32B. However, in contrast to NDV M and SeV M, which accumulated in the nucleus ANP32B dependently, both morbillivirus Ms did not accumulate in the nucleus, neither at ANP32B overexpression nor after nuclear protein export inhibition. These results indicate that intracellular compartmentalization of cytoplasmic morbillivirus M and nuclear ANP32B prevented an intracellular interaction. Overall, we provide evidence for a general ability of paramyxovirus M proteins to interact with ANP32B. This suggests a conserved, yet to be clarified mechanism might play a role in host manipulation and immune regulation in infected hosts.

Die Voraussetzungen der Sicherungsverwahrung (SV) sind rechtlich definiert. Es stellt sich die Frage, ob es, dazu passend, empirisch eine besondere Form von gravierender Ruckfalldelinquenz gibt oder eine besondere Hangtatergruppe, die sich von anderen Ruckfalltatern oder Langstrafern unterscheidet. Realisiert sich Sicherungsverwahrung an einer bestimmten Tatergruppe mit relativ homogenen Merkmalen oder trifft sie, breit streuend, jeden, der allzu hartnackig delinquent wird? Dies lasst sich am besten an einer unausgelesenen Gruppe von zu Sicherungsverwahrung Verurteilten uberprufen. Erfasst wurden in einer Totalerhebung Mai 2011 43 Strafgefangene mit angeordneter SV (80 % von total 54) und 33 Sicherungsverwahrte (85 % von 39), insgesamt 76 Verurteilte des Berliner Strafvollzugs. Dargestellt werden in Anknupfung an einen ersten Bericht von Krober et al. uber diese Gruppe aus dem Jahr 2013 Daten zur Sozialisation und zur Delinquenz sowie zur psychischen Symptomatik. Es erweist sich uber die individuellen Ausformungen hinweg ein starker dissozialer Einflussfaktor, der sich nur in der Intensitat von anderen Strafgefangenen unterscheidet. Diskutiert wird, welche Moglichkeiten und Erfordernisse fur therapeutische Interventionen sich daraus ableiten lassen.

Using high-quality German administrative data, I analyze workers’ opportunity costs of reallocation across occupations by measuring the additional time spent in unemployment before being hired in a new occupation. Furthermore, I inspect the wage changes after reallocation and find that workers who change occupations through unemployment face wage losses that appear to be persistent over a 5-year horizon.

This article asks how scientific advisory institutions (SAIs) in climate policy strive towards effectiveness. Our analysis is grounded on the assumption that effectiveness is not passively experienced but is deliberately enacted by SAIs. We draw on a widely used set of criteria, namely saliency, credibility and legitimacy (SCL). Based on an analysis of 30 SAIs, we map and illustrate the repertoire of strategies and mechanisms that SAIs employ to enhance and demonstrate their saliency, credibility and legitimacy in advice giving. We conclude that SAIs enact SCL on three levels, that is, by means of organisational provisions, procedural setups and rhetorical depictions.

Using administrative employer-employee data from Germany, we investigate the behavior of individual wages over the business cycle. We present evidence that both contractual wage arrangements and cyclical match quality are a key feature of the German labor market. We show that parts of the excess wage cyclicality of new hires discussed by the literature can be explained by cyclical job ladder movements in match quality of new hires from employment. Guided by the literature of job reassignments, we additionally allow for variation in the match quality within an employer-employee match. Besides support for job-specific contracts, our novel main results show that much of the excess wage cyclicality of job changers can be explained by occupation switching workers.

Climate policy is a prime example of the growing importance of expert advice. A plethora of advisory bodies and processes have emerged around the world to inform mitigation and adaptation policies. However, there are marked differences in the organization and practice of science–policy interactions in national contexts. Against this background, the article aims to provide an in-depth account of the imprints of the peculiar Austrian neo-corporatist culture on scientific advice in the new field of climate policy. Because scholars have observed a decline in the underlying Austrian political culture, we aim to clarify whether a hybridization of neo-corporatist and pluralist advisory features can be found or to what extent neo-corporatist advisory patterns still prevail in the new domain of climate policy. Our research draws on the approaches of ‘national styles of policy-making’ and ‘civic epistemologies’ to develop an analytical framework. We briefly present the main features of Austrian climate policy before analyzing pertinent patterns of scientific advice. Our article particularly focuses on mapping the actors and organizational advisory formats, categorizing the selection criteria for researchers’ expertise, assessing the overall relevance of scientific knowledge and identifying dominant patterns of science–policy interactions. Overall, our analysis indicates that neo-corporatist advisory features prevail in Austrian scientific climate policy advice. Only a limited extent of pluralist patterns and, therefore, a low degree of hybridization could be revealed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

The switching behavior of surface‐supported molecular units excited by current, light, or mechanical forces is determined by the shape of the adsorption potential. The ability to tailor the energy landscape in which a molecule resides at a surface gives the possibility of imposing a desired response, which is of paramount importance for the realization of molecular electronic units. Here, by means of scanning tunneling microscopy, a triazatruxene (TAT) molecule on Ag(111) is studied, which shows a switching behavior characterized by transitions of the molecule between three states, and which is attributed to three energetically degenerate bonding configurations. Upon tunneling current injection, the system can be excited and continuously driven, showing a switching directionality close to 100%. Two surface enantiomers of TAT show opposite switching directions pointing at the chirality of the energy landscape of the adsorption potential as a key ingredient for directional switching. Further, it is shown that by tuning the tunneling parameters, the symmetry of the adsorption potential can be controllably adjusted, leading to a suppression of the directionality or an inversion of the switching direction. The findings represent a molecule‐surface model system exhibiting unprecedented control of the shape of its adsorption potential. published

Rabies virus (RABV) spread is widely accepted to occur only by retrograde axonal transport. However, examples of anterograde RABV spread in peripheral neurons such as dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons indicated a possible bidirectional transport by an uncharacterized mechanism. Here, we analyzed the axonal transport of fluorescence-labeled RABV in DRG neurons by live-cell microscopy. Both entry-related retrograde transport of RABV after infection at axon endings and postreplicative transport of newly formed virus were visualized in compartmentalized DRG neuron cultures. Whereas entry-related transport at 1.5 μm/s occurred only retrogradely, after 2 days of infection, multiple particles were observed in axons moving in both the anterograde and retrograde directions. The dynamics of postreplicative retrograde transport (1.6 μm/s) were similar to those of entry-related retrograde transport. In contrast, anterograde particle transport at 3.4 μm/s was faster, indicating active particle transport. Interestingly, RABV missing the glycoproteins did not move anterogradely within the axon. Thus, anterograde RABV particle transport depended on the RABV glycoprotein. Moreover, colocalization of green fluorescent protein (GFP)-labeled ribonucleoproteins (RNPs) and glycoprotein in distal axonal regions as well as cotransport of labeled RNPs with membrane-anchored mCherry reporter confirmed that either complete enveloped virus particles or vesicle associated RNPs were transported. Our data show that anterograde RABV movement in peripheral DRG neurons occurs by active motor protein-dependent transport. We propose two models for postreplicative long-distance transport in peripheral neurons: either transport of complete virus particles or cotransport of RNPs and G-containing vesicles through axons to release virus at distal sites of infected DRG neurons. IMPORTANCE Rabies virus retrograde axonal transport by dynein motors supports virus spread over long distances and lethal infection of the central nervous system. Though active rabies virus transport has been widely accepted to be unidirectional, evidence for anterograde spread in peripheral neurons supports the hypothesis that in some neurons RABV also enters the anterograde pathway by so-far unknown mechanisms. By live microscopy we visualized fast anterograde axonal transport of rabies virus. The velocities exceeded those of retrograde movements, suggesting that active, most likely kinesin-dependent transport machineries are involved. Dependency of anterograde transport on the expression of virus glycoprotein G and cotransport with vesicles further suggest that complete enveloped virus particles or cotransport of virus ribonucleoprotein and G-containing vesicles occurred. These data provide the first insight in the mechanism of anterograde rabies virus transport and substantially contribute to the understanding of RABV replication and spread of newly formed virus in peripheral neurons.

We analyse whether and how six regional partnerships catalyse innovations in climate adaptation policies in Canada and England. The relatively rare and underexplored adaptation partnerships are collaborative arrangements in which governmental, business, and civil society actors strive to facilitate adaptation to climate change. Representing new political spaces, partnerships are expected to produce more innovative policies than hierarchies do. We find that the partnerships catalyse policy innovations in three distinct ways: through collaboration among the partners, through scaling up their activities beyond the partnerships, and by supporting national adaptation politics. However, the instrumental portfolio of the policy innovations is limited. It primarily comprises informational policies (e.g. guidelines), strategies, and plans (usually non-binding). Regarding innovation mechanisms, the analysis highlights the importance of collaboration and learning. Although there is a risk that partnerships will beco...

Over the past decade, governments in many countries began to integrate or mainstream climate change adaptation into a range of sectors. Comprehensive multi-sectoral adaptation strategies have emerged as the preferred approach across Europe. The German Adaptation Strategy is a prominent example for such a comprehensive strategy. It addresses 14 sectors with national key issues and measures, and it provides orientation for other (mainly sub-national) actors. Against this trend, the Netherlands has pursued climate change adaptation mainly through a sectorally focused approach: the Dutch Delta Programme. Building on existing programmes,Governments in many it facilitates analysis and strategy development for long-term water management at a national scale with a strong regional focus. The present paper compares the two dissimilar governance approaches mainly with regard to how and to what degree they mainstream adaptation into water and coastal zone management in selected regions. After discussing strengths and weaknesses of the two approaches, we conclude that the more common multi-sectoral approach applied in Germany and most other OECD countries is not necessarily superior to sectorally focused approaches. Although the Dutch and the German cases appear to resemble alternatives, we highlight that their combination holds the promise to compensate for each other’s weaknesses. Overall, we argue that diversity in the governance of climate change adaptation is desirable because it can help to prevent that several countries fail in similar ways.

Adaptation to climate change is widely recognized as a multi-level governance challenge because expected impacts and respective measures cut across governmental levels, sectors and societal domains. The present paper analyses the role of regional adaptation partnerships in Canada and England in the multi-level governance of climate change adaptation. We describe and compare three partnerships per country with regard to their evolution, membership and governing structures, coordination across levels and societal domains, and their adaptation activities and outputs. Although both partnership schemes represent new collaborative approaches, their genesis and governance differ. While the Canadian collaboratives are a government-centred approach that originated and partly operated top-down through a national programme for the period 2009–2012, the English partnerships follow a more pluralistic stakeholder-centred approach that evolved bottom-up already in the early 2000s. Both schemes have in common that they mediate between governmental levels, foster networking between public and private actors, and eventually build adaptive capacities and inform adaptation policies. We conclude that regional adaptation partnerships represent a new governance approach that facilitates climate change adaptation, albeit with limits. Since state actors play(ed) key roles in both partnership schemes, they do not represent a new sphere of authority outside the state. Instead of blurring or destabilizing governmental levels they complement (and perhaps even stabilise) them with multi-level interactions.

Die aktuelle Reform der Sicherungsverwahrung folgt rechtlichen Erfordernissen und leitet sich nicht primar vom Behandlungsbedarf Sicherungsverwahrter ab. Vor der Umsetzung der gesetzlichen Vorgaben ist daher ein Blick auf die Personen sinnvoll, die dieser veranderten Behandlung unterzogen werden sollen. Was sind die lebensgeschichtlichen und delinquenten Vorerfahrungen Sicherungsverwahrter, und wie oft und in welcher Weise hat man bereits versucht, sie zu therapieren und von ihrer Straffalligkeit abzubringen? Dieser Beitrag erlautert die aktuelle Lage im Umsetzungsprozess der neuen Gesetze zur Sicherungsverwahrung und beschreibt anhand einer Vollerhebung uber samtliche 76 Berliner Sicherungsverwahrte sowie 44 Sicherungsverwahrte auserhalb Berlins erste Ergebnisse dieser Untersuchung zu den delinquenten Kerndaten des Kollektivs.

Technology assessment and foresight are instruments that aim to anticipate future developments and conditions and, therefore, are intended to provide orientations for present decision-making. Although to different extents, both instruments procedurally and methodologically rely on participatory procedures for anticipation. Building on the analytical concepts of co-production and boundary work, we analyze the practices of participatory knowledge production in ten technology assessment and foresight projects in Austria. In the first step, we examine the conceptualization and realization of participation by identifying their underlying rationales. In the second step, we show how different rationales influence the selection of participants and their interactions. We then show how particular actors and related role expectations are assigned to specific modes of anticipation. Finally, we highlight the covert domination of experts and project managers in the overall framing of problems and the challenges that th...

Although the public governance of climate change adaptation gained increasing attention among both policy-makers and researchers in recent years, it is still largely unclear how governments aim to develop and implement adaptation policies. This paper takes stock of respective institutional innovations at the national level in 10 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. It first introduces four challenges that are key in the context of climate adaptation policy-making, that is, (i) how to better integrate adaptation policies horizontally across policy sectors and (ii) vertically across jurisdictional levels, (iii) how to integrate knowledge, and (iv) how to involve non-state stakeholders in adaptation policy-making. Based on a desk research and semi-structured interviews, this paper then highlights a variety of institutional innovations (here referred to as governance approaches) that the selected governments employ to address these four challenges. Overall, it is shown that most o...

We examine the proposition that the Hartz reforms offset the GFC’s effect on unemployment (leading to the †German miracle†) and the GFC offset the Hartz reform’s effects on reallocation, in Germany (leading to the reallocation puzzle) over the period 2005-2010. To do so, we use a labor reallocation model based on Lucas and Prescott (1974), but with the additional features of unemployment benefits and rest unemployment. The model generates two simple conditions that must hold for two events to simultaneously offset each other in this way. We estimate the key parameters of the model to assess the extent to whether these conditions were satisfied in Germany at that time. We find that the observed drop in productivity due to the GFC (6.6%) fell somewhat short of the drop required to explain the reallocation puzzle (10.1%). Conditional on this offset taking place, the observed percentage drop in unemployment benefits (26.7%) was approximately four times that required (6.6%) for the German miracle.

Rabies virus (RABV) polymerase L together with phosphoprotein P forms the PL polymerase complex that is essential for replication and transcription. However, its exact mechanism of action, interactions with cellular factors, and intracellular distribution are yet to be understood. Here by imaging a fluorescently tagged polymerase (mCherry-RABV-L), we show that L accumulates at acetylated and reorganized microtubules (MT). In silico analysis revealed a dynein light chain 1 (DLC1) binding motif in L that could mediate MT binding through dynein motors. As DLC1 binding by polymerase cofactor P is known, we compared the impact of the DLC1-binding motifs in P and L. Viruses with mutations in the respective motifs revealed that both motifs are required for efficient primary transcription, indicating that DLC1 acts as a transcription enhancer by binding to both P and L. Notably, also the levels of cellular DLC1 protein were regulated by both motifs, suggesting regulation of the DLC1 gene expression by both P and L. Finally, disruption of the motif in L resulted in a cell-type-specific loss of MT localization, demonstrating that DLC1 is involved in L-mediated cytoskeleton reorganization. Overall, we conclude that DLC1 acts as a transcription factor that stimulates primary RABV transcription by binding to both P and L. We further conclude that L influences MT organization and posttranslational modification, suggesting a model in which MT manipulation by L contributes to efficient intracellular transport of virus components and thus may serve as an important step in virus replication. IMPORTANCE Regulation of rabies virus polymerase complex by viral and cellular factors thus far has not been fully understood. Although cellular dynein light chain 1 (DLC1) has been reported to increase primary transcription by binding to polymerase cofactor phosphoprotein P, the detailed mechanism is unknown, and it is also not known whether the large enzymatic polymerase subunit L is involved. By fluorescence microscopy analysis of fluorescence-tagged rabies virus L, in silico identification of a potential DLC1 binding site in L, and characterization of recombinant rabies virus mutants, we show that a DLC1 binding motif in L is involved in cytoskeleton localization and reorganization, primary transcription regulation by DLC1, and regulation of cellular DLC1 gene expression. By providing evidence for a direct contribution of a DLC1 binding motif in L, our data significantly increase the understanding of rabies virus polymerase regulation and host manipulation by the virus as well.

The distal portion of chromosome 1p is frequently deleted in several human cancers, suggesting the presence of one or more putative tumor suppressor genes on this chromosomal arm. In human neuroblastoma, a consistently deleted region at 1p36.1-p36.2 has been defined by comparison of molecular loss of heterozygosity (LOH) analyses. Recently we described the identification of a yeast artificial chromosome, YAC 927G4, that spans a translocation/duplication breakpoint within the minimally defined LOH region at 1p36.1-p36.2 in the neuroblastoma cell line NGP. Here we describe the identification of two overlapping P1 artificial chromosomes comprising 220 kb at the distal end of YAC 927G4, which we have used as hybridization probes under modified conditions to screen a composite, normalized cDNA library (IMAGE cDNA library). Hybridization screening resulted in the rapid and comprehensive identification of partial cDNAs of which a portion comprised two novel candidate genes, termed DNB1/ARPh and DNB5, which encode putative proteins of 1011 and 447 amino acids, respectively. The DNB1/ARPh gene, which was found to be ubiquitously expressed in human adult and fetal tissues, is highly related to the DRPLA gene, in which expansion of a CAG triplet appears to be causal in the dentatorubral and pallidolysian atrophy disease phenotype. The DNB5 sequence, in contrast, which is predominantly expressed in brain tissues and fetal kidney, failed to show any similarity to sequences in the public domain. A preliminary assessment of transcription and sequence of both genes in several neuroblastoma cell lines does not, thus far, support a causal role in neuroblastoma. However, further analyses are required to confirm these results.

Membrane envelopment and budding of negative strand RNA viruses (NSVs) is mainly driven by viral matrix proteins (M). In addition, several M proteins are also known to be involved in host cell manipulation. Knowledge about the cellular targets and detailed molecular mechanisms, however, is poor for many M proteins. For instance, Nipah Virus (NiV) M protein trafficking through the nucleus is essential for virus release, but nuclear targets of NiV M remain unknown. To identify cellular interactors of henipavirus M proteins, tagged Hendra Virus (HeV) M proteins were expressed and M-containing protein complexes were isolated and analysed. Presence of acidic leucine-rich nuclear phosphoprotein 32 family member B (ANP32B) in the complex suggested that this protein represents a direct or indirect interactor of the viral matrix protein. Over-expression of ANP32B led to specific nuclear accumulation of HeV M, providing a functional link between ANP32B and M protein. ANP32B-dependent nuclear accumulation was observed after plasmid-driven expression of HeV and NiV matrix proteins and also in NiV infected cells. The latter indicated that an interaction of henipavirus M protein with ANP32B also occurs in the context of virus replication. From these data we conclude that ANP32B is a nuclear target of henipavirus M that may contribute to virus replication. Potential effects of ANP32B on HeV nuclear shuttling and host cell manipulation by HeV M affecting ANP32B functions in host cell survival and gene expression regulation are discussed.

Moderne Gesellschaften produzieren kontinuierlich Entscheidungen (hinsichtlich technologischer, sozialer, okonomischer und okologischer Entwicklungen), sie sind sich der Konsequenzen dieser Entscheidungen aber oft nicht hinreichend bewusst und damit nur beschrankt in der Lage, die Verantwortung fur deren langfristige Folgen zu ubernehmen (Adam 1998; Beck et al. 2003).

The governance of climate change adaptation gained increasing attention among both policy makers and researchers in recent years. Nevertheless, it is still largely unclear how governments aim to develop and implement adaptation policies. This paper takes stock of respective governance approaches at the national level in ten OECD countries. It first introduces four governance challenges that play a key role in the literature, i.e. (i) how to better integrate adaptation policies horizontally across policy sectors and (ii) vertically across jurisdictional levels, (iii) how to deal with uncertainties and integrate knowledge in adaptation policy decisions and, (iv), how to involve non-state stakeholders in adaptation decisions. Based on a desk research and a telephone survey, the paper then highlights a plethora of governance approaches the selected governments employ to cope with these four challenges. Overall, it is shown that most governance approaches are restricted to soft, voluntary ways of coordination and steering, and that national adaptation strategies often mark a centre piece around which complex governance setups emerge.