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We present a new global land-based daily precipitation dataset from 1950 using an interpolated network of in situ data called Rainfall Estimates on a Gridded Network – REGEN. We merged multiple archives of in situ data including two of the largest archives, the Global Historical Climatology Network – Daily (GHCN-Daily) hosted by National Centres of Environmental Information (NCEI), USA, and one hosted by the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) operated by Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD). This resulted in an unprecedented station density compared to existing datasets. The station time series were quality-controlled using strict criteria and flagged values were removed. Remaining values were interpolated to create area-average estimates of daily precipitation for global land areas on a 1∘ × 1∘ latitude–longitude resolution. Besides the daily precipitation amounts, fields of standard deviation, kriging error and number of stations are also provided. We also provide a quality mask based on these uncertainty measures. For those interested in a dataset with lower station network variability we also provide a related dataset based on a network of long-term stations which interpolates stations with a record length of at least 40 years. The REGEN datasets are expected to contribute to the advancement of hydrological science and practice by facilitating studies aiming to understand changes and variability in several aspects of daily precipitation distributions, extremes and measures of hydrological intensity. Here we document the development of the dataset and guidelines for best practices for users with regards to the two datasets.

This review examines the current status of various cellular and non-cellular regeneration technologies used for the repair and regeneration of damaged connective tissue. The article explores the clinical use of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells, adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells, growth factors, cytokines, platelet-rich plasma and GOLDIC® method. To compare the regenerative capacity of these technologies, a systematic analysis of the regeneration quality is necessary, and a high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using a quality scoring system is needed. It is likely that in future clinical practice a combination of such technologies will offer the optimal treatment to patients with different connective tissue disorders, which must always be our ultimate goal.

Objective: GOLDIC® is a novel technology involving the in vitro pre-conditioning of autologous patient whole blood with gold particles to induce autologous protein production. This study aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of GOLDIC® induced cytokines by intravenous injection into patients with various systemic diseases (allergies, fibromyalgia, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis, polymyalgia rheumatica, osteoporosis and other diseases). Patients and Methods: This is a prospective observational case series study of 55 patients suffering from various chronic systemic diseases who were treated with intravenous GOLDIC® injection. Inclusion criteria were having been diagnosed with a chronic systemic disease not efficiently controlled by the standard treatment. The mean age of participants was 55.9±18.4 years. Four consecutive intravenous GOLDIC® injections were carried out at 3 to 7 days intervals. The primary screening criterion was the treatment effectiveness documented by the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and global assessment. The initial findings were compared to the VAS values before the treatment and yearly over a period of at least 6 months and up to 6 years. Results: Eight different disease groups were treated with the intravenous GOLDIC® method. There were statistically significant improvements in VAS scores following GOLDIC® treatment. There were no treatment-related adverse events and serious adverse events. The most impressive results were seen in patients with allergies and fibromyalgia. Conclusions: GOLDIC® was confirmed as a novel method for conservative management of chronic systemic diseases. GOLDIC® produced a rapid and sustained improvement in symptomatology. This study is an open-label non-randomized, non-controlled study using a heterogeneous patient population. Future randomized-controlled trials may fully validate the safety and efficacy of GOLDIC® in different patient populations.

Precipitation plays an important role in the global energy and water cycle. Accurate knowledge of precipitation amounts reaching the land surface is of special importance for fresh water assessment and management related to land use, agriculture and hydrology, incl. risk reduction of flood and drought. High interest in long-term precipitation analyses arises from the needs to assess climate change and its impacts on all spatial scales. In this framework, the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) has been established in 1989 on request of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). It is operated by Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD, National Meteorological Service of Germany) as a German contribution to the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). This paper provides information on the most recent update of GPCC's gridded data product portfolio including example use cases.

Periodically driven quantum systems are currently explored in view of realizing novel many-body phases of matter. This approach is particularly promising in gases of ultracold atoms, where sophisticated shaking protocols can be realized and interparticle interactions are well controlled. The combination of interactions and time-periodic driving, however, often leads to uncontrollable heating and instabilities, potentially preventing practical applications of Floquet engineering in large many-body quantum systems. In this work, we experimentally identify the existence of parametric instabilities in weakly interacting Bose-Einstein condensates in strongly driven optical lattices through momentum-resolved measurements, in line with theoretical predictions. Parametric instabilities can trigger the destruction of weakly interacting Bose-Einstein condensates through the rapid growth of collective excitations, in particular in systems with weak harmonic confinement transverse to the lattice axis. Understanding the onset of parametric instabilities in driven quantum matter is crucial for determining optimal conditions for the engineering of modulation-induced many-body systems.

The Global Precipitation Climatology Centre Drought Index (GPCC-DI) provides estimations of water supply anomalies with respect to long-term statistics. It is a combination of the Standardized Precipitation Index with adaptations from Deutscher Wetterdienst (SPI-DWD) and the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI). Precipitation data were taken from the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) and temperature data from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC). The GPCC-DI is available with several accumulation periods of 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 24 and 48 months for different applications. It is issued monthly starting in January 2013. Typically, it is released on the 10th day of the following month, depending on the availability of the input data. It is calculated on a regular grid with 1° spatial resolution. All accumulation periods are integrated into one netCDF file for each month. This data set is referenced by the doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/DI_M_100 and is available free of charge from the GPCC website ftp://ftp.dwd.de/pub/data/gpcc/html/gpcc_di_doi_download.html.

This paper describes the new First Guess Daily product of the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC). The new product gives an estimate of the global daily precipitation gridded at a spatial resolution of 1° latitude by 1° longitude. It is based on rain gauge data reported in near-real time via the Global Telecommunication System (GTS) and available about three to five days after the end of each observation month. In addition to the gridded daily precipitation totals in mm day−1, the standard deviation in mm day−1, the kriging interpolation error in % and the number of measurements per grid cell are also encoded into the monthly netCDF product file and provided for all months since January 2009. Prior to their interpolation, the measured precipitation values undergo a preliminary automatic quality control. For the calculation of the areal mean of the grid, anomalies are interpolated with ordinary block kriging. This approach allows for a near-real-time release. Therefore, the purely GTS-based data processing lacks an intensive quality control as well as a high data density and is denoted as First Guess. The daily data set is referenced under doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/FG_D_100. Two further products, the Full Data Daily and a merged satellite-gauge product, are currently under development at Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD). These additional products will not be available in near-real time, but based on significantly more and strictly quality controlled observations. All GPCC products are provided free of charge via the GPCC webpage: ftp://ftp-anon.dwd.de/pub/data/gpcc/html/download_gate.html.

Research across multiple disciplines has shown that personal moral norms can play an important role in shaping individuals′ attitudes and behaviour. Despite this, we know relatively little about patterns of support among landowners for either a personal moral norm favouring a strong, ′intrinsic′ right of private ownership, or a moral duty to prevent extinction. In addition, we know even less about the ability of such norms to predict attitudes toward species protection on private lands, especially for non-charismatic species with few qualities that typically generate positive attitudes for conservation. Results from a mail survey of central Indiana landowners suggest broad support for a personal moral norm favouring a strong, ′intrinsic′ right of ownership as well as a personal moral norm to prevent extinction, and that these norms are better predictors of attitudes toward endangered species policies than partisan identification, identification as an environmentalist, strong religious beliefs, or several other demographic factors. The results suggest that those seeking to influence landowner attitudes toward species protection policies should pay closer attention to the influence of these personal moral norms.

Large areas of land are restored with unweathered soil substrates following mining activities in eastern Germany and elsewhere. In the initial stages of colonization of such land by vegetation, plant roots may become key agents in generating soil formation patterns by introducing gradients in chemical and physical soil properties. On the other hand, such patterns may be influenced by root growth responses to pre-existing substrate heterogeneities. In particular, the roots of many plants were found to preferentially proliferate into nutrient-rich patches. Phosphorus (P) is of primary interest in this respect because its availability is often low in unweathered soils, limiting especially the growth of leguminous plants. However, leguminous plants occur frequently among the pioneer plant species on such soils, as they only depend on atmospheric nitrogen (N) fixation as N source. In this study we investigated the relationship between root growth allocation of the legume Lotus corniculatus and soil P distribution on recently restored land. As test sites, the experimental Chicken Creek Catchment (CCC) in eastern Germany and a nearby experimental site (ES) with the same soil substrate were used. We established two experiments with constructed heterogeneity, one in the field on the experimental site and the other in a climate chamber. In addition, we conducted high-density samplings on undisturbed soil plots colonized by L. corniculatus on the ES and on the CCC. In the field experiment, we installed cylindrical ingrowth soil cores (4.5 × 10 cm) with and without P fertilization around single two-month-old L. corniculatus plants. Roots showed preferential growth into the P-fertilized ingrowth-cores. Preferential root allocation was also found in the climate chamber experiment, where single L. corniculatus plants were grown in containers filled with ES soil and where a lateral portion of the containers was additionally supplied with a range of different P concentrations. In the high-density samplings, we excavated soil-cubes of 10 × 10 × 10 cm size from the topsoil of 3 mini-plot areas (50 × 50 cm) each on the ES and the CCC on which L. corniculatus had been planted (ES) or occurred spontaneously (CCC) and for each cube separated the soil attached to the roots (root-adjacent soil) from the remaining soil (root-distant soil). Root length density was negatively correlated with labile P (resin-extractable P) in the root-distant soil of the CCC plots and with water-soluble P in the root-distant soil of the ES plots. The results suggest that P depletion by root uptake during plant growth soon overrode the effect of preferential root allocation in the relationship between root density and plant-available soil P heterogeneity.

The availability of highly accessible and reliable monthly gridded data sets of global land-surface precipitation is a need that was already identified in the mid-1980s when there was a complete lack of globally homogeneous gauge-based precipitation analyses. Since 1989, the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) has built up its unique capacity to assemble, quality assure, and analyse rain gauge data gathered from all over the world. The resulting database has exceeded 200 yr in temporal coverage and has acquired data from more than 85 000 stations worldwide. Based on this database, this paper provides the reference publication for the four globally gridded monthly precipitation products of the GPCC, covering a 111-yr analysis period from 1901–present. As required for a reference publication, the content of the product portfolio, as well as the underlying methodologies to process and interpolate are detailed. Moreover, we provide information on the systematic and statistical errors associated with the data products. Finally, sample applications provide potential users of GPCC data products with suitable advice on capabilities and constraints of the gridded data sets. In doing so, the capabilities to access El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) sensitive precipitation regions and to perform trend analyses across the past 110 yr are demonstrated. The four gridded products, i.e. the Climatology (CLIM) V2011, the Full Data Reanalysis (FD) V6, the Monitoring Product (MP) V4, and the First Guess Product (FG), are publicly available on easily accessible latitude/longitude grids encoded in zipped clear text ASCII files for subsequent visualization and download through the GPCC download gate hosted on ftp://ftp.dwd.de/pub/data/gpcc/html/download_gate.html by the Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD), Offenbach, Germany. Depending on the product, four (0.25°, 0.5°, 1.0°, 2.5° for CLIM), three (0.5°, 1.0°, 2.5°, for FD), two (1.0°, 2.5° for MP) or one (1.0° for FG) resolution is provided, and for each product a DOI reference is provided allowing for public user access to the products. A preliminary description of the scope of a fifth product – the Homogenized Precipitation Analysis (HOMPRA) – is also provided. Its comprehensive description will be submitted later in an extra paper upon completion of this data product. DOIs of the gridded data sets examined are as follows: doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/CLIM_M_V2011_025, doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/CLIM_M_V2011_050, doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/CLIM_M_V2011_100, doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/CLIM_M_V2011_250, doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/FD_M_V6_050, doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/FD_M_V6_100, doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/FD_M_V6_250, doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/MP_M_V4_100, doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/MP_M_V4_250, doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/FG_M_100.

The homeobox gene SHOX encodes for a transcription factor that plays an important role during limb development. Mutations or deletions of SHOX in humans cause short stature in Turner, Langer and Leri-Weill syndrome as well as idiopathic short stature. During embryonic development, SHOX is expressed in a complex spatio-temporal pattern that requires the presence of specific regulatory mechanisms. Up to now, it was known that SHOX is regulated by two upstream promoters and several enhancers on either side of the gene, but no regulators have been identified that can activate or repress the transcription of SHOX by binding to these regulatory elements. We have now identified the homeodomain protein HOXA9 as a positive regulator of SHOX expression in U2OS cells. Using luciferase assays, chromatin immunoprecipitation and electrophoretic mobility shift assays, we could narrow down the HOXA9 binding site to two AT-rich sequences of 31 bp within the SHOX promoter 2. Virus-induced Hoxa9 overexpression in a chicken micromass model validated the regulation of Shox by Hoxa9 (negative regulation). As Hoxa9 and Shox are both expressed in overlapping regions of the developing limb buds, a regulatory relationship of Hoxa9 and Shox during the process of limb development can be assumed.

Die wichtigste Basis für die Berechnung globaler monatlicher Niederschlagsverteilungen stellen auf konventionellen Messungen beruhende Niederschlagshöhen dar. Dazu gehören allgemein verfügbare mehrfach täglich abgesetzte Meldungen (SYNOP) und monatliche Meldungen (CLIMAT). Für weite Gebiete der Erde ist die damit erreichbare Stationsdichte für die globalen Analysen jedoch unzureichend. Das WZN bemüht sich deshalb, zusätzlich monatliche Niederschlagswerte im direkten Kontakt mit den nationalen Wetterdiensten zu erhalten. In einigen Fällen haben diese Bemühungen bereits zu Erfolgen geführt, z. B. liegen von Australien, Neuseeland und den USA umfangreiche Datenkollektive vor. Neben den fortlaufenden monatlichen Daten stehen mittlere monatliche Niederschlagshöhen als Bezugswerte an den Stationen sowie globale Verteilungen der mittleren monatlichen Niederschlagshöhen aus verschiedenen Klimaatlanten zur Verfügung.

The tasks resulting from the objective to carry out monthly precipitation analyses comprise the collection of precipitation data (world-wide), checking and correction of the data, analysis of the monthly global distribution of precipitation over land on the basis of data gained from conventional measuring instruments and the merging of these analyses with precipitation estimates from satellite images and the results of numerical weather forecast models to make up complete global precipitation maps. To this end, objective methods for routine application are being developed in the current research phase that has been in progress since the beginning of 1989 and is sponsored by the BMFT (Federal Ministry for Research and Technology). Up to the end of 1991 first versions of the needed methods will be developed and included into the routine procedure regulations. The operation will start in 1992 for testing and improving the procedure and its components. This paper contains a brief description of all components; possibilities of improvements are pointed out. An extension of the present methods is planned with orographical-climatological relations within the objective spatial analysis, as well as an optimum estimation method to merge the data from different sources into a complete global precipitation field. Prerequisite for the latter method is a comprehensive error valuation and quality rating of all data types on the basis of reference data records from areas with very dense precipitation measurement networks and calibrated radar observations.

Um einen kompletten globalen Datensatz der monatlichen Gebietsniederschläge im 2,5 °-Raster zu erhalten, z. B. für Untersuchungen des globalen hydrologischen Zyklus, sind zur Schließung der bestehenden Datenlücken in den Analysen auf der Basis der Niederschlagsmessungen an Stationen und den Niederschlagsschätzungen aus Satellitenaufnahmen auch Ergebnisse von numerischen Wettervorhersagemodellen heranzuziehen. Zwecks einer künftigen Anpassung der, aus täglichen Vorhersagen des EZMW-Modells abgeleiteten, monatlichen Gebietsniederschläge an die Ergebnisse der objektiven Analyse auf der Basis der Stationsmessungen werden umfangreiche Vergleiche der beiden Datensätze durchgeführt. Diese Vergleiche, die Differenzen und zonale Mittel beider Datensätze sowie Korrelations- und Regressionsanalysen beinhalten, wurden für die Testmonate Februar, Juni und August 1987 angestellt. In den Vergleichen zeigt sich, daß die Niederschlagsregime, d. h. die großräumigen Strukturen der globalen Niederschlagsverteilung, gut vom Modell wiedergegeben werden, insbesondere die subtropischen Trockengebiete. Größere Diskrepanzen bestehen allerdings in orographisch stark gegliedertem Gelände. Außerdem fällt die jahreszeitliche Verlagerung der innertropischen Konvergenzzone (ITCZ) in den Modellergebnissen, verglichen mit der objektiven Analyse, zu gering aus.

Eine Interpretation von Satellitendaten ist unumgänglich, will man das globale Niederschlagsregime näher untersuchen. Nach einem kurzen Überblick über die verwendeten Methoden zur Niederschlagsschätzung, sowohl aus IR- als auch aus Mikrowellendaten, folgt ein Vergleich zwischen den Ergebnissen aus IR-Daten und konventionellen Niederschlagsmessungen über den Kontinenten. Mit linearen Regressionsuntersuchungen werden die größten Unterschiede zwischen beiden Methoden zur Ermittlung von Gebietsniederschlägen beschrieben. Um die Eigenschaften beider Datenquellen unter verschiedenen Bedingungen (z. B. über orographisch gegliedertem Gebiete, in Küstennähe, aus der Winterhemisphäre) herauszuarbeiten, werden weitere Regressionsanalysen diskutiert. Im allgemeinen ergeben die IR-Niederschlagsschätzungen über Land um 50 % (und mehr) höhere Niederschlagsmengen als die aus konventionell gemessenen Niederschlagshöhen gewonnenen Resultate.

Die aus den verschiedenen Auswertemethoden (manuelle bzw. objektive Analyse) und Datenquellen (konventionelle Meßdaten, Satellitenaufnahmen, numerische Wettervorhersagen) abgeleiteten Niederschlagsschätzungen werden als großräumige Flächenmittelwerte miteinander verglichen. Auf der Grundlage der bisherigen Auswertungen (vgl. Kap. 4 bis 8) wird ein erster Ansatz für die Verbindung aller Daten zu einer global vollständigen Analyse aufgestellt. Dessen Verwirklichung ist jedoch an die Verfügbarkeit der erwarteten Referenzdaten gebunden.

Bei allen Arten von Niederschlagsmessungen mit konventionellen Meßgeräten treten geräteabhängig systematische Meßfehler auf, wobei im allgemeinen der aktuell gefallene Niederschlag unterschätzt wird. Dabei schwankt der systematische Meßfehler global zwischen 5 % und 15 % für Gebiete mit ausschließlich Regen und 20 % bis 50 % für Gebiete mit einem hohen Schneeanteil im Niederschlag. Zwar haben die Untersuchungen des WZN gezeigt, daß die durch systematische Meßfehler bedingten Ungenauigkeiten in der Regel deutlich geringer sind als diejenigen, die aus einer zu geringen Stationsdichte oder indirekten Meßmethoden wie Satellitenaufnahmen resultieren, doch ist zur Vermeidung von inhomogenen räumlichen Verteilungen eine Korrektur der monatlichen Niederschlagswerte notwendig. Diese Korrektur wird jedoch nur mit Pauschalansätzen durchgeführt werden können.

Zur Berechnung der Gebietsmittel im Raster werden die Meßwerte der Stationen entfernungs- und richtungsgewichtet auf Gitterpunkte eines feineren Zwischenrasters interpoliert. Die dann in regelmäßigen Abständen vorliegenden Daten werden durch Mittelung zu Gebietsniederschlägen zusammengefaßt. Die Unterschiede der Ergebnisse dieses objektiven Analyseverfahrens zu den Resultaten einer Handanalyse sowie einer objektiven Analyse der Niederschlagsanomalien werden am Beispiel eines Testmonats diskutiert. Insbesondere über Bereichen mit geringer Meßdatendichte ergeben die Methoden stark voneinander abweichende Niederschlagshöhen; eine Qualitätsbeurteilung ist dort wegen der mangelhaften Datengrundlage problematisch. Von höchster Bedeutung ist also die Verbesserung der Verfügbarkeit von Meßdaten. Eine Erweiterung des objektiven Verfahrens durch die Einbeziehung von orographisch-klimatologischen Beziehungen wird voraussichtlich zuverlässigere Ergebnisse liefern.

Um die Datenbasis zur Erstellung globaler Analysen der monatlichen Niederschlagsverteilung im 2,5 °-Raster über den Landgebieten zu verbessern, werden im WZN (Weltzentrum für Niederschlagsklimatologie) neben den aus monatlichen Meldungen (CLIMAT) verfügbaren monatlichen Niederschlagshöhen von ca. 1500 Stationen auch monatliche Niederschlagshöhen für die synoptischen Stationen berechnet. Zur Berechnung monatlicher Niederschlagshöhen aus synoptischen Meldungen wurde daher im Rahmen des WZN das DV-Programm RRRTRW entwickelt. Die Konzeption des Programms umfaßt, da rund ein Viertel der verwendbaren Stationen mindestens eine fehlerhafte SYNOP-Niederschlagsmeldung pro Monat aufweisen, auch umfangreiche Prozeduren zur Datenprüfung (Prüfung einzelner Niederschlagshöhen gegen Extremwerte, Konsistenzprüfung verschachtelter Niederschlagsmeldungen; bei inkonsistenten bzw. fraglichen Meldungen zusätzliche Konsistenzprüfung mit Hilfe der Wettergruppe). Die Prüfung der SYNOP-Niederschlagsgruppe hat inzwischen ein hohes Niveau erreicht (mehr als 90 % der Stationen mit fehlerhaften SYNOP-Meldungen werden vom Programm korrigiert). Dies wird auch in Vergleichen der aus SYNOP-Meldungen berechneten monatlichen Niederschlagshöhen mit CLIMAT-Niederschlagshöhen deutlich, die für die Testmonate Februar, Juni und August 1987 durchgeführt wurden. Dabei zeigt die Zuverlässigkeit der berechneten Niederschlagshöhen erwartungsgemäß eine ausgeprägte Abhängigkeit von der zeitlichen Belegung durch SYNOP-Meldungen im bearbeiteten Monat.

The paper presents the structural application of a new thermal induced strain model for concrete – the TIS-Model. An advanced transient concrete model (ATCM) is applied with the material model of the TIS-Model. The non-linear model comprises thermal strain, elastic strain, plastic strain and transient temperature strains, and load history modelling of restraint concrete structures subjected to fire.The calculations by finite element analysis (FEA) were done using the SAFIR structural code. The FEA software was basically new with respect to the material modelling derived to use the new TIS-Model (as a transient model considers thermal induced strain). The equations of the ATCM consider a lot of capabilities, especially for considering irreversible effects of temperature on some material properties. By considering the load history during heating up, increasing load bearing capacity may be obtained due to higher stiffness of the concrete. With this model, it is possible to apply the thermal-physical behaviour of material laws for calculation of structures under extreme temperature conditions.A tunnel cross section designed and built by the cut and cover method is calculated with a tunnel fire curve. The results are compared with the results of a calculation with the model of the Eurocode 2 (EC2-Model). The effect of load history in highly loaded structures under fire load will be investigated.A comparison of this model with the ordinary calculation system of Eurocode 2 (EC2) shows that a better evaluation of the safety level was achieved with the new model. This opens a space for optimizing concrete structure design with transient temperature conditions up to 1000 °C.