Springer Nature (Netherlands)

Summary Anaerobic ammonium‐oxidizing (anammox) bacteria are responsible for a significant portion of the loss of fixed nitrogen from the oceans, making them important players in the global nitrogen cycle. To date, marine anammox bacteria found in marine water columns and sediments worldwide belong almost exclusively to the ‘ Candidatus Scalindua’ species, but the molecular basis of their metabolism and competitive fitness is presently unknown. We applied community sequencing of a marine anammox enrichment culture dominated by ‘ Candidatus Scalindua profunda’ to construct a genome assembly, which was subsequently used to analyse the most abundant gene transcripts and proteins. In the S. profunda assembly, 4756 genes were annotated, and only about half of them showed the highest identity to the only other anammox bacterium of which a metagenome assembly had been constructed so far, the freshwater ‘ Candidatus Kuenenia stuttgartiensis’. In total, 2016 genes of S. profunda could not be matched to the K. stuttgartiensis metagenome assembly at all, and a similar number of genes in K. stuttgartiensis could not be found in S. profunda . Most of these genes did not have a known function but 98 expressed genes could be attributed to oligopeptide transport, amino acid metabolism, use of organic acids and electron transport. On the basis of the S. profunda metagenome, and environmental metagenome data, we observed pronounced differences in the gene organization and expression of important anammox enzymes, such as hydrazine synthase (HzsAB), nitrite reductase (NirS) and inorganic nitrogen transport proteins. Adaptations of Scalindua to the substrate limitation of the ocean may include highly expressed ammonium, nitrite and oligopeptide transport systems and pathways for the transport, oxidation, and assimilation of small organic compounds that may allow a more versatile lifestyle contributing to the competitive fitness of Scalindua in the marine realm.

NatureWorks® polylactide (PLA) is a versatile polymer made entirely from annually renewable resources. Within the framework of sustainability, NatureWorks LLC is working to continuously improve the environmental performance of its product portfolio and is using life cycle assessment as a tool to identify and measure environmental performance-improvement objectives and to benchmark PLA against the petroleum-based polymers with which it competes in the marketplace. NatureWorks’ objectives include eliminating non-renewable energy use and the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), as well as minimizing non-valuable co-products and reducing water use. These objectives are accomplished through continual improvement of the PLA production technology and utilization of renewable energy for process energy as much as possible. NatureWorks is purchasing wind power-derived renewable energy certificates (RECs) in an amount equal to the electricity used in the PLA production system in a commitment to utilize renewable energy wherever possible. The use of renewable wind energy certificates reduces the environmental burden associated with electricity use. The PLA production system in 2006 emitted 0.27 kg CO2 eq./kg PLA and used 27.2 MJ/kg PLA of fossil energy—reductions of 85% and 50%, respectively, compared to 2003 PLA eco-profile data. In the near future, further improvement of the process technology, combined with the utilization of wind power for the process electricity requirements, will make NatureWorks PLA pellets a GHG sink. This paper provides the cradle-to-polymer-factory-gate life cycle inventory data (eco-profiles) for the 2006 and the near-future PLA production systems and explains the use of RECs.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to find out whether eBooks are cannibalizing print books, as well as an assessment of factors that are influencing eBook usage. Ebooks are a hot topic. Traditional book publishing, especially in the academic world, is changing at a rapid pace. The question on everybody's mind is what direction book publishing will take? Will print survive in the Google‐generation, or is it destined to be totally replaced by eBooks? Springer publishes over 4,000 book titles annually, which are converted into eBooks almost without exception. Being the market leader and innovator of a new business model in electronic books in the STM area, Springer has conducted a study on the implications of the Springer eBook collection in comparison to its print book activities. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on interviews with both end‐users and librarians. In addition, Springer has assessed the (COUNTER‐compliant) usage statistics from SpringerLink. Findings Overall, Springer's eBook usage is already 50 percent of its journal usage, while the amount of content compared with journals is only 15 percent. Taking this success of eBook usage into account, Springer still believes strongly in the print model, and has recently launched MyCopy: heavily discounted print‐on‐demand books from the electronic versions. Originality/value The study shows that print and electronic can exist together, and will complement each other's strengths.

Abstract. A continuous, 36-year measurement composite of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) at three measurement locations on Mount Zugspitze, Germany, was studied. For a comprehensive site characterization of Mount Zugspitze, analyses of CO2 weekly periodicity and diurnal cycle were performed to provide evidence for local sources and sinks, showing clear weekday to weekend differences, with dominantly higher CO2 levels during the daytime on weekdays. A case study of atmospheric trace gases (CO and NO) and the passenger numbers to the summit indicate that CO2 sources close by did not result from tourist activities but instead obviously from anthropogenic pollution in the near vicinity. Such analysis of local effects is an indispensable requirement for selecting representative data at orographic complex measurement sites. The CO2 trend and seasonality were then analyzed by background data selection and decomposition of the long-term time series into trend and seasonal components. The mean CO2 annual growth rate over the 36-year period at Zugspitze is 1.8±0.4 ppm yr−1, which is in good agreement with Mauna Loa station and global means. The peak-to-trough amplitude of the mean CO2 seasonal cycle is 12.4±0.6 ppm at Mount Zugspitze (after data selection: 10.5±0.5 ppm), which is much lower than at nearby measurement sites at Mount Wank (15.9±1.5 ppm) and Schauinsland (15.9±1.0 ppm), but following a similar seasonal pattern.

Abstract. Dead fine fuel (e.g., litter) moisture content is an important parameter for both forest fire and ecological applications as it is related to ignitability, fire behavior and soil respiration. Real-time availability of this value would thus be a great benefit to fire risk management and prevention. However, the comprehensive literature review in this paper shows that there is no easy-to-use method for automated measurements available. This study investigates the applicability of four different sensor types (permittivity and electrical resistance measuring principles) for this measurement. Comparisons were made to manual gravimetric reference measurements carried out almost daily for one fire season and overall agreement was good (highly significant correlations with 0.792 < = r < = 0.947, p < 0.001). Standard deviations within sensor types were linearly correlated to daily sensor mean values; however, above a certain threshold they became irregular, which may be linked to exceedance of the working ranges. Thus, measurements with irregular standard deviations were considered unusable and relationships between gravimetric and automatic measurements of all individual sensors were compared only for useable periods. A large drift in these relationships became obvious from drought to drought period. This drift may be related to installation effects or settling and decomposition of the litter layer throughout the fire season. Because of the drift and the in situ calibration necessary, it cannot be recommended to use the methods presented here for monitoring purposes and thus operational hazard management. However, they may be interesting for scientific studies when some manual fuel moisture measurements are made anyway. Additionally, a number of potential methodological improvements are suggested.

Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) provenances cover broad ecological amplitudes. In a greenhouse study, we investigated the impact of drought stress and rewetting on gas exchange for three provenances (Italy: Emilia Romagna; Spain: Alto Ebro; Germany: East-German lowlands) of 2-year old Scots pine seedlings. CO 2 , water vapour and isoprenoid exchange of stressed and control trees were quantified with a four-chamber dynamic-enclosure system in the controlled environment of a climate chamber. The three provenances showed distinct isoprenoid emission patterns and were classified into a non- 3 -carene, with either high -/-pinene or -myrcene fraction, and a 3 -carene dominated type. Isoprenoid emission rates, net-photosynthesis and transpiration were reduced during summer drought stress and significantly recovered after rewetting. A seasonal increase of isoprenoid emission rates towards autumn was observed for all control groups. Compared with the German provenance, the Spanish and Italian provenances revealed higher isoprenoid emission rates and more plastic responses to drought stress and seasonal development, which points to a local adaptation to climate. As a result of drought, net carbon uptake and transpiration of trees was reduced, but recovered after rewetting. We conclude from our study that Scots pine isoprenoid emission is more variable than expected and sensitive to drought periods, likely impacting regional air chemistry. Thus, a provenance-specific emission assessment accounting for reduced emission during prolonged (summer) drought is recommend for setting up biogenic volatile organic compound emission inventories used in air quality models.

The SOAP (Study of Open Access Publishing) project has analyzed the current supply and demand situation in the open access journal landscape. Starting from the Directory of Open Access Journals, several sources of data were considered, including journal websites and direct inquiries within the publishing industry to comprehensively map the present supply of online peer-reviewed OA journals. The demand for open access publishing is summarised, as assessed through a large-scale survey of researchers' opinions and attitudes. Some forty thousand answers were collected across disciplines and around the world, reflecting major support for the idea of open access, while highlighting drivers of and barriers to open access publishing.

BACKGROUND: There is a lack of research on the relationship between general end-of-life goals and values and preferences for specific life-sustaining treatments. AIM: To examine agreement between Dutch older people's general end-of-life goals and specific life-sustaining treatment preferences. DESIGN: Participants identified general end-of-life goals in an interview and preferences for four life-sustaining treatments in hypothetical cancer and dementia scenarios in a separate questionnaire. Agreement between general goals and specific treatment preferences was calculated. SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: In total, 1818 older people from 11 representative Dutch municipalities participated in the study. RESULTS: In total, 1168 (response rate 73%) answered questions on general end-of-life and specific treatment preferences. Agreement between a desire to live as long as possible, irrespective of health problems, and a preference for life-sustaining treatments ranged from 51% to 76% in cancer and 41% to 60% in dementia scenarios, depending on the treatment. Agreement between a desire for a shorter life, if without major health problems, and a preference to forgo treatments ranged from 61% to 79% in cancer and 75% to 88% in dementia scenarios. CONCLUSION: For a sizable minority of participants, specific treatment preferences did not agree with their general end-of-life goals. The more frequent desire to forgo treatments in case of dementia than cancer suggests that physical deterioration is more acceptable than cognitive decline. The findings underline the importance of discussing general care goals, different end-of-life scenarios and the risks and burdens of treatments to frame discussions of more specific treatment preferences.

The Discover journals are a growing series of fully open access journals with a focus on inclusivity and author service, in particular on the swift peer-review process and rapid publication process which SN Applied Sciences has always championed.SN Applied Sciences was launched in July 2018 [2], and it has been a quite successful journey since then.The journal published more than 5000 articles, received an impact factor (IF) for the first time in 2023 (IF = 2.6 (2022)), and other metrics show a steadily increasing trend, too.For instance, we have achieved more than 3.4 million article downloads (2022) and our CiteScore (2022) has risen to 5.3.What's more, since the switch to the open access publishing model in 2021 all journal content is freely available to readers worldwide.We are sure SN Applied Sciences will succeed as Discover Applied Sciences.Being part of the Discover family opens all kinds of interesting possibilities: we will have greater in-house support to further streamline the peer-review process, and benefit from the growing recognition of the Discover brand.This will allow increased focus on journal development, enabling us to give more back to our authors and editors.One such initiative is our new partnership with Cassyni [3] to develop a new and improved webinar series for 2024, following up the successful journal's webinar series in 2021 [4], and our scheme to recognise outstanding editors and reviewers.

BACKGROUND: Biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) emitted by plants play an important role for ecological and physiological processes, for example as response to stressors. These emitted compounds are involved in chemical processes within the atmosphere and contribute to the formation of aerosols and ozone. Direct measurement of BVOC emissions requires a specialized sample system in order to obtain repeatable and comparable results. These systems need to be constructed carefully since BVOC measurements may be disturbed by several side effects, e.g., due to wrong material selection and lacking system stability. RESULTS: In order to assess BVOC emission rates, a four plant chamber system was constructed, implemented and throughout evaluated by synthetic tests and in two case studies on 3-year-old sweet chestnut seedlings. Synthetic system test showed a stable sampling with good repeatability and low memory effects. The first case study demonstrated the capability of the system to screen multiple trees within a few days and revealed three different emission patterns of sweet chestnut trees. The second case study comprised an application of drought stress on two seedlings compared to two in parallel assessed seedlings of a control. Here, a clear reduction of BVOC emissions during drought stress was observed. CONCLUSION: and water vapor gas exchange of four tree specimens automatically and in parallel with repeatable results. A canopy volume of 30 l can be investigated, which constitutes in case of tree seedlings the whole canopy. Longer lasting experiments of e.g., 1-3 weeks can be performed easily without any significant plant interference.

The combination of calcium channel blockers and beta-blockers is more effective for the treatment of exercise-induced angina pectoris than beta-blocker monotherapy. As ischemia in exercise-induced angina is essentially preceded by an increase in heart rate, calcium channel blockers with a negative chronotropic property may perform better for this purpose than nonchronotropic compounds. A 335-patient, 10-week, double-blind, parallel-group comparison of amlodipine 5 mg and 10 mg, diltiazem 200 mg and 300 mg, and mibefradil 50 mg and 100 mg treatment added to baseline beta-blocker treatment was performed. Exercise testing (ETT) was performed by bicycle ergometry. All of the calcium channels blockers significantly delayed the onset of 1 mm ST-segment depression on ETT (p < 0.001 for any treatment vs. baseline). In addition, mibefradil, in both low- and high-dose treatments, produced the largest delays (low dose: different from diltiazem and amlodipine by 24.1 and 29.8 seconds, respectively, p < 0.003 and < 0.001; high dose: different from diltiazem and amlodipine by 33.7 and 37.0 seconds, respectively, p < 0.001 and < 0.001). A stepwise logistic regression analysis revealed that this beneficial effect of calcium channel blockers was largely dependent on their effect on heart rate. Serious symptoms of dizziness likewise occurred significantly more frequently on mibefradil (p < 0.05 vs. diltiazem) and urged no fewer than 19 patients on mibefradil to withdraw from the trial. The authors conclude that calcium channel blockers with a negative chronotropic property provide a better delay of ischemia in patients with exercise-induced angina, but the concomitant risk of intolerable dizziness may reduce this benefit.

Réduire le renouveau sceptique propre à la période moderne au seul pyrrhonisme serait passer sous silence la résurgence du scepticisme académicien à la fin du xviie siècle en la personne de Simon Foucher, pour qui l’académisme constituait la seule philosophie capable de déjouer les impasses du dualisme cartésien au niveau de ses implications épistémologiques. Voilà pourquoi, pour donner une idée exacte de ce que fut le scepticisme moderne, il est important de présenter les raisons justifiant, pour Foucher, une nécessaire réhabilitation de l’académisme, afin d’évoquer la compréhension et l’interprétation qui furent les siennes de ce courant philosophique, et l’utilisation qu’il en a faite contre le cartésianisme présenté sous la forme d’un nouveau dogmatisme. C’est donc au nom d’une conception sceptique de la philosophie conçue comme recherche méthodique de la vérité et dénuée de tout préjugé dogmatique, que Foucher s’en est pris au dualisme de ses contemporains, comme s’il avait compris que seule la philosophie académicienne pouvait être en mesure de fournir à l’esprit scientifique des temps nouveaux une méthode sceptique adaptée, anticipant par là le « pyrrhonisme raisonnable » du siècle suivant.

Abstract As writers and readers look to the past to make sense of the turbulence and uncertainty of the contemporary moment, the genre of historical fiction is booming. Historical novels by women writers have the potential to unearth overlooked and oppressed subjectivities in order to counter and challenge heteropatriarchal and cisnormative official histories by considering how gender intersects with race, class, migration status, disability or sexuality, for example. This intervention calls for a repositioning of the field of historical fiction studies, demonstrating how intersectional, transnational, multilingual and decolonial feminist approaches to the analysis of contemporary women-authored historical fictions from and about diverse linguistic and cultural contexts can defy the traditionally patriarchal, monolingual and ‘Global North’ focus of scholarship on the genre.

We've come a long way in 5 years and are celebrating this milestone with a special Topic al Colle ction.

Abstract. A continuous, 36-year measurement record of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) at three measurement sites of Mount Zugspitze, Germany was studied. The CO2 trend and seasonality were analyzed by decomposing the long-term time series into trend and seasonal components. The mean CO2 annual growth rate over the 36 year period at Zugspitze is 1.8 ppm yr−1, which is in good agreement with the Mauna Loa station and the global means. The peak-to-trough amplitude of the mean CO2 seasonal cycle is 11.67 ppm at Mount Zugspitze, which is significantly less than nearby measurement sites at Mount Wank and Schauinsland, but which follow similar patterns. To characterize this mountain site better, analyses of weekly periodicity and the diurnal cycle were performed to provide evidence of local sources and sinks of CO2. Together, with an atmospheric trace gas (CO and NO) and the number of site visitor case study, clear weekday–weekend differences were detected, indicating potential CO2 sources in the near vicinity.

Background The French government’s decree issued on the 3rd of April 2020, which stipulates that certification in English will be mandatory at Bachelor’s level from 2022 onward, clearly demonstrates that there is not only a real national, but also international need for English language certification. A seemingly effective way for French universities to implement the decree might be to resort to internationally-recognised general English proficiency tests; the TOEFL (Test of English as a Fore...

After publication of this article [1], the authors noted the following error. Due to a calculation error in the temperature term f(TL) of the emission standardization algorithm (Eq. 3 of the original paper), the reported emission rates have to be corrected in the text of the results as well as Fig. 5a.

Prezentácie z konferencie Slovak Open Sciece Forum 2025, ktorá sa konala 25.11.2025. Viac informácií na stránke konferencie.

Prezentácie z konferencie Slovak Open Sciece Forum 2025, ktorá sa konala 25.11.2025. Viac informácií na stránke konferencie.

Prezentácie z konferencie Slovak Open Sciece Forum 2025, ktorá sa konala 25.11.2025. Viac informácií na stránke konferencie.