Despite growing scientific evidence of the important role that wood-decomposing fungi serve in ecosystem function, we know little about how fungal community dynamics relate to decomposition outcomes. We deployed 42 standardized (same dimensions and source) wood stakes from sugar maple ( Acer saccharum ) and white ash ( Fraxinus americana ) on the forest floor of a northern US hardwood forest. After four years, we collected the...

Motivation The database initiated by the Mountain Invasion Research Network (MIREN) is one of the few globally implemented standardized vegetation surveys in mountains. The focus is on collecting plant species occurrences at 5‐year intervals along and adjacent to mountain roads spanning elevational gradients, with the goal of providing critical information about the ongoing spread of non‐native plants and the potential impacts...

Safeguarding groundwater, a vital resource in adaptation to global change, yet increasingly under pressure, requires robust knowledge and capacity. While strong foundations in hydrogeology remain indispensable, there is a clear need for joint, interdisciplinary and applied groundwater education at the postgraduate level to address the complex and multifaceted nature of groundwater science. Building on these arguments, the Join...

Surface defects are a critical indicator of semi-finished product quality, with the elements Cu and Sn exerting a significant influence through the phenomenon known as hot shortness. The present study quantifies the defect sensitivity caused by Cu and Sn for three different steel grades under continuous casting conditions using the In-situ Material Characterization by Bending (IMC-B) test. Building on this, purposefully pre-da...

Polarisation is a key process in land systems, describing land-change trajectories within a region that simultaneously move in opposite directions, such as co-occurring agricultural intensification and abandonment. Land-system polarisation relates strongly to sustainability goals, with potentially positive or negative consequences depending on domain and context. Yet, we lack approaches for mapping polarisation, limiting our u...

Accurate predictions of heathland plant species are crucial for ecological monitoring and assessing biodiversity. Previous research has predominantly utilised convolutional neural networks (CNNs), which process images arranged on a regular grid. Although CNNs are effective at extracting local visual features, they frequently do not capture the irregular spatial relationships characteristic of heathland vegetation. Earlier appr...

Serum glial fibrillary acidic protein (sGFAP) is an astroglial biomarker preliminarily investigated in acute ischemic stroke (AIS). We aimed to investigate its temporal pattern and clinical value in two German AIS cohorts. Using immunoassay, we measured sGFAP concentrations in 952 samples of 572 AIS patient and 32 samples of controls recruited in Halle [AIS n = 102, age: 70.9 (± 15.9) years, 52.0% males; controls n = 32, age:...

Digestate from anaerobic digestion is used for fertilizer application, but the efficiency is not always very high, and it may lead to significant emissions of nitrous oxide. In this two-year field study, we tested differently treated liquid fraction of digestate (LF) to investigate N 2 O emissions and crop yield. The treatments included biochar amendment, acidification and sedicanter separation followed by post-digestion (SLF)...

From September 2017 to March 2021, the Insect Laser project was carried out. Three partners from stored product protection, micro-integration and laser research, as well as media technology and artificial intelligence (AI) worked on the task to provide image recognition for adult granary weevils ( Sitophilus granarius ; Coleoptera, Curculionidae) and adult Indianmeal moths ( Plodia interpunctella ; Lepidoptera, Pyralidae). Dee...

Epileptiform discharges in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Lewy body dementia (DLB) may be associated with cognitive decline. Iron accumulation has been implicated in neurodegenerative processes; however, its relationship to epileptiform discharges remains unknown. In addition, the relationship between iron deposition, structural brain changes, and epileptiform discharges remains unclear. The objective is to investigate whether i...