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An extensive field campaign, the Ems-Dollard Measurements (EDoM), was executed in the Ems Estuary, bordering the Netherlands and Germany, aimed at better understanding the mechanisms that drive the exchange of water and sediments between a relatively exposed outer estuary and a hyper-turbid tidal river. More specifically, the reasons for the large up-estuary sediment accumulation rates and the role of the tidal river on the turbidity in the outer estuary were insufficiently understood. The campaign was designed to unravel the hydrodynamic and sedimentary exchange mechanisms, comprising two hydrographic surveys during contrasting environmental conditions using eight concurrently operating ships and 10 moorings measuring for at least one spring–neap tidal cycle. All survey locations were equipped with sensors measuring flow velocity, salinity, and turbidity (and with stationary ship surveys taking water samples), while some of the survey ships also measured turbulence and sediment settling properties. These observations have provided important new insights into horizontal sediment fluxes and density-driven exchange flows, both laterally and longitudinally. An integral analysis of these observations suggests that large-scale residual transport is surprisingly similar during periods of high and low discharge, with higher river discharge resulting in both higher seaward-directed fluxes near the surface and landward-directed fluxes near the bed. Sediment exchange seems to be strongly influenced by a previously undocumented lateral circulation cell driving residual transport. Vertical density-driven flows in the outer estuary are influenced by variations in river discharge, with a near-bed landward flow being most pronounced in the days following a period with elevated river discharge. The study site is more turbid during winter conditions, when the estuarine turbidity maximum (ETM) is pushed seaward by river flow, resulting in a more pronounced impact of suspended sediments on hydrodynamics. All data collected during the EDoM campaign, but also standard monitoring data (waves, water levels, discharge, turbidity, and salinity) collected by Dutch and German authorities are made publicly available at 4TU Centre for Research Data (https://doi.org/10.4121/c.6056564.v3; van Maren et al., 2022).

Human interaction is one of the most consistently effective interventions that can improve the welfare of shelter-living dogs. Time out of the kennel with a person has been shown to reduce physiological measures of stress as can leaving the shelter for a night or more in a foster home. In this study, we assessed the effects of brief outings and temporary fostering stays on dogs’ length of stay and outcomes. In total, we analyzed data of 1955 dogs from 51 animal shelters that received these interventions as well as 25,946 dogs residing at these shelters that served as our controls. We found that brief outings and temporary fostering stays increased dogs’ likelihood of adoption by 5.0 and 14.3 times, respectively. While their lengths of stay were longer in comparison to control dogs, this difference was present prior to the intervention. Additionally, we found that these programs were more successful when greater percentages of community members (as compared to volunteers and staff) were involved in caregiving as well as when programs were implemented by better-resourced shelters. As such, animal welfare organizations should consider implementing these fostering programs as evidence-based best practices that can positively impact the outcomes of shelter dogs.

Since the last decades, previous long-term Wadden Sea studies revealed significant changes in the abundance, biomass and spatial distribution of characteristic macrofauna communities in response to environmental changes and anthropogenic stressors. In this study, we performed statistical community analysis for the East-Frisian Wadden Sea (EFWS, southern North Sea) on two reference datasets across a period with severe climatic and environmental changes (1980s-2018). Therefore, historical macrofauna data from the Quantitative Sensitivity Mapping (1980s, SENSI 1) were reanalyzed and compared with data from the Synoptic Intertidal Benthic Survey (SIBES/SENSI 3) collected in 2018. Our results revealed significant quantitative and spatial changes in the characteristic macrofauna communities between the 1980s and 2018, most likely in response to de-eutrophication and sea level rise mediated habitat changes. Since the 1980s, the total number of taxa remained relatively stable (1980s: 90, 2018: 81), but the total abundance decreased by ca. -31% and the total biomass decreased by ca. -45%, particularly in the eastern regions of the study site probably due to de-eutrophication processes. Thereby, the mean abundances/m2 of ≥ -80% (1980s-2018) in the EFWS of several dominant species decreased: e.g. the gastropod Peringia ulvae, the polychaete Lanice conchilega and the bivalve Mya arenaria. In contrast, the mean abundance/m2 of one dominant species increased by ≥ +80% (1980s-2018): the invasive bivalve Ensis leei. The mean biomass [g/m2] of three dominant species decreased by ≥ -80% (1980s-2018): P. ulvae, L. conchilega and the amphipod Corophium volutator. In contrast, the mean biomass [g/m2] of one dominant species increased by ≥ +75% (1980s-2018): the polychaete Arenicola marina. In the western part of the EFWS, not only higher abundances of A. marina, but also of L. conchilega and P. ulvae were found in 2018, caused i.a. by sea level rise mediated decreasing mud contents and sand accretion on tidal flats. At the community level, the Oligochaeta/Heteromastus community increased in spatial distribution in the western EFWS in 2018 in the vicinity of increasing mussel/oyster beds.

Angioedema is a relatively rare but potentially life-threatening adverse reaction to angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi) and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs). As with hereditary forms of angioedema (HAE), this adverse reaction is mediated by bradykinin. Research suggests that ACEi/ARB-induced angioedema has a multifactorial etiology. In addition, recent case reports suggest that some ACEi/ARB-induced angioedema patients may carry pathogenic HAE variants. The aim of the present study was to investigate the possible association between ACEi/ARB-induced angioedema and HAE genes via systematic molecular genetic screening in a large cohort of ACEi/ARB-induced angioedema cases. Targeted re-sequencing of five HAE-associated genes (SERPING1, F12, PLG, ANGPT1, and KNG1) was performed in 212 ACEi/ARB-induced angioedema patients recruited in Germany/Austria, Sweden, and Denmark, and in 352 controls from a German cohort. Among patients, none of the identified variants represented a known pathogenic variant for HAE. Moreover, no significant association with ACEi/ARB-induced angioedema was found for any of the identified common [minor allele frequency (MAF) >5%] or rare (MAF < 5%) variants. However, several non-significant trends suggestive of possible protective effects were observed. The lowest p-value for an individual variant was found in PLG (rs4252129, p.R523W, p = 0.057, p.adjust > 0.999, Fisher’s exact test). Variant p.R523W was found exclusively in controls and has previously been associated with decreased levels of plasminogen, a precursor of plasmin which is part of a pathway directly involved in bradykinin production. In addition, rare, potentially functional variants (MAF < 5%, Phred-scaled combined annotation dependent depletion score >10) showed a nominally significant enrichment in controls both: 1) across all five genes; and 2) in the F12 gene alone. However, these results did not withstand correction for multiple testing. In conclusion, our results suggest that HAE-associated mutations are, at best, a rare cause of ACEi/ARB-induced angioedema. Furthermore, we were unable to identify a significant association between ACEi/ARB-induced angioedema and other variants in the investigated genes. Further studies with larger sample sizes are warranted to draw more definite conclusions concerning variants with limited effect sizes, including protective variants.

Abstract Background Diagnosis of pollen allergies is mainly based on test allergens for skin prick testing. In the minimum battery of test inhalant allergens recommended by the Global Allergy and Asthma European Network 10 pollen allergens are included. Complementary other pollen allergens may need to be considered; however, respective awareness may not always be granted. Furthermore, at least in Germany, the situation may be even more complicated by the fact that test allergens need regulatory approval. A decline in commercially available test allergens may result in a diagnostic gap regarding patients with non‐frequent allergies. How many patients with non‐frequent pollen allergies would be affected by this gap? The data presented here partly answer this question. Methods The study consisted of a descriptive and an analytical part. In the descriptive part, sensitization to frequent pollen allergens (alder, hazel, birch, sweet grasses; according to the German Therapy Allergen Ordinance) and to respective non‐frequent pollen allergens (cypress, Japanese cedar, ash, plane tree, olive, Bermuda grass, wall pellitory, plantain, goosefoot, mugwort, ragweed, and saltwort) was measured in adult patients with physician‐diagnosed allergic rhinitis from two German federal states, namely North‐Rhine Westphalia (n = 360) and Bavaria (n = 339), using skin prick testing and/or ISAC technology. Furthermore, respective regional pollen data were assessed. In the analytical part, sensitization data were correlated with each other and with anamnestic data on symptom periods. Results Sensitization to frequent pollen allergens ranged from 45% (sIgE to Aln g 1/Alder, NRW) to 72% (prick test reactivity to birch, NRW). Sensitization to non‐frequent pollen allergens ranged from 0% (sIgE to Amb a 1/ragweed, NRW) to 41% (prick test reactivity to olive, Bavaria). Sensitization data partly correlated with each other and in connection with symptom periods showed a partly similar seasonal pattern as pollen data. Conclusions Sensitization to non‐frequent pollen allergens have to be considered when examining patients with respective seasonal symptoms, and test (and respective therapy) allergens for non‐frequent pollen allergies need to be available. Further prerequisites for adequate patient management would be a nationwide pollen monitoring system giving continuous pollen data and a systematic sensitization monitoring at patient level.

The purpose of this study was to examine in which way adding more indicators or a covariate influences the performance of latent class analysis (LCA). We varied the sample size (100 ≤ N ≤ 2,000), number and quality of binary indicators (between 4 and 12 indicators with conditional response probabilities of [.3, .7], [.2, .8], or [.1, .9]), and the strength of covariate effects (zero, small, medium, large) in a Monte Carlo simulation study of 2- and 3-class models. The results suggested that in general, a larger sample size, more indicators, a higher quality of indicators, and a larger covariate effect lead to more converged and proper replications, as well as fewer boundary parameter estimates and less parameter bias. Furthermore, interactions among these study factors demonstrated how using more or higher quality indicators, as well as larger covariate effect size, could sometimes compensate for small sample size. Including a covariate appeared to be generally beneficial, although the covariate parameters themselves showed relatively large bias. Our results provide useful information for practitioners designing an LCA study in terms of highlighting the factors that lead to better or worse performance of LCA.

Across almost the entire globe, cluster and networking organisations are being supported at a number of administrative levels to boost regions’ economic competitiveness. Within the framework of the program “Joint Task to Improve the Regional Economic Structure”, launched by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, fifty-two of these organisations exist in Eastern Germany alone. In view of their number, and the fact that many of them have already received promotion twice, or the maximum number of times possible, the funding program and its implementation are now being evaluated in this study—against the background of a scientific critique of the cluster concept and its promotion, as well as the absence of publicly accessible evaluations. Findings reveal a lack of thematic and geographical co-ordination, no evaluation of the promotion provided, and an absence of service orientation among the organisation management.