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We aim to identify those measures that effectively control the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Austrian schools. Using cluster tracing data we calibrate an agent-based epidemiological model and consider situations where the B1.617.2 (delta) virus strain is dominant and parts of the population are vaccinated to quantify the impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) such as room ventilation, reduction of class size, wearing of masks during lessons, vaccinations, and school entry testing by SARS-CoV2-antigen tests. In the data we find that 40% of all clusters involved no more than two cases, and 3% of the clusters only had more than 20 cases. The model shows that combinations of NPIs together with vaccinations are necessary to allow for a controlled opening of schools under sustained community transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 delta variant. For plausible vaccination rates, primary (secondary) schools require a combination of at least two (three) of the above NPIs., How to safely maintain open schools during a pandemic is still controversial. Here, the authors aim to identify those measures that effectively control the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Austrian schools, with an agent-based mathematical model.

One prominent approach to quantifying the amount of misinformation people share is by looking at the quality of the news domains they share. However, different fact-checkers and researchers have produced different sets of news domain quality ratings, raising questions about the degree of agreement across these ratings. Here, we compared 6 sets of ratings and found that they generally correlated highly with one another. To create a comprehensive set of domain ratings that researchers can use, we used an ensemble “wisdom of experts” approach by performing imputation together with principal component analysis to generate aggregate ratings. Our new set of ratings comprises 11,520 domains—the most extensive coverage to date—and it correlates well with other rating sets with limited coverage. These results suggest that experts generally agree on the quality of domains and our new set of ratings offers a tool for evaluating content quality and the efficacy of misinformation interventions.

In this study we present systematic framework to analyse the impact of farm profiles as combinations of environmental conditions and management practices on common diseases in dairy cattle. The data used for this secondary data analysis includes observational data from 166 farms with a total of 5828 dairy cows. Each farm is characterised by features from five categories: husbandry, feeding, environmental conditions, housing, and milking systems. We combine dimension reduction with clustering techniques to identify groups of similar farm attributes, which we refer to as farm profiles. A statistical analysis of the farm profiles and their related disease risks is carried out to study the associations between disease risk, farm membership to a specific cluster as well as variables that characterise a given cluster by means of a multivariate regression model. The disease risks of five different farm profiles arise as the result of complex interactions between environmental conditions and farm management practices. We confirm previously documented relationships between diseases, feeding and husbandry. Furthermore, novel associations between housing and milking systems and specific disorders like lameness and ketosis have been discovered. Our approach contributes to paving a way towards a more holistic and data-driven understanding of bovine health and its risk factors.

H δράση ReMO COST είναι ένα δίκτυο ενδιαφερομένων από όλα τα επίπεδα της ερευνητικής κοινότητας που έχει συντάξει ένα Μανιφέστο για την Ψυχική Υγεία και Ευεξία του Ερευνητή, που ζητά την αξιολόγηση του τρόπου με τον οποίο η ψυχική υγεία και η ευημερία των ερευνητών μπορεί να τροφοδοτηθεί και να διατηρηθεί καλύτερα, μέσα από δράσεις και πρωτοβουλίες σε πολιτικό, θεσμικό, κοινοτικό και ατομικό επίπεδο. Αυτό το μανιφέστο καλεί όλα τα ενδιαφερόμενα μέρη στο ερευνητικό οικοσύστημα να συμμετάσχουν στην ανάπτυξη πολιτικών που παρακολουθούν, βελτιώνουν και διατηρούν την ευημερία και την ψυχική υγεία στο ερευνητικό περιβάλλον, οριοθετώντας πιο περιεκτικές μετρήσεις επιτυχίας και ποιότητας, υποστηρίζοντας την ισορροπία μεταξύ επαγγελματικής και προσωπικής ζωής, και φιλικές προς την οικογένεια βιώσιμες ερευνητικές σταδιοδρομίες. The English Language Version of the Manifesto can be found at: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5559805, Translated into Greek by Adrian Stavrakis. This work was performed within the framework of COST Action CA19117 - "Researcher Mental Health"., {"references":["Council conclusions on \"Deepening the European Research Area: Providing researchers with attractive andsustainable careers and working conditions and making brain circulation a reality\", https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/49980/st09138-en21.pdf","OECD. (2021). Reducing the precarity of academic research careers.https://doi.org/10.1787/0f8bd468-en","WHO, Healthy Workplace Framework and Model (2010) https://www.who.int/occupational_health/healthy_workplace_framework.pdf","ILO, Mental Health in the workplace (2010) https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_emp/---ifp_skills/documents/publication/wcms_108221.pdf","Levecque, K., et.al. (2017). Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students. Research Policy, 46(4), 868-879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2017.02.008","Guthrie, S., et.al., Understanding mental health in the research environment: A Rapid Evidence Assessment. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2017. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2022.html","Barry, K. M., et.al. (2018). Psychological health of doctoral candidates, study-related challenges and perceived performance. Higher Education Research & Development, 37(3), 468-483. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2018.1425979","Garcia-Williams, A. G., et.al. (2014). Mental health and suicidal behavior among graduate students. Academic psychiatry, 38(5), 554-560.https://doi.org/10.1007/s40596-014-0041-y","Mattijssen, L. M. S., Bergmans, J. E., van der Weijden, I. C. M., & Teelken, J. C. (2021). In the eye of the storm: The mental health situation of PhD candidates. Perspectives on Medical Education, 10(2), 71–72, https://doi.org/10.1007/s40037-020-00639-4","Satinsky, E. N., Kimura, T., Kiang, M. V., Abebe, R., Cunningham, S., Lee, H., Lin, X., Liu, C. H., Rudan, I., Sen, S., Tomlinson, M., Yaver, M., & Tsai, A. C. (2021). Systematic review and meta-analysis of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation among Ph.D. students. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 14370. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-93687-7","Olsthoorn, L. H. M., Heckmann, L. A., Filippi, A., Vieira, R. M., Varanasi, R. S., Lasser, J., Bäuerle, F., Zeis, P., & Schulte-Sasse, R. (2020). Max Planck PhDnet Survey 2019 Report. Max Planck PhDNet. https://www.phdnet.mpg.de/145345/PhDnet_Survey_Report_2019.pdf","Centre for Strategy & Evaluation Services LLP (CSES), Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (European Commission), Whittle, M., & Rampton, J. (2020). Towards a 2030 vision on the future of universities in Europe. Publications Office of the European Union. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2777/510530","CA19117 - Researcher Mental Health Action is funded by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) for the period 1 November 2020 - 31 October 2024 https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA19117","Cactus Foundation Mental Health Survey. (2020). https://www.cactusglobal.com/mental-health-survey/","Initiative for Science in Europe. (2021). Position on precarity of academic careers. https://initiative-se.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Research-Precarity-ISE-position.pdf","Woolston, C. (2019). PhDs: The tortuous truth. Nature, 575(7782), 403–406. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03459-7","Kismihók, G., et al.. (2019). Declaration on Sustainable Researcher Careers. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3082245","Innstrand, S. T., & Christensen, M. (2020). Healthy Universities. The development and implementation of a holistic health promotion intervention programme especially adapted for staff working in the higher educational sector: The ARK study. Global Health Promotion, 27(1), 68–76. https://doi.org/10.1177/1757975918786877","Solloway, A. (2020, September 14). Promoting a culture of wellbeing for researchers and improving the way we evaluate research [Speech]. Vitae Connections Week. https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/science-minister-at-vitae-connections-week-2020","Wellbeing and mental health lens on the Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF) https://www.vitae.ac.uk/vitae-publications/rdf-related/wellbeing-and-mental-health-lens/view","Woolston, C. (2020). Postdocs under pressure: 'Can I even do this any more?' Nature, 587(7835), 689–692. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-03235-y","Moss, S., & Mahmoudi, M. (2021). STEM the Bullying: An Empirical Investigation of Abusive Supervision in Academic Science. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3850784","Some research communities already started developing mentoring programmes, like Referent at the Marie Curie Alumni Association https://www.mariecuriealumni.eu/referent-mentoring-initiative-msca-early-career-researchers","Devine, K., & Hunter, K. H. (2017). PhD student emotional exhaustion: The role of supportive supervision and self-presentation behaviours. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 54(4), 335–344. https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2016.1174143","Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. (2020). Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions guidelines on supervision. https://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/node/901"]}

Acțiunea ReMO COST este o rețea de părți interesate de la toate nivelurile comunității de cercetare, care a elaborat un manifest pentru sănătatea mintală și starea de bine a cercetătorilor; se solicită evaluarea modului în care sănătatea mintală și starea de bine a acestora pot fi cel mai bine alimentate și susținute prin acțiuni și inițiative la nivel instituțional, comunitar, individual și de politici. Acest manifest solicită tuturor părților interesate din ecosistemul de cercetare să se implice în dezvoltarea politicilor care monitorizează, îmbunătățesc și mențin starea de bine și sănătatea mintală în mediul de cercetare, conturând valori mai cuprinzătoare ale succesului și calității, susținând echilibrul dintre viața profesională și viața privată, incluziunea, și cariere de cercetare sustenabile, care să țină cont de familie. The English Language Version of the Manifesto can be found at: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5559805, Translated into Romanian by Claudia I. Iacob and Cristina S. Trofin. This work was performed within the framework of COST Action CA19117 - "Researcher Mental Health"., {"references":["Council conclusions on \"Deepening the European Research Area: Providing researchers with attractive andsustainable careers and working conditions and making brain circulation a reality\", https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/49980/st09138-en21.pdf","OECD. (2021). Reducing the precarity of academic research careers. https://doi.org/10.1787/0f8bd468-en","WHO, Healthy Workplace Framework and Model (2010) https://www.who.int/occupational_health/healthy_workplace_framework.pdf","ILO, Mental Health in the workplace (2010) https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_emp/---ifp_skills/documents/publication/wcms_108221.pdf","Levecque, K., et.al. (2017). Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students. Research Policy, 46(4), 868-879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2017.02.008","Guthrie, S., et.al., Understanding mental health in the research environment: A Rapid Evidence Assessment. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2017. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2022.html","Barry, K. M., et.al. (2018). Psychological health of doctoral candidates, study-related challenges and perceived performance. Higher Education Research & Development, 37(3), 468-483. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2018.1425979","Garcia-Williams, A. G., et.al. (2014). Mental health and suicidal behavior among graduate students. Academic psychiatry, 38(5), 554-560.https://doi.org/10.1007/s40596-014-0041-y","Mattijssen, L. M. S., Bergmans, J. E., van der Weijden, I. C. M., & Teelken, J. C. (2021). In the eye of the storm: The mental health situation of PhD candidates. Perspectives on Medical Education, 10(2), 71–72, https://doi.org/10.1007/s40037-020-00639-4","Satinsky, E. N., Kimura, T., Kiang, M. V., Abebe, R., Cunningham, S., Lee, H., Lin, X., Liu, C. H., Rudan, I., Sen, S., Tomlinson, M., Yaver, M., & Tsai, A. C. (2021). Systematic review and meta-analysis of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation among Ph.D. students. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 14370. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-93687-7","Olsthoorn, L. H. M., Heckmann, L. A., Filippi, A., Vieira, R. M., Varanasi, R. S., Lasser, J., Bäuerle, F., Zeis, P., & Schulte-Sasse, R. (2020). Max Planck PhDnet Survey 2019 Report. Max Planck PhDNet. https://www.phdnet.mpg.de/145345/PhDnet_Survey_Report_2019.pdf","Centre for Strategy & Evaluation Services LLP (CSES), Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (European Commission), Whittle, M., & Rampton, J. (2020). Towards a 2030 vision on the future of universities in Europe. Publications Office of the European Union. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2777/510530","CA19117 - Researcher Mental Health Action is funded by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) for the period 1 November 2020 - 31 October 2024 https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA19117","Cactus Foundation Mental Health Survey. (2020). https://www.cactusglobal.com/mental-health-survey/","Initiative for Science in Europe. (2021). Position on precarity of academic careers. https://initiative-se.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Research-Precarity-ISE-position.pdf","Woolston, C. (2019). PhDs: The tortuous truth. Nature, 575(7782), 403–406. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03459-7","Kismihók, G., et al.. (2019). Declaration on Sustainable Researcher Careers. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3082245","Innstrand, S. T., & Christensen, M. (2020). Healthy Universities. The development and implementation of a holistic health promotion intervention programme especially adapted for staff working in the higher educational sector: The ARK study. Global Health Promotion, 27(1), 68–76. https://doi.org/10.1177/1757975918786877","Solloway, A. (2020, September 14). Promoting a culture of wellbeing for researchers and improving the way we evaluate research [Speech]. Vitae Connections Week. https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/science-minister-at-vitae-connections-week-2020","Wellbeing and mental health lens on the Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF) https://www.vitae.ac.uk/vitae-publications/rdf-related/wellbeing-and-mental-health-lens/view","Woolston, C. (2020). Postdocs under pressure: 'Can I even do this any more?' Nature, 587(7835), 689–692. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-03235-y","Moss, S., & Mahmoudi, M. (2021). STEM the Bullying: An Empirical Investigation of Abusive Supervision in Academic Science. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3850784","Some research communities already started developing mentoring programmes, like Referent at the Marie Curie Alumni Association https://www.mariecuriealumni.eu/referent-mentoring-initiative-msca-early-career-researchers","Devine, K., & Hunter, K. H. (2017). PhD student emotional exhaustion: The role of supportive supervision and self-presentation behaviours. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 54(4), 335–344. https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2016.1174143","Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. (2020). Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions guidelines on supervision. https://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/node/901"]}

ReMO COST Aksiyonu, araştırmacı ruh sağlığı ve iyi oluşunun politika, kurum, topluluk ve birey düzeylerinde eylem ve inisiyatiflerle nasıl en iyi şekilde desteklenebileceğini ve sürdürülebileceğini tespit etmeye yönelik bir çağrı olan “Araştırmacı Ruh Sağlığı ve İyi Oluşu Manifestosu”nu ortaya koyan ve araştırma topluluğunun her seviyesinden bileşenlerden oluşan bir ağdır. Manifesto, araştırma ekosistemindeki tüm bileşenleri; iş-yaşam dengesini, kapsayıcılığı ve aile dostu sürdürülebilir araştırma kariyerlerini destekleyen daha kapsayıcı başarı ve kalite ölçütleri belirleyerek araştırma ortamlarında iyi oluş ve ruh sağlığını izleyen, geliştiren ve koruyan politikalar geliştirmeye çağırıyor. The English Language Version of the Manifesto can be found at: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5559805, Translated into Turkish by Mete Kurtoglu, Gökçe Gökalp, Dilara Özel, Merve Dökmeci and Murat Güneş. This work was performed within the framework of COST Action CA19117 - "Researcher Mental Health"., {"references":["Council conclusions on \"Deepening the European Research Area: Providing researchers with attractive andsustainable careers and working conditions and making brain circulation a reality\", https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/49980/st09138-en21.pdf","OECD. (2021). Reducing the precarity of academic research careers.https://doi.org/10.1787/0f8bd468-en","WHO, Healthy Workplace Framework and Model (2010) https://www.who.int/occupational_health/healthy_workplace_framework.pdf","ILO, Mental Health in the workplace (2010) https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_emp/---ifp_skills/documents/publication/wcms_108221.pdf","Levecque, K., et.al. (2017). Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students. Research Policy, 46(4), 868-879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2017.02.008","Guthrie, S., et.al., Understanding mental health in the research environment: A Rapid Evidence Assessment. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2017. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2022.html","Barry, K. M., et.al. (2018). Psychological health of doctoral candidates, study-related challenges and perceived performance. Higher Education Research & Development, 37(3), 468-483. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2018.1425979","Garcia-Williams, A. G., et.al. (2014). Mental health and suicidal behavior among graduate students. Academic psychiatry, 38(5), 554-560.https://doi.org/10.1007/s40596-014-0041-y","Mattijssen, L. M. S., Bergmans, J. E., van der Weijden, I. C. M., & Teelken, J. C. (2021). In the eye of the storm: The mental health situation of PhD candidates. Perspectives on Medical Education, 10(2), 71–72, https://doi.org/10.1007/s40037-020-00639-4","Satinsky, E. N., Kimura, T., Kiang, M. V., Abebe, R., Cunningham, S., Lee, H., Lin, X., Liu, C. H., Rudan, I., Sen, S., Tomlinson, M., Yaver, M., & Tsai, A. C. (2021). Systematic review and meta-analysis of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation among Ph.D. students. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 14370. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-93687-7","Olsthoorn, L. H. M., Heckmann, L. A., Filippi, A., Vieira, R. M., Varanasi, R. S., Lasser, J., Bäuerle, F., Zeis, P., & Schulte-Sasse, R. (2020). Max Planck PhDnet Survey 2019 Report. Max Planck PhDNet. https://www.phdnet.mpg.de/145345/PhDnet_Survey_Report_2019.pdf","Centre for Strategy & Evaluation Services LLP (CSES), Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (European Commission), Whittle, M., & Rampton, J. (2020). Towards a 2030 vision on the future of universities in Europe. Publications Office of the European Union. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2777/510530","CA19117 - Researcher Mental Health Action is funded by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) for the period 1 November 2020 - 31 October 2024 https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA19117","Cactus Foundation Mental Health Survey. (2020). https://www.cactusglobal.com/mental-health-survey/","Initiative for Science in Europe. (2021). Position on precarity of academic careers. https://initiative-se.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Research-Precarity-ISE-position.pdf","Woolston, C. (2019). PhDs: The tortuous truth. Nature, 575(7782), 403–406. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03459-7","Kismihók, G., et al.. (2019). Declaration on Sustainable Researcher Careers. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3082245","Innstrand, S. T., & Christensen, M. (2020). Healthy Universities. The development and implementation of a holistic health promotion intervention programme especially adapted for staff working in the higher educational sector: The ARK study. Global Health Promotion, 27(1), 68–76. https://doi.org/10.1177/1757975918786877","Solloway, A. (2020, September 14). Promoting a culture of wellbeing for researchers and improving the way we evaluate research [Speech]. Vitae Connections Week. https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/science-minister-at-vitae-connections-week-2020","Wellbeing and mental health lens on the Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF) https://www.vitae.ac.uk/vitae-publications/rdf-related/wellbeing-and-mental-health-lens/view","Woolston, C. (2020). Postdocs under pressure: 'Can I even do this any more?' Nature, 587(7835), 689–692. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-03235-y","Moss, S., & Mahmoudi, M. (2021). STEM the Bullying: An Empirical Investigation of Abusive Supervision in Academic Science. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3850784","Some research communities already started developing mentoring programmes, like Referent at the Marie Curie Alumni Association https://www.mariecuriealumni.eu/referent-mentoring-initiative-msca-early-career-researchers","Devine, K., & Hunter, K. H. (2017). PhD student emotional exhaustion: The role of supportive supervision and self-presentation behaviours. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 54(4), 335–344. https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2016.1174143","Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. (2020). Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions guidelines on supervision. https://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/node/901"]}

A ReMO COST Action a nemzetközi tudományos élet különböző szintjeit képviselő résztvevők hálózata, mely a mentális egészség és jóllét kérdéseivel foglalkozik. A kutatói szférában fennálló mentális egészséggel kapcsolatos problémák fokozott jelenlétét a szakirodalom, az Európai Unió (EU) szakpolitikája, valamint más meghatározó források is kiemelik. Ennek a helyzetnek a kezelése rendszerszintű fellépést igényel makro- (szakpolitikai), mezo- (intézményi) és mikroszinten (egyén) is. A ReMO-hálózat célja annak az intézményi környezetnek a megteremtése, amely támogatja a mentális egészséget, csökkenti a mentális egészséggel kapcsolatos megbélyegzést, és képessé teszi a kutatókat egyéni, valamint munkahelyi jóllétük javítására. A kiáltvány legfontosabb ajánlásait az alábbiakban foglaljuk össze: Makroszinten: folyamatos párbeszéd valamennyi érintett féllel; szisztematikus és strukturált, empirikus alapokon nyugvó adatgyűjtés a szakpolitikai döntéshozatal érdekében; a mentális egészséggel kapcsolatos legkorszerűbb módszerek és eszközök terjesztése; az akadémiai értékelési rendszer felülvizsgálata. Mezoszinten: a mentális egészséggel és jólléttel kapcsolatos problémák felismerése; a jó gyakorlatok megosztása az intézmények között; igazságos és személyre szabott kutatói teljesítményértékelés kidolgozása; a mentális jóllét figyelembevétele a doktori képzés és az akadémiai munkavállalók professzionalizálása terén; a változást célzó kezdeményezések támogatása szervezeti szinten. Mikroszinten: az alulról jövő kezdeményezések támogatása; az egymást támogató kutatók segítése; személyközpontú megközelítés a képzés és a karriermenedzsment terén; egyéni élmények, élettörténetek gyűjtése. A ReMO-hálózat a következő lépésekkel kíván a fenti ajánlások megvalósításához hozzájárulni: i) globális vitafórum elindítása; ii) nyílt tudásközpont létrehozása; valamint iii) a kutatói jóllétet támogató nagyköveti program (ReMO Ambassador program) elindítása. A magyar fordítás az eredeti – angol – verzió alapján készült:https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5559805

Increased sharing of untrustworthy information on social media platforms is one of the main challenges of our modern information society. Because information disseminated by political elites is known to shape citizen and media discourse, it is particularly important to examine the quality of information shared by politicians. Here, we show that from 2016 onward, members of the Republican Party in the US Congress have been increasingly sharing links to untrustworthy sources. The proportion of untrustworthy information posted by Republicans versus Democrats is diverging at an accelerating rate, and this divergence has worsened since President Biden was elected. This divergence between parties seems to be unique to the United States as it cannot be observed in other western democracies such as Germany and the United Kingdom, where left–right disparities are smaller and have remained largely constant.

Patients do not access physicians at random but rather via naturally emerging networks of patient flows between them. As retirements, mass quarantines and absence due to sickness during pandemics, or other shocks thin out these networks, the system might be pushed closer to a tipping point where it loses its ability to deliver care to the population. Here we propose a data-driven framework to quantify the regional resilience to such shocks of primary and secondary care in Austria via an agent-based model. For each region and medical specialty we construct detailed patient-sharing networks from administrative data and stress-test these networks by removing increasing numbers of physicians from the system. This allows us to measure regional resilience indicators describing how many physicians can be removed from a certain area before individual patients won't be treated anymore. We find that such tipping points do indeed exist and that regions and medical specialties differ substantially in their resilience. These systemic differences can be related to indicators for individual physicians by quantifying how much their hypothetical removal would stress the system (risk score) or how much of the stress from the removal of other physicians they would be able to absorb (benefit score). Our stress-testing framework could enable health authorities to rapidly identify bottlenecks in access to care as well as to inspect these naturally emerging physician networks and how potential absences would impact them., See also the dashboard under https://vis.csh.ac.at/care-network-resilience/

Akcija ReMO COST je mreža zainteresiranih strani z vseh ravni raziskovalne skupnosti, ki je pripravila Program o duševnem zdravju in dobrem počutju raziskovalcev, ki poziva k oceni, kako bi lahko z ukrepi in pobudami naravni politike, institucij, skupnosti in posameznikov najbolje okrepili in ohranili duševno zdravje in dobro počutje raziskovalcev. Ta program poziva vse zainteresirane strani v raziskovalnem ekosistemu, da se vključijo v razvoj politik, ki spremljajo, izboljšujejo in ohranjajo dobro počutje in duševno zdravje v raziskovalnem okolju, določajo obsežnejše kazalnike uspeha in kakovosti, podpirajo ravnovesje med delom in zasebnim življenjem, vključenost in družinam prijazne trajnostne raziskovalne kariere. V slovenščino prevedla: Mateja Erce - InnoRenew CoE, Izola, Slovenija

Background Returning universities to full on-campus operations while the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic is ongoing has been a controversial discussion in many countries. The risk of large outbreaks in dense course settings is contrasted by the benefits of in-person teaching. Transmission risk depends on a range of parameters, such as vaccination coverage and efficacy, number of contacts, and adoption of nonpharmaceutical intervention measures. Owing to the generalized academic freedom in Europe, many universities are asked to autonomously decide on and implement intervention measures and regulate on-campus operations. In the context of rapidly changing vaccination coverage and parameters of the virus, universities often lack sufficient scientific insight on which to base these decisions. Methods To address this problem, we analyzed a calibrated, data-driven agent-based simulation of transmission dynamics among 13 284 students and 1482 faculty members in a medium-sized European university. Wed use a colocation network reconstructed from student enrollment data and calibrate transmission risk based on outbreak size distributions in education institutions. We focused on actionable interventions that are part of the already existing decision process of universities to provide guidance for concrete policy decisions. Results Here we show that, with the Omicron variant of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, even a reduction to 25% occupancy and universal mask mandates are not enough to prevent large outbreaks, given the vaccination coverage of about 85% reported for students in Austria. Conclusions Our results show that controlling the spread of the virus with available vaccines in combination with nonpharmaceutical intervention measures is not feasible in the university setting if presence of students and faculty on campus is required.

L'acció ReMO COST és una xarxa amb participants de tots els nivells de la comunitat investigadora, i ha elaborat un Manifest de salut mental i benestar dels investigadors per evaluar com es pot nodrir i mantenir la bona salut mental i el benestar dels investigadors mitjançant iniciatives a nivell polític, institucional, comunitari i individual. Aquest manifest demana que totes les parts interessades de l'ecosistema de la recerca s'impliquin en el desenvolupament de polítiques que controlin, millorin i mantinguin el benestar i la salut mental en l'entorn de la recerca, definint els indicadors d'èxit i qualitat de forma global, donant suport a l'equilibri entre la vida laboral i familiar, la inclusió, i a que les carreres professionals en recerca sigui sostenibles i compatibles amb la vida familiar i personal. &nbsp

Returning universities to full on-campus operations while the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing has been a controversial discussion in many countries. The risk of large outbreaks in dense course settings is contrasted by the benefits of in-person teaching. Transmission risk depends on a range of parameters, such as vaccination coverage, number of contacts and adoption of non-pharmaceutical intervention measures (NPIs). Due to the generalised academic freedom in Europe, many universities are asked to autonomously decide on and implement intervention measures and regulate on-campus operations. In the context of rapidly changing vaccination coverage and parameters of the virus, universities often lack the scientific facts to base these decisions on. To address this problem, we analyse a calibrated, data-driven simulation of transmission dynamics of 10755 students and 974 faculty in a medium-sized university. We use a co-location network reconstructed from student enrolment data and calibrate transmission risk based on outbreak size distributions in other Austrian education institutions. We focus on actionable interventions that are part of the already existing decision-making process of universities to provide guidance for concrete policy decisions. Here we show that with the vaccination coverage of about 80% recently reported for students in Austria, universities can be safely reopened if they either mandate masks or reduce lecture hall occupancy to 50%. Our results indicate that relaxing NPIs within an organisation based on the vaccination coverage of its sub-population can be a way towards limited normalcy, even if nation wide vaccination coverage is not sufficient to prevent large outbreaks yet.

Livestock farming is currently undergoing a digital revolution and becoming increasingly data-driven. Yet, such data often reside in disconnected silos making them impossible to leverage their full potential to improve animal well-being. Here, we introduce a precision livestock farming approach, bringing together information streams from a variety of life domains of dairy cattle to study whether including more and diverse data sources improves the quality of predictions for eight diseases and whether using more complex prediction algorithms can, to some extent, compensate for less diverse data. Using three machine learning approaches of varying complexity (from logistic regression to gradient boosted trees) trained on data from 5,828 animals in 165 herds in Austria, we show that the prediction of lameness, acute and chronic mastitis, anestrus, ovarian cysts, metritis, ketosis (hyperketonemia), and periparturient hypocalcemia (milk fever) from routinely available data gives encouraging results. For example, we can predict lameness with high sensitivity and specificity (F1 = 0.74). An analysis of the importance of individual variables to prediction performance shows that disease in dairy cattle is a product of the complex interplay between a multitude of life domains, such as housing, nutrition, or climate, that including more and diverse data sources increases prediction performance, and that the reuse of existing data can create actionable information for preventive interventions. Our findings pave the way toward data-driven point-of-care interventions and demonstrate the added value of integrating all available data in the dairy industry to improve animal well-being and reduce disease risk.

The ReMO COST Action is a network of stakeholders from all levels of the research community that has drafted a Researcher Mental Health and Well-being Manifesto that calls for the assessment of how the mental health and well-being of researchers can best be nourished and sustained through actions and initiatives at the policy, institutional, community and individual levels. This manifesto calls for all stakeholders in the research ecosystem to engage in developing policies that monitor, improve, and maintain well-being and mental health in the research environment, delineating more encompassing metrics of success and quality, supporting work-life balance, inclusiveness, and family-friendly sustainable research careers. The Researcher Mental Health and Well-being Manifesto has been translated into many languages in order to more effectively raise awareness of mental health in academia in many countries: Language Translators Link Albanian Ornela Bardhi; Melina Kello; Hyrije Bardhi https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7533475 Arabic Mohamad Nadim ADI; Mais M. ALJUNAIDY https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5761750 Bulgarian Svetlana Dimitrova; Stefan Spiridonov https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7524579 Catalan Elena Redondo Castro https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5789459 English https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5559805 French Ariel Frajerman; Mathieu Fusi; Aura Fossati https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7716117 Greek Adrian Stavrakis https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7341668 Hungarian Vita Emese; Rusu Szidónia; Ugrin Zsuzsanna; Kovács Karolina Eszter; Solymosi Katalin; Gábor Kismihók; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7312008 Italian Maddalena Fumagalli; Cristina Miceli; Anna Maria Eleuteri; Aura Fossati https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7345732 Portuguese Carolina Oliveira Borges; Inês Gaspar; Francisco Valente Gonçalves https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7516221 Romanian Claudia I Iacob; Cristina S. Trofin https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7339678 Russian Levchenko, Serhii https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7387245 Serbian Ivana B. Petrović, Milica Vukelić, Selma Talić Pantelić, Dubravka Vlahović, Milena Ratković-Fehilly, Radenka Krsmanović Whiffen, and Miroslav Trajanovići https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7516851 Slovenian Mateja Erce https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5814951 Spanish Luisa F. Echeverría King; Fernando G. Benavides; Elena Ronda; Antonio Ariza-Montes; Horacio Molina-Sánchez https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5750506 Turkish Mete Kurtoglu; Gökçe Gökalp; Dilara Özel; Merve Dökmeci https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7338402 Ukrainian Levchenko, Serhii https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7386660 &nbsp

عبارة عن شبكة من أصحاب المصلحة من جميع مستويات المجتمع البحثي التي قامت بصياغة بيان للباحث عن الصحة العقلية والرفاهية والذي يدعو إلى تقييم أفضل طريقة لتغذية واستدامة الصحة العقلية للباحثين ورفاهيتهم من خلال الإجراءات والمبادرات على مستوى السياسات والمؤسسات والمجتمعات والأفراد. يدعو هذا البيان جميع أصحاب المصلحة في النظام البحثي إلى المشاركة في تطوير السياسات التي ترصد وتحسن وتحافظ على الرفاهية والصحة العقلية في بيئة البحث ، وتحديد مقاييس أكثر شمولاً للنجاح والجودة ، ودعم التوازن بين العمل والحياة ، والشمولية ، والوظائف البحثية المستدامة الصديقة للأسرة.

La Acción ReMO del programa COST es una red de colaboradores de todos los niveles de la comunidad científica que ha redactado un Manifiesto sobre la salud mental y el bienestar de los investigadores que requiere la evaluación sobre cómo se pueden nutrir y fomentar de la mejor forma la salud mental y el bienestar, a través de acciones e iniciativas a nivel político, institucional, comunitario e individual. Este manifiesto solicita a todos los grupos de interés en el ecosistema científico que se impliquen en el desarrollo de políticas que supervisen, mejoren y mantengan el bienestar y la salud mental en el entorno de la investigación, diseñando indicadores más amplios sobre el éxito y la calidad, que apoyen el equilibrio entre la vida laboral y la personal, la inclusión y carreras de investigación sostenibles y favorables para la familia.

Dry lakes covered with a salt crust organised into beautifully patterned networks of narrow ridges are common in arid regions. Here, we consider the initial instability and the ultimate fate of buoyancy-driven convection that could lead to such patterns. Specifically, we look at convection in a deep porous medium with a constant throughflow boundary condition on a horizontal surface, which resembles the situation found below an evaporating salt lake. The system is scaled to have only one free parameter, the Rayleigh number, which characterises the relative driving force for convection. We then solve the resulting linear stability problem for the onset of convection. Further exploring the nonlinear regime of this model with pseudo-spectral numerical methods, we demonstrate how the growth of small downwelling plumes is itself unstable to coarsening, as the system develops into a dynamic steady state. In this mature state we show how the typical speeds and length scales of the convective plumes scale with forcing conditions, and the Rayleigh number. Interestingly, a robust length scale emerges for the pattern wavelength, which is largely independent of the driving parameters. Finally, we introduce a spatially inhomogeneous boundary condition – a modulated evaporation rate – to mimic any feedback between a growing salt crust and the evaporation over the dry salt lake. We show how this boundary condition can introduce phase locking of the downwelling plumes below sites of low evaporation, such as at the ridges of salt polygons.

How to safely maintain open schools during a pandemic is still controversial. We aim to identify those measures that effectively control the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Austrian schools. By control we mean that each source case infects less than one other person on average. We use Austrian data on 616 clusters involving 2,822 student-cases and 676 teacher-cases to calibrate an agent-based epidemiological model in terms of cluster size and transmission risk depending on age and clinical presentation. Considering a situation in which the B1.617.2 (delta) virus strain is dominant and parts of the population are vaccinated, we quantify the impact of non-pharmaceutical intervention measures (NPIs) such as room ventilation, reduction of class size, wearing of masks during lessons, vaccinations, and school entry testing by SARS-CoV2-antigen tests. In the tracing data we find that 40% of all clusters involved no more than two cases, and 3% of the clusters only had more than 20 cases. The younger the students, the more likely we found asymptomatic cases and teachers as the source case of the in-school transmissions. Based on this data, the model shows that different school types require different combinations of NPIs to achieve control of the infection spreading: If 80% of teachers and 50% of students are vaccinated, in primary schools, it is necessary to combine at least two of the above NPIs. In secondary schools, where contact networks of students and teachers become increasingly large and dense, a combination of at least three NPIs is needed. A sensitivity analysis indicated that poorly executed mitigation measures might increase the cluster size by a factor of more than 17 for primary schools and even higher increases are to be expected for the other school types. Our results suggest that school-type-specific combinations of NPIs together with vaccinations are necessary to allow for a controlled opening of schools under sustained community transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 delta variant. However, large clusters might still occur on an infrequent, however, regular basis.

Livestock farming is currently undergoing a digital revolution and becoming increasingly data-driven. Yet, such data often reside in disconnected silos making it impossible to leverage their full potential to improve animal well-being. Here, we introduce a precision medicine approach, bringing together information streams from a variety of life domains of dairy cattle to predict eight common and economically important diseases. Dairy cows are part of a highly industrialised environment. The animals and their surroundings are closely monitored and environmental, behavioural and physiological observations are readily accessible yet seldomly integrated. We use random forest classifiers trained on data from 5,828 animals in 166 herds in Austria to predict occurrences of lameness, acute and chronic mastitis, anoestrus, ovarian cysts, metritis, ketosis (hyperketonemia) and periparturient hypocalcemia (milk fever). To assess the importance of specific cattle life domains and individual features for these predictions, we use multivariate logistic regression and feature permutation approaches. We show that disease in dairy cattle is a product of the complex interplay between a multitude of life domains such as housing, nutrition or climate, and identify a range of features that were previously not associated with increased disease risk. For example, we can predict anoestrus with high sensitivity and specificity (F1=0.72) and find that housing, feed and husbandry variables such as barn design and time on pasture are most predictive of this disease. We also find previously unknown associations of features with disease risk, for example humid conditions, which significantly decrease the odds for ketosis. Our findings pave the way towards data-driven point-of-care interventions and demonstrate the added value of integrating all available data in the dairy industry to improve animal well-being and reduce disease risk.

Background The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic presents an unprecedented crisis with potential negative mental health impacts. Methods This study used data collected via Youper, a mental health app, from February through July 2020. Youper users (N = 157,213) in the United States self-reported positive and negative emotions and anxiety and depression symptoms during the pandemic. We examined emotions and symptoms before (pre), during (acute), and after (sustained) COVID-related stay-at-home orders. Results For changes in frequency of reported acute emotions, from the pre to acute periods, anxiety increased while tiredness, calmness, happiness, and optimism decreased. From the acute to sustained periods, sadness, depression, and gratitude increased. Anxiety, stress, and tiredness decreased. Between the pre and sustained periods, sadness and depression increased, as did happiness and calmness. Anxiety and stress decreased. Among symptom measures, anxiety increased initially, from the pre to the acute periods, but later returned to baseline. Limitations The study sample was primarily comprised of young people and women. The app does not collect racial or ethnicity data. These factors may limit generalizability. Sample size was also not consistent for all data collected. Conclusions The present study suggests that although there were initial negative impacts on emotions and mental health symptoms in the first few weeks, many Americans demonstrated resilience over the following months. The impact of the pandemic on mental health may not be as severe as predicted, although future work is necessary to understand longitudinal effects as the pandemic continues.

Due to its high lethality amongst the elderly, the safety of nursing homes has been of central importance during the COVID-19 pandemic. With test procedures becoming available at scale, such as antigen or RT-LAMP tests, and increasing availability of vaccinations, nursing homes might be able to safely relax prohibitory measures while controlling the spread of infections (meaning an average of one or less secondary infections per index case). Here, we develop a detailed agent-based epidemiological model for the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in nursing homes to identify optimal prevention strategies. The model is microscopically calibrated to high-resolution data from nursing homes in Austria, including detailed social contact networks and information on past outbreaks. We find that the effectiveness of mitigation testing depends critically on the timespan between test and test result, the detection threshold of the viral load for the test to give a positive result, and the screening frequencies of residents and employees. Under realistic conditions and in absence of an effective vaccine, we find that preventive screening of employees only might be sufficient to control outbreaks in nursing homes, provided that turnover times and detection thresholds of the tests are low enough. If vaccines that are moderately effective against infection and transmission are available, control is achieved if 80% or more of the inhabitants are vaccinated, even if no preventive testing is in place and residents are allowed to have visitors. Since these results strongly depend on vaccine efficacy against infection, retention of testing infrastructures, regular voluntary screening and sequencing of virus genomes is advised to enable early identification of new variants of concern., Supplementary material is included in the manuscript PDF

A global crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic that started in early 2020 poses significant challenges for how research is conducted and communicated. We present four case studies from the perspective of an interdisciplinary research institution that switched to “corona-mode” during the first two months of the crisis, focussing all its capacities on COVID-19-related issues, communicating to the public directly and via media, as well as actively advising the national government. The case studies highlight the challenges posed by the increased time pressure, high demand for transparency, and communication of complexity and uncertainty. The article gives insights into how these challenges were addressed in our research institution and how science communication in general can be managed during a crisis.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments have implemented a wide range of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). Monitoring and documenting government strategies during the COVID-19 crisis is crucial to understand the progression of the epidemic. Following a content analysis strategy of existing public information sources, we developed a specific hierarchical coding scheme for NPIs. We generated a comprehensive structured dataset of government interventions and their respective timelines of implementation. To improve transparency and motivate collaborative validation process, information sources are shared via an open library. We also provide codes that enable users to visualise the dataset. Standardization and structure of the dataset facilitate inter-country comparison and the assessment of the impacts of different NPI categories on the epidemic parameters, population health indicators, the economy, and human rights, among others. This dataset provides an in-depth insight of the government strategies and can be a valuable tool for developing relevant preparedness plans for pandemic. We intend to further develop and update this dataset until the end of December 2020., Measurement(s) time at medical intervention • medical intervention Technology Type(s) digital curation • content analysis strategy of existing information sources Factor Type(s) non-pharmaceutical intervention • date Sample Characteristic - Location global Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data: 10.6084/m9.figshare.12668792

Executable papers take transparency and openness in research communication one step further. In this comment, an early career researcher reports her experience of creating an executable paper as a journey through Open Science.

SummaryThe goal of this analysis is to estimate the effects of the diverse government intervention measures implemented to mitigate the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic. We use a process model based on a compartmental epidemiological framework Susceptible-Infected-Recovered-Dead (SIRD). Analysis of case data with such a mechanism-based model has advantages over purely phenomenological approaches because the parameters of the SIRD model can be calibrated using prior knowledge. This approach can be used to investigate how governmental interventions have affected the Covid-19-related transmission and mortality rate during the epidemic.

To track online emotional expressions of the Austrian population close to real-time during the COVID-19 pandemic, we build a self-updating monitor of emotion dynamics using digital traces from three different data sources. This enables decision makers and the interested public to assess issues such as the attitude towards counter-measures taken during the pandemic and the possible emergence of a (mental) health crisis early on. We use web scraping and API access to retrieve data from the news platform derstandard.at, Twitter and a chat platform for students. We document the technical details of our workflow in order to provide materials for other researchers interested in building a similar tool for different contexts. Automated text analysis allows us to highlight changes of language use during COVID-19 in comparison to a neutral baseline. We use special word clouds to visualize that overall difference. Longitudinally, our time series show spikes in anxiety that can be linked to several events and media reporting. Additionally, we find a marked decrease in anger. The changes last for remarkably long periods of time (up to 12 weeks). We discuss these and more patterns and connect them to the emergence of collective emotions. The interactive dashboard showcasing our data is available online under http://www.mpellert.at/covid19_monitor_austria/. Our work has attracted media attention and is part of an web archive of resources on COVID-19 collected by the Austrian National Library., Comment: 23 pages, 3 figures, 1 table

The Max Planck Society represents a unique place for principal investigators, but its benefits are not necessarily reaped by the students, argue the Max Planck PhDnet Survey Group. Policy changes, however, could alleviate publication and other pressures for students.

Background The analysis of complex networks both in general and in particular as pertaining to real biological systems has been the focus of intense scientific attention in the past and present. In this paper we introduce two tools that provide fast and efficient means for the processing and quantification of biological networks like Drosophila tracheoles or leaf venation patterns: the Network Extraction Tool (NET) to extract data and the Graph-edit-GUI (GeGUI) to visualize and modify networks. Results NET is especially designed for high-throughput semi-automated analysis of biological datasets containing digital images of networks. The framework starts with the segmentation of the image and then proceeds to vectorization using methodologies from optical character recognition. After a series of steps to clean and improve the quality of the extracted data the framework produces a graph in which the network is represented only by its nodes and neighborhood-relations. The final output contains information about the adjacency matrix of the graph, the width of the edges and the positions of the nodes in space. NET also provides tools for statistical analysis of the network properties, such as the number of nodes or total network length. Other, more complex metrics can be calculated by importing the vectorized network to specialized network analysis packages. GeGUI is designed to facilitate manual correction of non-planar networks as these may contain artifacts or spurious junctions due to branches crossing each other. It is tailored for but not limited to the processing of networks from microscopy images of Drosophila tracheoles. Conclusion The networks extracted by NET closely approximate the network depicted in the original image. NET is fast, yields reproducible results and is able to capture the full geometry of the network, including curved branches. Additionally GeGUI allows easy handling and visualization of the networks. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13029-017-0064-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The leaves of angiosperms contain highly complex venation networks consisting of recursively nested, hierarchically organized loops. We describe a new phenotypic trait of reticulate vascular networks based on the topology of the nested loops. This phenotypic trait encodes information orthogonal to widely used geometric phenotypic traits, and thus constitutes a new dimension in the leaf venation phenotypic space. We apply our metric to a database of 186 leaves and leaflets representing 137 species, predominantly from the Burseraceae family, revealing diverse topological network traits even within this single family. We show that topological information significantly improves identification of leaves from fragments by calculating a “leaf venation fingerprint” from topology and geometry. Further, we present a phenomenological model suggesting that the topological traits can be explained by noise effects unique to specimen during development of each leaf which leave their imprint on the final network. This work opens the path to new quantitative identification techniques for leaves which go beyond simple geometric traits such as vein density and is directly applicable to other planar or sub-planar networks such as blood vessels in the brain., Author Summary Planar reticular networks are ubiquitous in nature and engineering, formed for instance by the arterial vasculature in the mammalian neocortex, urban street grids or the vascular network of plant leaves. We use a topological metric to characterize the way loops are nested in such networks and analyze a large database of 186 leaves and leaflets, revealing for the first time that the nesting of the networks’ cycles constitutes a distinct phenotypic trait orthogonal to previously used geometric features. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the information contained in the leaf topology can significantly improve specimen identification from fragments, and provide an empirical growth model that can explain much of the observed data. Our work can improve understanding of the functional significance of the various leaf vein architectures and their correlation with the environment. It can pave the way for similar analyses in diverse areas of research involving reticulate networks.

We develop a methodology for automated extraction of network information from a large dataset containing images of Drosophila terminal cells. The dataset contains images of larvae grown with different mutations prohibiting the expression of one of four genes: Rab8, Myospheroid, Crumbs and Rhea. Larvae are also distinguished based on their genetic background and growing temperature. The dataset is composed of over 500 images which is a novelty for this field of research. This enables us to find statistically highly significant results. We apply a supervised learning approach to quantify the effect on discernability of each of the three growing conditions. Using an unsupervised learning approach we find hidden phenotypes spanning several of the already known phenotypes induced by the larva’s genotype. We find that most of the information contained in network growth patterns is strongly tied to network size. By analyzing deviations from the size dependence of network realization we establish four main growth characteristics we call phenotypic trends. We are also able to find very simple models describing cell branching behaviour and distributions of tube lengths and tube radii.

In this thesis, we develop a framework for the processing of high resolution images of vascular networks. The framework processes high resolution scans of plant leaves and extracts the topological and geometric information of the vein networks present on the leaves. This framework consists of modular Python scripts, modules and classes. The main goal of the work is to provide as fast and highly automated processing of the data as possible while preserving the properties of the networks. The resulting framework can be used cross-platform and on PCs as well as on clusters. With a few adaptations it can be a good basis for the processing of images from many networks in different biological systems.

Patterns, such as the hexagonal salt ridges that emerge in salt deserts around the world, are a common phenomenon in geophysical settings. They are similar to other natural phenomena such as fairy circles, columnar joints and patterned ground, whose origin can be explained by an instability in a dynamical system. So far, the origin of polygonal salt patterns in salt deserts is unknown, even though they are a common landform and their understanding makes an important contribution to climate modeling and the understanding of the emission of atmospheric dust from their surface. In this work I provide a model that explains the emergence of the salt ridge hexagons. I present evidence, which confirms the predictions made by my model. To explain the driving mechanism of salt polygons, I couple the surface expression of ridges on the salt crust to the dynamics in the underground and model the process as the buoyancy driven convection of the saline water in the porous medium below the salt crust. I investigate the driving mechanism by means of mathematical modeling, numerical simulation, analogue experiments and a field study. I find the conditions for instability of the stratified saline water and present direct hydrological evidence for the existence of plumes of high salinity which are co-located with the patterns visible at the surface. With my model I am able to explain the length - and timescale of pattern emergence as well as the robustness of pattern wavelengths against changing natural circumstances. The results from my investigation of buoyancy driven convection in porous media can be connected to other research of similar systems, such as CO2 sequestration. Last but not least, with my work I hope to make a contribution to the better understanding of these otherworldly landscapes that draw the eye and fascinate the observer, in the hope that a better understanding of nature will lead to increased efforts to preserve it.