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A medical data integration center integrates a large volume of medical images from clinical departments, including X-rays, CT scans, and MRI scans. Ideally, all images should be indexed appropriately with standard clinical terms. However, some images have incorrect or missing annotations, which creates challenges in searching and integrating data centrally. To address this issue, accurate and meaningful descriptors are needed for indexing fields, enabling users to efficiently search for desired images and integrate them with international standards.This paper aims to provide concise annotation for missing or incorrectly indexed fields, incorporating essential instance-level information such as radiology modalities (e.g., X-rays), anatomical regions (e.g., chest), and body orientations (e.g., lateral) using a Deep Learning classification model - ResNet50. To demonstrate the capabilities of our algorithm in generating annotations for indexing fields, we conducted three experiments using two open-source datasets, the ROCO dataset, and the IRMA dataset, along with a custom dataset featuring SNOMED CT labels. While the outcomes of these experiments are satisfactory (Precision of >75%) for less critical tasks and serve as a valuable testing ground for image retrieval, they also underscore the need for further exploration of potential challenges. This essay elaborates on the identified issues and presents well-founded recommendations for refining and advancing our proposed approach.

Long-term research in grassland biodiversity experiments has provided empirical evidence that ecological and evolutionary processes are intertwined in determining both biodiversity–ecosystem functioning (BEF) and biodiversity–stability relationships. Focusing on plant diversity, we hypothesize that multifunctional stability is highest in high-diversity plant communities and that biodiversity–stability relationships increase over time due to a variety of forms of ecological complementarity including the interaction with other biota above and below ground. We introduce the multiple-mechanisms hypothesis of biodiversity–stability relationships suggesting that it is not an individual mechanism that drives long-term biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning and stability but that several intertwined processes produce increasingly positive ecosystem effects. The following six mechanisms are important. Low-diversity plant communities accumulate more plant antagonists over time (1), and use resources less efficiently and have more open, leaky nutrient cycles (2). Conversely, high-diversity plant communities support a greater diversity and activity of beneficial interaction partners across trophic levels (3); diversify in their traits over time and space, within and across species, to optimize temporal (intra- and interannual) and spatial complementarity (4), create a more stable microclimate (5), and foster higher top-down control of aboveground and belowground herbivores by predators (6). In line with the observation that different species play unique roles in ecosystems that are dynamic and multifaceted, the particular mechanism contributing most to the higher performance and stability of diverse plant communities might differ across ecosystem functions, years, locations, and environmental change scenarios. This indicates “between-context insurance” or “across-context complementarity” of different mechanisms. We introduce examples of experiments that will be conducted to test our hypotheses and which might inspire additional work.

Abstract Relational accounts of risk explain variation in risk perception through situated cognitions defining risk as a relationship between “risk objects” and “objects at risk”. We extend this approach to include not only the relational constitution of cognitive risk objects, but also of the different actors assessing risk. Risk in this perspective is relational because it establishes a link between two different cognitive objects and between two (or more) actors. We argue that this is the case when at least two actors refer to a common risk object while retaining distinct objects at risk. We call this a constellation of risk entanglement across actors. We illustrate our theoretical arguments using data from 68 qualitative interviews and ethnographic fieldwork in the German finance-state nexus. Our analyses indicate how risk entanglement affects and transforms the fundamental logics according to which both of these fields operate.

Abstract There is no doubt about the insect decline currently taking place in ecosystems with large anthropogenic impacts. Thus, there is a need for practices that avoid insect decline and or help to recover insect communities that have already suffered. Plant diversity has been shown to be positively related to insect abundance and diversity and to ecosystem functions provided by insects. However, it remains open if increased plant diversity can help to recover decreased populations. Here, we tested over one decade the effects of plant diversity on the carabid community in a large grassland biodiversity experiment and how plant diversity fostered the establishment of a natural grassland community after conversion of an arable field. There was a dramatic decline in carabid abundance from 2003, the first year after establishing the diversity experiment, to 2005. However, subsequently, the abundance increased constantly. One year after the land use change most individuals and species were those commonly found in agricultural fields. In subsequent years the community was dominated by grassland species. While plant diversity did not affect the abundance and richness of the carabid community, the turnover to a more native grassland community was accelerated by plant diversity in the first years after the land use change. In contrast, in later years plant diversity stabilized the community assemblage. Our study shows that high plant diversity can contribute to a faster transition of insect populations towards naturally occurring community assemblages and at later stages to more stabilized assemblages.

Several studies have shown that cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) treatment can favourably modify titanium surfaces to promote osteoblast colonization. The aim of this study was to investigate the initial attachment of primary human osteoblasts to plasma-treated titanium. Micro-structured titanium discs were treated with cold atmospheric plasma followed by the application of primary human osteoblasts. The microwave plasma source used in this study uses helium as a carrier gas and was developed at the Leibniz Institute for Surface Modification in Leipzig, Germany. Primary human osteoblasts were analyzed by fluorescence and cell biological tests (alkaline phosphatase activity and cell proliferation using WST-1 assay). The tests were performed after 4, 12, and 24 h and showed statistically significant increased levels of cell activity after plasma treatment. The results of this study indicate that plasma treatment improves the initial attachment of primary human osteoblasts to titanium. For the first time, the positive effect of cold atmospheric plasma treatment of micro-structured titanium on the initial colonization with primary human osteoblasts has been demonstrated. Overall, this study demonstrates the excellent biocompatibility of micro-structured titanium. The results of this study support efforts to use cold atmospheric plasmas in implantology, both for preimplantation conditioning and for regeneration of lost attachment due to peri-implantitis.

One of the crucial properties of a quantum system is the existence of bound states. While the existence of eigenvalues below zero, that is, below the essential spectrum, is well understood, the situation of zero energy bound states at the edge of the essential spectrum is far less understood. We present complementary sharp criteria for the existence and nonexistence of zero energy ground states. Our criteria give a straightforward explanation for the folklore that there is a spectral phase transition with critical dimension four, concerning the existence versus nonexistence of zero energy ground states.

Relationships between biodiversity and phosphorus cycling and the underlying processes are complex. Here the authors analyse a biodiversity manipulation experiment and an agricultural management gradient to show how plant and mycorrhizal fungal diversity promote phosphorus exploitation.

Land use intensification is a major driver of biodiversity change. Here the authors measure diversity across multiple trophic levels in agricultural grassland landscapes of varying management, finding decoupled responses of above- and belowground taxa to local factors and a strong impact of landscape-level land use.

Future climate scenarios indicate increasing drought intensity that threatens ecosystem functioning. However, the behavior of ecosystems during intense drought, such as the 2018 drought in Northern Europe, and their respective response following rewetting is not fully understood. We investigated the effect of drought on four different vegetation types in a temperate climate by analyzing dissolved organic matter (DOM) concentration and composition present in soil leachate, and compared it to two accompanying years. DOM is known to play an important role in ecosystem recovery and holds information on matter flows between plants, soil microorganisms and soil organic matter. Knowledge about DOM opens the possibility to better disentangle the role of plants and microorganisms in ecosystem recovery. We found that the average annual DOM concentration significantly decreased during the 2018 drought year compared to the normal year. This suggests a stimulation of DOM release under normal conditions, which include a summer drought followed by a rewetting period. The rewetting period, which holds high DOM concentrations, was suppressed under more intense drought. Our detailed molecular analysis of DOM using ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry showed that DOM present at the beginning of the rewetting period resembles plant matter, whereas in later phases the DOM molecular composition was modified by microorganisms. We observed this pattern in all four vegetation types analyzed, although vegetation types differed in DOM concentration and composition. Our results suggest that plant matter drives ecosystem recovery and that increasing drought intensity may lower the potential for ecosystem recovery.

Crises such as European debt crisis, Brexit, and COVID-19 have challenged established relations between finance and the state in attempts at mitigating a broad range of crises-related risks. We ask whether and how these altered relations in themselves constitute novel uncertainties and risks between the two fields. To better understand these dynamics, we introduce the concept of “risk entanglement” to complement financialization as a key concept presently capturing these relations. Based on qualitative research in the German finance-state nexus, we show how financial and state actors mutually construe each other as risks that need to be managed and mitigated to safeguard their particular, field-specific logics and ends. We focus on systemic risk and political risk as two cases of risk entanglement: whereas systemic risk reflects the threat of a potential financial meltdown to the state, political risk reflects how the state endangers established risk practices in finance.

The functioning and service provisioning of ecosystems in the face of anthropogenic environmental and biodiversity change is a cornerstone of ecological research. The last three decades of biodiversity–ecosystem functioning (BEF) research have provided compelling evidence for the significant positive role of biodiversity in the functioning of many ecosystems. Despite broad consensus of this relationship, the underlying ecological and evolutionary mechanisms have not been well understood. This complicates the transition from a description of patterns to a predictive science. The proposed Research Unit aims at filling this gap of knowledge by applying novel experimental and analytical approaches in one of the longest-running biodiversity experiments in the world: the Jena Experiment. The central aim of the Research Unit is to uncover the mechanisms that determine BEF relationships in the short- and in the long-term. Increasing BEF relationships with time in long-term experiments do not only call for a paradigm shift in the appreciation of the relevance of biodiversity change, they likely are key to understanding the mechanisms of BEF relationships in general. The subprojects of the proposed Research Unit fall into two tightly linked main categories with two research areas each that aim at exploring variation in community assembly processes and resulting differences in biotic interactions as determinants of the long-term BEF relationship. Subprojects under “Microbial community assembly” and “Assembly and functions of animal communities” mostly focus on plant diversity effects on the assembly of communities and their feedback effects on biotic interactions and ecosystem functions. Subprojects under “Mediators of plant-biotic interactions” and “Intraspecific diversity and micro-evolutionary changes” mostly focus on plant diversity effects on plant trait expression and micro-evolutionary adaptation, and subsequent feedback effects on biotic interactions and ecosystem functions. This unification of evolutionary and ecosystem processes requires collaboration across the proposed subprojects in targeted plant and soil history experiments using cutting-edge technology and will produce significant synergies and novel mechanistic insights into BEF relationships. The Research Unit of the Jena Experiment is uniquely positioned in this context by taking an interdisciplinary and integrative approach to capture whole-ecosystem responses to changes in biodiversity and to advance a vibrant research field.

Climate and land-use change lead to decreasing invertebrate biomass and alter invertebrate communities. These biotic changes may affect plant species abundance and phenology. Using 24 controlled experimental units in the iDiv Ecotron, we assessed the effects of invertebrate decline on an artificial grassland community formed by 12 herbaceous plant species. More specifically, we used Malaise traps and sweep nets to collect invertebrates from a local tall oatgrass meadow and included them in our Ecotron units at two different invertebrate densities: 100% (no invertebrate decline) and 25% (invertebrate decline of 75%). Another eight EcoUnits received no fauna and served as a control. Plant species abundance and flowering phenology was observed weekly over a period of 18 weeks. Our results showed that invertebrate densities affected the abundance and phenology of plant species. We observed a distinct species abundance shift with respect to the invertebrate treatment. Notably, this shift included a reduction in the abundance of the dominant plant species, Trifolium pratense, when invertebrates were present. Additionally, we found that the species shifted their flowering phenology as a response to the different invertebrate treatments, e.g. with decreasing invertebrate biomass Lotus corniculatus showed a later peak flowering time. We demonstrated that in addition to already well-studied abiotic drivers, biotic components may also drive phenological changes in plant communities. This study clearly suggests that invertebrate decline may contribute to already observed mismatches between plants and animals, with potential negative consequences for ecosystem services like food provision and pollination success. This deterioration of ecosystem function could enhance the loss of insects and plant biodiversity.

Numerous experiments have shown positive diversity effects on plant productivity, but little is known about related processes of carbon gain and allocation. We investigated these processes in a controlled environment (Montpellier European Ecotron) applying a continuous 13CO2 label for three weeks to 12 soil-vegetation monoliths originating from a grassland biodiversity experiment (Jena Experiment) and representing two diversity levels (4 and 16 sown species). Plant species richness did not affect community- and species-level 13C abundances neither in total biomass nor in non-structural carbohydrates (NSC). Community-level 13C excess tended to be higher in the 16-species than in the 4-species mixtures. Community-level 13C excess was positively related to canopy leaf nitrogen (N), i.e. leaf N per unit soil surface. At the species level, shoot 13C abundances varied among plant functional groups and were larger in legumes and tall herbs than in grasses and small herbs, and correlated positively with traits as leaf N concentrations, stomatal conductance and shoot height. The 13C abundances in NSC were larger in transport sugars (sucrose, raffinose-family oligosaccharides) than in free glucose, fructose and compounds of the storage pool (starch) suggesting that newly assimilated carbon is to a small portion allocated to storage. Our results emphasize that the functional composition of communities is key in explaining carbon assimilation in grasslands.

Plant diversity drives changes in the soil microbial community which may result in alterations in ecosystem functions. However, the governing factors between the composition of soil microbial communities and plant diversity are not well understood. We investigated the impact of plant diversity (plant species richness and functional group richness) and plant functional group identity on soil microbial biomass and soil microbial community structure in experimental grassland ecosystems. Total microbial biomass and community structure were determined by phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis. The diversity gradient covered 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 60 plant species and 1, 2, 3 and 4 plant functional groups (grasses, legumes, small herbs and tall herbs). In May 2007, soil samples were taken from experimental plots and from nearby fields and meadows. Beside soil texture, plant species richness was the main driver of soil microbial biomass. Structural equation modeling revealed that the positive plant diversity effect was mainly mediated by higher leaf area index resulting in higher soil moisture in the top soil layer. The fungal-to-bacterial biomass ratio was positively affected by plant functional group richness and negatively by the presence of legumes. Bacteria were more closely related to abiotic differences caused by plant diversity, while fungi were more affected by plant-derived organic matter inputs. We found diverse plant communities promoted faster transition of soil microbial communities typical for arable land towards grassland communities. Although some mechanisms underlying the plant diversity effect on soil microorganisms could be identified, future studies have to determine plant traits shaping soil microbial community structure. We suspect differences in root traits among different plant communities, such as root turnover rates and chemical composition of root exudates, to structure soil microbial communities.

Loss of plant diversity influences essential ecosystem processes as aboveground productivity, and can have cascading effects on the arthropod communities in adjacent trophic levels. However, few studies have examined how those changes in arthropod communities can have additional impacts on ecosystem processes caused by them (e.g. pollination, bioturbation, predation, decomposition, herbivory). Therefore, including arthropod effects in predictions of the impact of plant diversity loss on such ecosystem processes is an important but little studied piece of information. In a grassland biodiversity experiment, we addressed this gap by assessing aboveground decomposer and herbivore communities and linking their abundance and diversity to rates of decomposition and herbivory. Path analyses showed that increasing plant diversity led to higher abundance and diversity of decomposing arthropods through higher plant biomass. Higher species richness of decomposers, in turn, enhanced decomposition. Similarly, species-rich plant communities hosted a higher abundance and diversity of herbivores through elevated plant biomass and C:N ratio, leading to higher herbivory rates. Integrating trophic interactions into the study of biodiversity effects is required to understand the multiple pathways by which biodiversity affects ecosystem functioning.

Forest management not only affects biodiversity but also might alter ecosystem processes mediated by the organisms, i.e. herbivory the removal of plant biomass by plant-eating insects and other arthropod groups. Aiming at revealing general relationships between forest management and herbivory we investigated aboveground arthropod herbivory in 105 plots dominated by European beech in three different regions in Germany in the sun-exposed canopy of mature beech trees and on beech saplings in the understorey. We separately assessed damage by different guilds of herbivores, i.e. chewing, sucking and scraping herbivores, gall-forming insects and mites, and leaf-mining insects. We asked whether herbivory differs among different forest management regimes (unmanaged, uneven-aged managed, even-aged managed) and among age-classes within even-aged forests. We further tested for consistency of relationships between regions, strata and herbivore guilds. On average, almost 80% of beech leaves showed herbivory damage, and about 6% of leaf area was consumed. Chewing damage was most common, whereas leaf sucking and scraping damage were very rare. Damage was generally greater in the canopy than in the understorey, in particular for chewing and scraping damage, and the occurrence of mines. There was little difference in herbivory among differently managed forests and the effects of management on damage differed among regions, strata and damage types. Covariates such as wood volume, tree density and plant diversity weakly influenced herbivory, and effects differed between herbivory types. We conclude that despite of the relatively low number of species attacking beech; arthropod herbivory on beech is generally high. We further conclude that responses of herbivory to forest management are multifaceted and environmental factors such as forest structure variables affecting in particular microclimatic conditions are more likely to explain the variability in herbivory among beech forest plots.

Intensive land use is a driving force for biodiversity decline in many ecosystems. In semi-natural grasslands, land-use activities such as mowing, grazing and fertilization affect the diversity of plants and arthropods, but the combined effects of different drivers and the chain of effects are largely unknown. In this study we used structural equation modelling to analyse how the arthropod communities in managed grasslands respond to land use and whether these responses are mediated through changes in resource diversity or resource quantity (biomass). Plants were considered resources for herbivores which themselves were considered resources for predators. Plant and arthropod (herbivores and predators) communities were sampled on 141 meadows, pastures and mown pastures within three regions in Germany in 2008 and 2009. Increasing land-use intensity generally increased plant biomass and decreased plant diversity, mainly through increasing fertilization. Herbivore diversity decreased together with plant diversity but showed no response to changes in plant biomass. Hence, land-use effects on herbivore diversity were mediated through resource diversity rather than quantity. Land-use effects on predator diversity were mediated by both herbivore diversity (resource diversity) and herbivore quantity (herbivore biomass), but indirect effects through resource quantity were stronger. Our findings highlight the importance of assessing both direct and indirect effects of land-use intensity and mode on different trophic levels. In addition to the overall effects, there were subtle differences between the different regions, pointing to the importance of regional land-use specificities. Our study underlines the commonly observed strong effect of grassland land use on biodiversity. It also highlights that mechanistic approaches help us to understand how different land-use modes affect biodiversity.

The diversity-stability hypothesis states that current losses of biodiversity can impair the ability of an ecosystem to dampen the effect of environmental perturbations on its functioning. Using data from a long-term and comprehensive biodiversity experiment, we quantified the temporal stability of 42 variables characterizing twelve ecological functions in managed grassland plots varying in plant species richness. We demonstrate that diversity increases stability i) across trophic levels (producer, consumer), ii) at both the system (community, ecosystem) and the component levels (population, functional group, phylogenetic clade), and iii) primarily for aboveground rather than belowground processes. Temporal synchronization across studied variables was mostly unaffected with increasing species richness. This study provides the strongest empirical support so far that diversity promotes stability across different ecological functions and levels of ecosystem organization in grasslands.