Brandenburg University of Technology

About: Brandenburg University of Technology is a education organization based out in Cottbus, Brandenburg, Germany. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Large Hadron Collider & Standard Model. The organization has 2408 authors who have published 5337 publications receiving 100675 citations. The organization is also known as: TU Cottbus & Technical University of Cottbus.

EURO-CORDEX : new high-resolution climate change projections for European impact research

Abstract: A new high-resolution regional climate change ensemble has been established for Europe within the World Climate Research Program Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment (EURO-CORDEX) initiative. The first set of simulations with a horizontal resolution of 12.5 km was completed for the new emission scenarios RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 with more simulations expected to follow. The aim of this paper is to present this data set to the different communities active in regional climate modelling, impact assessment and adaptation. The EURO-CORDEX ensemble results have been compared to the SRES A1B simulation results achieved within the ENSEMBLES project. The large-scale patterns of changes in mean temperature and precipitation are similar in all three scenarios, but they differ in regional details, which can partly be related to the higher resolution in EURO-CORDEX. The results strengthen those obtained in ENSEMBLES, but need further investigations. The analysis of impact indices shows that for RCP8.5, there is a substantially larger change projected for temperature-based indices than for RCP4.5. The difference is less pronounced for precipitation-based indices. Two effects of the increased resolution can be regarded as an added value of regional climate simulations. Regional climate model simulations provide higher daily precipitation intensities, which are completely missing in the global climate model simulations, and they provide a significantly different climate change of daily precipitation intensities resulting in a smoother shift from weak to moderate and high intensities.

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)

Abstract: In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field.

Lake responses to reduced nutrient loading - an analysis of contemporary long-term data from 35 case studies

Abstract: SUMMARY 1. This synthesis examines 35 long-term (5–35 years, mean: 16 years) lake re-oligotrophication studies. It covers lakes ranging from shallow (mean depth <5 m and/or polymictic) to deep (mean depth up to 177 m), oligotrophic to hypertrophic (summer mean total phosphorus concentration from 7.5 to 3500 l gL )1 before loading reduction), subtropical to temperate (latitude: 28–65� ), and lowland to upland (altitude: 0–481 m). Shallow northtemperate lakes were most abundant. 2. Reduction of external total phosphorus (TP) loading resulted in lower in-lake TP concentration, lower chlorophyll a (chl a) concentration and higher Secchi depth in most lakes. Internal loading delayed the recovery, but in most lakes a new equilibrium for TP

Regional climate modeling on European scales: a joint standard evaluation of the EURO-CORDEX RCM ensemble

Abstract: . EURO-CORDEX is an international climate downscaling initiative that aims to provide high-resolution climate scenarios for Europe. Here an evaluation of the ERA-Interim-driven EURO-CORDEX regional climate model (RCM) ensemble is presented. The study documents the performance of the individual models in representing the basic spatiotemporal patterns of the European climate for the period 1989–2008. Model evaluation focuses on near-surface air temperature and precipitation, and uses the E-OBS data set as observational reference. The ensemble consists of 17 simulations carried out by seven different models at grid resolutions of 12 km (nine experiments) and 50 km (eight experiments). Several performance metrics computed from monthly and seasonal mean values are used to assess model performance over eight subdomains of the European continent. Results are compared to those for the ERA40-driven ENSEMBLES simulations. The analysis confirms the ability of RCMs to capture the basic features of the European climate, including its variability in space and time. But it also identifies nonnegligible deficiencies of the simulations for selected metrics, regions and seasons. Seasonally and regionally averaged temperature biases are mostly smaller than 1.5 °C, while precipitation biases are typically located in the ±40% range. Some bias characteristics, such as a predominant cold and wet bias in most seasons and over most parts of Europe and a warm and dry summer bias over southern and southeastern Europe reflect common model biases. For seasonal mean quantities averaged over large European subdomains, no clear benefit of an increased spatial resolution (12 vs. 50 km) can be identified. The bias ranges of the EURO-CORDEX ensemble mostly correspond to those of the ENSEMBLES simulations, but some improvements in model performance can be identified (e.g., a less pronounced southern European warm summer bias). The temperature bias spread across different configurations of one individual model can be of a similar magnitude as the spread across different models, demonstrating a strong influence of the specific choices in physical parameterizations and experimental setup on model performance. Based on a number of simply reproducible metrics, the present study quantifies the currently achievable accuracy of RCMs used for regional climate simulations over Europe and provides a quality standard for future model developments.

Determination of jet energy calibration and transverse momentum resolution in CMS

Abstract: Measurements of the jet energy calibration and transverse momentum resolution in CMS are presented, performed with a data sample collected in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36pb−1. The transverse momentum balance in dijet and γ/Z+jets events is used to measure the jet energy response in the CMS detector, as well as the transverse momentum resolution. The results are presented for three different methods to reconstruct jets: a calorimeter-based approach, the ``Jet-Plus-Track'' approach, which improves the measurement of calorimeter jets by exploiting the associated tracks, and the ``Particle Flow'' approach, which attempts to reconstruct individually each particle in the event, prior to the jet clustering, based on information from all relevant subdetectors