University of Jena

About: University of Jena is a education organization based out in Jena, Thüringen, Germany. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Laser & Population. The organization has 22198 authors who have published 45159 publications receiving 1401514 citations. The organization is also known as: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena & Friedrich Schiller University Jena.

Global distribution of earthworm diversity

Abstract: Soil organisms, including earthworms, are a key component of terrestrial ecosystems. However, little is known about their diversity, their distribution, and the threats affecting them. We compiled a global dataset of sampled earthworm communities from 6928 sites in 57 countries as a basis for predicting patterns in earthworm diversity, abundance, and biomass. We found that local species richness and abundance typically peaked at higher latitudes, displaying patterns opposite to those observed in aboveground organisms. However, high species dissimilarity across tropical locations may cause diversity across the entirety of the tropics to be higher than elsewhere. Climate variables were found to be more important in shaping earthworm communities than soil properties or habitat cover. These findings suggest that climate change may have serious implications for earthworm communities and for the functions they provide.

Bloch oscillations and Zener tunneling in two-dimensional photonic lattices.

Abstract: We report on the first experimental observation of photonic Bloch oscillations and Zener tunneling in two-dimensional periodic systems. We study the propagation of an optical beam in a square lattice superimposed on a refractive index ramp. We observe oscillations of the beam inside the first Brilloin zone and tunneling of light from the first to the higher-order bands of the lattice band gap spectrum.

Micro-Raman spectroscopic identification of bacterial cells of the genus Staphylococcus and dependence on their cultivation conditions

Abstract: Microbial contamination is not only a medical problem, but also plays a large role in pharmaceutical clean room production and food processing technology. Therefore many techniques were developed to achieve differentiation and identification of microorganisms. Among these methods vibrational spectroscopic techniques (IR, Raman and SERS) are useful tools because of their rapidity and sensitivity. Recently we have shown that micro-Raman spectroscopy in combination with a support vector machine is an extremely capable approach for a fast and reliable, non-destructive online identification of single bacteria belonging to different genera. In order to simulate different environmental conditions we analyzed in this contribution different Staphylococcus strains with varying cultivation conditions in order to evaluate our method with a reliable dataset. First, micro-Raman spectra of the bulk material and single bacterial cells that were grown under the same conditions were recorded and used separately for a distinct chemotaxonomic classification of the strains. Furthermore Raman spectra were recorded from single bacterial cells that were cultured under various conditions to study the influence of cultivation on the discrimination ability. This dataset was analyzed both with a hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and a support vector machine (SVM).

Hybrid nanoparticle–microcavity-based plasmonic nanosensors with improved detection resolution and extended remote-sensing ability

Abstract: Plasmonic nanoparticles are useful as optical sensors, but their spectral resolution is hindered by the linewidth of the plasmon resonance. Schmidt et al. find that coupling this resonance to a microcavity creates hybrid modes with enhanced sensing figure-of-merit and improved frequency resolution.

Lipofuscin: formation, effects and role of macroautophagy

Abstract: Oxidative stress plays a crucial role in the development of the aging process and age dependent diseases Both are closely connected to disturbances of proteostasis by protein oxidation and an impairment of the proteasomal system The final consequence is the accumulation of highly cross-linked undegradable aggregates such as lipofuscin These aggregates of damaged proteins are detrimental to normal cell functions Here we provide an overview about effect of these aggregates on the proteasomal system, followed by transcription factor activation and loss of cell viability Furthermore, findings on the mechanism of radical genesis, proteasomal inhibition and the required components of lipofuscin formation were resumed