University of Bremen

Clastic sedimentary systems and their characteristics are assumed not to have been modified by carbonate bioclastic grains until the Phanerozoic. Here, we show that the presence of carbonate bioclasts produced by disintegrated biomineralizing metazoans modified fine-grained siliciclastic facies in the Late Ediacaran Tamengo Formation, Brazil, ca. 555–542 Ma. The analysis of both polished sections and thin sections shows that sand-sized carbonate bioclasts (< 2 mm) derived from the Ediacaran metazoan Corumbella created diverse sedimentary features later found in the Phanerozoic record, such as bioclastic-rich horizontal and low-angle cross-laminations, erosive pods and lenses, bioclastic syneresis cracks, ripples preserved by bioclastic caps, microbial lamination eroded and filled with bioclasts, and entrapped bioclasts within microbial mats. These sedimentary features would have hardly been recorded in fine siliciclastic facies without the sand-sized bioclasts. Based on these features, together with other sedimentary evidence, Corumbella depositional settings in the Tamengo Fm. are reinterpreted as mid-ramp, subtidal settings. The multi-component organization of the skeleton of Corumbella favoured disarticulation to yield a sand-sized bioclast, so in turn creating a new complexity to shallow marine clastic settings typical of Phanerozoic marine depositional systems.

Assessing patent quality has long been the subject of research interest due to interchangeable terminology, overlapping indicators, and diverse perspectives. To address these challenges, this study presents a comprehensive framework for assessing patent quality, that draws on stakeholder theory and adopts a multidimensional perspective encompassing economic, legal, and technological dimensions, each of which is clearly defined within the study. Using the capabilities of the large language model GPT-4, a systematic literature review was conducted, analyzing an initial sample of 5141 scientific articles and selecting 762 as relevant. From these selected articles, 985 distinct indicators for assessing patent quality were identified and classifed in accordance with the dimensions of patent quality. The findings reveal that forward citations, family size, and the number of claims are among the most frequently used indicators, highlighting a predominant focus on technological quality in nearly two-thirds of the literature. In addition, the study highlights several challenges in patent quality assessment, such as poor research reproducibility due to inconsistent definitions and applications of indicators such as family size. In response, eight research propositions are proposed, emphasizing the critical evaluation of indicators, the application of sophisticated methods, and the quantification of complex metrics. As a contribution to management and scholarship, this research underscores the complexity of patent quality assessment and provides a structured framework for future studies, emphasizing the importance of a multidimensional perspective. It also illustrates the transformative potential of large language models in enhancing systematic literature reviews, setting a new standard for future research.

In non-clairvoyant scheduling, the task is to schedule jobs with a priori unknown processing requirements. We revisit this well-studied problem with the objective of minimizing the total (weighted) completion time in a recently popular learning-augmented setting that integrates possibly imperfect predictions into online algorithm design. While previous works used predictions on processing requirements, we propose a new prediction model that provides a relative order of jobs, which could be seen as predicting algorithmic actions rather than parts of the unknown input. We show that these succinct predictions have desired properties, admit a natural error measure, and enable algorithms with strong performance guarantees. Additionally, these predictions are learnable in both theory and practice. We generalize the algorithmic framework proposed in the seminal paper by Purohit, Kumar, and Svitkina (NeurIPS 2018) and present the first learning-augmented scheduling results for weighted jobs and unrelated machines. We demonstrate in empirical experiments the practicability and superior performance compared to the previously suggested single-machine algorithms.

The halogenation of diferrocenyltelluride, Fc2Te, with XeF2, PhICl2 and I2 afforded the diferrocenyltellurium dihalides Fc2TeX2 (X = F, Cl, I). Halide exchange of Fc2TeCl2 with KBr gave Fc2TeBr2. The oxidation of Fc2Te with NO[SbF6] and K[B(C6F5)4] provided the triferrocenyltelluronium salt [Fc3Te][B(C6F5)4] and the dinuclear nitrosyl iron complex Fe2(μ‐TeFc)2(NO)4. The new compounds were comprehensively characterized by multinuclear NMR spectroscopy (125Te, 19F, 13C, 1H), UV/vis absorption spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, LIFDI‐TOF mass spectrometry and single crystal X‐ray diffraction.

This paper studies the role of government partisanship in the transformation of two uniquely old care policy areas: the care of people with chronic and severe mental illness, and of children who cannot be cared for by their parents. While nineteenth-century ‘insane asylums’ and ‘orphanages’ have widely been understood as institutions of social control, they also served a social care function, which during the era of deinstitutionalisation was replaced by alternative forms of care. Studying mental health and child welfare policy decisions in 12 advanced capitalist countries between 1950 and 2015, I show that the types of care policies that replaced large, custodial institutions varied with government partisanship. I argue that partisan policy choices reflected parties’ core policy preferences shaped by trade-offs between their redistributive goals and individualist or familial ideals, and the lasting ideological effects of very old societal cleavages. The study contributes to theoretical debates in comparative politics about the role of partisanship in social policy making and the dimensionality of party competition over time.

Purpose In brain tumors, disruption of the blood–brain barrier (BBB) indicates malignancy. Clinical assessment is qualitative; quantitative evaluation is feasible using the K2 leakage parameter from dynamic susceptibility contrast MRI. However, contrast agent–based techniques are limited in patients with renal dysfunction and insensitive to subtle impairments. Assessing water transport times across the BBB (Tex) by multi‐echo arterial spin labeling promises to detect BBB impairments noninvasively and potentially more sensitively. We hypothesized that reduced Tex indicates impaired BBB. Furthermore, we assumed higher sensitivity for Tex than dynamic susceptibility contrast–based K2, because arterial spin labeling uses water as a freely diffusible tracer. Methods We acquired 3T MRI data from 28 patients with intraparenchymal brain tumors (World Health Organization Grade 3 & 4 gliomas [n = 17] or metastases [n = 11]) and 17 age‐matched healthy controls. The protocol included multi‐echo and single‐echo Hadamard‐encoded arterial spin labeling, dynamic susceptibility contrast, and conventional clinical imaging. Tex was calculated using a T2‐dependent multi‐compartment model. Areas of contrast‐enhancing tissue, edema, and normal‐appearing tissue were automatically segmented, and parameter values were compared across volumes of interest and between patients and healthy controls. Results Tex was significantly reduced (−20.3%) in contrast‐enhancing tissue compared with normal‐appearing gray matter and correlated well with |K2| (r = −0.347). Compared with healthy controls, Tex was significantly lower in tumor patients' normal‐appearing gray matter (Tex,tumor = 0.141 ± 0.032 s vs. Tex,HC = 0.172 ± 0.036 s) and normal‐appearing white matter (Tex,tumor = 0.116 ± 0.015 vs. Tex,HC = 0.127 ± 0.017 s), whereas |K2| did not differ significantly. Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed a larger area under the curve for Tex (0.784) than K2 (0.604). Conclusion Tex is sensitive to pathophysiologically impaired BBB. It agrees with contrast agent–based K2 in contrast‐enhancing tissue and indicates sensitivity to subtle leakage.

Zusammenfassung Die Rückkehr des Wolfes nach Europa verläuft nicht ohne Konflikte. Beständig wird daher – insbesondere seitens Weidetierhalterinnen und -haltern – gefordert, man möge die Jagd auf Wölfe erleichtern. Der EuGH hat sich nun jüngst in gleich zwei Fällen grundlegend mit der Wolfsjagd befasst. Der Beitrag nimmt diese Urteile in den Blick und zum Anlass, einmal die Grenzen der Wolfsjagd nachzuzeichnen, wie sie sich aus dem Völker- und Europarecht ergeben.

Over the past two decades, machine learning (ML) has transformed manufacturing, particularly in optimizing production and quality control. A significant challenge in ML applications is obtaining sufficient training data, which data augmentation aims to address. While widely applied to image, text, and sound data, data augmentation for numerical data in manufacturing has seen limited investigation. This paper empirically compares three data augmentation techniques-generative adversarial networks, variational auto-encoders mixed with long-short-term memory, and warping-on four manufacturing datasets. It also provides a literature review, highlighting that generative models are the most common technique for numerical manufacturing data. Preliminary findings suggest that generative adversarial networks are effective for non-time-series numerical data, especially with datasets featuring many correlated model features, multiple machines, and sufficient instances and labels. This research enhances the understanding of data augmentation in manufacturing ML applications, emphasizing the need for tailored strategies.

Background Recent epidemiological data shows significant rates of grade 2 disability at point-of-diagnosis among new leprosy cases in Pakistan. This indicates a feature of extensive diagnostic delay; the disability burden appears unmoving and disproportionate to the falling leprosy incidence rates. Therefore, this study was required to understand reasons for delay in diagnosis and treatment of leprosy. Methods A qualitative design of 7 semi-structured interviews was employed to reveal perceptions and understandings of various leprosy stakeholders in Pakistan, termed “leprosy experts”. Subsequent inductive analysis was used to identify themes and subthemes concerned with delay in the diagnosis and treatment of leprosy. Results Leprosy experts identified three main areas, or domains, to which delay can be attributed: 1. Awareness and beliefs about leprosy, within the general population, 2. Knowledge and clinical experience of leprosy, among healthcare professionals, 3. Leprosy control program infrastructure, allocation of resources and institutional funding. These domains were each viewed as consequent to the larger theme of ‘low-endemicity’. Strong correlations between diagnostic delay and socioeconomic status, gender, geography and health system challenges, were also mentioned, and which intersected the three major themes. Conclusion Reasons for diagnostic delay are evident in all tiers of the healthcare hierarchy in Pakistan. Thus, an approach at multiple levels is justified, to improve the general awareness of leprosy, education of healthcare professionals, and organizational structuring. Additionally, cultural features relevant to different communities in Pakistan which might be different from other care access frameworks demonstrated a need for further study into the health beliefs of Pakistani patients in a wide range of communities.

Background Exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular, respiratory, and other diseases and health outcomes. Although NO2 emissions have decreased in Germany, concentrations currently observed still pose a threat to population health. The aim of this study is to estimate the environmental burden of disease (EBD) resulting from long-term NO2 exposure in Germany from 2010 to 2021. Methods To estimate the attributable disease burden, World Health Organization’s EBD approach was used. We first conducted a systematic literature review to identify exposure–response functions (ERFs) which mathematically represent the association between NO2 exposure and the health outcomes: asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), ischemic heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, and cardiovascular and respiratory mortality. Then, we estimated the years of life lost (YLL), years lived with disability (YLD) and, where possible, disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) due to these health outcomes in Germany, using mostly publicly available data. In a third step, using the ERFs and modelled ambient NO2 exposure data, the fraction of the disease burden attributable to NO2 exposure was estimated for each health outcome and year, stratified by sex. Results The systematic review yielded recent ERFs for some exposure-outcome pairs, but not always for both mortality and morbidity outcomes. A full DALY calculation was possible for COPD and T2DM. For the other outcomes, either only YLL or YLD were calculated. Summing up the estimated YLD and YLL of all outcomes, the burden of disease due to NO2 exposure in Germany decreased from 261,503 (95% UI 69,290–489,273) lost healthy years in 2010 to 100,032 (95% UI 24,558–191,715) in 2021. Conclusions Although the burden of disease attributable to NO2 exposure decreased from 2010 to 2021, NO2 still poses a threat to population health in Germany. While the current legal concentration limit was generally not exceeded in Germany in 2021, stricter new values proposed by WHO were frequently surpassed. When comparing the results to a previous assessment, it was obvious how strongly different input data impact the results. Transparent reporting of input data and discussing potential challenges when interpreting EBD results are critical.

We report a series of dibenzyl isophthalates (DBIs) as novel hosts for room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) host–guest systems, achieving RTP quantum yields (QY) of up to 77% or lifetimes of up to 21.0 s with the guest coronene-d12. Furthermore, a 4,4′-Br substituted DBI was used to form host–guest RTP systems with 15 different aromatic guest molecules, to tune the phosphorescence emission color from blue to red and to demonstrate the versatility of the host. Mechanistic insights were gained through a host–guest–matrix system which shows RTP by trace combinations of a 4,4′-Br DBI host (0.10 wt%) and a pyrene-d10 guest (0.01 wt%) in an otherwise non-RTP-emissive aromatic matrix. This work establishes DBIs as readily available and versatile, tunable hosts for RTP host–guest systems, posing an alternative to polymeric hosts.

The Arctic experiences climate changes that are among the fastest in the world and affect all Earth system components. Despite expected increase in terrigenous inputs to the Arctic Ocean, their impacts on biogeochemical cycles are currently largely neglected in IPCC-like models. Here we used a state-of-the-art high-resolution ocean biogeochemistry model that includes carbon and nutrient inputs from rivers and coastal erosion to produce twenty-first-century pan-Arctic projections. Surprisingly, even with an anticipated rise in primary production across a wide range of emission scenarios, our findings indicate that climate change will lead to a counterintuitive 40% reduction in the efficiency of the Arctic’s biological carbon pump by 2100, to which terrigenous inputs contribute 10%. Terrigenous inputs will also drive intense coastal CO2 outgassing, reducing the Arctic Ocean’s carbon sink by at least 10% (33 TgC yr⁻¹). These unexpected reinforced feedback, mostly due to accelerated remineralization rates, lower the Arctic Ocean’s capacity for sequestering carbon.

Marine heatwaves (MHWs), defined as extreme ocean warming episodes, have strengthened over the past decades. High-resolution climate models improve understanding of MHWs under global warming, but such events in the future Arctic are currently overlooked. In a high-resolution climate model, we find Arctic MHWs intensify on orders of magnitude during the warming twenty-first century, following sea ice retreat. However, with little sea ice coverage, strong interannual variability emerges, which could surpass the amplitude of former intensification. Furthermore, the enhancement of MHWs correlates with an order of magnitude increase in the rate of change in the temperature anomaly. Additionally, MHWs are found to be accompanied by stratification enhancement, which could surpass interannual variability of future stratification. Such extreme temperature fluctuations combined with stratification enhancement suggest major challenges for Arctic ecosystems, and may negatively impact food webs through direct physiological temperature effects, as well as indirectly through nutrient supply and taxonomic shifts.

Orogenic wedges juxtapose tectonic units that originated far from each other, and tracing these back to their origin is often difficult. We have studied two contrasting serpentinite–sediment associations of the Alpine‐Apennine orogenic wedge of eastern Elba Island with the help of a detrital zircon study of the sediments and a geochemical comparison of the relic phases of their associated serpentinites. We demonstrate that these very likely originated in different branches of the Ligurian Ocean and in contrasting tectonic settings, one during opening of Alpine Tethys and the other during Apenninic contraction‐exhumation. First, the Early Cretaceous Palombini shales are associated with abyssal ocean floor serpentinite–ophicalcites of a Ligurian ophiolite (LO) that originated in the western branch of the Ligurian Ocean during ultraslow spreading. They have an Adria/African zircon provenance, indicating proximity to Adria rather than Corsica‐Europe and the associated serpentinites are highly depleted and relatively little deformed. The second sediment–serpentinite association has a tectonised serpentinite band in contact with highly deformed, Miocene blueschist facies metasediments. Detrital zircons of these metasediments (Acquadolce (AD) and Pseudomacigno) record major Eocene–Oligocene U–Pb zircon age peaks, with an igneous provenance in the western and central Alps respectively. An age peak at ca. 38 Ma links the Pseudomacigno sediments to calc‐alkaline volcanic rocks of the central Adamello massif, whilst an Oligocene age peak at ca. 32 Ma indicates western Alpine sources for the AD Unit. The associated massive, highly tectonised AD serpentinite represents most likely a mantle sliver of subcontinental lithospheric mantle, which together with Oligocene blueschist facies rocks underwent synorogenic Apenninic tectonic extrusion during W‐directed subduction–rollback of the eastern branch of the Ligurian Ocean.