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- ItemInfluence of Autapses on Synchronization in Neural Networks With Chemical Synapses(Lausanne : Frontiers Media, 2020) Protachevicz, Paulo R.; Iarosz, Kelly C.; Caldas, Iberê L.; Antonopoulos, Chris G.; Batista, Antonio M.; Kurths, JürgenA great deal of research has been devoted on the investigation of neural dynamics in various network topologies. However, only a few studies have focused on the influence of autapses, synapses from a neuron onto itself via closed loops, on neural synchronization. Here, we build a random network with adaptive exponential integrate-and-fire neurons coupled with chemical synapses, equipped with autapses, to study the effect of the latter on synchronous behavior. We consider time delay in the conductance of the pre-synaptic neuron for excitatory and inhibitory connections. Interestingly, in neural networks consisting of both excitatory and inhibitory neurons, we uncover that synchronous behavior depends on their synapse type. Our results provide evidence on the synchronous and desynchronous activities that emerge in random neural networks with chemical, inhibitory and excitatory synapses where neurons are equipped with autapses. © Copyright © 2020 Protachevicz, Iarosz, Caldas, Antonopoulos, Batista and Kurths.
- ItemThe Economic Impact of Exchanging Breeding Material: Assessing Winter Wheat Production in Germany(Lausanne : Frontiers Media, 2020) Lüttringhaus, Sophia; Gornott, Christoph; Wittkop, Benjamin; Noleppa, Steffen; Lotze-Campen, HermannClimate change impacts imply that the stabilization and improvement of agricultural production systems using technological innovations has become vital. Improvements in plant breeding are integral to such innovations. In the context of German crop breeding programs, the economic impact of exchanging genetic material has yet to be determined. To this end, we analyze in this impact assessment the economic effects on German winter wheat production that are attributable to exchanging parental material amongst breeders in the breeding process. This exchange is supported by the breeders’ exemption, which is an integral part of the German plant variety protection legislation. It ensures that breeders can freely use licensed varieties created by other breeders for their own breeding activities and aims to speed up the development of improved varieties. For our analysis, we created a unique data set that combines variety-specific grain yield, adoption, and pedigree information of 133 winter wheat varieties. We determined the parental pedigree of each variety to see if a variety was created by interbreeding varieties that are internal or external to its specific breeder. Our study is the first that analyzes the economic impact of exchanging genetic material in German breeding programs. We found that more than 90 % of the tested varieties were bred with exchanged parental material, whereby the majority had two external parents. Also, these varieties were planted on an 8.5 times larger area than the varieties that were bred with two internal parents. Due to lower adoption, these only contributed 11 % to the overall winter wheat production in Germany, even though they yielded more. We used an economic surplus model to measure the benefits of exchanging parental breeding material on German winter wheat production. This resulted in an overall estimated economic surplus of 19.2 to 22.0 billion EUR from production year 1972 to 2018. This implies tremendous returns to using the breeder’s exemption, which, from an economic perspective, is almost cost-free for the breeder. We conclude that the exchange of breeding material contributes to improving Germany’s agricultural production and fosters the development of climate-resilient production systems and global food security. © Copyright © 2020 Lüttringhaus, Gornott, Wittkop, Noleppa and Lotze-Campen.
- ItemInfluence of Delayed Conductance on Neuronal Synchronization(Lausanne : Frontiers Media, 2020) Protachevicz, Paulo R.; Borges, Fernando S.; Iarosz, Kelly C.; Baptista, Murilo S.; Lameu, Ewandson L.; Hansen, Matheus; Caldas, Iberê L.; Szezech Jr., José D.; Batista, Antonio M.; Kurths, JürgenIn the brain, the excitation-inhibition balance prevents abnormal synchronous behavior. However, known synaptic conductance intensity can be insufficient to account for the undesired synchronization. Due to this fact, we consider time delay in excitatory and inhibitory conductances and study its effect on the neuronal synchronization. In this work, we build a neuronal network composed of adaptive integrate-and-fire neurons coupled by means of delayed conductances. We observe that the time delay in the excitatory and inhibitory conductivities can alter both the state of the collective behavior (synchronous or desynchronous) and its type (spike or burst). For the weak coupling regime, we find that synchronization appears associated with neurons behaving with extremes highest and lowest mean firing frequency, in contrast to when desynchronization is present when neurons do not exhibit extreme values for the firing frequency. Synchronization can also be characterized by neurons presenting either the highest or the lowest levels in the mean synaptic current. For the strong coupling, synchronous burst activities can occur for delays in the inhibitory conductivity. For approximately equal-length delays in the excitatory and inhibitory conductances, desynchronous spikes activities are identified for both weak and strong coupling regimes. Therefore, our results show that not only the conductance intensity, but also short delays in the inhibitory conductance are relevant to avoid abnormal neuronal synchronization. © Copyright © 2020 Protachevicz, Borges, Iarosz, Baptista, Lameu, Hansen, Caldas, Szezech, Batista and Kurths.
- ItemInstantaneous Cardiac Baroreflex Sensitivity: xBRS Method Quantifies Heart Rate Blood Pressure Variability Ratio at Rest and During Slow Breathing(Lausanne : Frontiers Media, 2020) Wessel, Niels; Gapelyuk, Andrej; Weiß, Jonas; Kraemer, Jan F.; Schmidt, Martin; Berg, Karsten; Malberg, Hagen; Stepan, Holger; Kurths, JürgenSpontaneous baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) is a widely used tool for the quantification of the cardiovascular regulation. Numerous groups use the xBRS method, which calculates the cross-correlation between the systolic beat-to-beat blood pressure and the R-R interval (resampled at 1 Hz) in a 10 s sliding window, with 0–5 s delays for the interval. The delay with the highest correlation is selected and, if significant, the quotient of the standard deviations of the R-R intervals and the systolic blood pressures is recorded as the corresponding xBRS value. In this paper we test the hypothesis that the xBRS method quantifies the causal interactions of spontaneous BRS from non-invasive measurements at rest. We use the term spontaneous BRS in the sense of the sensitivity curve is calculated from non-interventional, i.e., spontaneous, baroreceptor activity. This study includes retrospective analysis of 1828 measurements containing ECG as well as continues blood pressure under resting conditions. Our results show a high correlation between the heart rate – systolic blood pressure variability (HRV/BPV) quotient and the xBRS (r = 0.94, p < 0.001). For a deeper understanding we conducted two surrogate analyses by substituting the systolic blood pressure by its reversed time series. These showed that the xBRS method was not able to quantify causal relationships between the two signals. It was not possible to distinguish between random and baroreflex controlled sequences. It appears xBRS rather determines the HRV/BPV quotient. We conclude that the xBRS method has a potentially large bias in characterizing the capacity of the arterial baroreflex under resting conditions. During slow breathing, estimates for xBRS are significantly increased, which clearly shows that measurements at rest only involve limited baroreflex activity, but does neither challenge, nor show the full range of the arterial baroreflex regulatory capacity. We show that xBRS is exclusively dominated by the heart rate to systolic blood pressure ratio (r = 0.965, p < 0.001). Further investigations should focus on additional autonomous testing procedures such as slow breathing or orthostatic testing to provide a basis for a non-invasive evaluation of baroreflex sensitivity. © Copyright © 2020 Wessel, Gapelyuk, Weiß, Schmidt, Kraemer, Berg, Malberg, Stepan and Kurths.
- ItemUnderstanding Regime Shifts in Social-Ecological Systems Using Data on Direct Ecosystem Service Use(Lausanne : Frontiers Media, 2021) Censkowsky, Philipp; Otto, Ilona M.This paper takes a new look on transition processes in social-ecological systems, identified based on household use of direct ecosystem services in a case study in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. We build on the assumption that high dependence on local ecosystems for basic needs satisfaction corresponds to a “green loop” type of system, with direct feedbacks between environmental degradation and human well-being. Increasing use of distant ecosystems marks a regime shift and with that, the transition to “red loops” in which feedbacks between environmental degradation and human well-being are only indirect. These systems are characterized by a fundamentally different set of sustainability problems as well as distinct human-nature connections. The analysis of a case study in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, shows that social-ecological systems identified as green loops in 1993, the average share of households using a characteristic bundle of direct ecosystem services drops consistently (animal production, crop production, natural building materials, freshwater, wood). Conversely, in systems identified as red loops, mixed tendencies occur which underpins non-linearities in changing human-nature relationships. We propose to apply the green to red loop transition model to other geographical contexts with regards to studying the use of local ecosystem services as integral part of transformative change in the Anthropocene.
- ItemMultiband Wavelet Age Modeling for a ∼293 m (∼600 kyr) Sediment Core From Chew Bahir Basin, Southern Ethiopian Rift(Lausanne : Frontiers Media, 2021) Duesing, Walter; Berner, Nadine; Deino, Alan L.; Foerster, Verena; Kraemer, K. Hauke; Marwan, Norbert; Trauth, Martin H.The use of cyclostratigraphy to reconstruct the timing of deposition of lacustrine deposits requires sophisticated tuning techniques that can accommodate continuous long-term changes in sedimentation rates. However, most tuning methods use stationary filters that are unable to take into account such long-term variations in accumulation rates. To overcome this problem we present herein a new multiband wavelet age modeling (MUBAWA) technique that is particularly suitable for such situations and demonstrate its use on a 293 m composite core from the Chew Bahir basin, southern Ethiopian rift. In contrast to traditional tuning methods, which use a single, defined bandpass filter, the new method uses an adaptive bandpass filter that adapts to changes in continuous spatial frequency evolution paths in a wavelet power spectrum, within which the wavelength varies considerably along the length of the core due to continuous changes in long-term sedimentation rates. We first applied the MUBAWA technique to a synthetic data set before then using it to establish an age model for the approximately 293 m long composite core from the Chew Bahir basin. For this we used the 2nd principal component of color reflectance values from the sediment, which showed distinct cycles with wavelengths of 10–15 and of ∼40 m that were probably a result of the influence of orbital cycles. We used six independent 40Ar/39Ar ages from volcanic ash layers within the core to determine an approximate spatial frequency range for the orbital signal. Our results demonstrate that the new wavelet-based age modeling technique can significantly increase the accuracy of tuned age models.
- ItemHow to Optimize the Supply and Allocation of Medical Emergency Resources During Public Health Emergencies(Lausanne : Frontiers Media, 2020) Wang, Chunyu; Deng, Yue; Yuan, Ziheng; Zhang, Chijun; Zhang, Fan; Cai, Qing; Gao, Chao; Kurths, JürgenThe solutions to the supply and allocation of medical emergency resources during public health emergencies greatly affect the efficiency of epidemic prevention and control. Currently, the main problem in computational epidemiology is how the allocation scheme should be adjusted in accordance with epidemic trends to satisfy the needs of population coverage, epidemic propagation prevention, and the social allocation balance. More specifically, the metropolitan demand for medical emergency resources varies depending on different local epidemic situations. It is therefore difficult to satisfy all objectives at the same time in real applications. In this paper, a data-driven multi-objective optimization method, called as GA-PSO, is proposed to address such problem. It adopts the one-way crossover and mutation operations to modify the particle updating framework in order to escape the local optimum. Taking the megacity Shenzhen in China as an example, experiments show that GA-PSO effectively balances different objectives and generates a feasible allocation strategy. Such a strategy does not only support the decision-making process of the Shenzhen center in terms of disease control and prevention, but it also enables us to control the potential propagation of COVID-19 and other epidemics. © Copyright © 2020 Wang, Deng, Yuan, Zhang, Zhang, Cai, Gao and Kurths.
- ItemEditorial: Climatic and Associated Cryospheric and Hydrospheric Changes on the Third Pole(Lausanne : Frontiers Media, 2021) Wang, Lei; Song, Chunqiao; Conradt, Tobias; Rasmy, Mohamed; Li, Xiuping[No abstract available]
- ItemInfluence of Sound on Empirical Brain Networks(Lausanne : Frontiers Media, 2021) Sawicki, Jakub; Schöll, EckehardWe analyze the influence of an external sound source in a network of FitzHugh–Nagumo oscillators with empirical structural connectivity measured in healthy human subjects. We report synchronization patterns, induced by the frequency of the sound source. We show that the level of synchrony can be enhanced by choosing the frequency of the sound source and its amplitude as control parameters for synchronization patterns. We discuss a minimum model elucidating the modalities of the influence of music on the human brain.
- ItemAgriculture's Historic Twin-Challenge Toward Sustainable Water Use and Food Supply for All(Lausanne : Frontiers Media, 2020) Jägermeyr, JonasA sustainable and just future, envisioned by the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, puts agricultural systems under a heavy strain. The century-old quandary to provide ever-growing human populations with sufficient food takes on a new dimension with the recognition of environmental limits for agricultural resource use. To highlight challenges and opportunities toward sustainable food security in the twenty first century, this perspective paper provides a historical account of the escalating pressures on agriculture and freshwater resources alike, supported by new quantitative estimates of the ascent of excessive human water use. As the transformation of global farming into sustainable forms is unattainable without a revolution in agricultural water use, water saving and food production potentials are put into perspective with targets outlined by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The literature body and here-confirmed global estimates of untapped opportunities in farm water management indicate that these measures could sustainably intensify today's farming systems at scale. While rigorous implementation of sustainable water withdrawals (SDG 6.4) might impinge upon 5% of global food production, scaling-up water interventions in rainfed and irrigated systems could over-compensate such losses and further increase global production by 30% compared to the current situation (SDG 2.3). Without relying on future technological fixes, traditional on-farm water and soil management provides key strategies associated with important synergies that needs better integration into agro-ecological landscape approaches. Integrated strategies for sustainable intensification of agriculture within planetary boundaries are a potential way to attain several SDGs, but they are not yet receiving attention from high-level development policies. © Copyright © 2020 Jägermeyr.