University of Konstanz

Eco-evolutionary dynamics and environmental detoxification jointly shape bacterial community response to antibiotic perturbation

Microbial communities frequently encounter recurrent antibiotic disturbance, yet how ecological, evolutionary, and environmental processes jointly shape community responses remains unresolved. Here, we use priming to describe the history-dependent effect whereby prior exposure al...

The Local Least Action Criterion Fails as a Selection Criterion for Weak Solutions of the Compressible Euler Equations

Abstract It is now well known that the classical notion of admissible weak solutions (also known as weak entropy solutions) does not restore uniqueness for the multi-dimensional compressible Euler equations. Indeed, convex integration has shown that admissible weak solutions are...

Different Crystalline Chain Conformations Detected by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Account for Even–Odd Effects in Biodegradable Polyethylene-Like PE-2, N Polyesters

Abstract The distinct conformations and motions of diol segments in the crystallites of easily accessible polyethylene-like aliphatic polyesters made from C11, C12, C18, or C19 diacids with 13C2-ethylene glycol (PE-2*,11/12/18/19, respectively) were studied by solid-state 13C nuc...

Differentiability of the Value Function in Control-Constrained Parabolic Problems

Abstract. Along the optimal trajectory of an optimal control problem constrained by a semilinear parabolic partial differential equation, we prove the differentiability of the value function with respect to the initial condition and, under additional assumptions on the solution o...

Sugar-responsive regulation of an autophagy initiation factor shapes carbon-starvation sensitivity in Arabidopsis

Abstract Autophagy is a conserved degradation and recycling pathway that sustains cellular homeostasis and provides energy and building blocks under adverse conditions. Despite detailed core machinery knowledge, transcriptional regulation of autophagy initiation in response to ca...

The security–efficiency trade-off in ransomware networks

Ransomware groups pose a threat to both the economy and national security, yet little is known about their structural dynamics. This study analyses the Conti group using leaked Jabber encrypted instant messaging chat data (similar to Messenger) and Relational Event Models to exam...

Spin Polarized Transport in Copper Oxide Atomic Junctions Revealed by Anomalous Shot Noise Behavior in the Presence of the Kondo Effect

Abstract Noise measurements provide a valuable tool for revealing spin polarization effects in the electronic transport through quantum coherent conductors. We present an extension of the Landauer description of shot noise to include energy dependent transmission functions and ap...

The vocal repertoire of white-nosed coatis: structural features, temporal dynamics, and social variations

Abstract For many group living species, vocal signals are a vital form of communication needed to coordinate social behaviours. Investigating these processes first requires a detailed description of the species’ vocal repertoire. White-nosed coatis ( Nasua narica ), which forage...

Thinner roots were more efficient to increase soil organic carbon and benefited fungal necromass in an alpine meadow

Abstract Microbial necromass is a key regulator of soil organic carbon (SOC) stability in terrestrial ecosystems, and its formation is directly linked to microbial life cycles. Soil microbes are closely associated with plant community composition and the related root functional t...

When and how do governments succeed in introducing electronic voting (e-voting)? A qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) of 35 OECD countries

Abstract Electronic voting (e-voting) is pivotal for modern democratic institutions in the digital age. Despite nearly six decades of e-voting technology development, significant disparities exist in its global introduction. Existing studies primarily focus on country-specific ex...

Females cooperate, rather than monopolize reproduction, in multi-female groups of cooperatively breeding birds and mammals

Abstract Scholars have long sought to understand why, in some cooperatively breeding species, females care for the offspring of other group members while forgoing their own reproduction. Here, we analysed data from 101 cooperatively breeding populations of 73 bird and mammal spec...

Non-uniformly elliptic variational problems on BV

Abstract We establish $$\operatorname {W}^{1,1}$$ W 1 , 1 -regularity and higher gradient integrability for relaxed minimizers of convex integral functionals on $$\operatorname {BV}$$ BV . Unlike classical examples such as the minimal surface integrand, we only require linear gro...

Decoupling of emigration timing and skill acquisition in a saturated population of golden eagles

Abstract Many animals must gain independence from parental care by acquiring skills necessary for survival. Thus, the rate of skill acquisition can predict when parental care ends and animals emigrate. However, young animals sometimes acquire adult-like skills long before they em...

The Echo-Chamber Trap: Symbolic Self-Completion and the Stagnation of Digital Activism

Social movements increasingly rely on digital platforms to mobilize support, raise awareness, and coordinate collective action. At the same time, however, the rise of online activism has intensified concerns regarding “slacktivism”, namely forms of symbolic and low-effort engagem...

AI agents can coordinate via majority-following beyond human scale

Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly deployed in collaborative tasks forming “AI agent societies” where agents interact and influence one another. Whether such groups can spontaneously coordinate without external influence, a hallmark of self-organized regulation in huma...

Bio-inspired decision making in robot swarms under biases

Abstract To operate autonomously, minimal robot swarms must make timely and reliable collective decisions despite noisy individual sensing and severe constraints on communication, computation, and memory. Achieving this capability could expand their use in applications such as he...

Standardized lake fish community assessment using modified multi-mesh gillnets to minimize fish mortality

Systems for assessing the ecological status of lakes with respect to fish population are normally based on catches using conventional European Committee for Standardization (CEN) gill nets. A modified gillnet (MOD) design with less small-mesh and more large-mesh panel area , deve...

Emerging innovations in movement ecology to address planetary challenges

Abstract Movement ecology—the study of how and why animals move within their environments—stands to offer transformative insights into our rapidly changing world, with benefits for both nature and people. Here, we present the first global horizon scan for movement ecology, engagi...

Co-sedimentation is the key to the structural investigation of wild-type FAT10

Under inflammatory conditions, the ubiquitin-like modifier FAT10 serves as a tag for protein degradation by the 26S proteasome. FAT10 is degraded along with its substrates and this process is independent of the segregase VCP/p97, which, in the regular ubiquitin pathway of degrada...

Bulk degradation of P-, Sb- and As-doped Cz Si wafers and TOPCon cells due to light and elevated temperature

We assessed light- and elevated-temperature induced degradation (LeTID) in n -type Czochralski (Cz) Si wafers, and industrial tunnel oxide passivating contact (TOPCon) Si solar cells processed with and without the laser-enhanced contact optimization (LECO). A recovery pre-treatme...