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Wastewater treatment plants play an important role in the emergence of antibiotic resistance. They provide a hot spot for exchange of resistance within and between species. Here, we analyse and quantify the genomic diversity of the indicator Escherichia coli in a German wastewater treatment plant and we relate it to isolates’ antibiotic resistance. Our results show a surprisingly large pan-genome, which mirrors how rich an environment a treatment plant is. We link the genomic analysis to a phenotypic resistance screen and pinpoint genomic hot spots, which correlate with a resistance phenotype. Besides well-known resistance genes, this forward genomics approach generates many novel genes, which correlated with resistance and which are partly completely unknown. A surprising overall finding of our analyses is that we do not see any difference in resistance and pan genome size between isolates taken from the inflow of the treatment plant and from the outflow. This means that while treatment plants reduce the amount of bacteria released into the environment, they do not reduce the potential for antibiotic resistance of these bacteria.

The generation and application of human stem-cell-derived functional neural circuits promises novel insights into neurodegenerative diseases. These networks are often studied using stem-cell derived random neural networks in vitro, with electrical stimulation and recording using multielectrode arrays. However, the impulse response function of networks is best obtained with spatiotemporally well-defined stimuli, which electrical stimulation does not provide. Optogenetics allows for the functional control of genetically altered cells with light stimuli at high spatiotemporal resolution. Current optogenetic investigations of neural networks are often conducted using full field illumination, potentially masking important functional information. This can be avoided using holographically shaped illumination. In this article, we present a digital holographic illumination setup with a spatial resolution of about 8 µm, which suffices for the stimulation of single neurons, and offers a temporal resolution of less than 0.6 ms. With this setup, we present preliminary single-cell stimulation recording of stem-cell derived induced human neurons in a random neural network. This will offer the opportunity for further studies on connectivity in such networks.

Carbon concrete polyacrylonitrile (PAN)/lignin-based carbon fiber (CF) composites are a new promising material class for the building industry. The replacement of the traditional heavy and corroding steel reinforcement by carbon fiber (CF)-based reinforcements offers many significant advantages: a higher protection of environmental resources because of lower CO2 consumption during cement production, a longer lifecycle and thus, much less damage to structural components and a higher degree of design freedom because lightweight solutions can be realized. However, due to cost pressure in civil engineering, completely new process chains are required to manufacture CF-based reinforcement structures for concrete. This article describes the necessary process steps in order to develop CF reinforcement: (1) the production of cost-effective CF using novel carbon fiber lines, and (2) the fabrication of CF rebars with different geometry profiles. It was found that PAN/lignin-based CF is currently the promising material with the most promise to meet future market demands. However, significant research needs to be undertaken in order to improve the properties of lignin-based and PAN/lignin-based CF, respectively. The CF can be manufactured to CF-based rebars using different manufacturing technologies which are developed at a prototype level in this study.

Die Globalisierung ist längst in der Wissenschaft angekommen. Weltweite Kommunikation und hohe Mobilität bieten einen Austausch von Erkenntnissen zwischen Menschen wie nie zuvor. Ein Paradies für Forschung, Lehre und Bildung, und gleichzeitig eine Herausforderung. Denn eine fast unbegrenzte Zahl von Möglichkeiten bedeutet auch eine fast unbegrenzte Möglichkeit an Irrwegen, einen hohen Orientierungsaufwand, eine Informationsschwemme, die Flutung und Überflutung durch Daten bis hin zur Orientierungslosigkeit. Was Chance ist, ist gleichzeitig Risiko, was Stärke, gleichzeitig Schwäche. Hinzu kommt: Was sichtbar ist, wird miteinander verglichen, und wo ich die Wahl habe, treffe ich sie auch. Und so steht den Universitäten in der Informations- und Mobilitätsgesellschaft nicht nur die Welt offen, sondern auch der weltweite Wettbewerb ins Haus. Nicht von ungefähr wird seit einigen Jahren in der Politik und auf den Leitungstreffen der Universitäten und Hochschulen ausgiebig über Internationalisierung, Benchmarking, KPIs (Key Performace Indicators), USP (Unique Selling Proposition), Differenzierung und Change Management diskutiert – Begrifflichkeiten und Kategorien, die bis vor nicht allzu langer Zeit eher die Domäne von Vorständen und Geschäftsführern als von Rektoren waren.

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