Cell symbioisis theory: Status and implications for the fossil record

Although the entire serial endosymbiotic theory has not been proven much progress has been made and the nature of the remaining critical observations can be now identified. There is little doubt that, regardless of the precise details, prokaryotes are single genomic systems and all eukaryotic cells are multigenomic ones. Eukaryotic cells are therefore best thought of as co-evolved microbial communities, entities that emerged as the symbiotic partnerships became tightly integrated by the late Late Proterozoic Aeon.     

Succession in a microbial mat community: A gaian perspective

The Gaia hypothesis originally proposed by James E. Lovelock states that the composition, oxidation-reduction state and temperature of the troposphere are actively regulated by the activities of the biota. The gaian concept has been extrapolated to include the composition of surface sediments through the process of biomineralization. The stratified microbial community dominated by the cyanobacterium Microcoleus chthonoplastes is actively involved in the deposition of laminated sediments at Laguna Figueroa, Baja California, Mexico. Unusually heavy rains in the winters of 1979 and 1980 flooded the evaporite flat with up to 3 meters of meteoric water and deposited 5 – 10 cm of allocthonous sediment. The composition of the microbial community changed as a succession of dominating microbial species ensued, ultimately leading to the recolonization of the surface sediment by the original Microcoleus-dominated community. The resiliency of bacterial communities is suggested to be an important mechanism of gaian control systems.     

Depeaking – economic optimization of air traffic systems

More than half of all flights in and out of Frankfurt International Airport are conducted by Lufthansa airlines, as it is one of their two major hubs. The so called hub and spokes systems allow airlines to bundle major passenger flows via connecting flights across the in- and outbound traffic. The reliability of these transfer connections, and specifically the arrival punctuality at the hub airports are crucial to the economics of the daily operation.Since Frankfurt International Airport has lately been one of the most congested airports in Europe, delays (in particular arrival delays) have increased quite significantly throughout the last years. To compensate for additional queueing time in the arrival processes, the scheduled block times inbound Frankfurt were continuously adjusted upwardly keeping the arrival punctuality (and thereby the connection reliability) close to stable. The two disadvantages of this approach have been the decrease in aircraft productivity and over-deliveries in peak hours, which in turn induce either additional block time delay or ground delay programs inbound Frankfurt.This paper introduces an iterative stochastic-simulation approach that models the vicious circle of lengthening block times and increased over-deliveries. In a second step it quantifies the operational and economical effects of depeaking the schedule and illustrates the overall growth potentials for the depeaked operation of the airport. The schedule was successfully implemented in Frankfurt in summer 2004.