@article{BentsRybakGroth2017, author = {Bents, Dominik and Rybak, Alexander and Groth, Detlef}, title = {Spatial conscript body height correlation of Norwegian districts in the 19th century}, series = {Anthropologischer Anzeiger : journal of biological and clinical anthropology ; Mitteilungsorgan der Gesellschaft f{\"u}r Anthropologie}, volume = {74}, journal = {Anthropologischer Anzeiger : journal of biological and clinical anthropology ; Mitteilungsorgan der Gesellschaft f{\"u}r Anthropologie}, number = {1}, publisher = {Schweizerbart}, address = {Stuttgart}, issn = {0003-5548}, doi = {10.1127/anthranz/2017/0700}, pages = {65 -- 69}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Background: We investigated height of Norwegian conscripts in view of the hypothesis of a "community effect on height" using autocorrelation analysis of district heights within a time-span of 20 years at the end of the 19th century and correlations between neighboring districts at this time. Material and methods: After digitalizing available body height data of Norwegian draftees in 1877-1878, 1880 (averaged as 1878), and 1895-1897 (averaged as 1896) we calculated the magnitude of autocorrelation of body height within the same municipality at different time points. Furthermore, we generated three different neighborhood networks, (1) based on Euclidean distances, (2) a minimum spanning tree build on those distances, (3) a network founded on real world road connections. The networks were used to determine the correlation between body height of neighboring districts depending on the number of edges required to connect two municipalities. Results: The autocorrelation value for body heights was around r = 0.5 (for all p < 0.001) in the years 1878 and 1896. The correlation between neighboring districts varied in the Euclidean distance based network between 0.47 and 0.27 approximately for both years in a sorted order, descending from nearest (0-50 km) to farthest (150-200 km, for all p < 0.001). First order neighbors in the minimum spanning tree network correlation was 0.36 in 1878 and 0.42 in 1896 (for all p < 0.001). The values of neighbor correlation in the road connection based network ranged in 1878 from 0.42 (first order neighbors) to 0.17 (forth order neighbors, for all p < 0.01) and in 1896 from 0.46 (first order neighbors) to 0.12 (forth order neighbors, for all p < 0.05). Conclusion: This initial study of Norwegian conscript height data from the 19th century showed significant medium sized effects for the within district autocorrelation between 1878 and 1896 as well as medium neighborhood correlation, slightly lower in comparison to a recent study regarding Swiss conscripts. Digitalizing more data from other years in this and later time spans as well as using older road and ship connections instead of the actual road data might stabilize and improve those findings.}, language = {en} } @article{GisderSchuelerHorchleretal.2017, author = {Gisder, Sebastian and Sch{\"u}ler, Vivian and Horchler, Lennart L. and Groth, Detlef and Genersch, Elke}, title = {Long-Term Temporal Trends of Nosema spp. Infection Prevalence in Northeast Germany}, series = {Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology}, volume = {7}, journal = {Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology}, publisher = {Frontiers Research Foundation}, address = {Lausanne}, issn = {2235-2988}, doi = {10.3389/fcimb.2017.00301}, pages = {14}, year = {2017}, abstract = {The Western honey bee (Apis mellifera) is widely used as commercial pollinator in worldwide agriculture and, therefore, plays an important role in global food security. Among the parasites and pathogens threatening health and survival of honey bees are two species of microsporidia, Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae. Nosema ceranae is considered an emerging pathogen of the Western honey bee. Reports on the spread of N. ceranae suggested that this presumably highly virulent species is replacing its more benign congener N. apis in the global A. mellifera population. We here present a 12 year longitudinal cohort study on the prevalence of N. apis and N. ceranae in Northeast Germany. Between 2005 and 2016, a cohort of about 230 honey bee colonies originating from 23 apiaries was sampled twice a year (spring and autumn) resulting in a total of 5,600 bee samples which were subjected to microscopic and molecular analysis for determining the presence of infections with N. apis or/and N. ceranae. Throughout the entire study period, both N. apis- and N. ceranae-infections could be diagnosed within the cohort. Logistic regression analysis of the prevalence data demonstrated a significant increase of N. ceranae-infections over the last 12 years, both in autumn (reflecting the development during the summer) and in spring (reflecting the development over winter) samples. Cell culture experiments confirmed that N. ceranae has a higher proliferative potential than N. apis at 27. and 33 degrees C potentially explaining the increase in N. ceranae prevalence during summer. In autumn, characterized by generally low infection prevalence, this increase was accompanied by a significant decrease in N. apis- infection prevalence. In contrast, in spring, the season with a higher prevalence of infection, no significant decrease of N. apis infections despite a significant increase in N. ceranae infections could be observed. Therefore, our data do not support a general advantage of N. ceranae over N. apis and an overall replacement of N. apis by N. ceranae in the studied honey bee population.}, language = {en} } @article{GomulaKozielGrothetal.2017, author = {Gomula, Aleksandra and Koziel, Slawomir and Groth, Detlef and Bielicki, Tadeusz}, title = {The effect of neighboring districts on body height of Polish conscripts}, series = {Anthropologischer Anzeiger : journal of biological and clinical anthropology ; Mitteilungsorgan der Gesellschaft f{\"u}r Anthropologie}, volume = {74}, journal = {Anthropologischer Anzeiger : journal of biological and clinical anthropology ; Mitteilungsorgan der Gesellschaft f{\"u}r Anthropologie}, number = {1}, publisher = {Schweizerbart}, address = {Stuttgart}, issn = {0003-5548}, doi = {10.1127/anthranz/2017/0701}, pages = {71 -- 76}, year = {2017}, abstract = {The aim of the study was to investigate the correlation of heights of conscripts living in neighboring districts in Poland. The study used 10\% of a nationally representative sample of 26,178 males 18.5-19.5 years old examined during the National survey of Polish conscripts conducted in 2001. The sample represented all regions and social strata of the country and included 354 different districts within 16 voivodships (provinces). Analyses were performed with the R statistical software. A small but significant correlation (0.24, p < 0.0001) was observed for height between 1st order neighboring districts. Correlations decreased with increased distances between neighboring districts, but remained significant for 7th node neighbors (0.18, p < 0.0001). Regarding voivodships (provinces), average height showed a geographical trend from the northwest (relatively tall) to the southeast (relatively short), and the correlation was stronger for first order neighboring provinces (0.796, p < 0.001). This study revealed clusters of tall people and short people, providing a support for hypothesis of the community effect in height. Small correlations between 1st order neighbors than in another country (Switzerland) may be associated with differences in geography, since in Poland there are no natural barriers (e.g., mountains) and road infrastructure is well-developed.}, language = {en} } @article{SchedinaGrothSchluppetal.2018, author = {Schedina, Ina Maria and Groth, Detlef and Schlupp, Ingo and Tiedemann, Ralph}, title = {The gonadal transcriptome of the unisexual Amazon molly Poecilia formosa in comparison to its sexual ancestors, Poecilia mexicana and Poecilia latipinna}, series = {BMC Genomics}, volume = {19}, journal = {BMC Genomics}, number = {12}, publisher = {BioMed Central}, address = {London}, issn = {1471-2164}, doi = {10.1186/s12864-017-4382-2}, pages = {1 -- 18}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Background The unisexual Amazon molly (Poecilia formosa) originated from a hybridization between two sexual species, the sailfin molly (Poecilia latipinna) and the Atlantic molly (Poecilia mexicana). The Amazon molly reproduces clonally via sperm-dependent parthenogenesis (gynogenesis), in which the sperm of closely related species triggers embryogenesis of the apomictic oocytes, but typically does not contribute genetic material to the next generation. We compare for the first time the gonadal transcriptome of the Amazon molly to those of both ancestral species, P. mexicana and P. latipinna. Results We sequenced the gonadal transcriptomes of the P. formosa and its parental species P. mexicana and P. latipinna using Illumina RNA-sequencing techniques (paired-end, 100 bp). De novo assembly of about 50 million raw read pairs for each species was performed using Trinity, yielding 106,922 transcripts for P. formosa, 115,175 for P. latipinna, and 133,025 for P. mexicana after eliminating contaminations. On the basis of sequence similarity comparisons to other teleost species and the UniProt databases, functional annotation, and differential expression analysis, we demonstrate the similarity of the transcriptomes among the three species. More than 40\% of the transcripts for each species were functionally annotated and about 70\% were assigned to orthologous genes of a closely related species. Differential expression analysis between the sexual and unisexual species uncovered 2035 up-regulated and 564 down-regulated genes in P. formosa. This was exemplary validated for six genes by qRT-PCR. Conclusions We identified more than 130 genes related to meiosis and reproduction within the apomictically reproducing P. formosa. Overall expression of these genes seems to be down-regulated in the P. formosa transcriptome compared to both ancestral species (i.e., 106 genes down-regulated, 29 up-regulated). A further 35 meiosis and reproduction related genes were not found in the P. formosa transcriptome, but were only expressed in the sexual species. Our data support the hypothesis of general down-regulation of meiosis-related genes in the apomictic Amazon molly. Furthermore, the obtained dataset and identified gene catalog will serve as a resource for future research on the molecular mechanisms behind the reproductive mode of this unisexual species.}, language = {en} } @article{BentsGrothSatake2018, author = {Bents, Dominik and Groth, Detlef and Satake, Takashi}, title = {The secular trend and network effects on height of male Japanese students from 1955 to 2015}, series = {Journal of biological and clinical anthropology}, volume = {74}, journal = {Journal of biological and clinical anthropology}, number = {5}, publisher = {Schweizerbart}, address = {Stuttgart}, issn = {0003-5548}, doi = {10.1127/anthranz/2018/0838}, pages = {423 -- 429}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Introduction: Body height is influenced by biological factors such as genetics, nutrition and health, but also by the social network, and environmental and economical factors. During centuries, the Japanese society has developed on islands. This setting provides ideal natural conditions for studying the influence of social networks on human height. Material and methods: We investigated body height of male Japanese students aged 17.5 years obtained in 47 prefectures, from the Japanese school health survey of the years 1955, 1975, 1995, and 2015. Results: Japanese students increased in height from 163.23 cm in 1955 to 170.84 cm in 1995, with no further increase thereafter (170.63 cm in 2015). Students living in neighboring prefectures were similar in height. The correlation of height between neighboring prefectures ranged between r = 0.79 and r = 0.49 among first degree neighbors, between r = 0.49 and r = 0.21 among second degree neighbors and dropped to insignificance among third degree neighbors indicating psychosocial effects of the community on body height. Tall stature and short stature prefectures did not remain tall or short throughout history. Autocorrelations of height within the same prefectures decreased from the 20 years periods of 1955-1975, 1975-1995 and 1995-2015 (r = 0.52, r = 0.61, r = 0.63, respectively) to the 40 years periods of 1955-1995 and 1975-2015 (r = 0.49, r = 0.52), down to the 60 years period of 1955-2015 (r = 0.27), indicating significant volatility of height. Conclusion: Body height of 17.5 years old Japanese students increased since 1955. Body height depended on height of the neighboring prefecture, but was volatile with decreasing autocorrelation during a period of 60 years.}, language = {en} } @article{LiuGroth2018, author = {Liu, Yuk-Chien and Groth, Detlef}, title = {Body height, social dominance and the political climate}, series = {Journal of biological and clinical anthropology}, volume = {74}, journal = {Journal of biological and clinical anthropology}, number = {5}, publisher = {Schweizerbart}, address = {Stuttgart}, issn = {0003-5548}, doi = {10.1127/anthranz/2018/0855}, pages = {445 -- 450}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Background: The association between stature and social dominance is known. Dominance within social groups and current politics are related issues. We therefore aimed to compare estimates of the opinion of a population about their current political issues, with physical growth. Material and methods: We used data on the 2012 and the 2014 elections for the Japanese House of Representatives and the percent proportion of votes of the 47 prefectures of Japan, and regional data on body height of 17.5 year old men and women. Information on capita income, possession of mobile phones, urban/rural population ratio, and age distribution were added to capture socioeconomic factors. Four political parties were present in most of the 47 prefectures: the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), the New Komeito Party (Kom) that is known for their social network community, and the Japanese Communist Party (JCP). Results: A dense network of associations exists between height, age distribution, per capita income, number of smartphones, and voting results. Male and female body height was inversely related with the proportion of votes for New Komeito Party. Average stature decreases by one mm per percent votes for this political party. Medium strong positive associations were found for male body height and voting results of the DPJ and for female body height with the JCP election results. Conclusion: In modern Japan, popular preferences for conservative political structures coincide with shorter stature.}, language = {en} } @article{KozielSchefflerTutkuvieneetal.2018, author = {Koziel, Slawomir and Scheffler, Christiane and Tutkuviene, Janina and Jakimaviciene, Egle Marija and Mumm, Rebekka and Barbieri, Davide and Godina, Elena and El-Shabrawi, Mortada and Elhusseini, Mona and Musalek, Martin and Pruszkowska-Przybylska, Paulina and El Dash, Hanaa H. and Safar, Hebatalla Hassan and Lehmann, Andreas and Swanson, James and Bogin, Barry and Liu, Yuk-Chien and Groth, Detlef and Kirchengast, Sylvia and Siniarska, Anna and Nieczuja-Dwojacka, Joanna and Kralik, Miroslav and Satake, Takashi and Harc, Tomasz and Roelants, Mathieu and Hermanussen, Michael}, title = {Meeting Report: Growth and social environment}, series = {Pediatric Endocrinology Reviews}, volume = {15}, journal = {Pediatric Endocrinology Reviews}, number = {4}, publisher = {Medical Media}, address = {Netanya}, issn = {1565-4753}, doi = {10.17458/per.vol15.2018.ksh.mr.GrowthSocialEnvironment}, pages = {319 -- 329}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Twenty-two scientists met at Krobielowice, Poland, to discuss the impact of the social environment, spatial proximity, migration, poverty, but also psychological factors such as body perception and satisfaction, and social stressors such as elite sports, and teenage pregnancies, on child and adolescent growth. The data analysis included linear mixed effects models with different random effects, Monte Carlo analyses, and network simulations. The work stressed the importance of the peer group, but also included historic material, some considerations about body proportions, and growth in chronic liver, and congenital heart disease.}, language = {en} } @article{ParfentevaGrothScheffleretal.2019, author = {Parfenteva, Olga and Groth, Detlef and Scheffler, Christiane and Zaharova, Maria F.}, title = {Influence of the A/T polymorphism of the FTO gene and sport specializations on the body composition of young Russian athletes}, series = {Journal of biological and clinical anthropology : Anthropologischer Anzeiger ; Mitteilungsorgan der Gesellschaft f{\"u}r Anthropologie}, volume = {76}, journal = {Journal of biological and clinical anthropology : Anthropologischer Anzeiger ; Mitteilungsorgan der Gesellschaft f{\"u}r Anthropologie}, number = {5}, publisher = {Schweizerbart}, address = {Stuttgart}, issn = {0003-5548}, doi = {10.1127/anthranz/2019/0943}, pages = {401 -- 408}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Background: The polymorphism in FTO gene (rs9939609) is known to be associated with higher BMI and body fat mass content. However, environmental factors can modify this effect. The purpose of the present study was to investigate an association between sport specialization and the rs9939609 SNP in FTO gene in the cohort of professional and amateur young athletes. Methods: A total number of 250 young individuals 8-18 years old living in Moscow or Moscow district participated in the study. Individuals were divided into 3 groups in accordance with their physical activity level: control group (n = 49), amateurs (n = 67) and professionals (n = 137). Amateur and professional athletes were subdivided into groups according to their sport specialization. Quantile regression was used as a regression model, where the dependent (outcome) variable was BMI, along with percentage of body fat mass, and the independent variables (predictors) were the rs9939609 SNP in FTO gene, physical activity (active versus inactive), sport specialization (aerobic, intermittent sports and martial arts), nationality, level of sport experience (in years), gender and percentage of free fat mass content. Results: The regression analysis revealed that physical activity and sport specialization had greater impact compared to FTO allele in the group of physically active individuals. Physical activity, in particular aerobic, had negative associations with body fat mass and BMI. The rs9939609 SNP in FTO gene is associated with physical activity and aerobic activity. The magnitude of association becomes significantly larger at the upper quantiles of the body fat mass distribution. Conclusion: Physical activity and sport specialization explained more variance in body composition of physically active young individuals compared to the FTO polymorphism. Effect of interaction of physical activity, in particular aerobic, with the FTO polymorphism on body composition of young athletes was found.}, language = {en} } @article{FritzMakeyevaStaubetal.2019, author = {Fritz, Amelie and Makeyeva, Angelina and Staub, Kaspar and Groth, Detlef}, title = {Influence of network properties on a migration induced secular height trend by Monte Carlo simulation}, series = {Journal of biological and clinical anthropology : Anthropologischer Anzeiger ; Mitteilungsorgan der Gesellschaft f{\"u}r Anthropologie}, volume = {76}, journal = {Journal of biological and clinical anthropology : Anthropologischer Anzeiger ; Mitteilungsorgan der Gesellschaft f{\"u}r Anthropologie}, number = {5}, publisher = {Schweizerbart}, address = {Stuttgart}, issn = {0003-5548}, doi = {10.1127/anthranz/2019/1032}, pages = {433 -- 443}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Background: Recent research reported height biased migration of taller individuals and a Monte Carlo simulation showed that such preferential migration of taller individuals into network hubs can induce a secular trend of height. In the simulation model taller agents in the hubs raise the overall height of all individuals in the network by a community effect. However, it could be seen that the actual network structure influences the strength of this effect. In this paper the background and the influence of the network structure on the strength of the secular trend by migration is investigated. Material and methods: Three principal network types are analyzed: networks derived from street connections in Switzerland, more regular fishing net like networks and randomly generated ones. Our networks have between 10 and 152 nodes and between 20 and 307 edges connecting the nodes. Depending on the network size between 5.000 and 90.000 agents with an average height of 170 cm (SD 6.5 cm) are initially released into the network. In each iteration new agents are regenerated based on the actual average body height of the previous iteration and, to a certain proportion, corrected by body heights in the neighboring nodes. After generating new agents, a certain number of them migrated into neighbor nodes, the model let preferentially taller agents migrate into network hubs. Migration is balanced by back migration of the same number of agents from nodes with high centrality measures to less connected nodes. The latter is random as well, but not biased by the agents height. Furthermore the distribution of agents per node and their correlation to the centrality of the nodes is varied in a systematic manner. After 100 iterations, the secular trend, i.e. the gain in body height for the different networks, is investigated in relation to the network properties. Results: We observe an increase of average agent body height after 100 iterations if height biased migration is enabled. The increase rate depends on the height of the neighboring factor, the population distribution, the relationship between population in the nodes and their centrality as well as on the network topology. Networks with uniform like distributions of the agents in the nodes, uncorrelated associations between node centrality and agent number per node, as well as very heterogeneous networks with very different node centralities lead to biggest gains in average body height. Conclusion: Our simulations show, that height biased migration into network hubs can possibly contribute to the secular trend of height increase in the human population. The strength of this "tall by migration" event depends on the actual properties of the underlying network. There is a possible significance of this mechanism for social networks, when hubs are represented by individuals and edges as their personal relationships. However, the required high number of iterations to achieve significant effects in more natural network structures in our models requires further studies to test the relevance and real effect sizes in real world scenarios.}, language = {en} } @article{HermanussenPulunganScheffleretal.2019, author = {Hermanussen, Michael and Pulungan, Aman B. and Scheffler, Christiane and Mumm, Rebekka and Rogol, Alan D. and Pop, Raluca and Swanson, James M. and Sonuga-Barke, Edmund and Reimann, Anna and Siniarska-Wolanska, Anna and Musalek, Martin and Bogin, Barry and Boldsen, Jesper L. and Tassenaar, (Vincent) and Groth, Detlef and Liu, Yuk-Chien and Meigen, Christof and Quanjer, Bjorn and Thompson, Kristina and Ozer, Baak Koca and Bryl, Ewa and Mamrot, Paula and Hanc, Tomasz and Koziel, Slawomir and Soderhall, Jani and Gomula, Aleksandra and Banik, Sudip Datta and Roelants, Mathieu and Veldre, Gudrun and Lieberman, Leslie Sue and Sievert, Lynnette Leidy}, title = {Meeting Reports}, series = {Pediatric Endocrinology Reviews}, volume = {16}, journal = {Pediatric Endocrinology Reviews}, number = {3}, publisher = {Medical Media}, address = {Netanya}, issn = {1565-4753}, doi = {10.17458/per.vol16.2019.hps.mr.26achauersoiree}, pages = {383 -- 400}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Thirty-one scientists met at Aschauhof, Germany to discuss the role of beliefs and self-perception on body size. In view of apparent growth stimulatory effects of dominance within the social group that is observed in social mammals, they discussed various aspects of competitive growth strategies and growth adjustments. Presentations included new data from Indonesia, a cohort-based prospective study from Merida, Yucatan, and evidence from recent meta-analyses and patterns of growth in the socially deprived. The effects of stress experienced during pregnancy and adverse childhood events were discussed, as well as obesity in school children, with emphasis on problems when using z-scores in extremely obese children. Aspects were presented on body image in African-American women, and body perception and the disappointments of menopause in view of feelings of attractiveness in different populations. Secular trends in height were presented, including short views on so called 'racial types' vs bio-plasticity, and historic data on early-life nutritional status and later-life socioeconomic outcomes during the Dutch potato famine. New tools for describing body proportions in patients with variable degrees of phocomelia were presented along with electronic growth charts. Bio-statisticians discussed the influence of randomness, community and network structures, and presented novel tools and methods for analyzing social network data.}, language = {en} }