TY - JOUR A1 - Wittig, Alice A1 - Miranda, Fabio Malcher A1 - Hölzer, Martin A1 - Altenburg, Tom A1 - Bartoszewicz, Jakub Maciej A1 - Beyvers, Sebastian A1 - Dieckmann, Marius Alfred A1 - Genske, Ulrich A1 - Giese, Sven Hans-Joachim A1 - Nowicka, Melania A1 - Richard, Hugues A1 - Schiebenhoefer, Henning A1 - Schmachtenberg, Anna-Juliane A1 - Sieben, Paul A1 - Tang, Ming A1 - Tembrockhaus, Julius A1 - Renard, Bernhard Y. A1 - Fuchs, Stephan T1 - CovRadar BT - continuously tracking and filtering SARS-CoV-2 mutations for genomic surveillance JF - Bioinformatics N2 - The ongoing pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 emphasizes the importance of genomic surveillance to understand the evolution of the virus, to monitor the viral population, and plan epidemiological responses. Detailed analysis, easy visualization and intuitive filtering of the latest viral sequences are powerful for this purpose. We present CovRadar, a tool for genomic surveillance of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein. CovRadar consists of an analytical pipeline and a web application that enable the analysis and visualization of hundreds of thousand sequences. First, CovRadar extracts the regions of interest using local alignment, then builds a multiple sequence alignment, infers variants and consensus and finally presents the results in an interactive app, making accessing and reporting simple, flexible and fast. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btac411 SN - 1367-4803 SN - 1367-4811 VL - 38 IS - 17 SP - 4223 EP - 4225 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bögelein, Nicole A1 - Eppert, Kerstin A1 - Roth, Viktoria A1 - Schmidt-Kleinert, Anja T1 - Courtroom ethnography in the context of terrorism BT - a multi-level approach JF - International journal of qualitative methods : IJQM N2 - This paper addresses terrorism trials as sites of research and proposes an approach for the analysis of ethnographic data collected during these trials. The suggested approach offers multi-level analytical access, it centers around interactionist conceptions and knowledge discourses. The conceptual framework we suggest is spelled out in terms of how to observe and being sensitive of (re-)production of power structures inside the courtroom as well as in regard to relations imported into the courtroom. For this purpose, we integrate (i) the micro-level of courtroom interactions and (ii) (self-)presentation, (iii) the meso-level of knowledge (re)production and the establishment of knowledge orders and (iv) an intersectional perspective on gender, race, and class in knowledge discourses. By applying a multi-level approach, we open up new explanatory avenues to understand the constitution of terrorism as a socio-legal object. The methodical framework connects hitherto unconnected elements, that is, participants' interactions and negotiation, their (self-)representations, ascriptions and narrative performances, and knowledge (re-)production in order to establish or maintain political and social orders. KW - trials KW - terrorism KW - radicalisation KW - extremism KW - courtroom KW - ethnography; KW - methodology KW - interactionist KW - knowledge discourse Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069221090059 SN - 1609-4069 VL - 21 PB - Sage Publishing CY - Thousand Oaks ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Nemati, Somayyeh A1 - Henkel, Carsten A1 - Anders, Janet T1 - Coupling function from bath density of states JF - epl : a letters journal exploring the frontiers of physics N2 - Modelling of an open quantum system requires knowledge of parameters that specify how it couples to its environment. However, beyond relaxation rates, realistic parameters for specific environments and materials are rarely known. Here we present a method of inferring the coupling between a generic system and its bosonic (e.g., phononic) environment from the experimentally measurable density of states (DOS). With it we confirm that the DOS of the well-known Debye model for three-dimensional solids is physically equivalent to choosing an Ohmic bath. We further match a real phonon DOS to a series of Lorentzian coupling functions, allowing us to determine coupling parameters for gold, yttrium iron garnet (YIG) and iron as examples. The results illustrate how to obtain material-specific dynamical properties, such as memory kernels. The proposed method opens the door to more accurate modelling of relaxation dynamics, for example for phonon-dominated spin damping in magnetic materials. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/ac7b42 SN - 0295-5075 SN - 1286-4854 VL - 139 IS - 3 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fruhstorfer, Anna A1 - Hudson, Alexander T1 - Costs and benefits of accepting presidential term limits BT - should I stay or should I go? JF - Democratization N2 - As presidents approach the end of their constitutionally defined term in office, they face a number of difficulties, most importantly the deprivation of sources of power, personal enrichment, and protection from prosecution. This leads many of them to attempt to circumvent their term limits. Recent studies explain both the reasons for the extension or full abolition of term limits, and failed attempts to do so. Key explanations include electoral competition and the post-term fate of previous post holders. What we do not know yet is how compliance with term limits may be tied to the current president's expectations for their post-term fate. In particular, we do not know whether leaders who attempt to remove term limits and fail to do so jeopardize their post-term career as a result, and conversely, whether leaders who comply will have better outcomes in terms of security, prestige, and economic gain. Hence, we ask how the decision of a leader to comply or not comply with term limits is conditioned by the expectation of their post-term fate. To address this question, this article introduces new data on the career trajectories of term-limited presidents and its systematic effect on term limit compliance. KW - Presidents KW - head of state KW - term limits KW - executives KW - corruption KW - prestige KW - institutional change KW - constitutions Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2021.1960314 SN - 1351-0347 SN - 1743-890X VL - 29 IS - 1 SP - 93 EP - 112 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Maiti, Snehanshu A1 - Makwana, Kirit A1 - Zhang, Heshou A1 - Yan, Huirong T1 - Cosmic-ray transport in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence JF - The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics / part 1 N2 - This paper studies cosmic-ray (CR) transport in magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence. CR transport is strongly dependent on the properties of the magnetic turbulence. We perform test particle simulations to study the interactions of CR with both total MHD turbulence and decomposed MHD modes. The spatial diffusion coefficients and the pitch angle scattering diffusion coefficients are calculated from the test particle trajectories in turbulence. Our results confirm that the fast modes dominate the CR propagation, whereas Alfven and slow modes are much less efficient and have shown similar pitch-angle scattering rates. We investigate the cross field transport on large and small scales. On large/global scales, normal diffusion is observed and the diffusion coefficient is suppressed by M-A(zeta) compared to the parallel diffusion coefficients, with zeta closer to 4 in Alfven modes than that in total turbulence, as theoretically expected. For the CR transport on scales smaller than the turbulence injection scale, both the local and global magnetic reference frames are adopted. Superdiffusion is observed on such small scales in all the cases. Particularly, CR transport in Alfven modes show clear Richardson diffusion in the local reference frame. The diffusion transitions smoothly from the Richardson's one with index 1.5 to normal diffusion as the particle mean free path decreases from lambda(parallel to) >> L to lambda(parallel to) << L, where L is the injection/coherence length of turbulence. Our results have broad applications to CRs in various astrophysical environments. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac46c8 SN - 1538-4357 VL - 926 IS - 1 PB - Institute of Physics Publ. CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Heinze, Johannes T1 - Correction to: Heinze, Johannes: Herbivory by aboveground insects impacts plant root morphological traits. - Plant Ecology. - 221 (2020). - S. 725 - 732 JF - Plant ecology : an international journal Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-021-01194-6 SN - 1385-0237 SN - 1573-5052 VL - 223 IS - 115 PB - Springer CY - Dordrecht ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wright, Michelle F. A1 - Wachs, Sebastian A1 - Yanagida, Takuya A1 - Sevcikova, Anna A1 - Dedkova, Lenka A1 - Bayraktar, Fatih A1 - Aoyama, Ikuko A1 - Kamble, Shanmukh A1 - Macháčková, Hana A1 - Li, Zheng A1 - Soudi, Shruti A1 - Lei, Li A1 - Shu, Chang T1 - Coping with Public and Private Face-to-Face and Cyber Victimization among Adolescents in Six Countries BT - roles of Severity and Country JF - International journal of environmental research and public health N2 - This study investigated the role of medium (face-to-face, cyber) and publicity (public, private) in adolescents' perceptions of severity and coping strategies (i.e., avoidant, ignoring, helplessness, social support seeking, retaliation) for victimization, while accounting for gender and cultural values. There were 3432 adolescents (ages 11-15, 49% girls) in this study; they were from China, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, India, Japan, and the United States. Adolescents completed questionnaires on individualism and collectivism, and ratings of coping strategies and severity for public face-to-face victimization, private face-to-face victimization, public cyber victimization, and private cyber victimization. Findings revealed similarities in adolescents' coping strategies based on perceptions of severity, publicity, and medium for some coping strategies (i.e., social support seeking, retaliation) but differential associations for other coping strategies (i.e., avoidance, helplessness, ignoring). The results of this study are important for prevention and intervention efforts because they underscore the importance of teaching effective coping strategies to adolescents, and to consider how perceptions of severity, publicity, and medium might influence the implementation of these coping strategies. KW - coping KW - country KW - culture KW - victimization KW - severity KW - cyberbullying KW - bullying Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192114405 SN - 1661-7827 SN - 1660-4601 VL - 19 IS - 21 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rodriguez Piceda, Constanza A1 - Scheck-Wenderoth, Magdalena A1 - Bott, Judith A1 - Gomez Dacal, Maria Laura A1 - Cacace, Mauro A1 - Pons, Michael A1 - Prezzi, Claudia A1 - Strecker, Manfred T1 - Controls of the Lithospheric Thermal Field of an Ocean-Continent Subduction Zone BT - the Southern Central Andes JF - Lithosphere / Geological Society of America N2 - In an ocean-continent subduction zone, the assessment of the lithospheric thermal state is essential to determine the controls of the deformation within the upper plate and the dip angle of the subducting lithosphere. In this study, we evaluate the degree of influence of both the configuration of the upper plate (i.e., thickness and composition of the rock units) and variations of the subduction angle on the lithospheric thermal field of the southern Central Andes (29 degrees-39 degrees S). Here, the subduction angle increases from subhorizontal (5 degrees) north of 33 degrees S to steep (similar to 30 degrees) in the south. We derived the 3D temperature and heat flow distribution of the lithosphere in the southern Central Andes considering conversion of S wave tomography to temperatures together with steady-state conductive thermal modeling. We found that the orogen is overall warmer than the forearc and the foreland and that the lithosphere of the northern part of the foreland appears colder than its southern counterpart. Sedimentary blanketing and the thickness of the radiogenic crust exert the main control on the shallow thermal field (<50km depth). Specific conditions are present where the oceanic slab is relatively shallow (<85 km depth) and the radiogenic crust is thin. This configuration results in relatively colder temperatures compared to regions where the radiogenic crust is thick and the slab is steep. At depths >50km, the temperatures of the overriding plate are mainly controlled by the mantle heat input and the subduction angle. The thermal field of the upper plate likely preserves the flat subduction angle and influences the spatial distribution of shortening. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.2113/2022/2237272 SN - 1941-8264 SN - 1947-4253 VL - 2022 IS - 1 PB - GeoScienceWorld CY - McLean ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Liu, Sibiao A1 - Sobolev, Stephan A1 - Babeyko, Andrey A1 - Pons, Michaël T1 - Controls of the foreland deformation pattern in the orogen-foreland shortening system BT - constraints from high-resolution geodynamic models JF - Tectonics N2 - Controls on the deformation pattern (shortening mode and tectonic style) of orogenic forelands during lithospheric shortening remain poorly understood. Here, we use high-resolution 2D thermomechanical models to demonstrate that orogenic crustal thickness and foreland lithospheric thickness significantly control the shortening mode in the foreland. Pure-shear shortening occurs when the orogenic crust is not thicker than the foreland crust or thick, but the foreland lithosphere is thin (<70-80 km, as in the Puna foreland case). Conversely, simple-shear shortening, characterized by foreland underthrusting beneath the orogen, arises when the orogenic crust is much thicker. This thickened crust results in high gravitational potential energy in the orogen, which triggers the migration of deformation to the foreland under further shortening. Our models present fully thick-skinned, fully thin-skinned, and intermediate tectonic styles in the foreland. The first tectonics forms in a pure-shear shortening mode whereas the others require a simple-shear mode and the presence of thick (>similar to 4 km) sediments that are mechanically weak (friction coefficient L-0. I derive simple expressions that show the dependence of the system response time on the system characteristics, such as its length, the size of the upstream catchment area, the amplitude of the incoming sedimentary flux and the respective rate parameters (diffusivity or erodibility) for each of the two models. I show that the xi-q model predicts longer response times. I demonstrate that although the manner in which signals propagates through the sedimentary system differs greatly between the two models, they both predict that perturbations that last longer than the response time of the system can be recorded in the stratigraphy of the sedimentary system and in particular of the fan. Interestingly, the xi-q model predicts that all perturbations in the incoming sedimentary flux will be transmitted through the system, whereas the TL model predicts that rapid perturbations cannot. I finally discuss why and under which conditions these differences are important and propose observational ways to determine which of the two models is most appropriate to represent natural systems. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-10-301-2022 SN - 2196-6311 SN - 2196-632X VL - 10 IS - 2 SP - 301 EP - 327 PB - Copernicus CY - Göttingen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Smith, Adam G. G. A1 - Fox, Matthew A1 - Schwanghart, Wolfgang A1 - Carter, Andrew T1 - Comparing methods for calculating channel steepness index JF - Earth science reviews : the international geological journal bridging the gap between research articles and textbooks N2 - Channel steepness index, k(s), is a metric derived from the stream power model that, under certain conditions, scales with relative rock uplift rate. Channel steepness index is a property of rivers, which can be relatively easily extracted from digital elevation models (DEMs). As DEM data sets are widely available for Earth and are becoming more readily available for other planetary bodies, channel steepness index represents a powerful tool for interpreting tectonic processes. However, multiple approaches to calculate channel steepness index exist. From this several important questions arise; does choice of approach change the values of channel steepness index, can values be so different that choice of approach can influence the findings of a study, and are certain approaches better than others? With the aid of a synthetic river profile and a case study from the Sierra Nevada, California, we show that values of channel steepness index vary over orders of magnitude according to the methodology used in the calculation. We explore the limitations, advantages and disadvantages of the key approaches to calculating channel steepness index, and find that choosing an appropriate approach relies on the context of a study. Given these observations, it is important that authors acknowledge the methodology used to calculate channel steepness index, to ensure that results can be contextualised and reproduced. KW - Channel steepness index KW - Fluvial geomorphology KW - Rivers KW - Tectonics KW - Geomorphology KW - Digital elevation models KW - Sierra nevada Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2022.103970 SN - 0012-8252 SN - 1872-6828 VL - 227 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Potente, Giacomo A1 - Léveillé-Bourret, Étienne A1 - Yousefi, Narjes A1 - Choudhury, Rimjhim Roy A1 - Keller, Barbara A1 - Diop, Seydina Issa A1 - Duijsings, Daniël A1 - Pirovano, Walter A1 - Lenhard, Michael A1 - Szövényi, Péter A1 - Conti, Elena T1 - Comparative genomics elucidates the origin of a supergene controlling floral heteromorphism JF - Molecular biology and evolution : MBE N2 - Supergenes are nonrecombining genomic regions ensuring the coinheritance of multiple, coadapted genes. Despite the importance of supergenes in adaptation, little is known on how they originate. A classic example of supergene is the S locus controlling heterostyly, a floral heteromorphism occurring in 28 angiosperm families. In Primula, heterostyly is characterized by the cooccurrence of two complementary, self-incompatible floral morphs and is controlled by five genes clustered in the hemizygous, ca. 300-kb S locus. Here, we present the first chromosome-scale genome assembly of any heterostylous species, that of Primula veris (cowslip). By leveraging the high contiguity of the P. veris assembly and comparative genomic analyses, we demonstrated that the S-locus evolved via multiple, asynchronous gene duplications and independent gene translocations. Furthermore, we discovered a new whole-genome duplication in Ericales that is specific to the Primula lineage. We also propose a mechanism for the origin of S-locus hemizygosity via nonhomologous recombination involving the newly discovered two pairs of CFB genes flanking the S locus. Finally, we detected only weak signatures of degeneration in the S locus, as predicted for hemizygous supergenes. The present study provides a useful resource for future research addressing key questions on the evolution of supergenes in general and the S locus in particular: How do supergenes arise? What is the role of genome architecture in the evolution of complex adaptations? Is the molecular architecture of heterostyly supergenes across angiosperms similar to that of Primula? KW - genome architecture KW - supergene KW - heterostyly KW - evolutionary genomics KW - chromosome-scale genome assembly KW - primula Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msac035 SN - 0737-4038 SN - 1537-1719 VL - 39 IS - 2 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wendering, Philipp A1 - Nikoloski, Zoran T1 - COMMIT BT - Consideration of metabolite leakage and community composition improves microbial community reconstructions JF - PLoS Computational Biology : a new community journal / publ. by the Public Library of Science (PLoS) in association with the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) N2 - Composition and functions of microbial communities affect important traits in diverse hosts, from crops to humans. Yet, mechanistic understanding of how metabolism of individual microbes is affected by the community composition and metabolite leakage is lacking. Here, we first show that the consensus of automatically generated metabolic reconstructions improves the quality of the draft reconstructions, measured by comparison to reference models. We then devise an approach for gap filling, termed COMMIT, that considers metabolites for secretion based on their permeability and the composition of the community. By applying COMMIT with two soil communities from the Arabidopsis thaliana culture collection, we could significantly reduce the gap-filling solution in comparison to filling gaps in individual reconstructions without affecting the genomic support. Inspection of the metabolic interactions in the soil communities allows us to identify microbes with community roles of helpers and beneficiaries. Therefore, COMMIT offers a versatile fully automated solution for large-scale modelling of microbial communities for diverse biotechnological applications.
Author summaryMicrobial communities are important in ecology, human health, and crop productivity. However, detailed information on the interactions within natural microbial communities is hampered by the community size, lack of detailed information on the biochemistry of single organisms, and the complexity of interactions between community members. Metabolic models are comprised of biochemical reaction networks based on the genome annotation, and can provide mechanistic insights into community functions. Previous analyses of microbial community models have been performed with high-quality reference models or models generated using a single reconstruction pipeline. However, these models do not contain information on the composition of the community that determines the metabolites exchanged between the community members. In addition, the quality of metabolic models is affected by the reconstruction approach used, with direct consequences on the inferred interactions between community members. Here, we use fully automated consensus reconstructions from four approaches to arrive at functional models with improved genomic support while considering the community composition. We applied our pipeline to two soil communities from the Arabidopsis thaliana culture collection, providing only genome sequences. Finally, we show that the obtained models have 90% genomic support and demonstrate that the derived interactions are corroborated by independent computational predictions. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009906 SN - 1553-734X SN - 1553-7358 VL - 18 IS - 3 PB - Public Library of Science CY - San Fransisco ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Prol, Fabricio S. A1 - Smirnov, Artem G. A1 - Hoque, M. Mainul A1 - Shprits, Yuri T1 - Combined model of topside ionosphere and plasmasphere derived from radio-occultation and Van Allen Probes data JF - Scientific reports N2 - In the last years, electron density profile functions characterized by a linear dependence on the scale height showed good results when approximating the topside ionosphere. The performance above 800 km, however, is not yet well investigated. This study investigates the capability of the semi-Epstein functions to represent electron density profiles from the peak height up to 20,000 km. Electron density observations recorded by the Van Allen Probes were used to resolve the scale height dependence in the plasmasphere. It was found that the linear dependence of the scale height in the topside ionosphere cannot be directly used to extrapolate profiles above 800 km. We find that the dependence of scale heights on altitude is quadratic in the plasmasphere. A statistical model of the scale heights is therefore proposed. After combining the topside ionosphere and plasmasphere by a unified model, we have obtained good estimations not only in the profile shapes, but also in the Total Electron Content magnitude and distributions when compared to actual measurements from 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017. Our investigation shows that Van Allen Probes can be merged to radio-occultation data to properly represent the upper ionosphere and plasmasphere by means of a semi-Epstein function. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-13302-1 SN - 2045-2322 VL - 12 IS - 1 PB - Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pham, Duong Tung A1 - Quan, Ting A1 - Mei, Shilin A1 - Lu, Yan T1 - Colloidal metal sulfide nanoparticles for high performance electrochemical energy storage systems JF - Current opinion in green and sustainable chemistry N2 - Transition metal sulfides have emerged as excellent replacement candidates of traditional insertion electrode materials based on their conversion or alloying mechanisms, facilitating high specific capacity and rate ability. However, parasitic reactions such as massive volume change during the discharge/ charge processes, intermediate polysulfide dissolution, and passivating solid electrolyte interface formation have led to poor cyclability, hindering their feasibility and applicability in energy storage systems. Colloidal metal sulfide nanoparticles, a special class that integrates the intrinsic chemical properties of metal sulfides and their specified structural features, have fairly enlarged their contribution due to the synergistic effect. This review highlights the latest synthetic approaches based on colloidal process. Their corresponding electrochemical outcomes will also be discussed, which are thoroughly updated along with their insight scientific standpoints. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogsc.2022.100596 SN - 2452-2236 VL - 34 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Omel'chenko, Oleh A1 - Laing, Carlo R. T1 - Collective states in a ring network of theta neurons JF - Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical, physical and engineering sciences N2 - We consider a ring network of theta neurons with non-local homogeneous coupling. We analyse the corresponding continuum evolution equation, analytically describing all possible steady states and their stability. By considering a number of different parameter sets, we determine the typical bifurcation scenarios of the network, and put on a rigorous footing some previously observed numerical results. KW - theta neurons KW - neural networks KW - bumps Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2021.0817 SN - 1364-5021 SN - 1471-2946 VL - 478 IS - 2259 PB - Royal Society CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Abramova, Olga A1 - Batzel, Katharina A1 - Modesti, Daniela T1 - Collective response to the health crisis among German Twitter users BT - a structural topic modeling approach JF - International Journal of Information Management Data Insights N2 - We used structural topic modeling to analyze over 800,000 German tweets about COVID-19 to answer the questions: What patterns emerge in tweets as a response to a health crisis? And how do topics discussed change over time? The study leans on the goals associated with the health information seeking (GAINS) model, discerning whether a post aims at tackling and eliminating the problem (i.e., problem-focused) or managing the emotions (i.e., emotion-focused); whether it strives to maximize positive outcomes (promotion focus) or to minimize negative outcomes (prevention focus). The findings indicate four clusters salient in public reactions: 1) “Understanding” (problem-promotion); 2) “Action planning” (problem-prevention); 3) “Hope” (emotion-promotion) and 4) “Reassurance” (emotion-prevention). Public communication is volatile over time, and a shift is evidenced from self-centered to community-centered topics within 4.5 weeks. Our study illustrates social media text mining's potential to quickly and efficiently extract public opinions and reactions. Monitoring fears and trending topics enable policymakers to rapidly respond to deviant behavior, like resistive attitudes toward containment measures or deteriorating physical health. Healthcare workers can use the insights to provide mental health services for battling anxiety or extensive loneliness from staying home. KW - social media KW - Twitter KW - modeling KW - regulatory focus theory KW - crisis management KW - text mining Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jjimei.2022.100126 SN - 2667-0968 VL - 2 IS - 2 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Damle, Mitali A1 - Sparre, Martin A1 - Richter, Philipp A1 - Hani, Maan H. A1 - Nuza, Sebastian A1 - Pfrommer, Christoph A1 - Grand, Robert J. J. A1 - Hoffman, Yehuda A1 - Libeskind, Noam A1 - Sorce, Jenny A1 - Steinmetz, Mathias A1 - Tempel, Elmo A1 - Vogelsberger, Mark A1 - Wang, Peng T1 - Cold and hot gas distribution around the Milky-Way – M31 system in the HESTIA simulations JF - Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society N2 - Recent observations have revealed remarkable insights into the gas reservoir in the circumgalactic medium (CGM) of galaxy haloes. In this paper, we characterise the gas in the vicinity of Milky Way and Andromeda analogues in the hestia (High resolution Environmental Simulations of The Immediate Area) suite of constrained Local Group (LG) simulations. The hestia suite comprise of a set of three high-resolution arepo-based simulations of the LG, run using the Auriga galaxy formation model. For this paper, we focus only on the 𝑧 = 0 simulation datasets and generate mock skymaps along with a power spectrum analysis to show that the distributions of ions tracing low-temperature gas (H i and Si iii) are more clumpy in comparison to warmer gas tracers (O vi, O vii and O viii). We compare to the spectroscopic CGM observations of M31 and low-redshift galaxies. hestia under-produces the column densities of the M31 observations, but the simulations are consistent with the observations of low-redshift galaxies. A possible explanation for these findings is that the spectroscopic observations of M31 are contaminated by gas residing in the CGM of the Milky Way. KW - software: data analysis KW - software: simulations KW - Galaxy: evolution KW - galaxies: evolution KW - galaxies: Local Group Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac663 SN - 0035-8711 SN - 1365-2966 VL - 512 SP - 3717 EP - 3737 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dahlke, Sandro A1 - Solbès, Amélie A1 - Maturilli, Marion T1 - Cold air outbreaks in fram strait: climatology, trends, and observations during an extreme season in 2020 JF - Journal of geophysical research : atmospheres N2 - Fram Strait in the northern North Atlantic is a key region for marine cold air outbreaks (MCAOs), southward discharges of polar air under northerly air flow, which have a strong impact on air-sea heat fluxes, boundary layer processes and severe weather. This study investigates climatologies and decadal trends of Fram Strait MCAOs of different intensity classes based on the ERA5 reanalysis product for 1979-2020. Among striking interannual variability, it is shown that the main MCAO season is December through March, when MCAOs occur around 2/3 of the time. We report on significant decadal MCAO decreases in December and January, and a significant increase in March. While the mid-winter decrease is mainly related to the different paces of warming between the surface and the lower atmosphere, the increase in March can be related to changes in synoptic circulation patterns. As an explanation for the latter, a possible feedback between retreating Barents Sea sea ice, enhanced cyclonic activity and Fram Strait MCAOs is postulated. Exemplifying the trend toward stronger MCAOs during March, the study details the recordbreaking MCAO season in early 2020, and an observational case study of an extreme MCAO event in March 2020 is conducted. Thereby, radiosonde observations are combined with kinematic air back-trajectories to provide rare observational evidence for the diabatic cooling and drying during the MCAO preconditioning phase. KW - cold air outbreak KW - North Atlantic variability KW - air mass transformation; KW - ocean-atmosphere energy exchange Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JD035741 SN - 2169-897X SN - 2169-8996 VL - 127 IS - 3 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sieber, Melanie Jutta A1 - Yaxley, Greg A1 - Hermann, Jörg T1 - COH-fluid induced metasomatism of peridotites in the forearc mantle JF - Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology N2 - Devolatilization of subducting lithologies liberates COH-fluids. These may become partially sequestered in peridotites in the slab and the overlying forearc mantle, affecting the cycling of volatiles and fluid mobile elements in subduction zones. Here we assess the magnitudes, timescales and mechanism of channelized injection of COH-fluids doped with Ca-aq(2+), Sr-aq(2+) and Ba-aq(2+) into the dry forearc mantle by performing piston cylinder experiments between 1-2.5 GPa and 600-700 degrees C. Cylindrical cores of natural spinel-bearing harzburgites were used as starting materials. Based on mineral assemblage and composition three reaction zones are distinguishable from the rim towards the core of primary olivine and orthopyroxene grains. Zone 1 contains carbonates + quartz +/- kyanite and zone 2 contains carbonates + talc +/- chlorite. Olivine is further replaced in zone 3 by either antigorite+ magnesite or magnesite +talc within or above antigorite stability, respectively. Orthopyroxene is replaced in zone 3 by talc + chlorite. Mineral assemblages and the compositions of secondary minerals depend on fluid composition and the replaced primary silicate. The extent of alteration depends on fluid CO2 content and fluid/rock-ratio, and is further promoted by fluid permeable reaction zones and reaction driven cracking. Our results show that COH-fluid induced metasomatism of the forearc mantle is self-perpetuating and efficient at sequestering Ca-aq(2+), Sr-aq(2+), Ba-aq(2+) and CO2aq into newly formed carbonates. This process is fast with 90% of the available C sequestered and nearly 50% of the initial minerals altered at 650 degrees C, 2 GPa within 55 h. The dissolution of primary silicates under high COH-fluid/rock-ratios, as in channelized fluid flow, enriches SiO2aq in the fluid, while CO2aq is sequestered into carbonates. In an open system, the remaining CO2-depleted, Si-enriched aqueous fluid may cause Si-metasomatism in the forearc further away from the injection of the COH-fluid into peridotite. KW - Carbonation KW - Deep carbon cycle KW - COH-fluid KW - Forearc KW - HP-experiments Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-022-01905-w SN - 0010-7999 SN - 1432-0967 VL - 177 IS - 4 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Moradian, Hanieh A1 - Gossen, Manfred A1 - Lendlein, Andreas T1 - Co-delivery of genes can be confounded by bicistronic vector design JF - MRS Communications N2 - Maximizing the efficiency of nanocarrier-mediated co-delivery of genes for co-expression in the same cell is critical for many applications. Strategies to maximize co-delivery of nucleic acids (NA) focused largely on carrier systems, with little attention towards payload composition itself. Here, we investigated the effects of different payload designs: co-delivery of two individual "monocistronic" NAs versus a single bicistronic NA comprising two genes separated by a 2A self-cleavage site. Unexpectedly, co-delivery via the monocistronic design resulted in a higher percentage of co-expressing cells, while predictive co-expression via the bicistronic design remained elusive. Our results will aid the application-dependent selection of the optimal methodology for co-delivery of genes. KW - Molecular KW - Packaging KW - Protein Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1557/s43579-021-00128-7 SN - 2159-6859 SN - 2159-6867 VL - 12 IS - 2 SP - 145 EP - 153 PB - Springer CY - Heidelberg ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Al Laban, Firas A1 - Reger, Martin A1 - Lucke, Ulrike T1 - Closing the Policy Gap in the Academic Bridge JF - Education sciences N2 - The highly structured nature of the educational sector demands effective policy mechanisms close to the needs of the field. That is why evidence-based policy making, endorsed by the European Commission under Erasmus+ Key Action 3, aims to make an alignment between the domains of policy and practice. Against this background, this article addresses two issues: First, that there is a vertical gap in the translation of higher-level policies to local strategies and regulations. Second, that there is a horizontal gap between educational domains regarding the policy awareness of individual players. This was analyzed in quantitative and qualitative studies with domain experts from the fields of virtual mobility and teacher training. From our findings, we argue that the combination of both gaps puts the academic bridge from secondary to tertiary education at risk, including the associated knowledge proficiency levels. We discuss the role of digitalization in the academic bridge by asking the question: which value does the involved stakeholders expect from educational policies? As a theoretical basis, we rely on the model of value co-creation for and by stakeholders. We describe the used instruments along with the obtained results and proposed benefits. Moreover, we reflect on the methodology applied, and we finally derive recommendations for future academic bridge policies. KW - policy evaluation KW - higher education KW - virtual mobility KW - teacher training Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12120930 SN - 2227-7102 VL - 12 IS - 12 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Awad, Emad A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Closed-form multi-dimensional solutions and asymptotic behaviours for subdiffusive processes with crossovers: II. Accelerating case JF - Journal of physics : A, Mathematical and theoretical N2 - Anomalous diffusion with a power-law time dependence vertical bar R vertical bar(2)(t) similar or equal to t(alpha i) of the mean squared displacement occurs quite ubiquitously in numerous complex systems. Often, this anomalous diffusion is characterised by crossovers between regimes with different anomalous diffusion exponents alpha(i). Here we consider the case when such a crossover occurs from a first regime with alpha(1) to a second regime with alpha(2) such that alpha(2) > alpha(1), i.e., accelerating anomalous diffusion. A widely used framework to describe such crossovers in a one-dimensional setting is the bi-fractional diffusion equation of the so-called modified type, involving two time-fractional derivatives defined in the Riemann-Liouville sense. We here generalise this bi-fractional diffusion equation to higher dimensions and derive its multidimensional propagator (Green's function) for the general case when also a space fractional derivative is present, taking into consideration long-ranged jumps (Levy flights). We derive the asymptotic behaviours for this propagator in both the short- and long-time as well the short- and long-distance regimes. Finally, we also calculate the mean squared displacement, skewness and kurtosis in all dimensions, demonstrating that in the general case the non-Gaussian shape of the probability density function changes. KW - multidimensional fractional diffusion equation KW - continuous time random KW - walks KW - crossover anomalous diffusion dynamics KW - non-Gaussian probability KW - density Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8121/ac5a90 SN - 1751-8113 SN - 1751-8121 VL - 55 IS - 20 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Płóciennik, Mateusz A1 - Zawiska, Izabela A1 - Rzodkiewicz, Monika A1 - Noryśkiewicz, Agnieszka M. A1 - Słowiński, Michał A1 - Müller, Daniela A1 - Brauer, Achim A1 - Antczak-Orlewska, Olga A1 - Kramkowski, Mateusz A1 - Peyron, Odile A1 - Nevalainen, Liisa A1 - Luoto, Tomi P. A1 - Kotrys, Bartosz A1 - Seppä, Heikki A1 - Bidaurreta, Jon Camuera A1 - Rudna, Marta A1 - Mielczarek, Małgorzata A1 - Zawisza, Edyta A1 - Janowska, Ewa A1 - Błaszkiewicz, Mirosław T1 - Climatic and hydrological variability as a driver of the Lake Gościąż biota during the Younger Dryas JF - Catena N2 - The Younger Dryas (YD) is a roughly 1,100-year cold period marking the end of the last glaciation. Climate modelling for northern Europe indicates high summer temperatures and strong continentality. In eastern Europe, the scale of temperature variation and its influence on ecosystems is weakly recognised. Here, we present a multi-proxy reconstruction of YD conditions from Lake Gos ' ciaz (central Poland). The decadal-resolution analysis of its annually varved sediments indicates an initial decrease in Chironomidae-inferred mean July air temperature followed by steady warming. The pollen-inferred winter-to-summer temperature amplitude and annual precip-itation is highest at the Allerod/YD transition and the early YD (ca. 12.7-12.4 ky cal BP) and YD/Holocene (11.7-11.4 ka cal BP) transition. Temperature and precipitation were the main reasons for lake level fluctuations as reflected in the planktonic/littoral Cladocera ratio. The lake's diatom-inferred total phosphorus decreased with increasing summer temperature from about mid YD. Windy conditions in the early YD until ~12.3 ka cal BP caused water mixing and a short-lived/temporary increase in nutrient availability for phytoplankton. The Chironomidae-inferred summer temperature and pollen inferred summer temperature, winter temperature and annual precipitation herein are one of only a few in eastern Europe conducted with such high resolution. KW - Late Glacial KW - Varved sediments KW - Climate reconstructions KW - Chironomidae KW - Cladocera KW - Pollen KW - Diatoms Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2022.106049 SN - 0341-8162 SN - 1872-6887 VL - 212 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - McCool, Weston C. A1 - Codding, Brian F. A1 - Vernon, Kenneth B. A1 - Wilson, Kurt M. A1 - Yaworsky, Peter M. A1 - Marwan, Norbert A1 - Kennett, Douglas J. T1 - Climate change-induced population pressure drives high rates of lethal violence in the Prehispanic central Andes JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America : PNAS N2 - Understanding the influence of climate change and population pressure on human conflict remains a critically important topic in the social sciences. Long-term records that evaluate these dynamics across multiple centuries and outside the range of modern climatic variation are especially capable of elucidating the relative effect of-and the interaction between-climate and demography. This is crucial given that climate change may structure population growth and carrying capacity, while both climate and population influence per capita resource availability. This study couples paleoclimatic and demographic data with osteological evaluations of lethal trauma from 149 directly accelerator mass spectrometry C-14-dated individuals from the Nasca highland region of Peru. Multiple local and supraregional precipitation proxies are combined with a summed probability distribution of 149 C-14 dates to estimate population dynamics during a 700-y study window. Counter to previous findings, our analysis reveals a precipitous increase in violent deaths associated with a period of productive and stable climate, but volatile population dynamics. We conclude that favorable local climate conditions fostered population growth that put pressure on the marginal and highly circumscribed resource base, resulting in violent resource competition that manifested in over 450 y of internecine warfare. These findings help support a general theory of intergroup violence, indicating that relative resource scarcity-whether driven by reduced resource abundance or increased competition-can lead to violence in subsistence societies when the outcome is lower per capita resource availability. KW - climate change KW - population pressure KW - warfare KW - lethal violence KW - Andes Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2117556119 SN - 0027-8424 SN - 1091-6490 VL - 119 IS - 17 PB - National Acad. of Sciences CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rikani, Albano A1 - Frieler, Katja A1 - Schewe, Jacob T1 - Climate change and international migration BT - exploring the macroeconomic channel JF - PLoS one N2 - International migration patterns, at the global level, can to a large extent be explained through economic factors in origin and destination countries. On the other hand, it has been shown that global climate change is likely to affect economic development over the coming decades. Here, we demonstrate how these future climate impacts on national income levels could alter the global migration landscape. Using an empirically calibrated global migration model, we investigate two separate mechanisms. The first is through destination-country income, which has been shown consistently to have a positive effect on immigration. As countries' income levels relative to each other are projected to change in the future both due to different rates of economic growth and due to different levels of climate change impacts, the relative distribution of immigration across destination countries also changes as a result, all else being equal. Second, emigration rates have been found to have a complex, inverted U-shaped dependence on origin-country income. Given the available migration flow data, it is unclear whether this dependence-found in spatio-temporal panel data-also pertains to changes in a given migration flow over time. If it does, then climate change will additionally affect migration patterns through origin countries' emigration rates, as the relative and absolute positions of countries on the migration "hump" change. We illustrate these different possibilities, and the corresponding effects of 3 degrees C global warming (above pre-industrial) on global migration patterns, using climate model projections and two different methods for estimating climate change effects on macroeconomic development. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0276764 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 17 IS - 11 PB - PLoS CY - San Fransisco ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ramachandran, Srikanthan A1 - Rupakheti, Maheswar A1 - Cherian, R. A1 - Lawrence, Mark T1 - Climate Benefits of Cleaner Energy Transitions in East and South Asia Through Black Carbon Reduction JF - Frontiers in environmental science N2 - The state of air pollution has historically been tightly linked to how we produce and use energy. Air pollutant emissions over Asia are now changing rapidly due to cleaner energy transitions; however, magnitudes of benefits for climate and air quality remain poorly quantified. The associated risks involve adverse health impacts, reduced agricultural yields, reduced freshwater availability, contributions to climate change, and economic costs. We focus particularly on climate benefits of energy transitions by making first-time use of two decades of high quality observations of atmospheric loading of light-absorbing black carbon (BC) over Kanpur (South Asia) and Beijing (East Asia) and relating these observations to changing energy, emissions, and economic trends in India and China. Our analysis reveals that absorption aerosol optical depth (AAOD) due to BC has decreased substantially, by 40% over Kanpur and 60% over Beijing between 2001 and 2017, and thus became decoupled from regional economic growth. Furthermore, the resultant decrease in BC emissions and BC AAOD over Asia is regionally coherent and occurs primarily due to transitions into cleaner energies (both renewables and fossil fuels) and not due to the decrease in primary energy supply or decrease in use of fossil use and biofuels and waste. Model simulations show that BC aerosols alone contribute about half of the surface temperature change (warming) of the total forcing due to greenhouse gases, natural and internal variability, and aerosols, thus clearly revealing the climate benefits due to a reduction in BC emissions, which would significantly reduce global warming. However, this modeling study excludes responses from natural variability, circulation, and sea ice responses, which cause relatively strong temperature fluctuations that may mask signals from BC aerosols. Our findings show additional benefits for climate (beyond benefits of CO2 reduction) and for several other issues of sustainability over South and East Asia, provide motivation for ongoing cleaner energy production, and consumption transitions, especially when they are associated with reduced emissions of air pollutants. Such an analysis connecting the trends in energy transitions and aerosol absorption loading, unavailable so far, is crucial for simulating the aerosol climate impacts over Asia which is quite uncertain. KW - cleaner energy transitions KW - Asia KW - air pollution KW - black carbon KW - climate benefits Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2022.842319 SN - 2296-665X VL - 10 PB - Frontiers Media CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Vilk, Ohad A1 - Aghion, Erez A1 - Nathan, Ran A1 - Toledo, Sivan A1 - Metzler, Ralf A1 - Assaf, Michael T1 - Classification of anomalous diffusion in animal movement data using power spectral analysis JF - Journal of physics : A, Mathematical and theoretical N2 - The field of movement ecology has seen a rapid increase in high-resolution data in recent years, leading to the development of numerous statistical and numerical methods to analyse relocation trajectories. Data are often collected at the level of the individual and for long periods that may encompass a range of behaviours. Here, we use the power spectral density (PSD) to characterise the random movement patterns of a black-winged kite (Elanus caeruleus) and a white stork (Ciconia ciconia). The tracks are first segmented and clustered into different behaviours (movement modes), and for each mode we measure the PSD and the ageing properties of the process. For the foraging kite we find 1/f noise, previously reported in ecological systems mainly in the context of population dynamics, but not for movement data. We further suggest plausible models for each of the behavioural modes by comparing both the measured PSD exponents and the distribution of the single-trajectory PSD to known theoretical results and simulations. KW - diffusion KW - anomalous diffusion KW - power spectral analysis KW - ecological KW - movement data Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8121/ac7e8f SN - 1751-8113 SN - 1751-8121 VL - 55 IS - 33 PB - IOP Publishing CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Huang, Yizhen A1 - Richter, Eric A1 - Kleickmann, Thilo A1 - Richter, Dirk T1 - Class size affects preservice teachers' physiological and psychological stress reactions BT - an experiment in a virtual reality classroom JF - Computers & education : an international journal N2 - Teachers frequently express stress associated with teaching in large classrooms. Despite the timehonored tradition in teacher stress research of treating class size as a job-related stressor, the underlying premise that class size directly impacts teachers' stress reactions remains untested. In this randomized controlled experiment targeted at preservice teachers, we utilized a standardized virtual reality (VR) classroom to examine whether class size (number of student avatars) directly affected physiological (heart rate) or psychological (subjective rating) stress reactions among 65 preservice teachers. Results from linear mixed-effects modeling (LMM) showed that class size significantly predicted both their physiological and psychological stress reactions in the simulated environment: Average heart rate and subjective stress ratings were both significantly higher in the large class size condition. Further investigations into the causes of this association has been proposed. These findings may contribute to a better understanding of the effects of classroom features on preservice teachers' emotional experiences and well-being. KW - Augmented and virtual reality KW - Simulations KW - Improving classroom teaching KW - Media in education KW - Pedagogical issues Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2022.104503 SN - 0360-1315 SN - 1873-782X VL - 184 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lipus, Daniel A1 - Jia, Zeyu A1 - Bartholomäus, Alexander A1 - Burckhardt, Oliver A1 - Sondermann, Megan A1 - Wagner, Dirk A1 - Kallmeyer, Jens T1 - Circular metagenome-assembled genome of Methanobacterium sp. strain ERen5, a putative methanogenic, H2-utilizing terrestrial subsurface archaeon JF - Microbiology Resource Announcements N2 - A circular, single-contig Methanobacterium sp. metagenome-assembled genome (MAG) was recovered from high-CO2 enrichments inoculated with drill core material from the tectonic Eger Rift terrestrial subsurface. Annotation of the recovered MAG highlighted putative methanogenesis genes, providing valuable information on archaeal activity in the deep biosphere. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1128/mra.00676-22 SN - 2576-098X VL - 11 IS - 10 PB - American Society for Microbiology CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schmidt, Max Oliver T1 - Church asylum as ultima ratio BT - fighting for access to German society JF - The condition of democracy. - Volume 2: Contesting citizenship Y1 - 2022 SN - 978-0-367-74536-3 SN - 978-1-00-315837-0 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003158370-4 SP - 36 EP - 53 PB - Routledge CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lindner, Nadja A1 - Moeller, Korbinian A1 - Hildebrandt, Frauke A1 - Hasselhorn, Marcus A1 - Lonnemann, Jan T1 - Children's use of egocentric reference frames in spatial language is related to their numerical magnitude understanding JF - Frontiers in Psychology N2 - Numerical magnitude information is assumed to be spatially represented in the form of a mental number line defined with respect to a body-centred, egocentric frame of reference. In this context, spatial language skills such as mastery of verbal descriptions of spatial position (e.g., in front of, behind, to the right/left) have been proposed to be relevant for grasping spatial relations between numerical magnitudes on the mental number line. We examined 4- to 5-year-old’s spatial language skills in tasks that allow responses in egocentric and allocentric frames of reference, as well as their relative understanding of numerical magnitude (assessed by a number word comparison task). In addition, we evaluated influences of children’s absolute understanding of numerical magnitude assessed by their number word comprehension (montring different numbers using their fingers) and of their knowledge on numerical sequences (determining predecessors and successors as well as identifying missing dice patterns of a series). Results indicated that when considering responses that corresponded to the egocentric perspective, children’s spatial language was associated significantly with their relative numerical magnitude understanding, even after controlling for covariates, such as children’s SES, mental rotation skills, and also absolute magnitude understanding or knowledge on numerical sequences. This suggests that the use of egocentric reference frames in spatial language may facilitate spatial representation of numbers along a mental number line and thus seem important for preschoolers’ relative understanding of numerical magnitude. KW - spatial language KW - frames of reference KW - numerical development KW - mental number line KW - preschool children Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.943191 SN - 1664-1078 SP - 1 EP - 13 PB - Frontiers CY - Lausanne, Schweiz ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lindner, Nadja A1 - Moeller, Korbinian A1 - Dresen, Verena A1 - Pixner, Silvia A1 - Lonnemann, Jan T1 - Children's spatial language skills predict their verbal number skills BT - A longitudinal study JF - PLOS ONE N2 - The process of number symbolization is assumed to be critically influenced by the acquisition of so-called verbal number skills (e.g., verbally reciting the number chain and naming Arabic numerals). For the acquisition of these verbal number skills, verbal and visuospatial skills are discussed as contributing factors. In this context, children’s verbal number skills have been found to be associated with their concurrent spatial language skills such as mastery of verbal descriptions of spatial position (e.g., in front of, behind). In a longitudinal study with three measurement times (T1, T2, T3) at an interval of about 6 months, we evaluated the predictive role of preschool children’s (mean age at T1: 3 years and 10 months) spatial language skills for the acquisition of verbal number skills. Children’s spatial language skills at T2 significantly predicted their verbal number skills at T3, when controlling for influences of important covariates such as vocabulary knowledge. In addition, further analyses replicated previous results indicating that children’s spatial language skills at T2 were associated with their verbal number skills at T2. Exploratory analyses further revealed that children’s verbal number skills at T1 predict their spatial language at T2. Results suggests that better spatial language skills at the age of 4 years facilitate the future acquisition of verbal number skills. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0277026 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 17 IS - 10 PB - PLOS CY - San Francisco ER - TY - JOUR A1 - von Steinkeller, Annika A1 - Grosse, Gerlind T1 - Children are more social when playing analog games together than digital games JF - Computers in Human Behavior Reports N2 - Digital media are being used more and more frequently by children and for a wide variety of functions. However, there are no studies to date that examine the effect of such use on peer interactions and the occurrence of prosocial behavior in peers. For parents, it has been found that when using digital media only few parents respond responsively to their children's attempts at interaction and also very rarely, they communicate with them verbally and nonverbally. In the present study, we investigated how playing a game in a digital versus analog form influences in-teractions (especially prosocial behavior) of peers. We used an experimental situation, where 24 dyads of 4-10-year-old children were examined. Each of the dyads was randomly assigned to a condition where they played either a digital or analog game together. Various interaction parameters and prosocial behavior during and after the game were analyzed. Results show that children in the analog condition communicated verbally with each other more often, responded more often to interaction attempts of their partners and showed less often negative forms of inter-action and more often positive forms of interaction than children in the digital condition. However, the type of medium had no influence on prosocial behavior after the game situation. These results suggest that the format of a game (digital vs. analog) has a decisive influence on peer interactions concerning their communication during but not their prosocial behavior after the game situation. KW - child development KW - peer interactions KW - media KW - prosocial behavior KW - digital KW - games Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2022.100195 SN - 2451-9588 VL - 6 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Moradian, Hanieh A1 - Roch, Toralf A1 - Anthofer, Larissa A1 - Lendlein, Andreas A1 - Gossen, Manfred T1 - Chemical modification of uridine modulates mRNA-mediated proinflammatory and antiviral response in primary human macrophages JF - Molecular therapy N2 - In vitro transcribed (IVT)-mRNA has been accepted as a promising therapeutic modality. Advances in facile and rapid production technologies make IVT-mRNA an appealing alternative to protein- or virus-based medicines. Robust expression levels, lack of genotoxicity, and their manageable immunogenicity benefit its clinical applicability. We postulated that innate immune responses of therapeutically relevant human cells can be tailored or abrogated by combinations of 5'-end and internal IVT-mRNA modifications. Using primary human macrophages as targets, our data show the particular importance of uridine modifications for IVT-mRNA performance. Among five nucleotide modification schemes tested, 5-methoxy-uridine outperformed other modifications up to 4-fold increased transgene expression, triggering moderate proinflammatory and non-detectable antiviral responses. Macrophage responses against IVT-mRNAs exhibiting high immunogenicity (e.g., pseudouridine) could be minimized upon HPLC purification. Conversely, 5'-end modifications had only modest effects on mRNA expression and immune responses. Our results revealed how the uptake of chemically modified IVT-mRNA impacts human macrophages, responding with distinct patterns of innate immune responses concomitant with increased transient transgene expression. We anticipate our findings are instrumental to predictively address specific cell responses required for a wide range of therapeutic applications from eliciting controlled immunogenicity in mRNA vaccines to, e.g., completely abrogating cell activation in protein replacement therapies. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.omtn.2022.01.004 SN - 2162-2531 VL - 27 SP - 854 EP - 869 PB - Cell Press CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Blanchard, Ingrid A1 - Petitgirard, Sylvain A1 - Laurenz, Vera A1 - Miyajima, Nobuyoshi A1 - Wilke, Max A1 - Rubie, David C. A1 - Lobanov, Sergey S. A1 - Hennet, Louis A1 - Morgenroth, Wolfgang A1 - Tucoulou, Rémi A1 - Bonino, Valentina A1 - Zhao, Xuchao A1 - Franchi, Ian T1 - Chemical analysis of trace elements at the nanoscale in samples recovered from laser-heated diamond anvil cell experiments JF - Physics and chemistry of minerals N2 - High pressure and high temperature experiments performed with laser-heated diamond anvil cells (LH-DAC) are being extensively used in geosciences to study matter at conditions prevailing in planetary interiors. Due to the size of the apparatus itself, the samples that are produced are extremely small, on the order of few tens of micrometers. There are several ways to analyze the samples and extract physical, chemical or structural information, using either in situ or ex situ methods. In this paper, we compare two nanoprobe techniques, namely nano-XRF and NanoSIMS, that can be used to analyze recovered samples synthetized in a LH-DAC. With these techniques, it is possible to extract the spatial distribution of chemical elements in the samples. We show the results for several standards and discuss the importance of proper calibration for the acquisition of quantifiable results. We used these two nanoprobe techniques to retrieve elemental ratios of dilute species (few tens of ppm) in quenched experimental molten samples relevant for the formation of the iron-rich core of the Earth. We finally discuss the applications of such probes to constrain the partitioning of trace elements between metal and silicate phases, with a focus on moderately siderophile elements, tungsten and molybdenum. KW - NanoSIMS KW - Nano-XRF KW - Diamond anvil cell KW - Focused ion beam Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00269-022-01193-7 SN - 0342-1791 SN - 1432-2021 VL - 49 IS - 6 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sarrazin, Fanny J. A1 - Kumar, Rohini A1 - Basu, Nandita B. A1 - Musolff, Andreas A1 - Weber, Michael A1 - Van Meter, Kimberly J. A1 - Attinger, Sabine T1 - Characterizing catchment-scale nitrogen legacies and constraining their uncertainties JF - Water resources research N2 - Improving nitrogen (N) status in European water bodies is a pressing issue. N levels depend not only on current but also past N inputs to the landscape, that have accumulated through time in legacy stores (e.g., soil, groundwater). Catchment-scale N models, that are commonly used to investigate in-stream N levels, rarely examine the magnitude and dynamics of legacy components. This study aims to gain a better understanding of the long-term fate of the N inputs and its uncertainties, using a legacy-driven N model (ELEMeNT) in Germany's largest national river basin (Weser; 38,450 km(2)) over the period 1960-2015. We estimate the nine model parameters based on a progressive constraining strategy, to assess the value of different observational data sets. We demonstrate that beyond in-stream N loading, soil N content and in-stream N concentration allow to reduce the equifinality in model parameterizations. We find that more than 50% of the N surplus denitrifies (1480-2210 kg ha(-1)) and the stream export amounts to around 18% (410-640 kg ha(-1)), leaving behind as much as around 230-780 kg ha(-1) of N in the (soil) source zone and 10-105 kg ha(-1) in the subsurface. A sensitivity analysis reveals the importance of different factors affecting the residual uncertainties in simulated N legacies, namely hydrologic travel time, denitrification rates, a coefficient characterizing the protection of organic N in source zone and N surplus input. Our study calls for proper consideration of uncertainties in N legacy characterization, and discusses possible avenues to further reduce the equifinality in water quality modeling. KW - nitrogen legacies KW - water quality modeling KW - equifinality KW - parameter KW - estimation KW - sensitivity analysis Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1029/2021WR031587 SN - 0043-1397 SN - 1944-7973 VL - 58 IS - 4 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mollavali, Mohanna A1 - Börnke, Frederik T1 - Characterization of trehalose-6-phosphate synthase and trehalose-6-phosphate phosphatase genes of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) and analysis of their differential expression in response to temperature JF - International journal of molecular sciences N2 - In plants, the trehalose biosynthetic pathway plays key roles in the regulation of carbon allocation and stress adaptation. Engineering of the pathway holds great promise to increase the stress resilience of crop plants. The synthesis of trehalose proceeds by a two-step pathway in which a trehalose-phosphate synthase (TPS) uses UDP-glucose and glucose-6-phosphate to produce trehalose-6 phosphate (T6P) that is subsequently dephosphorylated by trehalose-6 phosphate phosphatase (TPP). While plants usually do not accumulate high amounts of trehalose, their genome encodes large families of putative trehalose biosynthesis genes, with many members lacking obvious enzymatic activity. Thus, the function of putative trehalose biosynthetic proteins in plants is only vaguely understood. To gain a deeper insight into the role of trehalose biosynthetic proteins in crops, we assessed the enzymatic activity of the TPS/TPP family from tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) and investigated their expression pattern in different tissues as well as in response to temperature shifts. From the 10 TPS isoforms tested, only the 2 proteins belonging to class I showed enzymatic activity, while all 5 TPP isoforms investigated were catalytically active. Most of the TPS/TPP family members showed the highest expression in mature leaves, and promoter-reporter gene studies suggest that the two class I TPS genes have largely overlapping expression patterns within the vasculature, with only subtle differences in expression in fruits and flowers. The majority of tomato TPS/TPP genes were induced by heat stress, and individual family members also responded to cold. This suggests that trehalose biosynthetic pathway genes could play an important role during temperature stress adaptation. In summary, our study represents a further step toward the exploitation of the TPS and TPP gene families for the improvement of tomato stress resistance. KW - trehalose metabolism KW - heat stress KW - Solanum lycopersicum KW - yeast complementation Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms231911436 SN - 1661-6596 SN - 1422-0067 VL - 23 IS - 19 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Welke, Robert-William A1 - Sperber, Hannah Sabeth A1 - Bergmann, Ronny A1 - Koikkarah, Amit A1 - Menke, Laura A1 - Sieben, Christian A1 - Krüger, Detlev H. A1 - Chiantia, Salvatore A1 - Herrmann, Andreas A1 - Schwarzer, Roland T1 - Characterization of hantavirus N protein intracellular dynamics and localization JF - Viruses N2 - Hantaviruses are enveloped viruses that possess a tri-segmented, negative-sense RNA genome. The viral S-segment encodes the multifunctional nucleocapsid protein (N), which is involved in genome packaging, intracellular protein transport, immunoregulation, and several other crucial processes during hantavirus infection. In this study, we generated fluorescently tagged N protein constructs derived from Puumalavirus (PUUV), the dominant hantavirus species in Central, Northern, and Eastern Europe. We comprehensively characterized this protein in the rodent cell line CHO-K1, monitoring the dynamics of N protein complex formation and investigating co-localization with host proteins as well as the viral glycoproteins Gc and Gn. We observed formation of large, fibrillar PUUV N protein aggregates, rapidly coalescing from early punctate and spike-like assemblies. Moreover, we found significant spatial correlation of N with vimentin, actin, and P-bodies but not with microtubules. N constructs also co-localized with Gn and Gc albeit not as strongly as the glycoproteins associated with each other. Finally, we assessed oligomerization of N constructs, observing efficient and concentration-dependent multimerization, with complexes comprising more than 10 individual proteins. KW - hantavirus KW - N protein KW - oligomerization KW - actin KW - P-bodies KW - vimentin KW - Number and Brightness KW - Puumalavirus KW - macromolecular assemblies Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/v14030457 SN - 1999-4915 VL - 14 IS - 3 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dineva, Ekaterina Ivanova A1 - Pearson, Jeniveve A1 - Ilyin, Ilya A1 - Verma, Meetu A1 - Diercke, Andrea A1 - Strassmeier, Klaus A1 - Denker, Carsten T1 - Characterization of chromospheric activity based on Sun-as-a-star spectral and disk-resolved activity indices JF - Astronomische Nachrichten = Astronomical notes N2 - The strong chromospheric absorption lines Ca ii H & K are tightly connected to stellar surface magnetic fields. Only for the Sun, spectral activity indices can be related to evolving magnetic features on the solar disk. The Solar Disk-Integrated (SDI) telescope feeds the Potsdam Echelle Polarimetric and Spectroscopic Instrument (PEPSI) of the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) at Mt. Graham International Observatory, Arizona, U.S.A. We present high-resolution, high-fidelity spectra that were recorded on 184 & 82 days in 2018 & 2019 and derive the Ca ii H & K emission ratio, that is, the S-index. In addition, we compile excess brightness and area indices based on full-disk Ca ii K-line-core filtergrams of the Chromospheric Telescope (ChroTel) at Observatorio del Teide, Tenerife, Spain and full-disk ultraviolet (UV) 1600 angstrom images of the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Thus, Sun-as-a-star spectral indices are related to their counterparts derived from resolved images of the solar chromosphere. All indices display signatures of rotational modulation, even during the very low magnetic activity in the minimum of Solar Cycle 24. Bringing together different types of activity indices has the potential to join disparate chromospheric datasets yielding a comprehensive description of chromospheric activity across many solar cycles. KW - astronomical databases KW - miscellaneous KW - methods KW - data analysis KW - activity KW - Sun KW - atmosphere KW - chromosphere KW - techniques KW - spectroscopic Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/asna.20223996 SN - 0004-6337 SN - 1521-3994 VL - 343 IS - 5 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kruse, Marlen A1 - Altattan, Basma A1 - Laux, Eva-Maria A1 - Grasse, Nico A1 - Heinig, Lars A1 - Möser, Christin A1 - Smith, David M. A1 - Hölzel, Ralph T1 - Characterization of binding interactions of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and DNA-peptide nanostructures JF - Scientific reports N2 - Binding interactions of the spike proteins of the severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) to a peptide fragment derived from the human angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (hACE2) receptor are investigated. The peptide is employed as capture moiety in enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) and quantitative binding interaction measurements that are based on fluorescence proximity sensing (switchSENSE). In both techniques, the peptide is presented on an oligovalent DNA nanostructure, in order to assess the impact of mono- versus trivalent binding modes. As the analyte, the spike protein and several of its subunits are tested as well as inactivated SARS-CoV-2 and pseudo viruses. While binding of the peptide to the full-length spike protein can be observed, the subunits RBD and S1 do not exhibit binding in the employed concentrations. Variations of the amino acid sequence of the recombinant full-length spike proteins furthermore influence binding behavior. The peptide was coupled to DNA nanostructures that form a geometric complement to the trimeric structure of the spike protein binding sites. An increase in binding strength for trimeric peptide presentation compared to single peptide presentation could be generally observed in ELISA and was quantified in switchSENSE measurements. Binding to inactivated wild type viruses could be shown as well as qualitatively different binding behavior of the Alpha and Beta variants compared to the wild type virus strain in pseudo virus models. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-16914-9 SN - 2045-2322 VL - 12 IS - 1 PB - Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Huschek, Gerd A1 - Rawel, Harshadrai M. A1 - Schweikert, Torsten A1 - Henkel-Oberländer, Janin A1 - Sagu Tchewonpi, Sorel T1 - Characterization and optimization of microwave-assisted extraction of B-phycoerythrin from Porphyridium purpureum using response surface methodology and Doehlert design JF - Bioresource Technology Reports N2 - Microalgae are one of the most promising food source of the future. Nowadays, extracts of high-value active substances of biomass are business aims for the development of food additives in personalized nutrition, in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. A new-patented vertical farming cultivation technology was used for production of Porphyridium purpureum. In this work, microwave assisted extraction was used to extract B-phycoerythrin from Porphyridium purpureum biomass. Response surface methodology was implemented for optimization. Numerical optimization established the best point of the experimental domain (biomass/solvent of 16.8 mg/mL, time of 172 s, and temperature of 30 degrees C) with a desirability value of 0.82. Corresponding experimental responses values of 7.2 mg, 8.5 % and 13,961 PA/mu g biomass were obtained for extracted proteins, extraction yield and extracted B-phycoerythrin, respectively. Final freeze-dried product indicated protein content of 55 % using Kjeldahl while targeted mass spectrometry analysis revealed that B-phycoerythrin represented 93 % of the total protein. KW - porphyridium purpureum KW - B-phycoerythrin KW - microwave-assisted extraction KW - optimization KW - mass spectrometry Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biteb.2022.101212 SN - 2589-014X VL - 19 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kojda, Danny A1 - Hofmann, Tommy A1 - Gostkowska-Lekner, Natalia Katarzyna A1 - Habicht, Klaus T1 - Characterization and modeling of the temperature-dependent thermal conductivity in sintered porous silicon-aluminum nanomaterials JF - Nano research N2 - Nanostructured silicon and silicon-aluminum compounds are synthesized by a novel synthesis strategy based on spark plasma sintering (SPS) of silicon nanopowder, mesoporous silicon (pSi), and aluminum nanopowder. The interplay of metal-assisted crystallization and inherent porosity is exploited to largely suppress thermal conductivity. Morphology and temperature-dependent thermal conductivity studies allow us to elucidate the impact of porosity and nanostructure on the macroscopic heat transport. Analytic electron microscopy along with quantitative image analysis is applied to characterize the sample morphology in terms of domain size and interpore distance distributions. We demonstrate that nanostructured domains and high porosity can be maintained in densified mesoporous silicon samples. In contrast, strong grain growth is observed for sintered nanopowders under similar sintering conditions. We observe that aluminum agglomerations induce local grain growth, while aluminum diffusion is observed in porous silicon and dispersed nanoparticles. A detailed analysis of the measured thermal conductivity between 300 and 773 K allows us to distinguish the effect of reduced thermal conductivity caused by porosity from the reduction induced by phonon scattering at nanosized domains. With a modified Landauer/Lundstrom approach the relative thermal conductivity and the scattering length are extracted. The relative thermal conductivity confirms the applicability of Kirkpatrick's effective medium theory. The extracted scattering lengths are in excellent agreement with the harmonic mean of log-normal distributed domain sizes and the interpore distances combined by Matthiessen's rule. KW - thermal conductivity KW - mesoporous silicon KW - porosity KW - spark plasma KW - sintering KW - nanoscale modeling Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4123-y SN - 1998-0124 SN - 1998-0000 VL - 15 IS - 6 SP - 5663 EP - 5670 PB - Tsinghua Univ. Press CY - Beijing ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ilic, Ivan A1 - Schutjajew, Konstantin A1 - Zhang, Wuyong A1 - Oschatz, Martin T1 - Changes of porosity of hard carbons during mechanical treatment and the relevance for sodium-ion anodes JF - Carbon : an international journal sponsored by the American Carbon Society N2 - Lithium-ion batteries have revolutionized battery technology. However, the scarcity of lithium in nature is driving the search for alternatives. For that reason, sodium-ion batteries have attracted increasing attention in recent years. The main obstacle to their development is the anode as, unlike for lithium-ion batteries, graphite cannot be used due to the inability to form stoichiometrically useful intercalation compounds with sodium. A promising candidate for sodium storage is hard carbon a form of nongraphitisable carbon, that can be synthesized from various precursor materials. Processing of hard carbons is often done by using mechanochemical treatments. Although it is generally accepted and often observed that they can influence the porosity of hard carbons, their effect on battery performance not well understood. Here, the changes in porosity occurring during ball milling are elucidated and related to the properties of hard carbons in sodium storage. Analysis by combined gas physisorption and small angle X-ray scattering shows that porosity changes during ball milling with a significant increase of the open porosity, unsuitable for reversible sodium storage, and decrease of the closed porosity, suitable for reversible sodium storage. While pristine hard carbon can store 58.5 mAh g(-1) in the closed pores, upon 5 h of mechanical treatment in a ball mill it can only store 35.5 mAh g(-1). The obtained results are furthermore pointing towards the disputed "intercalation-adsorption" mechanism. KW - Hard carbons KW - Sodium-ion batteries KW - Anodes KW - Microporosity KW - Ball milling Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2021.09.063 SN - 0008-6223 SN - 1873-3891 VL - 186 SP - 55 EP - 63 PB - Elsevier Science CY - Amsterdam [u.a.] ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Botteri, Edoardo A1 - Peveri, Giulia A1 - Berstad, Paula A1 - Bagnardi, Vincenzo A1 - Chen, Sairah L. F. A1 - Sandanger, Torkjel M. A1 - Hoff, Geir A1 - Dahm, Christina C. A1 - Antoniussen, Christian S. A1 - Tjonneland, Anne A1 - Eriksen, Anne Kirstine A1 - Skeie, Guri A1 - Perez-Cornago, Aurora A1 - Huerta, Jose Maria A1 - Jakszyn, Paula A1 - Harlid, Sophia A1 - Sundstroem, Bjoern A1 - Barricarte, Aurelio A1 - Monninkhof, Evelyn M. A1 - Derksen, Jeroen W. G. A1 - Schulze, Matthias Bernd A1 - Bueno-de-Mesquita, Bas A1 - Sanchez, Maria-Jose A1 - Cross, Amanda J. A1 - Tsilidis, Konstantinos K. A1 - De Magistris, Maria Santucci A1 - Kaaks, Rudolf A1 - Katzke, Verena A1 - Rothwell, Joseph A. A1 - Laouali, Nasser A1 - Severi, Gianluca A1 - Amiano, Pilar A1 - Contiero, Paolo A1 - Sacerdote, Carlotta A1 - Goldberg, Marcel A1 - Touvier, Mathilde A1 - Freisling, Heinz A1 - Viallon, Vivian A1 - Weiderpass, Elisabete A1 - Riboli, Elio A1 - Gunter, Marc J. A1 - Jenab, Mazda A1 - Ferrari, Pietro T1 - Changes in lifestyle and risk of colorectal cancer in the European prospective investigation into cancer and nutrition JF - The American journal of gastroenterology : AJG N2 - INTRODUCTION: We investigated the impact of changes in lifestyle habits on colorectal cancer (CRC) risk in a multicountry European cohort. METHODS: We used baseline and follow-up questionnaire data from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer cohort to assess changes in lifestyle habits and their associations with CRC development. We calculated a healthy lifestyle index (HLI) score based on smoking status, alcohol consumption, body mass index, and physical activity collected at the 2 time points. HLI ranged from 0 (most unfavorable) to 16 (most favorable). We estimated the association between HLI changes and CRC risk using Cox regression models and reported hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). RESULTS: Among 295,865 participants, 2,799 CRC cases were observed over a median of 7.8 years. The median time between questionnaires was 5.7 years. Each unit increase in HLI from the baseline to the follow-up assessment was associated with a statistically significant 3% lower CRC risk. Among participants in the top tertile at baseline (HLI > 11), those in the bottom tertile at follow-up (HLI <= 9) had a higher CRC risk (HR 1.34; 95% CI 1.02-1.75) than those remaining in the top tertile. Among individuals in the bottom tertile at baseline, those in the top tertile at follow-up had a lower risk (HR 0.77; 95% CI 0.59-1.00) than those remaining in the bottom tertile. DISCUSSION: Improving adherence to a healthy lifestyle was inversely associated with CRC risk, while worsening adherence was positively associated with CRC risk. These results justify and support recommendations for healthy lifestyle changes and healthy lifestyle maintenance for CRC prevention. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.14309/ajg.0000000000002065 SN - 0002-9270 SN - 1572-0241 VL - 118 IS - 4 SP - 702 EP - 711 PB - Lippincott Williams & Wilkins CY - Philadelphia ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kretzschmar, Mirjam E. A1 - Ashby, Ben A1 - Fearon, Elizabeth A1 - Overton, Christopher E. A1 - Panovska-Griffiths, Jasmina A1 - Pellis, Lorenzo A1 - Quaife, Matthew A1 - Rozhnova, Ganna A1 - Scarabel, Francesca A1 - Stage, Helena B. A1 - Swallow, Ben A1 - Thompson, Robin N. A1 - Tildesley, Michael J. A1 - Villela, Daniel Campos T1 - Challenges for modelling interventions for future pandemics JF - Epidemics N2 - Mathematical modelling and statistical inference provide a framework to evaluate different non-pharmaceutical and pharmaceutical interventions for the control of epidemics that has been widely used during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, lessons learned from this and previous epidemics are used to highlight the challenges for future pandemic control. We consider the availability and use of data, as well as the need for correct parameterisation and calibration for different model frameworks. We discuss challenges that arise in describing and distinguishing between different interventions, within different modelling structures, and allowing both within and between host dynamics. We also highlight challenges in modelling the health economic and political aspects of interventions. Given the diversity of these challenges, a broad variety of interdisciplinary expertise is needed to address them, combining mathematical knowledge with biological and social insights, and including health economics and communication skills. Addressing these challenges for the future requires strong cross disciplinary collaboration together with close communication between scientists and policy makers. KW - Mathematical models KW - Pandemics KW - Pharmaceutical interventions KW - Non-pharmaceutical interventions KW - Policy support Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epidem.2022.100546 SN - 1755-4365 SN - 1878-0067 VL - 38 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mazarei, Elham A1 - Barker, John R. T1 - CH2 + O-2 BT - reaction mechanism, biradical and zwitterionic character, and formation of CH2OO, the simplest Criegee intermediate JF - Physical chemistry, chemical physics : PCCP ; a journal of European Chemical Societies N2 - The singlet and triplet potential surfaces for the title reaction were investigated using the CBS-QB3 level of theory. The wave functions for some species exhibited multireference character and required the CASPT2/6-31+G(d,p) and CASPT2/aug-cc-pVTZ levels of theory to obtain accurate relative energies. A Natural Bond Orbital Analysis showed that triplet (CH2OO)-C-3 (the simplest Criegee intermediate) and (CH2O2)-C-3 (dioxirane) have mostly polar biradical character, while singlet (CH2OO)-C-1 has some zwitterionic character and a planar structure. Canonical variational transition state theory (CVTST) and master equation simulations were used to analyze the reaction system. CVTST predicts that the rate constant for reaction of (CH2)-C-1 + O-3(2) is more than ten times as fast as the reaction of (CH2)-C-3 ((XB1)-B-3) + O-3(2) and the ratio remains almost independent of temperature from 900 K to 3000 K. The master equation simulations predict that at low pressures the (CH2O)-C-1 + O-3 product set is dominant at all temperatures and the primary yield of OH radicals is negligible below 600 K, due to competition with other primary reactions in this complex system. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/d1cp04372b SN - 1463-9076 SN - 1463-9084 VL - 24 IS - 2 SP - 914 EP - 927 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ramm, Franziska A1 - Jack, Lena A1 - Kaser, Danny A1 - Schloßhauer, Jeffrey L. A1 - Zemella, Anne A1 - Kubick, Stefan T1 - Cell-Free Systems Enable the Production of AB(5) Toxins for Diagnostic Applications JF - Toxins N2 - Cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) represents a versatile key technology for the production of toxic proteins. As a cell lysate, rather than viable cells, is used, the toxic effects on the host organism can be circumvented. The open nature of cell-free systems allows for the addition of supplements affecting protein concentration and folding. Here, we present the cell-free synthesis and functional characterization of two AB(5) toxins, namely the cholera toxin (Ctx) and the heat-labile enterotoxin (LT), using two eukaryotic cell-free systems based on Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) and Spodoptera frugiperda (Sf21) cells. Through an iterative optimization procedure, the synthesis of the individual AB(5) toxins was established, and the formation of multimeric structures could be shown by autoradiography. A functional analysis was performed using cell-based assays, thereby demonstrating that the LT complex induced the characteristic cell elongation of target cells after 24 h. The LT complex induced cell death at higher concentrations, starting at an initial concentration of 5 nM. The initial toxic effects of the Ctx multimer could already be detected at 4 nM. The detection and characterization of such AB(5) toxins is of utmost importance, and the monitoring of intracellular trafficking facilitates the further identification of the mechanism of action of these toxins. We showed that the B-subunit of LT (LTB) could be fluorescently labeled using an LTB-Strep fusion protein, which is a proof-of-concept for future Trojan horse applications. Further, we performed a mutational analysis of the CtxA subunit as its template was modified, and an amber stop codon was inserted into CtxA's active site. Subsequently, a non-canonical amino acid was site-specifically incorporated using bio-orthogonal systems. Finally, a fluorescently labeled CtxA protein was produced using copper-catalyzed click reactions as well as a Staudinger ligation. As expected, the modified Ctx multimer no longer induced toxic effects. In our study, we showed that CFPS could be used to study the active centers of toxins by inserting mutations. Additionally, this methodology can be applied for the design of Trojan horses and targeted toxins, as well as enabling the intracellular trafficking of toxins as a prerequisite for the analysis of the toxin's mechanism of action. KW - cholera toxin KW - heat-labile enterotoxin KW - AB(5) toxins KW - eukaryotic KW - cell-free systems KW - orthogonal systems Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins14040233 SN - 2072-6651 VL - 14 IS - 4 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schloßhauer, Jeffrey A1 - Cavak, Niño A1 - Zemella, Anne A1 - Thoring, Lena A1 - Kubick, Stefan T1 - Cell engineering and cultivation of chinese hamster ovary cells for the development of orthogonal eukaryotic cell-free translation systems JF - Frontiers in molecular biosciences N2 - The investigation of protein structures, functions and interactions often requires modifications to adapt protein properties to the specific application. Among many possible methods to equip proteins with new chemical groups, the utilization of orthogonal aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase/tRNA pairs enables the site-specific incorporation of non-canonical amino acids at defined positions in the protein. The open nature of cell-free protein synthesis reactions provides an optimal environment, as the orthogonal components do not need to be transported across the cell membrane and the impact on cell viability is negligible. In the present work, it was shown that the expression of orthogonal aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases in CHO cells prior to cell disruption enhanced the modification of the pharmaceutically relevant adenosine A2a receptor. For this purpose, in complement to transient transfection of CHO cells, an approach based on CRISPR/Cas9 technology was selected to generate a translationally active cell lysate harboring endogenous orthogonal aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase. KW - orthogonal translation KW - cell-free protein synthesis KW - CRISPR KW - amber suppression KW - E. coli tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase KW - M. mazei pyrrolysyl-tRNA synthetase KW - membrane protein KW - C12orf35 Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fmolb.2022.832379 SN - 2296-889X VL - 9 PB - Frontiers Media CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fischer, Eric W. A1 - Saalfrank, Peter T1 - Cavity-induced non-adiabatic dynamics and spectroscopy of molecular rovibrational polaritons studied by multi-mode quantum models JF - The journal of chemical physics : bridges a gap between journals of physics and journals of chemistr N2 - We study theoretically the quantum dynamics and spectroscopy of rovibrational polaritons formed in a model system composed of a single rovibrating diatomic molecule, which interacts with two degenerate, orthogonally polarized modes of an optical Fabry-Perot cavity. We employ an effective rovibrational Pauli-Fierz Hamiltonian in length gauge representation and identify three-state vibro-polaritonic conical intersections (VPCIs) between singly excited vibro-polaritonic states in a two-dimensional angular coordinate branching space. The lower and upper vibrational polaritons are of mixed light-matter hybrid character, whereas the intermediate state is purely photonic in nature. The VPCIs provide effective population transfer channels between singly excited vibrational polaritons, which manifest in rich interference patterns in rotational densities. Spectroscopically, three bright singly excited states are identified when an external infrared laser field couples to both a molecular and a cavity mode. The non-trivial VPCI topology manifests as pronounced multi-peak progression in the spectral region of the upper vibrational polariton, which is traced back to the emergence of rovibro-polaritonic light-matter hybrid states. Experimentally, ubiquitous spontaneous emission from cavity modes induces a dissipative reduction of intensity and peak broadening, which mainly influences the purely photonic intermediate state peak as well as the rovibro-polaritonic progression. Published under an exclusive license by AIP Publishing. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0098006 SN - 0021-9606 SN - 1089-7690 VL - 157 IS - 3 PB - American Institute of Physics CY - Melville ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fischer, Eric Wolfgang A1 - Anders, Janet A1 - Saalfrank, Peter T1 - Cavity-altered thermal isomerization rates and dynamical resonant localization in vibro-polaritonic chemistry JF - The journal of chemical physics : bridges a gap between journals of physics and journals of chemistr N2 - It has been experimentally demonstrated that reaction rates for molecules embedded in microfluidic optical cavities are altered when compared to rates observed under "ordinary" reaction conditions. However, precise mechanisms of how strong coupling of an optical cavity mode to molecular vibrations affects the reactivity and how resonance behavior emerges are still under dispute. In the present work, we approach these mechanistic issues from the perspective of a thermal model reaction, the inversion of ammonia along the umbrella mode, in the presence of a single-cavity mode of varying frequency and coupling strength. A topological analysis of the related cavity Born-Oppenheimer potential energy surface in combination with quantum mechanical and transition state theory rate calculations reveals two quantum effects, leading to decelerated reaction rates in qualitative agreement with experiments: the stiffening of quantized modes perpendicular to the reaction path at the transition state, which reduces the number of thermally accessible reaction channels, and the broadening of the barrier region, which attenuates tunneling. We find these two effects to be very robust in a fluctuating environment, causing statistical variations of potential parameters, such as the barrier height. Furthermore, by solving the time-dependent Schrodinger equation in the vibrational strong coupling regime, we identify a resonance behavior, in qualitative agreement with experimental and earlier theoretical work. The latter manifests as reduced reaction probability when the cavity frequency omega(c) is tuned resonant to a molecular reactant frequency. We find this effect to be based on the dynamical localization of the vibro-polaritonic wavepacket in the reactant well. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0076434 SN - 0021-9606 SN - 1089-7690 VL - 156 IS - 15 PB - American Institute of Physics CY - Melville, NY ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Miklashevsky, Alex T1 - Catch the star! Spatial information activates the manual motor system JF - PLoS ONE N2 - Previous research demonstrated a close bidirectional relationship between spatial attention and the manual motor system. However, it is unclear whether an explicit hand movement is necessary for this relationship to appear. A novel method with high temporal resolution–bimanual grip force registration–sheds light on this issue. Participants held two grip force sensors while being presented with lateralized stimuli (exogenous attentional shifts, Experiment 1), left- or right-pointing central arrows (endogenous attentional shifts, Experiment 2), or the words "left" or "right" (endogenous attentional shifts, Experiment 3). There was an early interaction between the presentation side or arrow direction and grip force: lateralized objects and central arrows led to a larger increase of the ipsilateral force and a smaller increase of the contralateral force. Surprisingly, words led to the opposite pattern: larger force increase in the contralateral hand and smaller force increase in the ipsilateral hand. The effect was stronger and appeared earlier for lateralized objects (60 ms after stimulus presentation) than for arrows (100 ms) or words (250 ms). Thus, processing visuospatial information automatically activates the manual motor system, but the timing and direction of this effect vary depending on the type of stimulus. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0262510 SN - 1932-6203 SP - 1 EP - 30 PB - PLOS CY - San Francisco, California, US ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schaefer, Laura A1 - Bittmann, Frank T1 - Case Study: Intra- and Interpersonal Coherence of Muscle and Brain Activity of Two Coupled Persons during Pushing and Holding Isometric Muscle Action JF - Brain Sciences N2 - Inter-brain synchronization is primarily investigated during social interactions but had not been examined during coupled muscle action between two persons until now. It was previously shown that mechanical muscle oscillations can develop coherent behavior between two isometrically interacting persons. This case study investigated if inter-brain synchronization appears thereby, and if differences of inter- and intrapersonal muscle and brain coherence exist regarding two different types of isometric muscle action. Electroencephalography (EEG) and mechanomyography/mechanotendography (MMG/MTG) of right elbow extensors were recorded during six fatiguing trials of two coupled isometrically interacting participants (70% MVIC). One partner performed holding and one pushing isometric muscle action (HIMA/PIMA; tasks changed). The wavelet coherence of all signals (EEG, MMG/MTG, force, ACC) were analyzed intra- and interpersonally. The five longest coherence patches in 8–15 Hz and their weighted frequency were compared between real vs. random pairs and between HIMA vs. PIMA. Real vs. random pairs showed significantly higher coherence for intra-muscle, intra-brain, and inter-muscle-brain activity (p < 0.001 to 0.019). Inter-brain coherence was significantly higher for real vs. random pairs for EEG of right and central areas and for sub-regions of EEG left (p = 0.002 to 0.025). Interpersonal muscle-brain synchronization was significantly higher than intrapersonal one, whereby it was significantly higher for HIMA vs. PIMA. These preliminary findings indicate that inter-brain synchronization can arise during muscular interaction. It is hypothesized both partners merge into one oscillating neuromuscular system. The results reinforce the hypothesis that HIMA is characterized by more complex control strategies than PIMA. The pilot study suggests investigating the topic further to verify these results on a larger sample size. Findings could contribute to the basic understanding of motor control and is relevant for functional diagnostics such as the manual muscle test which is applied in several disciplines, e.g., neurology, physiotherapy. KW - interpersonal muscle action KW - wavelet coherence KW - inter-brain synchronization KW - inter-muscle-brain synchronization KW - electroencephalography (EEG) KW - mechanomyography (MMG) KW - holding isometric muscle action (HIMA) KW - pushing isometric muscle action (PIMA) Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12060703 SN - 2076-3425 VL - 12 PB - MDPI Open Access Publishing CY - Basel, Schweiz ET - 6 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Barcena, Maria Luisa A1 - Aslam, Muhammad A1 - Pozdniakova, Sofya A1 - Norman, Kristina A1 - Ladilov, Yury T1 - Cardiovascular inflammaging: mechanisms and translational aspects JF - Cells N2 - Aging is one of the major non-reversible risk factors for several chronic diseases, including cancer, type 2 diabetes, dementia, and cardiovascular diseases (CVD), and it is a key cause of multimorbidity, disability, and frailty (decreased physical activity, fatigue, and weight loss). The underlying cellular mechanisms are complex and consist of multifactorial processes, such as telomere shortening, chronic low-grade inflammation, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, accumulation of senescent cells, and reduced autophagy. In this review, we focused on the molecular mechanisms and translational aspects of cardiovascular aging-related inflammation, i.e., inflammaging. KW - cardiac inflammaging KW - vascular senescence KW - mitochondrial homeostasis KW - microbiome Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/cells11061010 SN - 2073-4409 VL - 11 IS - 6 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Muntaha, Sidratul Nur A1 - Li, Xiaoping A1 - Compart, Julia A1 - Apriyanto, Ardha A1 - Fettke, Jörg T1 - Carbon pathways during transitory starch degradation in Arabidopsis differentially affect the starch granule number and morphology in the dpe2/phs1 mutant background JF - Plant physiology and biochemistry : an official journal of the Federation of European Societies of Plant Physiology N2 - The Arabidopsis knockout mutant lacking both the cytosolic disproportionating enzyme 2 (DPE2) and the plastidial phosphorylase (PHS1) had a dwarf-growth phenotype, a reduced and uneven distribution of starch within the plant rosettes, and a lower starch granule number per chloroplast under standard growth conditions. In contrast, a triple mutant impaired in starch degradation by its additional lack of the glucan, water dikinase (GWD) showed improved plant growth, a starch-excess phenotype, and a homogeneous starch distribution. Furthermore, the number of starch granules per chloroplast was increased and was similar to the wild type. We concluded that ongoing starch degradation is mainly responsible for the observed phenotype of dpe2/phs1. Next, we generated two further triple mutants lacking either the phosphoglucan, water dikinase (PWD), or the disproportionating enzyme 1 (DPE1) in the background of the double mutant. Analysis of the starch metabolism revealed that even minor ongoing starch degradation observed in dpe2/phs1/pwd maintained the double mutant phenotype. In contrast, an additional blockage in the glucose pathway of starch breakdown, as in dpe2/phs1/ dpe1, resulted in a nearly starch-free phenotype and massive chloroplast degradation. The characterized mutants were discussed in the context of starch granule formation. KW - Starch granules KW - Starch metabolism KW - Starch granule number per KW - chloroplast KW - Starch morphology KW - LCSM KW - Arabidopsis thaliana Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plaphy.2022.03.033 SN - 0981-9428 SN - 1873-2690 VL - 180 SP - 35 EP - 41 PB - Elsevier CY - Paris ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ay-Bryson, Destina Sevde A1 - Weck, Florian A1 - Kühne, Franziska T1 - Can simulated patient encounters appear authentic? BT - development and pilot results of a rating instrument based on the portrayal of depressive patients JF - Training and education in professional psychology N2 - Public Significance Statement This study demonstrates that simulated patients (SPs) can authentically portray a depressive case. The results provide preliminary evidence of psychometrically sound properties of the rating scale that contributes to distinguishing between authentic and unauthentic SPs and may thus foster SPs' dissemination into evidence-based training.
For training purposes, simulated patients (SPs), that is, healthy people portraying a disorder, are disseminating more into clinical psychology and psychotherapy. In the current study, we developed an observer-based rating instrument for the evaluation of SP authenticity-namely, it not being possible to distinguish them from real patients-so as to foster their use in evidence-based training. We applied a multistep inductive approach to develop the Authenticity of Patient Demonstrations (APD) scale. Ninety-seven independent psychotherapy trainees, 77.32% female, mean age of 31.49 (SD = 5.17) years, evaluated the authenticity of 2 independent SPs, each of whom portrayed a depressive patient. The APD demonstrated good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = .83) and a strong correlation (r = .82) with an established tool for assessing SP performance in medical contexts. The APD scale distinguished significantly between an authentic and unauthentic SP (d = 2.35). Preliminary evidence for the psychometric properties of the APD indicates that the APD could be a viable tool for recruiting, training, and evaluating the authenticity of SPs. Strengths, limitations, and future directions are also discussed in detail. KW - authenticity KW - evidence-based training KW - standardized patients KW - role-play KW - mental disorders Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1037/tep0000349 SN - 1931-3918 SN - 1931-3926 VL - 16 IS - 1 SP - 20 EP - 27 PB - American Psychological Association CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Eccard, Jana T1 - Can rolling composite wildflower blocks increase biodiversity in agricultural landscapes better than wildflowers strips? JF - Journal of applied ecology : an official journal of the British Ecological Society N2 - Biodiversity and abundance of wildlife has dramatically declined in agricultural landscapes. Sown, short-lived wildflower (WF) strips along the margins of crop fields are a widespread and often subsidised in agri-environmental schemes, intended to enhance biodiversity, provide refuges for wild plant and arthropod populations and to provide ecosystem services to crops. Meanwhile, WF elements are also criticised, since their functionality decreases with plant succession, the removal of aged WF strip poses an ecological trap for the attracted arthropod populations and only common and mobile species benefit. Further, insects in WF strips are impacted by pesticides from agricultural fields due to shared boundaries with crop fields and by edge effects. The performance of the measure could be improved by combining several WF strips of different successional stages, each harbouring a unique community of plants and arthropods, into persistent, composite WF block, where successional stages exist in parallel. Monitoring data on many taxa in the literature shows, that a third of species are temporarily present in an ageing WF stip, thus offering composite WF blocks should increase cumulative species richness by 28%-39% compared to annual richness in WF strips. Persistence of composite WF blocks would offer reliable refuge for animal and plant populations, also supporting their predators and herbivores. Further, WF blocks have less boundaries to crops compared to WF strips of the same area, and are less impacted by edge effects and pesticides. Policy implications. Here I suggest a change of conservation practice changing from successional WF strips to composite WF blocks. By regular removal and replacement of aged WF strips either within the block (rotational) or at its margins (rolling), the habitat heterogeneity in composite WF block could be perpetuated. Rolling composite WF blocks change locations over years, and the original location can be reconverted to arable land while a nearby WF block is still available to wildlife. A change in agricultural schemes would be necessary, since in some European countries clustered WF strips are explicitly not subsidised. KW - AES KW - agriculture KW - biodiversity KW - CAP KW - conservation scheme KW - field margins KW - insects Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14147 SN - 0021-8901 SN - 1365-2664 VL - 59 IS - 5 SP - 1172 EP - 1177 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Negyesi, Janos A1 - Hortobagyi, Tibor A1 - Hill, Jessica A1 - Granacher, Urs A1 - Nagatomi, Ryoichi T1 - Can compression garments reduce the deleterious effects of physical exercise on muscle strength? BT - a systematic review and meta-analyses JF - Sports medicine N2 - Background The use of compression garments (CGs) during or after training and competition has gained popularity in the last few decades. However, the data concerning CGs' beneficial effects on muscle strength-related outcomes after physical exercise remain inconclusive. Objective The aim was to determine whether wearing CGs during or after physical exercise would facilitate the recovery of muscle strength-related outcomes. Methods A systematic literature search was conducted across five databases (PubMed, SPORTDiscus, Web of Science, Scopus, and EBSCOhost). Data from 19 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) including 350 healthy participants were extracted and meta-analytically computed. Weighted between-study standardized mean differences (SMDs) with respect to their standard errors (SEs) were aggregated and corrected for sample size to compute overall SMDs. The type of physical exercise, the body area and timing of CG application, and the time interval between the end of the exercise and subsequent testing were assessed. Results CGs produced no strength-sparing effects (SMD [95% confidence interval]) at the following time points (t) after physical exercise: immediately <= t < 24 h: - 0.02 (- 0.22 to 0.19), p = 0.87; 24 <= t < 48 h: - 0.00 (- 0.22 to 0.21), p = 0.98; 48 <= t < 72 h: - 0.03 (- 0.43 to 0.37), p = 0.87; 72 <= t < 96 h: 0.14 (- 0.21 to 0.49), p = 0.43; 96 h <= t: 0.26 (- 0.33 to 0.85), p = 0.38. The body area where the CG was applied had no strength-sparing effects. CGs revealed weak strength-sparing effects after plyometric exercise. Conclusion Meta-analytical evidence suggests that wearing a CG during or after training does not seem to facilitate the recovery of muscle strength following physical exercise. Practitioners, athletes, coaches, and trainers should reconsider the use of CG as a tool to reduce the effects of physical exercise on muscle strength. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-022-01681-4 SN - 0112-1642 SN - 1179-2035 VL - 52 IS - 9 SP - 2159 EP - 2175 PB - Springer CY - Northcote ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Nievas, Cecilia A1 - Pilz, Marco A1 - Prehn, Karsten A1 - Schorlemmer, Danijel A1 - Weatherill, Graeme A1 - Cotton, Fabrice T1 - Calculating earthquake damage building by building BT - the case of the city of Cologne, Germany JF - Bulletin of earthquake engineering : official publication of the European Association for Earthquake Engineering N2 - The creation of building exposure models for seismic risk assessment is frequently challenging due to the lack of availability of detailed information on building structures. Different strategies have been developed in recent years to overcome this, including the use of census data, remote sensing imagery and volunteered graphic information (VGI). This paper presents the development of a building-by-building exposure model based exclusively on openly available datasets, including both VGI and census statistics, which are defined at different levels of spatial resolution and for different moments in time. The initial model stemming purely from building-level data is enriched with statistics aggregated at the neighbourhood and city level by means of a Monte Carlo simulation that enables the generation of full realisations of damage estimates when using the exposure model in the context of an earthquake scenario calculation. Though applicable to any other region of interest where analogous datasets are available, the workflow and approach followed are explained by focusing on the case of the German city of Cologne, for which a scenario earthquake is defined and the potential damage is calculated. The resulting exposure model and damage estimates are presented, and it is shown that the latter are broadly consistent with damage data from the 1978 Albstadt earthquake, notwithstanding the differences in the scenario. Through this real-world application we demonstrate the potential of VGI and open data to be used for exposure modelling for natural risk assessment, when combined with suitable knowledge on building fragility and accounting for the inherent uncertainties. KW - Building exposure modelling KW - Seismic damage assessment KW - Scenario KW - earthquake KW - Seismic risk KW - Cologne Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10518-021-01303-w SN - 1570-761X SN - 1573-1456 VL - 20 IS - 3 SP - 1519 EP - 1565 PB - Springer CY - Dordrecht ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Weaver, Catherine A1 - Heinzel, Mirko A1 - Jorgensen, Samantha A1 - Flores, Joseph T1 - Bureaucratic representation in the IMF and the World Bank JF - Global perspectives N2 - The legitimacy and effectiveness of international organizations are often linked directly to issues of representation—not only on their high-level governing boards and in top leadership but also within their staff. This article explores two key questions of bureaucratic representation in the critical cases of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. First, we seek to unpack three essential dimensions of staff representation—nationality, education, and gender—to explain how representation may matter for international organizations. Second, we aim to describe the multiple dimensions of representation in the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank over the past twenty years by deploying a novel dataset on staff demographics, focusing on ranks with decision-making authority within the institutions. Our descriptive analysis reveals that the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have made considerable efforts to diversify their bureaucracies. Nonetheless, representation remains uneven; for example, nationals from middle- and low-income countries, women, and staff without economics degrees from prominent US- or UK-based universities are less present in key leadership positions. These results may be well explained by the particular needs of the institutions’ technical mandates and limits in the supply of qualified staff and, as such, need not be seen as suboptimal. Nonetheless, perceived imbalances in representation may continue to pose external legitimation and operational challenges to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in a complex political environment where such multidimensional representation is important to sustaining the buy-in of donor and borrower countries alike. To this end, we recommend that the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank enhance their diversity and inclusion efforts by increasing transparency via reporting disaggregated data on workforce composition and introducing annual requirements to publish progress reports with management feedback to strengthen internal and external accountability. KW - representation KW - international bureaucracy KW - multilateralism KW - World Bank KW - IMF Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1525/gp.2022.39684 SN - 2575-7350 VL - 3 IS - 1 PB - University of California Press CY - Oakland, CA ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Warchold, Anne A1 - Pradhan, Prajal A1 - Thapa, Pratibha A1 - Putra, Muhammad Panji Islam Fajar A1 - Kropp, Jürgen T1 - Building a unified sustainable development goal database BT - why does sustainable development goal data selection matter? JF - Sustainable development N2 - The 2020s are an essential decade for achieving the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For this, SDG research needs to provide evidence that can be translated into concrete actions. However, studies use different SDG data, resulting in incomparable findings. Researchers primarily use SDG databases provided by the United Nations (UN), the World Bank Group (WBG), and the Bertelsmann Stiftung & Sustainable Development Solutions Network (BE-SDSN). We compile these databases into one unified SDG database and examine the effects of the data selection on our understanding of SDG interactions. Among the databases, we observed more different than similar SDG interactions. Differences in synergies and trade-offs mainly occur for SDGs that are environmentally oriented. Due to the increased data availability, the unified SDG database offers a more nuanced and reliable view of SDG interactions. Thus, the SDG data selection may lead to diverse findings, fostering actions that might neglect or exacerbate trade-offs. KW - inequalities KW - SDG indicator databases KW - SDG interactions KW - SDG networks; KW - SDGs KW - synergies and trade-offs Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.2316 SN - 0968-0802 SN - 1099-1719 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Richly, Keven A1 - Schlosser, Rainer A1 - Boissier, Martin T1 - Budget-conscious fine-grained configuration optimization for spatio-temporal applications JF - Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment N2 - Based on the performance requirements of modern spatio-temporal data mining applications, in-memory database systems are often used to store and process the data. To efficiently utilize the scarce DRAM capacities, modern database systems support various tuning possibilities to reduce the memory footprint (e.g., data compression) or increase performance (e.g., additional indexes). However, the selection of cost and performance balancing configurations is challenging due to the vast number of possible setups consisting of mutually dependent individual decisions. In this paper, we introduce a novel approach to jointly optimize the compression, sorting, indexing, and tiering configuration for spatio-temporal workloads. Further, we consider horizontal data partitioning, which enables the independent application of different tuning options on a fine-grained level. We propose different linear programming (LP) models addressing cost dependencies at different levels of accuracy to compute optimized tuning configurations for a given workload and memory budgets. To yield maintainable and robust configurations, we extend our LP-based approach to incorporate reconfiguration costs as well as a worst-case optimization for potential workload scenarios. Further, we demonstrate on a real-world dataset that our models allow to significantly reduce the memory footprint with equal performance or increase the performance with equal memory size compared to existing tuning heuristics. KW - General Earth and Planetary Sciences KW - Water Science and Technology KW - Geography, Planning and Development Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.14778/3565838.3565858 SN - 2150-8097 VL - 15 IS - 13 SP - 4079 EP - 4092 PB - Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) CY - [New York] ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Irob, Katja A1 - Blaum, Niels A1 - Baldauf, Selina A1 - Kerger, Leon A1 - Strohbach, Ben A1 - Kanduvarisa, Angelina A1 - Lohmann, Dirk A1 - Tietjen, Britta T1 - Browsing herbivores improve the state and functioning of savannas BT - A model assessment of alternative land-use strategies JF - Ecology and evolution N2 - Changing climatic conditions and unsustainable land use are major threats to savannas worldwide. Historically, many African savannas were used intensively for livestock grazing, which contributed to widespread patterns of bush encroachment across savanna systems. To reverse bush encroachment, it has been proposed to change the cattle-dominated land use to one dominated by comparatively specialized browsers and usually native herbivores. However, the consequences for ecosystem properties and processes remain largely unclear. We used the ecohydrological, spatially explicit model EcoHyD to assess the impacts of two contrasting, herbivore land-use strategies on a Namibian savanna: grazer- versus browser-dominated herbivore communities. We varied the densities of grazers and browsers and determined the resulting composition and diversity of the plant community, total vegetation cover, soil moisture, and water use by plants. Our results showed that plant types that are less palatable to herbivores were best adapted to grazing or browsing animals in all simulated densities. Also, plant types that had a competitive advantage under limited water availability were among the dominant ones irrespective of land-use scenario. Overall, the results were in line with our expectations: under high grazer densities, we found heavy bush encroachment and the loss of the perennial grass matrix. Importantly, regardless of the density of browsers, grass cover and plant functional diversity were significantly higher in browsing scenarios. Browsing herbivores increased grass cover, and the higher total cover in turn improved water uptake by plants overall. We concluded that, in contrast to grazing-dominated land-use strategies, land-use strategies dominated by browsing herbivores, even at high herbivore densities, sustain diverse vegetation communities with high cover of perennial grasses, resulting in lower erosion risk and bolstering ecosystem services. KW - browsing KW - ecohydrology KW - land use KW - plant community KW - savanna KW - wildlife KW - management Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8715 SN - 2045-7758 VL - 12 IS - 3 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Apel, Heiko A1 - Vorogushyn, Sergiy A1 - Merz, Bruno T1 - Brief communication: impact forecasting could substantially improve the emergency management of deadly floods: case study July 2021 floods in Germany JF - Natural hazards and earth system sciences N2 - Floods affect more people than any other natural hazard; thus flood warning and disaster management are of utmost importance. However, the operational hydrological forecasts do not provide information about affected areas and impact but only discharge and water levels at gauges. We show that a simple hydrodynamic model operating with readily available data is able to provide highly localized information on the expected flood extent and impacts, with simulation times enabling operational flood warning. We demonstrate that such an impact forecast would have indicated the deadly potential of the 2021 flood in western Germany with sufficient lead time. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-22-3005-2022 SN - 1561-8633 SN - 1684-9981 VL - 22 IS - 9 SP - 3005 EP - 3014 PB - European Geophysical Society CY - Katlenburg-Lindau ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wulff, Peter A1 - Buschhüter, David A1 - Westphal, Andrea A1 - Mientus, Lukas A1 - Nowak, Anna A1 - Borowski, Andreas T1 - Bridging the gap between qualitative and quantitative assessment in science education research with machine learning BT - a case for pretrained language models-based clustering JF - Journal of science education and technology N2 - Science education researchers typically face a trade-off between more quantitatively oriented confirmatory testing of hypotheses, or more qualitatively oriented exploration of novel hypotheses. More recently, open-ended, constructed response items were used to combine both approaches and advance assessment of complex science-related skills and competencies. For example, research in assessing science teachers' noticing and attention to classroom events benefitted from more open-ended response formats because teachers can present their own accounts. Then, open-ended responses are typically analyzed with some form of content analysis. However, language is noisy, ambiguous, and unsegmented and thus open-ended, constructed responses are complex to analyze. Uncovering patterns in these responses would benefit from more principled and systematic analysis tools. Consequently, computer-based methods with the help of machine learning and natural language processing were argued to be promising means to enhance assessment of noticing skills with constructed response formats. In particular, pretrained language models recently advanced the study of linguistic phenomena and thus could well advance assessment of complex constructs through constructed response items. This study examines potentials and challenges of a pretrained language model-based clustering approach to assess preservice physics teachers' attention to classroom events as elicited through open-ended written descriptions. It was examined to what extent the clustering approach could identify meaningful patterns in the constructed responses, and in what ways textual organization of the responses could be analyzed with the clusters. Preservice physics teachers (N = 75) were instructed to describe a standardized, video-recorded teaching situation in physics. The clustering approach was used to group related sentences. Results indicate that the pretrained language model-based clustering approach yields well-interpretable, specific, and robust clusters, which could be mapped to physics-specific and more general contents. Furthermore, the clusters facilitate advanced analysis of the textual organization of the constructed responses. Hence, we argue that machine learning and natural language processing provide science education researchers means to combine exploratory capabilities of qualitative research methods with the systematicity of quantitative methods. KW - Attention to classroom events KW - Noticing KW - NLP KW - ML Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-022-09969-w SN - 1059-0145 SN - 1573-1839 VL - 31 IS - 4 SP - 490 EP - 513 PB - Springer CY - Dordrecht ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lehmann, Nico A1 - Kuhn, Yves-Alain A1 - Keller, Martin A1 - Aye, Norman A1 - Herold, Fabian A1 - Draganski, Bogdan A1 - Taube, Wolfgang A1 - Taubert, Marco T1 - Brain activation during active balancing and its behavioral relevance in younger and older adults BT - a functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) study JF - Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience N2 - Age-related deterioration of balance control is widely regarded as an important phenomenon influencing quality of life and longevity, such that a more comprehensive understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying this process is warranted. Specifically, previous studies have reported that older adults typically show higher neural activity during balancing as compared to younger counterparts, but the implications of this finding on balance performance remain largely unclear. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), differences in the cortical control of balance between healthy younger (n = 27) and older (n = 35) adults were explored. More specifically, the association between cortical functional activity and balance performance across and within age groups was investigated. To this end, we measured hemodynamic responses (i.e., changes in oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin) while participants balanced on an unstable device. As criterion variables for brain-behavior-correlations, we also assessed postural sway while standing on a free-swinging platform and while balancing on wobble boards with different levels of difficulty. We found that older compared to younger participants had higher activity in prefrontal and lower activity in postcentral regions. Subsequent robust regression analyses revealed that lower prefrontal brain activity was related to improved balance performance across age groups, indicating that higher activity of the prefrontal cortex during balancing reflects neural inefficiency. We also present evidence supporting that age serves as a moderator in the relationship between brain activity and balance, i.e., cortical hemodynamics generally appears to be a more important predictor of balance performance in the older than in the younger. Strikingly, we found that age differences in balance performance are mediated by balancing-induced activation of the superior frontal gyrus, thus suggesting that differential activation of this region reflects a mechanism involved in the aging process of the neural control of balance. Our study suggests that differences in functional brain activity between age groups are not a mere by-product of aging, but instead of direct behavioral relevance for balance performance. Potential implications of these findings in terms of early detection of fall-prone individuals and intervention strategies targeting balance and healthy aging are discussed. KW - aging KW - neuroimaging KW - functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) KW - balance KW - postural control KW - prefrontal cortex KW - neural inefficiency Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2022.828474 SN - 1663-4365 VL - 14 PB - Frontiers Media CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bär, Christian A1 - Bandara, Lashi T1 - Boundary value problems for general first-order elliptic differential operators JF - Journal of functional analysis N2 - We study boundary value problems for first-order elliptic differential operators on manifolds with compact boundary. The adapted boundary operator need not be selfadjoint and the boundary condition need not be pseudo-local.We show the equivalence of various characterisations of elliptic boundary conditions and demonstrate how the boundary conditions traditionally considered in the literature fit in our framework. The regularity of the solutions up to the boundary is proven. We show that imposing elliptic boundary conditions yields a Fredholm operator if the manifold is compact. We provide examples which are conveniently treated by our methods. KW - elliptic differential operators of firstorder KW - elliptic boundary KW - conditions KW - boundary regularity KW - Fredholm property KW - H-infinity-functional calculus KW - maximal regularity KW - Rarita-Schwinger KW - operator Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfa.2022.109445 SN - 0022-1236 SN - 1096-0783 VL - 282 IS - 12 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam [u.a.] ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Polley, Nabarun A1 - Werner, Peter A1 - Balderas-Valadez, Ruth Fabiola A1 - Pacholski, Claudia T1 - Bottom, top, or in between BT - combining plasmonic nanohole arrays and hydrogel microgels for optical fiber snsor applications JF - Advanced materials interfaces N2 - Attractive label-free plasmonic optical fiber sensors can be developed by cleverly choosing the arrangement of plasmonic nanostructures and other building blocks. Here, the final response depends very much on the alignment and position (stacking) of the individual elements. In this work, three different types of fiber optic sensing geometries fabricated by simple layer-by-layer stacking are presented, consisting of stimulus-sensitive poly-N-isopropylacrylamide (polyNIPAM) microgel arrays and plasmonic nanohole arrays (NHAs), namely NHA/polyNIPAM, polyNIPAM/NHA, polyNIPAM/NHA/polyNIPAM. Their optical response to a representative stimulus, namely temperature, is investigated. NHA/polyNIPAM monitors the volume phase transition of polyNIPAM microgels through changes in the spectral position and the amplitude of the reflection minimum of plasmonic NHA. In contrast, polyNIPAM/NHA shows a more complex response to the swelling and collapse of polyNIPAM microgels in their reflectance spectra. The most pronounced changes in optical response are observed by monitoring the amplitude of the reflectance minimum of this sensor during heating/cooling cycles. Finally, the triple stack of polyNIPAM/NHA/polyNIPAM at the end of a optical fiber tip combines the advantages of the NHA/polyNIPAM, polyNIPAM/NHA double stacks for optical sensing. The unique layer-by-layer stacking of microgel and nanostructure is customizable and can be easily adopted for other applications. KW - bottom-up fabrication KW - layer-by-layer stacking KW - microgel arrays KW - optical KW - fiber sensors KW - plasmonic nanohole arrays Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/admi.202102312 SN - 2196-7350 VL - 9 IS - 15 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Floyd, Thomas G. A1 - Song, Ji-Inn A1 - Hapeshi, Alexia A1 - Laroque, Sophie A1 - Hartlieb, Matthias A1 - Perrier, Sebastien T1 - Bottlebrush copolymers for gene delivery: influence of architecture, charge density, and backbone length on transfection efficiency JF - Journal of materials chemistry : B, materials for biology and medicine N2 - The influence of polymer architecture of polycations on their ability to transfect mammalian cells is probed. Polymer bottle brushes with grafts made from partially hydrolysed poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) are used while varying the length of the polymer backbone as well as the degree of hydrolysis (cationic charge content). Polyplex formation is investigated via gel electrophoresis, dye-displacement and dynamic light scattering. Bottle brushes show a superior ability to complex pDNA when compared to linear copolymers. Also, nucleic acid release was found to be improved by a graft architecture. Polyplexes based on bottle brush copolymers showed an elongated shape in transmission electron microscopy images. The cytotoxicity against mammalian cells is drastically reduced when a graft architecture is used instead of linear copolymers. Moreover, the best-performing bottle brush copolymer showed a transfection ability comparable with that of linear poly(ethylenimine), the gold standard of polymeric transfection agents, which is used as positive control. In combination with their markedly lowered cytotoxicity, cationic bottle brush copolymers are therefore shown to be a highly promising class of gene delivery vectors. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/d2tb00490a SN - 2050-750X SN - 2050-7518 VL - 10 IS - 19 SP - 3696 EP - 3704 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - London [u.a.] ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Nagakura, Toshiki A1 - Schubert, Florian A1 - Wagner, Dirk A1 - Kallmeyer, Jens T1 - Biological sulfate reduction in deep subseafloor sediment of Guaymas Basin JF - Frontiers in microbiology N2 - Sulfate reduction is the quantitatively most important process to degrade organic matter in anoxic marine sediment and has been studied intensively in a variety of settings. Guaymas Basin, a young marginal ocean basin, offers the unique opportunity to study sulfate reduction in an environment characterized by organic-rich sediment, high sedimentation rates, and high geothermal gradients (100-958 degrees C km(-1)). We measured sulfate reduction rates (SRR) in samples taken during the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 385 using incubation experiments with radiolabeled (SO42-)-S-35 carried out at in situ pressure and temperature. The highest SRR (387 nmol cm(-3) d(-1)) was recorded in near-surface sediments from Site U1548C, which had the steepest geothermal gradient (958 degrees C km(-1)). At this site, SRR were generally over an order of magnitude higher than at similar depths at other sites (e.g., 387-157 nmol cm(-3) d(-1) at 1.9 mbsf from Site U1548C vs. 46-1.0 nmol cm(-3) d(-1) at 2.1 mbsf from Site U1552B). Site U1546D is characterized by a sill intrusion, but it had already reached thermal equilibrium and SRR were in the same range as nearby Site U1545C, which is minimally affected by sills. The wide temperature range observed at each drill site suggests major shifts in microbial community composition with very different temperature optima but awaits confirmation by molecular biological analyses. At the transition between the mesophilic and thermophilic range around 40 degrees C-60 degrees C, sulfate-reducing activity appears to be decreased, particularly in more oligotrophic settings, but shows a slight recovery at higher temperatures. KW - sulfate reduction KW - subsurface life KW - deep biosphere KW - thermophiles; KW - Guaymas Basin Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.845250 SN - 1664-302X VL - 13 PB - Frontiers Media CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schittko, Conrad A1 - Onandia, Gabriela A1 - Bernard-Verdier, Maud A1 - Heger, Tina A1 - Jeschke, Jonathan M. A1 - Kowarik, Ingo A1 - Maaß, Stefanie A1 - Joshi, Jasmin T1 - Biodiversity maintains soil multifunctionality and soil organic carbon in novel urban ecosystems JF - Journal of ecology N2 - Biodiversity in urban ecosystems has the potential to increase ecosystem functions and support a suite of services valued by society, including services provided by soils. Specifically, the sequestration of carbon in soils has often been advocated as a solution to mitigate the steady increase in CO2 concentration in the atmosphere as a key driver of climate change. However, urban ecosystems are also characterized by an often high level of ecological novelty due to profound human-mediated changes, such as the presence of high numbers of non-native species, impervious surfaces or other disturbances. Yet it is poorly understood whether and how biodiversity affects ecosystem functioning and services of urban soils under these novel conditions. In this study, we assessed the influence of above- and below-ground diversity, as well as urbanization and plant invasions, on multifunctionality and organic carbon stocks of soils in non-manipulated grasslands along an urbanization gradient in Berlin, Germany. We focused on plant diversity (measured as species richness and functional trait diversity) and, in addition, on soil organism diversity as a potential mediator for the relationship of plant species diversity and ecosystem functioning. Our results showed positive effects of plant diversity on soil multifunctionality and soil organic carbon stocks along the entire gradient. Structural equation models revealed that plant diversity enhanced soil multifunctionality and soil organic carbon by increasing the diversity of below-ground organisms. These positive effects of plant diversity on soil multifunctionality and soil fauna were not restricted to native plant species only, but were also exerted by non-native species, although to a lesser degree. Synthesis. We conclude that enhancing diversity in plants and soil fauna of urban grasslands can increase the multifunctionality of urban soils and also add to their often underestimated but very valuable role in mitigating effects of climate change. KW - Anthropocene KW - biological invasions KW - ecosystem function and services; KW - functional diversity KW - global change KW - non-native species KW - novel KW - ecosystems KW - urbanization Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.13852 SN - 0022-0477 SN - 1365-2745 VL - 110 IS - 4 SP - 916 EP - 934 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zhang, Kai A1 - Hu, Jiege A1 - Yang, Shuai A1 - Xu, Wei A1 - Wang, Zhichao A1 - Zhuang, Peiwen A1 - Grossart, Hans-Peter A1 - Luo, Zhuhua T1 - Biodegradation of polyester polyurethane by the marine fungus Cladosporium halotolerans 6UPA1 JF - Journal of hazardous materials N2 - Lack of degradability and the accumulation of polymeric wastes increase the risk for the health of the environment. Recently, recycling of polymeric waste materials becomes increasingly important as raw materials for polymer synthesis are in short supply due to the rise in price and supply chain disruptions. As an important polymer, polyurethane (PU) is widely used in modern life, therefore, PU biodegradation is desirable to avoid its accumulation in the environment. In this study, we isolated a fungal strain Cladosporium halotolerans from the deep sea which can grow in mineral medium with a polyester PU (Impranil DLN) as a sole carbon source. Further, we demonstrate that it can degrade up to 80% of Impranil PU after 3 days of incubation at 28 celcius by breaking the carbonyl groups (1732 cm(-1)) and C-N-H bonds (1532 cm(-1) and 1247 cm(-1)) as confirmed by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy analysis. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis revealed polyols and alkanes as PU degradation intermediates, indicating the hydrolysis of ester and urethane bonds. Esterase and urease activities were detected in 7 days-old cultures with PU as a carbon source. Transcriptome analysis showed a number of extracellular protein genes coding for enzymes such as cutinase, lipase, peroxidase and hydrophobic surface binding proteins A (HsbA) were expressed when cultivated on Impranil PU. The yeast two-hybrid assay revealed that the hydrophobic surface binding protein ChHsbA1 directly interacts with inducible esterases, ChLip1 (lipase) and ChCut1 (cutinase). Further, the KEGG pathway for "fatty acid degradation " was significantly enriched in Impranil PU inducible genes, indicating that the fungus may use the degradation intermediates to generate energy via this pathway. Taken together, our data indicates secretion of both esterase and hydrophobic surface binding proteins by C. halotolerans plays an important role in Impranil PU absorption and subsequent degradation. Our study provides a mechanistic insight into Impranil PU biodegradation by deep sea fungi and provides the basis for future development of biotechnological PU recycling. KW - Impranil PU degradation KW - Lipase KW - Cutinase KW - HsbA KW - Fatty acid degradation Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2022.129406 SN - 0304-3894 SN - 1873-3336 VL - 437 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Radbruch, Moritz Jan Florian A1 - Pischon, Jeanette Hannah Charlotte A1 - Du, Fang A1 - Haag, Rainer A1 - Schumacher, Fabian A1 - Kleuser, Burkhard A1 - Mundhenk, Lars A1 - Gruber, Achim T1 - Biodegradable core-multishell nanocarrier: topical tacrolimus delivery for treatment of dermatitis JF - Journal of controlled release : official journal of the Controlled Release Society and of the Japanese Society of Drug Delivery Systems N2 - Two challenges in topical drug delivery to the skin include solubilizing hydrophobic drugs in water-based formulations and increasing drug penetration into the skin. Polymeric core-multishell nanocarrier (CMS), particularly the novel biodegradable CMS (bCMS = hPG-PCL1.1K-mPEG(2k)-CMS) have shown both advantages on excised skin ex vivo. Here, we investigated topical delivery of tacrolimus (TAC; > 500 g/mol) by bCMS in a hydrogel on an oxazolone-induced model of dermatitis in vivo. As expected, bCMS successfully delivered TAC into the skin. However, in vivo they did not increase, but decrease TAC penetration through the stratum corneum compared to ointment. Differences in the resulting mean concentrations were mostly non-significant in the skin (epidermis: 35.7 +/- 20.9 ng/cm(2) for bCMS vs. 92.6 +/- 62.7 ng/cm(2) for ointment; dermis: 76.8 +/- 26.8 ng/cm(2) vs 118.2 +/- 50.4 ng/cm(2)), but highly significant in blood (plasma: 1.1 +/- 0.4 ng/ml vs 11.3 +/- 9.3 ng/ml; erythrocytes: 0.5 +/- 0.2 ng/ml vs 3.4 +/- 2.4 ng/ml) and liver (0.01 +/- 0.01 ng/mg vs 0.03 +/- 0.01 ng/mg). bCMS were detected in the stratum corneum but not in viable skin or beyond. The therapeutic efficacy of TAC delivered by bCMS was equivalent to that of standard TAC ointment. Our results suggest that bCMS may be a promising carrier for the topical delivery of TAC. The quantitative difference to previous results should be interpreted in light of structural differences between murine and human skin, but highlights the need as well as potential methods to develop more a complex ex vivo analysis on human skin to ensure quantitative predictive value. KW - drug delivery systems KW - core-multishell (CMS) nanocarriers KW - tacrolimus KW - topical drug delivery KW - dermal drug administration KW - penetration enhancement Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jconrel.2022.07.025 SN - 0168-3659 SN - 1873-4995 VL - 349 SP - 917 EP - 928 PB - Elsevier CY - New York, NY [u.a.] ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Saidi, Karim A1 - Zouhal, Hassane A1 - Boullosa, Daniel A1 - Dupont, Gregory A1 - Hackney, Anthony C. A1 - Bideau, Benoit A1 - Granacher, Urs A1 - Ben Abderrahman, Abderraouf T1 - Biochemical markers and wellness status during a congested match play period in elite soccer players JF - International journal of sports physiology and performance : IJSSP N2 - Objectives: To analyze biochemical markers, wellness status, and physical fitness in elite soccer players in relation to changes in training and match exposure during a congested period of match play. Methods: Fourteen elite soccer players were evaluated 3 times (T1, T2, and T3) over 12 weeks (T1-T2: 6-wk regular period of match play and T2-T3: 6-wk congested period of match play). Players performed vertical jump tests, repeated shuttle sprint ability test, and the Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test at T1, T2, and T3. Plasma C-reactive protein, creatinine, and creatine kinase were analyzed at T1, T2, and T3. Wellness status was measured daily using the Hopper questionnaire (delayed onset of muscle soreness, stress, fatigue, and sleep quality). Training session rating of perceived exertion was also recorded on a daily basis. Results: A significant increase was found in stress, fatigue, delayed onset of muscle soreness scores, and Hopper index during the congested period (between T2 and T3) compared with the regular period (between T1 and T2) (.001 < P < .008, 0.8 < ES < 2.3). Between T2 and T3, significant relationships were found between the percentage variations (Delta%) of C-reactive protein, and Delta% of creatine kinase with the Hopper Index, and the Delta% of fatigue score. In addition, the Delta% of fatigue score and Delta% of delayed onset of muscle soreness score correlated with Delta% Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test and Delta% best of repeated shuttle sprint ability test (.49 < r < P < .01). Conclusions: An intensive period of congested match play significantly compromised elite soccer players' physical fitness and wellness status. Elite soccer players' wellness status reflects declines in physical fitness during this period while biochemical changes do not. KW - training KW - congested calendar KW - overtraining KW - overreaching KW - recovery Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1123/ijspp.2020-0914 SN - 1555-0265 SN - 1555-0273 VL - 17 IS - 4 SP - 605 EP - 620 PB - Human Kinetics Publ. CY - Champaign ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Felser, Claudia A1 - Drummer, Janna-Deborah T1 - Binding out of relative clauses in native and non-native sentence comprehension JF - Journal of psycholinguistic research N2 - Pronouns can sometimes covary with a non c-commanding quantifier phrase (QP). To obtain such 'telescoping' readings, a semantic representation must be computed in which the QP's semantic scope extends beyond its surface scope. Non-native speakers have been claimed to have more difficulty than native speakers deriving such non-isomorphic syntax-semantics mappings, but evidence from processing studies is scarce. We report the results from an eye-movement monitoring experiment and an offline questionnaire investigating whether native and non-native speakers of German can link personal pronouns to non c-commanding QPs inside relative clauses. Our results show that both participant groups were able to obtain telescoping readings offline, but only the native speakers showed evidence of forming telescoping dependencies during incremental parsing. During processing the non-native speakers focused on a discourse-prominent, non-quantified alternative antecedent instead. The observed group differences indicate that non-native comprehenders have more difficulty than native comprehenders computing scope-shifted representations in real time. KW - Pronoun binding KW - c-command KW - Eye-movement monitoring KW - Non-native language KW - processing KW - German Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-022-09845-z SN - 0090-6905 SN - 1573-6555 VL - 51 IS - 4 SP - 763 EP - 788 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Yang, Jingdan A1 - Kim, Jae-Hyun A1 - Tuomainen, Outi A1 - Rattanasone, Nan Xu T1 - Bilingual Mandarin-English preschoolers’ spoken narrative skills and contributing factors BT - A remote online story-retell study JF - Frontiers in Psyhology N2 - This study examined the spoken narrative skills of a group of bilingual Mandarin–English speaking 3–6-year-olds (N = 25) in Australia, using a remote online story-retell task. Bilingual preschoolers are an understudied population, especially those who are speaking typologically distinct languages such as Mandarin and English which have fewer structural overlaps compared to language pairs that are typologically closer, reducing cross-linguistic positive transfer. We examined these preschoolers’ spoken narrative skills as measured by macrostructures (the global organization of a story) and microstructures (linguistic structures, e.g., total number of utterances, nouns, verbs, phrases, and modifiers) across and within each language, and how various factors such as age and language experiences contribute to individual variability. The results indicate that our bilingual preschoolers acquired spoken narrative skills similarly across their two languages, i.e., showing similar patterns of productivity for macrostructure and microstructure elements in both of their two languages. While chronological age was positively correlated with macrostructures in both languages (showing developmental effects), there were no significant correlations between measures of language experiences and the measures of spoken narrative skills (no effects for language input/output). The findings suggest that although these preschoolers acquire two typologically diverse languages in different learning environments, Mandarin at home with highly educated parents, and English at preschool, they displayed similar levels of oral narrative skills as far as these macro−/micro-structure measures are concerned. This study provides further evidence for the feasibility of remote online assessment of preschoolers’ narrative skills. KW - narrative skills KW - Mandarin-English bilinguals KW - preschoolers KW - macrostructure KW - microstructure Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.797602 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 13 PB - Frontiers Media SA CY - Lausanne, Schweiz ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Nathan, Ran A1 - Monk, Christopher T. A1 - Arlinghaus, Robert A1 - Adam, Timo A1 - Alós, Josep A1 - Assaf, Michael A1 - Baktoft, Henrik A1 - Beardsworth, Christine E. A1 - Bertram, Michael G. A1 - Bijleveld, Allert A1 - Brodin, Tomas A1 - Brooks, Jill L. A1 - Campos-Candela, Andrea A1 - Cooke, Steven J. A1 - Gjelland, Karl O. A1 - Gupte, Pratik R. A1 - Harel, Roi A1 - Hellstrom, Gustav A1 - Jeltsch, Florian A1 - Killen, Shaun S. A1 - Klefoth, Thomas A1 - Langrock, Roland A1 - Lennox, Robert J. A1 - Lourie, Emmanuel A1 - Madden, Joah R. A1 - Orchan, Yotam A1 - Pauwels, Ine S. A1 - Riha, Milan A1 - Röleke, Manuel A1 - Schlägel, Ulrike A1 - Shohami, David A1 - Signer, Johannes A1 - Toledo, Sivan A1 - Vilk, Ohad A1 - Westrelin, Samuel A1 - Whiteside, Mark A. A1 - Jaric, Ivan T1 - Big-data approaches lead to an increased understanding of the ecology of animal movement JF - Science N2 - Understanding animal movement is essential to elucidate how animals interact, survive, and thrive in a changing world. Recent technological advances in data collection and management have transformed our understanding of animal "movement ecology" (the integrated study of organismal movement), creating a big-data discipline that benefits from rapid, cost-effective generation of large amounts of data on movements of animals in the wild. These high-throughput wildlife tracking systems now allow more thorough investigation of variation among individuals and species across space and time, the nature of biological interactions, and behavioral responses to the environment. Movement ecology is rapidly expanding scientific frontiers through large interdisciplinary and collaborative frameworks, providing improved opportunities for conservation and insights into the movements of wild animals, and their causes and consequences. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abg1780 SN - 0036-8075 SN - 1095-9203 VL - 375 IS - 6582 SP - 734 EP - + PB - American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Krupnik, Seweryn A1 - Wagner, Aleksandra A1 - Vincent, Olga A1 - Rudek, Tadeusz J. A1 - Wade, Robert A1 - Misik, Matúš A1 - Akerboom, Sanne A1 - Foulds, Chris A1 - Smith Stegen, Karen A1 - Adem, Çiğdem A1 - Batel, Susana A1 - Rabitz, Florian A1 - Certomà, Chiara A1 - Chodkowska-Miszczuk, Justyna A1 - Dokupilová, Dušana A1 - Leiren, Merethe D. A1 - Ignatieva, Frolova M. A1 - Gabaldón-Estevan, Daniel. A1 - Horta, Ana A1 - Karnøe, Peter A1 - Lilliestam, Johan A1 - Loorbach, Derk A. A1 - Mühlemeier, Susan A1 - Némoz, Sophie A1 - Nilsson, Måns A1 - Osička, Jan A1 - Papamikrouli, Louiza A1 - Pellizioni, Luigi A1 - Sareen, Siddharth A1 - Sarrica, Mauro A1 - Seyfang, Gill A1 - Sovacool, Benjamin K. A1 - Telesiene, Audrone A1 - Zapletalova, Veronika A1 - von Wirth, Timo T1 - Beyond technology BT - a research agenda for social sciences and humanities research on renewable energy in Europe JF - Energy research & social science N2 - This article enriches the existing literature on the importance and role of the social sciences and humanities (SSH) in renewable energy sources research by providing a novel approach to instigating the future research agenda in this field. Employing a series of in-depth interviews, deliberative focus group workshops and a systematic horizon scanning process, which utilised the expert knowledge of 85 researchers from the field with diverse disciplinary backgrounds and expertise, the paper develops a set of 100 priority questions for future research within SSH scholarship on renewable energy sources. These questions were aggregated into four main directions: (i) deep transformations and connections to the broader economic system (i.e. radical ways of (re)arranging socio-technical, political and economic relations), (ii) cultural and geographical diversity (i.e. contextual cultural, historical, political and socio-economic factors influencing citizen support for energy transitions), (iii) complexifying energy governance (i.e. understanding energy systems from a systems dynamics perspective) and (iv) shifting from instrumental acceptance to value-based objectives (i.e. public support for energy transitions as a normative notion linked to trust-building and citizen engagement). While this agenda is not intended to be—and cannot be—exhaustive or exclusive, we argue that it advances the understanding of SSH research on renewable energy sources and may have important value in the prioritisation of SSH themes needed to enrich dialogues between policymakers, funding institutions and researchers. SSH scholarship should not be treated as instrumental to other research on renewable energy but as intrinsic and of the same hierarchical importance. KW - horizon scanning KW - research priorities KW - funding directions KW - EU Horizon Europe KW - research-policy interface Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2022.102536 SN - 22146296 VL - 89 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER -