TY - GEN A1 - Koziel, Slawomir A1 - Hermanussen, Michael A1 - Gomula, Alexandra A1 - Swanson, James A1 - Kaczmarek, Maria A1 - El-Shabrawi, Mortada A1 - Elhusseini, Mona A1 - Satake, Takashi A1 - Martinovic Klaric, Irena A1 - Scheffler, Christiane A1 - Morkuniene, Ruta A1 - Godina, Elena A1 - Sasa, Missoni A1 - Tutkuviene, Janina A1 - Siniarska, Anna A1 - Nieczuja-Dwojacka, Joanna A1 - Nunez, Javier A1 - Groth, Detlef A1 - Barbieri, Davide T1 - Adolescence - a Transition to Adulthood Proceedings of the 24th Aschauer Soiree, held at Jurata, Poland, November 5th 2016 T2 - Pediatric Endocrinology Reviews N2 - Eighteen scientists met at Jurata, Poland, to discuss various aspects of the transition from adolescence to adulthood. This transition is a delicate period facing complex interactions between the adolescents and the social group they belong to. Social identity, group identification and identity signalling, but also stress affecting basal salivary cortisol rhythms, hypertension, inappropriate nutrition causing latent and manifest obesity, moreover, in developing and under-developed countries, parasitosis causing anaemia thereby impairing growth and development, are issues to be dealt with during this period of the human development. In addition, some new aspects of the association between weight, height and head circumference in the newborns were discussed, as well as intrauterine head growth and head circumference as health risk indicators. KW - Strategic growth adjustment KW - BMI KW - Growth faltering KW - Secular trend KW - Obesity KW - Growth modelling Y1 - 2017 SN - 1565-4753 VL - 14 IS - 3 SP - 326 EP - 334 PB - Medical Media CY - Netanya ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hill, Natascha A1 - Leow, Alexander A1 - Bleidorn, Christoph A1 - Groth, Detlef A1 - Tiedemann, Ralph A1 - Selbig, Joachim A1 - Hartmann, Stefanie T1 - Analysis of phylogenetic signal in protostomial intron patterns using Mutual Information JF - Theory in biosciences N2 - Many deep evolutionary divergences still remain unresolved, such as those among major taxa of the Lophotrochozoa. As alternative phylogenetic markers, the intron-exon structure of eukaryotic genomes and the patterns of absence and presence of spliceosomal introns appear to be promising. However, given the potential homoplasy of intron presence, the phylogenetic analysis of this data using standard evolutionary approaches has remained a challenge. Here, we used Mutual Information (MI) to estimate the phylogeny of Protostomia using gene structure data, and we compared these results with those obtained with Dollo Parsimony. Using full genome sequences from nine Metazoa, we identified 447 groups of orthologous sequences with 21,732 introns in 4,870 unique intron positions. We determined the shared absence and presence of introns in the corresponding sequence alignments and have made this data available in "IntronBase", a web-accessible and downloadable SQLite database. Our results obtained using Dollo Parsimony are obviously misled through systematic errors that arise from multiple intron loss events, but extensive filtering of data improved the quality of the estimated phylogenies. Mutual Information, in contrast, performs better with larger datasets, but at the same time it requires a complete data set, which is difficult to obtain for orthologs from a large number of taxa. Nevertheless, Mutual Information-based distances proved to be useful in analyzing this kind of data, also because the estimation of MI-based distances is independent of evolutionary models and therefore no pre-definitions of ancestral and derived character states are necessary. KW - Mutual Information KW - Evolution KW - Gene structure Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s12064-012-0173-0 SN - 1431-7613 VL - 132 IS - 2 SP - 93 EP - 104 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Groth, Detlef A1 - Scheffler, Christiane A1 - Hermanussen, Michael T1 - Body height in stunted Indonesian children depends directly on parental education and not via a nutrition mediated pathway BT - Evidence from tracing association chains by St. Nicolas House Analysis JF - Journal of biological and clinical anthropology : Anthropologischer Anzeiger ; Mitteilungsorgan der Gesellschaft für Anthropologie N2 - Background: Multiple linear correlations between parameters can be shown in correlation matrices. Correlations can be ranked, but can also be visualized in network graphs. Yet, translating a correlation matrix into a network graph is not trivial. In view of a popular child game, we propose to name this method St. Nicolas House Analysis. Material and methods: We present a new method (St. Nicolas House Analysis) that helps translating correlation matrices into network graphs. The performance of this and other network reconstruction methods was tested in randomly created virtual scale-free networks, networks consisting of bands or hubs, using balanced classification rate and the F1-Score for correctly predicting existing and non-existing edges. Thereafter we analyzed anthropometric data and information on parental education, obtained from an anthropometric survey in 908 Indonesian boys and 808 Indonesian girls. Seven parameters were analyzed: child height standard deviation score (hSDS), child BMI standard deviation scores (BMI_SDS), mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC), mean thickness of subscapular and triceps skinfold (mean SF), and elbow breadth; as well as maternal and paternal education (years of schooling). The parameters were considered as the nodes of the network; the edges represent the correlations between the nodes. Results: Performance measures, balanced classification rate and the F1-score, showed that St. Nicolas’ House Analysis was superior to methods using sophisticated correlation value thresholds and methods based on partial correlations for analyzing bands and hubs. We applied this method also in an Indonesia data set. Ranking correlations showed the direct association between parental education and child growth. Conclusion: St. Nicolas House Analysis confirmed that growth of Indonesian school children directly depends on maternal education, with no evidence that this effect is mediated by the state of nutrition. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1127/anthranz/2019/1027 SN - 0003-5548 VL - 76 IS - 5 SP - 445 EP - 451 PB - Schweizerbart CY - Stuttgart ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Liu, Yuk-Chien A1 - Groth, Detlef T1 - Body height, social dominance and the political climate BT - a comment JF - Journal of biological and clinical anthropology JF - Anthropologischer Anzeiger ; Mitteilungsorgan der Gesellschaft für Anthropologie N2 - Background: The association between stature and social dominance is known. Dominance within social groups and current politics are related issues. We therefore aimed to compare estimates of the opinion of a population about their current political issues, with physical growth. Material and methods: We used data on the 2012 and the 2014 elections for the Japanese House of Representatives and the percent proportion of votes of the 47 prefectures of Japan, and regional data on body height of 17.5 year old men and women. Information on capita income, possession of mobile phones, urban/rural population ratio, and age distribution were added to capture socioeconomic factors. Four political parties were present in most of the 47 prefectures: the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), the New Komeito Party (Kom) that is known for their social network community, and the Japanese Communist Party (JCP). Results: A dense network of associations exists between height, age distribution, per capita income, number of smartphones, and voting results. Male and female body height was inversely related with the proportion of votes for New Komeito Party. Average stature decreases by one mm per percent votes for this political party. Medium strong positive associations were found for male body height and voting results of the DPJ and for female body height with the JCP election results. Conclusion: In modern Japan, popular preferences for conservative political structures coincide with shorter stature. KW - stature KW - social dominance KW - strategic growth adjustments Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1127/anthranz/2018/0855 SN - 0003-5548 VL - 74 IS - 5 SP - 445 EP - 450 PB - Schweizerbart CY - Stuttgart ER - TY - GEN A1 - Schedina, Ina Maria A1 - Hartmann, Stefanie A1 - Groth, Detlef A1 - Schlupp, Ingo A1 - Tiedemann, Ralph T1 - Comparative analysis of the gonadal transcriptomes of the all-female species Poecilia formosa and its maternal ancestor Poecilia mexicana N2 - Background The Amazon molly, Poecilia formosa (Teleostei: Poeciliinae) is an unisexual, all-female species. It evolved through the hybridisation of two closely related sexual species and exhibits clonal reproduction by sperm dependent parthenogenesis (or gynogenesis) where the sperm of a parental species is only used to activate embryogenesis of the apomictic, diploid eggs but does not contribute genetic material to the offspring. Here we provide and describe the first de novo assembled transcriptome of the Amazon molly in comparison with its maternal ancestor, the Atlantic molly Poecilia mexicana. The transcriptome data were produced through sequencing of single end libraries (100 bp) with the Illumina sequencing technique. Results 83,504,382 reads for the Amazon molly and 81,625,840 for the Atlantic molly were assembled into 127,283 and 78,961 contigs for the Amazon molly and the Atlantic molly, respectively. 63% resp. 57% of the contigs could be annotated with gene ontology terms after sequence similarity comparisons. Furthermore, we were able to identify genes normally involved in reproduction and especially in meiosis also in the transcriptome dataset of the apomictic reproducing Amazon molly. Conclusions We assembled and annotated the transcriptome of a non-model organism, the Amazon molly, without a reference genome (de novo). The obtained dataset is a fundamental resource for future research in functional and expression analysis. Also, the presence of 30 meiosis-specific genes within a species where no meiosis is known to take place is remarkable and raises new questions for future research. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 404 Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-401420 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Jargosch, M. A1 - Kroeger, S. A1 - Gralinska, E. A1 - Klotz, Ulrike A1 - Fang, Z. A1 - Chen, W. A1 - Leser, U. A1 - Selbig, Joachim A1 - Groth, Detlef A1 - Baumgrass, Ria T1 - Data integration for identification of important transcription factors of STAT6-mediated cell fate decisions JF - Genetics and molecular research N2 - Data integration has become a useful strategy for uncovering new insights into complex biological networks. We studied whether this approach can help to delineate the signal transducer and activator of transcription 6 (STAT6)-mediated transcriptional network driving T helper (Th) 2 cell fate decisions. To this end, we performed an integrative analysis of publicly available RNA-seq data of Stat6-knockout mouse studies together with STAT6 ChIP-seq data and our own gene expression time series data during Th2 cell differentiation. We focused on transcription factors (TFs), cytokines, and cytokine receptors and delineated 59 positively and 41 negatively STAT6-regulated genes, which were used to construct a transcriptional network around STAT6. The network illustrates that important and well-known TFs for Th2 cell differentiation are positively regulated by STAT6 and act either as activators for Th2 cells (e.g., Gata3, Atf3, Satb1, Nfil3, Maf, and Pparg) or as suppressors for other Th cell subpopulations such as Th1 (e.g., Ar), Th17 (e.g., Etv6), or iTreg (e.g., Stat3 and Hifla) cells. Moreover, our approach reveals 11 TFs (e.g., Atf5, Creb3l2, and Asb2) with unknown functions in Th cell differentiation. This fact together with the observed enrichment of asthma risk genes among those regulated by STAT6 underlines the potential value of the data integration strategy used here. Thus, our results clearly support the opinion that data integration is a useful tool to delineate complex physiological processes. KW - Data integration KW - Th2 cells KW - Gene regulatory network KW - STAT6 KW - Transcription factors Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4238/gmr.15028493 SN - 1676-5680 VL - 15 PB - FUNPEC CY - Ribeirao Preto ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Steinfath, Matthias A1 - Strehmel, Nadine A1 - Peters, Rolf A1 - Schauer, Nicolas A1 - Groth, Detlef A1 - Hummel, Jan A1 - Steup, Martin A1 - Selbig, Joachim A1 - Kopka, Joachim A1 - Geigenberger, Peter A1 - Dongen, Joost T. van T1 - Discovering plant metabolic biomarkers for phenotype prediction using an untargeted approach N2 - Biomarkers are used to predict phenotypical properties before these features become apparent and, therefore, are valuable tools for both fundamental and applied research. Diagnostic biomarkers have been discovered in medicine many decades ago and are now commonly applied. While this is routine in the field of medicine, it is of surprise that in agriculture this approach has never been investigated. Up to now, the prediction of phenotypes in plants was based on growing plants and assaying the organs of interest in a time intensive process. For the first time, we demonstrate in this study the application of metabolomics to predict agronomic important phenotypes of a crop plant that was grown in different environments. Our procedure consists of established techniques to screen untargeted for a large amount of metabolites in parallel, in combination with machine learning methods. By using this combination of metabolomics and biomathematical tools metabolites were identified that can be used as biomarkers to improve the prediction of traits. The predictive metabolites can be selected and used subsequently to develop fast, targeted and low-cost diagnostic biomarker assays that can be implemented in breeding programs or quality assessment analysis. The identified metabolic biomarkers allow for the prediction of crop product quality. Furthermore, marker-assisted selection can benefit from the discovery of metabolic biomarkers when other molecular markers come to its limitation. The described marker selection method was developed for potato tubers, but is generally applicable to any crop and trait as it functions independently of genomic information. Y1 - 2010 UR - http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/issn?DESCRIPTOR=PRINTISSN&VALUE=1467-7644 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7652.2010.00516.x SN - 1467-7644 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hermanussen, Michael A1 - Scheffler, Christiane A1 - Pulungan, Aman B. A1 - Bandyopadhyay, Arup Ratan A1 - Ghosh, Jyoti Ratan A1 - Özdemir, Ayşegül A1 - Koca Özer, Başak A1 - Musalek, Martin A1 - Lebedeva, Lidia A1 - Godina, Elena A1 - Bogin, Barry A1 - Tutkuviene, Janina A1 - Budrytė, Milda A1 - Gervickaite, Simona A1 - Limony, Yehuda A1 - Kirchengast, Sylvia A1 - Buston, Peter A1 - Groth, Detlef A1 - Rösler, Antonia A1 - Gasparatos, Nikolaos A1 - Erofeev, Sergei A1 - Novine, Masiar A1 - Navazo, Bárbara A1 - Dahinten, Silvia A1 - Gomuła, Aleksandra A1 - Nowak-Szczepańska, Natalia A1 - Kozieł, Sławomir T1 - Environment, social behavior, and growth BT - Proceedings of the 30th Aschauer Soiree, held at Krobielowice, Poland, June 18th 2022 JF - Human biology and public health N2 - Twenty-four scientists met for the annual Auxological conference held at Krobielowice castle, Poland, to discuss the diverse influences of the environment and of social behavior on growth following last year’s focus on growth and public health concerns (Hermanussen et al., 2022b). Growth and final body size exhibit marked plastic responses to ecological conditions. Among the shortest are the pygmoid people of Rampasasa, Flores, Indonesia, who still live under most secluded insular conditions. Genetics and nutrition are usually considered responsible for the poor growth in many parts of this world, but evidence is accumulating on the prominent impact of social embedding on child growth. Secular trends not only in the growth of height, but also in body proportions, accompany the secular changes in the social, economic and political conditions, with major influences on the emotional and educational circumstances under which the children grow up (Bogin, 2021). Aspects of developmental tempo and aspects of sports were discussed, and the impact of migration by the example of women from Bangladesh who grew up in the UK. Child growth was considered in particular from the point of view of strategic adjustments of individual size within the network of its social group. Theoretical considerations on network characteristics were presented and related to the evolutionary conservation of growth regulating hypothalamic neuropeptides that have been shown to link behavior and physical growth in the vertebrate species. New statistical approaches were presented for the evaluation of short term growth measurements that permit monitoring child growth at intervals of a few days and weeks. KW - St. Nicolas House Analysis KW - child growth KW - body proportions KW - social network KW - public health KW - migration Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.52905/hbph2023.1.59 SN - 2748-9957 VL - 1 PB - Universitätsverlag Potsdam CY - Potsdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Scheffler, Christiane A1 - Rogol, Alan D. A1 - Iancu, Mirela A1 - Hanc, Tomasz A1 - Moelyo, Annang Giri A1 - Suchomlinov, Andrej A1 - Lebedeva, Lidia A1 - Limony, Yehuda A1 - Musalek, Martin A1 - Veldre, Gudrun A1 - Godina, Elena Z. A1 - Kirchengast, Sylvia A1 - Mumm, Rebekka A1 - Groth, Detlef A1 - Tutkuviene, Janina A1 - Böker, Sonja A1 - Ozer, Basak Koca A1 - Navazo, Barbara A1 - Spake, Laure A1 - Koziel, Slawomir A1 - Hermanussen, Michael T1 - Growth during times of fear and emotional stress BT - Proceedings of the 28th Aschauer Soiree, held at Potsdam, Germany, and online, November 14th 2020 JF - Human biology and public health N2 - Twenty-one scientists met for this year’s virtual conference on Auxology held at the University Potsdam, Germany, to discuss child and adolescent growth during times of fear and emotional stress. Growth within the broad range of normal for age and sex is considered a sign of good general health whereas fear and emotional stress can lead to growth faltering. Stunting is a sign of social disadvantage and poor parental education. Adverse childhood experiences affect child development, particularly in families with low parental education and low socioeconomic status. Negative effects were also shown in Indian children exposed prenatally and in early postnatal life to the cyclone Aila in 2009. Distrust, fears and fake news regarding the current Corona pandemic received particular attention though the effects generally appeared weak. Mean birth weight was higher; rates of low, very and extremely low birth weight were lower. Other topics discussed by the participants, were the influences of economic crises on birth weight, the measurement of self-confidence and its impact on growth, the associations between obesity, peer relationship, and behavior among Turkish adolescents, height trends in Indonesia, physiological neonatal weight loss, methods for assessing biological maturation in sportsmen, and a new method for skeletal age determination. The participants also discussed the association between acute myocardial infarction and somatotype in Estonia, rural-urban growth differences in Mongolian children, socio-environmental conditions and sexual dimorphism, biological mortality bias, and new statistical techniques for describing inhomogeneity in the association of bivariate variables, and for detecting and visualizing extensive interactions among variables. KW - stunting KW - birth weight KW - fear KW - emotional stress KW - economy KW - SEPE Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.52905/hbph.v2.15 SN - 2748-9957 IS - 2 PB - Universitätsverlag Potsdam CY - Potsdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hermanussen, Michael A1 - Scheffler, Christiane A1 - Martin, Lidia A1 - Groth, Detlef A1 - Waxmonsky, James G. A1 - Swanson, James A1 - Nowak-Szczepanska, Natalia A1 - Gomula, Aleksandra A1 - Apanasewicz, Anna A1 - Konarski, Jan M. A1 - Malina, Robert M. A1 - Bartkowiak, Sylwia A1 - Lebedeva, Lidia A1 - Suchomlinov, Andrej A1 - Konstantinov, Vsevolod A1 - Blum, Werner A1 - Limony, Yehuda A1 - Chakraborty, Raja A1 - Kirchengast, Sylvia A1 - Tutkuviene, Janina A1 - Jakimaviciene, Egle Marija A1 - Cepuliene, Ramune A1 - Franken, Daniel A1 - Navazo, Bárbara A1 - Moelyo, Annang G. A1 - Satake, Takashi A1 - Koziel, Slawomir ED - Scheffler, Christiane ED - Koziel, Slawomir ED - Hermanussen, Michael ED - Bogin, Barry T1 - Growth, Nutrition and Economy BT - Proceedings of the 27th Aschauer Soiree, held at Krobielowice, Poland, November 16th 2019 T2 - Human Biology and Public Health N2 - Twenty-three scientists met at Krobielowice, Poland to discuss the role of growth, nutrition and economy on body size. Contrasting prevailing concepts, re-analyses of studies in Indonesian and Guatemalan school children with high prevalence of stunting failed to provide evidence for an association between nutritional status and body height. Direct effects of parental education on growth that were not transmitted via nutrition were shown in Indian datasets using network analysis and novel statistical methods (St. Nicolas House Analysis) that translate correlation matrices into network graphs. Data on Polish children suggest significant impact of socioeconomic sensitivity on child growth, with no effect of maternal money satisfaction. Height and maturation tempo affect the position of a child among its peers. Correlations also exist between mood disorders and height. Secular changes in height and weight varied across decades independent of population size. Historic and recent Russian data showed that height of persons whose fathers performed manual work were on average four cm shorter than persons whose fathers were high-degree specialists. Body height, menarcheal age, and body proportions are sensitive to socioeconomic variables. Additional topics included delayed motherhood and its associations with newborn size; geographic and socioeconomic indicators related to low birth weight, prematurity and stillbirth rate; data on anthropometric history of Brazil, 1850-1950; the impact of central nervous system stimulants on the growth of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder; and pituitary development and growth hormone secretion. Final discussions debated on reverse causality interfering between social position, and adolescent growth and developmental tempo. KW - nutrition KW - stunting KW - socioeconomy KW - education KW - secular changes KW - pubertal timing Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.52905/hbph.v1.1 SN - 2748-9957 VL - 2021 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 13 PB - Universitätsverlag Potsdam CY - Potsdam ER - TY - GEN A1 - Hermanussen, Michael A1 - Scheffler, Christiane A1 - Groth, Detlef A1 - Aßmann, Christian T1 - Height and skeletal morphology in relation to modern life style T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Height and skeletal morphology strongly relate to life style. Parallel to the decrease in physical activity and locomotion, modern people are slimmer in skeletal proportions. In German children and adolescents, elbow breadth and particularly relative pelvic breadth (50th centile of bicristal distance divided by body height) have significantly decreased in recent years. Even more evident than the changes in pelvic morphology are the rapid changes in body height in most modern countries since the end-19th and particularly since the mid-20th century. Modern Japanese mature earlier; the age at take-off (ATO, the age at which the adolescent growth spurt starts) decreases, and they are taller at all ages. Preece-Baines modelling of six national samples of Japanese children and adolescents, surveyed between 1955 and 2000, shows that this gain in height is largely an adolescent trend, whereas height at take-off (HTO) increased by less than 3 cm since 1955; adolescent growth (height gain between ATO and adult age) increased by 6 cm. The effect of globalization on the modern post-war Japanese society ("community effect in height") on adolescent growth is discussed. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 869 KW - pelvic breadth KW - elbow breadth KW - growth KW - adult height KW - community effect in height Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-434814 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 869 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hermanussen, Michael A1 - Scheffler, Christiane A1 - Groth, Detlef A1 - Aßmann, Christian T1 - Height and skeletal morphology in relation to modern life style JF - Journal of physiological anthropology N2 - Height and skeletal morphology strongly relate to life style. Parallel to the decrease in physical activity and locomotion, modern people are slimmer in skeletal proportions. In German children and adolescents, elbow breadth and particularly relative pelvic breadth (50th centile of bicristal distance divided by body height) have significantly decreased in recent years. Even more evident than the changes in pelvic morphology are the rapid changes in body height in most modern countries since the end-19th and particularly since the mid-20th century. Modern Japanese mature earlier; the age at take-off (ATO, the age at which the adolescent growth spurt starts) decreases, and they are taller at all ages. Preece-Baines modelling of six national samples of Japanese children and adolescents, surveyed between 1955 and 2000, shows that this gain in height is largely an adolescent trend, whereas height at take-off (HTO) increased by less than 3 cm since 1955; adolescent growth (height gain between ATO and adult age) increased by 6 cm. The effect of globalization on the modern post-war Japanese society ("community effect in height") on adolescent growth is discussed. KW - Pelvic breadth KW - Elbow breadth KW - Growth KW - Adult height KW - Community effect in height Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/s40101-015-0080-4 SN - 1880-6805 VL - 34 PB - BioMed Central CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hermanussen, Michael A1 - Groth, Detlef A1 - Scheffler, Christiane T1 - Human growth data analyses and statistics BT - The 4th Gülpe International Student Summer School JF - Human biology and public health N2 - Students learn by repetition. Repetition is essential, but repetition needs questioning, and questioning the repertoire belongs to the essential tasks of student education. Guiding students to questioning was and is our prime motive to offer our International Student Summer Schools. The data were critically discussed among the students, in the twilight of Just So Stories, common knowledge, and prompted questioning of contemporary solutions. For these schools, the students bring their own data, carry their preliminary concepts, and in group discussions, they may have to challenge these concepts. Catch-up growth is known to affect long bone growth, but different opinions exist to what extent it also affects body proportions. Skeletal age and dental development are considered appropriate measures of maturation, but it appears that both system develop independently and are regulated by different mechanisms. Body weight distributions are assumed to be skewed, yet, historic data disproved this assumption. Many discussions focused on current ideas of global growth standards as a common yardstick for all populations world-wide, with new statistical tools being developed including network reconstruction and evaluation of the reconstructs to determine the confidence of graph prediction methods. KW - Just so stories KW - Summer Schools KW - questioning solutions KW - repetition Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.52905/hbph2021.3.29 SN - 2748-9957 VL - 2021 IS - 3, Summer School Supplement PB - Universitätsverlag Potsdam CY - Potsdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Groth, Detlef A1 - Scheffler, Christiane A1 - Hermanussen, Michael T1 - Human growth data analysis and statistics – the 5th Gülpe International Student Summer School JF - Human biology and public health N2 - The Summer School in Gülpe (Ecological Station of the University of Potsdam) offers an exceptional learning opportunity for students to apply their knowledge and skills to real-world problems. With the guidance of experienced human biologists, statisticians, and programmers, students have the unique chance to analyze their own data and gain valuable insights. This interdisciplinary setting not only bridges different research areas but also leads to highly valuable outputs. The progress of students within just a few days is truly remarkable, especially when they are motivated and receive immediate feedback on their questions, problems, and results. The Summer School covers a wide range of topics, with this year’s focus mainly on two areas: understanding the impact of socioeconomic and physiological factors on human development and mastering statistical techniques for analyzing data such as changepoint analysis and the St. Nicolas House Analysis (SNHA) to visualize interacting variables. The latter technique, born out of the Summer School’s emphasis on gaining comprehensive data insights and understanding major relationships, has proven to be a valuable tool for researchers in the field. The articles in this special issue demonstrate that the Summer School in Gülpe stands as a testament to the power of practical learning and collaboration. Students who attend not only gain hands-on experience but also benefit from the expertise of professionals and the opportunity to engage with peers from diverse disciplines. KW - Summer Schools KW - Statistical Exercise KW - Repetition Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.52905/hbph2023.1.70 SN - 2748-9957 VL - 1 PB - Universitätsverlag Potsdam CY - Potsdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gryzik, Stefanie A1 - Hoang, Yen A1 - Lischke, Timo A1 - Mohr, Elodie A1 - Venzke, Melanie A1 - Kadner, Isabelle A1 - Pötzsch, Josephine A1 - Groth, Detlef A1 - Radbruch, Andreas A1 - Hutloff, Andreas A1 - Baumgrass, Ria T1 - Identification of a super-functional Tfh-like subpopulation in murine lupus by pattern perception JF - eLife N2 - Dysregulated cytokine expression by T cells plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases. However, the identification of the corresponding pathogenic subpopulations is a challenge, since a distinction between physiological variation and a new quality in the expression of protein markers requires combinatorial evaluation. Here, we were able to identify a super-functional follicular helper T cell (Tfh)-like subpopulation in lupus-prone NZBxW mice with our binning approach "pattern recognition of immune cells (PRI)". PRI uncovered a subpopulation of IL-21(+) IFN-gamma(high) PD-1(low) CD40L(high) CXCR5(-) Bcl-6(-) T cells specifically expanded in diseased mice. In addition, these cells express high levels of TNF-alpha and IL-2, and provide B cell help for IgG production in an IL-21 and CD40L dependent manner. This super-functional T cell subset might be a superior driver of autoimmune processes due to a polyfunctional and high cytokine expression combined with Tfh-like properties. Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.53226 SN - 2050-084X VL - 9 PB - eLife Sciences Publications CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hake, Tim A1 - Bodenberger, Bernhard A1 - Groth, Detlef T1 - In Python available: St. Nicolas House Algorithm (SNHA) with bootstrap support for improved performance in dense networks JF - Human biology and public health N2 - The St. Nicolas House Algorithm (SNHA) finds association chains of direct dependent variables in a data set. The dependency is based on the correlation coefficient, which is visualized as an undirected graph. The network prediction is improved by a bootstrap routine. It enables the computation of the empirical p-value, which is used to evaluate the significance of the predicted edges. Synthetic data generated with the Monte Carlo method were used to firstly compare the Python package with the original R package, and secondly to evaluate the predicted network using the sensitivity, specificity, balanced classification rate and the Matthew's correlation coefficient (MCC). The Python implementation yields the same results as the R package. Hence, the algorithm was correctly ported into Python. The SNHA scores high specificity values for all tested graphs. For graphs with high edge densities, the other evaluation metrics decrease due to lower sensitivity, which could be partially improved by using bootstrap,while for graphs with low edge densities the algorithm achieves high evaluation scores. The empirical p-values indicated that the predicted edges indeed are significant. KW - Python KW - correlation KW - network reconstruction KW - bootstrap KW - St. Nicolas House Algorithm Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.52905/hbph2023.1.63 SN - 2748-9957 VL - 1 PB - Universitätsverlag Potsdam CY - Potsdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fritz, Amelie A1 - Makeyeva, Angelina A1 - Staub, Kaspar A1 - Groth, Detlef T1 - Influence of network properties on a migration induced secular height trend by Monte Carlo simulation JF - Journal of biological and clinical anthropology : Anthropologischer Anzeiger ; Mitteilungsorgan der Gesellschaft für Anthropologie N2 - Background: Recent research reported height biased migration of taller individuals and a Monte Carlo simulation showed that such preferential migration of taller individuals into network hubs can induce a secular trend of height. In the simulation model taller agents in the hubs raise the overall height of all individuals in the network by a community effect. However, it could be seen that the actual network structure influences the strength of this effect. In this paper the background and the influence of the network structure on the strength of the secular trend by migration is investigated. Material and methods: Three principal network types are analyzed: networks derived from street connections in Switzerland, more regular fishing net like networks and randomly generated ones. Our networks have between 10 and 152 nodes and between 20 and 307 edges connecting the nodes. Depending on the network size between 5.000 and 90.000 agents with an average height of 170 cm (SD 6.5 cm) are initially released into the network. In each iteration new agents are regenerated based on the actual average body height of the previous iteration and, to a certain proportion, corrected by body heights in the neighboring nodes. After generating new agents, a certain number of them migrated into neighbor nodes, the model let preferentially taller agents migrate into network hubs. Migration is balanced by back migration of the same number of agents from nodes with high centrality measures to less connected nodes. The latter is random as well, but not biased by the agents height. Furthermore the distribution of agents per node and their correlation to the centrality of the nodes is varied in a systematic manner. After 100 iterations, the secular trend, i.e. the gain in body height for the different networks, is investigated in relation to the network properties. Results: We observe an increase of average agent body height after 100 iterations if height biased migration is enabled. The increase rate depends on the height of the neighboring factor, the population distribution, the relationship between population in the nodes and their centrality as well as on the network topology. Networks with uniform like distributions of the agents in the nodes, uncorrelated associations between node centrality and agent number per node, as well as very heterogeneous networks with very different node centralities lead to biggest gains in average body height. Conclusion: Our simulations show, that height biased migration into network hubs can possibly contribute to the secular trend of height increase in the human population. The strength of this "tall by migration" event depends on the actual properties of the underlying network. There is a possible significance of this mechanism for social networks, when hubs are represented by individuals and edges as their personal relationships. However, the required high number of iterations to achieve significant effects in more natural network structures in our models requires further studies to test the relevance and real effect sizes in real world scenarios. KW - secular trend KW - body height KW - simulation KW - community effect KW - Monte Carlo method KW - network KW - centrality measures Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1127/anthranz/2019/1032 SN - 0003-5548 VL - 76 IS - 5 SP - 433 EP - 443 PB - Schweizerbart CY - Stuttgart ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Parfenteva, Olga A1 - Groth, Detlef A1 - Scheffler, Christiane A1 - Zaharova, Maria F. T1 - Influence of the A/T polymorphism of the FTO gene and sport specializations on the body composition of young Russian athletes JF - Journal of biological and clinical anthropology : Anthropologischer Anzeiger ; Mitteilungsorgan der Gesellschaft für Anthropologie N2 - Background: The polymorphism in FTO gene (rs9939609) is known to be associated with higher BMI and body fat mass content. However, environmental factors can modify this effect. The purpose of the present study was to investigate an association between sport specialization and the rs9939609 SNP in FTO gene in the cohort of professional and amateur young athletes. Methods: A total number of 250 young individuals 8-18 years old living in Moscow or Moscow district participated in the study. Individuals were divided into 3 groups in accordance with their physical activity level: control group (n = 49), amateurs (n = 67) and professionals (n = 137). Amateur and professional athletes were subdivided into groups according to their sport specialization. Quantile regression was used as a regression model, where the dependent (outcome) variable was BMI, along with percentage of body fat mass, and the independent variables (predictors) were the rs9939609 SNP in FTO gene, physical activity (active versus inactive), sport specialization (aerobic, intermittent sports and martial arts), nationality, level of sport experience (in years), gender and percentage of free fat mass content. Results: The regression analysis revealed that physical activity and sport specialization had greater impact compared to FTO allele in the group of physically active individuals. Physical activity, in particular aerobic, had negative associations with body fat mass and BMI. The rs9939609 SNP in FTO gene is associated with physical activity and aerobic activity. The magnitude of association becomes significantly larger at the upper quantiles of the body fat mass distribution. Conclusion: Physical activity and sport specialization explained more variance in body composition of physically active young individuals compared to the FTO polymorphism. Effect of interaction of physical activity, in particular aerobic, with the FTO polymorphism on body composition of young athletes was found. KW - physical activity KW - professional and amateur athletes KW - children and adolescents KW - BMI KW - percentage of fat mass KW - FTO KW - aerobic sports activity KW - quantile regression Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1127/anthranz/2019/0943 SN - 0003-5548 VL - 76 IS - 5 SP - 401 EP - 408 PB - Schweizerbart CY - Stuttgart ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gisder, Sebastian A1 - Schüler, Vivian A1 - Horchler, Lennart L. A1 - Groth, Detlef A1 - Genersch, Elke T1 - Long-Term Temporal Trends of Nosema spp. Infection Prevalence in Northeast Germany BT - Continuous Spread of Nosema ceranae, an Emerging Pathogen of Honey Bees (Apis mellifera), but No General Replacement of Nosema apis JF - Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology N2 - The Western honey bee (Apis mellifera) is widely used as commercial pollinator in worldwide agriculture and, therefore, plays an important role in global food security. Among the parasites and pathogens threatening health and survival of honey bees are two species of microsporidia, Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae. Nosema ceranae is considered an emerging pathogen of the Western honey bee. Reports on the spread of N. ceranae suggested that this presumably highly virulent species is replacing its more benign congener N. apis in the global A. mellifera population. We here present a 12 year longitudinal cohort study on the prevalence of N. apis and N. ceranae in Northeast Germany. Between 2005 and 2016, a cohort of about 230 honey bee colonies originating from 23 apiaries was sampled twice a year (spring and autumn) resulting in a total of 5,600 bee samples which were subjected to microscopic and molecular analysis for determining the presence of infections with N. apis or/and N. ceranae. Throughout the entire study period, both N. apis- and N. ceranae-infections could be diagnosed within the cohort. Logistic regression analysis of the prevalence data demonstrated a significant increase of N. ceranae-infections over the last 12 years, both in autumn (reflecting the development during the summer) and in spring (reflecting the development over winter) samples. Cell culture experiments confirmed that N. ceranae has a higher proliferative potential than N. apis at 27. and 33 degrees C potentially explaining the increase in N. ceranae prevalence during summer. In autumn, characterized by generally low infection prevalence, this increase was accompanied by a significant decrease in N. apis- infection prevalence. In contrast, in spring, the season with a higher prevalence of infection, no significant decrease of N. apis infections despite a significant increase in N. ceranae infections could be observed. Therefore, our data do not support a general advantage of N. ceranae over N. apis and an overall replacement of N. apis by N. ceranae in the studied honey bee population. KW - honey bee KW - Apis mellifera KW - Nosema spp. KW - epidemiology KW - replacement Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2017.00301 SN - 2235-2988 VL - 7 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Koziel, Slawomir A1 - Scheffler, Christiane A1 - Tutkuviene, Janina A1 - Jakimaviciene, Egle Marija A1 - Mumm, Rebekka A1 - Barbieri, Davide A1 - Godina, Elena A1 - El-Shabrawi, Mortada A1 - Elhusseini, Mona A1 - Musalek, Martin A1 - Pruszkowska-Przybylska, Paulina A1 - El Dash, Hanaa H. A1 - Safar, Hebatalla Hassan A1 - Lehmann, Andreas A1 - Swanson, James A1 - Bogin, Barry A1 - Liu, Yuk-Chien A1 - Groth, Detlef A1 - Kirchengast, Sylvia A1 - Siniarska, Anna A1 - Nieczuja-Dwojacka, Joanna A1 - Kralik, Miroslav A1 - Satake, Takashi A1 - Harc, Tomasz A1 - Roelants, Mathieu A1 - Hermanussen, Michael T1 - Meeting Report: Growth and social environment BT - Proceedings of the 25th Aschauer Soiree, held at Krobielowice, Poland, November 18th 2017 JF - Pediatric Endocrinology Reviews N2 - Twenty-two scientists met at Krobielowice, Poland, to discuss the impact of the social environment, spatial proximity, migration, poverty, but also psychological factors such as body perception and satisfaction, and social stressors such as elite sports, and teenage pregnancies, on child and adolescent growth. The data analysis included linear mixed effects models with different random effects, Monte Carlo analyses, and network simulations. The work stressed the importance of the peer group, but also included historic material, some considerations about body proportions, and growth in chronic liver, and congenital heart disease. KW - Body height KW - Social environment KW - Strategic growth adjustment KW - Competitive growth KW - Community effects on growth Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.17458/per.vol15.2018.ksh.mr.GrowthSocialEnvironment SN - 1565-4753 VL - 15 IS - 4 SP - 319 EP - 329 PB - Medical Media CY - Netanya ER -