TY - JOUR A1 - Menze, Inga A1 - Müller, Patrick A1 - Müller, Notger Germar A1 - Schmicker, Marlen T1 - Age-related cognitive effects of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and associated mental health changes in Germans JF - Scientific reports N2 - Restrictive means to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic have not only imposed broad challenges on mental health but might also affect cognitive health. Here we asked how restriction-related changes influence cognitive performance and how age, perceived loneliness, depressiveness and affectedness by restrictions contribute to these effects. 51 Germans completed three assessments of an online based study during the first lockdown in Germany (April 2020), a month later, and during the beginning of the second lockdown (November 2020). Participants completed nine online cognitive tasks of the MyBrainTraining and online questionnaires about their perceived strain and impact on lifestyle factors by the situation (affectedness), perceived loneliness, depressiveness as well as subjective cognitive performance. The results suggested a possible negative impact of depressiveness and affectedness on objective cognitive performance within the course of the lockdown. The younger the participants, the more pronounced these effects were. Loneliness and depressiveness moreover contributed to a worse evaluation of subjective cognition. In addition, especially younger individuals reported increased distress. As important educational and social input has partly been scarce during this pandemic and mental health problems have increased, future research should also assess cognitive long-term consequences. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-11283-9 SN - 2045-2322 VL - 12 IS - 1 PB - Nature portfolio CY - Berlin ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zielhofer, Christoph A1 - Schmidt, Johannes A1 - Reiche, Niklas A1 - Tautenhahn, Marie A1 - Ballasus, Helen A1 - Burkart, Michael A1 - Linstädter, Anja A1 - Dietze, Elisabeth A1 - Kaiser, Knut A1 - Mehler, Natascha T1 - The lower Havel River Region (Brandenburg, Germany) BT - a 230-Year-Long historical map record indicates a decrease in surface water areas and groundwater levels JF - Water N2 - Instrumental data show that the groundwater and lake levels in Northeast Germany have decreased over the past decades, and this process has accelerated over the past few years. In addition to global warming, the direct influence of humans on the local water balance is suspected to be the cause. Since the instrumental data usually go back only a few decades, little is known about the multidecadal to centennial-scale trend, which also takes long-term climate variation and the long-term influence by humans on the water balance into account. This study aims to quantitatively reconstruct the surface water areas in the Lower Havel Inner Delta and of adjacent Lake Gulpe in Brandenburg. The analysis includes the calculation of surface water areas from historical and modern maps from 1797 to 2020. The major finding is that surface water areas have decreased by approximately 30% since the pre-industrial period, with the decline being continuous. Our data show that the comprehensive measures in Lower Havel hydro-engineering correspond with groundwater lowering that started before recent global warming. Further, large-scale melioration measures with increasing water demands in the upstream wetlands beginning from the 1960s to the 1980s may have amplified the decline in downstream surface water areas. KW - long-term hydrological changes KW - historical maps KW - review of written KW - sources KW - preindustrial to industrial period KW - hydro-engineering history; KW - effects of global warming KW - drying trend KW - wetlands KW - drainage works to KW - create cropland KW - Lower Havel River Region KW - Brandenburg KW - Germany Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/w14030480 SN - 2073-4441 VL - 14 IS - 3 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ring, Raphaela M. A1 - Eisenmann, Clemens A1 - Kandil, Farid A1 - Steckhan, Nico A1 - Demmrich, Sarah A1 - Klatte, Caroline A1 - Kessler, Christian S. A1 - Jeitler, Michael A1 - Boschmann, Michael A1 - Michalsen, Andreas A1 - Blakeslee, Sarah B. A1 - Stöckigt, Barbara A1 - Stritter, Wiebke A1 - Koppold-Liebscher, Daniela A. T1 - Mental and behavioural responses to Bahá’í fasting: Looking behind the scenes of a religiously motivated intermittent fast using a mixed methods approach JF - Nutrients N2 - Background/Objective: Historically, fasting has been practiced not only for medical but also for religious reasons. Baha'is follow an annual religious intermittent dry fast of 19 days. We inquired into motivation behind and subjective health impacts of Baha'i fasting. Methods: A convergent parallel mixed methods design was embedded in a clinical single arm observational study. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted before (n = 7), during (n = 8), and after fasting (n = 8). Three months after the fasting period, two focus group interviews were conducted (n = 5/n = 3). A total of 146 Baha'i volunteers answered an online survey at five time points before, during, and after fasting. Results: Fasting was found to play a central role for the religiosity of interviewees, implying changes in daily structures, spending time alone, engaging in religious practices, and experiencing social belonging. Results show an increase in mindfulness and well-being, which were accompanied by behavioural changes and experiences of self-efficacy and inner freedom. Survey scores point to an increase in mindfulness and well-being during fasting, while stress, anxiety, and fatigue decreased. Mindfulness remained elevated even three months after the fast. Conclusion: Baha'i fasting seems to enhance participants' mindfulness and well-being, lowering stress levels and reducing fatigue. Some of these effects lasted more than three months after fasting. KW - intermittent food restriction KW - mindfulness KW - self-efficacy KW - well-being KW - mixed methods KW - health behaviour KW - coping ability KW - religiously motivated KW - dry fasting Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14051038 SN - 2072-6643 VL - 14 IS - 5 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Braun, Jean A1 - Gemignani, Lorenzo A1 - van der Beek, Pieter A. T1 - Extracting information on the spatial variability in erosion rate stored in detrital cooling age distributions in river sands JF - Earth surface dynamics N2 - One of the main purposes of detrital thermochronology is to provide constraints on the regional-scale exhumation rate and its spatial variability in actively eroding mountain ranges. Procedures that use cooling age distributions coupled with hypsometry and thermal models have been developed in order to extract quantitative estimates of erosion rate and its spatial distribution, assuming steady state between tectonic uplift and erosion. This hypothesis precludes the use of these procedures to assess the likely transient response of mountain belts to changes in tectonic or climatic forcing. Other methods are based on an a priori knowledge of the in situ distribution of ages to interpret the detrital age distributions. In this paper, we describe a simple method that, using the observed detrital mineral age distributions collected along a river, allows us to extract information about the relative distribution of erosion rates in an eroding catchment without relying on a steady-state assumption, the value of thermal parameters or an a priori knowledge of in situ age distributions. The model is based on a relatively low number of parameters describing lithological variability among the various sub-catchments and their sizes and only uses the raw ages. The method we propose is tested against synthetic age distributions to demonstrate its accuracy and the optimum conditions for it use. In order to illustrate the method, we invert age distributions collected along the main trunk of the Tsangpo-Siang-Brahmaputra river system in the eastern Himalaya. From the inversion of the cooling age distributions we predict present-day erosion rates of the catchments along the Tsangpo-Siang-Brahmaputra river system, as well as some of its tributaries. We show that detrital age distributions contain dual information about present-day erosion rate, i. e., from the predicted distribution of surface ages within each catchment and from the relative contribution of any given catchment to the river distribution. The method additionally allows comparing modern erosion rates to long-term exhumation rates. We provide a simple implementation of the method in Python code within a Jupyter Notebook that includes the data used in this paper for illustration purposes. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-6-257-2018 SN - 2196-6311 SN - 2196-632X VL - 6 IS - 1 SP - 257 EP - 270 PB - Copernicus CY - Göttingen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wang, Qiong A1 - Smith, Joel A. A1 - Skroblin, Dieter A1 - Steele, Julian A. A1 - Wolff, Christian Michael A1 - Caprioglio, Pietro A1 - Stolterfoht, Martin A1 - Köbler, Hans A1 - Turren-Cruz, Silver-Hamill A1 - Li, Meng A1 - Gollwitzer, Christian A1 - Neher, Dieter A1 - Abate, Antonio T1 - Managing phase purities and crystal orientation for high-performance and photostable cesium lead halide perovskite solar cells JF - Solar RRL N2 - Inorganic perovskites with cesium (Cs+) as the cation have great potential as photovoltaic materials if their phase purity and stability can be addressed. Herein, a series of inorganic perovskites is studied, and it is found that the power conversion efficiency of solar cells with compositions CsPbI1.8Br1.2, CsPbI2.0Br1.0, and CsPbI2.2Br0.8 exhibits a high dependence on the initial annealing step that is found to significantly affect the crystallization and texture behavior of the final perovskite film. At its optimized annealing temperature, CsPbI1.8Br1.2 exhibits a pure orthorhombic phase and only one crystal orientation of the (110) plane. Consequently, this allows for the best efficiency of up to 14.6% and the longest operational lifetime, T-S80, of approximate to 300 h, averaged of over six solar cells, during the maximum power point tracking measurement under continuous light illumination and nitrogen atmosphere. This work provides essential progress on the enhancement of photovoltaic performance and stability of CsPbI3 - xBrx perovskite solar cells. KW - cesium lead halides KW - crystal orientation KW - inorganic perovskites KW - ISOS-L-1I protocol KW - phase purity KW - photostability Y1 - 2020 VL - 4 IS - 9 PB - WILEY-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ariagno, Coline A1 - Le Bouteiller, Caroline A1 - van der Beek, Pieter A. A1 - Klotz, Sébastien T1 - Sediment export in marly badland catchments modulated by frost-cracking intensity, Draix–Bléone Critical Zone Observatory, SE France JF - Earth surface dynamics : ESURF ; an interactive open access journal of the European Geosciences Union N2 - At the interface between the lithosphere and the atmosphere, the critical zone records the complex interactions between erosion, climate, geologic substrate, and life and can be directly monitored. Long data records (30 consecutive years for sediment yields) collected in the sparsely vegetated, steep, and small marly badland catchments of the Draix-Bleone Critical Zone Observatory (CZO), SE France, allow analyzing potential climatic controls on regolith dynamics and sediment export. Although widely accepted as a first-order control, rainfall variability does not fully explain the observed interannual variability in sediment export. Previous studies in this area have suggested that frost-weathering processes could drive regolith production and potentially modulate the observed pattern of sediment export. Here, we define sediment export anomalies as the residuals from a predictive model with annual rainfall intensity above a threshold as the control. We then use continuous soil temperature data recorded at different locations over multiple years to highlight the role of different frost-weathering processes (i.e., ice segregation versus volumetric expansion) in regolith production. Several proxies for different frost-weathering processes have been calculated from these data and compared to the sediment export anomalies, with careful consideration of field data quality. Our results suggest that frost-cracking intensity (linked to ice segregation) can explain about half (47 %-64 %) of the sediment export anomalies. In contrast, the number of freeze-thaw cycles (linked to volumetric expansion) has only a minor impact on catchment sediment response. The time spent below 0 degrees C also correlates well with the sediment export anomalies and requires fewer field data to be calculated than the frost-cracking intensity. Thus, frost-weathering processes modulate sediment export by controlling regolith production in these catchments and should be taken into account when building predictive models of sediment export from these badlands under a changing climate. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-10-81-2022 SN - 2196-6311 SN - 2196-632X VL - 10 IS - 1 SP - 81 EP - 96 PB - Copernicus CY - Göttingen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Peter, Lena A1 - Wendering, Désirée Jacqueline A1 - Schlickeiser, Stephan A1 - Hoffmann, Henrike A1 - Noster, Rebecca A1 - Wagner, Dimitrios Laurin A1 - Zarrinrad, Ghazaleh A1 - Münch, Sandra A1 - Picht, Samira A1 - Schulenberg, Sarah A1 - Moradian, Hanieh A1 - Mashreghi, Mir-Farzin A1 - Klein, Oliver A1 - Gossen, Manfred A1 - Roch, Toralf A1 - Babel, Nina A1 - Reinke, Petra A1 - Volk, Hans-Dieter A1 - Amini, Leila A1 - Schmueck-Henneresse, Michael T1 - Tacrolimus-resistant SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell products to prevent and treat severe COVID-19 in immunosuppressed patients JF - Molecular therapy methods and clinical development N2 - Solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients receive therapeutic immunosuppression that compromises their immune response to infections and vaccines. For this reason, SOT patients have a high risk of developing severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and an increased risk of death from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Moreover, the efficiency of immunotherapies and vaccines is reduced due to the constant immunosuppression in this patient group. Here, we propose adoptive transfer of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells made resistant to a common immunosuppressant, tacrolimus, for optimized performance in the immunosuppressed patient. Using a ribonucleoprotein approach of CRISPR-Cas9 technology, we have generated tacrolimus-resistant SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell products from convalescent donors and demonstrate their specificity and function through characterizations at the single-cell level, including flow cytometry, single-cell RNA (scRNA) Cellular Indexing of Transcriptomes and Epitopes (CITE), and T cell receptor (TCR) sequencing analyses. Based on the promising results, we aim for clinical validation of this approach in transplant recipients. Additionally, we propose a combinatory approach with tacrolimus, to prevent an overshooting immune response manifested as bystander T cell activation in the setting of severe COVID-19 immunopathology, and tacrolimus-resistant SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell products, allowing for efficient clearance of viral infection. Our strategy has the potential to prevent severe COVID-19 courses in SOT or autoimmunity settings and to prevent immunopathology while providing viral clearance in severe non-transplant COVID-19 cases. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.omtm.2022.02.012 SN - 2329-0501 VL - 25 SP - 52 EP - 73 PB - Cell Press CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pisoni, Stefano A1 - Stolterfoht, Martin A1 - Lockinger, Johannes A1 - Moser, Thierry A1 - Jiang, Yan A1 - Caprioglio, Pietro A1 - Neher, Dieter A1 - Buecheler, Stephan A1 - Tiwari, Ayodhya N. T1 - On the origin of open-circuit voltage losses in flexible n-i-p perovskite solar cells JF - Science and technology of advanced materials : STAM N2 - The possibility to manufacture perovskite solar cells (PSCs) at low temperatures paves the way to flexible and lightweight photovoltaic (PV) devices manufactured via high-throughput roll-to-roll processes. In order to achieve higher power conversion efficiencies, it is necessary to approach the radiative limit via suppression of non-radiative recombination losses. Herein, we performed a systematic voltage loss analysis for a typical low-temperature processed, flexible PSC in n-i-p configuration using vacuum deposited C-60 as electron transport layer (ETL) and two-step hybrid vacuum-solution deposition for CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite absorber. We identified the ETL/absorber interface as a bottleneck in relation to non-radiative recombination losses, the quasi-Fermi level splitting (QFLS) decreases from similar to 1.23 eV for the bare absorber, just similar to 90 meV below the radiative limit, to similar to 1.10 eV when C-60 is used as ETL. To effectively mitigate these voltage losses, we investigated different interfacial modifications via vacuum deposited interlayers (BCP, B4PyMPM, 3TPYMB, and LiF). An improvement in QFLS of similar to 30-40 meV is observed after interlayer deposition and confirmed by comparable improvements in the open-circuit voltage after implementation of these interfacial modifications in flexible PSCs. Further investigations on absorber/hole transport layer (HTL) interface point out the detrimental role of dopants in Spiro-OMeTAD film (widely employed HTL in the community) as recombination centers upon oxidation and light exposure. [GRAPHICS] . KW - Perovskite solar cell KW - flexible KW - interface engineering KW - non-radiative recombination KW - quasi-Fermi level splitting Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/14686996.2019.1633952 SN - 1468-6996 SN - 1878-5514 VL - 20 SP - 786 EP - 795 PB - Taylor & Francis CY - Abingdon 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 - Schulze, Patricia S. C. A1 - Bett, Alexander J. A1 - Bivour, Martin A1 - Caprioglio, Pietro A1 - Gerspacher, Fabian M. A1 - Kabaklı, Özde Ş. A1 - Richter, Armin A1 - Stolterfoht, Martin A1 - Zhang, Qinxin A1 - Neher, Dieter A1 - Hermle, Martin A1 - Hillebrecht, Harald A1 - Glunz, Stefan W. A1 - Goldschmidt, Jan Christoph T1 - 25.1% high-efficiency monolithic perovskite silicon tandem solar cell with a high bandgap perovskite absorber JF - Solar RRL N2 - Monolithic perovskite silicon tandem solar cells can overcome the theoretical efficiency limit of silicon solar cells. This requires an optimum bandgap, high quantum efficiency, and high stability of the perovskite. Herein, a silicon heterojunction bottom cell is combined with a perovskite top cell, with an optimum bandgap of 1.68 eV in planar p-i-n tandem configuration. A methylammonium-free FA(0.75)Cs(0.25)Pb(I0.8Br0.2)(3) perovskite with high Cs content is investigated for improved stability. A 10% molarity increase to 1.1 m of the perovskite precursor solution results in approximate to 75 nm thicker absorber layers and 0.7 mA cm(-2) higher short-circuit current density. With the optimized absorber, tandem devices reach a high fill factor of 80% and up to 25.1% certified efficiency. The unencapsulated tandem device shows an efficiency improvement of 2.3% (absolute) over 5 months, showing the robustness of the absorber against degradation. Moreover, a photoluminescence quantum yield analysis reveals that with adapted charge transport materials and surface passivation, along with improved antireflection measures, the high bandgap perovskite absorber has the potential for 30% tandem efficiency in the near future. KW - heterojunction silicon solar cells KW - interfaces KW - perovskite solar cells KW - tandem solar cells KW - thin films Y1 - 2020 VL - 4 IS - 7 PB - John Wiley & Sons, Inc. CY - New Jersey ER -