TY - JOUR A1 - Zakrzewski, Tanja T1 - Miguel de Luna as arbitrista BT - Dossier em Honra à Professora Filomena Barros JF - Hamsa : journal of Judaic and Islamic studies : revista de estudos judaicos e islâmicos N2 - This article deals with Miguel de Luna, a Morisco from Granada, who is most famous for his involvement in the Lead Books of Sacromonte affair. In the following pages I will, however, focus on a facet of his life that has been rather neglected. Rather than recount again his activities as translator for Arabic, I will shed light on his work as physician and claim that his medical paper on the benefits of bathing and the reopening of public baths in Granada may very well put him in league with the arbitristas, a group of intellectuals who advised the monarch in economic and financial matters. KW - Arbitrista KW - Granada KW - history of medicine KW - Morisco KW - Muslim Y1 - 2023 UR - https://journals.openedition.org/hamsa/4231 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4000/hamsa.4231 SN - 2183-2633 IS - 9 SP - 1 EP - 13 PB - Universidade de Évora CY - Évora ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Teich, Paula A1 - Fühner, Thea Heidi A1 - Granacher, Urs A1 - Kliegl, Reinhold T1 - Physical fitness of primary school children differs depending on their timing of school enrollment JF - Scientific reports N2 - Previous research has shown that children who were enrolled to school according to the legal key date (i.e., keyage children, between eight and nine years in third grade) exhibited a linear physical fitness development in the ninth year of life. In contrast, children who were enrolled with a delay (i.e., older-than-keyage children [OTK], between nine and ten years in third grade) exhibited a lower physical fitness compared to what would be expected for their age. In these studies, cross-sectional age differences within third grade and timing of school enrollment were confounded. The present study investigated the longitudinal development of keyage and OTK children from third to fifth grade. This design also afforded a comparison of the two groups at the same average chronological age, that is a dissociation of the effects of timing of school enrollment and age. We tested six physical fitness components: cardiorespiratory endurance, coordination, speed, power of lower and upper limbs, and static balance. 1502 children (i.e., 1206 keyage and 296 OTK children) from 35 schools were tested in third, fourth, and fifth grade. Except for cardiorespiratory endurance, both groups developed from third to fourth and from fourth to fifth grade and keyage children outperformed OTK children at the average ages of 9.5 or 10.5 years. For cardiorespiratory endurance, there was no significant gain from fourth to fifth grade and keyage and OTK children did not differ significantly at 10.5 years of age. One reason for a delayed school enrollment could be that a child is (or is perceived as) biologically younger than their chronological age at the school entry examination, implying a negative correlation between chronological and biological age for OTK children. Indeed, a simple reflection of chronological age brought the developmental rate of the chronologically youngest OTK children in line with the developmental rate observed for keyage children, but did not eliminate all differences. The mapping of chronological and biological age of OTK children and other possible reasons for lower physical fitness of OTK children remain a task for future research. KW - Health care KW - Paediatrics KW - Physiology Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-35727-y SN - 2045-2322 VL - 13 IS - 1 PB - Springer Nature CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Petrich, Annett A1 - Aji, Amit Koikkarah A1 - Dunsing, Valentin A1 - Chiantia, Salvatore T1 - Benchmarking of novel green fluorescent proteins for the quantification of protein oligomerization in living cells JF - PLoS one N2 - Protein-protein-interactions play an important role in many cellular functions. Quantitative non-invasive techniques are applied in living cells to evaluate such interactions, thereby providing a broader understanding of complex biological processes. Fluorescence fluctuation spectroscopy describes a group of quantitative microscopy approaches for the characterization of molecular interactions at single cell resolution. Through the obtained molecular brightness, it is possible to determine the oligomeric state of proteins. This is usually achieved by fusing fluorescent proteins (FPs) to the protein of interest. Recently, the number of novel green FPs has increased, with consequent improvements to the quality of fluctuation-based measurements. The photophysical behavior of FPs is influenced by multiple factors (including photobleaching, protonation-induced "blinking" and long-lived dark states). Assessing these factors is critical for selecting the appropriate fluorescent tag for live cell imaging applications. In this work, we focus on novel green FPs that are extensively used in live cell imaging. A systematic performance comparison of several green FPs in living cells under different pH conditions using Number & Brightness (N & B) analysis and scanning fluorescence correlation spectroscopy was performed. Our results show that the new FP Gamillus exhibits higher brightness at the cost of lower photostability and fluorescence probability (pf), especially at lower pH. mGreenLantern, on the other hand, thanks to a very high pf, is best suited for multimerization quantification at neutral pH. At lower pH, mEGFP remains apparently the best choice for multimerization investigation. These guidelines provide the information needed to plan quantitative fluorescence microscopy involving these FPs, both for general imaging or for protein-protein-interactions quantification via fluorescence fluctuation-based methods. Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285486 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 18 IS - 8 PB - PLoS CY - San Fransisco ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kappel, Christian A1 - Friedrich, Thomas A1 - Oberkofler, Vicky A1 - Jiang, Li A1 - Crawford, Tim A1 - Lenhard, Michael A1 - Bäurle, Isabel T1 - Genomic and epigenomic determinants of heat stress-induced transcriptional memory in Arabidopsis JF - Genome biology : biology for the post-genomic era N2 - Background Transcriptional regulation is a key aspect of environmental stress responses. Heat stress induces transcriptional memory, i.e., sustained induction or enhanced re-induction of transcription, that allows plants to respond more efficiently to a recurrent HS. In light of more frequent temperature extremes due to climate change, improving heat tolerance in crop plants is an important breeding goal. However, not all heat stress-inducible genes show transcriptional memory, and it is unclear what distinguishes memory from non-memory genes. To address this issue and understand the genome and epigenome architecture of transcriptional memory after heat stress, we identify the global target genes of two key memory heat shock transcription factors, HSFA2 and HSFA3, using time course ChIP-seq. Results HSFA2 and HSFA3 show near identical binding patterns. In vitro and in vivo binding strength is highly correlated, indicating the importance of DNA sequence elements. In particular, genes with transcriptional memory are strongly enriched for a tripartite heat shock element, and are hallmarked by several features: low expression levels in the absence of heat stress, accessible chromatin environment, and heat stress-induced enrichment of H3K4 trimethylation. These results are confirmed by an orthogonal transcriptomic data set using both de novo clustering and an established definition of memory genes. Conclusions Our findings provide an integrated view of HSF-dependent transcriptional memory and shed light on its sequence and chromatin determinants, enabling the prediction and engineering of genes with transcriptional memory behavior. KW - Transcriptional memory KW - Priming KW - Heat stress KW - HSFA2 KW - HSFA3 KW - Arabidopsis thaliana KW - Histone H3K4 trimethylation KW - ChIP-seq Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-023-02970-5 SN - 1474-760X VL - 24 IS - 1 PB - BioMed Central CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ferreira, Clara Mendes A1 - Dammhahn, Melanie A1 - Eccard, Jana T1 - So many choices, so little time BT - food preference and movement vary with the landscape of fear JF - Ecology and evolution N2 - Spatial and temporal variation in perceived predation risk is an important determinant of movement and foraging activity of animals. Foraging in this landscape of fear, individuals need to decide where and when to move, and what resources to choose. Foraging theory predicts the outcome of these decisions based on energetic trade-offs, but complex interactions between perceived predation risk and preferences of foragers for certain functional traits of their resources are rarely considered. Here, we studied the interactive effects of perceived predation risk on food trait preferences and foraging behavior in bank voles (Myodes glareolus) in experimental landscapes. Individuals (n = 19) were subjected for periods of 24 h to two extreme, risk-uniform landscapes (either risky or safe), containing 25 discrete food patches, filled with seeds of four plant species in even amounts. Seeds varied in functional traits: size, nutrients, and shape. We evaluated whether and how risk modifies forager preference for functional traits. We also investigated whether perceived risk and distance from shelter affected giving-up density (GUD), time in patches, and number of patch visits. In safe landscapes, individuals increased time spent in patches, lowered GUD and visited distant patches more often compared to risky landscapes. Individuals preferred bigger seeds independent of risk, but in the safe treatment they preferred fat-rich over carb-rich seeds. Thus, higher densities of resource levels remained in risky landscapes, while in safe landscapes resource density was lower and less diverse due to selective foraging. Our results suggest that the interaction of perceived risk and dietary preference adds an additional layer to the cascading effects of a landscape of fear which affects biodiversity at resource level. KW - foraging behavior KW - functional traits KW - giving-up density KW - myodes glareolus KW - perceived predation risk KW - seed ecology Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10330 SN - 2045-7758 VL - 13 IS - 7 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Stoltnow, Malte A1 - Weis, Philipp A1 - Korges, Maximilian T1 - Hydrological controls on base metal precipitation and zoning at the porphyry-epithermal transition constrained by numerical modeling JF - Scientific reports N2 - Ore precipitation in porphyry copper systems is generally characterized by metal zoning (Cu-Mo to Zn-Pb-Ag), which is suggested to be variably related to solubility decreases during fluid cooling, fluid-rock interactions, partitioning during fluid phase separation and mixing with external fluids. Here, we present new advances of a numerical process model by considering published constraints on the temperature- and salinity-dependent solubility of Cu, Pb and Zn in the ore fluid. We quantitatively investigate the roles of vapor-brine separation, halite saturation, initial metal contents, fluid mixing and remobilization as first-order controls of the physical hydrology on ore formation. The results show that the magmatic vapor and brine phases ascend with different residence times but as miscible fluid mixtures, with salinity increases generating metal-undersaturated bulk fluids. The release rates of magmatic fluids affect the location of the thermohaline fronts, leading to contrasting mechanisms for ore precipitation: higher rates result in halite saturation without significant metal zoning, lower rates produce zoned ore shells due to mixing with meteoric water. Varying metal contents can affect the order of the final metal precipitation sequence. Redissolution of precipitated metals results in zoned ore shell patterns in more peripheral locations and also decouples halite saturation from ore precipitation. Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-30572-5 SN - 2045-2322 VL - 13 IS - 1 PB - Springer Nature CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Apriyanto, Ardha A1 - Compart, Julia A1 - Fettke, Jörg T1 - Transcriptomic analysis of mesocarp tissue during fruit development of the oil palm revealed specific isozymes related to starch metabolism that control oil yield JF - Frontiers in plant science N2 - The oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) produces a large amount of oil from the fruit. However, increasing the oil production in this fruit is still challenging. A recent study has shown that starch metabolism is essential for oil synthesis in fruit-producing species. Therefore, the transcriptomic analysis by RNA-seq was performed to observe gene expression alteration related to starch metabolism genes throughout the maturity stages of oil palm fruit with different oil yields. Gene expression profiles were examined with three different oil yields group (low, medium, and high) at six fruit development phases (4, 8, 12, 16, 20, and 22 weeks after pollination). We successfully identified and analyzed differentially expressed genes in oil palm mesocarps during development. The results showed that the transcriptome profile for each developmental phase was unique. Sucrose flux to the mesocarp tissue, rapid starch turnover, and high glycolytic activity have been identified as critical factors for oil production in oil palms. For starch metabolism and the glycolytic pathway, we identified specific gene expressions of enzyme isoforms (isozymes) that correlated with oil production, which may determine the oil content. This study provides valuable information for creating new high-oil-yielding palm varieties via breeding programs or genome editing approaches. KW - starch KW - oil yield KW - fruit development KW - gene expression KW - RNA-seq KW - and palm KW - oil KW - Elaeis guineensis Jacq Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2023.1220237 SN - 1664-462X VL - 14 PB - Frontiers Media CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Compart, Julia A1 - Singh, Aakanksha A1 - Fettke, Jörg A1 - Apriyanto, Ardha T1 - Customizing starch properties BT - a review of starch modifications and their applications JF - Polymers N2 - Starch has been a convenient, economically important polymer with substantial applications in the food and processing industry. However, native starches present restricted applications, which hinder their industrial usage. Therefore, modification of starch is carried out to augment the positive characteristics and eliminate the limitations of the native starches. Modifications of starch can result in generating novel polymers with numerous functional and value-added properties that suit the needs of the industry. Here, we summarize the possible starch modifications in planta and outside the plant system (physical, chemical, and enzymatic) and their corresponding applications. In addition, this review will highlight the implications of each starch property adjustment. KW - starch KW - starch modification KW - in planta modification KW - physical modification KW - chemical modification KW - enzymatic modification KW - starch application Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/polym15163491 SN - 2073-4360 VL - 15 IS - 16 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Berry, Paul E. A1 - Dammhahn, Melanie A1 - Blaum, Niels T1 - Keeping cool on hot days BT - activity responses of African antelope to heat extremes JF - Frontiers in ecology and evolution N2 - Long-lived organisms are likely to respond to a rapidly changing climate with behavioral flexibility. Animals inhabiting the arid parts of southern Africa face a particularly rapid rise in temperature which in combination with food and water scarcity places substantial constraints on the ability of animals to tolerate heat. We investigated how three species of African antelope-springbok Antidorcas marsupialis, kudu Tragelaphus strepsiceros and eland T. oryx-differing in body size, habitat preference and movement ecology, change their activity in response to extreme heat in an arid savanna. Serving as a proxy for activity, dynamic body acceleration data recorded every five minutes were analyzed for seven to eight individuals per species for the three hottest months of the year. Activity responses to heat during the hottest time of day (the afternoons) were investigated and diel activity patterns were compared between hot and cool days. Springbok, which prefer open habitat, are highly mobile and the smallest of the species studied, showed the greatest decrease in activity with rising temperature. Furthermore, springbok showed reduced mean activity over the 24 h cycle on hot days compared to cool days. Large-bodied eland seemed less affected by afternoon heat than springbok. While eland also reduced diurnal activity on hot days compared to cool days, they compensated for this by increasing nocturnal activity, possibly because their predation risk is lower. Kudu, which are comparatively sedentary and typically occupy shady habitat, seemed least affected during the hottest time of day and showed no appreciable difference in diel activity patterns between hot and cool days. The interplay between habitat preference, body size, movement patterns, and other factors seems complex and even sub-lethal levels of heat stress have been shown to impact an animal's long-term survival and reproduction. Thus, differing heat tolerances among species could result in a shift in the composition of African herbivore communities as temperatures continue to rise, with significant implications for economically important wildlife-based land use and conservation. KW - springbok KW - kudu KW - eland KW - dynamic body acceleration KW - tri-axial accelerometers KW - behavioral flexibility KW - climate change KW - savanna ecology Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2023.1172303 SN - 2296-701X VL - 11 PB - Frontiers Media CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Stiegler, Jonas A1 - Pahl, Janice A1 - Guillen, Rafael Arce A1 - Ullmann, Wiebke A1 - Blaum, Niels T1 - The heat is on BT - impacts of rising temperature on the activity of a common European mammal JF - Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution N2 - Climate conditions severely impact the activity and, consequently, the fitness of wildlife species across the globe. Wildlife can respond to new climatic conditions, but the pace of human-induced change limits opportunities for adaptation or migration. Thus, how these changes affect behavior, movement patterns, and activity levels remains unclear. In this study, we investigate how extreme weather conditions affect the activity of European hares (Lepus europaeus) during their peak reproduction period. When hares must additionally invest energy in mating, prevailing against competitors, or lactating, we investigated their sensitivities to rising temperatures, wind speed, and humidity. To quantify their activity, we used the overall dynamic body acceleration (ODBA) calculated from tri-axial acceleration measurements of 33 GPS-collared hares. Our analysis revealed that temperature, humidity, and wind speed are important in explaining changes in activity, with a strong response for high temperatures above 25 & DEG;C and the highest change in activity during temperature extremes of over 35 & DEG;C during their inactive period. Further, we found a non-linear relationship between temperature and activity and an interaction of activity changes between day and night. Activity increased at higher temperatures during the inactive period (day) and decreased during the active period (night). This decrease was strongest during hot tropical nights. At a stage of life when mammals such as hares must substantially invest in reproduction, the sensitivity of females to extreme temperatures was particularly pronounced. Similarly, both sexes increased their activity at high humidity levels during the day and low wind speeds, irrespective of the time of day, while the effect of humidity was stronger for males. Our findings highlight the importance of understanding the complex relationships between extreme weather conditions and mammal behavior, critical for conservation and management. With ongoing climate change, extreme weather events such as heat waves and heavy rainfall are predicted to occur more often and last longer. These events will directly impact the fitness of hares and other wildlife species and hence the population dynamics of already declining populations across Europe. KW - activity KW - ODBA KW - animal tracking KW - European hare KW - extreme weather events KW - climate change Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2023.1193861 SN - 2296-701X VL - 11 PB - Frontiers Media CY - Lausanne ER -