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Compound weather events may lead to extreme impacts that can affect many aspects of society including agriculture. Identifying the underlying mechanisms that cause extreme impacts, such as crop failure, is of crucial importance to improve their understanding and forecasting. In this study, we investigate whether key meteorological drivers of extreme impacts can be identified using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) in a model environment, a method that allows for automated variable selection and is able to handle collinearity between variables. As an example of an extreme impact, we investigate crop failure using annual wheat yield as simulated by the Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator (APSIM) crop model driven by 1600 years of daily weather data from a global climate model (EC-Earth) under present-day conditions for the Northern Hemisphere. We then apply LASSO logistic regression to determine which weather conditions during the growing season lead to crop failure. We obtain good model performance in central Europe and the eastern half of the United States, while crop failure years in regions in Asia and the western half of the United States are less accurately predicted. Model performance correlates strongly with annual mean and variability of crop yields; that is, model performance is highest in regions with relatively large annual crop yield mean and variability. Overall, for nearly all grid points, the inclusion of temperature, precipitation and vapour pressure deficit is key to predict crop failure. In addition, meteorological predictors during all seasons are required for a good prediction. These results illustrate the omnipresence of compounding effects of both meteorological drivers and different periods of the growing season for creating crop failure events. Especially vapour pressure deficit and climate extreme indicators such as diurnal temperature range and the number of frost days are selected by the statistical model as relevant predictors for crop failure at most grid points, underlining their overarching relevance. We conclude that the LASSO regression model is a useful tool to automatically detect compound drivers of extreme impacts and could be applied to other weather impacts such as wildfires or floods. As the detected relationships are of purely correlative nature, more detailed analyses are required to establish the causal structure between drivers and impacts.
The co-occurrence of warm spells and droughts can lead to detrimental socio-economic and ecological impacts, largely surpassing the impacts of either warm spells or droughts alone. We quantify changes in the number of compound warm spells and droughts from 1979 to 2018 in the Mediterranean Basin using the ERA5 data set. We analyse two types of compound events: 1) warm season compound events, which are extreme in absolute terms in the warm season from May to October and 2) year-round deseasonalised compound events, which are extreme in relative terms respective to the time of the year. The number of compound events increases significantly and especially warm spells are increasing strongly – with an annual growth rates of 3.9 (3.5) % for warm season (deseasonalised) compound events and 4.6 (4.4) % for warm spells –, whereas for droughts the change is more ambiguous depending on the applied definition. Therefore, the rise in the number of compound events is primarily driven by temperature changes and not the lack of precipitation. The months July and August show the highest increases in warm season compound events, whereas the highest increases of deseasonalised compound events occur in spring and early summer. This increase in deseasonalised compound events can potentially have a significant impact on the functioning of Mediterranean ecosystems as this is the peak phase of ecosystem productivity and a vital phenophase.
We use ultrafast x-ray diffraction to investigate the effect of expansive phononic and contractive magnetic stress driving the picosecond strain response of a metallic perovskite SrRuO3 thin film upon femtosecond laser excitation. We exemplify how the anisotropic bulk equilibrium thermal expansion can be used to predict the response of the thin film to ultrafast deposition of energy. It is key to consider that the laterally homogeneous laser excitation changes the strain response compared to the near-equilibrium thermal expansion because the balanced in-plane stresses suppress the Poisson stress on the picosecond timescale. We find a very large negative Grüneisen constant describing the large contractive stress imposed by a small amount of energy in the spin system. The temperature and fluence dependence of the strain response for a double-pulse excitation scheme demonstrates the saturation of the magnetic stress in the high-fluence regime.
The particle noch (‘still’) can have an additive reading similar to auch (‘also’). We argue that both particles indicate that a previously partially answered QUD is re-opened to add a further answer. The particles differ in that the QUD, in the case of auch, can be re-opened with respect to the same topic situation, whereas noch indicates that the QUD is re-opened with respect to a new topic situation. This account predicts a difference in the accommodation behavior of the two particles. We present an experiment whose results are in line with this prediction.
A tale of shifting relations
(2021)
Understanding the dynamics between the East Asian summer (EASM) and winter monsoon (EAWM) is needed to predict their variability under future global warming scenarios. Here, we investigate the relationship between EASM and EAWM as well as the mechanisms driving their variability during the last 10,000 years by stacking marine and terrestrial (non-speleothem) proxy records from the East Asian realm. This provides a regional and proxy independent signal for both monsoonal systems. The respective signal was subsequently analysed using a linear regression model. We find that the phase relationship between EASM and EAWM is not time-constant and significantly depends on orbital configuration changes. In addition, changes in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning circulation, Arctic sea-ice coverage, El Niño-Southern Oscillation and Sun Spot numbers contributed to millennial scale changes in the EASM and EAWM during the Holocene. We also argue that the bulk signal of monsoonal activity captured by the stacked non-speleothem proxy records supports the previously argued bias of speleothem climatic archives to moisture source changes and/or seasonality.
Reciprocal space slicing
(2021)
An experimental technique that allows faster assessment of out-of-plane strain dynamics of thin film heterostructures via x-ray diffraction is presented. In contrast to conventional high-speed reciprocal space-mapping setups, our approach reduces the measurement time drastically due to a fixed measurement geometry with a position-sensitive detector. This means that neither the incident (ω) nor the exit (2θ) diffraction angle is scanned during the strain assessment via x-ray diffraction. Shifts of diffraction peaks on the fixed x-ray area detector originate from an out-of-plane strain within the sample. Quantitative strain assessment requires the determination of a factor relating the observed shift to the change in the reciprocal lattice vector. The factor depends only on the widths of the peak along certain directions in reciprocal space, the diffraction angle of the studied reflection, and the resolution of the instrumental setup. We provide a full theoretical explanation and exemplify the concept with picosecond strain dynamics of a thin layer of NbO2.
Recent trends in ubiquitous computing have led to a proliferation of studies that focus on human activity recognition (HAR) utilizing inertial sensor data that consist of acceleration, orientation and angular velocity. However, the performances of such approaches are limited by the amount of annotated training data, especially in fields where annotating data is highly time-consuming and requires specialized professionals, such as in healthcare. In image classification, this limitation has been mitigated by powerful oversampling techniques such as data augmentation. Using this technique, this work evaluates to what extent transforming inertial sensor data into movement trajectories and into 2D heatmap images can be advantageous for HAR when data are scarce. A convolutional long short-term memory (ConvLSTM) network that incorporates spatiotemporal correlations was used to classify the heatmap images. Evaluation was carried out on Deep Inertial Poser (DIP), a known dataset composed of inertial sensor data. The results obtained suggest that for datasets with large numbers of subjects, using state-of-the-art methods remains the best alternative. However, a performance advantage was achieved for small datasets, which is usually the case in healthcare. Moreover, movement trajectories provide a visual representation of human activities, which can help researchers to better interpret and analyze motion patterns.
The suitability of a newly developed cell-based functional assay was tested for the detection of the activity of a range of neurotoxins and neuroactive pharmaceuticals which act by stimulation or inhibition of calcium-dependent neurotransmitter release. In this functional assay, a reporter enzyme is released concomitantly with the neurotransmitter from neurosecretory vesicles. The current study showed that the release of a luciferase from a differentiated human neuroblastoma-based reporter cell line (SIMA-hPOMC1-26-GLuc cells) can be stimulated by a carbachol-mediated activation of the Gq-coupled muscarinic-acetylcholine receptor and by the Ca2+-channel forming spider toxin α-latrotoxin. Carbachol-stimulated luciferase release was completely inhibited by the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor antagonist atropine and α-latrotoxin-mediated release by the Ca2+-chelator EGTA, demonstrating the specificity of luciferase-release stimulation. SIMA-hPOMC1-26-GLuc cells express mainly L- and N-type and to a lesser extent T-type VGCC on the mRNA and protein level. In accordance with the expression profile a depolarization-stimulated luciferase release by a high K+-buffer was effectively and dose-dependently inhibited by L-type VGCC inhibitors and to a lesser extent by N-type and T-type inhibitors. P/Q- and R-type inhibitors did not affect the K+-stimulated luciferase release. In summary, the newly established cell-based assay may represent a versatile tool to analyze the biological efficiency of a range of neurotoxins and neuroactive pharmaceuticals which mediate their activity by the modulation of calcium-dependent neurotransmitter release.
Stereoselective [4+2] Cycloaddition of Singlet Oxygen to Naphthalenes Controlled by Carbohydrates
(2021)
Stereoselective reactions of singlet oxygen are of current interest. Since enantioselective photooxygenations have not been realized efficiently, auxiliary control is an attractive alternative. However, the obtained peroxides are often too labile for isolation or further transformations into enantiomerically pure products. Herein, we describe the oxidation of naphthalenes by singlet oxygen, where the face selectivity is controlled by carbohydrates for the first time. The synthesis of the precursors is easily achieved starting from naphthoquinone and a protected glucose derivative in only two steps. Photooxygenations proceed smoothly at low temperature, and we detected the corresponding endoperoxides as sole products by NMR. They are labile and can thermally react back to the parent naphthalenes and singlet oxygen. However, we could isolate and characterize two enantiomerically pure peroxides, which are sufficiently stable at room temperature. An interesting influence of substituents on the stereoselectivities of the photooxygenations has been found, ranging from 51:49 to up to 91:9 dr (diastereomeric ratio). We explain this by a hindered rotation of the carbohydrate substituents, substantiated by a combination of NOESY measurements and theoretical calculations. Finally, we could transfer the chiral information from a pure endoperoxide to an epoxide, which was isolated after cleavage of the sugar chiral auxiliary in enantiomerically pure form.
Leveraging large-deviation statistics to decipher the stochastic properties of measured trajectories
(2021)
Extensive time-series encoding the position of particles such as viruses, vesicles, or individualproteins are routinely garnered insingle-particle tracking experiments or supercomputing studies.They contain vital clues on how viruses spread or drugs may be delivered in biological cells.Similar time-series are being recorded of stock values in financial markets and of climate data.Such time-series are most typically evaluated in terms of time-averaged mean-squareddisplacements (TAMSDs), which remain random variables for finite measurement times. Theirstatistical properties are different for differentphysical stochastic processes, thus allowing us toextract valuable information on the stochastic process itself. To exploit the full potential of thestatistical information encoded in measured time-series we here propose an easy-to-implementand computationally inexpensive new methodology, based on deviations of the TAMSD from itsensemble average counterpart. Specifically, we use the upper bound of these deviations forBrownian motion (BM) to check the applicability of this approach to simulated and real data sets.By comparing the probability of deviations fordifferent data sets, we demonstrate how thetheoretical bound for BM reveals additional information about observed stochastic processes. Weapply the large-deviation method to data sets of tracer beads tracked in aqueous solution, tracerbeads measured in mucin hydrogels, and of geographic surface temperature anomalies. Ouranalysis shows how the large-deviation properties can be efficiently used as a simple yet effectiveroutine test to reject the BM hypothesis and unveil relevant information on statistical propertiessuch as ergodicity breaking and short-time correlations.
Extracellular vesicles: potential mediators of psychosocial stress contribution to osteoporosis?
(2021)
Osteoporosis is characterized by low bone mass and damage to the bone tissue’s microarchitecture, leading to increased fracture risk. Several studies have provided evidence for associations between psychosocial stress and osteoporosis through various pathways, including the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis, the sympathetic nervous system, and other endocrine factors. As psychosocial stress provokes oxidative cellular stress with consequences for mitochondrial function and cell signaling (e.g., gene expression, inflammation), it is of interest whether extracellular vesicles (EVs) may be a relevant biomarker in this context or act by transporting substances. EVs are intercellular communicators, transfer substances encapsulated in them, modify the phenotype and function of target cells, mediate cell-cell communication, and, therefore, have critical applications in disease progression and clinical diagnosis and therapy. This review summarizes the characteristics of EVs, their role in stress and osteoporosis, and their benefit as biological markers. We demonstrate that EVs are potential mediators of psychosocial stress and osteoporosis and may be beneficial in innovative research settings.
Soziale Medien sind ein wesentlicher Bestandteil des Alltags von Schüler*innen und gleichzeitig zunehmend wichtig in Wirtschaft, Politik und Wissenschaft. Am Beispiel von Twitter zeigt dieser Beitrag, dass soziale Medien im Unterricht auch für die Beantwortung geographischer Fragestellungen verwendet werden können. Hierfür eignen sich Twitter-Daten aufgrund ihrer Georeferenzierung und weiterer interessanter Inhalte besonders. Der Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über die Verwendung von Twitter für sozialwissenschaftliche und humangeographische Fragestellungen und reflektiert die Nutzung von Twitter im Unterricht. Für die Unterrichtspraxis werden Beispiele zu den Themen Braunkohle, Flutereignisse und Raumwahrnehmungen sowie Anleitungen zur Auswertung, Anwendung und Reflexion von Twitter-Analysen vorgestellt.
Biodiversity decline causes a loss of functional diversity, which threatens ecosystems through a dangerous feedback loop: This loss may hamper ecosystems’ ability to buffer environmental changes, leading to further biodiversity losses. In this context, the increasing frequency of human-induced excessive loading of nutrients causes major problems in aquatic systems. Previous studies investigating how functional diversity influences the response of food webs to disturbances have mainly considered systems with at most two functionally diverse trophic levels. We investigated the effects of functional diversity on the robustness, that is, resistance, resilience, and elasticity, using a tritrophic—and thus more realistic—plankton food web model. We compared a non-adaptive food chain with no diversity within the individual trophic levels to a more diverse food web with three adaptive trophic levels. The species fitness differences were balanced through trade-offs between defense/growth rate for prey and selectivity/half-saturation constant for predators. We showed that the resistance, resilience, and elasticity of tritrophic food webs decreased with larger perturbation sizes and depended on the state of the system when the perturbation occurred. Importantly, we found that a more diverse food web was generally more resistant and resilient but its elasticity was context-dependent. Particularly, functional diversity reduced the probability of a regime shift toward a non-desirable alternative state. The basal-intermediate interaction consistently determined the robustness against a nutrient pulse despite the complex influence of the shape and type of the dynamical attractors. This relationship was strongly influenced by the diversity present and the third trophic level. Overall, using a food web model of realistic complexity, this study confirms the destructive potential of the positive feedback loop between biodiversity loss and robustness, by uncovering mechanisms leading to a decrease in resistance, resilience, and potentially elasticity as functional diversity declines.
Measuring migration 2.0
(2021)
The interest in human migration is at its all-time high, yet data to measure migration is notoriously limited. “Big data” or “digital trace data” have emerged as new sources of migration measurement complementing ‘traditional’ census, administrative and survey data. This paper reviews the strengths and weaknesses of eight novel, digital data sources along five domains: reliability, validity, scope, access and ethics. The review highlights the opportunities for migration scholars but also stresses the ethical and empirical challenges. This review intends to be of service to researchers and policy analysts alike and help them navigate this new and increasingly complex field.
Janus droplets were prepared by vortex mixing of three non-mixable liquids, i.e., olive oil, silicone oil and water, in the presence of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) in the aqueous phase and magnetite nanoparticles (MNPs) in the olive oil. The resulting Pickering emulsions were stabilized by a red-colored AuNP layer at the olive oil/water interface and MNPs at the oil/oil interface. The core–shell droplets can be stimulated by an external magnetic field. Surprisingly, an inner rotation of the silicon droplet is observed when MNPs are fixed at the inner silicon droplet interface. This is the first example of a controlled movement of the inner parts of complex double emulsions by magnetic manipulation via interfacially confined magnetic nanoparticles.
Rotational motions play a key role in measuring seismic wavefield properties. Using newly developed portable rotational instruments, it is now possible to directly measure rotational motions in a broad frequency range. Here, we investigated the instrumental self-noise and data quality in a huddle test in Fürstenfeldbruck, Germany, in August 2019. We compare the data from six rotational and three translational sensors. We studied the recorded signals using correlation, coherence analysis, and probabilistic power spectral densities. We sorted the coherent noise into five groups with respect to the similarities in frequency content and shape of the signals. These coherent noises were most likely caused by electrical devices, the dehumidifier system in the building, humans, and natural sources such as wind. We calculated self-noise levels through probabilistic power spectral densities and by applying the Sleeman method, a three-sensor method. Our results from both methods indicate that self-noise levels are stable between 0.5 and 40 Hz. Furthermore, we recorded the 29 August 2019 ML 3.4 Dettingen earthquake. The calculated source directions are found to be realistic for all sensors in comparison to the real back azimuth. We conclude that the five tested blueSeis-3A rotational sensors, when compared with respect to coherent noise, self-noise, and source direction, provide reliable and consistent results. Hence, field experiments with single rotational sensors can be undertaken.
High-salt (HS) diets have recently been linked to oxidative stress in the brain, a fact that may be a precursor to behavioral changes, such as those involving anxiety-like behavior. However, to the best of our knowledge, no study has evaluated the amygdala redox status after consuming a HS diet in the pre- or postweaning periods. This study aimed to evaluate the amygdala redox status and anxiety-like behaviors in adulthood, after inclusion of HS diet in two periods: preconception, gestation, and lactation (preweaning); and only after weaning (postweaning). Initially, 18 females and 9 male Wistar rats received a standard (n = 9 females and 4 males) or a HS diet (n = 9 females and 5 males) for 120 days. After mating, females continued to receive the aforementioned diets during gestation and lactation. Weaning occurred at 21-day-old Wistar rats and the male offspring were subdivided: control-control (C-C)—offspring of standard diet fed dams who received a standard diet after weaning (n = 9–11), control-HS (C-HS)—offspring of standard diet fed dams who received a HS diet after weaning (n = 9–11), HS-C—offspring of HS diet fed dams who received a standard diet after weaning (n = 9–11), and HS-HS—offspring of HS diet fed dams who received a HS diet after weaning (n = 9–11). At adulthood, the male offspring performed the elevated plus maze and open field tests. At 152-day-old Wistar rats, the offspring were euthanized and the amygdala was removed for redox state analysis. The HS-HS group showed higher locomotion and rearing frequency in the open field test. These results indicate that this group developed hyperactivity. The C-HS group had a higher ratio of entries and time spent in the open arms of the elevated plus maze test in addition to a higher head-dipping frequency. These results suggest less anxiety-like behaviors. In the analysis of the redox state, less activity of antioxidant enzymes and higher levels of the thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) in the amygdala were shown in the amygdala of animals that received a high-salt diet regardless of the period (pre- or postweaning). In conclusion, the high-salt diet promoted hyperactivity when administered in the pre- and postweaning periods. In animals that received only in the postweaning period, the addition of salt induced a reduction in anxiety-like behaviors. Also, regardless of the period, salt provided amygdala oxidative stress, which may be linked to the observed behaviors.
The numerous applications of rare earth elements (REE) has lead to a growing global demand and to the search for new REE deposits. One promising technique for exploration of these deposits is laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). Among a number of advantages of the technique is the possibility to perform on-site measurements without sample preparation. Since the exploration of a deposit is based on the analysis of various geological compartments of the surrounding area, REE-bearing rock and soil samples were analyzed in this work. The field samples are from three European REE deposits in Sweden and Norway. The focus is on the REE cerium, lanthanum, neodymium and yttrium. Two different approaches of data analysis were used for the evaluation. The first approach is univariate regression (UVR). While this approach was successful for the analysis of synthetic REE samples, the quantitative analysis of field samples from different sites was influenced by matrix effects. Principal component analysis (PCA) can be used to determine the origin of the samples from the three deposits. The second approach is based on multivariate regression methods, in particular interval PLS (iPLS) regression. In comparison to UVR, this method is better suited for the determination of REE contents in heterogeneous field samples. View Full-Text
Eccentric exercise is discussed as a treatment option for clinical populations, but specific responses in terms of muscle damage and systemic inflammation after repeated loading of large muscle groups have not been conclusively characterized. Therefore, this study tested the feasibility of an isokinetic protocol for repeated maximum eccentric loading of the trunk muscles. Nine asymptomatic participants (5 f/4 m; 34±6 yrs; 175±13 cm; 76±17 kg) performed three isokinetic 2-minute all-out trunk strength tests (1x concentric (CON), 2x eccentric (ECC1, ECC2), 2 weeks apart; flexion/extension, 60°/s, ROM 55°). Outcomes were peak torque, torque decline, total work, and indicators of muscle damage and inflammation (over 168 h). Statistics were done using the Friedman test (Dunn’s post-test). For ECC1 and ECC2, peak torque and total work were increased and torque decline reduced compared to CON. Repeated ECC bouts yielded unaltered torque and work outcomes. Muscle damage markers were highest after ECC1 (soreness 48 h, creatine kinase 72 h; p<0.05). Their overall responses (area under the curve) were abolished post-ECC2 compared to post-ECC1 (p<0.05). Interleukin-6 was higher post-ECC1 than CON, and attenuated post-ECC2 (p>0.05). Interleukin-10 and tumor necrosis factor-α were not detectable. All markers showed high inter-individual variability. The protocol was feasible to induce muscle damage indicators after exercising a large muscle group, but the pilot results indicated only weak systemic inflammatory responses in asymptomatic adults.
Mediterranean ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to climate change and the associated increase in climate anomalies. This study investigates extreme ecosystem responses evoked by climatic drivers in the Mediterranean Basin for the time span 1999–2019 with a specific focus on seasonal variations as the seasonal timing of climatic anomalies is considered essential for impact and vulnerability assessment. A bivariate vulnerability analysis is performed for each month of the year to quantify which combinations of the drivers temperature (obtained from ERA5-Land) and soil moisture (obtained from ESA CCI and ERA5-Land) lead to extreme reductions in ecosystem productivity using the fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FAPAR; obtained from the Copernicus Global Land Service) as a proxy.
The bivariate analysis clearly showed that, in many cases, it is not just one but a combination of both drivers that causes ecosystem vulnerability. The overall pattern shows that Mediterranean ecosystems are prone to three soil moisture regimes during the yearly cycle: they are vulnerable to hot and dry conditions from May to July, to cold and dry conditions from August to October, and to cold conditions from November to April, illustrating the shift from a soil-moisture-limited regime in summer to an energy-limited regime in winter. In late spring, a month with significant vulnerability to hot conditions only often precedes the next stage of vulnerability to both hot and dry conditions, suggesting that high temperatures lead to critically low soil moisture levels with a certain time lag. In the eastern Mediterranean, the period of vulnerability to hot and dry conditions within the year is much longer than in the western Mediterranean. Our results show that it is crucial to account for both spatial and temporal variability to adequately assess ecosystem vulnerability. The seasonal vulnerability approach presented in this study helps to provide detailed insights regarding the specific phenological stage of the year in which ecosystem vulnerability to a certain climatic condition occurs.
How to cite.
Vogel, J., Paton, E., and Aich, V.: Seasonal ecosystem vulnerability to climatic anomalies in the Mediterranean, Biogeosciences, 18, 5903–5927, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-5903-2021, 2021.
Background
Millions of people in Germany suffer from chronic pain, in which course and intensity are multifactorial. Besides physical injuries, certain psychosocial risk factors are involved in the disease process. The national health care guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of non-specific low back pain recommend the screening of psychosocial risk factors as early as possible, to be able to adapt the therapy to patient needs (e.g., unimodal or multimodal). However, such a procedure has been difficult to implement in practice and has not yet been integrated into the rehabilitation care structures across the country.
Methods
The aim of this study is to implement an individualized therapy and aftercare program within the rehabilitation offer of the German Pension Insurance in the area of orthopedics and to examine its success and sustainability in comparison to the previous standard aftercare program.
The study is a multicenter randomized controlled trial including 1204 patients from six orthopedic rehabilitation clinics. A 2:1 allocation ratio to intervention (individualized and home-based rehabilitation aftercare) versus the control group (regular outpatient rehabilitation aftercare) is set. Upon admission to the rehabilitation clinic, participants in the intervention group will be screened according to their psychosocial risk profile. They could then receive either unimodal or multimodal, together with an individualized training program. The program is instructed in the clinic (approximately 3 weeks) and will continue independently at home afterwards for 3 months. The success of the program is examined by means of a total of four surveys. The co-primary outcomes are the Characteristic Pain Intensity and Disability Score assessed by the German version of the Chronic Pain Grade questionnaire (CPG).
Discussion
An improvement in terms of pain, work ability, patient compliance, and acceptance in our intervention program compared to the standard aftercare is expected. The study contributes to provide individualized care also to patients living far away from clinical centers.
Trial registration
DRKS, DRKS00020373. Registered on 15 April 2020
Background
Despite the prevalence of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), its precise identification remains challenging. With the Zohar-Fineberg Obsessive-Compulsive Screen (ZF-OCS; 5 or 6 items), a brief instrument is widely available mainly in English. As there is a lack of empirical studies on the ZF-OCS, the aim of the present study was to translate the items into German and investigate the instrument in a nonclinical sample.
Methods
In two consecutive online surveys, n = 304 and n = 51 students participated. Besides the ZF-OCS, they answered established measures on OCD, depression, health anxiety, general anxiety and health-related well-being.
Results
Whereas internal consistency was low (α = .53–.72; ω = .55–.69), retest reliability (rt1,t2 = .89) at two weeks was high. As expected, we found high correlations with other OCD instruments (r > .61; convergent validity), and significantly weaker correlations with measures of depression (r = .39), health anxiety (r = .29), and health-related well-being (r = −.28, divergent validity). Nonetheless, the correlations with general anxiety were somewhere in between (r = .52).
Conclusions
Due to heterogeneous OCD subtypes, the ZF-OCS asks diverse questions which probably resulted in the present internal consistency. Nevertheless, the results on retest reliability and validity were promising. As for other OCD instruments, divergent validity regarding general anxiety seems problematic to establish. Even so, the ZF-OCS seems valuable for screening purposes, as it is short and easy to administer, and may facilitate initiating subsequent clinical assessment. Further studies should determine the instrument’s diagnostic accuracy.
Background: To handle the competition demands, sparring drills are used for specific technical–tactical training as well as physical–physiological conditioning in combat sports. While the effects of different area sizes and number of within-round sparring partners on physiological and perceptive responses in combats sports were examined in previous studies, technical and tactical aspects were not investigated. This study investigated the effect of different within-round sparring partners number (i.e., at a time; 1 vs. 1, 1 vs. 2, and 1 vs. 4) and area sizes (2 m × 2 m, 4 m × 4 m, and 6 m × 6 m) variation on the technical–tactical aspects of small combat games in kickboxing.
Method: Twenty male kickboxers (mean ± standard deviation, age: 20.3 ± 0.9 years), regularly competing in regional and national events randomly performed nine different kickboxing combats, lasting 2 min each. All combats were video recorded and analyzed using the software Dartfish.
Results: Results showed that the total number of punches was significantly higher in 1 versus 4 compared with 1 versus 1 (p = 0.011, d = 0.83). Further, the total number of kicks was significantly higher in 1 versus 4 compared with 1 versus 1 and 1 versus 2 (p < 0.001; d = 0.99 and d = 0.83, respectively). Moreover, the total number of kick combinations was significantly higher in 1 versus 4 compared with 1 versus 1 and 1 versus 2 (p < 0.001; d = 1.05 and d = 0.95, respectively). The same outcome was significantly lower in 2 m × 2 m compared with 4 m × 4 m and 6 m × 6 m areas (p = 0.010 and d = − 0.45; p < 0.001 and d = − 0.6, respectively). The number of block-and-parry was significantly higher in 1 versus 4 compared with 1 versus 1 (p < 0.001, d = 1.45) and 1 versus 2 (p = 0.046, d = 0.61) and in 2 m × 2 m compared with 4 m × 4 m and 6 × 6 m areas (p < 0.001; d = 0.47 and d = 0.66, respectively). Backwards lean actions occurred more often in 2 m × 2 m compared with 4 m × 4 m (p = 0.009, d = 0.53) and 6 m × 6 m (p = 0.003, d = 0.60). However, the number of foot defenses was significantly lower in 2 m × 2 m compared with 6 m × 6 m (p < 0.001, d = 1.04) and 4 m × 4 m (p = 0.004, d = 0.63). Additionally, the number of clinches was significantly higher in 1 versus 1 compared with 1 versus 2 (p = 0.002, d = 0.7) and 1 versus 4 (p = 0.034, d = 0.45).
Conclusions: This study provides practical insights into how to manipulate within-round sparring partners’ number and/or area size to train specific kickboxing technical–tactical fundamentals.
Background
Communicating a diagnosis is highly important, yet complex, especially in the context of cancer and mental disorders. The aim was to explore the communication style of an oncologist vs. psychotherapist in an online study.
Methods
Patients (N = 136: 65 cancer, 71 depression) were randomly assigned to watch a standardized video vignette with one of two communication styles (empathic vs. unempathic). Outcome measures of affectivity, information recall, communication skills, empathy and trust were applied.
Results
Regardless of diagnosis, empathic communication was associated with the perception of a significantly more empathic (p < 0.001, η2partial = 0.08) and trustworthy practitioner (p = 0.014, η2partial = 0.04) with better communication skills (p = 0.013, η2partial = 0.05). Cancer patients reported a larger decrease in positive affect (p < 0.001, η2partial = 0.15) and a larger increase in negative affect (p < 0.001, η2partial = 0.14) from pre- to post-video than depressive patients. Highly relevant information was recalled better in both groups (p < 0.001, d = 0.61–1.06).
Conclusions
The results highlight the importance of empathy while communicating both a diagnosis of cancer and a mental disorder. Further research should focus on the communication of a mental disorder in association with cancer.
Implementing innovation laboratories to leverage intrapreneurship are an increasingly popular organizational practice. A typical feature in these creative environments are semi-autonomous teams in which multiple members collectively exert leadership influence, thereby challenging traditional command-and-control conceptions of leadership. An extensive body of research on the team-centric concept of shared leadership has recognized the potential for pluralized leadership structures in enhancing team effectiveness; however, little empirical work has been conducted in organizational contexts in which creativity is key. This study set out to explore antecedents of shared leadership and its influence on team creativity in an innovation lab. Building on extant shared leadership and innovation research, we propose antecedents customary to creative teamwork, that is, experimental culture, task reflexivity, and voice. Multisource data were collected from 104 team members and 49 evaluations of 29 coaches nested in 21 teams working in a prototypical innovation lab. We identify factors specific to creative teamwork that facilitate the emergence of shared leadership by providing room for experimentation, encouraging team members to speak up in the creative process, and cultivating a reflective application of entrepreneurial thinking. We provide specific exemplary activities for innovation lab teams to increase levels of shared leadership.
Strong as a Hippo’s Heart: Biomechanical Hippo Signaling During Zebrafish Cardiac Development
(2021)
The heart is comprised of multiple tissues that contribute to its physiological functions. During development, the growth of myocardium and endocardium is coupled and morphogenetic processes within these separate tissue layers are integrated. Here, we discuss the roles of mechanosensitive Hippo signaling in growth and morphogenesis of the zebrafish heart. Hippo signaling is involved in defining numbers of cardiac progenitor cells derived from the secondary heart field, in restricting the growth of the epicardium, and in guiding trabeculation and outflow tract formation. Recent work also shows that myocardial chamber dimensions serve as a blueprint for Hippo signaling-dependent growth of the endocardium. Evidently, Hippo pathway components act at the crossroads of various signaling pathways involved in embryonic zebrafish heart development. Elucidating how biomechanical Hippo signaling guides heart morphogenesis has direct implications for our understanding of cardiac physiology and pathophysiology.
First come, first served: Critical choices between alternative actions are often made based on events external to an organization, and reacting promptly to their occurrence can be a major advantage over the competition. In Business Process Management (BPM), such deferred choices can be expressed in process models, and they are an important aspect of process engines. Blockchain-based process execution approaches are no exception to this, but are severely limited by the inherent properties of the platform: The isolated environment prevents direct access to external entities and data, and the non-continual runtime based entirely on atomic transactions impedes the monitoring and detection of events. In this paper we provide an in-depth examination of the semantics of deferred choice, and transfer them to environments such as the blockchain. We introduce and compare several oracle architectures able to satisfy certain requirements, and show that they can be implemented using state-of-the-art blockchain technology.
Bezug nehmend auf Rainer E. Zimmermanns Buch "Metaphysik als Grundlegung von Naturdialektik. Zum Sagbaren und Unsagbaren im spekulativen Denken" wird der von Zimmermann entwickelte Ansatz eines transzendentalen Materialismus in der Traditionslinie Schellingscher Dialektik einerseits und dem Spin-Schaum-Ansatz der Quantengravitationstheorie andererseits erörtert. Die Rückführung von Wirklichkeitsstrukturen auf mathematische Strukturen - auf das Prozessieren von Zahlen - wird problematisiert.
Objective
The Caribbean is an important global biodiversity hotspot. Adaptive radiations there lead to many speciation events within a limited period and hence are particularly prominent biodiversity generators. A prime example are freshwater fish of the genus Limia, endemic to the Greater Antilles. Within Hispaniola, nine species have been described from a single isolated site, Lake Miragoâne, pointing towards extraordinary sympatric speciation. This study examines the evolutionary history of the Limia species in Lake Miragoâne, relative to their congeners throughout the Caribbean.
Results
For 12 Limia species, we obtained almost complete sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene, a well-established marker for lower-level taxonomic relationships. We included sequences of six further Limia species from GenBank (total N = 18 species). Our phylogenies are in concordance with other published phylogenies of Limia. There is strong support that the species found in Lake Miragoâne in Haiti are monophyletic, confirming a recent local radiation. Within Lake Miragoâne, speciation is likely extremely recent, leading to incomplete lineage sorting in the mtDNA. Future studies using multiple unlinked genetic markers are needed to disentangle the relationships within the Lake Miragoâne clade.
The intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciations at the end of the Pliocene epoch marks one of the most substantial climatic shifts of the Cenozoic. Despite global cooling, sea surface temperatures in the high latitude North Atlantic Ocean rose between 2.9–2.7 million years ago. Here we present sedimentary geochemical proxy data from the Gulf of Cadiz to reconstruct the variability of Mediterranean Outflow Water, an important heat source to the North Atlantic. We find evidence for enhanced production of Mediterranean Outflow from the mid-Pliocene to the late Pliocene which we infer could have driven a sub-surface heat channel into the high-latitude North Atlantic. We then use Earth System Models to constrain the impact of enhanced Mediterranean Outflow production on the northward heat transport in the North Atlantic. In accord with the proxy data, the numerical model results support the formation of a sub-surface channel that pumped heat from the subtropics into the high latitude North Atlantic. We further suggest that this mechanism could have delayed ice sheet growth at the end of the Pliocene.
Eastern Africa has been a prime target for scientific drilling because it is rich in key paleoanthropological sites as well as in paleolakes, containing valuable paleoclimatic information on evolutionary time scales. The Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project (HSPDP) explores these paleolakes with the aim of reconstructing environmental conditions around critical episodes of hominin evolution. Identification of biological taxa based on their sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) traces can contribute to understand past ecological and climatological conditions of the living environment of our ancestors. However, sedaDNA recovery from tropical environments is challenging because high temperatures, UV irradiation, and desiccation result in highly degraded DNA. Consequently, most of the DNA fragments in tropical sediments are too short for PCR amplification. We analyzed sedaDNA in the upper 70 m of the composite sediment core of the HSPDP drill site at Chew Bahir for eukaryotic remnants. We first tested shotgun high throughput sequencing which leads to metagenomes dominated by bacterial DNA of the deep biosphere, while only a small fraction was derived from eukaryotic, and thus probably ancient, DNA. Subsequently, we performed cross-species hybridization capture of sedaDNA to enrich ancient DNA (aDNA) from eukaryotic remnants for paleoenvironmental analysis, using established barcoding genes (cox1 and rbcL for animals and plants, respectively) from 199 species that may have had relatives in the past biosphere at Chew Bahir. Metagenomes yielded after hybridization capture are richer in reads with similarity to cox1 and rbcL in comparison to metagenomes without prior hybridization capture. Taxonomic assignments of the reads from these hybridization capture metagenomes also yielded larger fractions of the eukaryotic domain. For reads assigned to cox1, inferred wet periods were associated with high inferred relative abundances of putative limnic organisms (gastropods, green algae), while inferred dry periods showed increased relative abundances for insects. These findings indicate that cross-species hybridization capture can be an effective approach to enhance the information content of sedaDNA in order to explore biosphere changes associated with past environmental conditions, enabling such analyses even under tropical conditions.
Background
Relatively little is known about protective factors and the emergence and maintenance of positive outcomes in the field of adolescents with chronic conditions. Therefore, the primary aim of the study is to acquire a deeper understanding of the dynamic process of resilience factors, coping strategies and psychosocial adjustment of adolescents living with chronic conditions.
Methods/design
We plan to consecutively recruit N = 450 adolescents (12–21 years) from three German patient registries for chronic conditions (type 1 diabetes, cystic fibrosis, or juvenile idiopathic arthritis). Based on screening for anxiety and depression, adolescents are assigned to two parallel groups – “inconspicuous” (PHQ-9 and GAD-7 < 7) vs. “conspicuous” (PHQ-9 or GAD-7 ≥ 7) – participating in a prospective online survey at baseline and 12-month follow-up. At two time points (T1, T2), we assess (1) intra- and interpersonal resiliency factors, (2) coping strategies, and (3) health-related quality of life, well-being, satisfaction with life, anxiety and depression. Using a cross-lagged panel design, we will examine the bidirectional longitudinal relations between resiliency factors and coping strategies, psychological adaptation, and psychosocial adjustment. To monitor Covid-19 pandemic effects, participants are also invited to take part in an intermediate online survey.
Discussion
The study will provide a deeper understanding of adaptive, potentially modifiable processes and will therefore help to develop novel, tailored interventions supporting a positive adaptation in youths with a chronic condition. These strategies should not only support those at risk but also promote the maintenance of a successful adaptation.
Trial registration
German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS), no. DRKS00025125. Registered on May 17, 2021.
Electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) is an increasingly popular training method and has become the focus of research in recent years. New EMS devices offer a wide range of mobile applications for whole-body EMS (WB-EMS) training, e.g., the intensification of dynamic low-intensity endurance exercises through WB-EMS. The present study aimed to determine the differences in exercise intensity between WB-EMS-superimposed and conventional walking (EMS-CW), and CON and WB-EMS-superimposed Nordic walking (WB-EMS-NW) during a treadmill test. Eleven participants (52.0 ± years; 85.9 ± 7.4 kg, 182 ± 6 cm, BMI 25.9 ± 2.2 kg/m2) performed a 10 min treadmill test at a given velocity (6.5 km/h) in four different test situations, walking (W) and Nordic walking (NW) in both conventional and WB-EMS superimposed. Oxygen uptake in absolute (VO2) and relative to body weight (rel. VO2), lactate, and the rate of perceived exertion (RPE) were measured before and after the test. WB-EMS intensity was adjusted individually according to the feedback of the participant. The descriptive statistics were given in mean ± SD. For the statistical analyses, one-factorial ANOVA for repeated measures and two-factorial ANOVA [factors include EMS, W/NW, and factor combination (EMS*W/NW)] were performed (α = 0.05). Significant effects were found for EMS and W/NW factors for the outcome variables VO2 (EMS: p = 0.006, r = 0.736; W/NW: p < 0.001, r = 0.870), relative VO2 (EMS: p < 0.001, r = 0.850; W/NW: p < 0.001, r = 0.937), and lactate (EMS: p = 0.003, r = 0.771; w/NW: p = 0.003, r = 0.764) and both the factors produced higher results. However, the difference in VO2 and relative VO2 is within the range of biological variability of ± 12%. The factor combination EMS*W/NW is statistically non-significant for all three variables. WB-EMS resulted in the higher RPE values (p = 0.035, r = 0.613), RPE differences for W/NW and EMS*W/NW were not significant. The current study results indicate that WB-EMS influences the parameters of exercise intensity. The impact on exercise intensity and the clinical relevance of WB-EMS-superimposed walking (WB-EMS-W) exercise is questionable because of the marginal differences in the outcome variables.
Interoception is an often neglected but crucial aspect of the human minimal self. In this perspective, we extend the embodiment account of interoceptive inference to explain the development of the minimal self in humans. To do so, we first provide a comparative overview of the central accounts addressing the link between interoception and the minimal self. Grounding our arguments on the embodiment framework, we propose a bidirectional relationship between motor and interoceptive states, which jointly contribute to the development of the minimal self. We present empirical findings on interoception in development and discuss the role of interoception in the development of the minimal self. Moreover, we make theoretical predictions that can be tested in future experiments. Our goal is to provide a comprehensive view on the mechanisms underlying the minimal self by explaining the role of interoception in the development of the minimal self.
Frailty assessment is recommended before elective transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) to determine post-interventional prognosis. Several studies have investigated frailty in TAVI-patients using numerous assessments; however, it remains unclear which is the most appropriate tool for clinical practice. Therefore, we evaluate which frailty assessment is mainly used and meaningful for ≤30-day and ≥1-year prognosis in TAVI patients. Randomized controlled or observational studies (prospective/retrospective) investigating all-cause mortality in older (≥70 years) TAVI patients were identified (PubMed; May 2020). In total, 79 studies investigating frailty with 49 different assessments were included. As single markers of frailty, mostly gait speed (23 studies) and serum albumin (16 studies) were used. Higher risk of 1-year mortality was predicted by slower gait speed (highest Hazard Ratios (HR): 14.71; 95% confidence interval (CI) 6.50–33.30) and lower serum albumin level (highest HR: 3.12; 95% CI 1.80–5.42). Composite indices (five items; seven studies) were associated with 30-day (highest Odds Ratio (OR): 15.30; 95% CI 2.71–86.10) and 1-year mortality (highest OR: 2.75; 95% CI 1.55–4.87). In conclusion, single markers of frailty, in particular gait speed, were widely used to predict 1-year mortality. Composite indices were appropriate, as well as a comprehensive assessment of frailty. View Full-Text
The objective of this work was to investigate the potential effect of cereal α-amylase/trypsin inhibitors (ATIs) on growth parameters and selective digestive enzymes of Tenebrio molitor L. larvae. The approach consisted of feeding the larvae with wheat, sorghum and rice meals containing different levels and composition of α-amylase/trypsin inhibitors. The developmental and biochemical characteristics of the larvae were assessed over feeding periods of 5 h, 5 days and 10 days, and the relative abundance of α-amylase and selected proteases in larvae were determined using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Overall, weight gains ranged from 21% to 42% after five days of feeding. The larval death rate significantly increased in all groups after 10 days of feeding (p < 0.05), whereas the pupation rate was about 25% among larvae fed with rice (Oryza sativa L.) and Siyazan/Esperya wheat meals, and only 8% and 14% among those fed with Damougari and S35 sorghum meals. As determined using the Lowry method, the protein contents of the sodium phosphate extracts ranged from 7.80 ± 0.09 to 9.42 ± 0.19 mg/mL and those of the ammonium bicarbonate/urea reached 19.78 ± 0.16 to 37.47 ± 1.38 mg/mL. The total protein contents of the larvae according to the Kjeldahl method ranged from 44.0 and 49.9 g/100 g. The relative abundance of α-amylase, CLIP domain-containing serine protease, modular serine protease zymogen and C1 family cathepsin significantly decreased in the larvae, whereas dipeptidylpeptidase I and chymotrypsin increased within the first hours after feeding (p < 0.05). Trypsin content was found to be constant independently of time or feed material. Finally, based on the results we obtained, it was difficult to substantively draw conclusions on the likely effects of meal ATI composition on larval developmental characteristics, but their effects on the digestive enzyme expression remain relevant.
The ubiquitous freshwater cyanobacterium Microcystis is remarkably successful, showing a high tolerance against fluctuations in environmental conditions. It frequently forms dense blooms which can accumulate significant amounts of the hepatotoxin microcystin, which plays an extracellular role as an infochemical but also acts intracellularly by interacting with proteins of the carbon metabolism, notably with the CO2 fixing enzyme RubisCO. Here we demonstrate a direct link between external microcystin and its intracellular targets. Monitoring liquid cultures of Microcystis in a diel experiment revealed fluctuations in the extracellular microcystin content that correlate with an increase in the binding of microcystin to intracellular proteins. Concomitantly, reversible relocation of RubisCO from the cytoplasm to the cell’s periphery was observed. These variations in RubisCO localization were especially pronounced with cultures grown at higher cell densities. We replicated these effects by adding microcystin externally to cultures grown under continuous light. Thus, we propose that microcystin may be part of a fast response to conditions of high light and low carbon that contribute to the metabolic flexibility and the success of Microcystis in the field.
Floodplains are threatened ecosystems and are not only ecologically meaningful but also important for humans by creating multiple benefits. Many underlying functions, like nutrient retention, carbon sequestration or water regulation, strongly depend on regular inundation. So far, these are approached on the basis of what are called ‘active floodplains’. Active floodplains, defined as statistically inundated once every 100 years, represent less than 10% of a floodplain’s original size. Still, should this remaining area be considered as one homogenous surface in terms of floodplain function, or are there any alternative approaches to quantify ecologically active floodplains? With the European Flood Hazard Maps, the extent of not only medium floods (T-medium) but also frequent floods (T-frequent) needs to be modelled by all member states of the European Union. For large German rivers, both scenarios were compared to quantify the extent, as well as selected indicators for naturalness derived from inundation. It is assumed that the more naturalness there is, the more inundation and the better the functioning. Real inundation was quantified using measured discharges from relevant gauges over the past 20 years. As a result, land uses indicating strong human impacts changed significantly from T-frequent to T-medium floodplains. Furthermore, the extent, water depth and water volume stored in the T-frequent and T-medium floodplains is significantly different. Even T-frequent floodplains experienced inundation for only half of the considered gauges during the past 20 years. This study gives evidence for considering regulation functions on the basis of ecologically active floodplains, meaning in floodplains with more frequent inundation that T-medium floodplains delineate.
Populations adapt to novel environmental conditions by genetic changes or phenotypic plasticity. Plastic responses are generally faster and can buffer fitness losses under variable conditions. Plasticity is typically modeled as random noise and linear reaction norms that assume simple one-to- one genotype–phenotype maps and no limits to the phenotypic response. Most studies on plasticity have focused on its effect on population viability. However, it is not clear, whether the advantage of plasticity depends solely on environmental fluctuations or also on the genetic and demographic properties (life histories) of populations. Here we present an individual-based model and study the relative importance of adaptive and nonadaptive plasticity for populations of sexual species with different life histories experiencing directional stochastic climate change. Environmental fluctuations were simulated using differentially autocorrelated climatic stochasticity or noise color, and scenarios of directiona
climate change. Nonadaptive plasticity was simulated as a random environmental effect on trait development, while adaptive plasticity as a linear, saturating, or sinusoidal reaction norm. The last two imposed limits to the plastic response and emphasized flexible interactions of the genotype with the environment. Interestingly, this assumption led to (a) smaller phenotypic than genotypic variance in the population (many-to- one genotype–phenotype map) and the coexistence of polymorphisms, and (b) the maintenance of higher genetic variation—compared to linear reaction norms and genetic determinism—even when the population was exposed to a constant environment for several generations. Limits to plasticity led to genetic accommodation, when costs were negligible, and to the appearance of cryptic variation when limits were exceeded. We found that adaptive plasticity promoted population persistence under red environmental noise and was particularly important for life histories with low fecundity. Populations produing more offspring could cope with environmental fluctuations solely by genetic changes or random plasticity, unless environmental change was too fast.
The Big Five personality traits play a major role in student achievement. As such, there is consistent evidence that students that are more conscientious receive better teacher-assigned grades in secondary school. However, research often does not support the claim that students that are more conscientious similarly achieve higher scores in domain-specific standardized achievement tests. Based on the Invest-and-Accrue Model, we argue that conscientiousness explains to some extent why certain students receive better grades despite similar academic accomplishments (i.e., achieving similar scores in domain-specific standardized achievement tests). Therefore, the present study examines to what extent the relationship between student personality and teacher-assigned grades consists of direct as opposed to indirect associations (via subject-specific standardized test scores). We used a representative sample of 14,710 ninth-grade students to estimate these direct and indirect pathways in mathematics and German. Structural equation models showed that test scores explained between 8 and 11% of the variance in teacher-assigned grades in mathematics and German. The Big Five personality traits in students additionally explained between 8 and 10% of the variance in grades. Finally, the personality-grade relationship consisted of direct (0.02 | β| ≤ 0.27) and indirect associations via test scores (0.01 | β| ≤ 0.07). Conscientiousness explained discrepancies between teacher-assigned grades and students’ scores in domain-specific standardized tests to a greater extent than any of the other Big Five personality traits. Our findings suggest that students that are more conscientious may invest more effort to accomplish classroom goals, but fall short of mastery.
Due to their isolated and often fragmented nature, range margin populations are especially vulnerable to rapid environmental change. To maintain genetic diversity and adaptive potential, gene flow from disjunct populations might therefore be crucial to their survival. Translocations are often proposed as a mitigation strategy to increase genetic diversity in threatened populations. However, this also includes the risk of losing locally adapted alleles through genetic swamping. Human-mediated translocations of southern lineage specimens into northern German populations of the endangered European fire-bellied toad (Bombina bombina) provide an unexpected experimental set-up to test the genetic consequences of an intraspecific introgression from central population individuals into populations at the species range margin. Here, we utilize complete mitochondrial genomes and transcriptome nuclear data to reveal the full genetic extent of this translocation and the consequences it may have for these populations. We uncover signs of introgression in four out of the five northern populations investigated, including a number of introgressed alleles ubiquitous in all recipient populations, suggesting a possible adaptive advantage. Introgressed alleles dominate at the MTCH2 locus, associated with obesity/fat tissue in humans, and the DSP locus, essential for the proper development of epidermal skin in amphibians. Furthermore, we found loci where local alleles were retained in the introgressed populations, suggesting their relevance for local adaptation. Finally, comparisons of genetic diversity between introgressed and nonintrogressed northern German populations revealed an increase in genetic diversity in all German individuals belonging to introgressed populations, supporting the idea of a beneficial transfer of genetic variation from Austria into North Germany.
The detection and quantification of nut allergens remains a major challenge. The liquid chroma-tography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) is emerging as one of the most widely used methods, but sample preparation prior to the analysis is still a key issue. The objective of this work was to establish optimized protocols for extraction, tryptic digestion and LC-MS analysis of almond, cashew, hazelnut, peanut, pistachio and walnut samples. Ammonium bicar-bonate/urea extraction (Ambi/urea), SDS buffer extraction (SDS), polyvinylpolypyrroli-done (PVPP) extraction, trichloroacetic acid/acetone extraction (TCA/acetone) and chloro-form/methanol/sodium chloride precipitation (CM/NaCl) as well as the performances of con-ventional tryptic digestion and microwave-assisted breakdown were investigated. Overall, the protein extraction yields ranged from 14.9 ± 0.5 (almond extract from CM/NaCl) to 76.5 ± 1.3% (hazelnut extract from Ambi/urea). Electrophoretic profiling showed that the SDS extraction method clearly presented a high amount of extracted proteins in the range of 0–15 kDa, 15–35 kDa, 35–70 kDa and 70–250 kDa compared to the other methods. The linearity of the LC-MS methods in the range of 0 to 0.4 µg equivalent defatted nut flour was assessed and recovery of internal standards GWGG and DPLNV(d8)LKPR ranged from 80 to 120%. The identified bi-omarkers peptides were used to relatively quantifier selected allergenic protein form the inves-tigated nut samples. Considering the overall results, it can be concluded that SDS buffer allows a better protein extraction from almond, peanut and walnut samples while PVPP buffer is more appropriate for cashew, pistachio and hazelnut samples. It was also found that conventional overnight digestion is indicated for cashew, pistachio and hazelnut samples, while microwave assisted tryptic digestion is recommended for almond, hazelnut and peanut extracts.
Background
The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture can lead to impaired knee function. Reconstruction decreases the mechanical instability but might not have an impact on sensorimotor alterations.
Objective
Evaluation of the sensorimotor function measured with the active joint position sense (JPS) test in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstructed patients compared to the contralateral side and a healthy control group.
Methods
The databases MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, PEDro, Cochrane Library and SPORTDiscus were systematically searched from origin until April 2020. Studies published in English, German, French, Spanish or Italian language were included. Evaluation of the sensorimotor performance was restricted to the active joint position sense test in ACL reconstructed participants or healthy controls. The Preferred Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines were followed. Study quality was evaluated using the Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies. Data was descriptively synthesized.
Results
Ten studies were included after application of the selective criteria. Higher angular deviation, reaching significant difference (p < 0.001) in one study, was shown up to three months after surgery in the affected limb. Six months post-operative significantly less error (p < 0.01) was found in the reconstructed leg compared to the contralateral side and healthy controls. One or more years after ACL reconstruction significant differences were inconsistent along the studies.
Conclusions
Altered sensorimotor function was present after ACL reconstruction. Due to inconsistencies and small magnitudes, clinical relevance might be questionable. JPS testing can be performed in acute injured persons and prospective studies could enhance knowledge of sensorimotor function throughout the rehabilitative processes.
Climatic change alters the frequency and intensity of natural hazards. In order to assess potential future changes in flood seasonality in the Rhine River Basin, we analyse changes in streamflow, snowmelt, precipitation, and evapotranspiration at 1.5, 2.0 and 3.0 ◦C global warming levels. The mesoscale Hydrological Model (mHM) forced with an ensemble of climate projection scenarios (five general circulation models under three representative concentration pathways) is used to simulate the present and future climate conditions of both, pluvial and nival hydrological regimes. Our results indicate that the interplay between changes in snowmelt- and rainfall-driven runoff is crucial to understand changes in streamflow maxima in the Rhine River. Climate projections suggest that future changes in flood characteristics in the entire Rhine River are controlled by both, more intense precipitation events and diminishing snow packs. The nature of this interplay defines the type of change in runoff peaks. On the sub-basin level (the Moselle River), more intense rainfall during winter is mostly counterbalanced by reduced snowmelt contribution to the streamflow. In the High Rhine (gauge at Basel), the strongest increases in streamflow maxima show up during winter, when strong increases in liquid precipitation intensity encounter almost unchanged snowmelt-driven runoff. The analysis of snowmelt events suggests that at no point in time during the snowmelt season, a warming climate results in an increase in the risk of snowmelt-driven flooding. We do not find indications of a transient merging of pluvial and nival floods due to climate warming.
Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) both are rare genetic neuromuscular diseases with progressive loss of motor ability. The neuromotor developmental course of those diseases is well documented. In contrast, there is only little evidence about characteristics of general and specific cognitive development. In both conditions the final motor outcome is characterized by an inability to move autonomously: children with SMA never accomplish independent motoric exploration of their environment, while children with DMD do but later lose this ability again. These profound differences in developmental pathways might affect cognitive development of SMA vs. DMD children, as cognition is shaped by individual motor experiences. DMD patients show impaired executive functions, working memory, and verbal IQ, whereas only motor ability seems to be impaired in SMA. Advanced cognitive capacity in SMA may serve as a compensatory mechanism for achieving in education, career progression, and social satisfaction. This study aimed to relate differences in basic numerical concepts and arithmetic achievement in SMA and DMD patients to differences in their motor development and resulting sensorimotor and environmental experiences. Horizontal and vertical spatial-numerical associations were explored in SMA/DMD children ranging between 6 and 12 years through the random number generation task. Furthermore, arithmetic skills as well as general cognitive ability were assessed. Groups differed in spatial number processing as well as in arithmetic and domain-general cognitive functions. Children with SMA showed no horizontal and even reversed vertical spatial-numerical associations. Children with DMD on the other hand revealed patterns in spatial numerical associations comparable to healthy developing children. From the embodied Cognition perspective, early sensorimotor experience does play a role in development of mental number representations. However, it remains open whether and how this becomes relevant for the acquisition of higher order cognitive and arithmetic skills.
“Chunking” spoken language
(2021)
In this introductory paper to the special issue on “Weak cesuras in talk-in-interaction”, we aim to guide the reader into current work on the “chunking” of naturally occurring talk. It is conducted in the methodological frameworks of Conversation Analysis and Interactional Linguistics – two approaches that consider the interactional aspect of humans talking with each other to be a crucial starting point for its analysis. In doing so, we will (1) lay out the background of this special issue (what is problematic about “chunking” talk-in-interaction, the characteristics of the methodological approach chosen by the contributors, the cesura model), (2) highlight what can be gained from such a revised understanding of “chunking” in talk-in-interaction by referring to previous work with this model as well as the findings of the contributions to this special issue, and (3) indicate further directions such work could take starting from papers in this special issue. We hope to induce a fruitful exchange on the phenomena discussed, across methodological divides.
The effects of exercise interventions on unspecific chronic low back pain (CLBP) have been investigated in many studies, but the results are inconclusive regarding exercise types, efficiency, and sustainability. This may be because the influence of psychosocial factors on exercise induced adaptation regarding CLBP is neglected. Therefore, this study assessed psychosocial characteristics, which moderate and mediate the effects of sensorimotor exercise on LBP. A single-blind 3-arm multicenter randomized controlled trial was conducted for 12-weeks. Three exercise groups, sensorimotor exercise (SMT), sensorimotor and behavioral training (SMT-BT), and regular routines (CG) were randomly assigned to 662 volunteers. Primary outcomes (pain intensity and disability) and psychosocial characteristics were assessed at baseline (M1) and follow-up (3/6/12/24 weeks, M2-M5). Multiple regression models were used to analyze whether psychosocial characteristics are moderators of the relationship between exercise and pain, meaning that psychosocial factors and exercise interact. Causal mediation analysis were conducted to analyze, whether psychosocial characteristics mediate the exercise effect on pain. A total of 453 participants with intermittent pain (mean age = 39.5 ± 12.2 years, f = 62%) completed the training. It was shown, that depressive symptomatology (at M4, M5), vital exhaustion (at M4), and perceived social support (at M5) are significant moderators of the relationship between exercise and the reduction of pain intensity. Further depressive mood (at M4), social-satisfaction (at M4), and anxiety (at M5 SMT) significantly moderate the exercise effect on pain disability. The amount of moderation was of clinical relevance. In contrast, there were no psychosocial variables which mediated exercise effects on pain. In conclusion it was shown, that psychosocial variables can be moderators in the relationship between sensorimotor exercise induced adaptation on CLBP which may explain conflicting results in the past regarding the merit of exercise interventions in CLBP. Results suggest further an early identification of psychosocial risk factors by diagnostic tools, which may essential support the planning of personalized exercise therapy.
Level of Evidence: Level I.
Clinical Trial Registration: DRKS00004977, LOE: I, MiSpEx: grant-number: 080102A/11-14. https://www.drks.de/drks_web/navigate.do?navigationId=trial.HTML&TRIAL_ID=DRKS00004977.
Different forms of methodological and ontological naturalism constitute the current near-orthodoxy in analytic philosophy. Many prominent figures have called naturalism a (scientific) image (Sellars, W. 1962. “Philosophy and the Scientific Image of Man.” In Wilfrid Sellars, Science, Perception, Reality, 1–40. Ridgeview Publishing), a Weltanschauung (Loewer, B. 2001. “From Physics to Physicalism.” In Physicalism and its Discontents, edited by C. Gillett, and B. Loewer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; Stoljar, D. 2010. Physicalism. Routledge), or even a “philosophical ideology” (Kim, J. 2003. “The American Origins of Philosophical Naturalism.” Journal of Philosophical Research 28: 83–98). This suggests that naturalism is indeed something over-and-above an ordinary philosophical thesis (e.g. in contrast to the justified true belief-theory of knowledge). However, these thinkers fail to tease out the host of implications this idea – naturalism being a worldview – presents. This paper draws on (somewhat underappreciated) remarks of Dilthey and Jaspers on the concept of worldviews (Weltanschauung, Weltbild) in order to demonstrate that naturalism as a worldview is a presuppositional background assumption which is left untouched by arguments against naturalism as a thesis. The concluding plea is (in order to make dialectical progress) to re-organize the existing debate on naturalism in a way that treats naturalism not as a first-order philosophical claim, but rather shifts its focus on naturalism’s status as a worldview.
This study investigates the relationship between teacher quality and teachers’ engagement in professional development (PD) activities using data on 229 German secondary school mathematics teachers. We assessed different aspects of teacher quality (e.g. professional knowledge, instructional quality) using a variety of measures, including standardised tests of teachers’ content knowledge, to determine what characteristics are associated with high participation in PD. The results show that teachers with higher scores for teacher quality variables take part in more content-focused PD than teachers with lower scores for these variables. This suggests that teacher learning may be subject to a Matthew effect, whereby more proficient teachers benefit more from PD than less proficient teachers.
When it comes to teacher attitudes towards teaching and learning, research relies heavily on explicit measures (e.g., questionnaires). These attitudes are generally conceptualized as constructivist and transmissive views on teaching and learning with constructivism often considered to be more desirable. In explicit measures, this can have drawbacks like socially desirable responding. It is for this reason that, in this study, we investigated implicit attitudes as well as explicit attitudes towards constructivism and transmission. N = 100 preservice teachers worked on a questionnaire and two Single-Target Implicit Association Tests (ST-IAT constructivism and ST-IAT transmission) before (T1) and after (T2) a single master’s semester. One group (n = 50) did student teaching while a second group (n = 50) took master’s courses. We evaluated preservice teachers’ views on teaching at the end of their masters’ studies. Participants agreed with transmission and constructivism (T1) on both an explicit and implicit level. Implicit measures seem to exceed explicit measures in differentially assessing constructivist and transmissive views on teaching and learning. After student teaching (T2), there was no overall effect of attitude development but changes in rank indicate that participants’ implicit attitudes towards constructivism and transmission developed differently for each individual.
Purpose: Although subjective knowledge about the prognosis of an advanced disease is extremely important for coping and treatment planning, the concept of prognostic awareness (PA) remains inconsistently defined. The aims of the scoping review were to synthesize a definition of PA from the most recent literature, describe preconditions, correlates and consequences, and suggest a conceptual model.
Methods: By using scoping review methodology, we searched the Web of Science and PubMed databases, and included publications, reviews, meta-analyses or guidelines on all physical diagnoses, as well as publications offering a conceptual or an operational definition of PA. The data were analyzed by means of content analysis techniques.
Results: Of the 24 included publications, 21 referred exclusively to cancer, one to patients with hip fractures and two to palliative care in general. The deduced definition of PA comprised the following facets: adequate estimation of chances for recovery, knowledge of limited time to live, adequate estimation of life expectancy, knowledge of therapy goals, and knowledge of the course of the disease. Further content analysis results were mapped graphically and in a detailed table.
Conclusion: There appears to be a lack of theoretical embedding of PA that in turn influences the methods used for empirical investigation. Drawing on a clear conceptual definition, longitudinal or experimental studies would be desirable.
Objective: This study investigated intraindividual differences of intratendinous blood flow (IBF) in response to running exercise in participants with Achilles tendinopathy.
Design: This is a cross-sectional study.
Setting: The study was conducted at the University Outpatient Clinic.
Participants: Sonographic detectable intratendinous blood flow was examined in symptomatic and contralateral asymptomatic Achilles tendons of 19 participants (42 ± 13 years, 178 ± 10 cm, 76 ± 12 kg, VISA-A 75 ± 16) with clinically diagnosed unilateral Achilles tendinopathy and sonographic evident tendinosis.
Intervention: IBF was assessed using Doppler ultrasound “Advanced Dynamic Flow” before (Upre) and 5, 30, 60, and 120 min (U5–U120) after a standardized submaximal constant load run.
Main Outcome Measure: IBF was quantified by counting the number (n) of vessels in each tendon.
Results: At Upre, IBF was higher in symptomatic compared with asymptomatic tendons [mean 6.3 (95% CI: 2.8–9.9) and 1.7 (0.4–2.9), p < 0.01]. Overall, 63% of symptomatic and 47% of asymptomatic Achilles tendons responded to exercise, whereas 16 and 11% showed persisting IBF and 21 and 42% remained avascular throughout the investigation. At U5, IBF increased in both symptomatic and asymptomatic tendons [difference to baseline: 2.4 (0.3–4.5) and 0.9 (0.5–1.4), p = 0.05]. At U30 to U120, IBF was still increased in symptomatic but not in asymptomatic tendons [mean difference to baseline: 1.9 (0.8–2.9) and 0.1 (-0.9 to 1.2), p < 0.01].
Conclusion: Irrespective of pathology, 47–63% of Achilles tendons responded to exercise with an immediate acute physiological IBF increase by an average of one to two vessels (“responders”). A higher amount of baseline IBF (approximately five vessels) and a prolonged exercise-induced IBF response found in symptomatic ATs indicate a pain-associated altered intratendinous “neovascularization.”
Are we good friends?
(2021)
Empirical studies already examined various facets of the friendship construct. Building on this, the present study examines the questions of how the number of friendships and their quality differ between students with and without SEN and whether a homophily-effect can be identified. The sample consists of 455 fourth-graders from 28 inclusive classes in Austria. The results indicate that students with SEN have fewer friends than students without SEN. Furthermore, students without SEN preferred peers without SEN as a friend. This homophily-effect was shown for students with SEN, too. However, students with and without SEN rated the quality of their friendships similarly and no interactions between the SEN status of oneself or of the friend was found for the quality of the friendship. The results show that, in the context of inclusion, the issue of friendship needs to be increasingly addressed to improve the situation of students with SEN.
Background: Chronic ankle instability, developing from ankle sprain, is one of the most common sports injuries. Besides it being an ankle issue, chronic ankle instability can also cause additional injuries. Investigating the epidemiology of chronic ankle instability is an essential step to develop an adequate injury prevention strategy. However, the epidemiology of chronic ankle instability remains unknown. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the epidemiology of chronic ankle instability through valid and reliable self-reported tools in active populations.
Methods: An electronic search was performed on PubMed and Web of Science in July 2020. The inclusion criteria for articles were peer-reviewed, published between 2006 and 2020, using one of the valid and reliable tools to evaluate ankle instability, determining chronic ankle instability based on the criteria of the International Ankle
Consortium, and including the outcome of epidemiology of chronic ankle instability. The risk of bias of the included studies was evaluated with an adapted tool for the sports injury review method.
Results: After removing duplicated studies, 593 articles were screened for eligibility. Twenty full-texts were screened and finally nine studies were included, assessing 3804 participants in total. The participants were between 15 and 32 years old and represented soldiers, students, athletes and active individuals with a history of ankle sprain. The prevalence of chronic ankle instability was 25%, ranging between 7 and 53%. The prevalence of chronic ankle instability within participants with a history of ankle sprains was 46%, ranging between 9 and 76%. Five included studies identified chronic ankle instability based on the standard criteria, and four studies applied adapted exclusion criteria to conduct the study. Five out of nine included studies showed a low risk of bias.
Conclusions: The prevalence of chronic ankle instability shows a wide range. This could be due to the different exclusion criteria, age, sports discipline, or other factors among the included studies. For future studies, standardized criteria to investigate the epidemiology of chronic ankle instability are required. The epidemiology of
CAI should be prospective. Factors affecting the prevalence of chronic ankle instability should be investigated and clearly described.
Sensing and Responding of Cardiomyocytes to Changes of Tissue Stiffness in the Diseased Heart
(2021)
Cardiomyocytes are permanently exposed to mechanical stimulation due to cardiac contractility. Passive myocardial stiffness is a crucial factor, which defines the physiological ventricular compliance and volume of diastolic filling with blood. Heart diseases often present with increased myocardial stiffness, for instance when fibrotic changes modify the composition of the cardiac extracellular matrix (ECM). Consequently, the ventricle loses its compliance, and the diastolic blood volume is reduced. Recent advances in the field of cardiac mechanobiology revealed that disease-related environmental stiffness changes cause severe alterations in cardiomyocyte cellular behavior and function. Here, we review the molecular mechanotransduction pathways that enable cardiomyocytes to sense stiffness changes and translate those into an altered gene expression. We will also summarize current knowledge about when myocardial stiffness increases in the diseased heart. Sophisticated in vitro studies revealed functional changes, when cardiomyocytes faced a stiffer matrix. Finally, we will highlight recent studies that described modulations of cardiac stiffness and thus myocardial performance in vivo. Mechanobiology research is just at the cusp of systematic investigations related to mechanical changes in the diseased heart but what is known already makes way for new therapeutic approaches in regenerative biology.
Exercise is known for its beneficial effects on preventing cardiometabolic diseases (CMDs) in the general population. People living with the human immunodeficiency virus (PLWH) are prone to sedentarism, thus raising their already elevated risk of developing CMDs in comparison to individuals without HIV. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to determine if exercise is associated with reduced risk of self-reported CMDs in a German HIV-positive sample (n = 446). Participants completed a self-report survey to assess exercise levels, date of HIV diagnosis, CD4 cell count, antiretroviral therapy, and CMDs. Participants were classified into exercising or sedentary conditions. Generalized linear models with Poisson regression were conducted to assess the prevalence ratio (PR) of PLWH reporting a CMD. Exercising PLWH were less likely to report a heart arrhythmia for every increase in exercise duration (PR: 0.20: 95% CI: 0.10–0.62, p < 0.01) and diabetes mellitus for every increase in exercise session per week (PR: 0.40: 95% CI: 0.10–1, p < 0.01). Exercise frequency and duration are associated with a decreased risk of reporting arrhythmia and diabetes mellitus in PLWH. Further studies are needed to elucidate the mechanisms underlying exercise as a protective factor for CMDs in PLWH.
Background: The relationship between exercise-induced intratendinous blood flow (IBF) and tendon pathology or training exposure is unclear.
Objective: This study investigates the acute effect of running exercise on sonographic detectable IBF in healthy and tendinopathic Achilles tendons (ATs) of runners and recreational participants.
Methods: 48 participants (43 ± 13 years, 176 ± 9 cm, 75 ± 11 kg) performed a standardized submaximal 30-min constant load treadmill run with Doppler ultrasound “Advanced dynamic flow” examinations before (Upre) and 5, 30, 60, and 120 min (U5-U120) afterward. Included were runners (>30 km/week) and recreational participants (<10 km/week) with healthy (Hrun, n = 10; Hrec, n = 15) or tendinopathic (Trun, n = 13; Trec, n = 10) ATs. IBF was assessed by counting number [n] of intratendinous vessels. IBF data are presented descriptively (%, median [minimum to maximum range] for baseline-IBF and IBF-difference post-exercise). Statistical differences for group and time point IBF and IBF changes were analyzed with Friedman and Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA (α = 0.05).
Results: At baseline, IBF was detected in 40% (3 [1–6]) of Hrun, in 53% (4 [1–5]) of Hrec, in 85% (3 [1–25]) of Trun, and 70% (10 [2–30]) of Trec. At U5 IBF responded to exercise in 30% (3 [−1–9]) of Hrun, in 53% (4 [−2–6]) of Hrec, in 70% (4 [−10–10]) of Trun, and in 80% (5 [1–10]) of Trec. While IBF in 80% of healthy responding ATs returned to baseline at U30, IBF remained elevated until U120 in 60% of tendinopathic ATs. Within groups, IBF changes from Upre-U120 were significant for Hrec (p < 0.01), Trun (p = 0.05), and Trec (p < 0.01). Between groups, IBF changes in consecutive examinations were not significantly different (p > 0.05) but IBF-level was significantly higher at all measurement time points in tendinopathic versus healthy ATs (p < 0.05).
Conclusion: Irrespective of training status and tendon pathology, running leads to an immediate increase of IBF in responding tendons. This increase occurs shortly in healthy and prolonged in tendinopathic ATs. Training exposure does not alter IBF occurrence, but IBF level is elevated in tendon pathology. While an immediate exercise-induced IBF increase is a physiological response, prolonged IBF is considered a pathological finding associated with Achilles tendinopathy.
Background
The metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a risk cluster for a number of secondary diseases. The implementation of prevention programs requires early detection of individuals at risk. However, access to health care providers is limited in structurally weak regions. Brandenburg, a rural federal state in Germany, has an especially high MetS prevalence and disease burden. This study aims to validate and test the feasibility of a setup for mobile diagnostics of MetS and its secondary diseases, to evaluate the MetS prevalence and its association with moderating factors in Brandenburg and to identify new ways of early prevention, while establishing a “Mobile Brandenburg Cohort” to reveal new causes and risk factors for MetS.
Methods
In a pilot study, setups for mobile diagnostics of MetS and secondary diseases will be developed and validated. A van will be equipped as an examination room using point-of-care blood analyzers and by mobilizing standard methods. In study part A, these mobile diagnostic units will be placed at different locations in Brandenburg to locally recruit 5000 participants aged 40-70 years. They will be examined for MetS and advice on nutrition and physical activity will be provided. Questionnaires will be used to evaluate sociodemographics, stress perception, and physical activity. In study part B, participants with MetS, but without known secondary diseases, will receive a detailed mobile medical examination, including MetS diagnostics, medical history, clinical examinations, and instrumental diagnostics for internal, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, and cognitive disorders. Participants will receive advice on nutrition and an exercise program will be demonstrated on site. People unable to participate in these mobile examinations will be interviewed by telephone. If necessary, participants will be referred to general practitioners for further diagnosis.
Discussion
The mobile diagnostics approach enables early detection of individuals at risk, and their targeted referral to local health care providers. Evaluation of the MetS prevalence, its relation to risk-increasing factors, and the “Mobile Brandenburg Cohort” create a unique database for further longitudinal studies on the implementation of home-based prevention programs to reduce mortality, especially in rural regions.
Trial registration
German Clinical Trials Register, DRKS00022764; registered 07 October 2020—retrospectively registered.
Background
Depression is one of the key factors contributing to difficulties in one’s ability to work, and serves as one of the major reasons why employees apply for psychotherapy and receive insurance subsidization of treatments. Hence, an increasing and growing number of studies rely on workability assessment scales as their primary outcome measure. The Work and Social Assessment Scale (WSAS) has been documented as one of the most psychometrically reliable and valid tools especially developed to assess workability and social functioning in patients with mental health problems. Yet, the application of the WSAS in Germany has been limited due to the paucity of a valid questionnaire in the German language. The objective of the present study was to translate the WSAS, as a brief and easy administrable tool into German and test its psychometric properties in a sample of adults with depression.
Methods
Two hundred seventy-seven patients (M = 48.3 years, SD = 11.1) with mild to moderately severe depression were recruited. A multistep translation from English into the German language was performed and the factorial validity, criterion validity, convergent validity, discriminant validity, internal consistency, and floor and ceiling effects were examined.
Results
The confirmatory factor analysis results confirmed the one-factor structure of the WSAS. Significant correlations with the WHODAS 2–0 questionnaire, a measure of functionality, demonstrated good convergent validity. Significant correlations with depression and quality of life demonstrated good criterion validity. The WSAS also demonstrated strong internal consistency (α = .89), and the absence of floor and ceiling effects indicated good sensitivity of the instrument.
Conclusions
The results of the present study demonstrated that the German version of the WSAS has good psychometric properties comparable to other international versions of this scale. The findings recommend a global assessment of psychosocial functioning with the sum score of the WSAS.
Reliably modelling the demographic and distributional responses of a species to environmental changes can be crucial for successful conservation and management planning. Process-based models have the potential to achieve this goal, but so far they remain underused for predictions of species' distributions. Individual-based models offer the additional capability to model inter-individual variation and evolutionary dynamics and thus capture adaptive responses to environmental change. We present RangeShiftR, an R implementation of a flexible individual-based modelling platform which simulates eco-evolutionary dynamics in a spatially explicit way. The package provides flexible and fast simulations by making the software RangeShifter available for the widely used statistical programming platform R. The package features additional auxiliary functions to support model specification and analysis of results. We provide an outline of the package's functionality, describe the underlying model structure with its main components and present a short example. RangeShiftR offers substantial model complexity, especially for the demographic and dispersal processes. It comes with elaborate tutorials and comprehensive documentation to facilitate learning the software and provide help at all levels. As the core code is implemented in C++, the computations are fast. The complete source code is published under a public licence, making adaptations and contributions feasible. The RangeShiftR package facilitates the application of individual-based and mechanistic modelling to eco-evolutionary questions by operating a flexible and powerful simulation model from R. It allows effortless interoperation with existing packages to create streamlined workflows that can include data preparation, integrated model specification and results analysis. Moreover, the implementation in R strengthens the potential for coupling RangeShiftR with other models.
The increasing development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria has been a major problem for years, both in human and veterinary medicine. Prophylactic measures, such as the use of vaccines, are of great importance in reducing the use of antibiotics in livestock. These vaccines are mainly produced based on formaldehyde inactivation. However, the latter damages the recognition elements of the bacterial proteins and thus could reduce the immune response in the animal. An alternative inactivation method developed in this work is based on gentle photodynamic inactivation using carbon nanodots (CNDs) at excitation wavelengths λex > 290 nm. The photodynamic inactivation was characterized on the nonvirulent laboratory strain Escherichia coli K12 using synthesized CNDs. For a gentle inactivation, the CNDs must be absorbed into the cytoplasm of the E. coli cell. Thus, the inactivation through photoinduced formation of reactive oxygen species only takes place inside the bacterium, which means that the outer membrane is neither damaged nor altered. The loading of the CNDs into E. coli was examined using fluorescence microscopy. Complete loading of the bacterial cells could be achieved in less than 10 min. These studies revealed a reversible uptake process allowing the recovery and reuse of the CNDs after irradiation and before the administration of the vaccine. The success of photodynamic inactivation was verified by viability assays on agar. In a homemade flow photoreactor, the fastest successful irradiation of the bacteria could be carried out in 34 s. Therefore, the photodynamic inactivation based on CNDs is very effective. The membrane integrity of the bacteria after irradiation was verified by slide agglutination and atomic force microscopy. The method developed for the laboratory strain E. coli K12 could then be successfully applied to the important avian pathogens Bordetella avium and Ornithobacterium rhinotracheale to aid the development of novel vaccines.
The presence of impermeable surfaces in urban areas hinders natural drainage and directs the surface runoff to storm drainage systems with finite capacity, which makes these areas prone to pluvial flooding. The occurrence of pluvial flooding depends on the existence of minimal areas for surface runoff generation and concentration. Detailed hydrologic and hydrodynamic simulations are computationally expensive and require intensive resources. This study compared and evaluated the performance of two simplified methods to identify urban pluvial flood-prone areas, namely the fill–spill–merge (FSM) method and the topographic wetness index (TWI) method and used the TELEMAC-2D hydrodynamic numerical model for benchmarking and validation. The FSM method uses common GIS operations to identify flood-prone depressions from a high-resolution digital elevation model (DEM). The TWI method employs the maximum likelihood method (MLE) to probabilistically calibrate a TWI threshold (τ) based on the inundation maps from a 2D hydrodynamic model for a given spatial window (W) within the urban area. We found that the FSM method clearly outperforms the TWI method both conceptually and effectively in terms of model performance.
Macrophages in pathologically expanded dysfunctional white adipose tissue are exposed to a mix of potential modulators of inflammatory response, including fatty acids released from insulin-resistant adipocytes, increased levels of insulin produced to compensate insulin resistance, and prostaglandin E₂ (PGE₂) released from activated macrophages. The current study addressed the question of how palmitate might interact with insulin or PGE₂ to induce the formation of the chemotactic pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-8 (IL-8). Human THP-1 cells were differentiated into macrophages. In these macrophages, palmitate induced IL-8 formation. Insulin enhanced the induction of IL-8 formation by palmitate as well as the palmitate-dependent stimulation of PGE₂ synthesis. PGE₂ in turn elicited IL-8 formation on its own and enhanced the induction of IL-8 release by palmitate, most likely by activating the EP4 receptor. Since IL-8 causes insulin resistance and fosters inflammation, the increase in palmitate-induced IL-8 formation that is caused by hyperinsulinemia and locally produced PGE₂ in chronically inflamed adipose tissue might favor disease progression in a vicious feed-forward cycle.
Glacial lakes in the Hindu Kush–Karakoram–Himalayas–Nyainqentanglha (HKKHN) region have grown rapidly in number and area in past decades, and some dozens have drained in catastrophic glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). Estimating regional susceptibility of glacial lakes has largely relied on qualitative assessments by experts, thus motivating a more systematic and quantitative appraisal. Before the backdrop of current climate-change projections and the potential of elevation-dependent warming, an objective and regionally consistent assessment is urgently needed. We use an inventory of 3390 moraine-dammed lakes and their documented outburst history in the past four decades to test whether elevation, lake area and its rate of change, glacier-mass balance, and monsoonality are useful inputs to a probabilistic classification model. We implement these candidate predictors in four Bayesian multi-level logistic regression models to estimate the posterior susceptibility to GLOFs. We find that mostly larger lakes have been more prone to GLOFs in the past four decades regardless of the elevation band in which they occurred. We also find that including the regional average glacier-mass balance improves the model classification. In contrast, changes in lake area and monsoonality play ambiguous roles. Our study provides first quantitative evidence that GLOF susceptibility in the HKKHN scales with lake area, though less so with its dynamics. Our probabilistic prognoses offer improvement compared to a random classification based on average GLOF frequency. Yet they also reveal some major uncertainties that have remained largely unquantified previously and that challenge the applicability of single models. Ensembles of multiple models could be a viable alternative for more accurately classifying the susceptibility of moraine-dammed lakes to GLOFs.
Root water uptake is an essential process for terrestrial plants that strongly affects the spatiotemporal distribution of water in vegetated soil. Fast neutron tomography is a recently established non-invasive imaging technique capable to capture the 3D architecture of root systems in situ and even allows for tracking of three-dimensional water flow in soil and roots. We present an in vivo analysis of local water uptake and transport by roots of soil-grown maize plants—for the first time measured in a three-dimensional time-resolved manner. Using deuterated water as tracer in infiltration experiments, we visualized soil imbibition, local root uptake, and tracked the transport of deuterated water throughout the fibrous root system for a day and night situation. This revealed significant differences in water transport between different root types. The primary root was the preferred water transport path in the 13-days-old plants while seminal roots of comparable size and length contributed little to plant water supply. The results underline the unique potential of fast neutron tomography to provide time-resolved 3D in vivo information on the water uptake and transport dynamics of plant root systems, thus contributing to a better understanding of the complex interactions of plant, soil and water.
Development of chronic pain after a low back pain episode is associated with increased pain sensitivity, altered pain processing mechanisms and the influence of psychosocial factors. Although there is some evidence that multimodal therapy (such as behavioral or motor control therapy) may be an important therapeutic strategy, its long-term effect on pain reduction and psychosocial load is still unclear. Prospective longitudinal designs providing information about the extent of such possible long-term effects are missing. This study aims to investigate the long-term effects of a homebased uni- and multidisciplinary motor control exercise program on low back pain intensity, disability and psychosocial variables. 14 months after completion of a multicenter study comparing uni- and multidisciplinary exercise interventions, a sample of one study center (n = 154) was assessed once more. Participants filled in questionnaires regarding their low back pain symptoms (characteristic pain intensity and related disability), stress and vital exhaustion (short version of the Maastricht Vital Exhaustion Questionnaire), anxiety and depression experiences (the Hospital and Anxiety Depression Scale), and pain-related cognitions (the Fear Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire). Repeated measures mixed ANCOVAs were calculated to determine the long-term effects of the interventions on characteristic pain intensity and disability as well as on the psychosocial variables. Fifty four percent of the sub-sample responded to the questionnaires (n = 84). Longitudinal analyses revealed a significant long-term effect of the exercise intervention on pain disability. The multidisciplinary group missed statistical significance yet showed a medium sized long-term effect. The groups did not differ in their changes of the psychosocial variables of interest. There was evidence of long-term effects of the interventions on pain-related disability, but there was no effect on the other variables of interest. This may be partially explained by participant's low comorbidities at baseline. Results are important regarding costless homebased alternatives for back pain patients and prevention tasks. Furthermore, this study closes the gap of missing long-term effect analysis in this field.
Background
Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most promising areas in medicine with many possibilities for improving health and wellness. Already today, diagnostic decision support systems may help patients to estimate the severity of their complaints. This fictional case study aimed to test the diagnostic potential of an AI algorithm for common sports injuries and pathologies.
Methods
Based on a literature review and clinical expert experience, five fictional “common” cases of acute, and subacute injuries or chronic sport-related pathologies were created: Concussion, ankle sprain, muscle pain, chronic knee instability (after ACL rupture) and tennis elbow. The symptoms of these cases were entered into a freely available chatbot-guided AI app and its diagnoses were compared to the pre-defined injuries and pathologies.
Results
A mean of 25–36 questions were asked by the app per patient, with optional explanations of certain questions or illustrative photos on demand. It was stressed, that the symptom analysis would not replace a doctor’s consultation. A 23-yr-old male patient case with a mild concussion was correctly diagnosed. An ankle sprain of a 27-yr-old female without ligament or bony lesions was also detected and an ER visit was suggested. Muscle pain in the thigh of a 19-yr-old male was correctly diagnosed. In the case of a 26-yr-old male with chronic ACL instability, the algorithm did not sufficiently cover the chronic aspect of the pathology, but the given recommendation of seeing a doctor would have helped the patient. Finally, the condition of the chronic epicondylitis in a 41-yr-old male was correctly detected.
Conclusions
All chosen injuries and pathologies were either correctly diagnosed or at least tagged with the right advice of when it is urgent for seeking a medical specialist. However, the quality of AI-based results could presumably depend on the data-driven experience of these programs as well as on the understanding of their users. Further studies should compare existing AI programs and their diagnostic accuracy for medical injuries and pathologies.
Skilled reading requires information processing of the fixated and the not-yet-fixated words to generate precise control of gaze. Over the last 30 years, experimental research provided evidence that word processing is distributed across the perceptual span, which permits recognition of the fixated (foveal) word as well as preview of parafoveal words to the right of fixation. However, theoretical models have been unable to differentiate the specific influences of foveal and parafoveal information on saccade control. Here we show how parafoveal word difficulty modulates spatial and temporal control of gaze in a computational model to reproduce experimental results. In a fully Bayesian framework, we estimated model parameters for different models of parafoveal processing and carried out large-scale predictive simulations and model comparisons for a gaze-contingent reading experiment. We conclude that mathematical modeling of data from gaze-contingent experiments permits the precise identification of pathways from parafoveal information processing to gaze control, uncovering potential mechanisms underlying the parafoveal contribution to eye-movement control.
The Role of Interoceptive Sensibility and Emotional Conceptualization for the Experience of Emotions
(2021)
The theory of constructed emotions suggests that different psychological components, including core affect (mental and neural representations of bodily changes), and conceptualization (meaning-making based on prior experiences and semantic knowledge), are involved in the formation of emotions. However, little is known about their role in experiencing emotions. In the current study, we investigated how individual differences in interoceptive sensibility and emotional conceptualization (as potential correlates of these components) interact to moderate three important aspects of emotional experiences: emotional intensity (strength of emotion felt), arousal (degree of activation), and granularity (ability to differentiate emotions with precision). To this end, participants completed a series of questionnaires assessing interoceptive sensibility and emotional conceptualization and underwent two emotion experience tasks, which included standardized material (emotion differentiation task; ED task) and self-experienced episodes (day reconstruction method; DRM). Correlational analysis showed that individual differences in interoceptive sensibility and emotional conceptualization were related to each other. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) revealed two independent factors that were referred to as sensibility and monitoring. The Sensibility factor, interpreted as beliefs about the accuracy of an individual in detecting internal physiological and emotional states, predicted higher granularity for negative words. The Monitoring factor, interpreted as the tendency to focus on the internal states of an individual, was negatively related to emotional granularity and intensity. Additionally, Sensibility scores were more strongly associated with greater well-being and adaptability measures than Monitoring scores. Our results indicate that independent processes underlying individual differences in interoceptive sensibility and emotional conceptualization contribute to emotion experiencing.
Holocene temperature proxy records are commonly used in quantitative synthesis and model-data comparisons. However, comparing correlations between time series from records collected in proximity to one another with the expected correlations based on climate model simulations indicates either regional or noisy climate signals in Holocene temperature proxy records. In this study, we evaluate the consistency of spatial correlations present in Holocene proxy records with those found in data from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Specifically, we predict correlations expected in LGM proxy records if the only difference to Holocene correlations would be due to more time uncertainty and more climate variability in the LGM. We compare this simple prediction to the actual correlation structure in the LGM proxy records. We found that time series data of ice-core stable isotope records and planktonic foraminifera Mg/Ca ratios were consistent between the Holocene and LGM periods, while time series of Uk'37 proxy records were not as we found no correlation between nearby LGM records. Our results support the finding of highly regional or noisy marine proxy records in the compilation analysed here and suggest the need for further studies on the role of climate proxies and the processes of climate signal recording and preservation.
In response to the impending spread of COVID-19, universities worldwide abruptly stopped face-to-face teaching and switched to technology-mediated teaching. As a result, the use of technology in the learning processes of students of different disciplines became essential and the only way to teach, communicate and collaborate for months. In this crisis context, we conducted a longitudinal study in four German universities, in which we collected a total of 875 responses from students of information systems and music and arts at four points in time during the spring–summer 2020 semester. Our study focused on (1) the students’ acceptance of technology-mediated learning, (2) any change in this acceptance during the semester and (3) the differences in acceptance between the two disciplines. We applied the Technology Acceptance Model and were able to validate it for the extreme situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. We extended the model with three new variables (time flexibility, learning flexibility and social isolation) that influenced the construct of perceived usefulness. Furthermore, we detected differences between the disciplines and over time. In this paper, we present and discuss our study’s results and derive short- and long-term implications for science and practice.
In this paper, we report X-ray absorption and core-level electron spectra of the nucleobase derivative 2-thiouracil at the sulfur L1- and L2,3-edges. We used soft X-rays from the free-electron laser FLASH2 for the excitation of isolated molecules and dispersed the outgoing electrons with a magnetic bottle spectrometer. We identified photoelectrons from the 2p core orbital, accompanied by an electron correlation satellite, as well as resonant and non-resonant Coster–Kronig and Auger–Meitner emission at the L1- and L2,3-edges, respectively. We used the electron yield to construct X-ray absorption spectra at the two edges. The experimental data obtained are put in the context of the literature currently available on sulfur core-level and 2-thiouracil spectroscopy.
In this contribution the dissociative electron attachment to metabolites found in aerobic organisms, namely oxaloacetic and citric acids, was studied both experimentally by means of a crossed-beam setup and theoretically through density functional theory calculations. Prominent negative ion resonances from both compounds are observed peaking below 0.5 eV resulting in intense formation of fragment anions associated with a decomposition of the carboxyl groups. In addition, resonances at higher energies (3–9 eV) are observed exclusively from the decomposition of the oxaloacetic acid. These fragments are generated with considerably smaller intensities. The striking findings of our calculations indicate the different mechanism by which the near 0 eV electron is trapped by the precursor molecule to form the transitory negative ion prior to dissociation. For the oxaloacetic acid, the transitory anion arises from the capture of the electron directly into some valence states, while, for the citric acid, dipole- or multipole-bound states mediate the transition into the valence states. What is also of high importance is that both compounds while undergoing DEA reactions generate highly reactive neutral species that can lead to severe cell damage in a biological environment.
Monoclonal antibodies are used worldwide as highly potent and efficient detection reagents for research and diagnostic applications. Nevertheless, the specific targeting of complex antigens such as whole microorganisms remains a challenge. To provide a comprehensive workflow, we combined bioinformatic analyses with novel immunization and selection tools to design monoclonal antibodies for the detection of whole microorganisms. In our initial study, we used the human pathogenic strain E. coli O157:H7 as a model target and identified 53 potential protein candidates by using reverse vaccinology methodology. Five different peptide epitopes were selected for immunization using epitope-engineered viral proteins. The identification of antibody-producing hybridomas was performed by using a novel screening technology based on transgenic fusion cell lines. Using an artificial cell surface receptor expressed by all hybridomas, the desired antigen-specific cells can be sorted fast and efficiently out of the fusion cell pool. Selected antibody candidates were characterized and showed strong binding to the target strain E. coli O157:H7 with minor or no cross-reactivity to other relevant microorganisms such as Legionella pneumophila and Bacillus ssp. This approach could be useful as a highly efficient workflow for the generation of antibodies against microorganisms.
Background
Reproducible benchmarking is important for assessing the effectiveness of novel feature selection approaches applied on gene expression data, especially for prior knowledge approaches that incorporate biological information from online knowledge bases. However, no full-fledged benchmarking system exists that is extensible, provides built-in feature selection approaches, and a comprehensive result assessment encompassing classification performance, robustness, and biological relevance. Moreover, the particular needs of prior knowledge feature selection approaches, i.e. uniform access to knowledge bases, are not addressed. As a consequence, prior knowledge approaches are not evaluated amongst each other, leaving open questions regarding their effectiveness.
Results
We present the Comprior benchmark tool, which facilitates the rapid development and effortless benchmarking of feature selection approaches, with a special focus on prior knowledge approaches. Comprior is extensible by custom approaches, offers built-in standard feature selection approaches, enables uniform access to multiple knowledge bases, and provides a customizable evaluation infrastructure to compare multiple feature selection approaches regarding their classification performance, robustness, runtime, and biological relevance.
Conclusion
Comprior allows reproducible benchmarking especially of prior knowledge approaches, which facilitates their applicability and for the first time enables a comprehensive assessment of their effectiveness
Exendin-4 is a pharmaceutical peptide used in the control of insulin secretion. Structural information on exendin-4 and related peptides especially on the level of quaternary structure is scarce. We present the first published association equilibria of exendin-4 directly measured by static and dynamic light scattering. We show that exendin-4 oligomerization is pH dependent and that these oligomers are of low compactness. We relate our experimental results to a structural hypothesis to describe molecular details of exendin-4 oligomers. Discussion of the validity of this hypothesis is based on NMR, circular dichroism and fluorescence spectroscopy, and light scattering data on exendin-4 and a set of exendin-4 derived peptides. The essential forces driving oligomerization of exendin-4 are helix–helix interactions and interactions of a conserved hydrophobic moiety. Our structural hypothesis suggests that key interactions of exendin-4 monomers in the experimentally supported trimer take place between a defined helical segment and a hydrophobic triangle constituted by the Phe22 residues of the three monomeric subunits. Our data rationalize that Val19 might function as an anchor in the N-terminus of the interacting helix-region and that Trp25 is partially shielded in the oligomer by C-terminal amino acids of the same monomer. Our structural hypothesis suggests that the Trp25 residues do not interact with each other, but with C-terminal Pro residues of their own monomers.
Northern range margin populations of the European fire-bellied toad (Bombina bombina) have rapidly declined during recent decades. Extensive agricultural land use has fragmented the landscape, leading to habitat disruption and loss, as well as eutrophication of ponds. In Northern Germany (Schleswig-Holstein) and Southern Sweden (Skåne), this population decline resulted in decreased gene flow from surrounding populations, low genetic diversity, and a putative reduction in adaptive potential, leaving populations vulnerable to future environmental and climatic changes. Previous studies using mitochondrial control region and nuclear transcriptome-wide SNP data detected introgressive hybridization in multiple northern B. bombina populations after unreported release of toads from Austria. Here, we determine the impact of this introgression by comparing the body conditions (proxy for fitness) of introgressed and nonintrogressed populations and the genetic consequences in two candidate genes for putative local adaptation (the MHC II gene as part of the adaptive immune system and the stress response gene HSP70 kDa). We detected regional differences in body condition and observed significantly elevated levels of within individual MHC allele counts in introgressed Swedish populations, associated with a tendency toward higher body weight, relative to regional nonintrogressed populations. These differences were not observed among introgressed and nonintrogressed German populations. Genetic diversity in both MHC and HSP was generally lower in northern than Austrian populations. Our study sheds light on the potential benefits of translocations of more distantly related conspecifics as a means to increase adaptive genetic variability and fitness of genetically depauperate range margin populations without distortion of local adaptation.
Domestic cattle were brought to Spain by early settlers and agricultural societies. Due to missing Neolithic sites in the Spanish region of Galicia, very little is known about this process in this region. We sampled 18 cattle subfossils from different ages and different mountain caves in Galicia, of which 11 were subject to sequencing of the mitochondrial genome and phylogenetic analysis, to provide insight into the introduction of cattle to this region. We detected high similarity between samples from different time periods and were able to compare the time frame of the first domesticated cattle in Galicia to data from the connecting region of Cantabria to show a plausible connection between the Neolithization of these two regions. Our data shows a close relationship of the early domesticated cattle of Galicia and modern cow breeds and gives a general insight into cattle phylogeny. We conclude that settlers migrated to this region of Spain from Europe and introduced common European breeds to Galicia.
Computation of the instantaneous phase and amplitude via the Hilbert Transform is a powerful tool of data analysis. This approach finds many applications in various science and engineering branches but is not proper for causal estimation because it requires knowledge of the signal’s past and future. However, several problems require real-time estimation of phase and amplitude; an illustrative example is phase-locked or amplitude-dependent stimulation in neuroscience. In this paper, we discuss and compare three causal algorithms that do not rely on the Hilbert Transform but exploit well-known physical phenomena, the synchronization and the resonance. After testing the algorithms on a synthetic data set, we illustrate their performance computing phase and amplitude for the accelerometer tremor measurements and a Parkinsonian patient’s beta-band brain activity.
We study the probability density function (PDF) of the first-reaction times between a diffusive ligand and a membrane-bound, immobile imperfect target region in a restricted 'onion-shell' geometry bounded by two nested membranes of arbitrary shapes. For such a setting, encountered in diverse molecular signal transduction pathways or in the narrow escape problem with additional steric constraints, we derive an exact spectral form of the PDF, as well as present its approximate form calculated by help of the so-called self-consistent approximation. For a particular case when the nested domains are concentric spheres, we get a fully explicit form of the approximated PDF, assess the accuracy of this approximation, and discuss various facets of the obtained distributions. Our results can be straightforwardly applied to describe the PDF of the terminal reaction event in multi-stage signal transduction processes.
Models are useful tools for understanding and predicting ecological patterns and processes. Under ongoing climate and biodiversity change, they can greatly facilitate decision-making in conservation and restoration and help designing adequate management strategies for an uncertain future. Here, we review the use of spatially explicit models for decision support and to identify key gaps in current modelling in conservation and restoration. Of 650 reviewed publications, 217 publications had a clear management application and were included in our quantitative analyses. Overall, modelling studies were biased towards static models (79%), towards the species and population level (80%) and towards conservation (rather than restoration) applications (71%). Correlative niche models were the most widely used model type. Dynamic models as well as the gene-to-individual level and the community-to-ecosystem level were underrepresented, and explicit cost optimisation approaches were only used in 10% of the studies. We present a new model typology for selecting models for animal conservation and restoration, characterising model types according to organisational levels, biological processes of interest and desired management applications. This typology will help to more closely link models to management goals. Additionally, future efforts need to overcome important challenges related to data integration, model integration and decision-making. We conclude with five key recommendations, suggesting that wider usage of spatially explicit models for decision support can be achieved by 1) developing a toolbox with multiple, easier-to-use methods, 2) improving calibration and validation of dynamic modelling approaches and 3) developing best-practise guidelines for applying these models. Further, more robust decision-making can be achieved by 4) combining multiple modelling approaches to assess uncertainty, and 5) placing models at the core of adaptive management. These efforts must be accompanied by long-term funding for modelling and monitoring, and improved communication between research and practise to ensure optimal conservation and restoration outcomes.
We consider a sequential cascade of molecular first-reaction events towards a terminal reaction centre in which each reaction step is controlled by diffusive motion of the particles. The model studied here represents a typical reaction setting encountered in diverse molecular biology systems, in which, e.g. a signal transduction proceeds via a series of consecutive 'messengers': the first messenger has to find its respective immobile target site triggering a launch of the second messenger, the second messenger seeks its own target site and provokes a launch of the third messenger and so on, resembling a relay race in human competitions. For such a molecular relay race taking place in infinite one-, two- and three-dimensional systems, we find exact expressions for the probability density function of the time instant of the terminal reaction event, conditioned on preceding successful reaction events on an ordered array of target sites. The obtained expressions pertain to the most general conditions: number of intermediate stages and the corresponding diffusion coefficients, the sizes of the target sites, the distances between them, as well as their reactivities are arbitrary.
Background:
Research into the application of virtual reality technology in the health care sector has rapidly increased, resulting in a large body of research that is difficult to keep up with.
Objective:
We will provide an overview of the annual publication numbers in this field and the most productive and influential countries, journals, and authors, as well as the most used, most co-occurring, and most recent keywords.
Methods:
Based on a data set of 356 publications and 20,363 citations derived from Web of Science, we conducted a bibliometric analysis using BibExcel, HistCite, and VOSviewer.
Results:
The strongest growth in publications occurred in 2020, accounting for 29.49% of all publications so far. The most productive countries are the United States, the United Kingdom, and Spain; the most influential countries are the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The most productive journals are the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR), JMIR Serious Games, and the Games for Health Journal; the most influential journals are Patient Education and Counselling, Medical Education, and Quality of Life Research. The most productive authors are Riva, del Piccolo, and Schwebel; the most influential authors are Finset, del Piccolo, and Eide. The most frequently occurring keywords other than “virtual” and “reality” are “training,” “trial,” and “patients.” The most relevant research themes are communication, education, and novel treatments; the most recent research trends are fitness and exergames.
Conclusions:
The analysis shows that the field has left its infant state and its specialization is advancing, with a clear focus on patient usability.
Background: The standard method to treat physically active patients with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture is ligament reconstruction surgery. The rehabilitation training program is very important to improve functional performance in recreational athletes following ACL reconstruction.
Objectives: The aims of this study were to compare the effects of three different training programs, eccentric training (ECC), plyometric training (PLYO), or combined eccentric and plyometric training (COMB), on dynamic balance (Y-BAL), the Lysholm Knee Scale (LKS), the return to sport index (RSI), and the leg symmetry index (LSI) for the single leg hop test for distance in elite female athletes after ACL surgery.
Materials and Methods: Fourteen weeks after rehabilitation from surgery, 40 elite female athletes (20.3 ± 3.2 years), who had undergone an ACL reconstruction, participated in a short-term (6 weeks; two times a week) training study. All participants received the same rehabilitation protocol prior to the training study. Athletes were randomly assigned to three experimental groups, ECC (n = 10), PLYO (n = 10), and COMB (n = 10), and to a control group (CON: n = 10). Testing was conducted before and after the 6-week training programs and included the Y-BAL, LKS, and RSI. LSI was assessed after the 6-week training programs only.
Results: Adherence rate was 100% across all groups and no training or test-related injuries were reported. No significant between-group baseline differences (pre-6-week training) were observed for any of the parameters. Significant group-by-time interactions were found for Y-BAL (p < 0.001, ES = 1.73), LKS (p < 0.001, ES = 0.76), and RSI (p < 0.001, ES = 1.39). Contrast analysis demonstrated that COMB yielded significantly greater improvements in Y-BAL, LKS, and RSI (all p < 0.001), in addition to significantly better performances in LSI (all p < 0.001), than CON, PLYO, and ECC, respectively.
Conclusion: In conclusion, combined (eccentric/plyometric) training seems to represent the most effective training method as it exerts positive effects on both stability and functional performance in the post-ACL-surgical rehabilitation period of elite female athletes.
Previous studies have not considered the potential influence of maturity status on the relationship between mental imagery and change of direction (CoD) speed in youth soccer. Accordingly, this cross-sectional study examined the association between mental imagery and CoD performance in young elite soccer players of different maturity status. Forty young male soccer players, aged 10-17 years, were assigned into two groups according to their predicted age at peak height velocity (PHV) (Pre-PHV; n = 20 and Post-PHV; n = 20). Participants were evaluated on soccer-specific tests of CoD with (CoDBall-15m) and without (CoD-15m) the ball. Participants completed the movement imagery questionnaire (MIQ) with the three- dimensional structure, internal visual imagery (IVI), external visual imagery (EVI), as well as kinesthetic imagery (KI). The Post-PHV players achieved significantly better results than Pre-PHV in EVI (ES = 1.58, large; p < 0.001), CoD-15m (ES = 2.09, very large; p < 0.001) and CoDBall-15m (ES = 1.60, large; p < 0.001). Correlations were significantly different between maturity groups, where, for the pre-PHV group, a negative very large correlation was observed between CoDBall-15m and KI (r = –0.73, p = 0.001). For the post-PHV group, large negative correlations were observed between CoD-15m and IVI (r = –0.55, p = 0.011), EVI (r = –062, p = 0.003), and KI (r = –0.52, p = 0.020). A large negative correlation of CoDBall-15m with EVI (r = –0.55, p = 0.012) and very large correlation with KI (r = –0.79, p = 0.001) were also observed. This study provides evidence of the theoretical and practical use for the CoD tasks stimulus with imagery. We recommend that sport psychology specialists, coaches, and athletes integrated imagery for CoD tasks in pre-pubertal soccer players to further improve CoD related performance.
Background: High-intensity muscle actions have the potential to temporarily improve the performance which has been denoted as postactivation performance enhancement.
Objectives: This study determined the acute effects of different stretch-shortening (fast vs. low) and strength (dynamic vs. isometric) exercises executed during one training session on subsequent balance performance in youth weightlifters.
Materials and Methods: Sixteen male and female young weightlifters, aged 11.3±0.6years, performed four strength exercise conditions in randomized order, including dynamic strength (DYN; 3 sets of 3 repetitions of 10 RM) and isometric strength exercises (ISOM; 3 sets of maintaining 3s of 10 RM of back-squat), as well as fast (FSSC; 3 sets of 3 repetitions of 20-cm drop-jumps) and slow (SSSC; 3 sets of 3 hurdle jumps over a 20-cm obstacle) stretch-shortening cycle protocols. Balance performance was tested before and after each of the four exercise conditions in bipedal stance on an unstable surface (i.e., BOSU ball with flat side facing up) using two dependent variables, i.e., center of pressure surface area (CoP SA) and velocity (CoP V).
Results: There was a significant effect of time on CoP SA and CoP V [F(1,60)=54.37, d=1.88, p<0.0001; F(1,60)=9.07, d=0.77, p=0.003]. In addition, a statistically significant effect of condition on CoP SA and CoP V [F(3,60)=11.81, d=1.53, p<0.0001; F(3,60)=7.36, d=1.21, p=0.0003] was observed. Statistically significant condition-by-time interactions were found for the balance parameters CoP SA (p<0.003, d=0.54) and CoP V (p<0.002, d=0.70). Specific to contrast analysis, all specified hypotheses were tested and demonstrated that FSSC yielded significantly greater improvements than all other conditions in CoP SA and CoP V [p<0.0001 (d=1.55); p=0.0004 (d=1.19), respectively]. In addition, FSSC yielded significantly greater improvements compared with the two conditions for both balance parameters [p<0.0001 (d=2.03); p<0.0001 (d=1.45)].
Conclusion: Fast stretch-shortening cycle exercises appear to be more effective to improve short-term balance performance in young weightlifters. Due to the importance of balance for overall competitive achievement in weightlifting, it is recommended that young weightlifters implement dynamic plyometric exercises in the fast stretch-shortening cycle during the warm-up to improve their balance performance.
Mental health problems remain among the main generators of costs within and beyond the health care system. Psychotherapy, the tool of choice in their treatment, is qualified by social interaction, and cooperation within the therapist-patient-dyad. Research into the factors influencing therapy success to date is neither exhaustive nor conclusive. Among many others, the quality of the relationship between therapist and patient stands out regardless of the followed psychotherapy school. Emerging research points to a connection between interpersonal synchronization within the sessions and therapy outcome. Consequently, it can be considered significant for the shaping of this relationship. The framework of Embodied Cognition assumes bodily and neuronal correlates of thinking. Therefore, the present paper reviews investigations on interpersonal, non-verbal synchrony in two domains: firstly, studies on interpersonal synchrony in psychotherapy are reviewed (synchronization of movement). Secondly, findings on neurological correlates of interpersonal synchrony (assessed with EEG, fMRI, fNIRS) are summarized in a narrative manner. In addition, the question is asked whether interpersonal synchrony can be achieved voluntarily on an individual level. It is concluded that there might be mechanisms which could give more insights into therapy success, but as of yet remain uninvestigated. Further, the framework of embodied cognition applies more to the current body of evidence than classical cognitivist views. Nevertheless, deeper research into interpersonal physical and neurological processes utilizing the framework of Embodied Cognition emerges as a possible route of investigation on the road to lower drop-out rates, improved and quality-controlled therapeutic interventions, thereby significantly reducing healthcare costs.
Research on problem solving offers insights into how humans process task-related information and which strategies they use (Newell and Simon, 1972; Öllinger et al., 2014). Problem solving can be defined as the search for possible changes in one's mind (Kahneman, 2003). In a recent study, Adams et al. (2021) assessed whether the predominant problem solving strategy when making changes involves adding or subtracting elements. In order to do this, they used several examples of simple problems, such as editing text or making visual patterns symmetrical, either in naturalistic settings or on-line. The essence of the authors' findings is a strong preference to add rather than subtract elements across a diverse range of problems, including the stabilizing of artifacts, creating symmetrical patterns, or editing texts. More specifically, they succeeded in demonstrating that “participants were less likely to identify advantageous subtractive changes when the task did not (vs. did) cue them to consider subtraction, when they had only one opportunity (vs. several) to recognize the shortcomings of an additive search strategy or when they were under a higher (vs. lower) cognitive load” (Adams et al., 2021, p. 258).
Addition and subtraction are generally defined as de-contextualized mathematical operations using abstract symbols (Russell, 1903/1938). Nevertheless, understanding of both symbols and operations is informed by everyday activities, such as making or breaking objects (Lakoff and Núñez, 2000; Fischer and Shaki, 2018). The universal attribution of “addition bias” or “subtraction neglect” to problem solving activities is perhaps a convenient shorthand but it overlooks influential framing effects beyond those already acknowledged in the report and the accompanying commentary (Meyvis and Yoon, 2021).
Most importantly, while Adams et al.'s study addresses an important issue, their very method of verbally instructing participants, together with lack of control over several known biases, might render their findings less than conclusive. Below, we discuss our concerns that emerged from the identified biases, namely those regarding the instructions and the experimental materials. Moreover, we refer to research from mathematical cognition that provides new insights into Adams et al.'s findings.
Background
High prevalence rates have been reported for physical inactivity, mobility limitations, and falls in older adults. Home-based exercise might be an adequate means to increase physical activity by improving health- (i.e., muscle strength) and skill-related components of physical fitness (i.e., balance), particularly in times of restricted physical activity due to pandemics.
Objective
The objective of this study was to examine the effects of home-based balance exercises conducted during daily tooth brushing on measures of balance and muscle strength in healthy older adults.
Methods
Fifty-one older adults were randomly assigned to a balance exercise group (n = 27; age: 65.1 ± 1.1 years) or a passive control group (n = 24; age: 66.2 ± 3.3 years). The intervention group conducted balance exercises over a period of eight weeks twice daily for three minutes each during their daily tooth brushing routine. Pre- and post-intervention, tests were included for the assessment of static steady-state balance (i.e., Romberg test), dynamic steady-state balance (i.e., 10-m single and dual-task walk test using a cognitive and motor interference task), proactive balance (i.e., Timed-Up-and-Go Test [TUG], Functional-Reach-Test [FRT]), and muscle strength (i.e., Chair-Rise-Test [CRT]).
Results
Irrespective of group, the statistical analysis revealed significant main effects for time (pre vs. post) for dual-task gait speed (p < .001, 1.12 ≤ d ≤ 2.65), TUG (p < .001, d = 1.17), FRT (p = .002, d = 0.92), and CRT (p = .002, d = 0.94) but not for single-task gait speed and for the Romberg-Test. No significant group × time interactions were found for any of the investigated variables.
Conclusions
The applied lifestyle balance training program conducted twice daily during tooth brushing routines appears not to be sufficient in terms of exercise dosage and difficulty level to enhance balance and muscle strength in healthy adults aged 60–72 years. Consequently, structured balance training programs using higher exercise dosages and/or more difficult balance tasks are recommended for older adults to improve balance and muscle strength.
Inertial measurement units (IMUs) enable easy to operate and low-cost data recording for gait analysis. When combined with treadmill walking, a large number of steps can be collected in a controlled environment without the need of a dedicated gait analysis laboratory. In order to evaluate existing and novel IMU-based gait analysis algorithms for treadmill walking, a reference dataset that includes IMU data as well as reliable ground truth measurements for multiple participants and walking speeds is needed. This article provides a reference dataset consisting of 15 healthy young adults who walked on a treadmill at three different speeds. Data were acquired using seven IMUs placed on the lower body, two different reference systems (Zebris FDMT-HQ and OptoGait), and two RGB cameras. Additionally, in order to validate an existing IMU-based gait analysis algorithm using the dataset, an adaptable modular data analysis pipeline was built. Our results show agreement between the pressure-sensitive Zebris and the photoelectric OptoGait system (r = 0.99), demonstrating the quality of our reference data. As a use case, the performance of an algorithm originally designed for overground walking was tested on treadmill data using the data pipeline. The accuracy of stride length and stride time estimations was comparable to that reported in other studies with overground data, indicating that the algorithm is equally applicable to treadmill data. The Python source code of the data pipeline is publicly available, and the dataset will be provided by the authors upon request, enabling future evaluations of IMU gait analysis algorithms without the need of recording new data.
Background: We assessed the effects of gender, in association with a four-week small-sided games (SSGs) training program, during Ramadan intermitting fasting (RIF) on changes in psychometric and physiological markers in professional male and female basketball players.
Methods: Twenty-four professional basketball players from the first Tunisian (Tunisia) division participated in this study. The players were dichotomized by sex (males [GM = 12]; females [GF = 12]). Both groups completed a 4 weeks SSGs training program with 3 sessions per week. Psychometric (e.g., quality of sleep, fatigue, stress, and delayed onset of muscle soreness [DOMS]) and physiological parameters (e.g., heart rate frequency, blood lactate) were measured during the first week (baseline) and at the end of RIF (post-test).
Results: Post hoc tests showed a significant increase in stress levels in both groups (GM [− 81.11%; p < 0.001, d = 0.33, small]; GF [− 36,53%; p = 0.001, d = 0.25, small]). Concerning physiological parameters, ANCOVA revealed significantly lower heart rates in favor of GM at post-test (1.70%, d = 0.38, small, p = 0.002).
Conclusions: Our results showed that SSGs training at the end of the RIF negatively impacted psychometric parameters of male and female basketball players. It can be concluded that there are sex-mediated effects of training during RIF in basketball players, and this should be considered by researchers and practitioners when programing training during RIF.
New cryogels for selective dye removal from aqueous solution were prepared by free radical polymerization from the highly water-soluble crosslinker N,N,N’,N’-tetramethyl-N,N’-bis(2-ethylmethacrylate)-propyl-1,3-diammonium dibromide and the sulfobetaine monomer 2-(N-3-sulfopropyl-N,N-dimethyl ammonium)ethyl methacrylate. The resulting white and opaque cryogels have micrometer sized pores with a smaller substructure. They adsorb methyl orange (MO) but not methylene blue (MB) from aqueous solution. Mixtures of MO and MB can be separated through selective adsorption of the MO to the cryogels while the MB remains in solution. The resulting cryogels are thus candidates for the removal of hazardous organic substances, as exemplified by MO and MB, from water. Clearly, it is possible that the cryogels are also potentially interesting for removal of other compounds such as pharmaceuticals or pesticides, but this must be investigated further.
Background: The prevalence of diabetes worldwide is predicted to increase from 2.8% in 2000 to 4.4% in 2030. Diabetic neuropathy (DN) is associated with damage to nerve glial cells, their axons, and endothelial cells leading to impaired function and mobility.
Objective: We aimed to examine the effects of an endurance-dominated exercise program on maximum oxygen consumption (VO2max), ground reaction forces, and muscle activities during walking in patients with moderate DN.
Methods: Sixty male and female individuals aged 45–65 years with DN were randomly assigned to an intervention (IG, n = 30) or a waiting control (CON, n = 30) group. The research protocol of this study was registered with the Local Clinical Trial Organization (IRCT20200201046326N1). IG conducted an endurance-dominated exercise program including exercises on a bike ergometer and gait therapy. The progressive intervention program lasted 12 weeks with three sessions per week, each 40–55 min. CON received the same treatment as IG after the post-tests. Pre- and post-training, VO2max was tested during a graded exercise test using spiroergometry. In addition, ground reaction forces and lower limbs muscle activities were recorded while walking at a constant speed of ∼1 m/s.
Results: No statistically significant baseline between group differences was observed for all analyzed variables. Significant group-by-time interactions were found for VO2max (p < 0.001; d = 1.22). The post-hoc test revealed a significant increase in IG (p < 0.001; d = 1.88) but not CON. Significant group-by-time interactions were observed for peak lateral and vertical ground reaction forces during heel contact and peak vertical ground reaction force during push-off (p = 0.001–0.037; d = 0.56–1.53). For IG, post-hoc analyses showed decreases in peak lateral (p < 0.001; d = 1.33) and vertical (p = 0.004; d = 0.55) ground reaction forces during heel contact and increases in peak vertical ground reaction force during push-off (p < 0.001; d = 0.92). In terms of muscle activity, significant group-by-time interactions were found for vastus lateralis and gluteus medius during the loading phase and for vastus medialis during the mid-stance phase, and gastrocnemius medialis during the push-off phase (p = 0.001–0.044; d = 0.54–0.81). Post-hoc tests indicated significant intervention-related increases in vastus lateralis (p = 0.001; d = 1.08) and gluteus medius (p = 0.008; d = 0.67) during the loading phase and vastus medialis activity during mid-stance (p = 0.001; d = 0.86). In addition, post-hoc tests showed decreases in gastrocnemius medialis during the push-off phase in IG only (p < 0.001; d = 1.28).
Conclusions: This study demonstrated that an endurance-dominated exercise program has the potential to improve VO2max and diabetes-related abnormal gait in patients with DN. The observed decreases in peak vertical ground reaction force during the heel contact of walking could be due to increased vastus lateralis and gluteus medius activities during the loading phase. Accordingly, we recommend to implement endurance-dominated exercise programs in type 2 diabetic patients because it is feasible, safe and effective by improving aerobic capacity and gait characteristics.
Background
To improve propulsion during running, athletes often wear spike shoes designed for training and/or competition. Running with spike shoes may cause pain and/or injuries. To address this problem, a modified spike shoe was tested. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of running with dual-versus single-stiffness spike running shoes on running mechanics in long-distance runners with pronated feet.
Methods
Sixteen male elite (national competitive level) runners (5000 or 10,000 m) aged 28.2 ± 2.5 years with pronated feet volunteered to participate in this study. To be included, participants had to have achieved personal best race times over 5- and/or 10-km races under 17 or 34 min during official running competitions. All participants were heel strikers and had a history of 11.2 ± 4.2 years of training. For the assessment of running kinetics, a force plate was imbedded into a walkway. Running kinematics were recorded using a Vicon-motion-capture system. Nike Zoom Rival shoes (Nike, Nike Zoom Rival, USA) were selected and adapted according to spike softness and stiffness. Participants ran at a constant speed of ~4.0 m/s across the walkway with both shoe conditions in randomized order. Six trials were recorded per condition. The main outcomes included peak ground reaction forces and their time-to-peak, average and instantaneous vertical loading rates, free moments, and peak ankle eversion angles.
Results
Paired t-tests revealed significantly lower lateral (p = 0.021, d = 0.95) and vertical (p = 0.010, d = 1.40) forces at heel contact during running with dual-stiffness spike shoes. Running with dual-stiffness spike shoes resulted in a significantly longer time-to-peak vertical (p = 0.004, d = 1.40) force at heel contact. The analysis revealed significantly lower average (p = 0.005, d = 0.46) and instantaneous (p = 0.021, d = 0.49) loading rates and peak negative free moment amplitudes (p = 0.016, d = 0.81) when running with dual-stiffness spike shoes. Finally, significantly lower peak ankle eversion angles were observed with dual-stiffness spike shoes (p < 0.001, d = 1.29).
Conclusions
Running in dual- compared with single-stiffness spike distance running shoes resulted in lower loading rates, free moment amplitudes, and peak ankle eversion angles of long-distance runners with pronated feet.
To predict how widely distributed species will perform under future climate change, it is crucial to understand and reveal their underlying phylogenetics. However, detailed information about plant adaptation and its genetic basis and history remains scarce and especially widely distributed species receive little attention despite their putatively high adaptability.
To examine the adaptation potential of a widely distributed species, we sampled the model plant Silene vulgaris across Europe. In a greenhouse experiment, we exposed the offspring of these populations to a climate change scenario for central Europe and revealed the population structure through whole-genome sequencing. Plants were grown under two temperatures (18°C and 21°C) and three precipitation regimes (65, 75, and 90 mm) to measure their response in biomass and fecundity-related traits. To reveal the population genetic structure, ddRAD sequencing was employed for a whole-genome approach. We found three major genetic clusters in S. vulgaris from Europe: one cluster comprising Southern European populations, one cluster of Western European populations, and another cluster containing central European populations. Population genetic diversity decreased with increasing latitude, and a Mantel test revealed significant correlations between FST and geographic distances as well as between genetic and environmental distances. Our trait analysis showed that the genetic clusters significantly differed in biomass-related traits and in the days to flowering. However, half of the traits showed parallel response patterns to the experimental climate change scenario. Due to the differentiated but parallel response patterns, we assume that phenotypic plasticity plays an important role for the adaptation of the widely distributed species S. vulgaris and its intraspecific genetic lineages.
Trait means or variance
(2021)
One of the few laws in ecology is that communities consist of few common and many rare taxa. Functional traits may help to identify the underlying mechanisms of this community pattern, since they correlate with different niche dimensions. However, comprehensive studies are missing that investigate the effects of species mean traits (niche position) and intraspecific trait variability (ITV, niche width) on species abundance. In this study, we investigated fragmented dry grasslands to reveal trait-occurrence relationships in plants at local and regional scales. We predicted that (a) at the local scale, species occurrence is highest for species with intermediate traits, (b) at the regional scale, habitat specialists have a lower species occurrence than generalists, and thus, traits associated with stress-tolerance have a negative effect on species occurrence, and (c) ITV increases species occurrence irrespective of the scale. We measured three plant functional traits (SLA = specific leaf area, LDMC = leaf dry matter content, plant height) at 21 local dry grassland communities (10 m × 10 m) and analyzed the effect of these traits and their variation on species occurrence. At the local scale, mean LDMC had a positive effect on species occurrence, indicating that stress-tolerant species are the most abundant rather than species with intermediate traits (hypothesis 1). We found limited support for lower specialist occurrence at the regional scale (hypothesis 2). Further, ITV of LDMC and plant height had a positive effect on local occurrence supporting hypothesis 3. In contrast, at the regional scale, plants with a higher ITV of plant height were less frequent. We found no evidence that the consideration of phylogenetic relationships in our analyses influenced our findings. In conclusion, both species mean traits (in particular LDMC) and ITV were differently related to species occurrence with respect to spatial scale. Therefore, our study underlines the strong scale-dependency of trait-abundance relationships.
The Anthropocene is the era of urbanization. The accelerating expansion of cities occurs at the expense of natural reservoirs of biodiversity and presents animals with challenges for which their evolutionary past might not have prepared them. Cognitive and behavioral adjustments to novelty could promote animals’ persistence under these altered conditions. We investigated the structure of, and covariance between, different aspects of responses to novelty in rural and urban small mammals of two non-commensal rodent species. We ran replicated experiments testing responses to three novelty types (object, food, or space) of 47 individual common voles (Microtus arvalis) and 41 individual striped field mice (Apodemus agrarius). We found partial support for the hypothesis that responses to novelty are structured, clustering (i) speed of responses, (ii) intensity of responses, and (iii) responses to food into separate dimensions. Rural and urban small mammals did not differ in most responses to novelty, suggesting that urban habitats do not reduce neophobia in these species. Further studies investigating whether comparable response patters are found throughout different stages of colonization, and along synurbanization processes of different duration, will help illuminate the dynamics of animals’ cognitive adjustments to urban life.
Carbon Adsorbents from Spent Coffee for Removal of
Methylene Blue and Methyl Orange from Water
(2021)
Activated carbons (ACs) were prepared from dried spent coffee (SCD), a biological waste product, to produce adsorbents for methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO) from aqueous solution. Pre-pyrolysis activation of SCD was achieved via treatment of the SCD with aqueous sodium hydroxide solutions at 90 °C. Pyrolysis of the pretreated SCD at 500 °C for 1 h produced powders with typical characteristics of AC suitable and effective for dye adsorption. As an alternative to the rather harsh base treatment, calcium carbonate powder, a very common and abundant resource, was also studied as an activator. Mixtures of SCD and CaCO3 (1:1 w/w) yielded effective ACs for MO and MB removal upon pyrolysis needing only small amounts of AC to clear the solutions. A selectivity of the adsorption process toward anionic (MO) or cationic (MB) dyes was not observed.
This study aimed to compare the training load of a professional under-19 soccer team (U-19) to that of an elite adult team (EAT), from the same club, during the in-season period. Thirty-nine healthy soccer players were involved (EAT [n = 20]; U-19 [n = 19]) in the study which spanned four weeks. Training load (TL) was monitored as external TL, using a global positioning system (GPS), and internal TL, using a rating of perceived exertion (RPE). TL data were recorded after each training session. During soccer matches, players’ RPEs were recorded. The internal TL was quantified daily by means of the session rating of perceived exertion (session-RPE) using Borg’s 0–10 scale. For GPS data, the selected running speed intensities (over 0.5 s time intervals) were 12–15.9 km/h; 16–19.9 km/h; 20–24.9 km/h; >25 km/h (sprint). Distances covered between 16 and 19.9 km/h, > 20 km/h and >25 km/h were significantly higher in U-19 compared to EAT over the course of the study (p = 0.023, d = 0.243, small; p = 0.016, d = 0.298, small; and p = 0.001, d = 0.564, small, respectively). EAT players performed significantly fewer sprints per week compared to U-19 players (p = 0.002, d = 0.526, small). RPE was significantly higher in U-19 compared to EAT (p = 0.001, d = 0.188, trivial). The external and internal measures of TL were significantly higher in the U-19 group compared to the EAT soccer players. In conclusion, the results obtained show that the training load is greater in U19 compared to EAT.