Der Pastor als guter Prediger

Der Pastor als guter Prediger (The pastor as a good preacher

Abhaltung einer Gemeindevisitation

Abhaltung einer gemeindevisitation (Conducting a community visit

Der Pastor als guter Prediger

Der Pastor als guter Prediger (The pastor as a good preacher

Neural hypersensitivity to pleasant touch in women remitted from anorexia nervosa.

Interoception, or the sensing and integration of bodily state signals, has been implicated in anorexia nervosa (AN), given that the hallmark symptoms involve food restriction and body image disturbance. Here we focus on brain response to the anticipation and experience of affective interoceptive stimuli. Women remitted from AN (RAN; N = 18) and healthy comparison women (CW; N = 26) underwent a pleasant affective touch paradigm consisting of gentle strokes with a soft brush administered to the forearm or palm during functional neuroimaging. RAN had a lower brain response relative to CW during anticipation of touch, but a greater response when experiencing touch in the right ventral mid-insula. In RAN, this reduced anticipatory response was associated with higher levels of harm avoidance. Exploratory analyses in RAN also suggested that lower response during touch anticipation was associated with greater body dissatisfaction and higher perceived touch intensity ratings. This reduced responsivity to the anticipation of pleasant affective interoceptive stimuli in association with higher harm avoidance, along with an elevated response to the experience of touch, suggests an impaired ability in AN to predict and interpret incoming physiological stimuli. Impaired interoception may thus impact one's sense of self, thereby supporting observations of disturbed body image and avoidance of affective and social stimuli. Therapeutic approaches that help AN to better anticipate and interpret salient affective stimuli or improve tolerance of interoceptive experiences may be an important addition to current interventions

Sampling Effects on Gene Expression Data from a Human Tumour Xenograft

Human tumour tissue transplanted to and passed through immunodeficient mice as xenografts make powerful  model systems to study tumour biology, in particular to investigate the dynamics of treatment responses,  e.g. to chemotherapeutic agents. Before embarking on large-scale gene expression analysis of chemotherapy  response in human sarcoma xenografts, we investigated the reproducibility of expression  patterns derived from such samples. We compared expression profiles from tumours from the same or different  mice and of various sizes, as well as central and peripheral parts of the same tumours. Twenty-three  microarray hybridisations were performed on cDNA arrays representing 13000 genes, using direct labelling  of target cDNAs. An ANOVA-based linear mixed-effects model was constructed, and variances of  experimental and biological factors contributing to variability were estimated. With our labelling procedure  used, the effect of switching the dyes was pronounced compared to all other factors. We detected a small  variation in gene expression between two tumours in the same mouse as well as between tumours from different  mice. Furthermore, central or peripheral position in the tumour had only moderate influence on the  variability of the expression profiles. The biological variability was comparable to experimental variability  caused by labelling, confirming the importance of both biological and technical replicates. We further  analysed the data by pair-wise Fisher’s linear discriminant method and identified genes that were significantly  differentially expressed between samples taken from peripheral or central parts of the tumours.  Finally, we evaluated the result of pooling biological samples to estimate the recommended number of  arrays and hybridisations for microarray experiments in this model.