Protein kinetics of superoxide dismutase-1 in familial and sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

OBJECTIVE: Accumulation of misfolded superoxide dismutase-1 (SOD1) is a pathological hallmark of SOD1-related amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and is observed in sporadic ALS where its role in pathogenesis is controversial. Understanding in vivo protein kinetics may clarify how SOD1 influences neurodegeneration and inform optimal dosing for therapies that lower SOD1 transcripts. METHODS: We employed stable isotope labeling paired with mass spectrometry to evaluate in vivo protein kinetics and concentration of soluble SOD1 in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of SOD1 mutation carriers, sporadic ALS participants and controls. A deaminated SOD1 peptide, SDGPVKV, that correlates with protein stability was also measured. RESULTS: In participants with heterozygous SOD1 INTERPRETATION: These results highlight the ability of stable isotope labeling approaches and peptide deamidation to discern the influence of disease mutations on protein kinetics and stability and support implementation of this method to optimize clinical trial design of gene and molecular therapies for neurological disorders. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT03449212

Delivery of crop pollination services is an insufficient argument for wild pollinator conservation

There is compelling evidence that more diverse ecosystems deliver greater benefits to people, and these ecosystem services have become a key argument for biodiversity conservation. However, it is unclear how much biodiversity is needed to deliver ecosystem services in a cost-effective way. Here we show that, while the contribution of wild bees to crop production is significant, service delivery is restricted to a limited subset of all known bee species. Across crops, years and biogeographical regions, crop-visiting wild bee communities are dominated by a small number of common species, and threatened species are rarely observed on crops. Dominant crop pollinators persist under agricultural expansion and many are easily enhanced by simple conservation measures, suggesting that cost-effective management strategies to promote crop pollination should target a different set of species than management strategies to promote threatened bees. Conserving the biological diversity of bees therefore requires more than just ecosystem-service-based arguments

British Romanticism and the Global Climate

As a result of developments in the meteorological and geological sciences, the Romantic period saw the gradual emergence of attempts to understand the climate as a dynamic global system that could potentially be affected by human activity. This chapter examines textual responses to climate disruption cause by the Laki eruption of 1783 and the Tambora eruption of 1815. During the Laki haze, writers such as Horace Walpole, Gilbert White, and William Cowper found in Milton a powerful way of understanding the entanglements of culture and climate at a time of national and global crisis. Apocalyptic discourse continued to resonate during the Tambora crisis, as is evident in eyewitness accounts of the eruption, in the utopian predictions of John Barrow and Eleanor Anne Porden, and in the grim speculations of Byron’s ‘Darkness’. Romantic writing offers a powerful analogue for thinking about climate change in the Anthropocene

Grateful Remembering, Present Awareness, and Hopeful Anticipation: An Assessment of Worrying and Mental Health in College Students

Gratitude, mindfulness, and hope are three constructs that, along with individual associations with unique dimensions of time, have been empirically linked with positive outcomes (Vøllestad, Nielsen, & Nielsen, 2012; Rash, Matsuba, & Prkachin, 2011; Carr, 2004). The purpose of this study is to assess how brief experimental inductions of gratitude, mindfulness, and hope impact the psychological experience of worry and whether individual difference variables moderate the effects. In this incomplete repeated measures design experiment, undergraduate students (N = 89) complete individual difference measures. Next, they spend time two minutes imagining a current worry. Participants then write down three grateful thoughts, three things they could be mindful of, and three hopes for the future, followed by two-minute mental imagery inductions (counterbalanced order across participants). Between each condition, participants complete state questionnaires and rate their worry and mood. To test our hypothesis that engaging in positive mental imagery will attenuate worry, we will perform a within-subjects ANOVA comparing means for the self-report ratings after each imagery trial. We predict that each imagery induction will significantly decrease the psychological effects of worry and increase positive emotion and flourishing. We anticipate that gratitude will have the largest impact in reducing worry and increasing hope and flourishing. Finally, we hypothesize that individual difference variables, specifically trait emotion regulation, anxiety, and flourishing, will moderate these effects. Our findings will indicate how individual differences in trait hope, gratitude, mindfulness, worry, and flourishing are associated with participants’ responsiveness to the three interventions to cope with worry. We will also be able to describe worry’s relationship with anxiety and depression following brief interventions. Our findings will also suggest relative effectiveness of the three worry-coping strategies which we hope will provide novel insight into the treatment of worry in a clinical setting

The Impact of Worry on College Students

College-aged students are at an increased risk for worry compared to older adults (Brose, Scheibe, & Schmiedek, 2013). Worry in college students may not pose an immediate threat to health; however, long-term worry has been linked with reduced physiological flexibility, posing a threat to cardiac health and mortality (Fisher & Newman, 2013). In the current study, we are investigating worry in college students. By determining the domains college students worry about, and how the worry manifests itself, we will be better equipped to assist this population with their worries. Participants (N=89) were recruited from Hope College. The participants completed individual difference measures before the induction to assess trait measures. A two-minute pre-trial baseline preceded a two-minute worry induction. Heart rate variability (HRV), blood pressure, heart rate (HR), skin conductance, cardiac impedance, facial electromyography (EMG), trapezius EMG, and respiration were monitored. After the worry induction, the participants rated their worry. Finally, participants filled out a questionnaire asking about habits and substances that could potentially impact physiology. We expect inducing worry will produce an aroused physiological state. Therefore, we expect a normal worrier to have reduced HRV, higher blood pressure, and increased HR during a worry induction than at baseline, analyzed using a within-subjects ANOVA. Qualitatively, we expect college students to report mostly self-oriented worries. Finally, we anticipate individual difference variables (i.e., trait worry, mindfulness, hope, gratitude) will moderate the impact of the worry induction. Specifically, we expect high-worriers to have lower HF-HRV and higher HR during the worry induction than during the baseline. These results will reveal the nature and mechanisms of worry within college students. This will promote the development of treatments, which could in turn reduce the risk of developing worry-related psychological disorders and negative cardiac consequences

The Physiology of Positivity: Implications of Mindfulness, Hope, and Gratitude in Alleviating Worry

People experience worry in a variety of intensities throughout daily life. Although a moderate amount of worry is associated with improved performance in certain activities, studies have shown that long-term worry, such as generalized anxiety disorder, leads to decreased quality of life and has a negative impact on human flourishing (Porensky, Dew, & Karp, 2009). Worries may be expressed over past, present, or future events. Previous research supports the induction of time-oriented, positive constructs as treatments for worry (Cheng, Tsui, & Lam, 2015; Delgado, Guerra, Perakakis, Vera, Paso & Vila, 2010; Sears & Kraus, 2009). Therefore, we are investigating gratitude, mindfulness, and hope as three coping strategies used to attenuate the physiological symptoms of worry. Subjects (N=91) participated in mental imagery exercises with short inductions of worry, followed by immediate worry ratings. Then, a coping strategy is introduced, briefly implemented, and worry is rated once more. Physiology (heart rate, cardiac impedance, heart rate variability, blood pressure, skin conductance as well as trapezius and facial electromyography) is monitored during both worry and coping intervention (gratitude, mindfulness, and hope). We hypothesize that the brief inductions of gratitude, mindfulness, and hope will mitigate some of the physiological responses to worry. Of these inductions, we expect mindfulness will be most effective in its reduction of the physiological changes resulting from worry. In previous studies, mindfulness was found to be successful in the treatment of worry (Tacon, McComb, Caldera et. al., 2003). The outcomes of this study will determine the overall effectiveness of coping mechanisms (gratitude, mindfulness, and hope) in managing the physiological consequences of worry. Implications of this study include possible use in clinical settings, personal use in high worriers, and an increase in the general understanding of how worry impacts the various processes essential to normative bodily functions

The effectiveness of flower strips and hedgerows on pest control, pollination services and crop yield: a quantitative synthesis

Floral plantings are promoted to foster ecological intensification of agriculture through provisioning of ecosystem services. However, a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of different floral plantings, their characteristics and consequences for crop yield is lacking. Here we quantified the impacts of flower strips and hedgerows on pest control (18 studies) and pollination services (17 studies) in adjacent crops in North America, Europe and New Zealand. Flower strips, but not hedgerows, enhanced pest control services in adjacent fields by 16% on average. However, effects on crop pollination and yield were more variable. Our synthesis identifies several important drivers of variability in effectiveness of plantings: pollination services declined exponentially with distance from plantings, and perennial and older flower strips with higher flowering plant diversity enhanced pollination more effectively. These findings provide promising pathways to optimize floral plantings to more effectively contribute to ecosystem service delivery and ecological intensification of agriculture in the future