Volatile Urinary Signals of Two Nocturnal Primates, Microcebus murinus and M. lehilahytsara

Mouse lemurs are small, nocturnal, arboreal solitary foragers and are endemic primates of Madagascar. This lifestyle and their high predation risk can explain why mouse lemurs rely heavily on olfaction for intraspecific communication. As they often use urine for this purpose, we investigated dichloromethane extracts of the urine of two mouse lemur species, the gray mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus) and the Godman’s mouse lemur (M. lehilahytsara), using gas-chromatography-mass spectrometry. We detected 977 different volatile compounds of different compound classes in 22 urine extracts obtained from nine M. murinus (four males, five females) and nine M. lehilahytsara (three males, six females) individuals. We compared the volatile profiles of the sexes and species using principal component analyses and discriminant function analyses and detected a significant difference in the urinary profiles of males and females and in the profiles of M. murinus and M. lehilahytsara. These very complex sex- and species-specific signatures could be used for distance communication in the context of species recognition, for mate search and in male-male competition. Our study provides important mechanistic insights into complex chemical signaling pathways in primates that are mirrored, in the case of mouse lemurs, by their extraordinarily rich repertoire of olfactory receptors. The production of highly informative olfactory signals may be complementing the complex acoustic signaling system of these solitary foragers suggesting the existence of a multimodal communication network that should be highly beneficial for any species living in dispersed social networks

Ultrasonic Degradation of Polystyrene for Tailoring Molecular Weight and Polydispersity of Polystyrene Fragments

Ultrasonic degradation of polymers attracts more and more attention in the field of chemical recycling of polymers due to the promising opportunity to tailor molecular weight and polydispersity of the gained polymer fragments. In this work, the influence of solvent, gas atmosphere, and ultrasound amplitude on the ultrasonic degradation process of polystyrene is investigated. Therefore, an experimental procedure to perform ultrasonic degradation of polystyrene under homogeneous temperature conditions in the solvents cyclohexane and toluene under the gas atmospheres CO$_{2}$ and N$_{2}$ for different ultrasonic amplitudes was designed. It could be shown that a significant effect on the molecular weight and polydispersity of the polymer could only be revealed for N$_{2}$ and not for CO$_{2}$ atmosphere

Prediction of localization and interactions of apoptotic proteins

During apoptosis several mitochondrial proteins are released. Some of them participate in caspase-independent nuclear DNA degradation, especially apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF) and endonuclease G (endoG). Another interesting protein, which was expected to act similarly as AIF due to the high sequence homology with AIF is AIF-homologous mitochondrion-associated inducer of death (AMID). We studied the structure, cellular localization, and interactions of several proteins in silico and also in cells using fluorescent microscopy. We found the AMID protein to be cytoplasmic, most probably incorporated into the cytoplasmic side of the lipid membranes. Bioinformatic predictions were conducted to analyze the interactions of the studied proteins with each other and with other possible partners. We conducted molecular modeling of proteins with unknown 3D structures. These models were then refined by MolProbity server and employed in molecular docking simulations of interactions. Our results show data acquired using a combination of modern in silico methods and image analysis to understand the localization, interactions and functions of proteins AMID, AIF, endonuclease G, and other apoptosis-related proteins

Big Data in der Lehre in den Sozialwissenschaften. Schlussbericht im Auftrag der Schweizerischen Akademie der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften

Spätestens seit der Lancierung des Nationalen Forschungsprogramms 75 im Jahr 2015 hat das Thema zu Big Data breitenwirksam Einzug in die akademische Forschung gehalten: In der Informatik, der Physik, der Mathematik. Auch die Wirtschaftswissenschaften befassen sich häufig mit Big Data – die anderen sozialwissenschaftlichen Disziplinen hingegen kaum. Wie sieht es in der Lehre aus? Der Bericht «Big Data in der Lehre in den Sozialwissenschaften» gibt klare Hinweise. Er basiert auf einer Online-Befragung von rund 400 Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeitern an Schweizer Universitäten und Hochschulen, die in der sozialwissenschaftlichen Forschung und Lehre tätig sind: Er zeigt, dass in den Sozialwissenschaften und verwandten Disziplinen Big Data häufiger in der Forschung als in der Lehre Verwendung findet. In der Lehre ist Big Data zwar ebenfalls angekommen, jedoch nicht hinreichend institutionalisiert und wenig auf die akademischen Curricula abgestimmt. Es sei an der Zeit, den Mehrwert von Big Data «aufzuzeigen sowie die Kombination von unterschiedlichen Datentypen und weiteren möglichen Forschungsdesigns zu thematisieren», schreiben Markus Zürcher und Peter Farago in der Einführung zum Bericht

Evaluation of two rapid commercial assays for detection of Streptococcus agalactiae from vaginal samples

IntroductionStreptococcus agalactiae, also known as group B streptococci (GBS), is associated with invasive infections in neonates. Identification of GBS vaginal colonization in pregnant women before delivery is essential for treatment with antibiotics to prevent intrapartum vertical transmission to the newborn. This study was designed to evaluate applicability of two rapid real‐time PCRs in comparison to standard culture identification.Material and methodsWe compared the Xpert GBS assay, hereafter referred to as Xpert, and GenomEra GBS PCR, hereafter referred to as GenomEra. The standard culture identification consisted of two different agar plates as well as an enrichment broth.ResultsWe analyzed vaginal samples of 260 pregnant women; 42 samples were tested GBS‐positive by using standard culture as a gold standard, 30 by Xpert, and 37 by GenomEra. Xpert and GenomEra assays performed with sensitivities of 71.4% and 88.1% as well as specificities of 98.6% and 99.1%, respectively. Twelve vaginal samples were false‐negative by Xpert and five samples by GenomEra. Interestingly, three negative Xpert results of standard culture‐positive samples exhibited high Ct‐values indicating the presence of GBS. If higher Ct‐values are taken into consideration, the sensitivity of Xpert increases up to 78.6%. Moreover, only three Xpert PCRs had to be repeated, whereas two Genomera were invalid even after repetition and further 15 GenomEra PCRs were repeated because of borderline results or inhibition of the PCR test.ConclusionsIn this study, GenomEra assay performed with a higher sensitivity than the Xpert PCR. On the other hand, the Xpert assay needs less hands‐on‐time for a sample preparation and requires approximately four‐fold less repetitions as compared to the GenomEra assay. This robust performance of the Xpert assay make it applicable as a rapid intrapartum point‐of‐care test, although a higher sensitivity would be desirable. Therefore, culture in the 35–37 week of gestation remains the gold standard to detect vaginal colonization

Convergent evolution of pregnancy-specific glycoproteins in human and horse

Pregnancy-specific glycoproteins (PSGs) are members of the carcinoembryonic antigen cell adhesion molecule (CEACAM) family that are secreted by trophoblast cells. PSGs may modulate immune, angiogenic and platelet responses during pregnancy. Until now, PSGs are only found in species that have a highly invasive (hemochorial) placentation including humans, mice and rats. Surprisingly, analyzing the CEACAM gene family of the horse, which has a non-invasive epitheliochorial placenta, with the exception of the transient endometrial cups, we identified equine CEACAM family members that seem to be related to PSGs of rodents and primates. We identified seven genes that encode secreted PSG-like CEACAMs. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that they evolved independently from an equine CEACAM1-like ancestor rather than from a common PSG-like ancestor with rodents and primates. Significantly, expression of PSG-like genes (CEACAM44, CEACAM48, CEACAM49 and CEACAM55) was found in non-invasive as well as invasive trophoblast cells such as purified chorionic girdle cells and endometrial cup cells. Chorionic girdle cells are highly invasive trophoblast cells that invade the endometrium of the mare where they form endometrial cups and are in close contact with maternal immune cells. Therefore, the microenvironment of invasive equine trophoblast cells has striking similarities to the microenvironment of trophoblast cells in hemochorial placentas, suggesting that equine PSG-like CEACAMs and rodent and primate PSGs have undergone convergent evolution. This is supported by our finding that equine PSG-like CEACAM49 exhibits similar activity to certain rodent and human PSGs in a functional assay of platelet–fibrinogen binding. Our results have implications for understanding the evolution of PSGs and their functions in maternal–fetal interactions

Natural selection supports escape from concerted evolution of a recently duplicated CEACAM1 paralog in the ruminant CEA gene family

Concerted evolution is often observed in multigene families such as the CEA gene family. As a result, sequence similarity of paralogous genes is significantly higher than expected from their evolutionary distance. Gene conversion, a "copy paste" DNA repair mechanism that transfers sequences from one gene to another and homologous recombination are drivers of concerted evolution. Nevertheless, some gene family members escape concerted evolution and acquire sufficient sequence differences that orthologous genes can be assigned in descendant species. Reasons why some gene family members can escape while others are captured by concerted evolution are poorly understood. By analyzing the entire CEA gene family in cattle (Bos taurus) we identified a member (CEACAM32) that was created by gene duplication and cooption of a unique transmembrane domain exon in the most recent ancestor of ruminants. CEACAM32 shows a unique, testis-specific expression pattern. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that CEACAM32 is not involved in concerted evolution of CEACAM1 paralogs in ruminants. However, analysis of gene conversion events revealed that CEACAM32 is subject to gene conversion but remarkably, these events are found in the leader exon and intron sequences but not in exons coding for the Ig-like domains. These findings suggest that natural selection hinders gene conversion affecting protein sequences of the mature protein and thereby support escape of CEACAM32 from concerted evolution

Ferrofluid-based fllow manipulation and locomotion systems

The article demonstrates some examples of locomotion systems with bifluidic flow control using ferrofluid. By controlling the change of shape, position, and pressure of the ferrofluid in a secondary low viscous fluid by magnetic fields locomotion of objects or the ferrofluid itself can be realized. The locomotion of an object is caused, in the first example, by a ferrofluid generated flow of the secondary fluid and in the second and third case by the direct alteration of the ferrofluid position