Permanent generic relatedness and silent change

Given the assertion of a relation between two types, like: “Epidermis has part some Keratinocyte”, we define silent change as any kind of change of the instance-relata of the relation in question that does not change the truth-value of the respective type-level assertion. Such assertions are notoriously difficult to model in OWL 2. To address this problem, we distinguish different modes of type-level relatedness giving rise to this problem and describe a conservative extension to the BFO top-level ontology that allows expressing these modes

Viscosity of Water in Nano-Confinement

Since the early 1970s there is a notion that water near polar or charged surfaces is somehow ordered or structured, leading to a so called structural component of the disjoining pressure

Capillarity effect in silicon based nanochannels

Using silicon based micromachining we have developed different techniques to create 1D and 2D confined nanochannels, with a characteristic diameter down to 5 nm. A short introduction to these techniques will be given. Capillary action in channels of this small size is a strong effect

Social Mindfulness and Psychosis: Neural response to socially mindful behavior in first-episode psychosis and patients at clinical high-risk

Background: Psychosis is characterized by problems in social functioning and trust, the assumed glue to positive social relations. But what helps building trust? A prime candidate could be social mindfulness: The ability and willingness to see and consider another person’s needs and wishes during social decision making. We investigated whether first-episode psychosis patients (FEP) and patients at clinical high-risk (CHR) show reduced social mindfulness, and examined the underlying neural mechanisms. Methods: Twenty FEP, 17 CHR and 46 healthy controls, aged 16-31, performed the social mindfulness task (SoMi) during fMRI scanning, spontaneously and after the instruction “to keep the other’s best interest in mind”. As first of two people, participants had to choose one out of four products, of which three were identical and one was unique, differing in a single aspect (e.g., color). Results: FEP tended to choose the unique item (unmindful choice) more often than controls. After instruction, all groups significantly increased the number of mindful choices compared to the spontaneous condition. FEP showed reduced activation of the caudate and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) during mindful, and of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), mPFC, and left dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) during unmindful decisions. CHR showed reduced activation of the ACC compared to controls. Discussion: FEP showed a trend towards more unmindful choices. A similar increase of mindful choices after instruction indicated the ability for social mindfulness when prompted. Results suggested reduced sensitivity to the rewarding aspects of social mindfulness in FEP, and reduced consideration for the other player. FEP (and CHR to a lesser extent) might perceive unmindful choices as less incongruent with the automatic mindful responses than controls. Reduced socially mindful behavior in FEP may hinder the building of trust and cooperative interactions

Cormorant predation on PIT-tagged lake fish

The present study use data from recovered PIT (Passive Integrated Transponder) tags to explore species- and size-specific annual predation rates by cormorants on three common lacustrine fishes (size range 120-367 mm) in a European lake; roach (<em>Rutilus rutilus</em>), common bream (<em>Abramis brama</em>) and perch (<em>Perca fluviatilis</em>). In addition, we quantify the level of age/size truncation that cormorant predation could introduce in a population of perch, an important fish for recreational angling as well as for trophic interactions and ecosystem function in European lakes. Based on three years of PIT tagging of fish in lake Viborg and subsequent recoveries of PIT tags from nearby cormorant roosting and breeding sites, we show that cormorants are major predators of roach, bream and perch within the size groups we investigated and for all species larger individuals had higher predation rates. Perch appear to be the most vulnerable of the three species and based on a comparison with mortality estimates from lakes without significant avian predation, this study suggest that predation from cormorants can induce age/size truncation in lake Viborg, leaving very few larger perch in the lake. This truncation reduces the likelihood of anglers catching a large perch and may also influence lower trophic levels in the lake and thus turbidity as large piscivorous perch often play an important structuring role in lake ecosystem functioning

The BRCT domain of mammalian Rev1 is involved in regulating DNA translesion synthesis

Rev1 is a deoxycytidyl transferase associated with DNA translesion synthesis (TLS). In addition to its catalytic domain, Rev1 possesses a so-called BRCA1 C-terminal (BRCT) domain. Here, we describe cells and mice containing a targeted deletion of this domain. Rev1(B/B) mice are healthy, fertile and display normal somatic hypermutation. Rev1(B/B) cells display an elevated spontaneous frequency of intragenic deletions at Hprt. In addition, these cells were sensitized to exogenous DNA damages. Ultraviolet-C (UV-C) light induced a delayed progression through late S and G2 phases of the cell cycle and many chromatid aberrations, specifically in a subset of mutant cells, but not enhanced sister chromatid exchanges (SCE). UV-C-induced mutagenesis was reduced and mutations at thymidine–thymidine dimers were absent in Rev1(B/B) cells, the opposite phenotype of UV-C-exposed cells from XP-V patients, lacking TLS polymerase η. This suggests that the enhanced UV-induced mutagenesis in XP-V patients may depend on error-prone Rev1-dependent TLS. Together, these data indicate a regulatory role of the Rev1 BRCT domain in TLS of a limited spectrum of endogenous and exogenous nucleotide damages during a defined phase of the cell cycle