18 research outputs found

    Psychobiological Effects of Choral Singing on Affective State, Social Connectedness, and Stress: Influences of Singing Activity and Time Course

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    Previous studies have suggested that there are complex psychobiological effects of amateur choral singing on well-being. Here, we investigate the influences of singing vs. non-singing on psychological and biological measurements, reflecting current positive and negative affect, perceived social connectedness, and physiological stress. We hypothesized that active singing leads to significant increases in these measurements compared to participating without singing. Amateur choristers (Exp. 1: N = 54, age range 18–85 years and Exp. 2: N = 49, age range 18–85 years) were tested in two experiments in which approximately half of the group was asked not to sing over periods of 30 (Exp. 1) and 60 min (Exp. 2), while the other half of the group sang. Dependent measures included scales for positive and negative affect and perceived social connectedness. In addition, saliva samples were collected to assess cortisol and alpha-amylase. The results revealed that singing activity had positive influences on affect measurements. However, significant increases in perceived social connectedness for singing were found only in Exp. 2. Biomarker changes were not significant across the experiments. Together, our findings suggest that both singing activity and duration of singing modulate psychological effects, with perceived social connectedness evolving over larger time spans than 30 min. Findings support the notion of beneficial psychological effects also for individuals, who report lower levels of general social support. The unexpected absence of biological effects warrants further investigation.© 2018 Bullack, Gass, Nater and Kreut

    Data from: Individual-based simulations of genome evolution and ancestry: the GENOMEADMIXR R package

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    Hybridization between populations or species results in a mosaic of the two parental genomes. This and other types of genome admixture have received increasing attention for their implications in speciation, human evolution, Evolve and Resequence (E&R) and genetic mapping. However, a thorough understanding of how local ancestry changes after admixture, and how selection affects patterns of local ancestry remains elusive. The complexity of these questions limits analytical treatment, but these scenarios are specifically suitable for simulation. Here, we present the R package GenomeAdmixR, which uses an individual-based model to simulate genomic patterns following admixture forward in time. GenomeAdmixR provides user-friendly functions to set up and analyze simulations under evolutionary scenarios with selection, linkage and migration. We show the flexible functionality of the GenomeAdmixR workflow by demonstrating 1) how to design an E&R simulation using GenomeAdmixR and 2) how to use GenomeAdmixR to verify analytical expectations following from the theory of junctions. GenomeAdmixR provides a mechanistic approach to explore expected genome responses to realistic admixture scenarios. With this package, we aim to aid researchers in testing specific hypotheses based on empirical findings involving admixing populations.,README Included here is the code used to create figures 2 and 3 in the main text, but also code to reproduce the two examples (E&R and junctions) in the main text. Furthermore, we have included the R package GenomeAdmixR as tar ball. - the file Supplementary Material 2.1 includes all the supplementary analysis as referred to in the main text. - the R scripts Figure_2_ancestry.R and Figure_2_sequence.R perform the simulations necessary for Figure 2 and generate the required plots. - the R script code_figure_3.R re-creates figure 3. - The R script scripts_figure_4.R re-creates the E&R scenario, and explores both models. At the end of the script, the figures used in Figure 3 in the main text are created. - The zip file 'Junctions.zip' contains 1) code to simulate many replicates for all parameter values used (simulate_data.R) and 2) code to create Figure 4 in the main text (plot_figure.R), which uses the files created by simulate_data.R

    Community structure of vascular epiphytes: A neutral perspective

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    Vascular epiphytes form a diverse group of almost 30,000 species, yet theory concerning their community structure is still largely lacking. We therefore employed simple models of biodiversity, (near-)neutral models, to study to what extent they can explain their community structure. With recently developed tools for (near-)neutral models we analyzed species abundance data from many samples in Central and South America which we divided into four metacommunities (Mesoamerica, Central America, Amazonia and Paraná). For each metacommunity we considered two subsets differing in dispersal syndrome: an animal-dispersed guild and a wind-dispersed guild. We considered three models differing in the underlying speciation mode. Across all metacommunities, we found observed patterns to be indistinguishable from patterns generated by neutral or near-neutral processes. Furthermore, we found that subdivision in different dispersal guilds was often supported, with recruitment limitation being stronger for animal-dispersed species than for wind-dispersed species. This is the first time that (near-)neutral theory has been applied to epiphyte communities. Future efforts with additional data sets and more refined models are expected to further improve our understanding of community structure in epiphytes and will have to test the generality of our findings.,Data was collected from the literature. Processing was performed using R.,See README files for further information

    Vanadium and its isotope composition of river water and seawater: Analytical improvement and implications for vanadium isotope fractionation

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    Investigation of redox variations in recent and paleo-oceans has been of particular scientific interest to elucidate the rise and variations of the atmospheric oxygen level by analyses of isotopic signatures of redox-sensitive elements like Fe, Mo, and U. Vanadium is another redox-sensitive metal that has become the target of stable isotope research during the last decade. Research of the oceanic V cycle revealed a rather complex interplay of riverine V as a major V source to the oceans on one side with V deposition in sediments and at hydrothermal vents as major sinks on the other. The balance between these major V pools is sensitive to the ocean water oxygen level and chemistry. The current data set of stable V isotope signatures of seawater is still very small, but indicates already subtle variation of the V isotope signatures in the marine environment. However, the V isotopes of marine sediments and particularly the riverine V isotope composition of dissolved and particulate V, i.e. the major source of V in modern marine environments, has not been constrained at all so far. In this study, we present a new method for efficient V separation from seawater that allows multiple analyses of the V isotope composition of a single sample. To separate V from large amounts (volume ≥2 L) of seawater samples, we employ the Bio-Rad® Chelex-100 resin and conventional cation and anion resins to yield a high V recovery of ≥90% from an UV-irradiated sample. Non-irradiated samples were marked by lower V recovery rates of ca. 75%, which was also observed in earlier studies. Further tests however revealed that even such reduced V yields do not incur significant V isotope fractionation within analytical uncertainty. Our δ51VAA value of +0.27‰ ±0.14 (2s.d., n = 3) for the NASS-6 seawater reference solution perfectly matched earlier results. In addition, seawater collected in the Wadden Sea at the German North Sea coast is marked by a δ51VAA signature of around +0.02‰ ±0.19 (2s.d., n = 17), which is slightly lower than those of the great oceans, and may be related to an influx of river water, bioactivity, or a tide-induced V mobilization. To characterize the V isotope composition of the major V source to the oceans, we determined for the first time V isotope signatures of 13 selected rivers (dissolved and particulate fractions of source water, tributary rivers, and the Yangtze River) in the Yangtze River Basin, China. A large variation of dissolved V (ca. 0.07 to 6.0 μg/L) and particulate-bound V (ca. 0.03 to 17 μg/L) was found for the sample suite. The obtained δ51VAA values of the dissolved V pool span a range of −0.76‰ (±0.18; 2s.d.) to −0.10‰ (±0.22, 2s.d.), whereas particulate-bound V extends to lower δ51V signatures between −2.13‰ (±0.30, 2s.d.) and −0.11‰ (±0.11, 2s.d.). Notably, dissolved V from the river sources and small tributaries scatters between ca. −0.4‰ to −0.7‰, and agrees well with the predicted average δ51VAA value of −0.6‰ ±0.3 for continental run-off. For the lower Yangtze River, however, the dissolved δ51VAA signatures increase from the Three-Gorges Dam towards the estuary from −0.76‰ to −0.10‰, suggesting V isotope fractionation due to adsorption to abundant particulate Fe oxides, but may also reflect an input of anthropogenic V. The low δ51VAA of particulate V largely follow this trend, and thus indicate ongoing V isotope fractionation during riverine V transport to the ocean. Our first results of stable V isotope investigation of river waters show that V isotope signatures can indeed carry their host rock signature, but are also sensitive to adsorption-driven fractionation in oxidized environments. The latter strongly depends, as predicted from earlier theoretical calculations, on the presence of particulate Fe-(oxyhydr)oxides and highlights gradual V isotope fractionation during riverine V transport to the ocean

    Podocytes maintain high basal levels of autophagy independent of mtor signaling

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    While constant basal levels of macroautophagy/autophagy are a prerequisite to preserve long-lived podocytes at the filtration barrier, MTOR regulates at the same time podocyte size and compensatory hypertrophy. Since MTOR is known to generally suppress autophagy, the apparently independent regulation of these two key pathways of glomerular maintenance remained puzzling. We now report that long-term genetic manipulation of MTOR activity does in fact not influence high basal levels of autophagy in podocytes either in vitro or in vivo. Instead we present data showing that autophagy in podocytes is mainly controlled by AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and ULK1 (unc-51 like kinase 1). Pharmacological inhibition of MTOR further shows that the uncoupling of MTOR activity and autophagy is time dependent. Together, our data reveal a novel and unexpected cell-specific mechanism, which permits concurrent MTOR activity as well as high basal autophagy rates in podocytes. Thus, these data indicate manipulation of the AMPK-ULK1 axis rather than inhibition of MTOR as a promising therapeutic intervention to enhance autophagy and preserve podocyte homeostasis in glomerular diseases. Abbreviations: AICAR: 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide ribonucleotide; AMPK: AMP-activated protein kinase; ATG: autophagy related; BW: body weight; Cq: chloroquine; ER: endoplasmic reticulum; ESRD: end stage renal disease; FACS: fluorescence activated cell sorting; GFP: green fluorescent protein; i.p.: intra peritoneal; MAP1LC3/LC3: microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3; MTOR: mechanistic target of rapamycin kinase; NPHS1: nephrosis 1, nephrin; NPHS2: nephrosis 2, podocin; PLA: proximity-ligation assay; PRKAA: 5ʹ-AMP-activated protein kinase catalytic subunit alpha; RPTOR/RAPTOR: regulatory associated protein of MTOR, complex 1; RFP: red fluorescent protein; TSC1: tuberous sclerosis 1; ULK1: unc-51 like kinase
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