The Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE) measures the frequency of positive and negative affect. It consists of two subscales, one for positive and one for negative affect with six ...adjectives each and assesses a broad range of emotions. In this study, the psychometric properties of the German version of the scale were explored with reliability and confirmatory factorial analysis by using a German sample of N = 498. To examine the convergent validity of the SPANE we correlated its subscales with other well-being and happiness measures. Retest-reliabilities were tested after four weeks, taking into account the occurrence of emotionally significant life events. The scale was also applied to evaluate a training of subjective well-being and in a study on text comprehensibility. The results confirmed the postulated two-factor structure of the SPANE and showed good psychometric properties and convergent validity. In conclusion, the German version of the scale behaves in accordance with the original scale and may be used in future studies of well-being.
Following up on recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of Crohn's disease, we investigated 50 previously reported susceptibility loci in a German sample of individuals with Crohn's disease (n ...= 1,850) or ulcerative colitis (n = 1,103) and healthy controls (n = 1,817). Among these loci, we identified variants in 3p21.31, NKX2-3 and CCNY as susceptibility factors for both diseases, whereas variants in PTPN2, HERC2 and STAT3 were associated only with ulcerative colitis in our sample collection.
Unprecedented tree dieback across Central Europe caused by recent global change‐type drought events highlights the need for a better mechanistic understanding of drought‐induced tree mortality. ...Although numerous physiological risk factors have been identified, the importance of two principal mechanisms, hydraulic failure and carbon starvation, is still debated. It further remains largely unresolved how the local neighborhood composition affects individual mortality risk. We studied 9435 young trees of 12 temperate species planted in a diversity experiment in 2013 to assess how hydraulic traits, carbon dynamics, pest infestation, tree height and neighborhood competition influence individual mortality risk. Following the most extreme global change‐type drought since record in 2018, one third of these trees died. Across species, hydraulic safety margins (HSMs) were negatively and a shift towards a higher sugar fraction in the non‐structural carbohydrate (NSC) pool positively associated with mortality risk. Moreover, trees infested by bark beetles had a higher mortality risk, and taller trees a lower mortality risk. Most neighborhood interactions were beneficial, although neighborhood effects were highly species‐specific. Species that suffered more from drought, especially Larix spp. and Betula spp., tended to increase the survival probability of their neighbors and vice versa. While severe tissue dehydration marks the final stage of drought‐induced tree mortality, we show that hydraulic failure is interrelated with a series of other, mutually inclusive processes. These include shifts in NSC pools driven by osmotic adjustment and/or starch depletion as well as pest infestation and are modulated by the size and species identity of a tree and its neighbors. A more holistic view that accounts for multiple causes of drought‐induced tree mortality is required to improve predictions of trends in global forest dynamics and to identify mutually beneficial species combinations.
A better understanding of the mechanisms driving drought‐induced tree mortality is necessary to improve predictions of forest responses to climate extremes. We use data from a tree diversity experiment to model the individual mortality risk of 9435 young trees from 12 temperate tree species, one third of which died following a severe drought in 2018. Our results indicate that drought‐induced mortality cannot be explained by a single mechanism. Rather, each tree's mortality risk is shaped by the joint effects of species‐specific hydraulic adaptations, carbohydrate metabolism and pest infestation, and modulated by size effects, environmental differences and interactions with neighbor trees.
The culture of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) at large scale becomes feasible with the aid of scalable suspension setups in continuously stirred tank reactors (CSTRs). Innovative ...monitoring options and emerging automated process control strategies allow for the necessary highly defined culture conditions. Next to standard process characteristics such as oxygen consumption, pH, and metabolite turnover, a reproducible and steady formation of hiPSC aggregates is vital for process scalability. In this regard, we developed a hiPSC-specific suspension culture unit consisting of a fully monitored CSTR system integrated into a custom-designed and fully automated incubator. As a step towards cost-effective hiPSC suspension culture and to pave the way for flexibility at a large scale, we constructed and utilized tailored miniature CSTRs that are largely made from three-dimensional (3D) printed polylactic acid (PLA) filament, which is a low-cost material used in fused deposition modelling. Further, the monitoring tool for hiPSC suspension cultures utilizes in situ microscopic imaging to visualize hiPSC aggregation in real-time to a statistically significant degree while omitting the need for time-intensive sampling. Suitability of our culture unit, especially concerning the developed hiPSC-specific CSTR system, was proven by demonstrating pluripotency of CSTR-cultured hiPSCs at RNA (including PluriTest) and protein level.
Objectives
To analyze health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and audiological results after stapes surgery using a Nitinol Head Prosthesis (NHP).
Methods
Study
-
Design
Prospective longitudinal ...study.
Patients
Patients undergoing stapes surgery for otosclerosis and stapes reconstruction with a NHP between January 2018 and December 2018 (
n
= 48).
Intervention
Audiological measurements preoperatively and at 6 months follow-up as well as two questionnaires assessing HRQoL, i.e., the Stapes Plasty Outcome Test 25 (SPOT-25) and the Glasgow Benefit Inventory (GBI).
Main outcome measures
Correlation of pure tone average (4PTA 0.5–3 kHz) with questionnaires assessing HrQOL preoperatively and at follow-up after stapes surgery.
Results
Patients showed a significantly reduced air–bone–gap (ABG, 0.5, 1, 2, 3 kHz) at the follow up visit (median: 11.3 dB, IQR 5.0–14.4) compared to the preoperative measurements (median 27.5 dB, IQR 21.9–36.3). Disease-specific HRQoL improved significantly in all scales of the SPOT-25 apart from the subscore “tinnitus”. Postoperatively, the subscore “hearing function” correlated well only with the ABG (
r
= 0.59,
p
= 0.001). The SPOT-25 and GBI total scores showed a moderate negative correlation (
r
= − 0.59,
p
= 0.008).
Conclusions
Stapes surgery leads to significant improvements of hearing and the HRQoL. However, correlations between HRQoL questionnaire scores and the audiometric outcomes were inconclusive, indicating that the use of HRQoL measures for the assessment of stapedotomy outcomes to complement objective outcomes should be encouraged.
Plant diversity loss can alter higher trophic‐level communities via non‐random species interactions, which in turn may cascade to affect key ecosystem functions. These non‐random linkages might be ...best captured by patterns of phylogenetic diversity, which take into account co‐evolutionary dependencies. However, lack of adequate phylogenetic data of higher trophic levels hampers our mechanistic understanding of biodiversity relationships in species‐rich ecosystems.
We used DNA barcoding to generate data on the phylogenetic diversity of lepidopteran caterpillars in a large‐scale forest biodiversity experiment in subtropical China. We analysed how different metrics of lepidopteran phylogenetic diversity (Faith's PD, MPD, MNTD) and taxonomic diversity were influenced by multiple components of tree diversity (taxonomic, functional, phylogenetic).
Our data from six sampling periods represent 7,204 mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) sequences of lepidopteran larvae, clustered into 461 molecular operational taxonomic units. Lepidopteran abundance, the effective number of species (irrespective of the focus on rare or common species) and Faith's PD and MPD (reflecting basal evolutionary splits), but not MNTD (reflecting recent evolutionary splits), significantly increased with experimentally manipulated tree species richness. Lepidopteran MNTD decreased with increasing tree MNTD. Path analyses showed that tree phylogenetic and functional diversity explained part, but not all of the effects of tree species richness on lepidopteran diversity. Importantly, tree diversity effects on lepidopteran diversity were to a large extent indirect, operating via changes in lepidopteran abundance.
Synthesis. Our study shows that evolutionary dependencies determine the response of herbivore communities to changes in host plant diversity. Incorporating a wider range of diversity metrics both at the level of producers and consumers can thus help to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the functional consequences of biodiversity change across trophic levels. Moreover, the dependence of trophic linkages on herbivore abundances underlines the need to address the consequences of current declines in insect abundances for ecosystem structure and functioning.
Foreign Language 摘要
植物多样性能通过种间相互作用对更高营养级的种群结构产生效应, 而重要的生态系统功能也可能由此受到影响。这些非随机的级联效应可能较好的被系统发育多样性解释, 因为后者包含了物种协同进化的特性。然而, 对高营养级的系统发育多样性仍然缺乏足够的研究, 这限制了我们对物种丰富的生态系统中生物多样性关系的内在机制的理解。
我们在中国亚热带的 BEF‐China 大型生物多样性实验基地以鳞翅目幼虫为研究对象, 基于 DNA 条形码计算了鳞翅目幼虫的系统发育多样性指数 (PD, MPD, MNTD）, 并结合了鳞翅目幼虫的物种丰富度分析了其是否受到树种的不同的多样性指数 （物种丰富度、功能多样性和系统发育多样性） 的影响。
采样集中于 2017 和 2018 年的 4 月、 6 月和 9 月。基于 6 次采集所得的鳞翅目幼虫样本，最终获取了 7204 条 COI 序列， 分成 461 个可操纵分类单元。研究发现鳞翅目幼虫多度、有效物种数、 PD 和 MPD 均与树种多样性呈正相关（鳞翅目幼虫 MNTD 除外）。但鳞翅目幼虫 MNTD 随着树 MNTD 的增加而显著降低。结构方程模型的分析结果显示了树的系统发育多样性和功能多样性能够部分解释树种多样性对鳞翅目幼虫多样性的效应。重要的是， 树种多样性能够很大程度上通过鳞翅目幼虫的多度间接地影响其多样性指数。
综上，我们的研究结果表明：系统发育关系在一定程度上决定了寄主植物群落的改变对植食者群落产生的影响。因此， 在生产者和消费者两个营养级中纳入更广泛的多样性指标可以帮助我们更全面地理解由不同营养级的生物多样性变化而产生一系列生态学效应。与此同时， 营养级关系对植食者丰富度的依赖表明了我们应该关注昆虫数量下降对生态系统结构和功能所产生的一系列影响。
We integrated multiple components of plant and herbivore diversity to unravel the linkages that drive biodiversity relationships and determine the consequences of biodiversity loss across trophic levels. Our study suggests that lepidopteran phylogenetic diversity is significantly affected by plant species loss when basic splits in the evolutionary history are considered. Moreover, we show that multiple components of tree diversity can synergistically affect species richness and phylogenetic diversity of lepidopteran larvae. Importantly, plant diversity effects were indirectly mediated by herbivore abundance – which sheds light on the consequences of recently observed declines in the number of insects for the structuring and functioning of ecosystems, including evolutionary dependencies between plants and their herbivore communities.
Objectives
To compare quality-of-life (QoL) measurements with audiological results after stapes surgery with two different prostheses.
Methods
This is a retrospective longitudinal study. All patients ...required stapes surgery for otosclerosis and ossicular chain reconstruction with either a titanium band prothesis (TBP) or receiving a nitinol head prosthesis (NHP). Intervention was between January 2011 and March 2017 patients received stapes-surgery with either TBP (
n
= 95) or NHP (
n
= 50). Audiological measurements at three different time points (preoperatively, early follow up < 3 months, late follow-up > 3 months) were compared and two different QoL-inventories, the Glasgow-Benefit-Inventory (GBI) and the Stapes-Plasty-Outcome-Test-25 (SPOT-25) were investigated postoperatively. The main outcome measures were Pure tone average (PTA) at 0.5, 1, 2, 3 kHz at early and late follow up after stapes surgery were compared and correlated with the subjective benefit on the QoL inventories. The perforation method and the type of surgery were analyzed as potentially influencing factors.
Results
All patients showed a significantly reduced air bone gap (ABG 0.5, 1, 2, 3) at the two follow-up visits (visit 2: mean: 13.6 dB, SD 7.7; visit 3: mean: 12.7 dB SD 8.1) compared to preoperative measurements (mean: 28.9 dB, SD 9.9) and subjectively benefitted from stapes surgery (mean GBI score: 21.55; SD 20.60, mean SPOT-25 score: 28.03; SD 18.53). The outcome of the two questionnaires correlated with each other. Neither the hearing-outcome nor the subjective benefit was significantly influenced by the prosthesis, the perforation method or the type of anesthesia.
Conclusions
Both prostheses were safe and led to comparable hearing results as well as to subjective benefits in the Health-related-Quality-of-Life (HrQoL). A combination of the two questionnaires is recommendable for postoperative quality control.
To enhance our understanding of forest carbon sequestration, climate change mitigation and drought impact on forest ecosystems, the availability of high-resolution annual forest growth maps based on ...tree-ring width (TRW) would provide a significant advancement to the field. Site-specific characteristics, which can be approximated by high-resolution Earth observation by satellites (EOS), emerge as crucial drivers of forest growth, influencing how climate translates into tree growth. EOS provides information on surface reflectance related to forest characteristics and thus can potentially improve the accuracy of forest growth models based on TRW. Through the modelling of TRW using EOS, climate and topography data, we showed that species-specific models can explain up to 52 % of model variance (Quercus petraea), while combining different species results in relatively poor model performance (R2 = 13 %). The integration of EOS into models based solely on climate and elevation data improved the explained variance by 6 % on average. Leveraging these insights, we successfully generated a map of annual TRW for the year 2021. We employed the area of applicability (AOA) approach to delineate the range in which our models are deemed valid. The calculated AOA for the established forest-type models was 73 % of the study region, indicating robust spatial applicability. Notably, unreliable predictions predominantly occurred in the climate margins of our dataset. In conclusion, our large-scale assessment underscores the efficacy of combining climate, EOS and topographic data to develop robust models for mapping annual TRW. This research not only fills a critical void in the current understanding of forest growth dynamics but also highlights the potential of integrated data sources for comprehensive ecosystem assessments.
Display omitted
•We combined remote sensing, climate and elevation to model tree-ring width (TRW).•Models' explained variance ranged up to 52 % and was higher for species-specific models.•Including remote sensing data improved the prediction accuracy by 6 % on average.•Satellite-derived vegetation indices yielded strong positive relationships with TRW.•The developed forest-type models were successfully applied to generate a map of TRW.
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