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Facial Width-to-Height Ratio (fWHR) has been linked with dominant and aggressive behavior in human males. We show here that on portrait photographs published online, chief executive officers (CEOs) of companies listed in the Dow Jones stock market index and the Deutscher Aktienindex have a higher-than-normal fWHR, which also correlates positively with their company’s donations to charitable causes and environmental awareness. Furthermore, we show that leaders of the world’s most influential non-governmental organizations and even the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, the popes, have higher fWHR compared to controls on public portraits, suggesting that the relationship between displayed fWHR and leadership is not limited to profit-seeking organizations. The data speak against the simplistic view that wider-faced men achieve higher social status through antisocial tendencies and overt aggression, or the mere signaling of such dispositions. Instead they suggest that high fWHR is linked with high social rank in a more subtle fashion in both competitive as well as prosocially oriented settings.
The phenomenon of jet quenching provides essential information about the properties of hot and dense matter created in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Recent results from experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) show evidence for an unexpectedly similar suppression of both light and heavy flavor jets. Furthermore, the role of radiative energy loss of heavy quarks is still under active discussion within the theoretical community. By employing the parton cascade Boltzmann Approach to Multi-Parton Scatterings (BAMPS), which numerically solves the 3+1 D Boltzmann equation both for light and heavy flavor partons, we calculate the nuclear modification factor of inclusive and b-tagged reconstructed jets in 0–10% central sLHC=2.76ATeV Pb + Pb collisions. Based on perturbative QCD cross sections we find a suppression of both light and heavy flavor jets. While the inclusive jets are slightly too strong suppressed within Bamps in comparison with data, both elastic + radiative and only elastic interactions lead to a realistic b-tagged jet suppression. To further investigate light and heavy flavor energy loss we predict the R dependence of inclusive and b-tagged jet suppression. Furthermore, we propose the medium modification of b-tagged jet shapes as an observable for discriminating between different heavy quark energy loss scenarios.
Background. Arterial ex situ back-table perfusion (BP) reportedly reduces ischemic-type biliary lesion after liver transplantation. We aimed to verify these findings in a prospective investigation.
Methods. Our prospective, randomized, controlled, multicenter study involved livers retrieved from patients in 2 German regions, and compared the outcomes of standard aortic perfusion to those of aortic perfusion combined with arterial ex situ BP. The primary endpoint was the incidence of ischemic-type biliary lesions over a follow-up of 2 years after liver transplantation, whereas secondary endpoints included 2-year graft survival, initial graft damage as reflected by transaminase levels, and functional biliary parameters at 6 months after transplantation.
Results. A total of 75 livers preserved via standard aortic perfusion and 75 preserved via standard aortic perfusion plus arterial BP were treated using a standardized protocol. The incidence of clinically apparent biliary lesions after liver transplantation (n = 9 for both groups; P = 0.947), the 2-year graft survival rate (standard aortic perfusion, 74%; standard aortic perfusion plus arterial BP, 68%; P = 0.34), and incidence of initial graft injury did not differ between the 2 perfusion modes. Although 33 of the 77 patients with cholangiography workups exhibited injured bile ducts, only 10 had clinical symptoms.
Conclusions. Contrary to previous findings, the present study indicated that additional ex situ BP did not prevent ischemic-type biliary lesions or ischemia-reperfusion injury after liver transplantation. Moreover, there was considerable discrepancy between cholangiography findings regarding bile duct changes and clinically apparent cholangiopathy after transplantation, which should be considered when assessing ischemic-type biliary lesions.
Background: Ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) is a major challenge in liver transplantation. The mitochondrial pathway plays a pivotal role in hepatic IRI. Levosimendan, a calcium channel sensitizer, was shown to attenuate apoptosis after IRI in animal livers. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of levosimendan on apoptosis in human hepatocytes.
Methods: Primary human hepatocytes were either exposed to hypoxia or cultured under normoxic conditions. After the hypoxic phase, reoxygenation was implemented and cells were treated with different concentrations of levosimendan (10ng/ml, 100ng/ml, 1000ng/ml). The overall metabolic activity of the cells was measured using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT), and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels were determined in order to quantify hepatic injury. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) analysis was applied to measure necrosis and apoptosis. Finally, Western blotting was performed to analyze apoptotic pathway proteins.
Results: Administration of levosimendan during reperfusion increases the metabolic activity of human hepatocytes and decreases AST levels. Moreover, apoptosis after IRI is reduced in treated vs. untreated hepatocytes, and levosimendan prevents down-regulation of the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 as well as up-regulation of the pro-apoptotic protein BAX.
Conclusion: The present study suggests a protective effect of levosimendan on human hepatocytes. Our findings suggest that treatment with levosimendan during reperfusion attenuates apoptosis of human hepatocytes by influencing BAX and Bcl-2 levels.
Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a rare multi-organ autoimmune disease characterized by progressive skin fibrosis. Inflammation, type 2 immunity, and fibrogenic processes are involved in disease development and may be affected by sphingolipids. However, details about early-stage pathophysiological mechanisms and implicated mediators remain elusive. The sphingolipid sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) is elevated in the sera of SSc patients, and its receptor S1P5 is expressed in skin tissue. Nevertheless, almost nothing is known about the dermatological contribution of S1P5 to inflammatory and pro-fibrotic processes leading to the pathological changes seen in SSc. In this study, we observed a novel effect of S1P5 on the inflammatory processes during low-dose bleomycin (BLM)-induced fibrogenesis in murine skin. By comparing 2-week-treated skin areas of wild-type (WT) and S1P5-deficient mice, we found that S1P5 is important for the transcriptional upregulation of the Th2 characteristic transcription factor GATA-3 under treatment-induced inflammatory conditions, while T-bet (Th1) and FoxP3 (Treg) mRNA expression was regulated independently of S1P5. Additionally, treatment caused a regulation of S1P receptor 1 and S1P receptor 3 mRNA as well as a regulation of long-chain ceramide profiles, which both differ significantly between the genotypes. Despite S1P5-dependent differences regarding inflammatory processes, similar macroscopic evidence of fibrosis was detected in the skin histology of WT and S1P5-deficient mice after 4 weeks of subcutaneous BLM treatment. However, at the earlier 2-week point in time, the mRNA data of pro-collagen type 1 and SMAD7 indicate a pro-fibrotic S1P5 contribution in the applied SSc mouse model. In conclusion, we propose that S1P5 plays a role as a novel modulator during the early phase of BLM-caused fibrogenesis in murine skin. An immediate relationship between dermal S1P5 expression and fibrotic processes leading to skin alterations, such as formative for SSc pathogenesis, is indicated but should be studied more profound in further investigations. Therefore, this study is an initial step in understanding the role of S1P5-mediated effects during early stages of fibrogenesis, which may encourage the ongoing search for new therapeutic options for SSc patients.
Background: Research has implicated that changes in zinc (Zn) metabolism may be associated with the biological underpinnings of eating disorders, in particular anorexia nervosa. However, to date research on the role of Zn in patients with bulimia nervosa (BN) is scarce.
Objective: We aimed to explore serum Zn concentrations in young patients with BN, with a focus on the stage of the disorder, comparing acutely ill and recovered patients with BN with healthy controls.
Methods: Serum Zn concentrations were obtained from healthy controls and from acutely ill and remitted young patients with BN. Mean duration of remission was 4.0±3.5 years.
Results: Remitted patients showed elevated serum Zn concentrations when compared to controls (Cohen’s d=2.022), but concentrations were still in the normal range. Acutely ill patients also had higher serum Zn levels when compared to controls (all values still being within the reference range, Cohen’s d=0.882). There was no difference between acutely ill and remitted patients with BN in serum Zn concentrations. Of note, remitted patients had a significantly higher body weight when compared to the other two groups. Overall, there were no significant differences in dietary preferences with regard to Zn containing foods between the groups.
Conclusion: The present study provides preliminary evidence that the underlying factors for changes in Zn serum concentrations in young patients with BN do not vary with regard to the stage of illness (acute versus remitted BN). Further prospective research is needed in order to disentangle the possible interplay between serum Zn status and bulimic eating behaviors.
Phylogenetic reconstruction from transposable elements (TEs) offers an additional perspective to study evolutionary processes. However, detecting phylogenetically informative TE insertions requires tedious experimental work, limiting the power of phylogenetic inference. Here, we analyzed the genomes of seven bear species using high-throughput sequencing data to detect thousands of TE insertions. The newly developed pipeline for TE detection called TeddyPi (TE detection and discovery for Phylogenetic Inference) identified 150,513 high-quality TE insertions in the genomes of ursine and tremarctine bears. By integrating different TE insertion callers and using a stringent filtering approach, the TeddyPi pipeline produced highly reliable TE insertion calls, which were confirmed by extensive in vitro validation experiments. Analysis of single nucleotide substitutions in the flanking regions of the TEs shows that these substitutions correlate with the phylogenetic signal from the TE insertions. Our phylogenomic analyses show that TEs are a major driver of genomic variation in bears and enabled phylogenetic reconstruction of a well-resolved species tree, despite strong signals for incomplete lineage sorting and introgression. The analyses show that the Asiatic black, sun, and sloth bear form a monophyletic clade, in which phylogenetic incongruence originates from incomplete lineage sorting. TeddyPi is open source and can be adapted to various TE and structural variation callers. The pipeline makes it possible to confidently extract thousands of TE insertions even from low-coverage genomes (∼10×) of nonmodel organisms. This opens new possibilities for biologists to study phylogenies and evolutionary processes as well as rates and patterns of (retro-)transposition and structural variation.
Introduction: Microsurgery courses, taught external to surgical training programs, are essential for acquiring the high level of technical skill required for clinical proficiency.
Methods: The Frankfurt microsurgery course is a 5-day, intensive course that teaches arterial and venous anastomosis using end-to-end, end-to-side, one-way-up, continuous-suture, and vessel graft techniques. During the course, the instructor records the level of skill (in-course data) achieved by each trainee by assessing anastomosis completion and patency. Demographic information is also collected. Post-course trainees are invited to complete an online survey (post-course data) to get their opinions of the courses’ effectiveness.
Results: The in-course “skill achievement” and post-course “course effectiveness” data are presented below. In-course data: 94.8 and 59.9% of participants completed patent end-to-end arterial and venous anastomoses, respectively, while 85.4% performed a patent end-to-side anastomosis. 96.1 and 57.1% of participants who attempted arterial and venous anastomoses using the one-way-up technique were successful, as were 90.9% of those attempting continuous-suture technique. Patent venous grafts were performed by 54.7% of participants.
Post-course data: All respondents indicated significant improvement of their microsurgical skills after taking the course. 66.7% of respondents considered the full-time presence of the instructor to be the most valuable aspect of the course. All respondents would highly recommend the course to colleagues.
Conclusion: The microcourse significantly increased trainees’ clinical microsurgery skills, confidence, and the number of clinical cases they perform. Of all the anastomosis techniques taught, venous anastomosis and grafting were the most difficult to learn. The presence of a full-time experienced instructor was most important.
The asymmetric unit of the title co-crystalline adduct, 1,3,6,8-tetraazatricyclo[4.4.1.13,8]dodecane (TATD)–4-iodophenol (1/2), C8H16N4·2C6H5IO, comprises a half molecule of the aminal cage polyamine plus a 4-iodophenol molecule. A twofold rotation axis generates the other half of the adduct. The components are linked by two intermolecular O—H⋯N hydrogen bonds. The adducts are further linked into a three-dimensional framework structure by a combination of N⋯I halogen bonds and weak non-conventional C—H⋯O and C—H⋯I hydrogen bonds.
Can variances of latent variables be scaled in such a way that they correspond to eigenvalues?
(2017)
The paper reports an investigation of whether sums of squared factor loadings obtained in confirmatory factor analysis correspond to eigenvalues of exploratory factor analysis. The sum of squared factor loadings reflects the variance of the corresponding latent variable if the variance parameter of the confirmatory factor model is set equal to one. Hence, the computation of the sum implies a specific type of scaling of the variance. While the investigation of the theoretical foundations suggested the expected correspondence between sums of squared factor loadings and eigenvalues, the necessity of procedural specifications in the application, as for example the estimation method, revealed external influences on the outcome. A simulation study was conducted that demonstrated the possibility of exact correspondence if the same estimation method was applied. However, in the majority of realized specifications the estimates showed similar sizes but no correspondence.