TY - JOUR A1 - Salker, Madhuri S. A1 - Singh, Yogesh A1 - Zeng, Ni A1 - Chen, Hong A1 - Zhang, Shaqiu A1 - Umbach, Anja T. A1 - Fakhri, Hajar A1 - Kohlhofer, Ursula A1 - Quintanilla-Martinez, Leticia A1 - Durairaj, Ruban R. Peter A1 - Barros, Flavio S. V. A1 - Vrljicak, Pavle A1 - Ott, Sascha A1 - Brucker, Sara Y. A1 - Wallwiener, Diethelm A1 - Madunić, Ivana Vrhovac A1 - Breljak, Davorka A1 - Sabolić, Ivan A1 - Koepsell, Hermann A1 - Brosens, Jan J. A1 - Lang, Florian T1 - Loss of endometrial sodium glucose cotransporter SGLT1 is detrimental to embryo survival and fetal growth in pregnancy JF - Scientific Reports N2 - Embryo implantation requires a hospitable uterine environment. A key metabolic change that occurs during the peri-implantation period, and throughout early pregnancy, is the rise in endometrial glycogen content. Glycogen accumulation requires prior cellular uptake of glucose. Here we show that both human and murine endometrial epithelial cells express the high affinity Na\(^+\)-coupled glucose carrier SGLT1. Ussing chamber experiments revealed electrogenic glucose transport across the endometrium in wild type (\(Slc5a1^{+/+}\)) but not in SGLT1 defcient (\(Slc5a1^{−/−}\)) mice. Endometrial glycogen content, litter size and weight of offspring at birth were signifcantly lower in \(Slc5a1^{−/−}\) mice. In humans, \(SLC5A1\) expression was upregulated upon decidualization of primary endometrial stromal cells. Endometrial \(SLC5A1\) expression during the implantation window was attenuated in patients with recurrent pregnancy loss when compared with control subjects. Our fndings reveal a novel mechanism establishing adequate endometrial glycogen stores for pregnancy. Disruption of this histiotrophic pathway leads to adverse pregnancy outcome. KW - biology KW - embryology KW - intrauterine growth KW - paediatric research Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-173814 VL - 7 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Salinger, Tim A1 - Hu, Kai A1 - Liu, Dan A1 - Herrmann, Sebastian A1 - Lorenz, Kristina A1 - Ertl, Georg A1 - Nordbeck, Peter T1 - Cardiac amyloidosis mimicking severe aortic valve stenosis - a case report demonstrating diagnostic pitfalls and role of dobutamine stress echocardiography JF - BMC Cardiovascular Disorders N2 - Background Aortic valve stenosis is a common finding diagnosed with high sensitivity in transthoracic echocardiography, but the examiner often finds himself confronted with uncertain results in patients with moderate pressure gradients and concomitant systolic heart failure. While patients with true-severe low-gradient aortic valve stenosis with either reduced or preserved left ventricular systolic function are primarily candidates for valve replacement, there is a relevant proportion of patients with pseudo-severe aortic valve stenosis anticipated not to benefit but actually rather deteriorate by interventional therapy or surgery. Case presentation In this article we present a case report of a male patient with pseudo-severe aortic valve stenosis due to cardiac amyloidosis highlighting the diagnostic schedule. The patient underwent stress echocardiography because of discrepant findings in transthoracic echocardiography and cardiac catheterization regarding the severity of aortic valve stenosis. After evaluation of the results, it became clear that he had a need for optimum heart failure medication and implantation of a cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator. Conclusion Due to the pitfalls in conventional as well as invasive diagnostics at rest, Stress echocardiography should be considered part of the standard optimum diagnostic spectrum in all unclear or borderline cases in order to confirm the correct diagnosis and constitute optimal therapy. KW - aortic valve stenosis (AS) KW - case report KW - pseudo-severe AS KW - low-gradient AS KW - dobutamine stress echocardiography KW - cardiac amyloidosis Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-171109 VL - 17 IS - 86 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rössler, Wolfgang A1 - Spaethe, Johannes A1 - Groh, Claudia T1 - Pitfalls of using confocal-microscopy based automated quantification of synaptic complexes in honeybee mushroom bodies (response to Peng and Yang 2016) JF - Scientific Reports N2 - A recent study by Peng and Yang in Scientific Reports using confocal-microscopy based automated quantification of anti-synapsin labeled microglomeruli in the mushroom bodies of honeybee brains reports potentially incorrect numbers of microglomerular densities. Whereas several previous studies using visually supervised or automated counts from confocal images and analyses of serial 3D electron-microscopy data reported consistent numbers of synaptic complexes per volume, Peng and Yang revealed extremely low numbers differing by a factor of 18 or more from those obtained in visually supervised counts, and by a factor 22–180 from numbers in two other studies using automated counts. This extreme discrepancy is especially disturbing as close comparison of raw confocal images of anti-synapsin labeled whole-mount brain preparations are highly similar across these studies. We conclude that these discrepancies may reside in potential misapplication of confocal imaging followed by erroneous use of automated image analysis software. Consequently, the reported microglomerular densities during maturation and after manipulation by insecticides require validation by application of appropriate confocal imaging methods and analyses tools that rely on skilled observers. We suggest several improvements towards more reliable or standardized automated or semi-automated synapse counts in whole mount preparations of insect brains. KW - confocal-microscopy based automated quantification KW - mushroom bodies KW - honeybees KW - brain Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-170451 VL - 7 IS - 9786 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rösler, Lara A1 - End, Albert A1 - Gamer, Matthias T1 - Orienting towards social features in naturalistic scenes is reflexive JF - PLoS ONE N2 - Saliency-based models of visual attention postulate that, when a scene is freely viewed, attention is predominantly allocated to those elements that stand out in terms of their physical properties. However, eye-tracking studies have shown that saliency models fail to predict gaze behavior accurately when social information is included in an image. Notably, gaze pattern analyses revealed that depictions of human beings are heavily prioritized independent of their low-level physical saliency. What remains unknown, however, is whether the prioritization of such social features is a reflexive or a voluntary process. To investigate the early stages of social attention in more detail, participants viewed photographs of naturalistic scenes with and without social features (i.e., human heads or bodies) for 200 ms while their eye movements were being recorded. We observed significantly more first eye movements to regions containing social features than would be expected from a chance level distribution of saccades. Additionally, a generalized linear mixed model analysis revealed that the social content of a region better predicted first saccade direction than its saliency suggesting that social features partially override the impact of low-level physical saliency on gaze patterns. Given the brief image presentation time that precluded visual exploration, our results provide compelling evidence for a reflexive component in social attention. Moreover, the present study emphasizes the importance of considering social influences for a more coherent understanding of human attentional selection. KW - social features KW - visual attention KW - gaze patterns KW - reflexive component Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-170586 VL - 12 IS - 7 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rösch, Manfred A1 - Biester, Harald A1 - Bogenrieder, Arno A1 - Eckmeier, Eileen A1 - Ehrmann, Otto A1 - Gerlach, Renate A1 - Hall, Mathias A1 - Hartkopf-Fröder, Christoph A1 - Herrmann, Ludger A1 - Kury, Birgit A1 - Lechterbeck, Jutta A1 - Schier, Wolfram A1 - Schulz, Erhard T1 - Late neolithic agriculture in temperate Europe—a long-term experimental approach JF - Land N2 - Long-term slash-and-burn experiments, when compared with intensive tillage without manuring, resulted in a huge data set relating to potential crop yields, depending on soil quality, crop type, and agricultural measures. Cultivation without manuring or fallow phases did not produce satisfying yields, and mono-season cropping on freshly cleared and burned plots resulted in rather high yields, comparable to those produced during modern industrial agriculture - at least ten-fold the ones estimated for the medieval period. Continuous cultivation on the same plot, using imported wood from adjacent areas as fuel, causes decreasing yields over several years. The high yield of the first harvest of a slash-and-burn agriculture is caused by nutrient input through the ash produced and mobilization from the organic matter of the topsoil, due to high soil temperatures during the burning process and higher topsoil temperatures due to the soil’s black surface. The harvested crops are pure, without contamination of any weeds. Considering the amount of work required to fight weeds without burning, the slash-and-burn technique yields much better results than any other tested agricultural approach. Therefore, in dense woodland, without optimal soils and climate, slash-and-burn agriculture seems to be the best, if not the only, feasible method to start agriculture, for example, during the Late Neolithic, when agriculture expanded from the loess belt into landscapes less suitable for agriculture. Extensive and cultivation with manuring is more practical in an already-open landscape and with a denser population, but its efficiency in terms of the ratio of the manpower input to food output, is worse. Slash-and-burn agriculture is not only a phenomenon of temperate European agriculture during the Neolithic, but played a major role in land-use in forested regions worldwide, creating anthromes on a huge spatial scale. KW - Neolithic agriculture KW - experimental archaeology KW - slash-and-burn KW - temperate Europe Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-198103 SN - 2073-445X VL - 6 IS - 1 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Römer, Daniela A1 - Bollazzi, Martin A1 - Roces, Flavio T1 - Carbon dioxide sensing in an obligate insect-fungus symbiosis: CO\(_{2}\) preferences of leaf-cutting ants to rear their mutualistic fungus JF - PLoS ONE N2 - Defense against biotic or abiotic stresses is one of the benefits of living in symbiosis. Leaf-cutting ants, which live in an obligate mutualism with a fungus, attenuate thermal and desiccation stress of their partner through behavioral responses, by choosing suitable places for fungus-rearing across the soil profile. The underground environment also presents hypoxic (low oxygen) and hypercapnic (high carbon dioxide) conditions, which can negatively influence the symbiont. Here, we investigated whether workers of the leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex lundii use the CO\(_{2}\) concentration as an orientation cue when selecting a place to locate their fungus garden, and whether they show preferences for specific CO\(_{2}\) concentrations. We also evaluated whether levels preferred by workers for fungus-rearing differ from those selected for themselves. In the laboratory, CO\(_{2}\) preferences were assessed in binary choices between chambers with different CO\(_{2}\) concentrations, by quantifying number of workers in each chamber and amount of relocated fungus. Leaf-cutting ants used the CO\(_{2}\) concentration as a spatial cue when selecting places for fungus-rearing. A. lundii preferred intermediate CO\(_{2}\) levels, between 1 and 3%, as they would encounter at soil depths where their nest chambers are located. In addition, workers avoided both atmospheric and high CO\(_{2}\) levels as they would occur outside the nest and at deeper soil layers, respectively. In order to prevent fungus desiccation, however, workers relocated fungus to high CO\(_{2}\) levels, which were otherwise avoided. Workers’ CO\(_{2}\) preferences for themselves showed no clear-cut pattern. We suggest that workers avoid both atmospheric and high CO\(_{2}\) concentrations not because they are detrimental for themselves, but because of their consequences for the symbiotic partner. Whether the preferred CO\(_{2}\) concentrations are beneficial for symbiont growth remains to be investigated, as well as whether the observed preferences for fungus-rearing influences the ants’ decisions where to excavate new chambers across the soil profile. KW - fungi KW - nesting habits KW - carbon dioxide KW - ants KW - social systems KW - humidity KW - symbiosis KW - fungal physiology Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-159561 VL - 12 IS - 4 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ryczko, K. A1 - Misiewicz, J. A1 - Hofling, S. A1 - Kamp, M. A1 - Sęk, G. T1 - Optimizing the active region of interband cascade lasers for passive mode-locking JF - AIP Advances N2 - The work proposes possible designs of active regions for a mode-locked interband cascade laser emitting in the mid infrared. For that purpose we investigated the electronic structure properties of respectively modified GaSb-based type II W-shaped quantum wells, including the effect of external bias in order to simultaneously fulfil the requirements for both the absorber as well as the gain sections of a device. The results show that introducing multiple InAs layers in type II InAs/GaInSb quantum wells or introducing a tensely-strained GaAsSb layer into “W-shaped” type II QWs offers significant difference in optical transitions’ oscillator strengths (characteristic lifetimes) of the two oppositely polarized parts of such a laser, being promising for utilization in mode-locked devices. KW - physics KW - electrostatics KW - transition radiation KW - oscillator strengths KW - laser spectroscopy KW - optical spectroscopy KW - atomic and molecular spectroscopy, KW - frequency combs KW - quantum wells KW - laser physics Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-181790 VL - 7 IS - 1 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ruppert, Manuela A1 - Franz, Mirjam A1 - Saratis, Anastasios A1 - Escarcena, Laura Velo A1 - Hendrich, Oliver A1 - Gooi, Li Ming A1 - Schwenkert, Isabell A1 - Klebes, Ansgar A1 - Scholz, Henrike T1 - Hangover links nuclear RNA signaling to cAMP regulation via the phosphodiesterase 4d ortholog dunce JF - Cell Reports N2 - The hangover gene defines a cellular stress pathway that is required for rapid ethanol tolerance in Drosophila melanogaster. To understand how cellular stress changes neuronal function, we analyzed Hangover function on a cellular and neuronal level. We provide evidence that Hangover acts as a nuclear RNA binding protein and we identified the phosphodiesterase 4d ortholog dunce as a target RNA. We generated a transcript-specific dunce mutant that is impaired not only in ethanol tolerance but also in the cellular stress response. At the neuronal level, Dunce and Hangover are required in the same neuron pair to regulate experience-dependent motor output. Within these neurons, two cyclic AMP (cAMP)-dependent mechanisms balance the degree of tolerance. The balance is achieved by feedback regulation of Hangover and dunce transcript levels. This study provides insight into how nuclear Hangover/RNA signaling is linked to the cytoplasmic regulation of cAMP levels and results in neuronal adaptation and behavioral changes. KW - biology KW - hangover KW - dunce KW - Dunce isoforms KW - PDE4d KW - cellular stress KW - alcohol tolerance KW - Drosophila melanogaster Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-171950 VL - 18 IS - 2 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rupp, Caroline S. T1 - What’s New in European Property Law? An Overview of Publications in 2015/2016 JF - European Property Law Journal N2 - No abstract available. KW - European Property Law Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-194449 SN - 2190-8362 SN - 2190-8273 N1 - This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively. VL - 6 IS - 1 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ruf, Franziska A1 - Fraunholz, Martin A1 - Öchsner, Konrad A1 - Kaderschabeck, Johann A1 - Wegener, Christian T1 - WEclMon - A simple and robust camera-based system to monitor Drosophila eclosion under optogenetic manipulation and natural conditions JF - PLoS ONE N2 - Eclosion in flies and other insects is a circadian-gated behaviour under control of a central and a peripheral clock. It is not influenced by the motivational state of an animal, and thus presents an ideal paradigm to study the relation and signalling pathways between central and peripheral clocks, and downstream peptidergic regulatory systems. Little is known, however, about eclosion rhythmicity under natural conditions, and research into this direction is hampered by the physically closed design of current eclosion monitoring systems. We describe a novel open eclosion monitoring system (WEclMon) that allows the puparia to come into direct contact with light, temperature and humidity. We demonstrate that the system can be used both in the laboratory and outdoors, and shows a performance similar to commercial closed funnel-type monitors. Data analysis is semi-automated based on a macro toolset for the open imaging software Fiji. Due to its open design, the WEclMon is also well suited for optogenetic experiments. A small screen to identify putative neuroendocrine signals mediating time from the central clock to initiate eclosion showed that optogenetic activation of ETH-, EH and myosuppressin neurons can induce precocious eclosion. Genetic ablation of myosuppressin-expressing neurons did, however, not affect eclosion rhythmicity. KW - chronobiology KW - infrared radiation KW - light pulses KW - molting KW - Drosophila melanogaster KW - optogenetics KW - eclosion Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-170755 VL - 12 IS - 6 ER -