Texas-Revised Inventory of Grief: Validierung der deutschen Version TRIG-D

The loss of a loved person has often yearlong consequences for the bereaved. The Texas-Revised Inventory of Grief was developed by Faschingbauer and coworkers to measure the grief-specific distress. Up to now, no German translation of this instrument existed. An adapted German version of the TRIG is presented and results of a validation study with parents who lost a child are reported. The TRIG-D shows good internal consistency (Cronbach’s a =.87) Correlations of grief-intensity of the TRIG-D with stress-related symptoms and depression were high. These predictors explained 55% of the total variance of grief intensity. The TRIG-D measures reliably the intensity of grief related distress; however, there exist no cut-off-values for complicated grief.     

Approximate solution of the differential equation for the migration of a reversibly reacting substance.

A series solution is given for the differential equation describing the transport of a reversibly reacting substance in an infinite rectangular cell. The concentration dependence of the constituent transport coefficients has been approximated by polynomials. The solution converges for short time (t is less than 1 h). Several features of the leading and trailing boundary of monomer-trimer and monomer-dimer-trimer systems are discussed.     

Cloning and characterization of an adenoviral vector for highly efficient and doxycycline – suppressible expression of bioactive human single – chain interleukin 12 in colon cancer

Background  

Interleukin-12 (IL-12) is well characterized to induce cellular antitumoral immunity by activation of NK-cells and T-lymphocytes. However, systemic administration of recombinant human IL-12 resulted in severe toxicity without perceptible therapeutic benefit. Even though intratumoral expression of IL-12 leads to tumor regression and long-term survival in a variety of animal models, clinical trials have not yet shown a significant therapeutic benefit. One major obstacle in the treatment with IL-12 is to overcome the relatively low expression of the therapeutic gene without compromising the safety of such an approach. Our objective was to generate an adenoviral vector system enabling the regulated expression of very high levels of bioactive, human IL-12.     

Morphological differentiation of the central visual cells R7/8 in various regions of the blowfly eye

The central rhabdomeres in the retina of the blowfly Calliphora erythrocephala and the house fly Musca domestica are not structurally uniform. In Calliphora, four classes of central rhabdomeres were found; they are formed by a total of seven types of central visual cells, clearly distinguished by the following structural features: length of the rhabdomeres R7 or R8, position of the nucleus, rhabdomere twist, fine structure in the R7/R8 transition region, and cross-sectional area of the rhabdomeres. In the lateral part of the eye only the most common central-rhabdomere class, ‘sl.’ is present, whereas in the frontal and dorsal parts classes ‘sl’ and ‘ls’ are found in a particular numerical ratio. Near the frontal eye margin the rare class ‘per’ also appears, with two separate rhabdomeres, R7per and R8s; the morphological properties of R7per are midway between those of peripheral and central visual cells. The special ommatidia at the dorsal margin of the eye are characterized by the central rhabdomeres ‘marg’. The known functional properties of the visual cells in the fly eye can be readily assigned to these classes (Table 1, Fig. 12). The non-uniform distribution of the various kinds of central rhabdomeres suggests functional differentiation of the eye region.     

Flavanone synthase from cell suspension cultures of Haplopappus gracilis and comparison with the synthase from parsley

Flavanone synthase was isolated and purified ca 62-fold from cell suspension cultures of Haplopappus gracilis. The enzyme preparation catalysed the formation of naringenin from 4-coumaryl-CoA and malonyl-CoA with a pH optimum of ca 8. The same enzyme was also capable of synthesizing eriodictyol from caffeyl-CoA and malonyl-CoA; in this case the pH optimum lay between 6.5 and 7. The homogeneous flavanone synthase from cell suspension cultures of parsley showed the same dependence of the pH optimum on the nature of the cinnamyl-CoA. It can be concluded that both naringenin and eriodictyol are natural products of the synthase reaction.     

Regeneration growth of the invasive clonal forb Rorippa austriaca (Brassicaceae) in relation to fertilization and interspecific competition

A special type of clonal growth, spread by lateral roots, ishypothesized to be a favourable trait of invasive, opportunistic plant speciesof disturbed habitats. We tested this hypothesis for the invasive forbRorippa austriaca (Brassicaceae). Regenerationfrom root fragments, subsequent vegetative spread and allocation patterns inrelation to varied nutrient supply and intensity and pattern of interspecificcompetition were analyzed in container experiments. Regeneration success fromroot fragments was 100% and clonal spread was rapid but vegetativeperformance was strongly reduced under unfertilized conditions and,particularly, when interspecific competition was present. While the ratio ofabove- to belowground bio-mass did not differ considerably betweentreatments, R. austriaca allocated a high amount ofresources to belowground growth resulting in low aboveground but highbelowground biomass at harvest time relative to the matrix vegetation.Differences in shoot number or biomass between simulated gaps and denselyvegetated quadrants in the containers were (relatively) weak.Reproductive effort was less reduced under low resource levels, and the clonesdid not set seed at all, irrespective of the treatment. Our results show thatclonal growth by lateral roots and plasticity in clonal growth patterns inR. austriaca promote both exploitation of gaps andnutrient-rich microsites and resistance to competitors. Such plasticity,combined with its ability to regenerate from widely-dispersed rootfragments, contribute to the ability of the species to invade and persistwithindisturbed and spatially heterogeneous habitats.