Migraine and Meditation: Characteristics of Cortical Activity and Stress Coping in Migraine Patients,Meditators and Healthy Controls—An Exploratory Cross-Sectional Study

The aim of this exploratory cross-sectional study was to investigate the characteristics of cortical activity and stress coping in migraine patients, meditation experienced subjects, and healthy controls. 45 meditation experienced subjects, 46 migraine patients, and 46 healthy controls took part in the study. Cortical activity was measured with the contingent negative variation (CNV), a slow cortical event-related potential. Stress coping was examined with the standardized Stress Coping Questionnaire SVF-78. A one-way analysis of variance was used to investigate possible differences between the groups. CNV-amplitude was significantly higher in migraineurs than in controls. The meditators showed significantly lowest amplitudes. Migraine patients used negative stress-coping strategies significantly more often than meditators and healthy controls. Especially the application of the strategy “rumination” was most frequent in migraine patients and least frequent in meditators. Moreover, frequent rumination was significantly correlated with high CNV-amplitudes. Cortical and stress processing in people with meditation experience was improved compared to migraine patients and healthy controls.     

Disentangling genetic and epigenetic determinants of ultrafast adaptation

A major rationale for the advocacy of epigenetically mediated adaptive responses is that they facilitate faster adaptation to environmental challenges. This motivated us to develop a theoretical–experimental framework for disclosing the presence of such adaptation‐speeding mechanisms in an experimental evolution setting circumventing the need for pursuing costly mutation–accumulation experiments. To this end, we exposed clonal populations of budding yeast to a whole range of stressors. By growth phenotyping, we found that almost complete adaptation to arsenic emerged after a few mitotic cell divisions without involving any phenotypic plasticity. Causative mutations were identified by deep sequencing of the arsenic‐adapted populations and reconstructed for validation. Mutation effects on growth phenotypes, and the associated mutational target sizes were quantified and embedded in data‐driven individual‐based evolutionary population models. We found that the experimentally observed homogeneity of adaptation speed and heterogeneity of molecular solutions could only be accounted for if the mutation rate had been near estimates of the basal mutation rate. The ultrafast adaptation could be fully explained by extensive positive pleiotropy such that all beneficial mutations dramatically enhanced multiple fitness components in concert. As our approach can be exploited across a range of model organisms exposed to a variety of environmental challenges, it may be used for determining the importance of epigenetic adaptation‐speeding mechanisms in general.     

Carbonaceous chondrites and the origin of life

Organic matter in carbonaceous chondrites can be separated into three fractions. The first component, the fraction that is insoluble in chloroform and methanol, has a part which is of interstellar origin (1). The other two fractions (chloroform-soluble hydrocarbons and methanol-soluble polar organics) are hypothesized to have been synthesized on a planetoid body (2). We propose that the polar organics, i.e., amino acids, were synthesized close to its surface by the radiolysis of hydrocarbons and ammonium carbonate in a liquid water environment. Some hydrocarbons may have been synthesized by a Fischer-Tropsch mechanism (3) in the interior of the body. Ferrous ion acted as a protection against back reactions. The simultaneous synthesis of iron-rich clays with the polar organics may be indicative of events related to the origin of life on Earth.     

Knockdown of CDKN1C (p57kip2) and PHLDA2 Results in Developmental Changes in Bovine Pre-implantation Embryos

Imprinted genes have been implicated in early embryonic, placental, and neonatal development and alterations in expression levels of these genes can lead to growth abnormalities and embryonic lethality. However, little is known about the functions of bovine imprinted genes during the pre-implantation period. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the influence of altered expression of imprinted genes on developmental progress of embryos using small interfering RNA (siRNA). Expression levels of 18 imprinted genes (MAGEL2, UBE3A, IGF2R, NAP1L5, TSSC4, PEG3, NDN, CDKN1C, PHLDA2, MKRN3, USP29, NNAT, PEG10, RTL1, IGF2, H19, MIM1, and XIST) were compared between embryos reaching the blastocyst stage and growth-arrested embryos (degenerates) using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Ten genes were found to be differentially expressed between blastocysts and degenerates. The CDKN1C gene showed the highest upregulation in blastocysts whereas PHLDA2 was highly expressed in degenerates. To assess whether the observed differential gene expression was causative or resultant of embryo degeneration, these genes were selected for functional analysis using siRNA. Injection of siRNA specific to PHLDA2 into one-cell zygotes resulted in a substantial increase in blastocyst development, whereas injection of CDKN1C-specific siRNA resulted in a 45% reduction (P = 0.0006) in blastocyst development. RNA-Seq analysis of CDKN1C-siRNA-injected vs. non-injected embryos revealed 51 differentially expressed genes with functions in apoptosis, lipid metabolism, differentiation, and cell cycle regulation. Gene ontology analysis revealed nine pathways related to cell signaling, metabolism, and nucleic acid processing. Overall, our results show that proper expression levels of the imprinted genes CDKN1C and PHLDA2 are critical for embryo development, which suggests that these genes can be used as markers for normal blastocyst formation.     

Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Diets

Changing food consumption patterns and associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been a matter of scientific debate for decades. The agricultural sector is one of the major GHG emitters and thus holds a large potential for climate change mitigation through optimal management and dietary changes. We assess this potential, project emissions, and investigate dietary patterns and their changes globally on a per country basis between 1961 and 2007. Sixteen representative and spatially differentiated patterns with a per capita calorie intake ranging from 1,870 to 3,400 kcal/day were derived. Detailed analyses show that low calorie diets are decreasing worldwide, while in parallel diet composition is changing as well: a discernable shift towards more balanced diets in developing countries can be observed and steps towards more meat rich diets as a typical characteristics in developed countries. Low calorie diets which are mainly observable in developing countries show a similar emission burden than moderate and high calorie diets. This can be explained by a less efficient calorie production per unit of GHG emissions in developing countries. Very high calorie diets are common in the developed world and exhibit high total per capita emissions of 3.7–6.1 kg CO_2eq./day due to high carbon intensity and high intake of animal products. In case of an unbridled demographic growth and changing dietary patterns the projected emissions from agriculture will approach 20 Gt CO_2eq./yr by 2050.     

A novel harmony search-K means hybrid algorithm for clustering gene expression data

Recent progress in bioinformatics research has led to the accumulation of huge quantities of biological data at various data sources. The DNA microarray technology makes it possible to simultaneously analyze large number of genes across different samples. Clustering of microarray data can reveal the hidden gene expression patterns from large quantities of expression data that in turn offers tremendous possibilities in functional genomics, comparative genomics, disease diagnosis and drug development. The k- ¬means clustering algorithm is widely used for many practical applications. But the original k-¬means algorithm has several drawbacks. It is computationally expensive and generates locally optimal solutions based on the random choice of the initial centroids. Several methods have been proposed in the literature for improving the performance of the k-¬means algorithm. A meta-heuristic optimization algorithm named harmony search helps find out near-global optimal solutions by searching the entire solution space. Low clustering accuracy of the existing algorithms limits their use in many crucial applications of life sciences. In this paper we propose a novel Harmony Search-K means Hybrid (HSKH) algorithm for clustering the gene expression data. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm produces clusters with better accuracy in comparison with the existing algorithms.     

Sexuality and Affection among Elderly German Men and Women in Long-Term Relationships: Results of a Prospective Population-Based Study

Satisfaction with sexual activity i.e. sexual satisfaction and the importance of sexuality and affection were analysed using data from the German “Interdisciplinary Longitudinal Study of Adult Development” (ILSE). At three measurement points, 1993–1995, 1997–1998, and 2004–2006 i.e. subjects'' ages of 63, 67, and 74 years, participants'' reports about their affection and sexual activity were collected. The sample of completed records used for this study consisted of 194 urban non-institutionalised participants, 68% male, all living with partners. Median levels of sexual satisfaction were reported, fluctuating between the measurement points of ages 63 to 74. Between baseline, first and second follow-up no differences were found in levels of sexual satisfaction, though at measurement points age 63 and 67 women were more satisfied than men. When measured at age 74, affection was given a higher priority than sexual activity. Although men and women reported similar priorities, sexual activity and affection were more important for men than for women. Satisfaction within the relationship can be predicted by the importance of affection, but not by that of sexual activity. Our results confirm the thesis of the ‘second language of sexuality’: for humans in their later years affection seems to be more important than for younger individuals.