Behavioral Effects of Nightmares and Their Correlations to Personality Patterns

Factors affecting or inducing nightmares have been investigated repeatedly. However, little research is carried out on the behavioral consequences of nightmares. The present study thus served to investigate behavioral effects of nightmares in correlation to personality variables. 41 non-clinical participants, who suffer from about 2 nightmares per month recorded their dreams and nightmares over a 4-week period. A nightmare was defined as a dream that frightens the dreamer and could be recalled in detail on awakening. Anxiety and mood were monitored every morning. All nightmares and their behavioral consequences were noted on a questionnaire. Personality traits and life events were assessed at the beginning of the investigation. 100 nightmares were reported by the subjects over the 4-week period (range: 0–8). Following a nightmare, the subjects were significantly more anxious and were of a less stable mental condition compared to nights without nightmares. Additionally, nightmares induced physical complaints. This was considered to be an indicator that something was wrong in their lives and induced them to solve personal problems. The behavioral effects were most pronounced in subjects scoring high on neuroticism and on the number of physical complaints and low on achievement orientation and openness. The results suggest that sufferers of nightmares intend to change their lives, especially those with a neurotic-like personality.     

The PIN auxin efflux facilitators: evolutionary and functional perspectives

It is widely believed that the PIN proteins are crucial for proper cellular coordination. Since the analysis of the Arabidopsis pin-formed mutant in 1991, and the subsequent cloning of AtPIN1, a further seven members of the family have been discovered. Here, we present an overview of this family of auxin efflux facilitators in monocot and dicot plants, summarizing their evolutionary history, expression profiles and, where appropriate, relating them to protein function.     

Correction to: In vitro cellular and proteome assays identify Wnt pathway and CDKN2A-regulated senescence affected in mesenchymal stem cells from mice after a chronic LD gamma irradiation in utero

Radiation and Environmental Biophysics -     

Phenotype selection reveals coevolution of muscle glycogen and protein and PTEN as a gate keeper for the accretion of muscle mass in adult female mice

We have investigated molecular mechanisms for muscle mass accretion in a non-inbred mouse model (DU6P mice) characterized by extreme muscle mass. This extreme muscle mass was developed during 138 generations of phenotype selection for high protein content. Due to the repeated trait selection a complex setting of different mechanisms was expected to be enriched during the selection experiment. In muscle from 29-week female DU6P mice we have identified robust increases of protein kinase B activation (AKT, Ser-473, up to 2-fold) if compared to 11- and 54-week DU6P mice or controls. While a number of accepted effectors of AKT activation, including IGF-I, IGF-II, insulin/IGF-receptor, myostatin or integrin-linked kinase (ILK), were not correlated with this increase, phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted on chromosome 10 (PTEN) was down-regulated in 29-week female DU6P mice. In addition, higher levels of PTEN phosphorylation were found identifying a second mechanism of PTEN inhibition. Inhibition of PTEN and activation of AKT correlated with specific activation of p70S6 kinase and ribosomal protein S6, reduced phosphorylation of eukaryotic initiation factor 2α (eIF2α) and higher rates of protein synthesis in 29-week female DU6P mice. On the other hand, AKT activation also translated into specific inactivation of glycogen synthase kinase 3? (GSK3?) and an increase of muscular glycogen. In muscles from 29-week female DU6P mice a significant increase of protein/DNA was identified, which was not due to a reduction of protein breakdown or to specific increases of translation initiation. Instead our data support the conclusion that a higher rate of protein translation is contributing to the higher muscle mass in mid-aged female DU6P mice. Our results further reveal coevolution of high protein and high glycogen content during the selection experiment and identify PTEN as gate keeper for muscle mass in mid-aged female DU6P mice.     

Microplate-based assays for the evaluation of antibacterial effects of photocatalytic coatings

Three microplate-based viability assays for assessing the antibacterial effects of photocatalytic coatings were compared to the conventional colony count method. In the experimental design, cultured Escherichia coli were exposed to photocatalysis on various TiO₂ films in the presence of either UVA or visible light. The photocatalytic effects on the bacterial physiology were determined by real-time measurements of metabolic activity (XTT assay), biomass formation in the liquid medium (growth assay), and by assessing membrane integrity (with propidium iodide and SYTO 9 fluorescent nucleic acid binding dyes—BacLight assay). All three methods proved to be more sensitive and reproducible than colony count for the evaluation of the bactericidal effect of photocatalysis, XTT, and growth assay succeeded in detecting differences in both UVA and visible light-activated photocatalytic coatings. BacLight could efficiently detect the visible light-dependent photocatalytic effect on bacteria and identify membrane damage, but resulted inadequate for evaluating the UVA-dependent antibacterial effects. The described microplate-based evaluation methods proved being more effective and rapid than the colony count assay for assessing the antibacterial effect of various photocatalytic coatings.     

Temporal encoding of spatial information during active visual fixation

Humans and other species continually perform microscopic eye movements, even when attending to a single point. These movements, which include drifts and microsaccades, are under oculomotor control, elicit strong neural responses, and have been thought to serve important functions. The influence of these fixational eye movements on the acquisition and neural processing of visual information remains unclear. Here, we show that during viewing of natural scenes, microscopic eye movements carry out a crucial information-processing step: they remove predictable correlations in natural scenes by equalizing the spatial power of the retinal image within the frequency range of ganglion cells' peak sensitivity. This transformation, which had been attributed to center-surround receptive field organization, occurs prior to any neural processing and reveals a form of matching between the statistics of natural images and those of normal eye movements. We further show that the combined effect of microscopic eye movements and retinal receptive field organization is to convert spatial luminance discontinuities into synchronous firing events, beginning the process of edge detection. Thus, microscopic eye movements are fundamental to two goals of early visual processing: redundancy reduction and feature extraction.     

XHas2 activity is required during somitogenesis and precursor cell migration in Xenopus development

In vertebrates, hyaluronan biosynthesis is regulated by three transmembrane catalytic enzymes denoted Has1, Has2 and Has3. We have previously cloned the Xenopus orthologues of the corresponding genes and defined their spatiotemporal distribution during development. During mammalian embryogenesis, Has2 activity is known to be crucial, as its abrogation in mice leads to early embryonic lethality. Here, we show that, in Xenopus, morpholino-mediated loss-of-function of XHas2 alters somitogenesis by causing a disruption of the metameric somitic pattern and leads to a defective myogenesis. In the absence of XHas2, early myoblasts underwent apoptosis, failing to complete their muscle differentiation programme. XHas2 activity is also required for migration of hypaxial muscle cells and trunk neural crest cells (NCC). To approach the mechanism whereby loss of HA, following XHas2 knockdown, could influence somitogenesis and precursor cell migration, we cloned the orthologue of the primary HA signalling receptor CD44 and addressed its function through an analogous knockdown approach. Loss of XCD44 did not disturb somitogenesis, but strongly impaired hypaxial muscle precursor cell migration and the subsequent formation of the ventral body wall musculature. In contrast to XHas2, loss of function of XCD44 did not seem to be essential for trunk NCC migration, suggesting that the HA dependence of NCC movement was rather associated with an altered macromolecular composition of the ECM structuring the cells' migratory pathways. The presented results, extend our knowledge on Has2 function and, for the first time, demonstrate a developmental role for CD44 in vertebrates. On the whole, these data underlie and confirm the emerging importance of cell-ECM interactions and modulation during embryonic development.     

Formation of sperm cells inGalium mollugo (Rubiaceae),Trichodiadema setuliferum (Aizoaceae), andAvena sativa (Poaceae)

The formation of sperm cells has been examined ultrastructurally in the tricellular pollen grains ofGalium mollugo L. (Rubiaceae).Trichodiadema setuliferum Schwantes (Aizoaceae), andAvena sativa L. (Poaceae). After detachement from the intine the generative cell of all three species lies free within the vegetative cytoplasm. The two sperm cells are built inTrichodiadema andAvena by a single separating wall, while inGalium mollugo two independent walls are formed. However, both mechanisms separate the two male gametes completely.