Stress Reduction by Technology? An Experimental Study into the Effects of Brainmachines on Burnout and State Anxiety

Stress and burnout are widely acknowledged as major causes of societal and individual problems in the Western world. In order to reduce material and immaterial expenses, increased efforts are made to enhance relaxation and stress reduction. Based on neuropsychological findings, alternative ways have been explored, one of them being the application of so-called brain wave synchronizers, which are said to induce a relaxation response by entraining alpha brain-wave activity (8–13 Hz) through audiovisual stimulation. A double blind, quasi-experiment was conducted among employees at a Dutch addiction care center to investigate the possible effects of two distinct brainmachine programs on burnout and anxiety. Subjects in both conditions showed a significant, immediate decrease in state anxiety as assessed by Spielberger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and reported a range of subjective effects. However, a long-term effect on burnout, as measured with Maslach's Burnout Inventory (MBI-NL), could not be established. A long-term effect on anxiety (STAI), as investigated by interrupted time-series measurement, could not be established either. These and other findings suggest that the major claims with respect to these machines cannot hold over time, although pleasant short-term effects do occur. Individual differences in baseline responsivity, the stable character of burnout dimensions, or the ill-defined nature of relaxation, or a combination of these, may account for these results.     

The Fates of Spiracular Allostoses in Mammals

The human temporal bone includes an upper and a lower allostotic component, which are referred to, respectively, as the pars squamosa and pars tympanica in the adult and as the os squamosum and os tympanicum in the fetus. The consensus is that the former is descended from a cheek bone and the latter from a jaw bone in piscine osleolepipods. However, no corroborating evidence supports this view. It is concluded here that both these allostotic components of the human temporal bone derive from spiracular allostoses, except for the zygomatic process of the pars squamosa, this being a cheek allostosis that has been secondarily united with the squama. This is the first recognition of erstwhile spiracular allostoses in tetrapods. These conclusions challenge the widely accepted Reichert-Gaupp theory as well as the oft-alleged monophyletic status of the mammals and their derivation from therapsid reptiles.     

Biotransformation of the Major Fungal Metabolite 3,5-Dichloro- p-Anisyl Alcohol under Anaerobic Conditions and Its Role in Formation of Bis(3,5-Dichloro-4-Hydroxyphenyl)methane

Higher fungi have a widespread capacity for biosynthesis of organohalogens. Commonly occurring chloroaromatic fungal metabolites can end up in anaerobic microniches at the boundary of fungal colonies and wetland soils. The aim of this study was to investigate the environmental fate of a major fungal metabolite, 3,5-dichloro-p-anisyl alcohol, under anaerobic conditions. This compound was incubated with methanogenic sludge to study its biotransformation reactions. Initially, 3,5-dichloro-p-anisyl alcohol was readily demethylated in stoichiometric quantities to 3,5-dichloro-4-hydroxybenzyl alcohol. The demethylated product was converted further via two routes: a biotic route leading to the formation of 3,5-dichloro-4-hydroxybenzoate and 2,6-dichlorophenol, as well as an abiotic route leading to the formation of bis(3,5-dichloro-4-hydroxyphenyl)methane. In the first route, the benzyl alcohol moiety on the aromatic ring was oxidized, giving 3,5-dichloro-4-hydroxybenzoate as a transient or accumulating product, depending on the type of methanogenic sludge used. In sludge previously adapted to low-molecular-weight lignin from straw, a part of the 3,5-dichloro-4-hydroxybenzoate was decarboxylated, yielding detectable levels of 2,6-dichlorophenol. In the second route, 3,5-dichloro-4-hydroxybenzyl alcohol dimerized, leading to the formation of a tetrachlorinated bisphenolic compound, which was identified as bis(3,5-dichloro-4-hydroxyphenyl)methane. Since formation of this dimer was also observed in incubations with autoclaved sludge spiked with 3,5-dichloro-4-hydroxybenzyl alcohol, it was concluded that its formation was due to an abiotic process. However, demethylation of the fungal metabolite by biological processes was a prerequisite for dimerization. The most probable reaction mechanism leading to the formation of the tetrachlorinated dimer in the absence of oxygen is presented, and the possible environmental implications of its natural occurrence are discussed.     

Secondary Metabolite- and Endochitinase-Dependent Antagonism toward Plant-Pathogenic Microfungi of Pseudomonas fluorescens Isolates from Sugar Beet Rhizosphere

Forty-seven isolates representing all biovars of Pseudomonas fluorescens (biovars I to VI) were collected from the rhizosphere of field-grown sugar beet plants to select candidate strains for biological control of preemergence damping-off disease. The isolates were tested for in vitro antagonism toward the plant-pathogenic microfungi Pythium ultimum and Rhizoctonia solani in three different plate test media. Mechanisms of fungal inhibition were elucidated by tracing secondary-metabolite production and cell wall-degrading enzyme activity in the same media. Most biovars expressed a specific mechanism of antagonism, as represented by a unique antibiotic or enzyme production in the media. A lipopeptide antibiotic, viscosinamide, was produced independently of medium composition by P. fluorescens bv. I, whereas the antibiotic 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol was observed only in glucose-rich medium and only in P. fluorescens bv. II/IV. Both pathogens were inhibited by the two antibiotics. Finally, in low-glucose medium, a cell wall-degrading endochitinase activity in P. fluorescens bv. I, III, and VI was the apparent mechanism of antagonism toward R. solani. The viscosinamide-producing DR54 isolate (bv. I) was shown to be an effective candidate for biological control, as tested in a pot experiment with sugar beet seedlings infested with Pythium ultimum. The assignment of different patterns of fungal antagonism to the biovars of P. fluorescens is discussed in relation to an improved selection protocol for candidate strains to be used in biological control.     

fbfB, a Gene Encoding a Putative Galactose Oxidase, Is Involved in Stigmatella aurantiaca Fruiting Body Formation

Stigmatella aurantiaca is a gram-negative bacterium which forms, under conditions of starvation in a multicellular process, characteristic three-dimensional structures: the fruiting bodies. For studying this complex process, mutants impaired in fruiting body formation have been induced by transposon insertion with a Tn5-derived transposon. The gene affected (fbfB) in one of the mutants (AP182) was studied further. Inactivation of fbfB results in mutants which form only clumps during starvation instead of wild-type fruiting bodies. This mutant phenotype can be partially rescued, if cells of mutants impaired in fbfB function are mixed with those of some independent mutants defective in fruiting before starvation. The fbfB gene is expressed about 14 h after induction of fruiting body formation as determined by measuring β-galactosidase activity in a merodiploid strain harboring the wild-type gene and an fbfB-Δtrp-lacZ fusion gene or by Northern (RNA) analysis with the Rhodobacter capsulatus pufBA fragment fused to fbfB as an indicator. The predicted polypeptide FbfB has a molecular mass of 57.8 kDa and shows a significant homology to the galactose oxidase (GaoA) of the fungus Dactylium dendroides. Galactose oxidase catalyzes the oxidation of galactose and primary alcohols to the corresponding aldehydes.     

The effect of the wheat Ph1 locus on chromatin organisation and meiotic chromosome pairing analysed by genome painting

The Ph1 locus in wheat influences homo(eo)logous chromosome pairing. We have analysed its effect on the behaviour and morphology of two 5RL rye telosomes in a wheat background, by genomic in situ hybridisation (GISH), using rye genomic DNA as a probe. Our main objective was to study the effect of different alleles of the Ph1 locus on the morphology and behaviour of the rye telosomes in interphase nuclei of tapetal cells and in pollen mother cells at early stages of meiosis. The telosomes, easily detectable at all stages, showed a brightly fluorescing chromomere in the distal region and a constriction in the proximal part. These diagnostic markers enabled us to define the centromere and telomere regions of the rye telosomes. In the presence of functional copies of Ph1, the rye telosomes associated at pre-leptotene, disjoined and reorganised their shape at leptotene, and became fully homologously paired at zygotene – pachytene. In plants without functional alleles (ph1bph1b), the rye telosomes displayed an aberrant morphology, their premeiotic associations were clearly disturbed and their pairing during zygotene and pachytene was reduced and irregular. The Ph1 locus also influenced the behaviour of rye telosomes in the interphase nuclei of tapetal cells: in Ph1Ph1 plants, the rye telosomes occupied distinct, parallel-oriented domains, whereas in tapetal nuclei of ph1bph1b plants they were intermingled with wheat chromosomes and showed a heavily distorted morphology. The results shed new light on the effect of Ph1, and suggest that this locus is involved in chromosome condensation and/or scaffold organisation. Our explanation might account for various apparently contradictory and pleiotropic effects of this locus on both premeiotic associations of homologues, the regulation of meiotic homo(eo)logous chromosome pairing and synapsis, the resolution of bivalent interlockings and centromere behaviour. Received: 27 April 1998; in revised form: 5 August 1998 / Accepted: 11 August 1998     

Intracellular Glucose Concentration in Derepressed Yeast Cells Consuming Glucose Is High Enough To Reduce the Glucose Transport Rate by 50%

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells exhibiting high-affinity glucose transport, the glucose consumption rate at extracellular concentrations above 10 mM was only half of the zero trans-influx rate. To determine if this regulation of glucose transport might be a consequence of intracellular free glucose we developed a new method to measure intracellular glucose concentrations in cells metabolizing glucose, which compares glucose stereoisomers to correct for adhering glucose. The intracellular glucose concentration was 1.5 mM, much higher than in most earlier reports. We show that for the simplest model of a glucose carrier, this concentration is sufficient to reduce the glucose influx by 50%. We conclude that intracellular glucose is the most likely candidate for the observed regulation of glucose import and hence glycolysis. We discuss the possibility that intracellular glucose functions as a primary signal molecule in these cells.