Dear neighbor: Trees with extrafloral nectaries facilitate defense and growth of adjacent undefended trees.

Plant diversity can increase productivity. One mechanism behind this biodiversity effect is facilitation, which is when one species increases the performance of another species. Plants with extrafloral nectaries (EFNs) establish defense mutualisms with ants. However, whether EFN plants facilitate defense of neighboring non-EFN plants is unknown. Synthesizing data on ants, herbivores, leaf damage, and defense traits from a forest biodiversity experiment, we show that trees growing adjacent to EFN trees had higher ant biomass and species richness and lower caterpillar biomass than conspecific controls without EFN-bearing neighbors. Concurrently, the composition of defense traits in non-EFN trees changed. Thus, when non-EFN trees benefit from lower herbivore loads as a result of ants spilling over from EFN tree neighbors, this may allow relatively reduced resource allocation to defense in the former, potentially explaining the higher growth of those trees. Via this mutualist-mediated facilitation, promoting EFN trees in tropical reforestation could foster carbon capture and multiple other ecosystem functions.

Interventions for children of parents with cancer: an overview.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The purpose of this overview is to analyze existing reviews on psychosocial interventions for children of parents with cancer and synthesize implications for further practice, interventions, and research in this field. The aim of this overview is therefore to generate systematic knowledge about what can be classed as evidence-based knowledge in this field. RECENT FINDINGS: The literature search in MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, PSYNDEX, and PsycARTICLES resulted in three systematic reviews, which were evaluated by the AMSTAR-2-tool for quality assessment and the PRISMA-checklist for reporting. Results were analyzed through narrative synthesis due to the heterogeneity of the studies. The three systematic reviews were evaluated by the AMSTAR-2-tool for quality assessment and the PRISMA-checklist for reporting. AMSTAR-2 revealed critically low quality for all three reviews but taking into account the study situation of this scientific context, a more optimistic quality assessment can be suggested. The PRISMA checklist revealed good results. Positive evidence was found for the effect of psychosocial interventions concerning depressive symptoms, children's behavior, communication within the family, and quality of life. A comparison of the interventions is not possible due to the high degree of heterogeneity of the studies. SUMMARY: Following the principles of evidence-based medicine, this overview, together with clinical-practical expertise and the needs of those affected, could contribute to evidence-based care and stimulate future guidelines in this important field. The valuable engagement with questions around evidence-based practice invites professionals and researchers to enter into a common discourse to ultimately contribute to an improvement of the life situation of children of parents with cancer.

The Choice of Sports Affects Mental Rotation Performance in Adolescents.

This study investigates mental rotation performance of adolescent female dancers and soccer players in object-based and egocentric mental rotation tasks using human body stimuli. 60 young females, 30 soccer players, and 30 dancers (not twosome), completed a chronometric mental rotation task with object-based and egocentric transformation of male and female figures, which were displayed either in front or back view. During their sport-specific activity soccer-players and dancers very often have to adapt their movements to the movement of a partner or opponent, soccer-players especially in front view positions. While for soccer-players reaction time (RT) often is crucial for sporting success, dancers mainly focus on the accuracy of their movements. Therefore, we expect significantly faster RTs for soccer players for front view stimuli but no differences between soccer players and dancers for back view stimuli. The main result was that soccer-players showed a significantly shorter RT than dancers for stimuli presented in front view in object based and egocentric transformation. There was no such difference, when the stimuli were presented in the back view. Contrary to literature we didn't find significantly higher RTs and error rates for stimuli presented in front view compared to back view in general but only for egocentric transformations. The results of this study show that specific sports affect individual aspects of mental rotation performance.

The relation between mental rotation and handedness is a consequence of how handedness is measured.

This study investigates the mental rotation performance of right- and left-handers on a chronometric mental rotation task. Hand preference as well as different types of hand performance were measured. Previous studies have reported slightly better mental rotation performance in right-handers compared with left-handers. However, different forms of hand performance were not considered in these studies. In this research, 61 participants completed a chronometric mental rotation task with cube figures. Handedness was measured using the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory, finger tapping, grip strength and the Grooved Pegboard Test. Our results showed that right-handers do not generally show faster reaction times than left-handers on mental rotation tasks, when handedness is measured using a typical handedness questionnaire. However, using a handedness measure of visuo-motor control and manipulation skill, we found that individuals who solved the task faster with their right hand significantly outperformed participants who solved the same test faster with their left hand.

Laterality-Specific Training Improves Mental Rotation Performance in Young Soccer Players.

This study investigates the influence of specific soccer training with the non-dominant leg on mental rotation performance of 20 adolescent soccer players between 10 and 11 years of age. While the experimental group performed soccer specific tasks only with the non-dominant foot once a week for 10 weeks, the control group absolved the same exercises with the dominant foot for the same period of time. Both groups performed a mental rotation task and shot, dribbling and ball control tests before and after the 10 week intervention. The most relevant result was that the experimental group showed a significantly larger increase in mental rotation ability than the control group.

Decreased Hepatocyte Growth Factor (HGF) and Gamma Aminobutyric Acid (GABA) in Individuals with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

INTRODUCTION: There is support for the role of gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the etiology of mood disorders. Recent research has shown that hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) modulates GABAergic inhibition and seizure susceptibility. This study was designed to determine and correlate plasma levels of HGF and GABA as well as symptom severity in individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Plasma from 15 individuals with OCD (9 males, 6 females;, mean age 38.7 years) and 17 neurotypical controls (10 males, 7 females; mean age 35.2 years) was assessed for HGF, GABA, urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA), and urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR) concentration using enzyme-linked immunosorbest assays ELISAs. Symptom severity was assessed in these OCD individuals and compared with HGF and GABA concentrations. RESULTS: In this preliminary study, individuals with OCD had significantly decreased HGF levels, decreased plasma levels of GABA and decreased uPA. We found that both uPA and uPAR levels correlate with HGF. Both low uPA and low uPAR levels correlate with high symptom severity in individuals with OCD. Low GABA levels in OCD individuals also correlate with high symptom severity. DISCUSSION: These results demonstrate a preliminary association between HGF, GABA, uPA levels, and OCD and suggest that plasma GABA and uPA levels are related to symptom severity in individuals with OCD.