University of Basel

About: University of Basel is a education organization based out in Basel, Basel-Stadt, Switzerland. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Gene. The organization has 25084 authors who have published 52975 publications receiving 2388002 citations. The organization is also known as: Universität Basel & Basel University.

Ancient DNA, pig domestication, and the spread of the Neolithic into Europe

Abstract: The Neolithic Revolution began 11,000 years ago in the Near East and preceded a westward migration into Europe of distinctive cultural groups and their agricultural economies, including domesticated animals and plants. Despite decades of research, no consensus has emerged about the extent of admixture between the indigenous and exotic populations or the degree to which the appearance of specific components of the "Neolithic cultural package" in Europe reflects truly independent development. Here, through the use of mitochondrial DNA from 323 modern and 221 ancient pig specimens sampled across western Eurasia, we demonstrate that domestic pigs of Near Eastern ancestry were definitely introduced into Europe during the Neolithic (potentially along two separate routes), reaching the Paris Basin by at least the early 4th millennium B.C. Local European wild boar were also domesticated by this time, possibly as a direct consequence of the introduction of Near Eastern domestic pigs. Once domesticated, European pigs rapidly replaced the introduced domestic pigs of Near Eastern origin throughout Europe. Domestic pigs formed a key component of the Neolithic Revolution, and this detailed genetic record of their origins reveals a complex set of interactions and processes during the spread of early farmers into Europe.

Self-esteem development from young adulthood to old age: A cohort-sequential longitudinal study.

Abstract: The authors examined the development of self-esteem from young adulthood to old age. Data came from the Americans' Changing Lives study, which includes 4 assessments across a 16-year period of a nationally representative sample of 3,617 individuals aged 25 years to 104 years. Latent growth curve analyses indicated that self-esteem follows a quadratic trajectory across the adult life span, increasing during young and middle adulthood, reaching a peak at about age 60 years, and then declining in old age. No cohort differences in the self-esteem trajectory were found. Women had lower self-esteem than did men in young adulthood, but their trajectories converged in old age. Whites and Blacks had similar trajectories in young and middle adulthood, but the self-esteem of Blacks declined more sharply in old age than did the self-esteem of Whites. More educated individuals had higher self-esteem than did less educated individuals, but their trajectories were similar. Moreover, the results suggested that changes in socioeconomic status and physical health account for the decline in self-esteem that occurs in old age.

Human arylamine N-acetyltransferase genes: isolation, chromosomal localization, and functional expression.

Abstract: N-Acetylation by hepatic arylamine N-acetyltransferase (NAT, EC 2.3.1.5) is a major route in the metabolism and detoxification of numerous drugs and foreign chemicals. NAT is the target of a common genetic polymorphism of clinical relevance in human populations. We have used our recently isolated rabbit cDNA rnat to clone three human NAT genes from human leukocyte DNA. None of the three genomic coding sequences was interrupted by introns. Two genes, designated NAT1 and NAT2, each possessed open reading frames of 870 bp. Both genes have been assigned to human chromosome 8, pter-q11. Following transfection they were transiently expressed in monkey kidney COS-1 cells. NAT1 and NAT2 gave rise to functional NAT proteins, as judged by their NAT enzyme activity with the arylamine substrate sulfamethazine. Western blots with NAT-specific antisera detected proteins of apparent molecular weight of 33 and 31 kD in NAT1- and NAT2-transfected cultures, respectively. The product of NAT2 had an identical apparent molecular weight as that of NAT detected in human liver cytosol. The deduced amino acid sequence of NAT2 also contained 6 peptide sequences which had previously been determined from tryptic peptides of the polymorphic NAT purified from human liver. These data suggest that NAT2 encodes the polymorphic NAT protein. The third gene, NATP, had multiple deleterious mutations and did not encode a functional NAT protein; it most likely represents a pseudogene.

End point of the rp process on accreting neutron stars

Abstract: We calculate the rapid proton ( rp) capture process of hydrogen burning on the surface of an accreting neutron star with an updated reaction network that extends up to Xe, far beyond previous work. In both steady-state nuclear burning appropriate for rapidly accreting neutron stars (such as the magnetic polar caps of accreting x-ray pulsars) and unstable burning of type I x-ray bursts, we find that the rp process ends in a closed SnSbTe cycle. This prevents the synthesis of elements heavier than Te and has important consequences for x-ray burst profiles, the composition of accreting neutron stars, and potentially galactic nucleosynthesis of light p nuclei.

Cardiovascular, electrodermal, and respiratory response patterns to fear- and sadness-inducing films.

Abstract: Responses to fear- and sadness-inducing films were assessed using a broad range of cardiovascular (heart rate, T-wave amplitude, low- and high-frequency heart rate variability, stroke volume, preejection period, left-ventricular ejection time, Heather index, blood pressure, pulse amplitude and transit time, and finger temperature), electrodermal (level, response rate, and response amplitude), and respiratory (rate, tidal volume and its variability, inspiratory flow rate, duty cycle, and end-tidal pCO(2)) measures. Subjective emotional experience and facial behavior (Corrugator Supercilii and Zygomaticus Major EMG) served as control measures. Results indicated robust differential physiological response patterns for fear, sadness, and neutral (mean classification accuracy 85%). Findings are discussed in terms of the fight-flight and conservation-withdrawal responses and possible limitations of a valence-arousal categorization of emotion in affective space.