Cyanobacteria of biological soil crusts (BSCs) represent an important part of circumpolar and Alpine ecosystems, serve as indicators for ecological condition and climate change, and function as ecosystem engineers by soil stabilization or carbon and nitrogen input. The characterization of cyanobacteria from both polar regions remains extremely important to understand geographic distribution patterns and community compositions. This study is the first of its kind revealing the efficiency of combining denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), light microscopy and culture-based 16S rRNA gene sequencing, applied to polar and Alpine cyanobacteria dominated BSCs. This study aimed to show the living proportion of cyanobacteria as an extension to previously published meta-transcriptome data of the same study sites. Molecular fingerprints showed a distinct clustering of cyanobacterial communities with a close relationship between Arctic and Alpine populations, which differed from those found in Antarctica. Species richness and diversity supported these results, which were also confirmed by microscopic investigations of living cyanobacteria from the BSCs. Isolate-based sequencing corroborated these trends as cold biome clades were assigned, which included a potentially new Arctic clade of Oculatella. Thus, our results contribute to the debate regarding biogeography of cyanobacteria of cold biomes.

Using classical molecular dynamics simulations, we studied the influence that free surfaces exert on the austenitic and martensitic phase transition in iron. For several single-indexed surfaces—such as (100)bcc and (110)bcc as well as (100)fcc and (110)fcc surfaces—appropriate pathways exist that allow for the transformation of the surface structure. These are the Bain, Mao, Pitsch, and Kurdjumov–Sachs pathways, respectively. Tilted surfaces follow the pathway of the neighboring single-indexed plane. The austenitic transformation temperature follows the dependence of the specific surface energy of the native bcc phase; here, the new phase nucleates at the surface. In contrast, the martensitic transformation temperature steadily decreases when tilting the surface from the (100)fcc to the (110)fcc orientation. This dependence is caused by the strong out-of-plane deformation that (110)fcc facets experience under the transformation; here, the new phase also nucleates in the bulk rather than at the surface.

Poor posture in childhood and adolescence is held responsible for the occurrence of associated disorders in adult age. This study aimed to verify whether body posture in adolescence can be enhanced through the improvement of neuromuscular performance, attained by means of targeted strength, stretch, and body perception training, and whether any such improvement might also transition into adulthood. From a total of 84 volunteers, the posture development of 67 adolescents was checked annually between the age of 14 and 20 based on index values in three posture situations. 28 adolescents exercised twice a week for about 2 h up to the age of 18, 24 adolescents exercised continually up to the age of 20. Both groups practiced other additional sports for about 1.8 h/week. Fifteen persons served as a non-exercising control group, practicing optional sports of about 1.8 h/week until the age of 18, after that for 0.9 h/week. Group allocation was not random, but depended on the participants’ choice. A linear mixed model was used to analyze the development of posture indexes among the groups and over time and the possible influence of anthropometric parameters (weight, size), of optional athletic activity and of sedentary behavior. The post hoc pairwise comparison was performed applying the Scheffé test. The significance level was set at 0.05. The group that exercised continually (TR20) exhibited a significant posture parameter improvement in all posture situations from the 2nd year of exercising on. The group that terminated their training when reaching adulthood (TR18) retained some improvements, such as conscious straightening of the body posture. In other posture situations (habitual, closed eyes), their posture results declined again from age 18. The effect sizes determined were between Eta² = 0.12 and Eta² = 0.19 and represent moderate to strong effects. The control group did not exhibit any differences. Anthropometric parameters, additional athletic activities and sedentary behavior did not influence the posture parameters significantly. An additional athletic training of 2 h per week including elements for improved body perception seems to have the potential to improve body posture in symptom free male adolescents and young adults.

The size congruity effect involves interference between numerical magnitude and physical size of visually presented numbers: congruent numbers (either both small or both large in numerical magnitude and physical size) are responded to faster than incongruent ones (small numerical magnitude/large physical size or vice versa). Besides, numerical magnitude is associated with lateralized response codes, leading to the Spatial Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effect: small numerical magnitudes are preferably responded to on the left side and large ones on the right side. Whereas size congruity effects are ascribed to interference between stimulus dimensions in the decision stage, SNARC effects are understood as (in)compatibilities in stimulus-response combinations. Accordingly, size congruity and SNARC effects were previously found to be independent in parity and in physical size judgment tasks. We investigated their dependency in numerical magnitude judgment tasks. We obtained independent size congruity and SNARC effects in these tasks and replicated this observation for the parity judgment task. The results confirm and extend the notion that size congruity and SNARC effects operate in different representational spaces. We discuss possible implications for number representation.

We studied the development of cognitive abilities related to intelligence and creativity (N = 48, 6–10 years old), using a longitudinal design (over one school year), in order to evaluate an Enrichment Program for gifted primary school children initiated by the government of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate (Entdeckertag Rheinland Pfalz, Germany; ET; Day of Discoverers). A group of German primary school children (N = 24), identified earlier as intellectually gifted and selected to join the ET program was compared to a gender-, class- and IQ- matched group of control children that did not participate in this program. All participants performed the Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) test, which measures intelligence in well-defined problem space; the Creative Reasoning Task (CRT), which measures intelligence in ill-defined problem space; and the test of creative thinking-drawing production (TCT-DP), which measures creativity, also in ill-defined problem space. Results revealed that problem space matters: the ET program is effective only for the improvement of intelligence operating in well-defined problem space. An effect was found for intelligence as measured by SPM only, but neither for intelligence operating in ill-defined problem space (CRT) nor for creativity (TCT-DP). This suggests that, depending on the type of problem spaces presented, different cognitive abilities are elicited in the same child. Therefore, enrichment programs for gifted, but also for children attending traditional schools, should provide opportunities to develop cognitive abilities related to intelligence, operating in both well- and ill-defined problem spaces, and to creativity in a parallel, using an interactive approach.