Induction of altered states of consciousness during Floatation-REST is associated with the dissolution of body boundaries and the distortion of subjective time.

Floatation-REST (Reduced Environmental Stimulation Therapy) minimizes stimulation of the nervous system by immersing subjects in an environment without sound or light while they effortlessly float in thermoneutral water supersaturated with Epsom salt. Here we investigated the relationship between altered states of consciousness (ASC) and its association with the affective changes induced by Floatation-REST. Using a within-subject crossover design, 50 healthy subjects were randomized to 60 min of Floatation-REST or 60 min of Bed-REST (an active control condition that entailed lying supine on a warm waterbed in a dark and quiet room).

Stress-controlled decomposition routes in cubic AlCrN films assessed by in-situ high-temperature high-energy grazing incidence transmission X-ray diffraction.

The dependence of decomposition routes on intrinsic microstructure and stress in nanocrystalline transition metal nitrides is not yet fully understood. In this contribution, three AlCrN thin films with residual stress magnitudes of -3510, -4660 and -5930 MPa in the as-deposited state were in-situ characterized in the range of 25-1100 °C using in-situ synchrotron high-temperature high-energy grazing-incidence-transmission X-ray diffraction and temperature evolutions of phases, coefficients of thermal expansion, structural defects, texture as well as residual, thermal and intrinsic stresses were evaluated. The multi-parameter experimental data indicate a complex intrinsic stress and phase changes governed by a microstructure recovery and phase transformations taking place above the deposition temperature.

Structure-activity studies on splitomicin derivatives as sirtuin inhibitors and computational prediction of binding mode.

NAD (+)-dependent histone deacetylases (sirtuins) are enzymes that cleave acetyl groups from lysines in histones and other proteins. Potent selective sirtuin inhibitors are interesting tools for the investigation of the biological functions of those enzymes and may be future drugs for the treatment of cancer. Splitomicin was among the first two inhibitors that were discovered for yeast sirtuins but showed rather weak inhibition on human enzymes.

SIRT1 regulates HIV transcription via Tat deacetylation.

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) Tat protein is acetylated by the transcriptional coactivator p300, a necessary step in Tat-mediated transactivation. We report here that Tat is deacetylated by human sirtuin 1 (SIRT1), a nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide-dependent class III protein deacetylase in vitro and in vivo. Tat and SIRT1 coimmunoprecipitate and synergistically activate the HIV promoter.

Identification of selective inhibitors of NAD+-dependent deacetylases using phenotypic screens in yeast.

Sir2 and Hst1 are NAD+-dependent deacetylases involved in transcriptional repression in yeast. The two enzymes are highly homologous yet have different sensitivity to the small-molecule inhibitor splitomicin (compound 1) (Bedalov, A., Gatbonton, T.