Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Molecular, Biochemical, and Dietary Regulation Features of α-Amylase in a Carnivorous Crustacean, the Spiny Lobster Panulirus argus

Alpha-amylases are ubiquitously distributed throughout microbials, plants and animals. It is widely accepted that omnivorous crustaceans have higher α-amylase activity and number of isoforms than carnivorous, but contradictory results have been obtained in some species, and carnivorous crustaceans have been less studied. In addition, the physiological meaning of α-amylase polymorphism in crustaceans is not well understood. In this work we studied α-amylase in a carnivorous lobster at the gene, transcript, and protein levels. It was showed that α-amylase isoenzyme composition (i.e., phenotype) in lobster determines carbohydrate digestion efficiency. Most frequent α-amylase phenotype has the lowest digestion efficiency, suggesting this is a favoured trait. We revealed that gene and intron loss have occurred in lobster α-amylase, thus lobsters express a single 1830 bp cDNA encoding a highly conserved protein with 513 amino acids. This protein gives rise to two isoenzymes in some individuals by glycosylation but not by limited proteolysis. Only the glycosylated isoenzyme could be purified by chromatography, with biochemical features similar to other animal amylases. High carbohydrate content in diet down-regulates α-amylase gene expression in lobster. However, high α-amylase activity occurs in lobster gastric juice irrespective of diet and was proposed to function as an early sensor of the carbohydrate content of diet to regulate further gene expression. We concluded that gene/isoenzyme simplicity, post-translational modifications and low Km, coupled with a tight regulation of gene expression, have arose during evolution of α-amylase in the carnivorous lobster to control excessive carbohydrate digestion in the presence of an active α-amylase.
Patterns, causes and consequences of defensive microbiome dynamics across multiple scales

The microbiome can significantly impact host phenotypes and serve as an additional source of heritable genetic variation. While patterns across eukaryotes are consistent with a role for symbiotic microbes in host macroevolution, few studies have examined symbiont‐driven host evolution or the ecological implications of a dynamic microbiome across temporal, spatial or ecological scales. The pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum, and its eight heritable bacterial endosymbionts have served as a model for studies on symbiosis and its potential contributions to host ecology and evolution. But we know little about the natural dynamics or ecological impacts of the heritable microbiome of this cosmopolitan insect pest. Here we report seasonal shifts in the frequencies of heritable defensive bacteria from natural pea aphid populations across two host races and geographic regions. Microbiome dynamics were consistent with symbiont responses to host‐level selection and findings from one population suggested symbiont‐driven adaptation to seasonally changing parasitoid pressures. Conversely, symbiont levels were negatively correlated with enemy‐driven mortality when measured across host races, suggesting important ecological impacts of host race microbiome divergence. Rapid drops in symbiont frequencies following seasonal peaks suggest microbiome instability in several populations, with potentially large costs of ‘superinfection’ under certain environmental conditions. In summary, the realization of several laboratory‐derived, a priori expectations suggests important natural impacts of defensive symbionts in host‐enemy eco‐evolutionary feedbacks. Yet negative findings and unanticipated correlations suggest complexities within this system may limit or obscure symbiont‐driven contemporary evolution, a finding of broad significance given the widespread nature of defensive microbes across plants and animals.
Microbial community structure in pasture and hayfield soils of the Helderberg region of New York State: a comparison of management strategies

ABSTRACT Microbial communities in pasture and hayfield soils in upstate New York were studied to ascertain how land and livestock management practices influence microbial community structure. Three management approaches were compared: conventional pasture management (CM; low livestock density, low rotation frequency), multi-paddock management (MP; high livestock density, high rotation frequency) and mowing for hay (no livestock). Microbial functional groups were quantified by PLFA analysis. Soil attributes were measured, and management details were obtained by interviewing landowners. Microbial biomass in MP soils was higher, more diverse and contained proportionately more fungal (F) than bacterial (B) biomass than did CM and hayfield soils. Microbial biomass, diversity and F:B ratios in CM and hayfield soils were not different. Multivariate analyses suggest that different variables control microbial community structure in MP and CM soils.
Role of GABAAR trafficking in the plasticity of inhibitory synapses

Neuronal excitability depends on the balance between inhibitory and excitatory neurotransmission, which in the CNS are mainly mediated by GABA and glutamate respectively. The plasticity of glutamatergic synapses and the underlying molecular mechanisms have been characterized to a large extent. In comparison, much less is known regarding the plasticity of GABAergic synapses, which is also important in the maintenance of the excitatory/inhibitory balance. GABAergic synapses, similarly to the glutamatergic synapses, adjust their strength depending on the pattern of neuronal activity. These alterations take place in the pre‐ and postsynaptic compartments, and short‐ and long‐term alterations have been described. At the postsynaptic level the plasticity of inhibitory synapses is largely mediated by modulation of the expression, localization and function of GABAA receptors, by mechanisms involving the participation of scaffold proteins and structural molecules. This review is focused on the key mechanisms that regulate GABAA receptor trafficking in response to alterations in neuronal activity or to stimulation of plasma membrane receptors. These alterations in GABAergic neurotransmission are important in the refinement of the pattern of activity of neuronal networks.
Genetic analysis reveals candidate species in the Scinax catharinae clade (Amphibia: Anura) from Central Brazil

Abstract Scinax (Anura: Hylidae) is a species-rich genus of amphibians (113 spp.), divided into five species groups by morphological features. Cladistic analyses however revealed only two monophyletic clades in these groups: Scinax catharinae and Scinax ruber. Most species from the S. catharinae clade are found in Atlantic rainforest, except for Scinax canastrensis,S. centralis, S. luizotavioi, S. machadoi,S. pombali and S. skaios. In the present work, specimens of Scinax collected in Chapada dos Guimarães, central Brazil, were morphologically compatible with species from theS. catharinae group. On the other hand, genetic analysis based on mitochondrial (16S and 12S) and nuclear (rhodopsin) sequences revealed a nucleotide divergence of 6 to 20% between Scinax sp. and other congeners from the Brazilian savannah (Cerrado). Accordingly, Bayesian inference placed Scinax sp. in the S. catharinae clade with high support values. Hence, these findings strongly indicate the presence of a new species in the S. catharinae clade from the southwestern portion of the Brazilian savannah. To be properly validated as a novel species, detailed comparative morphological and bioacustic studies with other taxa from Brazil such asS. canastrensis, S. centralis, S. luizotavioi, S. machadoi, S. pombali and S. skaios are required.
Religion, socialization, and fertility

Longitudinal data from a large . sample of Wisconsin men and women are used to examine the effects on fertility of religious and secular socialization, including farm upbringing. Analyses of children ever born (CEB) and of parity progression show that current religious choice is more important in explaining fertility than is religion of orientation or denomination of secondary school. The effects of current and background religion are additive, and the effect of current religion is the same for men as for women at each parity progression. Catholic religious background affects fertility primarily by increasing the likelihood of having a third or fourth child; its indirect effects on fertility operate through religious schooling and current religious affiliation. Unlike religious background, the positive influence of farm background on fertility persists among men and women, even when current farm employment is controlled.
Development and validation of a new measure of student attitudes and knowledge of international health and medicine

There is increasing awareness of the importance of international health and medicine (IHM) but there is a paucity of data regarding medical students’ attitudes towards and knowledge of the subject. To the best of our knowledge there is currently no validated measure to assess this. The aim of the present study was to develop a validated measure of medical students’ attitudes and knowledge of IHM and examine its correlates. A panel experienced in IHM formulated attitude and general knowledge items and clinical cases based on personal experience, literature review and texts. The survey was piloted and then administered to 82 students of the Ben Gurion University—Columbia University MD program in IHM, and 59 students from programs without specific IHM focus. Cronbach's α was 0.87. Test-retest reliability of attitudes was r = 0.87. Correlation of openness to experience with attitudes was r = 0.376, showing construct validity. Third-year IHM students scored higher than incoming students on IHM knowledge and clinical cases, demonstrating sensitivity. General IHM knowledge was positively correlated to clinical IHM knowledge r = 0.36, but not attitude or openness to experience. Those with previous IHM work experience showed greater openness and positive attitude. Women showed more positive attitudes towards IHM than men. Attitude was negatively correlated with number of languages spoken r = −0.198. The survey may be a reliable and valid tool to assess and compare medical students’ knowledge and attitude toward international health. This survey can be used to evaluate curricular innovations in the field.
Genetic contribution to the relationship between personality and depressive symptoms among older women

Background Prior studies suggest that certain types of personality are at higher risk for developing depressive disorders. This study examined the relationship between old age depressive symptoms and two middle-age personality dimensions, neuroticism and extraversion. Method The present study is part of the Finnish Twin Study on Aging, where altogether 409 female twins who had completed the Eysenck Personality Inventory at the age of 38–51 years were studied for depressive symptoms 28 years later using Center for the Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Logistic regression analysis suitable for dependent data and univariate and Cholesky models for decomposing the genetic and environmental factor were used. Results Middle age extraversion protected from later depressive symptoms while neuroticism increased the risk. Twin modeling indicated that the association between neuroticism and depressive symptoms resulted from shared genetic risk factors common to both traits. However, a substantial proportion of the genetic vulnerability was specific to old age depressive symptoms and was not shared with neuroticism. Middle age extraversion had no genetic relationship with old age depressive symptoms. Conclusions The relationship between middle age neuroticism and old age depressive symptoms is strong but only partly the result of genetic factors that predispose to both neuroticism and depressive symptoms. Extraversion, by contrast, has no genetic relationship with depressive symptoms experienced in old age.
Interaction of Interferon Gamma-Induced Reactive Oxygen Species with Ceftazidime Leads to Synergistic Killing of Intracellular Burkholderia pseudomallei

ABSTRACT Burkholderia pseudomallei, a facultative intracellular pathogen, causes severe infections and is inherently refractory to many antibiotics. Previous studies from our group have shown that interferon gamma (IFN-γ) interacts synergistically with the antibiotic ceftazidime to kill bacteria in infected macrophages. The present study aimed to identify the underlying mechanism of that interaction. We first showed that blocking reactive oxygen species (ROS) pathways reversed IFN-γ- and ceftazidime-mediated killing, which led to our hypothesis that IFN-γ-induced ROS interacted with ceftazidime to synergistically kill Burkholderia bacteria. Consistent with this hypothesis, we also observed that buthionine sulfoximine (BSO), another inducer of ROS, could substitute for IFN-γ to similarly potentiate the effect of ceftazidime on intracellular killing. Next, we observed that IFN-γ induced ROS-mediated killing of intracellular but not extracellular bacteria. On the other hand, ceftazidime effectively reduced extracellular bacteria but was not capable of intracellular killing when applied at 10 μg/ml. We investigated the exact role of IFN-γ-induced ROS responses on intracellular bacteria and notably observed a lack of actin polymerization associated with Burkholderia bacteria in IFN-γ-treated macrophages, which led to our finding that IFN-γ-induced ROS blocks vacuolar escape. Based on these results, we propose a model in which synergistically reduced bacterial burden is achieved primarily through separate and compartmentalized killing: intracellular killing by IFN-γ-induced ROS responses and extracellular killing by ceftazidime. Our findings suggest a means of enhancing antibiotic activity against Burkholderia bacteria through combination with drugs that induce ROS pathways or otherwise target intracellular spread and/or replication of bacteria.
Health and Wellness Technology Use by Historically Underserved Health Consumers: Systematic Review

Background The implementation of health technology is a national priority in the United States and widely discussed in the literature. However, literature about the use of this technology by historically underserved populations is limited. Information on culturally informed health and wellness technology and the use of these technologies to reduce health disparities facing historically underserved populations in the United States is sparse in the literature. Objective To examine ways in which technology is being used by historically underserved populations to decrease health disparities through facilitating or improving health care access and health and wellness outcomes. Methods We conducted a systematic review in four library databases (PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and Engineering Village) to investigate the use of technology by historically underserved populations. Search strings consisted of three topics (eg, technology, historically underserved populations, and health). Results A total of 424 search phrases applied in the four databases returned 16,108 papers. After review, 125 papers met the selection criteria. Within the selected papers, 30 types of technology, 19 historically underserved groups, and 23 health issues were discussed. Further, almost half of the papers (62 papers) examined the use of technology to create effective and culturally informed interventions or educational tools. Finally, 12 evaluation techniques were used to assess the technology. Conclusions While the reviewed studies show how technology can be used to positively affect the health of historically underserved populations, the technology must be tailored toward the intended population, as personally relevant and contextually situated health technology is more likely than broader technology to create behavior changes. Social media, cell phones, and videotapes are types of technology that should be used more often in the future. Further, culturally informed health information technology should be used more for chronic diseases and disease management, as it is an innovative way to provide holistic care and reminders to otherwise underserved populations. Additionally, design processes should be stated regularly so that best practices can be created. Finally, the evaluation process should be standardized to create a benchmark for culturally informed health information technology.
Preventive Strength of Dyadic Social Interaction against Reacquisition/Reexpression of Cocaine Conditioned Place Preference

The reorientation away from drugs of abuse and toward social interaction is a highly desirable but as yet elusive goal in the therapy of substance dependence. We could previously show that cocaine preferring Sprague-Dawley rats which engaged in only four 15 min episodes of dyadic social interaction (DSI) did not reacquire and reexpress cocaine conditioned place preference (CPP) after a single cocaine exposure. In the present study, we investigated how strong this preventive effect of DSI is. In corroboration of our previous findings in rats, four 15 min DSI episodes prevented the reacquisition/reexpression of cocaine CPP in mice. However, this effect was only observed if only one cocaine conditioning session (15 min) was used. If mice were counterconditioned with a total of four cocaine sessions, the cocaine CPP reemerged. Interestingly, the opposite also held true: in mice that had acquired/expressed cocaine CPP, one conditioning session with DSI did not prevent the persistence of cocaine CPP, whereas four DSI conditioning sessions reversed CPP for 15 mg/kg intraperitoneal cocaine. Of note, this cocaine dose was a strong reward in C57BL/6J mice, causing CPP in all tested animals. Our findings suggest that both the reversal (reconditioning) of CPP from cocaine to DSI as well as that from DSI to cocaine requires four conditioning sessions. As previously shown in C57BL/6 mice from the NIH substrain, mice from the Jackson substrain also showed a greater relative preference for 15 mg/kg intraperitoneal cocaine over DSI, whereas Sprague-Dawley rats were equally attracted to contextual stimuli associated with this cocaine dose and DSI. Also in corroboration of previous findings, both C57BL/6J mice and experimenters several generations removed from the original ones produced CPP for DSI to a lesser degree than Sprague-Dawley rats. Our findings demonstrate the robustness of our experimental model across several subject- and experimenter generations in two rodent genus (i.e., mouse and rat) and allow the quantification of the strength (i.e., persistence) of the preventive effect of DSI against the reacquisition/reexpression of cocaine CPP, arguably a model for cocaine relapse.
Availability of shares on the West Africa regional stock exchange: scarcity or illusion

This article examines the speed at which shares change hands and the empirical link between the float level and the volume of traded shares on the stock market of the regional stock exchange using secondary data from the Regional Council. The results indicate that all shares listed on the regional stock exchange value (BRVM) are less rotational and the volume of traded shares on the market is positively correlated with the volume of outstanding shares. This leads to the conclusion that most investors' approach is based on conservation of shares in the regional stock exchange value (BRVM). This will inevitably lead to a reduction of the depth and liquidity of the market due to the scarcity of shares involved on the market.
Managing the Tradition and Innovation Paradox in Family Firms: A Family Imprinting Perspective

Long-established family firms are endowed with a bundle of beliefs and practices that constitute their tradition. However, to remain competitive, they need to renew their products and production processes. Such forces pulling toward the past and the future, antithetically calling for continuity and change, seem paradoxical. In an abductive analysis of eight long-established family firms in Turkey, we identify four equifinal strategies to manage this paradox. Adopting a family imprinting perspective, we theorize how the long-lasting legacy of previous family generations shapes different approaches to innovation and tradition depending on the content imprinted on the current family generation. Contributing to family business, imprinting and innovation research, we identify the new construct of temporal symbiosis as a firm’s simultaneous adoption of retrospective and prospective approaches to using its resources to concurrently perpetuate tradition and achieve innovation, highlighting its crucial role as a shield of the past and engine for the future.
Texture Analyses Show Synergetic Effects of Biomechanical and Biochemical Stimulation on Mesenchymal Stem Cell Differentiation into Early Phase Osteoblasts

Abstract We investigated the structural complexity and texture of the cytoskeleton and nucleus in human mesenchymal stem cells during early phase differentiation into osteoblasts according to the differentiation–induction method: mechanical and/or chemical stimuli. For this, fractal dimension and a number of parameters utilizing the gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) were calculated based on single-cell images after confirmation of differentiation by immunofluorescence staining. The F-actin and nuclear fractal dimensions were greater in both stimulus groups compared with the control group. The GLCM values for energy and homogeneity were lower in fibers of the F-actin cytoskeleton, indicating a dispersed F-actin arrangement during differentiation. In the nuclei of both stimulus groups, higher values for energy and homogeneity were calculated, indicating that the chromatin arrangement was chaotic during the early phase of differentiation. It was shown and confirmed that combined stimulation with mechanical and chemical factors accelerated differentiation, even in the early phase. Fractal dimension analysis and GLCM methods have the potential to provide a framework for further investigation of stem cell differentiation.
Qualitative and Mixed Methods in Mental Health Services and Implementation Research

Qualitative and mixed methods play a prominent role in mental health services research. However, the standards for their use are not always evident, especially for those not trained in such methods. This article reviews the rationale and common approaches to using qualitative and mixed methods in mental health services and implementation research based on a review of the articles included in this special series along with representative examples from the literature. Qualitative methods are used to provide a “thick description” or depth of understanding to complement breadth of understanding afforded by quantitative methods, elicit the perspective of those being studied, explore issues that have not been well studied, develop conceptual theories or test hypotheses, or evaluate the process of a phenomenon or intervention. Qualitative methods adhere to many of the same principles of scientific rigor as quantitative methods but often differ with respect to study design, data collection, and data analysis strategies. For instance, participants for qualitative studies are usually sampled purposefully rather than at random and the design usually reflects an iterative process alternating between data collection and analysis. The most common techniques for data collection are individual semistructured interviews, focus groups, document reviews, and participant observation. Strategies for analysis are usually inductive, based on principles of grounded theory or phenomenology. Qualitative methods are also used in combination with quantitative methods in mixed-method designs for convergence, complementarity, expansion, development, and sampling. Rigorously applied qualitative methods offer great potential in contributing to the scientific foundation of mental health services research.