bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Sustained attention in skilled and novice martial arts athletes: A study of event-related potentials and current sources
Authors: Sanchez-Lopez Javier , Silva-Pereyra Juan , Fernandez Thalia
Published: January 2018

Background. Research on sports has revealed that behavioral responses and event-related brain potentials (ERP) are better in expert than in novice athletes for sport-related tasks. Focused attention is essential for optimal athletic performance across different sports but mainly in combat disciplines. During combat, long periods of focused attention (i.e., sustained attention) are required for a good performance. Few investigations have reported effects of expertise on brain electrical activity and its neural generators during sport-unrelated attention tasks. The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of expertise (i.e., skilled and novice martial arts athletes) analyzing the ERP during a sustained attention task (Continuous Performance Task; CPT) and the cortical three-dimensional distribution of current density, using the sLORETA technique. Methods. CPT consisted in an oddball-type paradigm presentation of five stimuli (different pointing arrows) where only one of them (an arrow pointing up right) required a motor response (i.e., target). CPT was administered to skilled and novice martial arts athletes while EEG were recorded. Amplitude ERP data from target and non-target stimuli were compared between groups. Subsequently, current source analysis for each ERP component was performed on each subject. sLORETA images were compared by condition and group using Statistical Non-Parametric Mapping analysis. Results. Skilled athletes showed significant amplitude differences between target and non-target conditions in early ERP components (P100 and P200) as opposed to the novice group; however, skilled athletes showed no significant effect of condition in N200 but novices did show a significant effect. Current source analysis showed greater differences in activations in skilled compared with novice athletes between conditions in the frontal (mainly in the Superior Frontal Gyrus and Medial Frontal Gyrus) and limbic (mainly in the Anterior Cingulate Gyrus) lobes. Discussion. These results are supported by previous findings regarding activation of neural structures that underlie sustained attention. Our findings may indicate a better-controlled attention in skilled athletes, which suggests that expertise can improve effectiveness in allocation of attentional resources during the first stages of cognitive processing during combat.
Phenotypical expression of reduced mobility during limb ontogeny in frogs: the knee-joint case
Authors: Ponssa Maria Laura , Abdala Virginia
Published: January 2018

Movement is one of the most important epigenetic factors for normal development of the muscle-skeletal system, particularly during genesis and joint development. Studies regarding alterations to embryonic mobility, performed on anurans, chickens and mammals, report important phenotypical similarities as a result of the reduction or absence of this stimulus. The precise stage of development at which the stimulus modification generates phenotypic modifications however, is yet to be determined. In this work we explore whether the developmental effects of abnormal mobility can appear at any time during development or whether they begin to express themselves in particular phases of tadpole ontogeny. We conducted five experiments that showed that morphological abnormalities are not visible until Stages 40–42. Morphology in earlier stages remains normal, probably due to the fact that the bones/muscles/tendons have not yet developed and therefore are not affected by immobilization. These results suggest the existence of a specific period of phenotypical expression in which normal limb movement is necessary for the correct development of the joint tissue framework.
Biofilter for treating toluene vapors: Performance evaluation and microbial counts behavior
Authors: Zhu Yazhong , Li Shunyi , Luo Yimeng , Ma Hongye , Wang Yan
Published: January 2018

A lab-scale biofilter packed with mixed packing materials was used for degradation of the toluene. Three gas flow rates, i.e. 0.1, 0.2 and 0.4 m3/h, were tested for inlet concentration ranging from 0.2 to 1.2 g/m3. Removal efficiencies ranging from 45.6 to 97.3% and elimination capacities ranging from 4.95 to 61.07 g/(m3 h) were observed depending on the inlet loading rates. Maximum elimination capacity of 35.95 g/(m3 h) occurred at inlet loading rate of 45.87 g/(m3 h). The lowest layer always had highest elimination capacity. Carbon dioxide concentrations and the microbial cell counts for bio-degraders followed toluene elimination capacities. Results of this study indicated that mixed packing materials could be considered as a potential biofilter carrier, with low pressure drop (less than 84.9 Pa/m), for treating air streams containing VOCs.
Interplay between peptide bond geometry and local conformation: molecular dynamics analyses
Authors: Balasco Nicole , Esposito Luciana , Vitagliano Luigi
Published: January 2018

Several statistical and quantum chemical investigations performed in the last two decades have unveiled a strong correlation between protein backbone geometry (bond angles, dihedral angles and pyramidalization) and the local conformation (Berkholz et al. 2012 ; Berkholz et al. 2009 ; Esposito et al. 2005 ; Esposito et al. 2000 ; Esposito et al. 2013; Improta et al. 2011 ; Karplus 1996). This finding has important implication for protein structure prediction, determination, refinement and validation. Predictive protein modeling has shown an improved convergence when these effects are considered. Therefore, force fields currently available for modeling and molecular dynamics should be able to reproduce these geometric properties. We have recently shown that quantum mechanics calculations on small peptide systems are able to reproduce the dependence of the bond distances/angles on the conformation and the interplay between the peptide bond distortions from planarity and ψ dihedral angle thus demonstrating that the peptide bond geometry of proteins is essentially ruled by local effects (Improta et al. 2015). We here evaluated the ability of several commonly used force fields to reproduce subtle structural details related to the peptide bond. Our results indicate that these force fields are unable to accurately reproduce the experimental/statistical trends.
Questions of Time and Affect: A person’s affectivity profile, time perspective, and well-being
Authors: Garcia Danilo , Sailer Uta , Nima Ali Al , Archer Trevor
Published: January 2018

Background: A “balanced” time perspective has been suggested to have a positive influence on well-being: a sentimental and positive view of the past (high Past Positive), a less pessimistic attitude toward the past (low Past Negative), the desire of experiencing pleasure with slight concern for future consequences (high Present Hedonistic), a less fatalistic and hopeless view of the future (low Present Fatalistic), and the ability to find reward in achieving specific long-term goals (high Future). We used the affective profiles model (i.e., combinations of individuals’ experience of high/low positive/negative affectivity) to investigate differences between individuals in time perspective dimensions and to investigate if the influence of time perspective dimensions on well-being was moderated by the individual’s type of profile. Method: Participants (N = 720) answered to the Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule, the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory and two measures of well-being: the Temporal Satisfaction With Life Scale and the Scales of Psychological Well-Being-short version. A Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was conducted to identify differences in time perspective dimensions and well-being among affective profiles. Four Structural Equation Models (SEM) were used to investigate which time perspective dimensions predicted well-being for each profile. Results: Comparisons between individuals at the extreme of the affective profiles model suggested that individuals with a self-fulfilling profile (high positive/low negative affect) were characterized by a “balanced” time perspective and higher well-being compared to individuals with a self-destructive profile (low positive/high negative affect). However, a different pattern emerged when individuals who differed in one affect dimension but matched in the other were compared to each other. For instance, decreases in the past negative time perspective dimension lead to high positive affect when negative affect is high (i.e., self-destructive vs. high affective) but to low negative affect when positive affect was high (i.e., high affective vs. self-fulfilling). The moderation analyses showed, for example, that for individuals with a self-destructive profile, psychological well-being was significantly predicted by the past negative, present fatalistic and future time perspectives. Among individuals with a high affective or a self-fulfilling profile, psychological well-being was significantly predicted by the present fatalistic dimension. Conclusions: The interactions found here go beyond the postulation of a “balanced” time perspective being the only way of promoting well-being. Instead, it presents a more person-centered approach to achieve higher levels of emotional, cognitive, and psychological well-being.
Rutin as an effective protector of fibroblasts against UVA irradiation
Authors: Gęgotek Agnieszka , Ambrożewicz Ewa , Rybałtowska-Kawałko Paula , Skrzydlewska Elżbieta
Published: January 2018

Background. UVA is one of the most ubiquitous and penetrating stress factor to human skin and it is crucially involved in various forms of skin damages including the photoaging and cancerogenesis. Mentioned skin damages are connected with redox status imbalance and consequently with cellular metabolic disturbances (changes in phospholipid mediators, including lipid peroxidation products and endocannabinoids). To prevent the redox status changes in skin cells many natural antioxidants which reduce the amount of ROS, resulted from UV in particular, in the cells thereby protecting them from their toxic effects are used. One of them is well known plant-derived polyphenol – rutin. Therefore, the aim of the study was to exam the effect of rutin on redox balance and lipid mediators after UVA irradiation of skin fibroblasts. Methods. Fibroblasts were subjected to UVA [30 J/cm2] and were treated and pretreated with – rutin [25μM]. The redox status was estimated by xanthine and NADPH oxidases activity and ROS generation (ESR/spectrophotometry), enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants (HPLC, spectrophotometry), and lipid mediators: lipid peroxidation products (LCMS; GC/MS) and endocannabinoids (LC/MS) were examined. The cannabinoids receptors, transcriptional factor Nrf2 and its activators/inhibitors, as well as pro-inflammatory, pro- and anti-apoptotic protein levels were also measured (Western blot). Results. Obtained results demonstrate that rutin significantly reduced UVA-induced xanthine and NADPH oxidase activity what was accompanied by changes in ROS generation. Rutin also enhanced antioxidants activity [SOD] and non-enzymatic antioxidant level [GSH, vitamin E and C], which decreased due to UVA exposure. It was shown that UVA-induced Nrf2 activity has been reduced by rutin. Simultaneously, rutin led to increase in Nrf2 inhibitor Bach2 in UVA irradiated cells. It was shown that UVA caused significant decrease in linoleic and arachidonic acids levels and in consequence a strong increase in lipid peroxidation products - MDA and 4-HNE level were observed. Also another lipid mediators – endocannabinoids level was changed during UV irradiation. The significantly reduced level of cytosolic AEA and 2-AG and accompanied higher expression in the level of their receptors CB1, CB2, VR1 and GPR55 were demonstrated. Rutin given after irradiation prevented the most changes caused by UV irradiation. Rutin also protect cells against inflammatory effect after UV irradiation, and decrease apoptotic fibroblasts activity, confirmed by increase in Bcl-2, and decrease in caspases levels. Discussion. Obtained results show that rutin efficiently prevents oxidative stress and inflammatory response formation as well as changes in phospholipid metabolism including endocannabinoids and lipid peroxidation products level, what may be important point to search the skin protecting method against harmful ultraviolet radiation.
Distributions of p-values smaller than .05 in Psychology: What is going on?
Authors: Hartgerink Chris HJ , van Aert Robbie CM , Nuijten Michèle B , Wicherts Jelte M. , van Assen Marcel ALM
Published: January 2018

Previous studies provided mixed findings on pecularities in p-value distributions in psychology. This paper examined 258,050 test results across 30,710 articles from eight high impact journals to investigate the existence of a peculiar prevalence of p-values just below .05 in the psychological literature, and a potential increase thereof over time. We indeed found evidence for a bump just below .05 in the distribution of exactly reported p-values in the journals Developmental Psychology, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, but the bump did not increase over the years and disappeared when using recalculated p-values. We found clear and direct evidence for the QRP ”incorrect rounding of p-value” (John et al., 2012) in all psychology journals. Finally, we also investigated monotonic excess of p-values, an effect of certain QRPs that has been neglected in previous research, and developed two measures to detect this by modeling the distributions of statistically significant p-values. Using simulations and applying the two measures to the retrieved test results, we argue that, although one of the measures suggests the use of QRPs in psychology, it is difficult to draw general conclusions concerning QRPs based on modeling of p-value distributions.
Could the intertidal Ellisolandia elongata reef be affected by climate changes expected in the near future in the Mediterranean Sea?
Authors: Nannini Matteo , Florio Maurizio , Manauzzi Maria Chiara , Marchini Agnese , Raiteri Giancarlo , Lombardi Chiara , Ragazzola Federica
Published: January 2018

The concentration of Green House Gasses and specifically the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is continuously increasing since the industrial revolution and it is the most relevant anthropic cause driving climate changes. Two of the strongest symptoms of those changes are the Global Warming and the Ocean Acidification which are progressively altering marine ecosystems and the populations of living organisms they support. The Mediterranean Sea is widely considered a 'laboratory basin' by suffering dramatic changes in its oceanographic and biogeochemical conditions derived from natural and anthropogenic forces. Calcifying seaweeds are the most important 'bioconstructors', from mesolittoral to circalittoral fringe, providing habitats and ecological niches for other species (i.e. biodiversity promoters) but also are good 'recorders' of the environmental condition they experience (i.e. biondicators). In this study we focused on the reef-forming Ellisolandia elongata from the Gulf of La Spezia (N-W Mediterranean Sea) by comparing the physical properties, growth rate and abundance of associated fauna in natural and experimental conditions (temperature and pH expected for 2050-2100). Four sampling sites were chosen in the intertidal zone. Reef samples were bring in the laboratory and put in experimental conditions for a month. Four aquaria simulated the actual conditions of temperature and pH, other 4 aquaria simulated temperature (+3°C) and pH (7.7) expected for the year near future. E. elongata grown in the natural and experimental conditions withstand mechanical stress in slightly different ways. The study of the effect of temperature and pH variations on growth rate and associated fauna of E. elongata reef is still in progress.
GALACTOSEMIA Web DB: A web accessible database of Galactosemia related proteins
Authors: d'Acierno Antonio , Facchiano Angelo , Marabotti Anna
Published: January 2018

Galactose is a monosaccharide present in several foods and, once introduced into the body, it is metabolised by a biochemical pathway involving three enzymes: galactokinase (GALK), galactose-1-phosphate uridylyltransferase (GALT), and UDP-galactose-4'-epimerase (GALE). Hereditary deficiencies of these three enzymes in humans are related to three different forms of the genetic disease globally called "galactosemia". The impairment of GALK causes Galactosemia Type II, whereas GALT deficiency causes the disease called Classic Galactosemia, and finally GALE deficiency is linked to Galactosemia type III or Galactose Epimerase deficiency. The clinical manifestations of each enzyme deficiency differ markedly: patients with GALK deficiency, for example, have the mildest clinical consequences, while Classic Galactosemia is potentially lethal in infancy, if undiagnosed and/or untreated, and is also associated with long-term, organ-specific complications. The impairment of these enzymes is linked to the presence of mutations in their genes. The most common ones are missense mutations, causing the replacement of a residue on the protein sequence with another one. This kind of mutation can have different effects depending on whether the original residue is replaced with a very similar or very different one, and depending on the place where the original residue is located on the protein structure. It has been shown elsewhere that it is possible to infer the severity of a mutation by using computational approaches that can predict its impact on protein structure and function, provided that the structure is known. This kind of knowledge can be thus of help to correlate the severity of symptoms with the effect at protein level, to better understand and, possibly, to predict, the outcome of a mutation on individuals carrying it. The aim of the proposed web-accessible database is to collect and provide information about the predicted structural and functional effects of missense mutations of the enzymes linked to the different forms of galactosemia, in order to help researchers to reach a deeper comprehension of these genetic diseases. At time of writing, we are working to develop an unique database that includes the variants of GALT enzyme, already described in the GALT protein DB, and the variants of GALK and GALE enzymes, and to allow the users to extract information about structural and functional effects of each variant by several kinds of combinable filters. The perspective of this work is to have a tool suitable for investigating with a similar approach also other proteins subjected to variations.
Emotion recognition based on customized smart bracelet with built-in accelerometer
Authors: Zhang Zhan , Song Yufei Y , Cui Liqing , Liu Xiaoqian , Zhu Tingshao
Published: January 2018

Background. In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has become an important issue, in which, how to make computers understand the thinking of human being is one of critical topics. If computer could perceive and respond to person's non-verbal language such as emotions, the communication between human beings and computers will be more friendly and naturally. So, more and more researchers are paying attention to realize human daily emotion recognition based on wearable sensor' signals, which could be applied in many applications of health care and Human-Computer-Interaction (HCI). Methods. In this paper, we propose an emotion recognition method, which is based on customized smart bracelet with built-in accelerometer. Those bracelets can be worn on people's ankle and wrist. Firstly, the acceleration data of ankle and wrist are obtained when person is walking naturally. Considering the original acceleration data is noisy and variable, the Moving Average Filter is used to eliminate noise. Besides, walking can be regarded as the repetitive movement of legs and arms, so the collected acceleration data may be redundant. Through analysis, we design a sliding window to divide the whole data into several data slices of the same size, and let the neighboring slices be partially overlapped. In the subsequent operations, each data slice would be taken as one sample. This process can not only avoid high computational requirement caused by redundancy data, and can also expand the number of samples. For each data slice, 114 relevant features for emotion recognition are extracted. Then, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is applied to select effective attributes. Finally, we built the emotion recognition classifier based on Weka software platform. Taking the same attributes as input, we compared the performance of emotion recognition among some classical classifiers, including Support Vector Machine (SVM), Decision Tree, Random Tree and Random Forest. Results. The classification accuracy is used to evaluate the effectiveness of our proposed emotion recognition method. Overall, SVM outperforms the other classifiers. The two-category classification accuracies of neutral-anger, neutral-happiness and happiness-anger are 91.3%, 88.5% and 88.5% respectively. The accuracy of multi-category classification among neutral, happiness and anger is 81.2%. Discussion. In the comparative experiments, the recognition rates of different emotion states are all above 81%. It is concluded that gait is capable to reveal affective state of minds.
Growth of 48 built environment bacterial isolates on board the International Space Station (ISS)
Authors: Coil David A , Neches Russell Y , Lang Jenna M , Brown Wendy E , Severance Mark , Cavalier Darlene Darlene , Eisen Jonathan A
Published: January 2018

Background: While significant attention has been paid to the potential risk of pathogenic microbes aboard crewed spacecraft, much less has focused on the non-pathogenic microbes in these habitats. Preliminary work has demonstrated that the interior of the International Space Station (ISS) has a microbial community resembling those of built environments on earth. Here we report results of sending 48 bacterial strains, collected from built environments on earth, for a growth experiment on the ISS. This project was a component of Project MERCCURI (Microbial Ecology Research Combining Citizen and University Researchers on ISS). Results: Of the 48 strains sent to the ISS, 45 of them showed similar growth in space and on earth. The vast majority of species tested in this experiment have also been found in culture-independent surveys of the ISS. Only one bacterial strain that avoided contamination showed significantly different growth in space. Bacillus safensis JPL-MERTA-8-2 grew 60% better in space than on earth. Conclusions: The majority of bacteria tested were not affected by conditions aboard the ISS in this experiment (e.g., microgravity, cosmic radiation). Further work on Bacillus safensis could lead to interesting insights on why this bacteria grew so much better in space.
A phylogenomic view of ecological specialization in the Lachnospiraceae, a family of digestive tract-associated bacteria
Authors: Meehan Conor J. , Beiko Robert G
Published: January 2018

Several bacterial families are known to be highly abundant within the human microbiome, but their ecological roles and evolutionary histories have yet to be investigated in depth. One such family, Lachnospiraceae (phylum Firmicutes, class Clostridia) is abundant in the digestive tracts of many mammals and relatively rare elsewhere. Members of this family have been linked to obesity and protection from colon cancer in humans, mainly due to the association of this group with the production of butyric acid, a substance that is important for both microbial and host epithelial cell growth. We examined the genomes of 30 Lachnospiraceae isolates to better understand the phylogenetic relationships and basis of ecological differentiation within this group. Although this family is often used as an indicator of butyric acid production, fewer than half of the examined genomes contained genes from either of the known pathways that produce butyrate, with the distribution of this function likely arising in part from lateral gene transfer. An investigation of environment-specific functional signatures indicated that human gut-associated Lachnospiraceae possessed genes for endospore formation while other members of this family lacked key sporulation-associated genes, an observation supported by analysis of metagenomes from the human gut, oral cavity and bovine rumen. Our analysis demonstrates that despite a lack of agreement between Lachnospiraceae phylogeny and assigned habitat there are several examples of genetic signatures of habitat preference derived from both lateral gene transfer and gene loss.
Fur or Fire: Was the use of fire the initial selection pressure for fur loss in ancestral hominins?
Authors: Couch Alan J
Published: January 2018

A variety of reasons have been advanced to explain the loss of fur in humans and why they differ in this way from all other primates. None of these reasons has become generally accepted as the explanation for the absence of functionally effective thermally insulating fur. The hypotheses previously advanced have not satisfactorily explained why humans are the unique naked ape. This paper proposes a new hypothesis; that Homo sapiens ancestors use of fire created the initial selection pressure leading to fur loss in humans.
The unreasonable effectiveness of traditional information retrieval in crash report deduplication
Authors: Campbell Joshua Charles , Santos Eddie Antonio , Hindle Abram
Published: January 2018

Organizations like Mozilla, Microsoft, and Apple are flooded with thousands of automated crash reports per day. Although crash reports contain valuable information for debugging, there are often too many for developers to examine individually. Therefore, in industry, crash reports are often automatically grouped together in buckets. Ubuntu’s repository contains crashes from hundreds of software systems available with Ubuntu. A variety of crash report bucketing methods are evaluated using data collected by Ubuntu’s Apport automated crash reporting system. The trade-off between precision and recall of numerous scalable crash 7 deduplication techniques is explored. A set of criteria that a crash deduplication method must meet is presented and several methods that meet these criteria are evaluated on a new dataset. The evaluations presented in this paper show that using off-the-shelf information retrieval techniques, that were not designed to be used with crash reports, outperform other techniques which are specifically designed for the task of crash bucketing at realistic industrial scales. This research indicates that automated crash bucketing still has a lot of room for improvement, especially in terms of identifier tokenization.
PKC in motorneurons underlies self-learning, a form of motor learning in Drosophila
Authors: Colomb Julien , Brembs Björn
Published: January 2018

Tethering a fly for stationary flight allows for exquisite control of its sensory input, such as visual or olfactory stimuli or a punishing infrared laser beam. A torque meter measures the the turning attempts of the tethered fly around its vertical body axis. By punishing, say, left turning attempts (in a homogeneous environment), one can train a fly to restrict its behaviour to right turning attempts. It was recently discovered that this form of operant conditioning (called operant self-learning), may constitute a form of motor learning in Drosophila. Previous work had shown that Protein Kinase C (PKC) and the transcription factor dFoxP were specifically involved in self-learning, but not in other forms of learning. These molecules are specifically involved in various forms of motor learning in other animals, such as compulsive biting in Aplysia, song-learning in birds, procedural learning in mice or language acquisition in humans. Here we describe our efforts to decipher which PKC gene is involved in self-learning in Drosophila. We also provide evidence that motorneurons may be one part of the neuronal network modified during self-learning experiments. The collected evidence is reminiscent of one of the simplest, clinically relevant forms of motor learning in humans, operant reflex conditioning, which also relies on motorneuron plasticity
At what scales does aggregated dispersal lead to coexistence?
Authors: Pedersen Eric J , Guichard Frederic
Published: January 2018

Aggregation during dispersal from source to settlement sites can allow persistence of weak competitors, by creating conditions where stronger competitors are more likely to interact with conspecifics than with less competitive heterospecifics. However, different aggregation mechanisms across scales can lead to very different patterns of settlement. Little is known about what ecological conditions are required for this mechanism to work effectively. We derive a metacommunity approximation of aggregated dispersal that shows how three different scales interact to determine competitive outcomes: the spatial scale of aggregation, the spatial scale of interactions between individuals, and the time-scale of arrival rates of aggregations. We use stochastic simulations and a novel metacommunity approximation to show that an inferior competitor can invade only when the superior competitor is aggregated over short spatial scales, and aggregations of new settlers are small and rare.
Developing and evaluating tools to assess the impact of chimpanzee sanctuaries via a unique zoo-sanctuary partnership
Authors: Hansen Bethany K , Ross Stephen R , Hopper Lydia M , Fultz Amy
Published: January 2018

Sanctuaries are crucial to the survival and welfare of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). They also play an important role in educating the public about chimpanzee behavior and conservation. However, as many sanctuaries lack the capacity to collect long-term data, there is no standardized protocol for evaluating these aims. To address this, the Lincoln Park Zoo, USA, has partnered with Chimp Haven, Inc., USA. Chimp Haven houses nearly 200 chimpanzees in several enclosure types including traditional indoor-outdoor runs (~20m2 in area), open-top corrals (~300m2), and large forested habitats (up to 24,000m2). By leveraging the expertise from both institutions we will evaluate the aims of the sanctuary considering both the behavior and welfare of the chimpanzees and the impact of the sanctuary’s public education program. To address the first aim, we will use non-invasive focal observations to evaluate whether and how different housing types affect the chimpanzees’ activity budgets, enclosure usage, and social interactions. To inquire about the success of the second aim, we will evaluate education programs at Chimp Haven during which the public can view the chimpanzees. We will investigate whether public viewing opportunities affect the chimpanzees’ behavior through the use of observational data collected on the chimpanzees. Simultaneously, we will evaluate the learning outcomes and attitudes of visitors at Chimp Haven, using questionnaires and observations of visitor behavior. Findings from this research will inform decisions about the care and management of captive chimpanzees. This research will also provide information about how sanctuaries can best engage and educate the public.
A simple scaling normalization for comparing ChIP-Seq samples
Authors: Manser Paul , Reimers Mark
Published: January 2018

In ChIP-Seq and DNase-Seq experiments the density of background reads can vary from sample to sample. Differences in background read densities between samples do not necessarily correspond to proportional changes of read densities in true ChIP-Seq peaks. Therefore, scaling by total library size as a means for normalizing called ChIP-Seq peaks across samples may be ineffective. We suggest a simple easily implemented alternative to scaling by total library size that scales only by the total number of reads mapped to called peaks. We then demonstrate the effectiveness of the modified scaling in K4me3 and K27ac ChIP-Seq data from the BrainSpan project as well as DNase-Seq data from the ENCODE project.
Denied and false pregnancies: Opposite settings of a single evolutionary conflict
Authors: Sandoz Patrick
Published: January 2018

Aim: A woman in denial of pregnancy is pregnant but remains unaware of her gravid state. In the case of a false pregnancy; the woman is not pregnant but believes she is and presents signs and symptoms of pregnancy. These syndromes correspond to opposite contradictions that were mainly explored separately. Our aim is to explain them by a common and consistent etiology.

Method: We explore internal conflicts inherited from the evolutionary transition from solitary animals to social species.

Results: The solitary and social characters are contradictory. They induce internal conflicts intrinsic to the human condition. At the reproduction level, those conflicts oppose primitive interests (genes transmission) to social identity ones (to become a parent). Both syndromes are described by powerful identity interests in contradiction with the actual physiological state: i) actual pregnancy but unacceptable motherhood (denial), and ii) imperative motherhood in a non-pregnant woman (false pregnancy). The physiological symptoms results from a temporarily adaptive artifice hiding the internal tension and fulfilling simultaneously (but superficially) the incompatible demands.

Conclusion: The proposed model explains clinical observations satisfactorily. It complies with a huge diversity of causative events for the identity tensions involved as reported in literature. The model also elucidates the temporary adaptive character of those psychosomatic dysfunctions. To explain those syndromes in a rational and understandable way will facilitate health professional information, thus favoring the detection and follow-up of cases. The acceptation of their condition by concerned women will also be made easier.
­Geometric morphometric analysis of snout shape in extant ruminants (Ungulata, Artiodactyla)
Authors: Tennant Jonathan P. , MacLeod Norman
Published: January 2018

Snout shape is a prominent aspect of herbivore feeding ecology, controlling both forage selectivity and intake rate. Many previous investigations have suggested that ruminant feeding classes can be discriminated via snout shape, with grazing and browsing species attributed ‘blunt’ and ‘pointed’ snouts respectively, with an intermediate sub-grouping. This aspect of functional ecology is analysed for the first time using a statistically rigorous geometry-based framework to compare the two-dimensional profiles of the premaxilla in ventral aspect for a large sample of ruminant species. Our results suggest that, when a sample of browsing and grazing ruminants are classified ecologically based on a range of independent indicators of their feeding strategy, they cannot be fully discriminated on the basis of their premaxilla profile shape. Instead, our sample forms a shape variation continuum with overlap between groupings, but with a 78 percent chance of successful categorisation. Moreover, previously used terminology such as ‘pointed’ and ‘blunt’ are largely inadequate for delimiting snout shape varieties, insofar as these terms lack the descriptive power to define the morphological disparity demonstrated. These results suggest that previous attempts to use snout shape as a proxy for feeding style in ruminants may have been biased due to under-sampling of this highly diverse group and to lack of geometric rigour in the assessment of shape data. Alternatively, conflicting or inadequate evidence in defining ‘browsers’ and ‘grazers’ could have caused incorrect assignment to ecological groups, distorting our analyses. The relation between snout shape and body mass are also documented.
The role of transcriptional regulation in maintaining the availability of mycobacterial adenylate cyclases
Authors: Casey Sarah J , Ford Mica J , Gazdik Michaela
Published: January 2018

Mycobacterium species have a complex cAMP regulatory network indicated by the high number of adenylate cyclases annotated in their genomes. However the need for a high level of redundancy in adenylate cyclase genes remains unknown. We have used semiquantitiative RT-PCR to examine the expression of the eight Mycobacterium smegmatis cyclases with orthologs in the human pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis, where cAMP has recently been shown to be important for virulence. All eight cyclases were transcribed in the cell in all environments tested, and only four demonstrated environmental-mediated changes in transcription. M. smegmatis genes MSMEG_0545 and MSMEG_4279 were upregulated during starvation conditions while MSMEG_0545 and MSMEG_4924 were downregulated in H2O2 and MSMEG_3780 was downregulated in low pH. Promoter fusion constructs containing M. tuberculosis H37Rv promoters showed consistent regulation compared to their M. smegmatis orthologs. Overall our findings indicate that while low levels of transcriptional regulation occur, regulation at the mRNA level does not play a major role in controlling cellular cyclase availability in a given environment.
The repeatability of variability: exploring intra- and inter-individual variation in seasonality
Authors: Matson Kevin D , Versteegh Maaike A , Tieleman B Irene
Published: January 2018

Animals exhibit seasonal cycles in a variety of physiological and behavioral traits. Studies of these cycles can potentially offer new insights into the evolution of individual differences. For natural selection to act, a trait must be both distinctive within individuals and variable among individuals. The extent to which the amplitude and phase of seasonal cycles fulfill these requirements is not well documented. As a preliminary analysis, we investigated seasonal cycles in the body mass of pigeons, which we weighed quarterly over a period of six years. [Our work with these animals complied with all applicable institutional regulations (University of Groningen Animal Experimentation Committee, license no. 5095) and Dutch and European laws.] We employed several of statistical techniques aimed at 1) quantifying the repeatability of seasonality and 2) comparing within- and among-individual variation in seasonality. Our goal is to take what we have learned from our analyses of mass and apply it to other seasonally variable physiological traits, including variables related to immune function.
Chimp&See: an online citizen science platform for large-scale, remote video camera trap annotation of chimpanzee behaviour, demography and individual identification
Authors: Arandjelovic Mimi , Stephens Colleen R , McCarthy Maureen S , Dieguez Paula , Kalan Ammie K , Maldonado Nuria , Boesch Christophe , Kuehl Hjalmar S
Published: January 2018

The Pan African Programme: The cultured chimpanzee (PanAf) is a large-scale research project across the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) range which aims to better understand and model the socioecological and demographic drivers of chimpanzee diversity. As part of the PanAf, over 350,000 1-minute camera trap videos have been recorded. To annotate this large data set and ascertain individual chimpanzee identifications from 39 different temporary and collaborative chimpanzee research sites, we developed the web-based citizen science platform Chimp&See (www.chimpandsee.org) in collaboration with the Zooniverse. Chimp&See allows members of the general public to view the PanAf videos online and annotate which species are present and the behaviours they exhibit in each video. These citizen scientists also watch and discuss videos to determine unique chimpanzee individuals and match them from different video clips. Each video is viewed by up to 15 unique users, allowing us to obtain a confidence score based on the number of consensus matches for each identification. In this poster, we compare the accuracy and efficiency achieved by the general public on this platform to automated facial detection software and expert scientific annotators. We also evaluate whether citizen science and video camera trapping is a way forward for assessing chimpanzee age/sex structure, density and community size in a cost and time effective manner. Finally, we discuss the balance between maintaining user engagement and obtaining detailed and accurate scientific data from citizen scientists.
Microenvironmental variables need to effect intrinsic phenotypic parameters of cancer stem cells to affect tumourigenicity
Authors: Scott Jacob G , Chinnaiyan Prakash , Anderson Alexander ARA , Hjelmeland Anita , Basanta David
Published: January 2018

Since the discovery of tumour initiating cells (TICs) in solid tumours, studies focussing on their role in cancer initiation and progression have abounded. The biological interrogation of these cells continues to yield volumes of information on their pro-tumourigenic behaviour, but actionable generalised conclusions have been scarce. Further, new information suggesting a dependence of tumour composition and growth on the microenvironment has yet to be studied theoretically. To address this point, we created a hybrid, discrete/continuous computational cellular automaton model of a generalised stem-cell driven tissue with a simple microenvironment. Using the model we explored the phenotypic traits inherent to the tumour initiating cells and the effect of the microenvironment on tissue growth. We identify the regions in phenotype parameter space where TICs are able to cause a disruption in homeostasis, leading to tissue overgrowth and tumour maintenance. As our parameters and model are non- specific, they could apply to any tissue TIC and do not assume specific genetic mutations. Targeting these phenotypic traits could represent a generalizable therapeutic strategy across cancer types. Further, we find that the microenvironmental variable does not strongly effect the outcomes, suggesting a need for direct feedback from the microenvironment onto stem-cell behaviour in future modelling endeavours.
Effectiveness of phalanx skeletochronology to estimate age in living reptiles
Authors: Comas Mar , Reguera Senda , Zamora-Camacho Francisco Javier , Salvado Humbert H , Moreno-Rueda Gregorio
Published: January 2018

Demographic studies are fundamental in population ecology, as well as in conservation biology and wildlife management. However, few methods are available to determine the exact age of animals. Mark-recapture is usually the main method to study demography, but this approach is highly time-consuming and needs long-term monitoring. For species for which recapture is not feasible, this method is not valid. However, in vertebrates with indeterminate growth, such as fish, amphibians, and reptiles, skeletochronology is a method that allows age to be estimated from a bone. Nevertheless, studies of skeletochronology frequently involve the death of the animal to obtain the bone. In the present study, we test the reliability of phalanx skeletochronology, comparing the readings from the most commonly used bones in reptile skeletochronology (femur and humerus) with the age estimated from phalanges. Our results show phalanx skeletochronology to be a reliable method for estimating age in lizards without killing them. Cross-section readings from all bones studied presented a high correlation and repeatability, regardless of the phalanx chosen. These findings imply that, to apply skeletochronology, phalanges must be used instead of other bones that mean the death of the animal, and the killing of lizards for skeletochronology studies is no longer justified. This alternative is especially relevant for endangered species, considering that obtaining a representative sample usually requires a considerable number of individuals.
Preventing Zika virus infection during pregnancy by timing conception seasonally
Authors: Martinez-Bakker Micaela E
Published: January 2018

It has come to light that Zika virus (ZIKV) infection during pregnancy can result in trans-placental transmission to the fetus along with fetal death, congenital microcephaly and/or Central Nervous System (CNS) malformations. There are projected to be > 9, 200, 000 births annually in countries with ongoing ZIKV transmission. In response to the ZIKV threat, the World Health Organization (WHO) is strategically targeting prevention of infection in pregnant women and funding contraception in epidemic regions. I propose that the damaging effects of ZIKV can be reduced by timing pregnancy seasonally to minimize maternal exposure. Like other acute viral infections—including the related flavivirus, dengue virus (DENV)—the transmission of ZIKV is anticipated to be seasonal. By seasonally planning pregnancy, this aspect of pathogen ecology can be leveraged to align sensitive periods of gestation with the low-transmission season.
Euglenas under the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants: a practical approach
Authors: Molinari-Novoa Eduardo A
Published: January 2018

The present work intends to demonstrate why the euglenas (Euglenophyceae) should be treated under the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN, from now on). Most comprehensive treatments for the group have been made under previous versions of the ICN, and Google Scholar provide more hits when botanical terms (as “euglenophyta, euglenophyceae”) are introduced than when zoological terms (“euglenid, euglenozoa”) are used. Finally, recent scholars dealing with these algae considered themselves botanists.