bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Microbiological insights and dermatological applications of live biotherapeutic products
Authors: Locker Jessica , Serrage Hannah J , Ledder Ruth G , Deshmukh Shivprasad , O'Neill Catherine A , McBain Andrew J
Published: August 2024

As our understanding of dermatological conditions advances, it becomes increasingly evident that traditional pharmaceutical interventions are not universally effective. The intricate balance of the skin microbiota plays a pivotal role in the development of various skin conditions, prompting a growing interest in probiotics, or live biotherapeutic products (LBPs), as potential remedies. Specifically, the topical application of LBPs to modulate bacterial populations on the skin has emerged as a promising approach to alleviate symptoms associated with common skin conditions. This review considers LBPs and their application in addressing a wide spectrum of dermatological conditions with particular emphasis on three key areas: acne, atopic dermatitis, and wound healing. Within this context, the critical role of strain selection is presented as a pivotal factor in effectively managing these dermatological concerns. Additionally, the review considers formulation challenges associated with probiotic viability and proposes a personalised approach to facilitate compatibility with the skin’s unique microenvironment. This analysis offers valuable insights into the potential of LBPs in dermatological applications, underlining their promise in reshaping the landscape of dermatological treatments while acknowledging the hurdles that must be overcome to unlock their full potential.
Adaptive-conditional loss and correction module enhanced informer network for long-tailed fault diagnosis of motor
Authors: Huang Mei , Sheng Chenxing
Published: August 2024

This study focuses on the motor fault diagnosis facing the long-tailed distribution data, characterized by a multitude of fault types with limited data per category and the healthy state with massive data. This skewed distribution makes the traditional diagnostic models fail to identify less frequent faults. To this end, we introduce a novel fault diagnosis model, named Transformer- and gated-recurrent unit (GRU)-based network (TransGRU), to improve the diagnosis accuracy with the long-tailed distribution data. The TransGRU has two main modules, i.e., the feature extraction module and the correction module. The former is based on the Informer encoder with ProbSparse self-attention to extract features from the long-range multi-sensor data. The latter employs the GRU network addressing the long-tail effect by adjusting the diagnosis results via the gate mechanism. Besides, we informatively design an adaptive-conditional loss (ACL) function for the long-tailed fault diagnosis by integrating the properties of focal loss, class-tailored weights, and confusion weights. ACL concentrates on challenging classifications while balancing the representation and significance of various fault modes. Validation on experimental motor data confirms the capability of our TransGRU in identifying a wide range of fault types with limited fault data compared with the Transformer and state-of-the-art methods.
Comparing the biological effectiveness of low energy 100 kV and high energy 5 MeV X-rays against Oriental fruit fly (Diptera: Tephritidae)
Authors: Follett Peter A , Fezza Thomas J , Ladizinsky Nicolas C , Liang Pei-Shih
Published: August 2024

Radioisotope irradiators (using cesium-137 or cobalt-60) are used as sources of ionizing radiation to control quarantine or phytosanitary insect pests in internationally traded fresh commodities and to sterilize insects used in sterile insect release programs. There are institutional initiatives to replace isotopic irradiators (producing γ-rays) with lower-energy X-ray machines due to concerns about radiological terrorism and increasingly stringent regulations on the movement of radioisotopes. Questions remain about whether the biological effects of low-energy X-rays are comparable to those of γ-rays since differences in energy levels and dose rates of X-rays may have different efficacies. We compared adult emergence, flight ability, and adult survival in the Oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) (Diptera: Tephritdae), after irradiation of third instar larvae with 100 kV or 5 MeV (5,000 kV) X-rays at 20 and 40 Gy in replicated studies. At 20 Gy, the adult emergence rate was significantly lower after irradiation with 100 kV compared to 5 MeV X-rays, suggesting higher efficacy at the lower energy level. In a follow-up study using 100 kV X-rays, applying 20 Gy using a slow dose rate (0.24 Gy min−1) resulted in significantly higher adult emergence than did a fast dose rate (3.3 Gy min−1), suggesting lower efficacy. Although our study suggests higher efficacy of low energy 100 kV X-rays, there is uncertainty in measuring the dose from an X-ray tube operating at 100 kV using an ionization chamber; we discuss how this uncertainty may change the interpretation of the results. Using a 100 kV X-ray irradiator to develop a phytosanitary treatment may underestimate the dose required for insect control using commercial high-energy γ-ray or X-ray systems.
Evaluating the feasibility of medium-chain oleochemical synthesis using microbial chain elongation
Authors: Agena Ethan , Gois Ian M , Bowers Connor M , Mahadevan Radhakrishnan , Scarborough Matthew J , Lawson Christopher E
Published: August 2024

Chain elongating bacteria are a unique guild of strictly anaerobic bacteria that have garnered interest for sustainable chemical manufacturing from carbon-rich wet and gaseous waste streams. They produce C6–C8 medium-chain fatty acids, which are valuable platform chemicals that can be used directly, or derivatized to service a wide range of chemical industries. However, the application of chain elongating bacteria for synthesizing products beyond C6–C8 medium-chain fatty acids has not been evaluated. In this study, we assess the feasibility of expanding the product spectrum of chain elongating bacteria to C9–C12 fatty acids, along with the synthesis of C6 fatty alcohols, dicarboxylic acids, diols, and methyl ketones. We propose several metabolic engineering strategies to accomplish these conversions in chain elongating bacteria and utilize constraint-based metabolic modelling to predict pathway stoichiometries, assess thermodynamic feasibility, and estimate ATP and product yields. We also evaluate how producing alternative products impacts the growth rate of chain elongating bacteria via resource allocation modelling, revealing a trade-off between product chain length and class versus cell growth rate. Together, these results highlight the potential for using chain elongating bacteria as a platform for diverse oleochemical biomanufacturing and offer a starting point for guiding future metabolic engineering efforts aimed at expanding their product range.

One-Sentence Summary

In this work, the authors use constraint-based metabolic modelling and enzyme cost minimization to assess the feasibility of using metabolic engineering to expand the product spectrum of anaerobic chain elongating bacteria.
Practicing Censorship? Paper, Print, and Democracy in India
Authors: Prasad Ritika
Published: August 2024

Examining a series of legal challenges by newspaper companies in the first half-century after Indian Independence (1947), this essay examines the legal boundaries and practical content of press freedom in postcolonial India. The cases, which were concerned with official regulation of page length, newsprint allocation, and customs duties, were far from obvious attempts at censorship. And yet the petitioners claimed that such regulation of form, price, and material did, in fact, violate their constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of speech and expression. Meanwhile, the newly democratic Indian state contended that its prescriptive directives were affirmative measures intended to protect fledgling newspapers from competition with larger conglomerates—and, thus, necessary to ensure such diversity of news and opinion as fostered genuine freedom of the press. In drawing attention to more prosaic and oblique ways in which the press can be controlled, this essay highlights the complexity of defining press freedom in practice, especially in functioning democracies that not only hope to maintain that status but also retain international credibility. The legal battles point to the tension between abstract ideas of freedom and affirmative commitments to equity as it materialized in a newly independent country with tremendous diversity. Given that these cases stretch across the Emergency (1975–77)—which remains a defining event in terms of formal state censorship in postcolonial India—they also demonstrate how routine strategies of control often have a more subterranean timeline that traverses formal disruptions in state–press relations, including, in this case, the transition from colonialism to independence.
Printing Capitalism in Nineteenth-Century Latin America and the Caribbean
Authors: Zeltsman Corinna
Published: August 2024

This article reconstructs the commercial networks and practical strategies that Latin American and Caribbean printers developed to acquire equipment and supplies in the nineteenth century. It argues that the exchange of letters, catalogues, and technologies at printers’ behest constituted a transnational printing capitalism that linked practitioners in newly independent Latin American nations and Spanish Caribbean colonies with key manufacturing cities like New York and Philadelphia. In contrast to Benedict Anderson’s notion of print capitalism, which foregrounds readers and shared reading practices as the basis of national identity, the article examines how the simultaneous experiences of building local printing trades after colonialism—and the subsequent emergence of new imperial projects by the end of the nineteenth century—shaped transnational professional imaginaries among craftsmen throughout Latin America. Far from a deterministic relationship in which technology shaped subjectivity, the creation of print’s material infrastructures was itself rooted in social relationships that changed over time. By examining these shifting relations, the article contributes to scholarship that is “relativizing” Anderson’s concept in diverse historical contexts.
Introduction: Rethinking Colonial Print through Practices
Authors: Prasad Ritika , Zeltsman Corinna
Published: August 2024

What was colonial about colonial print culture? By analyzing the social and material dimensions of print—its practices, communities, networks, and technologies—our special issue probes whether and how colonialism shaped the specific print cultures that took shape across varied and geographic and temporal contexts. In so doing, we contribute to a wide-ranging intervention on print that has, in recent decades, dismantled teleological narratives linking global modernity with the diffusion of European printing. Contributors make the case for situating histories of print and the public sphere within the world of comparative social analysis, rather than singularly within book, cultural, or intellectual history. By attending to the materiality of printing and the ground-level practices and “tactics” of production and circulation, contributors not only reveal the wide range of social actors who helped to shape the uses and meanings of print—including colonial and postcolonial officials and journalists as well as manufacturers, artisans, merchants, and collectors—but also identify overlooked connections within and between regions that linked practitioners and readers rooted in diverse colonial and postcolonial contexts. Rather than charting a linear march towards mass printing or a homogenous global printing industry, the essays highlight the temporal asymmetries of colonial printing and the political and economic forces and human actors that shaped the specific regional and local trajectories of print.
An End Overcome by a Beginning: The Diminishment of the Khedivate, the Fading Away of Its Print Culture, and the Rise of Debates Over Society’s Direction in Colonial Egyptian Print
Authors: Schwartz Kathryn A
Published: August 2024

What is typically seen as the flowering of print culture in Egypt circa the 1880s and 1890s—i.e., newspapers and periodicals and authorship and eventually novels, and political and religious debates in print—in fact marks not a flowering, but the collapse of the first print culture that existed there. This original print culture arose and functioned via the mediation of the khedival government. It therefore necessarily came undone with the challenge to the regime's authority posed by the British occupation of Egypt in 1882, or the beginning of British colonial rule under the veiled protectorate. Indeed, in my interpretation, the dynamism that eventually billowed out from the Arabic press marked the contentious fallout over the collapse of the government, the standing social order, and the original print culture that these two pillars propped up. Those who remained involved in printing in Egypt thereafter competed to fill the void poised by this revolutionary upheaval, battling for legitimacy in speaking out to, and on behalf of, the public regarding how society could regain its footing.
Innovating Web Probing: Comparing Written and Oral Answers to Open-Ended Probing Questions in a Smartphone Survey
Authors: Lenzner Timo , Höhne Jan Karem , Gavras Konstantin
Published: August 2024

Cognitive interviewing in the form of probing is key for developing methodologically sound survey questions. For a long time, probing was tied to the laboratory setting, making it difficult to achieve large sample sizes and creating a time-intensive undertaking for both researchers and participants. Web surveys paved the way for administering probing questions over the Internet in a time- and cost-efficient manner. In so-called web probing studies, respondents first answer a question and then they receive one or more open-ended questions about their response process, with requests for written answers. However, participants frequently provide very short or no answers at all to open-ended questions, in part because answering questions in writing is tedious. This is especially the case when the web survey is completed via a smartphone with a virtual on-screen keypad that shrinks the viewing space. In this study, we examine whether the problem of short and uninterpretable answers in web probing studies can be mitigated by asking respondents to complete the web survey on a smartphone and to record their answers via the built-in microphone. We conducted an experiment in a smartphone survey (N = 1,001), randomizing respondents to different communication modes (written or oral) for answering two comprehension probes about two questions on national identity and citizenship. The results indicate that probes with requests for oral answers produce four to five times more nonresponse than their written counterparts. However, oral answers contain about three times as many words, include about 0.3 more themes (first probing question only), and the proportion of clearly interpretable answers is about 6 percentage points higher (for the first probing question only). Nonetheless, both communication modes result in similar themes mentioned by respondents.
Molecular characterisation of Histoplasma capsulatum sensu lato from Ethiopian horses reveals two distinct phylogenetic clades
Authors: Woo Patrick C Y , Mheiri Fatma Al , Cavalleri Jessika , Joseph Sunitha , Tang James Y M , Joseph Marina , Tsang Chi-Ching , Lau Susanna K P , Wernery Ulrich
Published: August 2024

Epizootic lymphangitis (EL) is a highly prevalent and contagious infectious disease affecting horses in many parts of Ethiopia caused by Histoplasma capsulatum sensu lato (‘var. farciminosum’). In this study, 12 suspected isolates of H. capsulatum sensu lato or yeasts unidentified by conventional biochemical tests isolated from Ethiopian horses with EL were characterised by internal transcribed spacer sequencing. Six of the 12 isolates were identified to be members of H. capsulatum sensu lato and the other six were Pichia kudriavzevii (synonym: Candida krusei) (n = 3), Trichosporon asahii (n = 1), Geotrichum silvicola (n = 1) and Moesziomyces aphidis (n = 1), respectively. The six H. capsulatum sensu lato isolates were further characterised by multilocus sequence analysis. Four distinct gene loci (arf [462 bases], H-anti [410 bases], ole1 [338 bases] and tub1 [272 bases]) of these six isolates as well as those of two H. capsulatum sensu lato (‘var. farciminosum’) reference strains (ATCC 58332 and ATCC 28798) were polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-amplified and sequenced. Phylogenetic analyses of their concatenated nucleotide sequences showed that three of the isolates and the reference strain ATCC 58332 were identical and belonged to the Eurasia clade within Latin American (LAm) A (H. suramericanum), and those of the other three isolates and the reference strain ATCC 28798 were identical and belonged to the Africa clade. At least two distinct phylogenetic clades of H. capsulatum sensu lato were circulating in Ethiopian horses with EL. Advanced molecular technologies and bioinformatics tools are crucial for the accurate identification and typing of pathogens as well as the discovery of novel microorganisms in veterinary microbiology.
Probing the strength of radial migration via churning by using metal-rich red giant stars from APOGEE
Authors: Lehmann Christian , Feltzing Sofia , Feuillet Diane , Kordopatis Georges
Published: August 2024

Making use of the APOGEE DR17 catalogue with high quality data for 143 509 red giant branch stars we explore the strength of different mechanisms that causes a star to radially migrate in the Milky Way stellar disc. At any position in the disc we find stars that are more metal-rich than the local interstellar medium. This is surprising and normally attributed to the migration of these stars after their formation inside their current Galactocentric radius. Such stars are prime candidates for studying the strength of different migratory processes. We specifically select two types of metal-rich stars: (i) super metal-rich stars ($\mathrm{[Fe/H]}\gt 0.2$) and (ii) stars that are more metal-rich than their local environment. For both, we explore the distribution of orbital parameters and ages as evidence of their migration history. We find that most super metal-rich stars have experienced some amount of churning as they have orbits with $R_g\gtrsim 5 \,{\rm kpc}$. Furthermore, about half of the super metal-rich stars are on non-circular orbits ($\mathrm{ecc} \gt 0.15$) and therefore also have experienced blurring. The metallicity of young stars in our sample is generally the same as the metallicity of the interstellar medium, suggesting they have not radially migrated yet. Stars with lower metallicity than the local environment have intermediate to old ages. We further find that super metal-rich stars have approximately the same age distribution at all Galactocentric radii, which suggests that radial migration is a key mechanism responsible for the chemical compositions of stellar populations in the Milky Way.
Filamentary mass accretion towards the high-mass protobinary system G11.92–0.61 MM2
Authors: Zhang S , Cyganowski C J , Henshaw J D , Brogan C L , Hunter T R , Friesen R K , Bonnell I A , Viti S
Published: August 2024

We present deep, sub-arcsecond ($\sim$2000 au) resolution ALMA 0.82-mm observations of the former high-mass prestellar core candidate G11.92–0.61 MM2, recently shown to be an $\sim$500 au-separation protobinary. Our observations show that G11.92–0.61 MM2, located in the G11.92–0.61 protocluster, lies on a filamentary structure traced by 0.82-mm continuum and N$_2$H$^+$(4-3) emission. The N$_2$H$^+$(4-3) spectra are multipeaked, indicative of multiple velocity components along the line of sight. To analyse the gas kinematics, we performed pixel-by-pixel Gaussian decomposition of the N$_2$H$^+$ spectra using scousepy and hierarchical clustering of the extracted velocity components using acorns. Seventy velocity- and position-coherent clusters (called ‘trees’) are identified in the N$_2$H$^+$-emitting gas, with the eight largest trees accounting for $\gt $60 per cent of the fitted velocity components. The primary tree, with $\sim$20 per cent of the fitted velocity components, displays a roughly north–south velocity gradient along the filamentary structure traced by the 0.82-mm continuum. Analysing an $\sim$0.17 pc-long substructure, we interpret its velocity gradient of $\sim$10.5 km s$^{-1}$ pc$^{-1}$ as tracing filamentary accretion towards MM2 and estimate a mass inflow rate of $\sim 1.8\times 10^{-4}$ to 1.2$\times 10^{-3}$ M$_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$. Based on the recent detection of a bipolar molecular outflow associated with MM2, accretion on to the protobinary is ongoing, likely fed by the larger scale filamentary accretion flows. If 50 per cent of the filamentary inflow reaches the protostars, each member of the protobinary would attain a mass of 8 M$_\odot$ within $\sim 1.6\times 10^5$ yr, comparable to the combined time-scale of the 70-μm- and mid-infrared-weak phases derived for ATLASGAL-TOP100 massive clumps using chemical clocks.
Detection of antifreeze molecule ethylene glycol in the hot molecular core G358.93–0.03 MM1
Authors: Manna Arijit , Pal Sabyasachi , Viti Serena
Published: August 2024

The identification of complex pre-biotic molecules using millimetre and submillimetre telescopes allows us to understand how the basic building blocks of life are formed in the universe. In the interstellar medium, ethylene glycol ($({\rm CH}_2{\rm OH})_{2}$) is the simplest sugar alcohol molecule, and it is the reduced alcohol of the simplest sugar-like molecule, glycolaldehyde (${\rm CH}_{2}{\rm OHCHO}$). We present the detection of the rotational emission lines of $aGg^{\prime }$ conformer of ethylene glycol ($({\rm CH}_2{\rm OH})_{2}$) towards the hot molecular core G358.93–0.03 MM1 using the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array. The estimated column density of $aGg^{\prime }$-$({\rm CH}_2{\rm OH})_{2}$ towards the G358.93–0.03 MM1 is (4.5$\pm 0.1)\times 10^{16}$ cm$^{-2}$ with an excitation temperature of 155$\pm$35 K. The abundance of $aGg^{\prime }$-$({\rm CH}_2{\rm OH})_{2}$ with respect to ${\rm H}_{2}$ is (1.4$\pm 0.5)\times 10^{-8}$. Similarly, the abundances of $aGg^{\prime }$-$({\rm CH}_2{\rm OH})_{2}$ with respect to ${\rm CH}_{2}{\rm OHCHO}$ and ${\rm CH}_{3}{\rm OH}$ are 3.1$\pm$0.5 and (6.1$\pm 0.3)\times 10^{-3}$. We compare the estimated abundance of $aGg^{\prime }$-$({\rm CH}_2{\rm OH})_{2}$ with the existing three-phase warm-up chemical model abundance of $({\rm CH}_2{\rm OH})_{2}$, and we notice the observed abundance and modelled abundance are nearly similar. We discuss the possible formation pathways of $aGg^{\prime }$-$({\rm CH}_2{\rm OH})_{2}$ towards the hot molecular cores, and we find that $aGg^{\prime }$-$({\rm CH}_2{\rm OH})_{2}$ is probably created via the recombination of two ${\rm CH}_{2}{\rm OH}$ radicals on the grain surface of G358.93–0.03 MM1.
Attenuation from the optical to the extreme ultraviolet by dust associated with broad absorption line quasars: The driving force for outflows
Authors: Gaskell C Martin , Gill Jake J M , Singh Japneet
Published: August 2024

We derive a mean attenuation curve out to the rest-frame extreme ultraviolet (EUV) for ‘BAL dust’ – the dust causing the additional extinction of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with broad absorption lines (BALQSOs). In contrast to the normal, relatively flat, mean AGN attenuation curve, BAL dust is well fit by a steeply rising, SMC-like curve. We confirm the shape of the theoretical Weingartner & Draine SMC curve out to 700 Angstroms but the drop in attenuation at still shorter wavelengths is less than predicted. The similar SMC-like attenuation curve for low-ionization BALQSOs (LoBALs) does not support the idea that they are an early phase in the life of an AGN when it is breaking out of a cocoon of star-forming dust. Although the attenuation is only $E(B - V) \sim 0.03\!-\!0.05$ in the optical, it rises to one magnitude in the EUV, which is an optimum value for radiative acceleration of dusty gas. Because the spectral energy distribution of AGNs peaks in the EUV, the force on the dust dominates the acceleration of BAL gas. Although the shape of the attenuation curve for LoBALs is similar to the shape for HiBALs, the LoBALs on average show negative attenuation in the optical. This is naturally explained if there is more light scattered into our line of sight in LoBALs compared with non-BALQSOs. We suggest that this and partial covering are causes when attenuation curves appear to be steeper in the UV than an SMC curve.
On the existence of a very metal-poor disc in the Milky Way
Authors: Zhang Hanyuan , Ardern-Arentsen Anke , Belokurov Vasily
Published: August 2024

The question of whether the Milky Way’s disc extends to low metallicity has been the subject of debate for many years. We aim to address the question by employing a large sample of giant stars with radial velocities and homogeneous metallicities based on the Gaia Data Release 3 BP/RP(XP) spectra. We study the 3D velocity distribution of stars in various metallicity ranges, including the very metal-poor (VMP) regime ($\mathrm{[M/H]} < -2.0$). We find that a clear, stand-alone disc population, i.e. that with a ratio of rotational velocity to velocity dispersion $v/\sigma > 1$, starts to emerge only around $\mathrm{[M/H]} \sim -1.3$, and is not visible for $\mathrm{[M/H]} < -1.6$. Using Gaussian mixture modelling, we show that there are two halo populations in the VMP regime: one stationary and one with a net prograde rotation of $\sim\!\! 80\ \mathrm{km\, s}^{-1}$. In this low-metallicity range, we are able to place constraints on the contribution of a rotation-supported thick disc sub-population to a maximum of $\sim\!\! 3$ per cent in our sample. We compare our results to previous claims of discy VMP stars in both observations and simulations and find that having a prograde halo component could explain most of these.
Improved constraints on Galactic Centre ejection of hypervelocity stars based on novel search method
Authors: Verberne Sill , Rossi Elena Maria , Koposov Sergey E , Marchetti Tommaso , Kuijken Konrad , Penoyre Zephyr , Evans Fraser A , Souropanis Dimitris , Tohill Clár-Bríd
Published: August 2024

Hypervelocity stars (HVSs) are stars which have been ejected from the Galactic Centre (GC) at velocities of up to a few thousand $\text{km}\, \text{s}^{-1}$. They are tracers of the Galactic potential and can be used to infer properties of the GC, such as the initial mass function and assembly history. HVSs are rare, however, with only about a dozen promising candidates discovered so far. In this work, we make use of a novel, highly efficient method to identify new HVS candidates in Gaia. This method uses the nearly radial trajectories of HVSs to infer their distances and velocities based on their position and Gaia proper motion alone. Through comparison of inferred distances with Gaia parallaxes and photometry, we identified 600 HVS candidates with G < 20 including the previously discovered S5-HVS1, out of which we obtained ground-based follow-up observations for 196 stars. As we found no new HVSs based on their radial velocity, we used detailed HVS ejection simulations to significantly improve previous HVS ejection rate constraints. In particular, the ejection rate of HVSs more massive than 1 $\mathrm{M_\odot }$ cannot be higher than $10^{-5}$ yr$^{-1}$ at $2\sigma$ significance. Additionally, we predict that there are 5–45 unbound HVSs in the complete Gaia catalogue ($1\sigma$ interval), most of which will be main-sequence stars of a few M$_\odot$ at heliocentric distances of tens to hundreds of kpc. By comparing our results to literature HVS candidates, we find an indication of either a time-dependent ejection rate of HVSs or a non-GC origin of previously identified HVS candidates.
H i studies of extremely metal-poor dwarfs in voids – I
Authors: Kurapati Sushma , Pustilnik Simon A , Egorova Evgeniya S
Published: August 2024

We present and discuss the results of the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope H i 21-cm line mapping for five isolated low-mass (M$_{\rm bary}$$\sim$(2–8)$\times 10^7$ M$\odot$) eXtremely Metal Poor dwarfs [12+$\log$(O/H) = 7.13–7.28], selected from the nearby void galaxy sample. All the studied void dwarfs show disturbed morphology in the H i maps with the angular resolutions of $\sim 11$ to $\sim 40\,{\rm arcsec}$. We examine the H i morphology and velocity field and the relative orientation of their stellar and gas body spins. We discuss the overall non-equilibrium state of their gas and the possible origin and evolution of the studied void dwarfs. The most straightforward interpretation of the ubiquitous phenomenon of the gas component non-equilibrium state in these and similar void dwarfs is the cold accretion from the void filaments and/or minor mergers. The cold gas accretion in voids could be linked to the presence of small filaments that constitute the substructure of voids.
Postzygotic mosaicism of SMARCB1 variants in patients with rhabdoid tumors: A not-so-rare condition exposing to successive tumors
Authors: Thomson Grégory , Filser Mathilde , Guerrini-Rousseau Léa , Tauziede-Espariat Arnault , Bourneix Christine , Gauthier-Villars Marion , Simaga Fatoumata , Beccaria Kévin , Faure-Conter Cécile , Maureille Aurélien , Zattara-Cannoni Hélène , Andre Nicolas , Entz-Werle Natacha , Brugieres Laurence , Mansuy Ludovic , Denizeau Philippe , Julia Sophie , Ingster Olivier , Lejeune Sophie , Brahimi Afane , Coupier Isabelle , Bonadona Valérie , Delattre Olivier , Masliah-Planchon Julien , Bourdeaut Franck
Published: August 2024

Background

Rhabdoid tumors (RT) are aggressive, rare tumors predominantly affecting young children, characterized by biallelic SMARCB1 gene inactivation. While most SMARCB1 alterations are acquired de novo, a third of cases exhibit germline alterations, defining Rhabdoid Tumors Predisposition Syndrome. With the increased sensitivity of next-generation sequencing (NGS), mosaicisms in genes linked to genetic diseases are more detectable. This study focuses on exploring SMARCB1 germline alterations, notably mosaicism in blood samples of children with RT and in parents, using a custom NGS panel.

Methods

A cohort of 280 children and 140 parents with germline analysis was studied. Germline DNA from 111 children with RT and 32 parents were reanalyzed with a custom NGS panel with 1500X average depth targeting the SMARCB1 gene to identify intragenic variants not detected with conventional low-sensitivity methods. Follow-up data was obtained for 77 patients.

Results

Nine previously undetected mosaicism cases were identified, totaling 17/280 patients with a mosaic variant (6.1%) in the cohort, with variant allele frequencies between 0.9% and 33%, thus highlighting the prior underestimation of its prevalence. Follow-up data showed that 4 out of 7 survivors with mosaic variants developed distinct novel tumors, 2 sharing SMARCB1 alterations with the initial tumor, emphasizing the potential clinical impact of SMARCB1 mosaicism.

Conclusions

The hitherto underestimated rate of SMARCB1 mosaicism in RT underscores the need for optimized genetic counseling and oncological monitoring. The findings have significant medical implications, considering the dire prognosis of RT.
Correlation Among Neighborhood-Level Measures of the Tobacco Retail Environment
Authors: Delamater Paul L , Herbert Lily , Golden Shelley D , Kong Amanda Y
Published: August 2024

Introduction

Tobacco retailer density and distance to tobacco retailers are understood to influence tobacco-related behaviors; however, there is no general agreement on how to best characterize or measure the tobacco retail environment (TRE). In this data-driven analysis, we examine similarities among neighborhood-level measures of the TRE and assess how the geographic resolution of the neighborhood units may affect them.

Aims and Methods

We used locations of likely tobacco retailers in the United States to calculate multiple retailer count, density, and distance measures. Measures were calculated at the Census block group, tract, and county (including county equivalents) levels of geographic aggregation. Spearman’s correlation was used to evaluate the similarity among the TRE measures.

Results

At the block group and tract level, correlation among all TRE measures ranged from slightly negative (ρ = −0.03) to nearly perfect (ρ = 0.99). At both levels of aggregation, distance-based TRE measures were highly correlated (ρ > 0.76). At the block group level, the simple count of retailers was highly correlated with the density measures (ρ > 0.83), and at the tract level, simple count was moderately to highly correlated with the density measures (ρ > 0.5). Findings were generally similar at the county level; a notable deviation was that retailers per person were negatively correlated with all other TRE measures (range from ρ = −0.08 to ρ = −0.32).

Conclusions

Some common measures were not correlated, suggesting they capture different aspects of the TRE; similarity among the various measures also varied by level of geographic aggregation.

Implications

Because the TRE shapes people’s tobacco-related behaviors, using appropriate measures to characterize it at a neighborhood level is paramount. Our work highlights both the similarities and differences among a set of common measures, thereby suggesting the measures may be capturing different aspects of the overall retail environment. Our findings regarding geographic level of aggregation underscore the importance of neighborhood definition in any TRE analysis.
Active protein ubiquitination regulates xylem vessel functionality
Authors: Phookaew Pawittra , Ma Ya , Suzuki Takaomi , Stolze Sara Christina , Harzen Anne , Sano Ryosuke , Nakagami Hirofumi , Demura Taku , Ohtani Misato
Published: August 2024

Xylem vessels function in the long-distance conduction of water in land plants. The NAC transcription factor VASCULAR-RELATED NAC-DOMAIN7 (VND7) is a master regulator of xylem vessel cell differentiation in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). We previously isolated suppressor of ectopic xylem vessel cell differentiation induced by VND7 (seiv) mutants. Here, we report that the responsible genes for seiv3, seiv4, seiv6, and seiv9 are protein ubiquitination-related genes encoding PLANT U-BOX46 (PUB46), an uncharacterized F-BOX protein (FBX), PUB36, and UBIQUITIN-SPECIFIC PROTEASE1 (UBP1), respectively. We also found decreased expression of genes downstream of VND7 and abnormal xylem transport activity in the seiv mutants. Upon VND7 induction, ubiquitination levels from 492 and 180 protein groups were upregulated and downregulated, respectively. VND7 induction resulted in the ubiquitination of proteins for cell wall biosynthesis and protein transport, whereas such active protein ubiquitination did not occur in the seiv mutants. We detected the ubiquitination of three lysine residues in VND7: K94, K105, and K260. Substituting K94 with arginine significantly decreased the transactivation activity of VND7, suggesting that the ubiquitination of K94 is crucial for regulating VND7 activity. Our findings highlight the crucial roles of target protein ubiquitination in regulating xylem vessel activity.
Mind-body therapy for treating fibromyalgia: a systematic review
Authors: Steen Jeremy P , Kannan Vivek , Zaidi Abdullah , Cramer Holger , Ng Jeremy Y
Published: August 2024

Objective

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic and disabling condition that presents treatment challenges for both patients and healthcare providers. The objective of this review was to systematically assess the effectiveness and safety of mind-body therapies for FM.

Methods

We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, AMED, and CINAHL databases from their inception to December 2023. Eligible articles included adults diagnosed with FM participating in a mind-body therapy intervention and were published from the beginning of 2012 onwards. We assessed the quality of the studies using the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Checklists.

Results

Twenty-seven studies (1969 participants) were included, comprising 22 randomized controlled trials and 5 quasi-experimental studies. Mind-body therapies included guided imagery (n = 5), mindfulness-based stress reduction (n = 5), qi gong (n = 5), tai chi (n = 5), biofeedback (n = 3), yoga (n = 2), mindfulness awareness training (n = 1), and progressive muscle relaxation (n = 1). With the exception of mindfulness-based stress reduction, all therapies had at least 1 study showing significant improvements in pain at the end of treatment. Three or more studies on qi gong and tai chi demonstrated significant improvements in fatigue and multidimensional function, with tai chi showing the most evidence for improvement in anxiety and depression. Approximately one-third of the studies reported on adverse events.

Conclusions

This systematic review found that mind-body therapies are potentially beneficial for adults with FM. Further research is necessary to determine if the positive effects observed post-intervention are sustained.

Study registration

Open Science Framework (https://osf.io) (September 12, 2023; https://doi.org/10.17605/osf.io/6w7ac).
Comparison of Negative Symptom Network Structures Between Patients With Early and Chronic Schizophrenia: A Network and Exploratory Graph Analysis
Authors: Tsui Harry Kam Hung , Wong Ting Yat , Sum Min Yi , Chu Sin Ting , Hui Christy Lai Ming , Chang Wing Chung , Lee Edwin Ho Ming , Suen Yinam , Chen Eric Yu Hai , Chan Sherry Kit Wa
Published: August 2024

Background and Hypothesis

Despite the clinical relevance of negative symptoms in schizophrenia, our understanding of negative symptoms remains limited. Although various courses and stages of schizophrenia have been identified, variations in the negative symptom networks between distinct stages of schizophrenia remain unexplored.

Study Design

We examined 405 patients with early schizophrenia (ES) and 330 patients with chronic schizophrenia (CS) using the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms. Network analysis and exploratory graph analysis were used to identify and compare the network structures and community memberships of negative symptoms between the two groups. Further, associations between communities and social functioning were evaluated. The potential influences of other symptom domains and confounding factors were also examined.

Study Results

Multidimensional differences were found in the networks of negative symptoms between ES and CS. The global connectivity strength was higher in the network of ES than in the network of CS. In ES, central symptoms were mainly related to expressive deficits, whereas in CS they were distributed across negative symptom domains. A three-community structure was suggested across stages but with different memberships and associations with social functioning. Potential confounding factors and symptom domains, including mood, positive, disorganization, and excitement symptoms, did not affect the network structures.

Conclusion

Our findings revealed the presence of stage-specific network structures of negative symptoms in schizophrenia, with negative symptom communities having differential significance for social functioning. These findings provide implications for the future development of tailored interventions to alleviate negative symptoms and improve functionality across stages.
Devaluation for whom? Feminization and wages in an economically polarized labor market, 2003–2019
Authors: Li Meiying
Published: August 2024

Scholars have found that as the proportion of female workers in an occupation grows, wages generally decline. Yet, we know little about how this gender inequality intersects with other labor market inequalities. This study evaluates the feminization-wage relationship of an increasingly economically polarized post-2000 US labor market. First, I hypothesize that the negative effect of feminization on wages has diminished in high-skilled occupations due to the declining prejudice against (highly educated) women and increasing requirements for higher education, which functions as a form of social closure. Second, because of the increasing demand for “people skills” in higher-skilled occupations and their association with women, workers in higher-skilled occupations that require these skills may experience positive effects of feminization on wages. Not all people skills, however, are associated with women and similarly rewarded. Thus, I examine three people skills—persuasion, managerial, and sociability—that have different gender stereotypes. I test hypotheses using occupational-level fixed-effects models with individual-level data from the American Community Survey 2003–2019 (N = 15,996,526) and time-varying occupational-level data from the Occupational Information Network 2003–2019 (N = 460). Results show that for workers in occupations requiring more than sixteen years of education, feminization corresponds with higher wages. Additionally, the positive feminization-wage relationship is larger in occupations with a high demand for a gender-neutral people skill, persuasion. This moderation effect is not found for sociability and managerial skills, which are associated with women and men, respectively. This study calls for greater attention to how labor market polarization has shaped gender inequality.
Adaptive Radiation Without Independent Stages of Trait Evolution in a Group of Caribbean Anoles
Authors: Bodensteiner Brooke , Burress Edward D , Muñoz Martha M
Published: August 2024

Adaptive radiation involves diversification along multiple trait axes, producing phenotypically diverse, species-rich lineages. Theory generally predicts that multi-trait evolution occurs via a “stages” model, with some traits saturating early in a lineage’s history, and others diversifying later. Despite its multidimensional nature, however, we know surprisingly little about how different suites of traits evolve during adaptive radiation. Here, we investigated the rate, pattern, and timing of morphological and physiological evolution in the anole lizard adaptive radiation from the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. Rates and patterns of morphological and physiological diversity are largely unaligned, corresponding to independent selective pressures associated with structural and thermal niches. Cold tolerance evolution reflects parapatric divergence across elevation, rather than niche partitioning within communities. Heat tolerance evolution and the preferred temperature evolve more slowly than cold tolerance, reflecting behavioral buffering, particularly in edge-habitat species (a pattern associated with the Bogert effect). In contrast to the nearby island of Puerto Rico, closely related anoles on Hispaniola do not sympatrically partition thermal niche space. Instead, allopatric and parapatric separation across biogeographic and environmental boundaries serves to keep morphologically similar close relatives apart. The phenotypic diversity of this island’s adaptive radiation accumulated largely as a by-product of time, with surprisingly few exceptional pulses of trait evolution. A better understanding of the processes that guide multidimensional trait evolution (and nuance therein) will prove key in determining whether the stages model should be considered a common theme of adaptive radiation.
BAIAP2L1 and BAIAP2L2 differently regulate hair cell stereocilia morphology
Authors: Yan Keji , Zhang Haoqing , Qu Chengli , Xi Yuehui , Han Ze‐Guang , Xu Zhigang
Published: August 2024

Inner ear sensory hair cells are characterized by their apical F‐actin‐based cell protrusions named stereocilia. In each hair cell, several rows of stereocilia with different height are organized into a staircase‐like pattern. The height of stereocilia is tightly regulated by two protein complexes, namely row‐1 and row‐2 tip complex, that localize at the tips of tallest‐row and shorter‐row stereocilia, respectively. Previously, we and others identified BAI1‐associated protein 2‐like 2 (BAIAP2L2) as a component of row‐2 complex that play an important role in maintaining shorter‐row stereocilia. In the present work we show that BAIAP2L1, an ortholog of BAIAP2L2, localizes at the tips of tallest‐row stereocilia in a way dependent on known row‐1 complex proteins EPS8 and MYO15A. Interestingly, unlike BAIAP2L2 whose stereocilia‐tip localization requires calcium, the localization of BAIAP2L1 on the tips of tallest‐row stereocilia is calcium‐independent. Therefore, our data suggest that BAIAP2L1 and BAIAP2L2 localize at the tips of different stereociliary rows and might regulate the development and/or maintenance of stereocilia differently. However, loss of BAIAP2L1 does not affect the row‐1 protein complex, and the auditory and balance function of Baiap2l1 knockout mice are largely normal. We hypothesize that other orthologous protein(s) such as BAIAP2 might compensate for the loss of BAIAP2L1 in the hair cells.
Dexamethasone induces trabecular meshwork cell myofibroblast transdifferentiation through ARHGEF26
Authors: Zhu Min , Deng Xizhi , Zhang Nan , Zhang Pengyu , Lai Cheng , Cai Shuncheng , Huang Jingqiu , Chen Xiaomin , Liu Yang , Zeng Wen , Ke Min
Published: August 2024

Glucocorticoid use may cause elevated intraocular pressure, leading to the development of glucocorticoid‐induced glaucoma (GIG). However, the mechanism of GIG development remains incompletely understood. In this study, we subjected primary human trabecular meshwork cells (TMCs) and mice to dexamethasone treatment to mimic glucocorticoid exposure. The myofibroblast transdifferentiation of TMCs was observed in cellular and mouse models, as well as in human trabecular mesh specimens. This was demonstrated by the cytoskeletal reorganization, alterations in cell morphology, heightened transdifferentiation markers, increased extracellular matrix deposition, and cellular dysfunction. Knockdown of Rho guanine nucleotide exchange factor 26 (ARHGEF26) expression ameliorated dexamethasone‐induced changes in cell morphology and upregulation of myofibroblast markers, reversed dysfunction and extracellular matrix deposition in TMCs, and prevented the development of dexamethasone‐induced intraocular hypertension. And, this process may be related to the TGF‐β pathway. In conclusion, glucocorticoids induced the myofibroblast transdifferentiation in TMCs, which played a crucial role in the pathogenesis of GIG. Inhibition of ARHGEF26 expression protected TMCs by reversing myofibroblast transdifferentiation. This study demonstrated the potential of reversing the myofibroblast transdifferentiation of TMCs as a new target for treating GIG.