bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Vagus and Glossopharyngeal Nerves in Two Autonomic Disorders
Authors: Norcliffe-Kaufmann Lucy
Published: November 2019

The glossopharyngeal and vagus cranial nerves provide the brainstem with sensory inputs from different receptors in the heart, lung, and vasculature. This afferent information is critical for the short-term regulation of arterial blood pressure and the buffering of emotional and physical stressors. Glossopharyngeal afferents supply the medulla with continuous mechanoreceptive signals from baroreceptors at the carotid sinus. Vagal afferents ascending from the heart supply mechanoreceptive signals from baroreceptors in different reflexogenic areas including the aortic arch, atria, ventricles, and pulmonary arteries. Ultimately, afferent information from each of these distinct pressure/volume baroreceptors is all relayed to the nucleus tractus solitarius, integrated within the medulla, and used to rapidly adjust sympathetic and parasympathetic activity back to the periphery. Lesions that selectively destroy the afferent fibers of the vagus and/or glossopharyngeal nerves can interrupt the transmission of baroreceptor signaling, leading to extreme blood pressure fluctuations. Vagal efferent neurons project back to the heart to provide parasympathetic cholinergic inputs. When activated, they trigger profound bradycardia, reduce myocardial oxygen demands, and inhibit acute inflammation. Impairment of the efferent vagal fibers seems to play a role in stress-induced neurogenic heart disease (i.e., takotsubo cardiomyopathy). This focused review describes: (1) the importance of the vagus and glossopharyngeal afferent neurons in regulating arterial blood pressure and heart rate, (2) how best to assess afferent and efferent cardiac vagal function in the laboratory, and (3) two clinical phenotypes that arise when the vagal and/or glossopharyngeal nerves do not survive development or are functionally impaired.
Differences in characteristics of somatosensory evoked potentials between children and adults
Authors: Takezawa Miho , Kamijo Keita , Shibasaki Manabu , Nakata Hiroki
Published: November 2019

The present study examined the characteristics of somatosensory processing in healthy prepubescent children (mean age: 124.9 ± 3.8 months) compared with young adults. Somatosensory evoked potentials at the frontal (Fz) and centroparietal (C3′) electrodes were recorded by delivering an electrical stimulus to the right median nerve at a rate of 3 Hz. The characteristics of somatosensory evoked potential waveforms at C3′ were markedly different between the two groups, while those at Fz were similar. Specifically, the waveforms at C3′ in the children involved not only standard P12, N18, P22, N27, P45, and N60 components, but also additional positive (P3) and negative (N3) components between N27 and P45, which were not found in adults. The amplitude of P22 at C3′ was significantly larger in the children than adults, indicating hyper-excitability/responsiveness of neural activity on somatosensory processing. In contrast, the amplitudes of N15 at Fz and N27 at C3′ were smaller in the children than adults, suggesting an immature somatosensory system in the children. The peak latencies of P12, N15, and P18 at Fz, and P12 and N18 at C3′ were significantly shorter in the children than adults, which was dependent on the height. These results indicate the developing somatosensory processing with hyper- and hypo-excitability of neural activity in prepubescent children.
Cortical correlates of creative thinking assessed by the figural Torrance Test of Creative Thinking
Authors: Hahm Jarang , Kim Kwang Ki , Park Sun-Hyung
Published: November 2019

Torrance Test of Creative Thinking is the most widely used form of creativity test. Although creativity assessed using the figural form of Torrance Test of Creative Thinking has been considered non-unidimensional, the structural correlates for each separable dimension have yet to be explored. The present study investigated the underlying cortical structure of separable dimensions for creativity using the figural Torrance Test of Creative Thinking. To this end, we recruited healthy young adults and conducted a regression analysis of the figural Torrance Test of Creative Thinking scores of gray matter volume after factorizing the five subscales using exploratory factor analysis. As a result, two factors of the figural Torrance Test of Creative Thinking were identified: (1) ‘FO’ factor consisting of fluency and originality and (2) ‘RAS’ factor consisting resistance to premature closure, abstractness of titles, and sophistication/elaboration. Subsequently, the FO factor showed a positive association with cerebral volumes in the parieto-temporal regions of the left angular gyrus and the right inferior parietal lobule, inferior and middle temporal, and parahippocampal gyri, which overlapped the default network. The RAS factor showed a positive correlation with the fronto-temporal regions including the bilateral temporal area, the left inferior parietal, and the right dorsolateral prefrontal regions representing the semantic control network. Our findings revealed the morphological substrates for the figural Torrance Test of Creative Thinking depending on two creative dimensions. The implications of the results are discussed.
Distinct hemispheric specialization of functional connectivity in schizophrenia with and without auditory verbal hallucinations
Authors: Tang Pengfei , Guo Fan , Xi Yi-Bin , Peng Limin , Cui Long-Biao , Wang Huaning , Shen Hui , Hu Dewen , Yin Hong , Zeng Ling-Li
Published: November 2019

As a basic organizing principle of the human brain, hemispheric specialization is an important perspective to explore the pathology of schizophrenia. However, it remains unclearly whether the hemispheric specialization of functional connectivity plays a role in mediating auditory verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia. In this study, 18 schizophrenic patients with auditory verbal hallucinations, 18 patients without auditory verbal hallucinations, and 18 matched healthy controls underwent resting-state functional MRI scans, and seed-based voxel-wise functional connectivity was calculated to quantify the degree of hemispheric specialization. The results revealed that both the auditory verbal hallucinations and non-auditory verbal hallucinations groups exhibited significantly increased specialization in the left middle temporal gyrus and left precuneus, and significantly reduced specialization in the right precuneus relative to healthy controls, and that the auditory verbal hallucinations severity was significantly correlated with the hemispheric specialization of the right precuneus in the auditory verbal hallucinations group. Moreover, the left frontal lobe exhibited reduced hemispheric specialization in the auditory verbal hallucinations group compared with non-auditory verbal hallucinations group, and the patients with and without auditory verbal hallucinations could be clustered into two groups with an accuracy of 80.6% based on the brain regions exhibiting significant specialization changes. The findings indicate that the hemispheric specialization of the aforementioned regions may play a role in mediating auditory verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia, and the distinct hemispheric specialization patterns of functional connectivity may provide a potential biomarker to differentiate schizophrenic patients with and without auditory verbal hallucinations.
How the past impacts the future: modelling the performance of evolutionarily distinct mammals through time
Authors: Bennett D. J. , Sutton M. D. , Turvey S. T.
Published: November 2019

How does past evolutionary performance impact future evolutionary performance? This is an important question not just for macroevolutionary biologists who wish to chart the phenomena that describe deep-time changes in biodiversity but also for conservation biologists, as evolutionarily distinct species—which may be deemed ‘low-performing’ in our current era—are increasingly the focus of conservation efforts. Contrasting hypotheses exist to account for the history and future of evolutionarily distinct species: on the one hand, they may be relicts of large radiations, potentially ‘doomed’ to extinction; or they may be slow-evolving, ‘living fossils’, likely neither to speciate nor go extinct; or they may be seeds of future radiations. Here, we attempt to test these hypotheses in Mammalia by combining a molecular phylogenetic supertree with fossil record occurrences and measuring change in evolutionary distinctness (ED) at different time slices. With these time slices, we modelled future ED as a function of past ED. We find that past evolutionary performance does indeed have an impact on future evolutionary performance: the most evolutionarily isolated clades tend to become more evolutionarily distinct with time, indicating that low-performing clades tend to remain low-performing throughout their evolutionary history.

This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘The past is a foreign country: how much can the fossil record actually inform conservation?’
All is flux: the predictive power of fluctuating Quaternary mammalian faunal-climate scenarios
Authors: Schreve Danielle
Published: November 2019

The long-term impact of Middle and Late Pleistocene glacial-interglacial change led to the major reorganization of mammalian faunal communities in northern Europe through species origination, extinction, evolutionary change and distributional shifts. A Bray–Curtis cluster analysis with single linkage to examine relative faunal similarity was performed on mammalian assemblages from five successively older interglacials (MIS 1, 5e, 7c-a, 9 and 11) in Britain, a region with an exceptionally well-resolved faunal record for this time period. The results indicate a degree of continuity in terms of common interglacial elements occurring across all periods but also reveal that the particular climatic and environmental parameters of each interglacial resulted in the generation of very different faunal assemblages, depending on the length, intensity and structure of the interglacial. Of particular note are the comparability of the mammalian assemblages from warm interglacials MIS 5e and 9, and the high species diversity seen in MIS 7c-a, linked to relatively cool temperate conditions and the spread of dry grasslands. Together, these results offer insight into the overall ‘predictability' of Quaternary mammalian interglacial community composition and what might be expected in the natural evolution of a Holocene interglacial freed of anthropogenic interference.

This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘The past is a foreign country: how much can the fossil record actually inform conservation?’
Conservation evidence from climate-related stressors in the deep-time marine fossil record
Authors: Clapham Matthew E.
Published: November 2019

Conservation of marine species requires the ability to predict the effects of climate-related stressors in an uncertain future. Experiments and observations in modern settings provide crucial information, but lack temporal scale and cannot anticipate emergent effects during ongoing global change. By contrast, the deep-time fossil record contains the long-term perspective at multiple global change events that can be used, at a broad scale, to test hypothesized effects of climate-related stressors. For example, geologically rapid carbon cycle disruption has often caused crises in reef ecosystems, and selective extinctions support the hypothesis that greater activity levels promote survival. Geographical patterns of extinction and extirpation were more variable than predicted from modern physiology, with tropical and temperate extinction peaks observed at different ancient events. Like any data source, the deep-time record has limitations but also provides opportunities that complement the limitations of modern and historical data. In particular, the deep-time record is the best source of information on actual outcomes of climate-related stressors in natural settings and over evolutionary timescales. Closer integration of modern and deep-time evidence can expand the types of hypotheses testable with the fossil record, yielding better predictions of extinction risk as climate-related stressors continue to intensify in future oceans.

This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘The past is a foreign country: how much can the fossil record actually inform conservation?’
Conservation palaeobiology and the shape of things to come
Authors: Dietl Gregory P.
Published: November 2019

Conservation decision-making is a forward-looking process that involves choices among alternative images of how the future will unfold. Scenarios, easily understood as stories about plausible futures, are emerging as a powerful approach used by the conservation community to define a range of socio-ecological futures when standard, predictive modelling approaches to decision-making are inappropriate, providing a framework for making robust decisions under uncertainties. Conservation palaeobiologists can help the conservation community imagine the future. The utility of the past centres on orienting us to the present—grounding the future in the realm of what is plausible—by providing context against which to think about future scenarios, which may help stakeholders and decision-makers to develop a new mental map of a conservation problem, inspiring our intentions and moving us purposefully toward a desirable tomorrow.

This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘The past is a foreign country: how much can the fossil record actually inform conservation?’
Croceicoccus sediminis sp. nov., isolated from coastal sediment
Authors: Huang Zhaobin , Zhang Aoqiang , Lai Qiliang , Yuan Jianjun
Published: November 2019

A Gram-stain-negative, cocci or short rod-shaped, yellow-pigmented bacterium, designated strain S2-4-2T, was isolated from coastal sediment of Spartina alterniflora in Quanzhou Bay, PR China. Growth was observed at 15–40 °C (optimum, 30 °C) and pH 6.0–8.0 (optimum, pH 7.0). Strain S2-4-2T tolerated 0–10 % NaCl (optimum, 1 %). The 16S rRNA gene of strain S2-4-2T showed highest sequence similarity to

Croceicoccus pelagius

Ery9T (98.2 %), followed by

Croceicoccus naphthovorans

PQ-2T,

Croceicoccus marinus

E4A9T and

Croceicoccus mobilis

Ery22T (97.6%, 96.3 and 96.3 %, respectively). Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences and phylogenomic analysis based on 92 up-to-date bacterial core gene sets indicated that strain S2-4-2T forms a distinct monophyletic branch affiliated to the genus

Croceicoccus

. The average nucleotide identity value between strain S2-4-2T and its close relatives were estimated to be 74.8–85.7 %. The respiratory quinone was found to be Q-10. The predominant fatty acids (>10 %) were identified as summed feature 8 (C18 : 1ω7c and/or C18 : 1ω6c) and summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω7c and C16 : 1ω6c). The polar lipids were identified as phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine, sphingoglycolipid and an unidentified phospholipid. The draft genome size of strain S2-4-2T was 3.5 Mb with a genomic G+C content of 63.0 mol%. Based on these results, strain S2-4-2T is concluded to represent a novel species within the genus

Croceicoccus

, for which the name Croceicoccus sediminis sp. nov. is proposed with the type strain S2-4-2T (=MCCC 1K03706T=KCTC 72146T).
Maribacter algicola sp. nov., isolated from a marine red alga, Porphyridium marinum, and transfer of Maripseudobacter aurantiacus Chen et al. 2017 to the genus Maribacter as Maribacter aurantiacus comb. nov.
Authors: Khan Shehzad Abid , Jeong Sang Eun , Baek Ju Hye , Jeon Che Ok
Published: November 2019

A Gram-stain-negative, strictly aerobic and moderately halophilic bacterial strain, designated strain PoM-212T, was isolated from a marine alga, Porphyridium marinum, in the Republic of Korea. Cells were catalase- and oxidase-positive rods with gliding motility without flagellum. Growth was observed at 20–40 °C (optimum, 30 °C) and pH 5.0–8.5 (pH 5.0–5.5) and in the presence of 0.5–5 % (w/v) NaCl (2–3 %). Strain PoM-212T contained iso-C15 : 1, iso-C15 : 0, iso-C17 : 0 3-OH and summed feature 3 (comprising C16 : 1ω7c and/or C16 : 1ω6c) as major fatty acids and menaquinone-6 as the sole isoprenoid quinone. Phosphatidylethanolamine, three unidentified aminolipids and two unidentified polar lipids were detected as major polar lipids. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 41.0 mol%. Strain PoM-212T was most closely related to

Maribacter lutimaris

KJ4T,

Maripseudobacter aurantiacus

CDA4T and

Maribacter flavus

C3T with 97.2, 97.2 and 97.0 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities, respectively, and it formed a distinct phylogenetic lineage from them within the genus

Maribacter

.

Maripseudobacter aurantiacus

formed a close phylogenetic lineage with

Maribacter flavus

with 99.7 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, but their digital DNA–DNA hybridization value was 67.4 %. On the basis of its phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and molecular properties, strain PoM-212T represents a novel species of the genus

Maribacter

, for which the name Maribacter algicola sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is PoM-212T (=KACC 19789T=JCM 32941T). The transfer of

Maripseudobacter aurantiacus

to the genus

Maribacter

as Maribacter aurantiacus comb. nov. is also proposed (type strain CDA4T=KCTC 52409T=MCCC 1K03210T).
Description of Erysipelothrix piscisicarius sp. nov., an emergent fish pathogen, and assessment of virulence using a tiger barb (Puntigrus tetrazona) infection model
Authors: Pomaranski Eric K. , Griffin Matt J. , Camus Alvin C. , Armwood Abigail R. , Shelley Johnny , Waldbieser Geoffrey C. , LaFrentz Benjamin R. , García Julio C. , Yanong Roy , Soto Esteban
Published: November 2019

A recently described emergent disease of ornamental fish has been associated with an

Erysipelothrix

species positive for the surface protective antigen (spa) C gene. Whole genome sequencing was performed on five spaC Erysipelothrix isolates from diseased ornamental fish. In addition, these spaC Erysipelothrix isolates were compared to spaA-, spaB- and other spaC-positive

Erysipelothrix

species isolated from terrestrial and marine mammals, birds and fish using multi-locus sequence analysis (MLSA). The genomes of fish pathogenic spaC isolates were genetically distinct from

Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae

, sharing 86.61–86.94 % average nucleotide identity (ANI) and digital DNA–DNA hybridization (dDDH) values of 31.6–32.2 %, but 99.01–99.11 % ANI and 90.8–91.9 % dDDH values with the uncharacterized spaC-positive

Erysipelothrix

sp. strain 2 isolated from swine. The findings indicate the spaC-positive fish and swine isolates are conspecific and represent a previously unrecognized taxon. While phylogenies inferred from MLSA sequences confirm this conclusion, slight genetic differences between the spaC fish isolates and swine strain 2 were indicated. Bath immersion challenge trials were conducted using tiger barbs (Puntigrus tetrazona) exposed by immersion to 107 c.f.u. ml−1 of three fish pathogenic spaC Erysipelothrix species, and three spaA and two spaB E. rhusiopathiae isolates as a model of infection. Thirty days post-challenge, cumulative mean percentage survival was 37 % for the spaA, 100 % for the spaB and 13 % for the spaC isolates, revealing differences in virulence among the various spa genotypes in fish. Genetic findings and observed differences in virulence demonstrate the fish pathogenic spaC isolates represent a novel species, for which the name Erysipelothrix piscisicarius sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is E. piscisicarius 15TAL0474T (=NRRL B-65533T=ATCC-TSD-175T=DSM 110099T).
Identification ofde novomutations in prenatal neurodevelopment-associated genes in schizophrenia in two Han Chinese patient-sibling family-based cohorts
Authors: Jiang Shan , Zhou Daizhan , Wang Yin-Ying , Jia Peilin , Wan Chunling , Li Xingwang , He Guang , Cao Dongmei , Jiang Xiaoqian , Kendler Kenneth S. , Tsuang Ming , Mize Travis , Wu Jain-Shing , Lu Yimei , He Lin , Chen Jingchun , Zhao Zhongming , Chen Xiangning
Published: November 2019

Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a severe psychiatric disorder with a strong genetic component. High heritability of SCZ suggests a major role for transmitted genetic variants. Furthermore, SCZ is also associated with a marked reduction in fecundity, leading to the hypothesis that alleles with large effects on risk might often occur de novo. In this study, we conducted whole-genome sequencing for 23 families from two cohorts with matched unaffected siblings and parents. Two nonsensede novomutations (DNMs) inGJC1andHIST1H2ADwere identified in SCZ patients. Ten genes (DPYSL2, NBPF1, SDK1, ZNF595, ZNF718, GCNT2, SNX9, AACS, KCNQ1andMSI2) were found to carry more DNMs in SCZ patients than their unaffected siblings by burden test. Expression analyses indicated that these DNM implicated genes showed significantly higher expression in prefrontal cortex in prenatal stage. The DNM in theGJC1gene is highly likely a loss function mutation (pLI = 0.94), leading to the dysregulation of ion channel in the glutamatergic excitatory neurons. Analysis of rare variants in independent exome sequencing dataset indicates thatGJC1has significantly more rare variants in SCZ patients than in unaffected controls. Data from genome-wide association studies suggested that common variants in theGJC1gene may be associated with SCZ and SCZ-related traits. Genes co-expressed withGJC1are involved in SCZ, SCZ-associated pathways and drug targets. These evidence suggest thatGJC1may be a risk gene for SCZ and its function may be involved in prenatal and early neurodevelopment, a vulnerable period for developmental disorders such as SCZ.
HIV-1 Rev interacts with HERV-K RcREs present in the human genome and promotes export of unspliced HERV-K proviral RNA
Authors: Gray Laurie R. , Jackson Rachel E. , Jackson Patrick E. H. , Bekiranov Stefan , Rekosh David , Hammarskjöld Marie-Louise
Published: November 2019

Background

The HERV-K (HML-2) viruses are the youngest of the human endogenous retroviruses. They are present as several almost complete proviral copies and numerous fragments in the human genome. Many HERV-K proviruses express a regulatory protein Rec, which binds to an element present in HERV-K mRNAs called the RcRE. This interaction is necessary for the nucleo-cytoplasmic export and expression of HERV-K mRNAs that retain introns and plays a role analogous to that of Rev and the RRE in HIV replication. There are over 900 HERV-K RcREs distributed throughout the human genome. Thus, it was of interest to determine if Rev could functionally interact with selected RcRE elements that map either to HERV-K proviruses or human gene regions. This interaction would have the potential to alter the expression of both HERV-K mRNAs and cellular mRNAs during HIV-1 infection.

Results

In this study we employed a combination of RNAseq, bioinformatics and cell-based functional assays. Potential RcREs were identified through a number of bioinformatic approaches. They were then tested for their ability to promote export and translation of a reporter mRNA with a retained intron in conjunction with Rev or Rec. Some of the selected elements functioned well with either Rev, Rec or both, whereas some showed little or no function. Rev function on individual RcREs varied and was also dependent on the Rev sequence. We also performed RNAseq on total and cytoplasmic RNA isolated from SupT1 cells expressing HIV Rev, with or without Tat, or HERV-K Rec. Proviral mRNA from three HERV-K loci (4p16.1b, 22q11.23 and most significantly 3q12.3) accumulated in the cytoplasm in the presence of Rev or Tat and Rev, but not Rec. Consistent with this, the 3’ RcRE from 3q12.3 functioned well with HIV-Rev in our reporter assay. In contrast, this RcRE showed little or no function with Rec.

Conclusions

The HIV Rev protein can functionally interact with many RcREs present in the human genome, depending on the RcRE sequence, as well as the Rev sequence. This leads to export of some of the HERV-K proviral mRNAs and also has the potential to change the expression of non-viral genes.
ATP Binding Cassette Proteins ABCG37 and ABCG33 are required for potassium-independent cesium uptake in Arabidopsis roots
Authors: Ashraf Mohammad Arif , Kumagai Sayaka , Ito Keita , Sugita Ryohei , Tanoi Keitaro , Rahman Abidur
Published: November 2019

Radiocesium, accumulated in the soil by nuclear accidents is a major environmental concern. The transport process of cesium (Cs+) is tightly linked to the indispensable plant nutrient potassium (K+) as they both belong to the group I alkali metal with similar chemical properties. Most of the transporters that had been characterized to date as Cs+ transporters are directly or indirectly linked to K+. Using a combinatorial approach of physiology, genetics, cell biology and root uptake assay, here we identified two ATP-Binding Cassette (ABC) proteins, ABCG37 and ABCG33 as facilitators of Cs+ influx. The gain-of-function mutant of ABCG37 (abcg37-1) showed hypersensitive response to Cs+-induced root growth inhibition, while the double knock out mutant of ABCG33 and ABCG37 (abcg33-1abcg37-2) showed resistance. Single loss-of-function mutant of ABCG33 and ABCG37 did not show any alteration in Cs+ response. Short term uptake experiment with radioactive Cs+ revealed reduced Cs+ uptake in abcg33-1abgc37-2 compared with wild type in presence or absence of K+. Potassium response and content were unaffected in the double mutant background confirming that Cs+ uptake by ABCG33 and ABCG37 is independent of K+. Collectively, this work identified two ABC proteins as new Cs+ influx carriers, which act redundantly and independent of K+ uptake pathway.
Septal GABAergic Inputs to CA1 Govern Contextual Memory Retrieval
Authors: Sans-Dublanc Arnau , Razzauti Adrià , Desikan Srinidhi , Pascual Marta , de la Rocha Jaime , Monyer Hannah , Sindreu Carlos
Published: November 2019

Whether projections from the medial septum regulate the function of the CA1 hippocampus in episodic memory retrieval is not known. Here we show that septal GABAergic inputs to CA1 promote contextual fear memory, blocking the activation of parvalbumin-rich interneurons to facilitate Erk/MAP-kinase signaling in pyramidal cells during retrieval. Thus, suppression of feed-forward inhibition onto CA1 by septal GABAergic neurons gates contextual fear behavior.
Transformation of population code from dLGN to V1 facilitates linear decoding
Authors: Gajic N. Alex Cayco , Durand Séverine , Buice Michael , Iyer Ramakrishnan , Reid Clay , Zylberberg Joel , Shea-Brown Eric
Published: November 2019

How neural populations represent sensory information, and how that representation is transformed from one brain area to another, are fundamental questions of neuroscience. The dorsolateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN) and primary visual cortex (V1) represent two distinct stages of early visual processing. Classic sparse coding theories propose that V1 neurons represent local features of images. More recent theories have argued that the visual pathway transforms visual representations to become increasingly linearly separable. To test these ideas, we simultaneously recorded the spiking activity of mouse dLGN and V1 in vivo. We find strong evidence for both sparse coding and linear separability theories. Surprisingly, the correlations between neurons in V1 (but not dLGN) were shaped as to be irrelevant for stimulus decoding, a feature which we show enables linear separability. Therefore, our results suggest that the dLGN-V1 transformation reshapes correlated variability in a manner that facilitates linear decoding while producing a sparse code.
Prefrontal deep projection neurons enable cognitive flexibility via persistent feedback monitoring
Authors: Timothy Spellman , Malka Svei , Jesse Kaminsky , Gabriela Manzano-Nieves , Conor Liston
Published: November 2019

Cognitive flexibility, the ability to alter one’s strategy according to changing stimulus-response-reward relationships, is critical for acquiring and updating learned behavior. Attentional set-shifting, a test of cognitive flexibility, depends on the activity of prefrontal cortex (PFC). It remains unclear, however, what specific role PFC neurons play and how they interact to support set-shifting. One widely held view is that prefrontal activity biases sensorimotor responses by mediating attention. Using optogenetics and 2-photon calcium imaging, we demonstrate that, while PFC activity does encode attentional sets, this activity does not bias sensorimotor responses. Rather, PFC activity enables set-shifting by encoding trial feedback information, a role it has been known to play in other contexts. We identify a circuit-level mechanism that supports feedback monitoring through persistent, recurring activity bridging multiple trials. Unexpectedly, the functional properties of PFC cells did not vary with their efferent projection targets in this context. Instead, representations of trial feedback formed a topological gradient, with cells more strongly selective for feedback information located further from the pial surface and receiving denser afferent inputs from the anterior cingulate cortex. Together, these findings identify a critical role for deep PFC projection neurons in enabling set-shifting through behavioral feedback monitoring.
Early Treatment Response in First Episode Psychosis: A 7-Tesla Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Study of Glutathione and Glutamate
Authors: Dempster Kara , Jeon Peter , MacKinley Michael , Williamson Peter , Théberge Jean , Palaniyappan Lena
Published: November 2019

Early response to antipsychotic medications is one of the most important determinants of later symptomatic and functional outcomes in psychosis. Glutathione and glutamate have emerged as promising therapeutic targets for patients demonstrating inadequate response to dopamine-blocking antipsychotics. Nevertheless, the role of these neurochemicals in the mechanism of early antipsychotic response remains poorly understood. Using a longitudinal design and ultra-high field 7-Tesla magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) protocol in 53 subjects, we report the association between dorsal anterior cingulate cortex glutamate and glutathione, with time to treatment response in drug-naïve (34.6% of the sample) or minimally medicated first episode patients with non-affective psychosis. Time to response was defined as the number of weeks required to reach a 50% reduction in the PANSS-8 scores. Higher glutathione was associated with shorter time to response (F=4.86,P= .017), while higher glutamate was associated with more severe functional impairment (F=5.33,P= .008). There were no significant differences between patients and controls on measures of glutamate or glutathione. For the first time, we have demonstrated an association between higher glutathione and favourable prognosis in FEP. We propose that interventions that increase brain glutathione levels may improve outcomes of early intervention in psychosis.
Differential effects of ethanol on behavior and GABAAreceptor subunit expression in zebrafish (Danio rerio) with alternative stress coping styles
Authors: Goodman Alexander C. , Wong Ryan Y.
Published: November 2019

Variation in stress responses between individuals is linked to factors ranging from stress coping styles to sensitivity of neurotransmitter systems. Many anxiolytic compounds (e.g. ethanol) can increase stressor engagement through modulation of neurotransmitter systems and are used to investigate stress response mechanisms. Here we assessed the role of the GABAAsystem on the variation of the behavioral stress response by comparing individuals differing in stress coping styles that were chronically treated with ethanol. Specifically, we investigated resulting changes in stress-related behavior and whole-brain GABAAreceptor subunits (gabra1, gabra2, gabrd, &gabrg2) in response to a novelty stressor. There were significant main and interaction effects on two stress-related behaviors, where the ethanol-treated proactive individuals showed lower stress-related behaviors than their reactive counterparts. Proactive individuals showed significantly higher expression ofgabra1, gabra2, andgabrg2compared to reactive individuals and ethanol treatment resulted in upregulation ofgabra1andgabrg2in both stress coping styles. These results show that differences in stress-related behaviors between stress coping styles may be facilitated in part by expression of select GABAAreceptor subunits.
MS2-TRIBE evaluates protein-RNA interactions and nuclear organization of transcription by RNA editing
Authors: Biswas Jeetayu , Rahman Reazur , Gupta Varun , Rosbash Michael , Singer Robert H.
Published: November 2019

Nearly every step of RNA regulation is mediated by binding proteins (RBPs). The most common method to identify specific RBP target transcripts in vivo is by crosslinking (“CLIP” and its variants), which rely on protein-RNA crosslinking and specific antibodies. Another recently introduced method exploits RNA editing, with the catalytic domain of ADAR covalently attached to a specific RBP (“TRIBE”). Both approaches suffer from difficulties in distinguishing real RNA targets from false negative and especially false positive signals. To critically evaluate this problem, we used fibroblasts from a mouse where every endogenous β-actin mRNA molecule was tagged with the bacteriophage MS2 RNA stem loops; hence there is only a single bona fide target mRNA for the MS2 capsid protein (MCP). CLIP and TRIBE could both detect the single RNA target, albeit with some false positives (transcripts lacking the MS2 stem loops). Consistent false positive CLIP signals could be attributed to nonspecific antibody crosslinking. To our surprise, the supposed false positive TRIBE targets correlated with the location of genes spatially proximal to the β-actin gene. This result indicates that MCP-ADAR bound to β-actin mRNA contacted and edited nearby nascent transcripts, as evidenced by frequent intronic editing. Importantly, nascent transcripts on nearby chromosomes were also edited, agreeing with the interchromosomal contacts observed in chromosome paint and Hi-C. The identification of nascent RNA-RNA contacts imply that RNA-regulatory proteins such as splicing factors can associate with multiple nascent transcripts and thereby form domains of post-transcriptional activity, which increase their local concentrations. These results more generally indicate that TRIBE combined with the MS2 system, MS2-TRIBE, is a new tool to study nuclear RNA organization and regulation.
A review: virtual assembly of flexible cables based on physical modeling
Authors: Du Hongwang , Xiong Wei , Wang Haitao , Wang Zuwen
Published: November 2019

Purpose

Cables are widely used, and they play a key role in complex electromechanical products such as vehicles, ships, aircraft and satellites. Cable design and assembly significantly impact the development cycle and assembly quality, which is be-coming a key element affecting the function of a product. However, there are various kinds of cables, with complex geo-metric configurations and a narrow assembly space, which can easily result in improper or missed assembly, an unreasonable layout or interference. Traditional serial design methods are inefficient and costly, and they cannot predict problems in installation and use. Based on physical modeling, computer-aided cable design and assembly can effectively solve these problems. This paper aims to address virtual assembly (VA) of flexible cables based on physical modeling.

Design/methodology/approach

Much research has focused recently on virtual design and assembly-process planning for cables. This paper systematically reviews the research progress and the current state of mechanical models, virtual design, assembly-process planning, collision detection and geometric configuration and proposes areas for further research.

Findings

In the first instance, the main research groups and typical systems are investigated, followed by extensive exploration of the major research issues. The latter can be reviewed from five perspectives: the current state of mechanical models, virtual design, assembly-process planning, collision detection and geometric configuration. Finally, the barriers that prevent successful application of VA are also discussed, and the future research directions are summarized.

Originality/value

This paper presents a comprehensive survey of the topics of VA of flexible cables based on physical modeling and investigates some new ideas and recent advances in the area.
Determinants of employee retention: a moderated mediation model of abusive leadership and psychological empowerment
Authors: Jha Sumi
Published: November 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between psychological safety (PS) and employee retention (ER) when psychological empowerment (PE) is a mediator variable and abusive leadership is a moderating variable.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was conducted by receiving responses from managers and supervisors of the telecom industry. The sample size was 337. Standard questionnaires were used to collect data. Moderated mediation analysis was conducted to capture the differences on the effect of ER because of the presence of abusive leadership.

Findings

The findings of the study revealed that the abusive leadership moderates the relationship between employees PS and PE. The mediation effect of PE between PS and ER relationship was found to be significant. The relationship got weaker in the presence of high abusive leadership and stronger in the presence of low abusive leadership.

Practical implications

The paper discusses the drawbacks of abusive leadership on ER. Abusive leadership may bring immediate results. Employees may respond out of fear but would leave the organization as soon as they will get the opportunity.

Originality/value

The study on the abusive leadership is relatively less. The moderating role of abusive leadership on ER would add to the subject knowledge.
Respecting privacy in care services
Authors: Bates Peter , McLoughlin Brendan
Published: November 2019

Purpose

In care homes concerns about abuse have established a culture where all information pertaining to a person must be shared, and little attention is paid to privacy in its broader sense. The purpose of this paper is to take a human rights perspective and consider how information governance may impact on the health, well-being and quality of life of residents. It proposes a proactive approach and presents a template for a privacy impact assessment which services could use to improve their approach to privacy, protecting the human rights of those in their care, contributing to their independence and improving outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach

A review of historical and current thinking about the value of privacy in human services and wider society leads to a series of challenges to the way in which privacy is upheld in residential care services.

Findings

Recent preoccupations with data privacy have led to a myopic neglect of broader considerations of privacy. Whilst it continues to be important to protect the confidentiality of personal data and to ensure that residents are protected from abuse, human services that provide 24 hour care in congregated settings must not neglect broader components of privacy.

Research limitations/implications

Privacy impact assessments have been widely used to check whether data privacy is being upheld. The broader concept that might be termed “Big Privacy” is introduced within which data privacy is but one section. It is suggested that big privacy is severely compromised in residential care settings, thus denying residents their human right to privacy. The extent of such violation of rights should be investigated.

Practical implications

Having set out the potential reach of the human right to privacy, important work needs to be done to find out how privacy might be upheld in the real world of congregate residential care. Some service providers may have solutions to the organisational challenges, have addressed staff training needs and revised risk assessment strategies so that privacy is upheld alongside other rights.

Social implications

Nearly half a million people live in congregate residential care settings in England, and deprivation of privacy is argued to be a significant deprivation of human rights. Occasional tragedies and scandals in congregate settings create pressure for increasing the level of surveillance, and the right to privacy is sacrificed. This paper offers a challenge to this process, arguing that competing rights need to be balanced and privacy is an essential component of a decent quality of life.

Originality/value

Personal growth and development depends to some extent on choice and control over access to privacy. Recent changes in the law regarding data protection have narrowed our thinking about privacy until it is a small concept, largely concerned with data handling. This paper invites consideration of big privacy, and invites congregate residential care settings to consider how a deep and broad definition of privacy could transform these services.
When do entrepreneurial firms benefit from transactive memory systems?
Authors: Batra Shruti , Dey A.K.
Published: November 2019

Purpose

Despite the recognized importance of transactive memory systems (TMS) for firm performance, this relationship remains misconstrued for entrepreneurial firms. Some researchers argue that entrepreneurial firms benefit from effective knowledge management systems, whereas others contend that such systems may prove expensive for resource-scarce entrepreneurial firms. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to explore this relationship in the context of Indian entrepreneurial firms. Furthermore, the authors argue that relationship conflict among organizational members impacts the TMS–performance link for entrepreneurial firms.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from 127 entrepreneurial hotels in the Uttarakhand state of India and analyzed using multiple linear regression.

Findings

The findings of this study establish a positive relationship between TMS and firm performance for entrepreneurial firms. Also, it is found that TMS becomes more nuanced and beneficial in the presence of relationship conflict between organizational sub-units and is a unique finding that can be potentially helpful to entrepreneurs bestowed with the task of knowledge management in their organizations.

Practical implications

This study offers at least two insights to entrepreneurs. First, establishing TMS – i.e. managing knowledge in such a way that specialization units are created, credibility is established among the knowledge units, and there is scope for sufficient communication – leads to enhanced performance in entrepreneurial organizations. Second, as the level of relationship conflict within the entrepreneurial firm increases, it becomes all the more crucial to emphasize TMS.

Originality/value

Although researchers in the literature of knowledge management have emphasized a lot on its performance outcomes, relatively little research effort has been placed on understanding this link for entrepreneurial firms. The current study filled this void in the literature and offered crucial implications for entrepreneurial firms operating in dynamic environments such as hotels. Additionally, the data collected from a relatively unexplored context of Indian hospitality industry offer a valuable addition to the entrepreneurship literature.
Time‐varying effect of sea ice on the population dynamics of Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus) on Tuleny Island
Authors: Mizuguchi Daisuke , Kato Keiko , Okamoto Suguru , Hattori Kaoru , Sakurai Yasunori
Published: November 2019

The population of Steller sea lions (SSLs) on Tuleny Island has been increasing continuously since the 1980s. However, the reasons for this increase have remained unknown. In this study, we investigated whether changes in sea ice distribution affected population dynamics on Tuleny Island by applying a Gompertz density‐dependent model in a state‐space framework with a time‐varying coefficient. We compared results from the time‐varying coefficient model with those from two other models that assumed time‐constant effects and no effect of sea ice. For both SSL pups and non‐pups, only the time‐varying coefficient model predicted a significant effect from the timing of sea ice breakup. The SSL population was larger when the sea ice broke up earlier. The sea ice effect was larger at the start of the study period and became insignificant in the late 1980s. Thus, our results suggest that the increase in SSL population on Tuleny Island during the first 20 years could be partly explained by earlier sea ice breakup, which promoted immigration from other rookeries. Because SSLs exhibit strong site‐fidelity as the habituation effect, individuals that visited once may have repeatedly returned to visit and breed on the island, regardless of the sea ice conditions in later years. This may explain why the sea ice effect was only significant in the first years of population increase. Negative density dependence was also only predicted by the time‐varying coefficient model. Adding the time‐varying coefficient to modeling analysis could simultaneously improve predictions of environmental effects and estimations of density dependence.
Institutional reform and public attitudes toward EU decision making
Authors: HAHM HYEONHO , HILPERT DAVID , KÖNIG THOMAS
Published: November 2019

In the face of the discourse about the democratic deficit and declining public support for the European Union (EU), institutionalist scholars have examined the roles of institutions in EU decision making and in particular the implications of the empowered European Parliament. Almost in isolation from this literature, prior research on public attitudes toward the EU has largely adopted utilitarian, identity and informational accounts that focus on individual‐level attributes. By combining the insights from the institutional and behavioural literature, this article reports on a novel cross‐national conjoint experiment designed to investigate multidimensionality of public attitudes by taking into account the specific roles of institutions and distinct stages in EU decision making. Analysing data from a large‐scale experimental survey in 13 EU member states, the findings demonstrate how and to what extent the institutional design of EU decision making shapes public support. In particular, the study finds a general pattern of public consensus about preferred institutional reform regarding powers of proposal, adoption and voting among European citizens in different countries, but notable dissent about sanctioning powers. The results show that utilitarian and partisan considerations matter primarily for the sanctioning dimension in which many respondents in Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark and Sweden prefer national courts to the Court of Justice of the EU.
The effects of agricultural cooperatives on smallholder livelihoods and agricultural performance in Cambodia
Authors: Ofori Eric , Sampson Gabriel S , Vipham Jessie
Published: November 2019

Cooperatives are increasingly advocated as a means to improve incomes, livelihoods and the sustainability of smallholder farmers. This study analyzes the impact of commercial vegetable cooperative membership on smallholder agricultural performance in Cambodia. Institutional heterogeneities are considered across cooperatives and various econometric techniques are used to control for potential selection bias. The impacts of horticulture on agricultural outcomes are also analyzed. The results indicate that membership of commercial vegetable cooperatives has so far had no effect on agricultural incomes or the value or amounts of agricultural inputs. However, results indicate that membership has affected technology choice, access to credit services and information transmission through technological training. Additionally, there is evidence that horticulture, as a component of overall agricultural diversification, can augment farm income. The results suggest that much of the benefit of cooperative membership stems from the cooperative's provision of services, which might not be easily inferred from measures of member incomes.