bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Apparatus design and behavioural testing protocol for the evaluation of spatial working memory in mice through the spontaneous alternation T-maze
Authors: d’Isa Raffaele , Comi Giancarlo , Leocani Letizia 
Published: October 2021

AbstractSpatial working memory can be assessed in mice through the spontaneous alternation T-maze test. The T-maze is a T-shaped apparatus featuring a stem (start arm) and two lateral goal arms (left and right arms). The procedure is based on the natural tendency of rodents to prefer exploring a novel arm over a familiar one, which induces them to alternate the choice of the goal arm across repeated trials. During the task, in order to successfully alternate choices across trials, an animal has to remember which arm had been visited in the previous trial, which makes spontaneous alternation T-maze an optimal test for spatial working memory. As this test relies on a spontaneous behaviour and does not require rewards, punishments or pre-training, it represents a particularly useful tool for cognitive evaluation, both time-saving and animal-friendly. We describe here in detail the apparatus and the protocol, providing representative results on wild-type healthy mice.
Raptor breeding sites indicate high plant biodiversity in urban ecosystems
Authors: Natsukawa Haruki , Yuasa Hiroki , Komuro Shizuko , Sergio Fabrizio 
Published: October 2021

AbstractPreserving biodiversity in urban ecosystems has become an urgent conservation priority, given the rapid upsurge in global urbanization. As woody plants play essential ecological roles and provide psychological benefits to human city dwellers, their preservation is of particular interest to conservation scientists. However, considering that extensive censuses of woody plants are resource-intensive, a key accomplishment is to find reliable conservation proxies that can be quickly used to locate biologically diverse areas. Here, we test the idea that sites occupied by apex predators can indicate high overall biodiversity, including high diversity of woody plants. To this end, we surveyed woody plant species within 500 m of Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) breeding sites in urban ecosystems of Japan and compared them with non-breeding control sites without goshawks. We found that goshawks successfully identified and signposted high levels of richness, abundance, and diversity of woody plants. Our findings show that sites occupied by top predatory species could be exploited as conservation proxies for high plant diversity. Due to their exigent ecological requirements, we would expect apex predators to be tied to high biodiversity levels in many other urban ecosystems worldwide.
Involvement of the habenula in the pathophysiology of autism spectrum disorder
Authors: Germann Jürgen , Gouveia Flavia Venetucci , Brentani Helena , Bedford Saashi A. , Tullo Stephanie , Chakravarty M. Mallar , Devenyi Gabriel A. 
Published: October 2021

AbstractThe habenula is a small epithalamic structure with widespread connections to multiple cortical, subcortical and brainstem regions. It has been identified as the central structure modulating the reward value of social interactions, behavioral adaptation, sensory integration and circadian rhythm. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by social communication deficits, restricted interests, repetitive behaviors, and is frequently associated with altered sensory perception and mood and sleep disorders. The habenula is implicated in all these behaviors and results of preclinical studies suggest a possible involvement of the habenula in the pathophysiology of this disorder. Using anatomical magnetic resonance imaging and automated segmentation we show that the habenula is significantly enlarged in ASD subjects compared to controls across the entire age range studied (6–30 years). No differences were observed between sexes. Furthermore, support-vector machine modeling classified ASD with 85% accuracy (model using habenula volume, age and sex) and 64% accuracy in cross validation. The Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) significantly differed between groups, however, it was not related to individual habenula volume. The present study is the first to provide evidence in human subjects of an involvement of the habenula in the pathophysiology of ASD.
The effect of fatty diacid acylation of human PYY3-36 on Y2 receptor potency and half-life in minipigs
Authors: Østergaard Søren , Paulsson Johan F. , Kofoed Jacob , Zosel Franziska , Olsen Jørgen , Jeppesen Claus Bekker , Spetzler Jane , Ynddal Lars , Schleiss Luise Gram , Christoffersen Berit Østergaard , Raun Kirsten , Sensfuss Ulrich , Nielsen Flemming Seier , Jørgensen Rasmus , Wulff Birgitte S. 
Published: October 2021

AbstractPeptides are notoriously known to display very short in vivo half-lives often measured in minutes which in many cases greatly reduces or eliminates sufficient in vivo efficacy. To obtain long half-lives allowing for up to once-weekly dosing regimen, fatty acid acylation (lipidation) have been used to non-covalently associate the peptide to serum albumin thus serving as a circulating depot. This approach is generally considered in the scientific and patent community as a standard approach to protract almost any given peptide. However, it is not trivial to prolong the half-life of peptides by lipidation and still maintain high potency and good formulation properties. Here we show that attaching a fatty acid to the obesity-drug relevant peptide PYY3-36 is not sufficient for long pharmacokinetics (PK), since the position in the backbone, but also type of fatty acid and linker strongly influences PK and potency. Furthermore, understanding the proteolytic stability of the backbone is key to obtain long half-lives by lipidation, since backbone cleavage still occurs while associated to albumin. Having identified a PYY analogue with a sufficient half-life, we show that in combination with a GLP-1 analogue, liraglutide, additional weight loss can be achieved in the obese minipig model.
The function of Scox in glial cells is essential for locomotive ability in Drosophila
Authors: Kowada Ryosuke , Kodani Atsushi , Ida Hiroyuki , Yamaguchi Masamitsu , Lee Im-Soon , Okada Yasushi , Yoshida Hideki 
Published: October 2021

AbstractSynthesis of cytochrome c oxidase (Scox) is a Drosophila homolog of human SCO2 encoding a metallochaperone that transports copper to cytochrome c, and is an essential protein for the assembly of cytochrome c oxidase in the mitochondrial respiratory chain complex. SCO2 is highly conserved in a wide variety of species across prokaryotes and eukaryotes, and mutations in SCO2 are known to cause mitochondrial diseases such as fatal infantile cardioencephalomyopathy, Leigh syndrome, and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a neurodegenerative disorder. These diseases have a common symptom of locomotive dysfunction. However, the mechanisms of their pathogenesis remain unknown, and no fundamental medications or therapies have been established for these diseases. In this study, we demonstrated that the glial cell-specific knockdown of Scox perturbs the mitochondrial morphology and function, and locomotive behavior in Drosophila. In addition, the morphology and function of synapses were impaired in the glial cell-specific Scox knockdown. Furthermore, Scox knockdown in ensheathing glia, one type of glial cell in Drosophila, resulted in larval and adult locomotive dysfunction. This study suggests that the impairment of Scox in glial cells in the Drosophila CNS mimics the pathological phenotypes observed by mutations in the SCO2 gene in humans.
Thickness-dependent in-plane anisotropy of GaTe phonons
Authors: Hoang Nguyen The , Lee Je-Ho , Vu Thi Hoa , Cho Sunglae , Seong Maeng-Je 
Published: October 2021

AbstractGallium Telluride (GaTe), a layered material with monoclinic crystal structure, has recently attracted a lot of attention due to its unique physical properties and potential applications for angle-resolved photonics and electronics, where optical anisotropies are important. Despite a few reports on the in-plane anisotropies of GaTe, a comprehensive understanding of them remained unsatisfactory to date. In this work, we investigated thickness-dependent in-plane anisotropies of the 13 Raman-active modes and one Raman-inactive mode of GaTe by using angle-resolved polarized Raman spectroscopy, under both parallel and perpendicular polarization configurations in the spectral range from 20 to 300 cm−1. Raman modes of GaTe revealed distinctly different thickness-dependent anisotropies in parallel polarization configuration while nearly unchanged for the perpendicular configuration. Especially, three Ag modes at 40.2 ($${\text{A}}_{\text{g}}^{1}$$

A

g

1

), 152.5 ($${\text{A}}_{\text{g}}^{7}$$

A

g

7

), and 283.8 ($${\text{A}}_{\text{g}}^{12}$$

A

g

12

) cm−1 exhibited an evident variation in anisotropic behavior as decreasing thickness down to 9 nm. The observed anisotropies were thoroughly explained by adopting the calculated interference effect and the semiclassical complex Raman tensor analysis.
Endocytic BDNF secretion regulated by Vamp3 in astrocytes
Authors: Han Jeongho , Yoon Sungryeong , Park Hyungju 
Published: October 2021

AbstractBrain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) regulates diverse brain functions via TrkB receptor signaling. Due to the expression of TrkB receptors, astrocytes can internalize extracellular BDNF proteins via receptor-mediated endocytosis. Endocytosed BDNF can be re-secreted upon stimulation, but the molecular mechanism underlying this phenomenon remains unrecognized. Our study reveals that vesicle-associated membrane protein 3 (Vamp3) selectively regulates the release of endocytic BDNF from astrocytes. By using quantum dot (QD)-conjugated mature BDNF (QD-BDNF) as a proxy for the extracellular BDNF protein, we monitored the uptake, transport, and secretion of BDNF from cultured cortical astrocytes. Our data showed that endocytic QD-BDNF particles were enriched in Vamp3-containing vesicles in astrocytes and that ATP treatment sufficiently triggered either the antero- or retrograde transport and exocytosis of QD-BDNF-containing vesicles. Downregulation of Vamp3 expression disrupted endocytic BDNF secretion from astrocytes but did not affect uptake or transport. Collectively, these results provide evidence of the selective ability of astrocytic Vamp3 to control endocytic BDNF secretion during BDNF recycling.
Symbiosis maintenance in the facultative coral, Oculina arbuscula, relies on nitrogen cycling, cell cycle modulation, and immunity
Authors: Rivera H. E. , Davies S. W. 
Published: October 2021

AbstractSymbiosis with unicellular algae in the family Symbiodiniaceae is common across tropical marine invertebrates. Reef-building corals offer a clear example of cellular dysfunction leading to a dysbiosis that disrupts entire ecosystems in a process termed coral bleaching. Due to their obligate symbiotic relationship, understanding the molecular underpinnings that sustain this symbiosis in tropical reef-building corals is challenging, as any aposymbiotic state is inherently coupled with severe physiological stress. Here, we leverage the subtropical, facultatively symbiotic and calcifying coralOculina arbusculato investigate gene expression differences between aposymbiotic and symbiotic branches within the same colonies under baseline conditions. We further compare gene ontology (GO) and KOG enrichment in gene expression patterns fromO. arbusculawith prior work in the sea anemoneExaiptasia pallida(Aiptasia) and the salamanderAmbystoma maculatum—both of which exhibit endophotosymbiosis with unicellular algae. We identify nitrogen cycling, cell cycle control, and immune responses as key pathways involved in the maintenance of symbiosis under baseline conditions. Understanding the mechanisms that sustain a healthy symbiosis between corals and Symbiodiniaceae algae is of urgent importance given the vulnerability of these partnerships to changing environmental conditions and their role in the continued functioning of critical and highly diverse marine ecosystems.
IFNL4 genetic variant can predispose to COVID-19
Authors: Saponi-Cortes Jose Maria R. , Rivas Maria Dolores , Calle-Alonso Fernando , Sanchez Juan F. , Costo Alberto , Martin Carlos , Zamorano Jose 
Published: October 2021

AbstractInterferon lambda 4 (IFNλ4) has shown antiviral activity against RNA viruses, including some coronaviruses. Besides, genetic variants of IFNL4 can be predictive of the clearance of RNA viruses. However, little is known about the effect of these genetic variants on SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this study, we investigated whether there was a relationship of the rs12979860 polymorphism of IFNL4 with COVID-19. We found that the T allele of rs12979860 was overexpressed in COVID-19 patients with regard to the general population without this disease (36.16% vs. 26.40%, p = 6.4 × 10–4; OR 0.633 C vs T; 95% CI 0.487, 0.824), suggesting that this allele could be a risk factor for COVID-19. Accordingly, the CC genotype was significantly lower in COVID-19 patients compared to controls (37.85% vs. 55.51%, p = 8 × 10–5; OR 0.488; 95% CI 0.342, 0.698). These results were not affected by sex, age, and disease severity in patients with COVID-19. Our findings suggest that, like other infectious diseases caused by RNA viruses, genetic variants of IFNL4 can predispose to COVID-19. Confirmation of our results may contribute to better understanding the mechanisms of this disease.
Approaching mercury distribution in burial environment using PLS-R modelling
Authors: Álvarez-Fernández Noemi , Martínez Cortizas Antonio , García-López Zaira , López-Costas Olalla 
Published: October 2021

AbstractMercury environmental cycle and toxicology have been widely researched. Given the long history of mercury pollution, researching mercury trends in the past can help to understand its behaviour in the present. Archaeological skeletons have been found to be useful sources of information regarding mercury loads in the past. In our study we applied a soil multi-sampling approach in two burials dated to the 5th to 6th centuries AD. PLRS modelling was used to elucidate the factors controlling mercury distribution. The model explains 72% of mercury variance and suggests that mercury accumulation in the burial soils is the result of complex interactions. The decomposition of the bodies not only was the primary source of mercury to the soil but also responsible for the pedogenetic transformation of the sediments and the formation of soil components with the ability to retain mercury. The amount of soft tissues and bone mass also resulted in differences between burials, indicating that the skeletons were a primary/secondary source of mercury to the soil (i.e. temporary sink). Within burial variability seems to depend on the proximity of the soil to the thoracic area, where the main mercury target organs were located. We also conclude that, in coarse textured soils, as the ones studied in this investigation, the finer fraction (i.e. silt + clay) should be analysed, as it is the most reactive and the one with the higher potential to provide information on metal cycling and incipient soil processes. Finally, our study stresses the need to characterise the burial soil environment in order to fully understand the role of the interactions between soil and skeleton in mercury cycling in burial contexts.
Establishment of novel in vitro culture system with the ability to reproduce oral biofilm formation on dental materials
Authors: Kohno Tomoki , Kitagawa Haruaki , Tsuboi Ririko , Nishimura Yuma , Imazato Satoshi 
Published: October 2021

AbstractIntensive research has been conducted with the aim of developing dental restorative/prosthetic materials with antibacterial and anti-biofilm effects that contribute to controlling bacterial infection in the oral cavity. In situ evaluations were performed to assess the clinical efficacy of these materials by exposing them to oral environments. However, it is difficult to recruit many participants to collect sufficient amount of data for scientific analysis. This study aimed to assemble an original flow-cell type bioreactor equipped with two flow routes and assess its usefulness by evaluating the ability to reproduce in situ oral biofilms formed on restorative materials. A drop of bacterial suspension collected from human saliva and 0.2% sucrose solution was introduced into the assembled bioreactor while maintaining the incubation conditions. The bioreactor was able to mimic the number of bacterial cells, live/dead bacterial volume, and volume fraction of live bacteria in the in situ oral biofilm formed on the surface of restorative materials. The usefulness of the established culture system was further validated by a clear demonstration of the anti-biofilm effects of a glass-ionomer cement incorporating zinc-releasing glasses when evaluated by this system.
A data calibration method for micro air quality detectors based on a LASSO regression and NARX neural network combined model
Authors: Liu Bing , Jin Yueqiang , Xu Dezhi , Wang Yishu , Li Chaoyang 
Published: October 2021

AbstractStudies have shown that there is a certain correlation between air pollution and various human diseases, especially lung diseases, so it is very meaningful to monitor the concentration of pollutants in the air. Compared with the national air quality monitoring station (national control point), the micro air quality detector has the advantage that it can monitor the concentration of pollutants in real time and grid, but its measurement accuracy needs to be improved. This paper proposes a model combining the least absolute selection and shrinkage operator (LASSO) regression and nonlinear autoregressive models with exogenous inputs (NARX) to calibrate the data measured by the micro air quality detector. Before establishing the LASSO-NARX model, correlation analysis is used to test whether the correlation between the concentration of air pollutants and its influencing factors is significant, and to find out the main factors that affect the concentration of pollutants. Due to the multicollinearity between various influencing factors, LASSO regression is used to further screen the influencing factors and give the quantitative relationship between the pollutant concentration and various influencing factors. In order to improve the prediction accuracy of pollutant concentration, the predicted value of each pollutant concentration in the LASSO regression model and the measurement data of the micro air quality detector are used as input variables, and the LASSO-NARX model is constructed using the NARX neural network. Several indicators such as goodness of fit, root mean square error, mean absolute error and relative mean absolute percent error are used to compare various air quality models. The results show that the prediction results of the LASSO-NARX model are not only better than the LASSO model alone and the NARX model alone, but also better than the commonly used multilayer perceptron and radial basis function neural network. Using this model to calibrate the measurement data of the micro air quality detector can increase the accuracy by 61.3–91.7%.
Profiling intestinal microbiota of Metaplax longipes and Helice japonica and their co-occurrence relationships with habitat microbes
Authors: Li Haidong , Li Shanshan , Fan Shiliang , Xu Yan , Tian Xiangli 
Published: October 2021

AbstractIntestinal microbiota plays key roles in maintaining the health and homeostasis of the host. However, information about whether the formation of intestinal microbiota of wild aquatic animals is associated with habitat microbes is not fully understood. Here, intestine samples were collected from two wild crab species and sediment samples were collected from the habitat environment. The total DNA of each sample was extracted, and the V3–V4 regions of 16S rRNA were sequenced using the MiSeq platform. The purpose of this study was to investigate the composition and diversity of intestinal microbiota and habitat microbes, and bacterial community relationships between wild crab intestine and habitat sediment. In the present study, the composition and diversity of intestinal microbiota of the two crab species were different from the habitat microbes. In contrast, a similar composition and diversity of the intestinal microbiota were observed between two crab species. Moreover, the bacterial community relationships between crab intestine and habitat sediment were associated with intestinal regions. Further network analysis revealed that the network structure of the intestinal microbiota was not only associated with intestinal regions, but also with the crab species. Additionally, although the compositions of bacterial functions were similar between crab intestine and sediment, no significant correlation in bacterial functions was observed between crab intestine and sediment. The findings of the present study would contribute to understanding the relationship between intestinal microbiota of wild aquatic animal and habitat microbes, and providing new insights into the intestinal microbiota of wild aquatic animals.
Sham-derived effects and the minimal reliability of theta burst stimulation
Authors: Boucher P. O. , Ozdemir R. A. , Momi D. , Burke M. J. , Jannati A. , Fried P. J. , Pascual-Leone A. , Shafi M. M. , Santarnecchi Emiliano 
Published: October 2021

AbstractTheta-burst stimulation (TBS) is a patterned form of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) that has been used to induce long-term modulation (plasticity) of corticospinal excitability in a drastically shorter duration protocol than conventional rTMS protocols. In this study we tested the reliability of the effects of two well defined TBS protocols, continuous TBS (cTBS) and intermittent TBS (iTBS), especially in relation to sham TBS, within and across the same 24 participants. All TBS protocols were repeated after approximately 1 month to assess the magnitude and reliability of the modulatory effects of each TBS protocol. Baseline and post-TBS changes in motor evoked potentials (MEP—measure of corticospinal excitability) amplitudes were compared across the cTBS, iTBS and sham TBS protocols and between the initial and retest visits. Overall, across participants, at the initial visit, iTBS facilitated MEPs as compared to baseline excitability, with sham eliciting the same effect. cTBS did not show a significant suppression of excitability compared to baseline MEPs at either visit, and even facilitated MEPs above baseline excitability at a single time point during the repeat visit. Otherwise, effects of TBS were generally diminished in the repeat visit, with iTBS and sham TBS replicating facilitation of MEPs above baseline excitability at similar time points. However, no protocol demonstrated consistent intra-individual modulation of corticospinal excitability upon retest. As the first study to test both iTBS and cTBS against sham TBS across repeat visits, our findings challenge the efficacy and reliability of TBS protocols and emphasize the importance of accounting for sham effects of TBS. Furthermore, given that therapeutic effects of TBS are hypothetically derived from consistent and repeated modulation of brain activity, the non-replicability of plasticity and sham effects call into question these basic mechanisms.