bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Caloric restriction overcomes pre-diabetic and hypertension induced by high fat diet and renal artery stenosis
Authors: de Souza Nunes Faria Michelle Sabino , Pimentel Vinicíus Eduardo , Helaehil Júlia Venturini , Bertolo Mayara Correa , Santos Nathalia Tonus Horas , da Silva-Neto Pedro Vieira , Thomazini Bruna Fontana , de Oliveira Camila Andréa , do Amaral Maria Esméria Corezola 
Published: March 2021

ABSTRACTBackgroundCaloric restriction (CR) is a type of dietary intervention enjoyed as an essential tool in weight loss by modulating critical pathways of metabolic control, although it is not yet clear what repercussions this intervention model results when associated with renovascular hypertension. Here we demonstrate that CR can be beneficial in obese and hypertensive animals.MethodsRats were divided into groups: SHAM, and two groups underwent surgery to clip the left renal artery, to induce renovascular hypertension (OH and OHR). The SHAM diet was performed: 14 weeks normolipidic diet; OH: 2 weeks normolipidic diet + 12 weeks hyperlipidic diet, both ad libitum; OHR: 2 weeks normolipidic diet + 8 weeks ad libitum high fat diet + 4 weeks restricted 40% high fat diet.Resultsthe OHR group dissipated blood pressure, body weight and glucose homeostasis. Reductions in insulinemia, lipids, islets fibrotic areas in the OHR group were observed along with increased insulin sensitivity and normalization of the insulin-degrading enzyme. Nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase, insulin receptor, Sirtuin 1 and complex II protein were modulated in liver tissue in the OHR group. Strong correlations, direct or indirect, were evaluated by Spearman’s model between SIRT1, AMPK, NAMPT, PGC-1α and NNMT with the reestablishment of blood pressure, weight loss, glycidic and lipid panel and mitochondrial adaptation.ConclusionCR provided short-term beneficial effects to recover physiological parameters induced by a high-fat diet and renal artery stenosis in obese and hypertensive animals. These benefits, even in the short term, can bring physiological benefits in the long run.
Organelle calcium-derived voltage oscillations in pacemaker neurons drive food-seeking behavior inAplysia
Authors: Bédécarrats Alexis , Puygrenier Laura , O’Byrne John Castro , Lade Quentin , Simmers John , Nargeot Romuald 
Published: March 2021

AbstractThe expression of motivated behaviors depends on both external and internally-arising neural stimuli, yet the intrinsic releasing mechanisms for such variably occurring behaviors remain elusive. In isolated nervous system preparations ofAplysia, we have found that irregularly expressed cycles of motor output underlying food-seeking behavior arise from regular membrane potential oscillations of varying magnitude in an identified pair of interneurons (B63) in the bilateral buccal ganglia. This rhythmic signal, which is endogenous and specific to the B63 cells, is generated by organelle-derived intracellular calcium fluxes that activate voltage-independent plasma membrane channels. The resulting voltage oscillation spreads throughout a subset of gap junction-coupled buccal network neurons and by triggering plateau potential-mediated bursts in B63, can initiate motor output driving food-seeking action. Thus, an atypical neuronal pacemaker mechanism, based on rhythmic intracellular calcium store release and intercellular propagation, can act as an autonomous intrinsic releaser for the occurrence of a motivated behavior.
Distinct “driving” versus “modulatory” influences of different visual corticothalamic pathways
Authors: Kirchgessner Megan A. , Franklin Alexis D. , Callaway Edward M. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractHigher-order (HO) thalamic nuclei interact extensively with the cerebral cortex and are innervated by excitatory corticothalamic (CT) populations in layers 5 and 6. While these distinct CT projections have long been thought to have different functional influences on the HO thalamus, this has never been directly tested. By optogenetically inactivating different CT populations in the primary visual cortex (V1) of awake mice, we demonstrate that layer 5, but not layer 6, CT projections drive visual responses in the HO visual pulvinar, even while both pathways provide retinotopic, baseline excitation to their thalamic targets. Inactivating the superior colliculus also suppressed visual responses in the pulvinar, demonstrating that cortical layer 5 and subcortical inputs both contribute to HO visual thalamic activity - even at the level of putative single neurons. Altogether, these results indicate a functional division of driver and modulator CT pathways from V1 to the visual thalamusin vivo.
Identification of Target Objects from Gaze Behavior during a Virtual Navigation Task
Authors: Enders Leah R. , Smith Robert J. , Gordon Stephen M. , Ries Anthony J. , Touryan Jonathan 
Published: March 2021

AbstractEye tracking has been an essential tool within the vision science community for many years. However, the majority of studies involving eye-tracking technology employ a relatively passive approach through the use of static imagery, prescribed motion, or video stimuli. This is in contrast to our everyday interaction with the natural world where we navigate our environment while actively seeking and using task-relevant visual information. For this reason, vision researchers are beginning to use virtual environment platforms, which offer interactive, realistic visual environments while maintaining a substantial level of experimental control. Here, we recorded eye movement behavior while participants freely navigated through a complex virtual environment. Within this environment, participants completed a visual search task where they were asked to find and count occurrence of specific targets among numerous distractor items. We assigned each participant into one of four target groups: Humvees, motorcycles, aircraft, or furniture. Our results show a significant relationship between gaze behavior and target objects across subject groups. Specifically, we see an increased number of fixations and increase dwell time on target relative to distractor objects. In addition, we included a divided attention task to investigate how search patterns changed with the addition of a secondary task. With increased cognitive load, subjects slowed their speed, decreased gaze on objects, and increased the number of objects scanned in the environment. Overall, our results confirm previous findings from more controlled laboratory settings and demonstrate that complex virtual environments can be used for active visual search experimentation, maintaining a high level of precision in the quantification of gaze information and visual attention. This study contributes to our understanding of how individuals search for information in a naturalistic virtual environment. Likewise, our paradigm provides an intriguing look into the heterogeneity of individual behaviors when completing an un-timed visual search task while actively navigating.
Integrating reward information for prospective behaviour
Authors: Hall-McMaster Sam , Stokes Mark G. , Myers Nicholas E. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractValue-based decision-making is often studied in a static context, where participants decide which option to select from those currently available. However, everyday life often involves an additional dimension: decidingwhento select to maximise reward. Recent evidence suggests that agents track the latent reward of an option, updating changes in their latent reward estimate, to achieve appropriate selection timing (latent reward tracking). However, this strategy can be difficult to distinguish from one in which the optimal selection time is estimated in advance, allowing an agent to wait a pre-determined amount of time before selecting, without needing to monitor an option’s latent reward (distance-to-goal tracking). Here we show that these strategies can in principle be dissociated. Human brain activity was recorded using electroencephalography (EEG) while female and male participants performed a novel decision task. Participants were shown an option and decided when to select it, as its latent reward changed from trial-to-trial. While the latent reward was uncued, it could be estimated using cued information about the option’s starting value and value growth rate. We then used representational similarity analysis to assess whether EEG signals more closely resembled latent reward tracking or distance-to-goal tracking. This approach successfully dissociated the strategies in this task. Starting value and growth rate were translated into a distance-to-goal signal, far in advance of selecting the option. Latent reward could not be independently decoded. These results demonstrate the feasibility of using high temporal resolution neural recordings to identify internally computed decision variables in the human brain.Significance StatementReward-seeking behaviour involves acting at the right time. However, the external world does not always tell us when an action is most rewarding, necessitating internal representations that guide action timing. Specifying this internal neural representation is challenging because it might stem from a variety of strategies, many of which make similar predictions about brain activity. This study used a novel approach to test whether alternative strategies could be dissociated in principle. Using representational similarity analysis, we were able to distinguish between candidate internal representations for selection timing. This shows how pattern analysis methods can be used to measure latent decision information in non-invasive neural data.
Listening to bacterial Esperanto: transcriptome reprogramming in a plant beneficial rhizobacterium
Authors: Bejarano Ana , Perazzolli Michele , Pertot Ilaria , Puopolo Gerardo 
Published: March 2021

AbstractIntraspecies, interspecies and interkingdom signalling occurring via diffusible communication signals (DCSs) continuously shapes the gene expression patterns of individual bacterial species in the rhizosphere, affecting bacterial functions within the rhizosphere microbial community. To unravel how DCSs influence rhizosphere competence of plant beneficial rhizobacteria, we carried out a functional and transcriptome analysis on the plant beneficial bacteriumLysobacter capsiciAZ78 (AZ78). Results reveal that 13-methyltetradecanoic acid and indole, glyoxylic acid and 2,3-butanedione play a relevant role in the interaction betweenL. capsicimembers and other soil-living (micro)organisms. DCSs regulated mechanisms of multistress and multidrug tolerance and persistence, including detoxification, motility, antibiotic production, and expression of secretion systems. In particular, 13-methyltetradecanoic acid, glyoxylic acid and 2,3-butanedione might enable AZ78 to rapidly colonize the rhizosphere. Moreover, glyoxylic acid and 2,3-butanedione elicit biological responses to outcompete other (micro)organisms. In contrast, indole inactivates twitching motility and antibiotic production. These results demonstrate that DCSs influence the functioning of plant beneficial rhizobacteria and suggest that plant beneficialL. capsicistrains could use them to foster rhizosphere colonization and enhancein vivoactivities to increase soil health and plant fitness.
Quantifying control circuit regulation in the human brain
Authors: Kumar Rajat , Strey Helmut H. , Mujica-Parodi Lilianne R. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractAs a field, control systems engineering has developed quantitative methods to characterize the regulation of systems or processes, whose functioning is ubiquitous within synthetic systems. In this context, a control circuit is objectively “well regulated” when discrepancy between desired and achieved output trajectories is minimized, and “robust” to the degree that it is able to regulate well in response to a wide range of stimuli. Most psychiatric disorders are assumed to reflect dysregulation of brain circuits. Yet, probing circuit regulation requires fundamentally different analytic strategies than the correlations relied upon for analyses of connectivity and their resultant networks. Here, we demonstrate how well-established methods for system identification in control systems engineering may be applied to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data to extract generative computational models of human brain circuits. These provide two quantitative measures of direct relevance for psychiatric disorders: a circuit’s sensitivity to external perturbation and its dysregulation.
Chaphamaparvovirus Antigen and Nucleic Acids are not Detected in Kidney Tissues from Cats with Chronic Renal Disease or Immunosuppressive Diseases
Authors: Michel AO , Donovan TA , Roediger B , Lee Q , Jolly C , Monette S 
Published: March 2021

AbstractMouse Kidney Parvovirus (MKPV) was recently recognized as the cause of murine inclusion body nephropathy, a disease reported for over 40 years in laboratory mice. Immunodeficient mice are persistently infected with MKPV, leading to chronic renal disease, morbidity and mortality whereas immunocompetent mice seroconvert with mild renal pathology. Given the high incidence of MKPV infection in wild mice in the New York City area, the first goal of this study was to evaluate the possibility of MKPV involvement in feline chronic kidney disease (CKD) from the same geographic region. As MKPV and related parvoviruses recently described in other animal species appear to have a tropism for kidney tissue, the second goal was to investigate the possible role of a virus of this group, other than MKPV, in the development of feline CKD, Presence of MKPV and related viruses was investigated in feline renal samples using PCR, RNAin situhybridization (ISH) and immunohistochemistry (IHC). Cats were divided into three groups: normal (N=25), CKD (N=25) and immune suppressed (N=25). None of the kidney tissues from any of the 75 cats revealed the presence of MKPV DNA, RNA or antigen expression. Nor was “fechavirus” detected using PCR in renal tissue from cats with chronic kidney disease. We conclude that MKPV is an unlikely cause or contributor to feline CKD.
Fluid mechanics of mosaic ciliated tissues
Authors: Boselli Francesco , Jullien Jerome , Lauga Eric , Goldstein Raymond E. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractIn tissues as diverse as amphibian skin and the human airway, the cilia that propel fluid are grouped in sparsely distributed multiciliated cells (MCCs). We investigate fluid transport in this “mosaic” architecture, with emphasis on the trade-offs that may have been responsible for its evolutionary selection. Live imaging of MCCs in embryos of the frogXenopus laevisshows that cilia bundles behave as active vortices that produce a flow field accurately represented by a local force applied to the fluid. A coarse-grained model that self-consistently couples bundles to the ambient flow reveals that hydrodynamic interactions between MCCs limit their rate of work so that when the system size is large compared to a single MCC, they best shear the tissue at low area coverage, a result that mirrors findings for other sparse distributions such as cell receptors and leaf stomata.
Aging is associated with a degeneration of noradrenergic-, but not dopaminergic-neurons, in the short-lived killifishNothobranchius furzeri
Authors: Bagnoli Sara , Fronte Baldassare , Bibbiani Carlo , Tozzini Eva Terzibasi , Cellerino Alessandro 
Published: March 2021

SummaryParkinson’s disease (PD) is characterized by phosphorylation and aggregation of the protein α-Synuclein and ensuing neuronal death progressing from the noradrenergiclocus coeruleusto midbrain dopaminergic neurons. In 2019, Matsui and colleagues reported inCell Reportsa spontaneous age-dependent degeneration of dopaminergic neurons and an even greater neurodegeneration of the noradrenergic neurons in the short-lived killifishNothobranchius furzeri.Given the great possible relevance of a spontaneous model for PD, we set to confirm their results by whole-brain clarification and 3D nuclei reconstruction to quantify total cell numbers. We observed an age dependent neurodegeneration limited to thelocus coeruleusand not involving theposterior tuberculum. In addition, we observed the presence of phospho-Synuclein in the soma oflocus coeruleusneurons detectable already at a young age and increasing during aging.Our result demonstrates thatN. furzerimodels the early stages of PD, but not the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons.
Biomolecular solid-state NMR spectroscopy at highest field: the gain in resolution at 1200 MHz
Authors: Callon Morgane , Malär Alexander A. , Pfister Sara , Rímal Václav , Weber Marco E. , Wiegand Thomas , Zehnder Johannes , Chávez Matías , Deb Rajdeep , Cadalbert Riccardo , Däpp Alexander , Fogeron Marie-Laure , Hunkeler Andreas , Lecoq Lauriane , Torosyan Anahit , Zyla Dawid , Glockshuber Rudolf , Jonas Stefanie , Nassal Michael , Ernst Matthias , Böckmann Anja , Meier Beat H. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractProgress in NMR in general and in biomolecular applications in particular is driven by increasing magnetic-field strengths leading to improved resolution and sensitivity of the NMR spectra. Recently, persistent superconducting magnets at a magnetic field strength (magnetic induction) of 28.2 T corresponding to 1200 MHz proton resonance frequency became commercially available. We present here a collection of high-field NMR spectra of a variety of proteins, including molecular machines, membrane proteins and viral capsids and others. We show this large panel in order to provide an overview over a range of representative systems under study, rather than a single best performing model system. We discuss both carbon-13 and proton-detected experiments, and show that in13C spectra substantially higher numbers of peaks can be resolved compared to 850 MHz while for1H spectra the most impressive increase in resolution is observed for aliphatic side-chain resonances.
Crystal structure of the GTP-binding protein-like domain of AGAP1
Authors: Cheng Nuo , Zhang Hao , Zhang Shiyan , Ma Xiaodan , Meng Guoyu 
Published: March 2021

AGAP1 is often considered to regulate membrane trafficking, protein transport and actin cytoskeleton dynamics. Recent studies have shown that aberrant expression of AGAP1 is associated with many diseases, including neurodevelopmental disorders and acute lymphoblastic leukemia. It has been proposed that the GTP-binding protein-like domain (GLD) is involved in the binding of cofactors and thus regulates the catalytic activity of AGAP1. To obtain a better understanding of the pathogenic mechanism underpinning AGAP1-related diseases, it is essential to obtain structural information. Here, the GLD (residues 70–235) of AGAP1 was overexpressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) cells. Affinity and gel-filtration chromatography were used to obtain AGAP1GLD with high purity for crystallization. Using the hanging-drop vapor-diffusion method with the protein at a final concentration of 20 mg ml−1, AGAP1GLD protein crystals of suitable size were obtained. The crystals were found to diffract to 3.0 Å resolution and belonged to space group I4, with unit-cell parameters a = 100.39, b = 100.39, c = 48.08 Å. The structure of AGAP1GLD exhibits the highly conserved functional G1–G5 loops and is generally similar to other characterized ADP-ribosylation factor (Arf) GTPase-activating proteins (GAPs), implying an analogous function to Arf GAPs. Additionally, this study indicates that AGAP1 could be classified as a type of NTPase, the activity of which might be regulated by protein partners or by its other domains. Taken together, these results provide insight into the regulatory mechanisms of AGAP1 in cell signaling.
Supplier selection and evaluation in e-commerce enterprises: a data envelopment analysis approach
Authors: Pratap Saurabh , Daultani Yash , Dwivedi Ashish , Zhou Fuli 
Published: March 2021

PurposeE-commerce refers to the facilitation and delivery of goods and services to the customers employing an electronic arrangement. For an e-commerce firm, the customer service level provided by its suppliers can make or break the firm. The purpose of this research is to help e-commerce enterprises in addressing the vast challenge of complex supplier selection and evaluation process that must be performed vigilantly.Design/methodology/approachThe present study utilizes a three-pronged approach that integrates supplier management practices with the operational business practices of an e-commerce enterprise. In the first step, key performance factors for e-commerce capable suppliers are identified through an expert opinion and existing supplier management literature. Further, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is employed to obtain the efficiency score for each supplier that enables their ranking on various performance parameters. Lastly, the suppliers are classified into different categories based on their performance and efficiency.FindingsUnder the proposed classification scheme, top five suppliers, i.e. supplier 1, 7, 9, 11 and 17 are categorized as HE (High Performance and Efficient). It is suggested that e-commerce enterprises must build long-term relationship with the identified top performing suppliers. The study also provides real insights into supplier's performance on a number of objective criteria. Further, the present study enhances the overall performance and productivity of an e-commerce firm by achieving input cost minimization and output quality maximization, simultaneously.Research limitations/implicationsThe results are valid for e-commerce enterprises in general. However, the present DEA model can be further evolved when applied in case of any particular e-commerce enterprise depending upon the internal capabilities of that firm. The nuances related to a firm's own supply capability development can be further explored by practitioners and researchers.Practical implicationsThe proposed approach is expected to motivate decision-makers to consider using more sophisticated approached like DEA in supplier evaluation processes. Also, as a benchmarking technique, the proposed supplier classification approach is expected to be highly useful for practitioners in real-life settings.Originality/valueThe novel contribution of this study includes the supplier evaluation, ranking and classification for e-commerce enterprises based on the real-life data. The insights would help the practitioners to formulate novel strategies for appropriately investing in supplier relationships.