bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Genetic basis for antimicrobial resistance inEscherichia coliisolated from household water in municipal Ibadan, Nigeria
Authors: Akintayo Ifeoluwa , Odeyemi Jesutofunmi S. , Alabi Olumuyiwa S. , Mohammed Halimat O. , Ikhimiukor Odion O. , Afolayan Ayorinde O. , Thomson Nicholas R. , Okeke Iruka N. 
Published: December 2024

ABSTRACTEscherichia coliserves as an indicator of recent faecal contamination in water, signaling the potential presence of enteric pathogens. The public health impact ofE. coliin water becomes more significant when strains harbor virulence genes, and may themselves be pathogenic, or antimicrobial resistance genes that can be transferred to pathogens. In this study, we used whole genome sequencing (WGS) to characterizeE. coliisolated from household water in municipal Ibadan, Nigeria across two seasons. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed on 97E. coliisolates, and their genomes were assembled using SPAdes. Multi-Locus Sequence Types (MLST), virulence genes and plasmid replicons were determined using ABRicate. Antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) were detected using AMRFinderplus. Phylogroups and serotypes were determined using ClermonTyper and ECTyper, respectively. A phylogenetic tree was built using RAxML. Of the 97 isolates, 39(40.2%) were multidrug resistant and 13(15.9%) possessed diarrheagenicE. coli(DEC) virulence genes. Resistance to individual antibiotics was higher and DEC characteristics more frequent among isolates recovered in the dry season compared to the wet season. Thirty-seven resistance genes belonging to nine antibiotic classes were detected. Majority of the isolates belonged to phylogroup A or B1, 35unique Sequence Types (STs) were detected and there were seven expanded clones of four or more isolates. This study determined that multidrug-resistantE. coli, including DEC, were recovered from household water sources in Ibadan. Some isolates were likely derived from point-sources, highlighting the importance of improved water quality management and sanitation in preventing waterborne disease and antimicrobial resistance transmission.IMPORTANCEContamination of household drinking water sources by disease-causing microorganisms is a serious public health concern common in African settings.Escherichia coli, an indicator of faecal contamination, can also be a reservoir for resistance genes. We have previously reported high frequencies ofE. colicontamination of household water in municipal Ibadan. In this study we characterized antimicrobial resistance and virulence genes harboured by contaminating isolates. We found potential diarrhoea-causingE. coliin water which often carried antimicrobial resistance genes, irrespective of whether or not they were disease causing. Resistance gene carriage was more common among isolates recovered in the dry, as compared to the wet season. This was attributable to resistant lineages ofE. colibacteria spreading in the dry season. The work shows the importance of monitoring drinking water in urban African cities like Ibadan and that treating ground water sources may be necessary, particularly in the dry season.
Sporophyte Directed Gametogenesis via the Ubiquitin Proteasome System
Authors: Sivakumar Prakash , Pandey Saurabh , Ramesha A , Davda Jayeshkumar Narsibhai , Singh Aparna , Kumar Chandan , Gala Hardik , Subbiah Veeraputhiran , Adicherla Harikrishna , Dhawan Jyotsna , Aravind L. , Siddiqi Imran 
Published: December 2024

AbstractPlants alternate between diploid sporophyte and haploid gametophyte generations. In mosses which retain features of ancestral land plants, the gametophyte is dominant and has an independent existence. However, in flowering plants the gametophyte has undergone evolutionary reduction to just a few cells enclosed within the sporophyte. The gametophyte is thought to retain genetic control of its development even after reduction. Here we demonstrate that male gametophyte development in Arabidopsis, long considered to be autonomous, is also under genetic control of the sporophyte via a repressive mechanism involving large-scale regulation of protein turnover. We identify an Arabidopsis geneSHUKRas an inhibitor of male gametogenesis. SHUKR is unrelated to proteins of known function and acts sporophytically in meiosis to control gametophyte development by negatively regulating expression of a large set of ubiquitination genes specific to post-meiotic gametogenesis. This control is late-emerging asSHUKRhomologs are found only in eudicots. We show thatSHUKRis rapidly evolving under positive selection suggesting that variation in control of protein turnover during male gametogenesis has played an important role in evolution within eudicots.
Type I interferons induced upon respiratory viral infection impair lung metastatic initiation
Authors: Farias Ana , Bridgeman Victoria , Rodrigues Felipe S. , Owen Amber , Ruhland Stefanie , Ferreira Rute , Mack Matthias , Malanchi Ilaria , Johansson Cecilia 
Published: December 2024

AbstractInvasive breast cancer accounts for 7% of all cancer-related deaths, with the lungs being a common site of metastases. At the same time, lower respiratory tract infections are a common cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Acute viral respiratory infections induce transitional changes in the lung; however, the impact of these changes on metastasis initiation and cancer progression remains unclear. Using primary murine MMTV-PyMT breast cancer cells in an experimental lung metastasis model, we show that changes induced by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection impair tumor cell seeding and early establishment in the lung, resulting in lower number of metastatic nodules. Furthermore, we demonstrate that this reduction of metastases is due to alterations in the lung environment mediated by type I interferons (IFNs) that are produced in response to RSV infection. Consistent with that notion, intranasal administration of recombinant IFN-α recapitulates the anti-tumor effect of RSV infection. Type I IFNs change the lung cellular composition and induce an Interferon Stimulated Gene (ISG) driven response, creating an alveolar environment that is less supportive of tumor cell growth. Indeed, epithelial cells from mice infected with RSV or intranasally exposed to IFN-α, are less supportive of tumor cell growthex vivo. Altogether, our results suggest that type I IFNs induced by infection with some respiratory viruses perturb the lungs and consequently interfere with the ability of tumor cells to successfully initiate metastatic colonization.SignificanceWomen diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer have a low survival rate. The lungs are a common metastatic site and are constantly exposed to viral pathogens, such as coronavirus, RSV and influenza virus. Thus, breast cancer and respiratory virus infection are likely to co-occur, but their interplay remains unclear. We show that type I interferons (IFNs), induced upon viral infection impair metastatic cancer cell seeding of mouse lungs. This is potentially via an effect of IFNs on lung epithelial cells, which become less supportive of early tumor cell proliferation. These findings indicate that viral infections and type I IFNs can alter the lung environment and impair implantation of metastatic cells, which could be explored to improve future cancer treatments.
Assessing the impact of character evolution models on phylogenetic and macroevolutionary inferences from fossil data
Authors: Wright David F. , Hopkins Melanie J. 
Published: December 2024

AbstractUnderstanding the evolution and phylogenetic distribution of morphologic traits is fundamental to macroevolutionary research. Despite decades of major advances and key insights from molecular systematics, organismal anatomical features remain a key source of biological data for both inferring phylogenies and investigating patterns of trait evolution among fossil and extant species. In paleobiology, morphologic characters are typically the only source of information available for reconstructing evolutionary trees. Systematists working with fossil data must make decisions regarding how morphological characters are modeled, whether they are continuous or categorical, and how to address biological sources of rate variation. To determine the impact of how different models of morphological evolution influence phylogenetic inferences and downstream comparative analyses of fossil data, we competed a series of increasingly complex model configurations of character evolution to a dataset of Cambrian-Ordovician trilobites containing both discrete morphological characters and continuous traits. Competed models vary in complexity, ranging from simple constant rate scenarios with only discrete categorical traits, to complex evolutionary models including both discrete and quantitative traits across multiple ecological partitions while accounting for multiple sources of rate variation. We compared topological distributions across competed models by visualizing their distances in multidimensional treespace. Results indicate the addition of continuous traits dramatically improves support for complex evolutionary scenarios. Remarkably, we find model complexity also has a major impact on which regions of treespace are explored, which suggests a critical need to carefully model morphologic evolution even when systematists are only interested in patterns of phylogenetic relationships alone.
Biomolecular condensates control and are defined by RNA-RNA interactions that arise in viral replication
Authors: Aierken Dilimulati , Zhang Vita , Sealfon Rachel , Marecki John C. , Raney Kevin D. , Gladfelter Amy S. , Joseph Jerelle A. , Roden Christine A. 
Published: December 2024

SUMMARYCells must limit RNA–RNA interactions to avoid irreversible RNA entanglement. Cells may prevent deleterious RNA-RNA interactions by genome organization to avoid complementarity however, RNA viruses generate long, perfectly complementary antisense RNA during replication. How do viral RNAs avoid irreversible entanglement? One possibility is RNA sequestration into biomolecular condensates. To test this, we reconstituted critical SARS-CoV-2 RNA–RNA interactions in Nucleocapsid condensates. We observed that RNAs with low propensity RNA–RNA interactions resulted in more round, liquid-like condensates while those with high sequence complementarity resulted in more heterogeneous networked morphology independent of RNA structure stability. Residue-resolution molecular simulations and direct sequencing-based detection of RNA–RNA interactions support that these properties arise from degree of trans RNA contacts. We propose that extensive RNA–RNA interactions in cell and viral replication are controlled via a combination of genome organization, timing, RNA sequence content, RNA production ratios, and emergent biomolecular condensate material properties.Graphical Abstract: SARS-CoV-2 replication cycle employs weak and strong RNA-RNA interactions
The CoREST-complex regulates MYC stability and promotes post-transcriptional mRNA splicing in melanoma
Authors: Khan Abdul A , Aptekmann Ariel A , Byun Jaemin , Min Dongkook , Povelaitis Michael C , Shin JiYeon , Zakrzewski Johannes L , Ryu Byungwoo 
Published: December 2024

AbstractThe maturation of RNA is mediated by the coordinated actions of RNA-binding proteins through post-transcriptional pre-mRNA processing. This process is a central regulatory mechanism for gene expression and plays a crucial role in the development of complex biological systems. MYC directly upregulates transcription of genes encoding the core components of pre-mRNA splicing machinery. The perturbation of splicing processes is associated with various disease conditions, including cancer. Here, we report that the CoREST complex stabilizes MYC from proteolytic degradation via post-translational modification through site-specific deacetylation of lysine residues. Furthermore, the CoREST complex acts as a transcriptional coregulator of MYC-driven transcriptional activation of RNA processing genes. These genes include those encoding snRNPs and snoRNPs that are important players in pre-mRNA spliceosome fidelity. Genetic ablation and pharmacological inhibition of the CoREST complex in melanoma cells induce altered spliceosome activity. These alterations result in significant changes in genome-wide expression patterns of alternatively spliced mRNA isoforms and compromise cell survival. The ectopic expression of one of the RNA processing genes, NOLC1, partially restores cell viability in the CoREST complex-depleted cells. These findings identify the interaction of the CoREST-complex with MYC as a central regulator of cancer-specific expression profiles of mRNA splicing variants.SignificanceThe pathogenic role of the CoREST complex in cancer is not well-defined. Our study reveals that the CoREST complex stabilizes MYC protein in melanoma cells and acts as a coregulator for activating RNA processing genes. Disrupting the CoREST-MYC axis alters genome-wide alternative splicing patterns, suggesting a potential therapeutic target for MYC-driven cancers, including melanoma.
Elastase mediated white matter damage in cerebral small vessel disease: Microglia - neutrophils pas de deux
Authors: Dong Cheng-Ya , Chen Weiqi , Li Qi , Fan Junwan , Lan Tian , Dong Wanlin , Sun Lina , Wang Yingjie , Shi Mingming , Huang Yongjin , Chang Yingying , Wang Ningning , Xue Jing , Jiang Lingling , Huang Yue , Pan Yuesong , He Wenyan , Shi Kaibin , Ma Xiaotong , Wang Yongjun , Shi Fu-Dong , Verkhratsky Alexei , Wang Yilong , Jin Wei-Na 
Published: December 2024

SUMMARYCerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) leads to an extensive white matter damage associated with cognitive decline, yet the underlying damaging mechanisms remain incompletely understood. Here we established a positive correlation between plasma levels of serine proteinase elastase ELANE and periventricular white matter hyperintensity (PV-WMH) in a cohort of CSVD patients. In a CSVD murine model induced by bilateral carotid artery stenosis (BCAS), upregulated ELANE was detected both in microglia and peripheral blood neutrophils. Genetic ELANE deficiency significantly alleviated oligodendrocyte loss, thereby reducing white matter lesions (WMLs) as well as ameliorating sensorimotor and cognitive impairments in BCAS mice. In vitrostudies demonstrated that ELANE triggered time-dependent and dose-dependent oligodendrocyte lineage cell death. Bone marrow transplantation showed that ELANE from microglia and peripheral blood both contributed to WML development and BCAS-induced neurological deficits. Mechanistically, ELANE, accumulated by oligodendrocytes, cleaved the phosphodiesterase domain of 2′,3′-cyclic nucleotide 3′-phosphodiesterase (CNPase). Pharmacological inhibition of ELANE with Sivelestat reduced oligodendrocyte loss and WMLs leading to the restoration of white matter integrity and neurological improvements in BCAS mice. In post-mortem brain specimens of CSVD patients ELANE accumulated within WMLs being predominantly localized in microglia (and hence defined as microglial ELANE) rather than in the brain-infiltrating neutrophils. We therefore posit microglial ELANE as an instigator of whiter matter injury in CSVD and suggest its potential therapeutic relevance.
Canopy height model and NAIP imagery pairs across CONUS
Authors: Allred Brady W , McCord Sarah E. , Morford Scott L. 
Published: December 2024

AbstractCanopy height models (CHM) provide detailed environmental vertical structure information and are an important indicator and input for ecological and geospatial applications. These models are often spatiotemporally inconsistent, necessitating additional modeling to scale them in space and time. Yet, such scaling is hindered by a lack of spatially diverse data. To address this, we use United States Geological Survey 3D Elevation Program lidar data to produce 22,796,764 one meter resolution CHM chips, stratified across the dominant land covers of the conterminous United States. For each CHM, we pair a matching time-aligned aerial image from the United States Department of Agriculture National Agriculture Imagery Program. This dataset can be used to train models for large scale CHM production.
Family businesses and business families in cultural context: interdisciplinary updates for family business research
Authors: Koellner Tobias , Roth Steffen 
Published: December 2024

PurposeThis article shows that business family and family business research is dominated by reductionist and biased concepts of culture that are in sharp contrast with recent advances in anthropology and the broader social sciences that would allow for more fine-grained analyses.Design/methodology/approachThrough an inbound theorizing approach, state-of-the-art anthropological and sociological concepts of culture are introduced to family business research.FindingsThe resulting interdisciplinary update unveils that prevailing concepts of culture in family business research confuse cultures with countries or nations and neglect the processual constitution of culture.Originality/valueThe article advocates a research agenda emphasizing the social construction and reproduction of culture as well as the need to systematically draw on findings from anthropology and sociology so as to allow for better cross-cultural comparisons in the field of family business research.
Barriers to effective higher and degree-level apprenticeships: a systematic literature review and future research agenda
Authors: Chadwick Kieron , Dimungu Hewage Dilrukshi , Hazzam Joe 
Published: December 2024

PurposeThe literature concerning higher- and degree-level apprenticeships (HDAs) in the post-levy era (2017–) is sparse and fragmented. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to contribute to the international landscape of higher education work-based learning by identifying barriers to effective HDA programmes and outlining a future research agenda to address these.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs a systematic literature review methodology to explore barriers in HDAs. Adhering to PRISMA 2020 guidelines, the review follows a three-stage process to develop the sample. A meticulously designed search strategy uses targeted queries on the SCOPUS database, focusing on terms related to HDAs and their challenges. Inclusion criteria is set to papers from 2017 to 2024, covering book chapters and peer-reviewed journals in the English language. Articles were cross-checked with the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS) database, which refines the total to 68 papers. Data from these sources is then extracted and tabulated for qualitative content analysis.FindingsThe systematic literature review of 68 manuscripts finds challenges are faced by apprentices, employers and training providers alike. This includes, but is not limited to, ethnically correlated performance, stigma, careers advice, job design, mentoring practices and the incorporation of technology. Two additional themes of pedagogy/andragogy and policy emerge.Originality/valueBased on the analysis, the paper suggests an extensive portfolio of future research focused on collaborative practices. If addressed, this yields the power to influence future legislation and subsequent implementation.
Robotic companionship for solo diners: the role of robotic service type, need to belong and restaurant type
Authors: Huang Jingwen (Daisy) , Wong IpKin Anthony , Lian Qi Lilith , Huang Huiling 
Published: December 2024

Purpose
What kind of robotic service do customers prefer when they dine out alone? This study aims to investigate how robotic service type affects solo diners’ attitude toward robotic service and restaurant revisit intention, through the mediation of rapport. It also examines the moderating effects of the need to belong and restaurant type.

Design/methodology/approach
Three experiments were conducted. Study 1 used a one-factor between-subjects design to test the effect of robotic service type on rapport and solo diners’ responses. Study 2 conducted a 2 (robotic service type: service-delivery vs entertainment) × need to belong quasi-experimental design to examine the moderation of need to belong. Study 3 used a 2 (robotic service type: service-delivery vs entertainment) × 2 (restaurant type: traditional restaurant vs solo-friendly restaurant) factorial between-subjects design to test the moderation of restaurant type. A qualitative study (Study 4) complements the experimental results based on semistructured interviews.

Findings
Entertainment (vs service-delivery) robotic service has a stronger effect on solo diners’ responses, with rapport serving as a mediator. Additionally, solo diners with a heightened need to belong demonstrate an intensified rapport effect when receiving entertainment-oriented robotic service. Furthermore, restaurant type plays a moderating role between robotic service type and consumer responses. For traditional restaurants, solo diners who receive entertainment (vs service-delivery) robotic service tend to form stronger rapport and favorable responses. The results of the qualitative study elucidate and support the hypothesized relationships of the experimental studies.

Practical implications
Restaurant operators could consider offering entertainment-based smart devices that allow solo diners to indulge themselves during the dining encounter. Restaurants could also design environmental cues that can signify a sense of comfort, such as redesigning tables with individual seats for solo diners to enhance their perceptions of shared characteristics among other solo diners in the same space.

Originality/value
This research advances the literature on solo dining and robotic service, by investigating how human–robot interaction can fulfill solo diners’ relatedness goals, as self-determination theory suggests. This inquiry also represents an early attempt in the hospitality literature to empirically examine the influence of robotic service type on consumer responses through the mediation of rapport.
Perceived value, service quality and service convenience on behavioral intentions in fitness centers: a comparison between customers with and without personal training
Authors: Ferreira-Barbosa Helena , Sabino Bebiana , Loureiro Vânia , Cepeda-Carrion Gabriel 
Published: December 2024

PurposeThis study aimed to propose and test a model that describes the different aspects and mechanisms that influence the behavioral intentions of fitness center customers by examining the relationship between service convenience, service quality and perceived value, comparing customers with and without PT service. This study is highlighted by the need for fitness centers to remain competitive and profitable and the fact that PT services are one of the top ten global fitness trends.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 412 fitness center customers. Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test each proposed hypothesis.FindingsNine of the ten hypotheses tested, between service convenience, service quality, perceived value and behavioral intentions, were supported. The results from bootstrapping supported the indirect effects of service quality and perceived value in the relationship between service convenience, service quality and behavioral intentions. The presence of the PT service affects the majority of the relationships in the model.Research limitations/implicationsCustomers with PT services may have different expectations and perceptions based on the cost associated with the service. Managers may consider adapting their service strategies to these distinct customer segments, offering differentiated service levels or targeted convenience improvements.Originality/valueThe variables under study integrate a comprehensive model for fitness centers while innovating by incorporating PT services as a moderating variable, providing a differentiated view of how customer segments perceive and respond to fitness center offerings.