bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Visual Congruency Modulates Music Reward through Sensorimotor Integration
Authors: Zhang Lei , Du Yi , Zatorre Robert J. 
Published: July 2024

AbstractThere is emerging evidence that a performer’s body movements may enhance the music-induced pleasure of audiences. However, the neural mechanism underlying such modulation remains largely unexplored. This study utilized psychophysiological and electroencephalographic data collected from listeners as they watched and listened to manipulated vocal (Mandarin lyrics) and violin performances of Japanese and Chinese pop music. All participants were unfamiliar with the violin or Mandarin. The auditory and visual elements of the stimuli were either congruent (original recording) or incongruent (drawn from unrelated music videos). We found that congruent visual movements, as opposed to incongruent ones, increased both subjective pleasure ratings and skin conductance responses but only during vocal performances. Then, we examined the coherence between the music signal and sensorimotor Mu-band oscillatory neural activity and found that congruent visual movements enhanced Mu entrainment exclusively to vocal music signal. Further, mediation analysis demonstrated that neural entrainment to vocal music significantly mediated the visual modulation of music-induced pleasure. In conclusion, our study provides novel evidence on how congruent visual movements can heighten music-induced pleasure through enhanced sensorimotor integration.
The ontogeny of chimpanzee technological efficiency
Authors: Berdugo Sophie , Cohen Emma , Davis Arran J. , Matsuzawa Tetsuro , Carvalho Susana 
Published: July 2024

AbstractPrimate extractive foraging requires years of dedicated learning. Throughout this period, learners peer at conspecifics engaging in the behaviour (“models”), interacting with the model and their tools, and sometimes stealing the freshly extracted resource. This also corresponds to an extended period of tolerance from the models. Yet the long-term effect of variation in experiences during this period on the technological efficiency of individuals is unknown for primate tool use, and no research has assessed the role of both the learner and the model(s) in generating individual differences. Using >680 hours of video spanning 25 years, we assessed whether experiences during the stone tool use social learning period (“early learning period”; ages 0–5) predicted the post-early learning period (ages 6+) technological efficiency in wild chimpanzees in Bossou, Guinea. We found that learners varied in how frequently they peered at the models’ whole nut-cracking bouts, how many learning opportunities their mothers presented, and the amount of tolerance and intolerance they experienced from all selected models. Learners who experienced more intolerance became less efficient tool users, whereas learners who were exposed to more social learning opportunities and tolerance became more efficient. Peering at the whole nut-cracking bout decreased subsequent efficiency, hinting at learners acquiring less efficient cultural components of the behaviour. Our findings highlight the role of social learning in the acquisition of stone tool use and support the view that social learning opportunities within a tolerant environment are key in explaining the emergence and maintenance of complex forms of primate technology.Significance StatementThe capacity and inclination to learn from others, along with social learning opportunities provided by tolerant groupmates, are thought to have enabled the evolution of technology in primates, including hominins. The influence of the learning period on long-term individual variation in technological efficiency remains unknown for non-human primates but has significant implications for cultural transmission and evolution. We provide longitudinal support for the hypothesis that exposure to social learning opportunities during development predicts subsequent technological efficiency. Moreover, we show that low amounts ofintolerance, not just general tolerance, is key in the ontogeny of technological efficiency. Finally, we find aspects of behavioural acquisition relating to accurate transmission of cultural traits rather than to learning to use tools efficiently.
Expanding the space of self-reproducing ribozymes using probabilistic generative models
Authors: Lambert Camille N. , Opuu Vaitea , Calvanese Francesco , Zamponi Francesco , Hayden Eric , Weigt Martin , Smerlak Matteo , Nghe Philippe 
Published: July 2024

AbstractEstimating the plausibility of RNA self-reproduction is central to origin-of-life scenarios but self-reproduction has been shown in only a handful of systems. Here, we populated a vast sequence space of ribozymes using statistical covariation models and secondary structure prediction. Experimentally assayed sequences were found active as far as 65 mutations from a reference natural sequence. The number of potentially generated sequences together with the experimental success rate indicate that at least ∼1039such ribozymes may exist. Randomly sampled artificial ribozymes exhibited autocatalytic self-reproduction akin to the reference sequence. The combination of high-throughput screening and probabilistic modeling considerably improves our estimation of the number of self-reproducing systems, paving the way for a statistical approach to the origin of life.
Isolation and characterization of cell wall and extracellular polysaccharides from cultures of the mycoparasitic strainTirochoderma koningiopsis
Authors: Nowak Artur , Wlizło Kamila , Komaniecka Iwona , Szymańska-Chargot Monika , Zdunek Artur , Kapral-Piotrowska Justyna , Tyśkiewicz Katarzyna , Jaroszuk-Ściseł Jolanta 
Published: July 2024

AbstractTheTrichoderma koningiopsisstrain showed an extracellular polymers (EPS) synthesis capacity of 1.17 g/L in an optimised Czapek-Dox medium containing sucrose (30 g/L) and yeast extract (7.5 g/L). Three fractions of wall polymers were extracted from the biomass obtained after culture: cold water soluble (WPSZ), hot water soluble (WPSC) and alkali soluble (WPSNaOH), which accounted for 13.3%, 1.8% and 20.2% of the mycelial dry weight, respectively. Structural analyses indicated that the EPS obtained was mannan, and the WPS fractions were glucans containing predominantly →4)-Glc-(1→ linked residues, with branching at →3,6)- as well as →4,6)-positions. FT-IR and FT-Raman analyses showed that α-bonds dominate in the WPSZ and WPSC fractions, whereas β-bonds dominate in the EPS and WPSNaOH fractions. The obtained polymer fractions (PS) showed antioxidant properties in the ABTS, DPPH and FRAP methods and the ability to bind bisphenol A from an aqueous environment. The most important property of the obtained PSs is their ability to reduce germination and inhibit the growth of mycelia of the phytopathogenicFusarium culmorumstrain. The obtained polymers exhibit a number of bioactive properties and can be used in various areas of human life.HighlightsTrichoderma koningiopsishas the ability to synthesise EPSEPS are mainly composed of mannose and WPS of glucosePS have the ability to chelate BPA and have antioxidant propertiesThe PS obtained has inhibitory properties againstF. culmorum.Graphical Abstract
Genomic and transcriptomic analyses ofHeteropoda venatoriareveal the expansion of P450 family for starvation resistance in spider
Authors: Zhang Guoqing , Wang Yiru , Jiang Hongcen , Wang Yi 
Published: July 2024

AbstractBackgroundSpiders generally exhibit robust starvation resistance, with hunting spiders, represented byHeteropoda venatoria, being particularly outstanding in this regard. Given the challenges posed by climate change and habitat fragmentation, understanding how spiders adjust their physiology and behavior to adapt to the uncertainty of food resources is crucial for predicting ecosystem responses and adaptability.ResultsWe sequenced the genome ofH. venatoriaand, through comparative genomic analysis, discovered significant expansions in gene families related to lipid metabolism, such as cytochrome P450 and steroid hormone biosynthesis genes. We also systematically analyzed the gene expression characteristics ofH. venatoriaat different starvation resistance stages and found that the fat body plays a crucial role during starvation in spiders. This study indicates that during the early stages of starvation,H. venatoriarelies on glucose metabolism to meet its energy demands. In the middle stage, gene expression stabilizes, whereas in the late stage of starvation, pathways for fatty acid metabolism and protein degradation are significantly activated, and autophagy is increased, serving as a survival strategy under extreme starvation. Additionally, analysis of expanded P450 gene families revealed thatH. venatoriahas many duplicated CYP3 clan genes that are highly expressed in the fat body, which may help maintain a low-energy metabolic state, allowingH. venatoriato endure longer periods of starvation. We also observed that the motifs of P450 families inH. venatoriaare less conserved than those in insects, which may be related to the greater polymorphism of spider genomes.ConclusionsThis research not only provides important genetic and transcriptomic evidence for understanding the starvation mechanisms of spiders but also offers new insights into the adaptive evolution of arthropods.
Sleep homeostasis in lizards and the role of cortex
Authors: Hatori Sena , Yamaguchi Sho T. , Kobayashi Riho , Matsui Futaba , Zhou Zhiwen , Norimoto Hiroaki 
Published: July 2024

AbstractAlthough their phenotypes are diverse, slow-wave sleep (SWS) and rapid eye movement sleep (REMS) are the two primary components of electrophysiological sleep (e-sleep) in mammals and birds. Slow waves in the cortex not only characterize SWS but are also used as biological markers for sleep homeostasis, given their rebound after sleep deprivation (SD). Recently, it has been reported that the Australian dragonPogona vitticepsexhibits two-stage sleep pattern in the dorsal ventricular ridge (DVR), which includes a homologue of the mammalian claustrum (CLA). It remains unclear whether reptilian e-sleep, which has been characterized by activity outside the cortex, compensates for sleep loss, as observed in mammals. We here report a significant rebound in the local field potential (LFP) after 7 hours of SD, during both SWS and REMS. Meanwhile, the cycle and mean bout length of SWS/REMS remained unaffected. We further investigated a possible role of the cortex in e-sleep regulation and homeostasis inPogonaand found that, although a corticotomy had no obvious effect on the LFP features investigated, it abolished LFP power rebound in the CLA/DVR after SD. These findings suggest that e-sleep homeostasis is a common feature in amniotes, and that cortex is involved in regulating activity rebounds in reptiles and mammals.
Addressing Underestimation of Waterborne Disease Risks Due to Fecal Indicator Bacteria Bound in Aggregates
Authors: Angelescu Dan E. , Abi-Saab David , Ganaye Raphael , Wanless David , Wong Joyce 
Published: July 2024

AbstractMicrobiological water quality monitoring is critical for managing waterborne disease risk; currently, regulations rely on quantifying culturable fecal indicator bacteria using traditional culture-based methods. These approaches cannot distinguish between planktonic forms and aggregates harboring higher loads of bacteria and associated pathogens, potentially underestimating exposure risks. By using size fractionation and ALERT, an automated rapid method for comprehensive quantification of culturable bacteria, we reveal widespread and substantial presence of aggregate-bound indicator bacteria across a variety of water matrices and geographies. We observe comprehensive bacteria counts exceeding traditional method counts by significant multiples (e.g., 3.4× on average at the Seine River 2024 Olympic venue, occasionally 100× in irrigation canals and wastewater plant effluent). The results, corroborated by microscopic and molecular analyses, highlight a major systematic bias in global water safety regulatory frameworks. Automated comprehensive culture-based rapid quantification methods could provide higher-accuracy risk assessments, enabling effective monitoring, including in remote and resource-limited settings.
Machine Learning Reveals Key Glycoprotein Mutations and Rapidly Assigns Lassa Virus Lineages
Authors: Daodu Richard Olumide , Uwe-Ulrich Jens , Kühnert Denise 
Published: July 2024

AbstractLassa fever, caused by the Lassa virus (LASV), remains a major public health concern in West Africa, causing numerous fatalities annually and several intercontinental cases since its discovery in 1969. Despite ongoing research, no approved vaccines are available, with current efforts focusing on immunotherapy. LASV is divided into distinct lineages that circulate in specific geographic regions, elicit varying immune responses, and exhibit different pathophysiological effects. Understanding the genetic differences between these lineages is crucial for developing, improving, and distributing diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines. In this study, we analyzed the LASV glycoprotein complex (GPC), the only surface protein, using statistics, machine learning, and phylogenetics. At a population scale, we identified key amino acid differences between Nigerian lineages and those in other West African regions, particularly near the stable signal peptide cleavage site and other immune-related regions (e.g., AA positions 59–76). Additionally, we found that GPC sequences from Lineages II and III are shorter than those from Lineage IV, due to the high prevalence of a codon insertion at positions 178–180 (amino acid position 60). This insertion may contribute to inaccuracies observed in molecular diagnostics for LASV and may also play a role in the increased fatality associated with Lineage IV. The insertion has reemerged and persisted in Lineage II which may indicate a fitness advantage. Furthermore, we developed a fast and highly accurate lineage classification tool called CLASV that allows rapid identification of LASV lineages, improving the ability to monitor emerging outbreaks and exported cases.
Human PrP E219K as a new and promising substrate for RT-QuIC amplification of human prion strains: a first step towards strain discrimination
Authors: Marin-Moreno A. , Reine F. , Jaffrézic F. , Herzog L. , Rezaei H. , Quadrio I. , Haïk S. , Béringue V. , Martin D. 
Published: July 2024

SummaryPrion diseases are fatal neurodegenerative diseases that affect mammals through the transconformation of a host protein, the prion protein (PrP), into a toxic and pathogenic conformer termed PrPSc. Until now, the diagnosis is only confirmed with a post-mortem histology study of the central nervous system. Among the methods to detect the etiological agent,in vitroamplification techniques have emerged as very sensitive, highly specific and rapid tools, even though some prion strains remain refractory or difficult to amplify. Here we report the use of a new recombinant substrate for Real-Time Quaking Induced Conversion (RT-QuIC), a natural polymorphism of human prion protein with a lysine at position 219 instead of a glutamic acid, PrP E219K. This substrate amplifies the six sporadic human strains responsible for Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) and the strain responsible for its variant form in a few hours and over a large dilution range of the seeds. Moreover, based on the lag time of the amplification reactions, the PrP E219K substrate allows to discriminate between sporadic and variant CJD strains, a first step towards an ante-mortem typing of the prion strain affecting a patient.
An outline on the chemical phenotype flexibility of forest species: an eco-metabolomics study of Pinus uncinata along an altitudinal gradient
Authors: Rivas-Ubach Albert , Aranda Ismael , Sardans Jordi , Liu Yina , Díaz de Quijano María , Paša-Tolić Ljiljana , Oravec Michal , Urban Otmar , Peñuelas Josep 
Published: July 2024

AbstractThe altitudinal distribution of plant populations is mainly determined by a set of environmental variables, including temperature, water availability, UV radiation, among others, which gradually shift with elevation. Therefore, altitudinal gradients in ecology could serve as “natural laboratories” providing insights into the phenotypic plasticity of natural plant populations. Plants can adjust their phenotypes to cope with specific environments. However, the adjustment capacity directly depends on the plasticity and flexibility of plant phenotypes. Plants growing at the edges of their distribution gradients may present limited flexibility due to the sub-optimal environmental conditions they experience.We analyzed the foliar metabolomes of a mountain pine population in the Pyrenees to assess their chemical phenotypic flexibility along an altitudinal gradient. We found significant changes in foliar metabolomes across different altitudes, with the most contrasting foliar metabolomes observed at the lowest and highest altitudes. Trees growing at the boundaries of the altitudinal distribution considerably shifted their foliar metabolome compared to those at more central locations with an overall upregulation of sugars, amino acids, and antioxidants. Metabolomics analyses suggested higher oxidative activity at lower altitude, presumably due to the drier and warmer conditions. However, oxidative stress indicators were also detected at the tree line, potentially associated with chilling, UV, and tropospheric O3exposure.In addition to the inability of many species to keep pace with the rapid speed of climate change by migrating upward in altitude or latitude to find more optimum environments, their migration to higher elevations may be hindered by the presence of other environmental factors at high altitudes. Eco-metabolomics studies along environmental gradients can provide crucial insights into the chemical phenotypic flexibility of natural plant populations while providing pivotal clues regarding which plant metabolic pathway are prioritized to cope with specific environments.
Optimal organelle inheritance strategies under different changing environments and mutational pressures
Authors: García-Pascual Belén , Nordbotten Jan M. , Johnston Iain G. 
Published: July 2024

AbstractMitochondrial and chloroplast DNA (mtDNA and cpDNA) encode essential cellular apparatus. This organelle DNA (oDNA) exists at high copy number (ploidy) in eukaryotic cells, which must both mitigate mutational damage and allow adaptation to changing demands. Across eukaryotes, a range of inheritance strategies are used for oDNA, including uniparental and doubly uniparental inheritance (DUI), paternal leakage, recombination-mediated repair and gene conversion, and an effective “genetic bottleneck” imposed between generations. Here, we use modelling and simulation to investigate how these different strategies support the robustness and evolvability of oDNA populations under different challenges of mutation and changes in selection imposed by the environment. We find a general tradeoff between maintaining heterozygosity for flexible adaptation and supporting purifying selection against dysfunctional mutants. Different combinations of leakage and bottleneck size provide optimal resolutions to this tradeoff under different sets of challenges. The model explains many observed behaviours, including the appearance of non-minimal bottleneck sizes, a tradeoff between high ploidy for heterozygosity and repair and tight bottlenecks for segregation, and environmental dependence of the benefits of leakage and DUI. We connect different strategies observed across eukaryotes with the ecology of the organisms involved to explore support for the predictions of this theory.
Experimental Search for Invisible Dark Matter Axions around
22  μeV
Authors: Kim Younggeun , Jeong Junu , Youn SungWoo , Bae Sungjae , Lee Kiwoong , van Loo Arjan F. , Nakamura Yasunobu , Oh Seonjeong , Seong Taehyeon , Uchaikin Sergey , Kim Jihn E. , Semertzidis Yannis K. 
Published: July 2024

The axion has emerged as the most attractive solution to two fundamental questions in modern physics related to the charge-parity invariance in strong interactions and the invisible matter component of our Universe. Over the past decade, there have been many theoretical efforts to constrain the axion mass based on various cosmological assumptions. Interestingly, different approaches from independent groups produce good overlap between 20 and 30  μeV. We performed an experimental search to probe the presence of dark matter axions within this particular mass region. The experiment utilized a multicell cavity haloscope embedded in a 12 T magnetic field to seek for microwave signals induced by the axion-photon coupling. The results ruled out the KSVZ axions as dark matter over a mass range between 21.86 and 22.00  μeV at a 90% confidence level. This represents a sensitive experimental search guided by specific theoretical predictions.

Published by the American Physical Society
2024
Comparing parameter-reduction methods on a biophysical model of an auditory hair cell
Authors: Marcinik Joseph M. , Toderi Martín A. , Bozovic Dolores 
Published: July 2024

Biophysical models describing complex cellular phenomena typically include systems of nonlinear differential equations with many free parameters. While experimental measurements can fix some parameters, those describing internal cellular processes frequently remain inaccessible. Hence, a proliferation of free parameters risks overfitting the data, limiting the model's predictive power. In this study, we develop systematic methods, applying statistical analysis and dynamical-systems theory, to reduce parameter count in a biophysical model. We demonstrate our techniques on a five-variable computational model designed to describe active, mechanical motility of auditory hair cells. Specifically, we use two statistical measures, the total-effect and PAWN indices, to rank each free parameter by its influence on selected, core properties of the model. With the resulting ranking, we fix most of the less influential parameters, yielding a five-parameter model with refined predictive power. We validate the theoretical model with experimental recordings of active hair-bundle motility, specifically by using Akaike and Bayesian information criteria after obtaining maximum-likelihood fits. As a result, we determine the system's most influential parameters, which illuminate the key biophysical elements of the cell's overall features. Even though we demonstrate with a concrete example, our techniques provide a general framework, applicable to other biophysical systems.

Published by the American Physical Society
2024