bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
How often are male mosquitoes attracted to humans?
Authors: Paris Véronique , Hardy Christopher , Hoffmann Ary A. , Ross Perran A. 
Published: March 2023

AbstractMany mosquito species live close to humans where females feed on human blood. While male mosquitoes do not feed on blood, it has long been recognized that males of some species can be attracted to human hosts. To investigate the frequency of male mosquito attraction to humans, we conducted a literature review and human-baited field trials, as well as laboratory experiments involving males and females of three common Aedes species. Our literature review indicated that male attraction to humans is limited to a small number of species, including Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus. In our human-baited field collections, only 4 out of 13 species captured included males. In laboratory experiments, we found that male Ae. notoscriptus and Ae. vigilax showed no attraction to humans, while male Ae. aegypti exhibited persistent attraction for up to 30 minutes. Both male and female Ae. aegypti displayed similar preferences for different human subjects, suggesting that male Ae. aegypti respond to similar cues as females. Additionally, we found that mosquito repellents applied to human skin effectively repelled male mosquitoes. These findings shed light on mosquito behaviour and have implications for mosquito control programs, particularly those involving the release or monitoring of the male mosquito population.
Tillage homogenizes soil bacterial communities in microaggregate fractions by facilitating dispersal
Authors: West Jaimie R. , Lauer Joseph G. , Whitman Thea 
Published: March 2023

AbstractSoil aggregation physically protects soil organic matter and promotes soil carbon persistence through microaggregate formation and organo-mineral associations. Tillage is a ubiquitous disturbance to arable soil that disrupts aggregation, thus affecting microbial resource availability, soil microhabitat conditions, and microbial interactions. We investigated how tillage affects bacterial community composition of soil microaggregate fractions (53–250 µm), specifically the free microaggregate fraction in bulk soil, and the occluded microaggregate fraction from within macroaggregates, using two long-term tillage vs. no-tillage experiments in southern WI, U.S., that represent two different silt loam soils (Alfisol and Mollisol). We applied 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing to characterize the effects of tillage on microaggregate bacterial communities by relating compositional changes and ecological community assembly patterns to various tillage-driven changes in the soil environment, including aggregate size distribution and carbon content. Tillage homogenized soil bacterial communities, as quantified by increased compositional similarity at both within-plot and between-plot scales, and community assembly was increasingly influenced by homogenizing dispersal with tillage. We did not identify major distinctions between bacterial communities of the free and occluded microaggregate fractions, thus highlighting how soil microaggregates readily shift between these operationally defined fractions in temperate annual cropping systems, where the soil environment is subject to drastic seasonal changes that are exacerbated by tillage. With this study, we improve our understanding of the microbial response to soil disturbance, and thus the potential mechanisms through which disturbances like tillage affect soil carbon persistence.HighlightsTillage homogenized soil bacterial communities, within and between plotsHomogenizing dispersal drove community assembly under tillageFree and occluded microaggregate fractions hosted similar communities
Molecular Weight-dependent Diffusion, Biodistribution, and Clearance Behavior of Tetra-armed Poly(ethylene glycol) Subcutaneously Injected into the Back of Mice
Authors: Ishikawa Shohei , Kato Motoi , Si Jinyan , Yu Lin Chen , Kimura Kohei , Katashima Takuya , Naito Mitsuru , Kurita Masakazu , Sakai Takamasa 
Published: March 2023

AbstractFour-armed poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)s are essential hydrophilic polymers extensively utilized to prepare PEG hydrogels, which are valuable tissue scaffolds. When hydrogels are usedin vivo, they eventually dissociate due to the cleavage of the backbone structure. When the cleavage occurs at the cross-linking point, the hydrogel elutes as an original polymer unit, i.e., four-armed PEG. Although four-armed PEGs have been utilized as subcutaneously implanted biomaterials, the diffusion, biodistribution, and clearance behavior of four-armed PEG from the skin are essential. This paper investigates time-wise diffusion from the skin, biodistribution to distant organs, and clearance of fluorescence-labeled four-armed PEGs with molecular weight (Mw) ranging from 5–40 kg/mol subcutaneously injected into the back of mice. Changes over time indicated that the fate of subcutaneously injected PEGs isMw-dependent. Four-armed PEGs withMw≤ 10 kg/mol gradually diffused to deep adipose tissue beneath the injection site and distributed dominantly to distant organs, such as the kidney. PEGs withMw≥ 20 kg/mol stagnated in the skin and deep adipose tissue, and were mainly delivered to the heart, lung, and liver. The fundamental understanding of theMw-dependent behavior of four-armed PEGs is beneficial for preparing biomaterials using PEGs, providing a reference in the field of tissue engineering.
Transgenerational effects of exercise on mouse brain and cognition
Authors: Cintado Elisa , Tezanos Patricia , De las Casas Manuela , Muela Pablo , McGreevy Kerry R. , Fontán-Lozano Ángela , Sacristán-Horcajada Eva , Pignatelli Jaime , de Ceballos María L. , del Hierro María Jesús , Fernández-Punzano Julia , Montoliu Lluis , Trejo José Luis 
Published: March 2023

SummaryLifestyle induces long lasting effects on brain and cognition, with some interventions like stress including transgenerational inheritance mediated by epigenetic mechanisms. Physical exercise is one lifestyle intervention driving robust improvements of cognition, including intergenerational transmission to the litter. However, little is known about whether exercise effects are transgenerationally transmitted. Here we analyzed adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN) and behavioral phenotype of sedentary adult male mice of F2 generation of exercised grandfathers (F0). Both F1 and F2 were sedentary, while F0 performed moderate exercise. We found F2 mice from exercised F0 acquired and recalled both spatial and non-spatial information better than F2 from sedentary F0. Contextual fear conditioning was not affected, together with no differences in AHN markers. Hippocampal smallRNAseq analysis revealed 35 significant differentially expressed (sDE) microRNAs (miRNAs) associated to relevant brain function families. Moreover, 11 of the 35 miRNAs target gene sets were found also enriched in F0 and F1, as well as target genes of 6 of them were differentially expressed also in F0 or F1. One of these 6 is miRNA-144, that together with miRNA-298 were found inversely correlated to cognitive index in F2. These results demonstrate that transgenerational transmission of the effects of exercise on specific cognitive tasks persists after two generations, even though some cellular changes induced in F1 vanish in F2. Thus, they suggest moderate exercise training has longer-lasting effects than previously thought, probably mediated by a small group of miRNAs acting across generations, and this is worth taking into account in public health programs.
Membrane and glycocalyx tethering of DNA nanostructures for enhanced uptake
Authors: Wang Weitao , Chopra Bhavya , Walawalkar Vismaya , Liang Zijuan , Adams Rebekah , Deserno Markus , Ren Xi , Taylor Rebecca E. 
Published: March 2023

AbstractDNA nanostructures (DNs) have been increasingly utilized in biosensing, drug delivery, diagnostics and therapeutics, because of their programmable assembly, control over size and shape, and ease of functionalization. However, the low cellular uptake of DNs has limited their effectiveness in these biomedical applications. Here we demonstrate the potential of membrane and glycocalyx binding as general strategies to enhance the cellular uptake of DNs. By targeting the plasma membrane and cell-surface glycocalyx, the uptake of all three distinct DNs is significantly enhanced as compared to uptake of bare DNs. We also demonstrate the viability of single-step membrane labeling by cholesterol-DNs as competitive with previous multistep approaches. Further, we show that the endocytic pathway of membrane-bound DNs is an interdependent process that involves scavenger receptors, clathrin-, and caveolinmediated endocytosis. Our findings may potentially expand the toolbox for effective cellular delivery of DNA nanostructured systems.
ReCo: automated NGSread-counting of single and combinatorial CRISPR gRNAs
Authors: Wegner Martin , Kaulich Manuel 
Published: March 2023

AbstractSummaryCRISPR screens are increasingly performed to associate genotypes with genotypes. So far, however, their analysis required specialized computational knowledge to transform high-throughput next-generation sequencing (NGS) data into sequence formats amenable for downstream analysis. We developed ReCo, a stand-alone and user-friendly analytics tool for generating read-count tables of single and combinatorial CRISPR library and screen-based NGS data. Together with cutadapt and bowtie2 for rapid sequence trimming and alignment, ReCo enables the automated generation of read count tables from staggered NGS reads for the downstream identification of gRNA-induced phenotypes.Availability and implementationReCo is published under the MIT license and available at:https://github.com/KaulichLab/ReCo.Supplementary informationSupplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Discovery of 1,3,4-oxadiazoles with slow-action activity againstPlasmodium falciparummalaria parasites
Authors: Andrews Katherine T. , Fisher Gillian M. , Firmin Meaghan , Liepa Andris J. , Wilson Tony , Gardiner James , Mohri Yacine , Rai Anjana , Davey Andrew K. , Masurier Antoine , Delion Alix , Mouratidis Alexandos A. , Hutt Oliver , Burrows Jeremy N. , Ryan John H. , Riches Andrew G. , Skinner-Adams Tina S. 
Published: March 2023

ABSTRACTTo achieve malaria eradication, new preventative agents that act differently to front-line treatment drugs are needed. To identify potential chemoprevention starting points we screened a sub-set of the CSIRO Australia Compound Collection for compounds with slow-actionin vitroactivity againstPlasmodium falciparum. This work identifiedN,N-dialkyl-5-alkylsulfonyl-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-amines as a new antiplas-modial chemotype (e.g.,196 h IC50550 nM) with a different action to delayed-death slow-action drugs. Structure activity relationship analysis of analogues identified multiple compounds with potent and selectivein vitroactivity against drug-sensitive and multi-drug resistantPlasmodiumparasites (e.g.,31and3296 h IC50<40 nM; SI >2,500). However subsequent studies in mice with lead compound1, which had the best microsomal stability of the compounds assessed, demonstrated rapid clearance (T1/2<1.6 h) and poor oralin vivoefficacy. This indicates that improvements in the pharmacokinetic profile ofN,N-dialkyl-5-alkylsulfonyl-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-amines would be needed for the development of this chemotype for malaria chemoprophylaxis.
Real-time tractography-assisted neuronavigation for TMS
Authors: Aydogan Dogu Baran , Souza Victor H. , Matsuda Renan H. , Lioumis Pantelis , Ilmoniemi Risto J. 
Published: March 2023

AbstractBackgroundState-of-the-art navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (nTMS) systems can display the TMS coil position relative to the structural magnetic resonance image (MRI) of the subject’s brain and calculate the induced electric field. However, the local effect of TMS propagates via the white-matter network to different areas of the brain, and currently there is no commercial or research neuronavigation system that can highlight in real time the brain’s structural connections during TMS.ObjectiveTo develop a real-time tractography-assisted TMS neuronavigation system and investigate its feasibility.MethodWe propose a modular framework that seamlessly integrates offline (preparatory) analysis of diffusion MRI data with online (real-time) tractography. For tractography and neuronavigation we combine our custom software Trekker and InVesalius, respectively. We evaluate the feasibility of our system by comparing online and offline tractography results in terms of streamline count and their overlap.ResultsA real-time tractography-assisted TMS neuronavigation system is developed. Key features include the application of state-of-the-art tractography practices, the ability to tune tractography parameters on the fly, and the display of thousands of new streamlines every few seconds using a novel uncertainty visualization technique. We demonstrate in a video the feasibility and quantitatively show the agreement with offline filtered streamlines.ConclusionReal-time tractography-assisted TMS neuronavigation is feasible. With our system, it is possible to target specific brain regions based on their structural connectivity, and to aim for the fiber tracts that make up the brain’s networks.
Neural mechanisms of costly helping in the general population and mirror-pain synesthetes
Authors: Ioumpa Kalliopi , Gallo Selene , Keysers Christian , Gazzola Valeria 
Published: March 2023

AbstractHelping others often comes with a cost to ourselves. It has been argued that experiencing the pain of others motivates helping. Here we investigate how individuals that report somatically feeling the pain of others (mirror-pain synesthetes) differ from those that do not, when deciding to help and reduce someone’s pain conveyed through different modalities. Mirror-pain synesthetes and participants who do not report such everyday life experiences witnessed a confederate expressing pain and could decide to reduce the intensity by donating money. Measuring brain activity using fMRI confirmed our initial hypothesis: self-reported mirror-pain synesthetes increased their donation more steeply, as the intensity of the observed pain increased, and their somatosensory brain activity (in SII and the adjacent IPL) activity was more tightly associated with donation when the pain of other was conveyed by the reactions of the pain-receiving hand. For all participants, in a condition where the pain was conveyed by facial expressions, activation in insula, SII and MCC correlated with the trial by trial donation made, while SI and MTG activation was correlated with the donation in the Hand condition. These results further inform us about the role of empathy in costly helping, the underlying neural mechanism, and individual variability.
RNA allelic frequencies of somatic mutations encode substantial functional information in cancers
Authors: Black James R.M. , Jones Thomas P. , Martínez-Ruiz Carlos , Litovchenko Maria , Puttick Clare , McGranahan Nicholas 
Published: March 2023

AbstractA central goal of cancer research is the identification of cancer genes that drive tumour growth and progression. Existing approaches to this problem typically leverage frequentist approaches based on patterns of somatic mutagenesis in DNA. Here, we interrogate RNA variant allele frequencies to identify putative cancer genes with a novel computational tool,RVdriver, from bulk genomic-transcriptomic data within 7,948 paired exomes and transcriptomes across 30 cancer types. An elevated RNA VAF reflects a signal from multiple biological features: clonal mutations; mutations retained or gained during somatic copy-number alterations; mutations favoured by allele-specific expression; and mutations in genes expressed preferentially by the tumour compartment of admixed bulk samples.RVdriver, a statistical approach that classifies RNA VAFs of nonsynonymous mutations relative to a synonymous mutation background, leverages this information to identify known, as well as putatively novel, cancer genes, with comparable performance to DNA-based approaches. Furthermore, we demonstrate RNA VAFs of individual mutations are able to distinguish ‘driver’ from ‘passenger’ mutations within established cancer genes. Low-RNA VAFEGFRmutations otherwise annotated as drivers of glioblastoma by DNA tools harbour a phenotype of reduced EGFR signalling, whilst high-RNA VAFKDM6Amutations otherwise annotated as passengers exhibit a driver-like H3K27me3 expression profile, demonstrating the value of our approach in phenotyping tumours. Overall, our study showcases a novel approach for cancer gene discovery, and highlights the potential value of multi-omic and systems-biology approaches in finding novel therapeutic vulnerabilities in cancer to bring about patient benefit.
Topographical similarity of cortical thickness represents generalized anxiety symptoms in adolescence
Authors: Yoo Chaebin , Kim M. Justin 
Published: March 2023

AbstractGeneralized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a common condition characterized by excessive, uncontrollable worry. Despite increasing efforts to identify the neural underpinnings of GAD, neuroimaging research using cortical thickness have yielded largely inconsistent results. To address this, we adopted an inter-subject representational similarity analysis framework and utilized a sample of 120 adolescents (13 to 18 years of age) from the Healthy Brain Network dataset. We found greater topographical resemblance among participants with heightened generalized anxiety symptoms in the left caudal anterior cingulate and pericalcarine cortex. Such associations were not observed when including a group of younger participants (11 to 12 years of age), highlighting the importance of age range selection when considering the link between cortical thickness and anxiety. Our findings reveal a novel cortical thickness topography that represents generalized anxiety in adolescents, which is embedded within the shared geometries between generalized anxiety symptoms and cortical thickness.
Erythrocyte ghosts and Plasma beads as Antigen peptide delivery systems in animals and humans
Authors: Jameel M. Rizwan , Jameel Hina , Mustafa Saad , Khan Mohd Faisal , Misbah Mohammad 
Published: March 2023

ABSTRACTErythrocytes are the most plentiful cells of the human body with desirable morphologic and physiologic characteristics and their function in drug delivery has been exploited comprehensively. These cellular carriers, containing significant biodegradability, biocompatibility, and duration in circulation, can be burdened by a wide spectrum of compounds of therapeutic interest Carrier erythrocytes holding drugs, enzymes or peptides, Cas, and Nanoparticles can be used as a delivery system that approval to changes in the kinetic behavior and selective bio-distribution of the substances encapsulated. Carrier erythrocytes have been exploited for numerous potential applications, including the intravenous slow release of drug targeting, therapeutic agents and enzyme therapy to a reticuloendothelial system (RES). Hypotonic dialysis is the process most usually utilized in the formation of erythrocytes of carrier, however many features concern the give up and the erythrocytes ghost characteristics obtained with this technique. Attempt was also completed observe but erythrocyte regular release entrapped substances/antigens with additional entrapment in the plasma beads, improves the protein immunogenicity. The glycoenzyme invertase of large molecular weight was utilized a model substance and entrapment of invertase consummate with the dialysis method. Enzyme entrapment was examined in derived erythrocytes from rabbits, goats and human. Intended for the immunological studies were used in the rabbits. Invertase entrapped erythrocytes rabbit, where point out was additional encapsulated in the plasma beads and a contrast of immunogenicity of lose invertase, entrapped invertase in erythrocytes and that entrapped in RBCs and additional in encapsulated the plasma beads were examined. Antibodies production was investigated are different periods such as 12, 20, 20 and 35 days.
Neurons from pre-motor areas to the Mushroom bodies can orchestrate latent visual learning in navigating insects
Authors: Wystrach Antoine 
Published: March 2023

ABSTRACTSpatial learning is peculiar. It can occur continuously and stimuli of the world need to be encoded according to some spatial organisation. Recent evidence showed that insects categorise visual memories as whether their gaze is facing left vs. right from their goal, but how such categorisation is achieved during learning remains unknown. Here we analysed the movements of ants exploring the world around their nest, and used a biologically constrained neural model to show that such parallel, lateralized visual memories can be acquired straightforwardly and continuously as the agent explore the world. During learning, ‘left’ and ‘right’ visual memories can be formed in different neural comportments (of the mushroom bodies lobes) through existing lateralised dopaminergic neural feedback from pre-motor areas (the lateral accessory lobes) receiving output from path integration (in the central complex). As a result, path integration organises visual learning ‘internally’, without the need to be expressed through behaviour; and therefore, views can be learnt continuously (without suffering memory overload) while the insect is free to explore the world randomly or using any other navigational mechanism. After learning, this circuit produces robust homing performance in a 3D reconstructed natural habitat despite a noisy visual recognition performance. Overall this illustrates how continuous bidirectional relationships between pre-motor areas and visual memory centres can orchestrate latent spatial learning and produce efficient navigation behaviour.
Ontology for Cellular Senescence Mechanisms
Authors: Yamagata Yuki , Fukuyama Tsubasa , Onami Shuichi , Masuya Hiroshi 
Published: March 2023

AbstractAlthough cellular senescence is a key factor in organismal aging, with both positive and negative effects on individuals, its mechanisms remain largely unknown. Thus, integrating knowledge is essential to explain how cellular senescence manifests in tissue damage and age-related diseases. Here, we propose an ontological model that organizes knowledge of cellular senescence in a computer-readable form. We manually annotated and defined cellular senescence processes, molecules, anatomical structures, phenotypes, and other entities based on the Homeostasis Imbalance Process ontology. We described the mechanisms as causal relationships of processes and modeled a homeostatic imbalance between stress and stress response in cellular senescence for a unified framework. HoIP was assessed formally, and the relationships between cellular senescence and disease were inferred for higher-order knowledge processing. We visualized cellular senescence processes to support knowledge utilization. Our study provides a knowledge base to help elucidate mechanisms linking cellular and organismal aging.