bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
High prevalence of Bovine Tuberculosis reported in Cattle and Buffalo of Eastern Nepal
Authors: Upadhyaya Nabin , Shrestha Nisha , Dahal Roshan , Yadav Sanjay Kumar , Thakur Rashmi , Aryal Dinesh , Pokharel Sujeeta , Luitel Bibhu , Rajbhandari Rajesh , Balseiro Ana M , de la Fuente Jose , Gortazar Christian , Karmacharya Dibesh 
Published: May 2023

AbstractLivestock farming, specifically of cattle and buffalo, is crucial to Nepal’s economy, with more than 66% of the population involved in agriculture and animal husbandry. Animal tuberculosis (TB) caused byMycobacterium bovisis a chronic disease that affects these animals and results in economic losses due to reduced milk and meat productivity, fertility and mortality.M. bovisalso infects humans, non-human primates, goats and other mammals, and can afflict both cattle and buffalo.Our study is a part of routine surveillance of prevalent diseases, includingM. bovis, in cattle and buffalo. We collected blood samples (n=400, 100 samples from each district) from selected eastern districts of Nepal. We used a Rapid Bovine TB Test Kit to test these samples for presence ofM. bovis.Of the 400 samples collected, 74 animals (18.75%) tested positive forM. bovis, with the majority of positive samples coming from cattle (n=71, 17.75%) and only three from buffalo (<1%). Among the screened breeds of cattle and buffalo, Holstein Friesian cattle (HF) (n=43, 58%), Jersey-cross cattle (JX) (n=20, 27%), Local buffalo (n=8, 10.8%) and Murra breed buffalo (n=3, 4.1%) were found to carryM. bovis. The majority (50%) of infected animals were between 3-6 years old. Morang (n= 24 positive in cattle; n=1 positive in buffalo) and Jhapa (n= 22 positive in cattle; n=2 positive in buffalo) had the highest prevalence ofM. bovis, while all the positive cases in Sunsari (n=19) and Udaypur (n=6) were in cattle.The fact that over 18% of the samples tested positive forM. bovisis of great concern. It is critical to thoroughly test animal products from these livestock prior to human consumption. To prevent and mitigateM. bovis-related infections in Nepal, a more comprehensive screening strategy coupled with more effective animal husbandry practices needs to be adapted.
Perception of Speech Turn Dynamics is preserved in Congenitally Deaf children with Cochlear Implants
Authors: Hidalgo Céline , Zielinski Christelle , Chen Sophie , Roman Stéphane , Truy Eric , Schön Daniele 
Published: May 2023

AbstractPerceptual and speech production abilities of children with cochlear implants (CI) are usually tested by word and sentence repetition or naming tests. However, in their daily life they show very heterogeneous language skills. Here, we describe a way of increasing the ecological validity of language assessment, promoting the use of close to real-life listening situations. The setup consists in watching the audio-visual conversation of two individuals. Children’s gaze-switches from one speaker to the other serve as a proxy of their prediction abilities. Moreover, to better understand the basis and the impact of anticipatory behaviour, we also measured children’s ability to understand the dialogue content, their speech perception and memory skills as well as their rhythmic skills. Importantly, we compared children with CI performances with those of an age-matched group of children with NH. While children with CI revealed poorer speech perception and verbal working memory abilities than NH children, there was no difference in gaze anticipatory behaviour. Interestingly, in children with CI only, we found a significant correlation between dialogue comprehension, perceptive skills and gaze anticipatory behaviour. Our results confirm and extend to a conversational context previous findings showing an absence of predictive deficits in children with CI. The current design seems an interesting avenue to provide an accurate and objective estimate of anticipatory language behaviour in a rather ecological conversational context also with young children.
Cynipid wasps systematically reprogram host metabolism and restructure cell walls in developing galls
Authors: Markel Kasey , Novak Vlastimil , Bowen Benjamin P. , Tian Yang , Chen Yi-Chun , Sirirungruang Sasilada , Zhou Andy , Louie Katherine B. , Northen Trent R. , Eudes Aymerick , Scheller Henrik V. , Shih Patrick M. 
Published: May 2023

AbstractMany insects have evolved the ability to manipulate plant growth to generate extraordinary structures called galls in which insect larva can develop while being sheltered within and feeding on the plant. In particular, Cynipid (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae) wasps have evolved to form some of the most morphologically complex galls known and generate an astonishing array of gall shapes, colors, and sizes. However, the biochemical basis underlying these remarkable cellular and developmental transformations remains poorly understood. A key determinant in plant cellular development is the deposition of the cell wall to dictate the physical form and physiological function of newly developing cells, tissues, and organs. However, it is unclear to what degree cell walls are restructured to initiate and support the formation of new gall tissue. Here, we characterize the molecular alterations underlying gall development using a combination of metabolomic, histological, and biochemical techniques to elucidate how leaf cells are reprogrammed to form galls. Strikingly, gall development involves an exceptionally coordinated spatial deposition of lignin and xylan to formde novogall vasculature. Our results highlight how Cynipid wasps can radically change the metabolite profile and restructure the cell wall to enable the formation of galls, providing new insights into the mechanism of gall induction and the extent to which plants can be entirely reprogrammed to form novel structures and organs.
Small extracellular vesicles but not microvesicles fromOpisthorchis viverrinipromote cell proliferation in human cholangiocytes
Authors: Chaiyadet Sujittra , Sotillo Javier , Smout Michael , Cooper Martha , Doolan Denise L. , Waardenberg Ashley , Eichenberger Ramon M. , Field Matt , Brindley Paul J. , Laha Thewarach , Loukas Alex 
Published: May 2023

AbstractChronic infection withO. viverrinihas been linked to the development of cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), which is a major public health burden in the Lower Mekong River Basin countries, including Thailand, Lao PDR, Vietnam and Cambodia. Despite its importance, the exact mechanisms by whichO. viverrinipromotes CCA are largely unknown. In this study, we characterized different extracellular vesicle populations released byO. viverrini(OvEVs) using proteomic and transcriptomic analyses and investigated their potential role in host-parasite interactions. While 120kOvEVs promoted cell proliferation in H69 cells at different concentrations, 15kOvEVs did not produce any effect compared to controls. The proteomic analysis of both populations showed differences in their composition that could contribute to this differential effect. Furthermore, the miRNAs present in 120k EVs were analysed and their potential interactions with human host genes was explored by computational target prediction. Different pathways involved in inflammation, immune response and apoptosis were identified as potentially targeted by the miRNAs present in this population of EVs. This is the first study showing specific roles for different EV populations in the pathogenesis of a parasitic helminth, and more importantly, an important advance towards deciphering the mechanisms used in establishment of opisthorchiasis and liver fluke infection-associated malignancy.
A chemical genetic screen uncovers novel seed priming agents capable of persistent perturbation of anthocyanin regulation inArabidopsis thaliana
Authors: Hiiback Katrina M. , Campbell Malcolm M. 
Published: May 2023

AbstractPriming is a general term for a phenomenon in which exposure to an early environmental stimulus results in a more rapid or vigorous response when the plant is exposed to subsequent challenges. Various types of priming have been described: ‘systemic acquired resistance’ against biotic stimuli, ‘epigenetic stress memory’ induced by repeated abiotic stimuli, and ‘seed priming’ treatments which apply water and additional adjuncts to seeds to improve crop performance. Using a high-throughput chemical genomic approach, thousands of small molecules were screened to identify compounds capable of ‘chemical priming’, asking if these could serve as artificial environments to persistently induce altered response to later abiotic challenges when applied as seed treatments. Attenuation of expected visual anthocyanin accumulation was chosen as a screening phenotype due to the visual nature of these pigments, as well as their biological roles in development and stress response. Several novel structural categories of molecules were identified that had the ability to reduce total anthocyanin accumulation in 7-18-day old seedlings induced by later low temperature challenge, persisting days after the removal of the compounds. Application variables were explored with thought to future use of the priming compounds as functional treatments: a dose-dependent relationship was established, additional effects on growth and development were documented to ensure minimal detrimental side effects on the treated plants, and the necessary temporal window of treatment was explored and reduced. Cross testing of the priming treatments identified by low temperature screening for ability to reduce anthocyanin induction by alternative exogenous and endogenous conditions showed consistent attenuative effect and revealed that the effect of priming on this metabolic phenotype was not specific to low temperature response. The presented research represents a proof-of-concept for the functional potential of seed priming with novel compounds, and highlights anthocyanin accumulation as a flexible component of plant stress response.
Chondroitin sulfate, dermatan sulfate, and hyaluronic acid differentially modify the biophysical properties of collagen-based hydrogels
Authors: Cortes-Medina Marcos , Bushman Andrew R. , Beshay Peter E. , Adorno Jonathan J. , Menyhert Miles M. , Hildebrand Riley M. , Agarwal Shashwat S. , Avendano Alex , Song Jonathan W. 
Published: May 2023

AbstractFibrillar collagens and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are structural biomolecules that are natively abundant to the extracellular matrix (ECM). Prior studies have quantified the effects of GAGs on the bulk mechanical properties of the ECM. However, there remains a lack of experimental studies on how GAGs alter other biophysical properties of the ECM, including ones that operate at the length scales of individual cells such as mass transport efficiency and matrix microstructure. Here we characterized and decoupled the effects of the GAG molecules chondroitin sulfate (CS) dermatan sulfate (DS) and hyaluronic acid (HA) on the stiffness (indentation modulus), transport (hydraulic permeability), and matrix microarchitecture (pore size and fiber radius) properties of collagen-based hydrogels. We complement these biophysical measurements of collagen hydrogels with turbidity assays to profile collagen aggregate formation. Here we show that CS, DS, and HA differentially regulate the biophysical properties of hydrogels due to their alterations to the kinetics of collagen self-assembly. In addition to providing information on how GAGs play significant roles in defining key physical properties of the ECM, this work shows new ways in which stiffness measurements, microscopy, microfluidics, and turbidity kinetics can be used complementary to reveal details of collagen self-assembly and structure.
Peroxisomal tail-anchored proteins do not reach peroxisomes via ER, instead mitochondria can be involved
Authors: Somborac Tamara , Bal Güleycan Lutfullahoglu , Fatima Kaneez , Vihinen Helena , Paatero Anja , Jokitalo Eija , Paavilainen Ville O , Konovalova Svetlana 
Published: May 2023

ABSTRACTPeroxisomes are membrane-enclosed organelles with important roles in fatty acid breakdown, glycolysis, and biosynthesis of sterols and ether lipids. Defects in peroxisome biogenesis result in severe neurological diseases, such as Zellweger syndrome, neonatal adrenoleukodystrophy, infantile Refsum disease, and myelopathies. However, many aspects of peroxisomal biogenesis are not well understood. Here we investigated delivery of tail-anchored (TA) proteins to peroxisomes in mammalian cells. Using glycosylation assays we showed that peroxisomal TA proteins do not enter ER in both WT and peroxisome-lacking cells. We observed that in cells lacking the essential peroxisome biogenesis factor, PEX19, peroxisomal TA proteins localize mainly to mitochondria. However, in PEX3 KO cells, which lack peroxisomes as well, the endogenous TA protein, ACBD5, does not target mitochondria, suggesting that PEX3 plays an important role in targeting of peroxisomal TA proteins to mitochondria. Finally, to investigate peroxisomal TA protein targeting in cells with fully functional peroxisomes we used a proximity biotinylation approach. We showed that while ER-targeted TA construct was exclusively inserted into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), peroxisome-targeted TA construct was inserted to both peroxisomes and mitochondria. Thus, in contrast to previous studies, our data suggest that peroxisomal TA proteins do not insert to the ER prior to their delivery to peroxisomes. Instead, mitochondria can play a role in the targeting of TA proteins to peroxisomes.
Genetics of skeletal proportions in two different populations
Authors: Bartell Eric , Lin Kuang , Tsuo Kristin , Gan Wei , Vedantam Sailaja , Cole Joanne B. , Baronas John M , Yengo Loic , Marouli Eirini , Amariuta Tiffany , Chen Zhengming , Li Liming ,   GIANT consortium,   China Kadoorie Biobank Collaborative Group, Renthal Nora E , Jacobsen Christina M. , Salem Rany M , Walters Robin G , Hirschhorn Joel N 
Published: May 2023

AbstractHuman height can be divided into sitting height and leg length, reflecting growth of different parts of the skeleton whose relative proportions are captured by the ratio of sitting to total height (as sitting height ratio, SHR). Height is a highly heritable trait, and its genetic basis has been well-studied. However, the genetic determinants of skeletal proportion are much less well-characterized. Expanding substantially on past work, we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of SHR in ∼450,000 individuals with European ancestry and ∼100,000 individuals with East Asian ancestry from the UK and China Kadoorie Biobanks. We identified 565 loci independently associated with SHR, including all genomic regions implicated in prior GWAS in these ancestries. While SHR loci largely overlap height-associated loci (P < 0.001), the fine-mapped SHR signals were often distinct from height. We additionally used fine-mapped signals to identify 36 credible sets with heterogeneous effects across ancestries. Lastly, we used SHR, sitting height, and leg length to identify genetic variation acting on specific body regions rather than on overall human height.
Boosting pro-vitamin A content and bioaccessibility in leaves by combining engineered biosynthesis and storage pathways with high-light treatments
Authors: Morelli Luca , Perez-Colao Pablo , Reig-Lopez Diego , Di Xueni , Llorente Briardo , Rodriguez-Concepcion Manuel 
Published: May 2023

SUMMARYThe relevance of plants as food is expected to grow for a more sustainable diet. In this new context, improving the nutritional quality of plant-derived foods is a must. Biofortification of green leafy vegetables with pro-vitamin A carotenoids such as β-carotene has remained challenging to date. Here we combined two strategies to achieve this goal. One of them (that we call strategy C) involves producing β-carotene in extraplastidial locations of leaf cells to avoid the negative impacts on photosynthesis derived from changing the balance of carotenoids and chlorophylls in chloroplasts. The second approach (that we refer to as strategy P) involves the conversion of chloroplasts into non-photosynthetic, carotenoid-overaccumulating chromoplasts in some leaves, leaving other non-engineered leaves to sustain normal plant growth. Combination of these two strategies resulted in a 5- fold increase in the amount of β-carotene inNicotiana benthamianaleaves. Following several attempts to further improve β-carotene leaf contents by metabolic engineering, hormone treatments and genetic screenings, it was found that promoting the proliferation of plastoglobules with high-light treatments not only improved β-carotene accumulation but it also resulted in a much higher bioaccessibility. Combination of strategies C and P together with a high-light treatment increased the levels of accessible β-carotene 30-fold compared to controls. We further demonstrate that stimulating plastoglobule proliferation with strategy P but also with high-light alone can also stimulate and hence improve β-carotene contents and bioaccessibility in edible lettuce (Lactuca sativa) leaves, unveiling the power of non-GMO approaches for leaf biofortification.
Structural Basis for the Phase Separation of the Chromosome Passenger Complex
Authors: Bryan Nikaela W. , Ali Aamir , Niedzialkowska Ewa , Mayne Leland , Stukenberg P. Todd , Black Ben E. 
Published: May 2023

AbstractThe physical basis of phase separation is thought to consist of the same types of bonds that specify conventional macromolecular interactions yet is unsatisfyingly often referred to as ‘fuzzy’. Gaining clarity on the biogenesis of membraneless cellular compartments is one of the most demanding challenges in biology. Here, we focus on the chromosome passenger complex (CPC), that forms a chromatin body that regulates chromosome segregation in mitosis. Within the three regulatory subunits of the CPC implicated in phase separation — a heterotrimer of INCENP, Survivin, and Borealin — we identify the contact regions formed upon droplet formation using hydrogen/deuterium-exchange mass spectrometry (HXMS). These contact regions correspond to some of the interfaces seen between individual heterotrimers within the crystal lattice they form. A major contribution comes from specific electrostatic interactions that can be broken and reversed through initial and compensatory mutagenesis, respectively. Our findings reveal structural insight for interactions driving liquid-liquid demixing of the CPC. Moreover, we establish HXMS as an approach to define the structural basis for phase separation.
Contribution of dorsal versus ventral hippocampus to the hierarchical modulation of goal-directed action
Authors: Piquet Robin , Faugère Angélique , Parkes Shauna L. 
Published: May 2023

AbstractAdaptive behavior often necessitates that animals learn about events in a manner that is specific to a particular context or environment. These hierarchical organizations allow the animal to decide which action is the most appropriate when faced with ambiguous or conflicting possibilities. This study examined the role of hippocampus in enabling animals to use the context to guide action selection. We used a hierarchical instrumental outcome devaluation task in which male rats learn that the context provides information about the unique action-outcome relations that are in effect. We first confirmed that rats encode and use hierarchical context-(action-outcome) relations. We then show that chemogenetic inhibition of ventral hippocampus (vHPC) impairs both the encoding and retrieval of these associations, while inhibition of dorsal hippocampus (dHPC) impairs only the retrieval. Importantly, neither dHPC or vHPC were required for goal-directed behaviorper seas these impairments only emerged when rats were forced to use the context to identify the current action-outcome relationships. These findings are discussed with respect to the role of the hippocampus and its broader circuitry in the contextual modulation of goal-directed behavior and the importance of hierarchical associations in flexible behavior.
Rescuing Off-Equilibrium Simulation Data through Dynamic Experimental Data with dynAMMo
Authors: Kolloff Christopher , Olsson Simon 
Published: May 2023

AbstractLong-timescale behavior of proteins is fundamental to many biological processes. Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations and biophysical experiments are often used to study protein dynamics. However, high computational demands of MD limit what timescales are feasible to study, often missing rare events, which are critical to explain experiments. On the other hand, experiments are limited by low resolution. We present dynamic Augmented Markov models (dynAMMo) to bridge the gap between these data and overcome their respective limitations. For the first time, dynAMMo enables the construction of mechanistic models of slow exchange processes that have been not observed in MD data by integrating dynamic experimental observables. As a consequence, dynAMMo allows us to bypass costly and extensive simulations, yet providing mechanistic insights of the system. Validated with controlled model systems and a well-studied protein, dynAMMo offers a new approach to quantitatively model protein dynamics on long timescales in an unprecedented manner.
Understanding employees' perceptions of SETA events: the role of pedagogical and communication approaches
Authors: Hu Siqi , Hsu Carol , Zhou Zhongyun 
Published: May 2023

PurposeSecurity education, training and awareness (SETA) programs are the key to addressing “people problems” in information systems (IS) security. Contrary to studies using conventional methods, the present study leveraged an “event” lens and dimensionalized employees' perceptions into three sub-dimensions: perceived novelty, perceived disruption and perceived criticality. Moreover, this research went a step further by examining how pedagogical and communication approaches to a SETA program affect employees' perceptions of the program. This study then investigated whether – and if so, how – these approaches impact employees' perceptions of the SETA program and their subsequent commitment to it.Design/methodology/approachUtilizing a factorial-based scenario survey, this study empirically tested a model of the above relationships via covariance-based structural equation modeling.FindingsThe results of this research showed that pedagogical approaches were more effective than communication approaches and that employees' perceptions of the SETA program accounted for a large variance in their commitment to SETA.Originality/valueFirst, this research deepens understanding of the protection of information assets by elaborating on the different approaches that organizations can take to encourage employees' commitment to SETA. Second, the study enriches the SETA literature by theorizing a SETA program as an organizational “event”, which represents a major shift from the conventional approach. Third, the study adds to the theoretical knowledge of the event lens by extending it to the SETA context and investigating the relationship among three event strength components.