Generate and Analyze Three-Dimensional Dendritic Spine Morphology Datasets With SpineTool Software.

Dendritic spine morphology is associated with the current state of the synapse and neuron, and changes during synaptic plasticity in response to stimulus. At the same time, dendritic spine alterations are reported during various neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disorders and other brain states. Accurate and informative analysis of spine shape has an urgent need for studying the synaptic processes and molecular pathways in normal and pathological conditions, and for testing synapto-protective strategies during preclinical studies.

Optimism, Resilience, and General Self-Efficacy Predict Lower Somatic Burden during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

There is scarce evidence of a relationship between positive and psychosomatic characteristics. This study aimed to examine the associations of somatic burden with psychological resources such as optimism, resilience, and general self-efficacy. Russian participants (n = 1020) completed measures of psychological resources at Time 1 and somatic symptoms at Time 2.

Somatic burden in Russia during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Somatic burden has become one of the most common psychological reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. This study examined the prevalence of somatic burden, latent profiles, and associated factors of somatic symptoms during the pandemic in a large sample of Russians. We used cross-sectional data from 10,205 Russians collected during October-December, 2021.

Coronamoeba villafranca gen. nov. sp. nov. (Amoebozoa, Dermamoebida) challenges the correlation of morphology and phylogeny in Amoebozoa.

Coronamoeba villafranca gen. nov. sp.

Vannella mustalahtiana sp. nov. (Amoebozoa, Vannellida) and rainbow trout nodular gill disease (NGD) in Russia.

An outbreak of nodular gill disease (NGD) in farmed rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum, 1792) was recorded in Ladoga Lake (Karelia, north-western Russia) in Spring 2020. The disease was characterised by typical clinical signs including asphyxiation, distended opercula, loss of activity and swimming upside down under the water surface. Maximum monthly mortality was 15.

A morphological and molecular reinvestigation of (Grassi, 1881) Chatton 1953 - an amoebozoan parasite of arrow-worms (Chaetognatha).

Amoebozoan parasites of arrow-worms (Chaetognatha) were isolated from their hosts living in plankton of the Bay of Villefranche (Mediterranean Sea). Based on the light microscopic characters, the amoebae were identified as (Grassi, 1881) by their limax locomotive form and due to the presence of the intracellular symbiont, , surrounded by a layer of pigment granules. Sequences of the 18S rRNA gene of both and its symbiont were obtained for the first time.

Blue Waters, Green Bottoms: Benthic Filamentous Algal Blooms Are an Emerging Threat to Clear Lakes Worldwide.

Nearshore (littoral) habitats of clear lakes with high water quality are increasingly experiencing unexplained proliferations of filamentous algae that grow on submerged surfaces. These filamentous algal blooms (FABs) are sometimes associated with nutrient pollution in groundwater, but complex changes in climate, nutrient transport, lake hydrodynamics, and food web structure may also facilitate this emerging threat to clear lakes. A coordinated effort among members of the public, managers, and scientists is needed to document the occurrence of FABs, to standardize methods for measuring their severity, to adapt existing data collection networks to include nearshore habitats, and to mitigate and reverse this profound structural change in lake ecosystems.

Description of a new species of marine amoeba Korotnevella mutabilis n. sp. (Amoebozoa, Dactylopodida).

Korotnevella (Amoebozoa, Dactylopodida) is a genus of naked lobose amoebae with a dactylopodial morphotype. The cell membrane of these amoebae is covered with a monolayer of scales. The structure and size of scales are considered as species-specific features.

Cunea russae n. sp. (Amoebozoa, Dactylopodida), another cryptic species of Cunea Kudryavtsev and Pawlowski, 2015, inhabits a continental brackish-water biotope.

The genus Cunea Kudryavtsev and Pawlowski, 2015 (Amoebozoa, Dactylopodida) was initially described from the oceanic benthos: C. profundata, from over 5 km depth in the Atlantic Ocean, and C. thuwala from the Red Sea benthos at ca.

A Comparative Characterization of the Mitochondrial Genomes of Paramoeba aparasomata and Neoparamoeba pemaquidensis (Amoebozoa, Paramoebidae).

Marine amebae of the genus Paramoeba (Amoebozoa, Dactylopodida) normally contain a eukaryotic endosymbiont known as Perkinsela-like organism (PLO). This is one of the characters to distinguish the genera Neoparamoeba and Paramoeba from other Dactylopodida. It is known that the PLO may be lost, but PLO-free strains of paramoebians were never available for molecular studies.

Vannella samoroda n. sp. (Amoebozoa) - First member of the genus from a continental saline habitat placed in a molecular tree.

Vannella samoroda n. sp. (Amoebozoa, Vannellida) was isolated from the mouth of the Malaya Samoroda river flowing into Elton, the largest European hypersaline lake (Russia).

Paramoeba aparasomata n. sp., a symbiont-free species, and its relative Paramoeba karteshi n. sp. (Amoebozoa, Dactylopodida).

Two brackish water amoebae have been isolated and studied from the benthic biotopes of the Chupa Inlet (Kandalaksha Bay, northwestern Russia). Both strains can be identified as new species of the genus Paramoeba (Amoebozoa, Dactylopodida, Paramoebidae) based on light microscopical characters, structure of microscales on the cell surface and molecular evidence based on the analyses of two genes, nuclear SSU rRNA and mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI). Paramoeba aparasomata n.

Nephrocystidium pickii Weissenberg, 1921 belongs to Myxozoa (Cnidaria) but is not conspecific with Myxidium lieberkuehni Bütschli, 1882 (Myxozoa: Bivalvulida: Variisporina: Myxidiidae): molecular-genetic evidence.

We isolated and re-investigated Nephrocystidium pickii Weißenberg, 1921 (Myxozoa: Bivalvulida: Variisporina) using light microscopy and phylogenetic analysis of the small-subunit (SSU) ribosomal RNA gene. This species is a parasite of the northern pike Esox lucius L. (Actinopterygii: Esocidae) which localizes in the endothelial cells of the glomerular capillary.

Clydonella sawyeri n. sp. (Amoebozoa, Vannellida): Morphological and molecular study and a re-definition of the genus Clydonella Sawyer, 1975.

We isolated and described a brackish-water amoeba, Clydonella sawyeri n. sp. (Amoebozoa, Vannellida), from the littoral habitat in Kandalaksha Bay (The White Sea, northwestern Russia).

Description of Neoparamoeba longipodia n. sp. and a new strain of Neoparamoeba aestuarina (Page, 1970) (Amoebozoa, Dactylopodida) from deep-sea habitats.

Two strains of lobose amoebae have been isolated from the deep-sea bottom sediments of the Sea of Japan (3.6km deep) and Western Atlantic Ocean (5.1km deep).

Effectiveness of recruitment to a smartphone-delivered nutrition intervention in New Zealand: analysis of a randomised controlled trial.

Objectives: Delivery of interventions via smartphone is a relatively new initiative in public health, and limited evidence exists regarding optimal strategies for recruitment. We describe the effectiveness of approaches used to recruit participants to a smartphone-enabled nutrition intervention trial.

Methods: Internet and social media advertising, mainstream media advertising and research team networks were used to recruit New Zealand adults to a fully automated smartphone-delivered nutrition labelling trial (no face-to-face visits were required).

Effects of interpretive nutrition labels on consumer food purchases: the Starlight randomized controlled trial.

Nutrition labeling is a prominent policy to promote healthy eating. We aimed to evaluate the effects of 2 interpretive nutrition labels compared with a noninterpretive label on consumer food purchases. In this parallel-group randomized controlled trial, we enrolled household shoppers across New Zealand who owned smartphones and were aged ≥18 y.

Regeneration of test in testate amoebae of the genus Arcella (Tubulinea, Arcellinida).

Although the presence of test is the most fundamental synapomorphy of arcellinid lobose amoebae, the significance of tests in maintenance of the biological functions of these organisms is still largely unclear. This paper demonstrates the effect of the artificial test removal on the behaviour, ultrastructure and reproduction of the testate lobose amoebae belonging to the two species of the genus Arcella. The studied cells can survive after artificial removal of their test, and many specimens are capable of building a test de novo.

"Smart" RCTs: Development of a Smartphone App for Fully Automated Nutrition-Labeling Intervention Trials.

Background: There is substantial interest in the effects of nutrition labels on consumer food-purchasing behavior. However, conducting randomized controlled trials on the impact of nutrition labels in the real world presents a significant challenge.

Objective: The Food Label Trial (FLT) smartphone app was developed to enable conducting fully automated trials, delivering intervention remotely, and collecting individual-level data on food purchases for two nutrition-labeling randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in New Zealand and Australia.

The Influence of Nutrition Labeling and Point-of-Purchase Information on Food Behaviours.

Point-of-purchase information on packaged food has been a highly debated topic. Various types of nutrition labels and point-of-purchase information have been studied to determine their ability to attract consumers' attention, be well understood and promote healthy food choices. Country-specific regulatory and monitoring frameworks have been implemented to ensure reliability and accuracy of such information.

The MPI emotional body expressions database for narrative scenarios.

Emotion expression in human-human interaction takes place via various types of information, including body motion. Research on the perceptual-cognitive mechanisms underlying the processing of natural emotional body language can benefit greatly from datasets of natural emotional body expressions that facilitate stimulus manipulation and analysis. The existing databases have so far focused on few emotion categories which display predominantly prototypical, exaggerated emotion expressions.

Effects of interpretive front-of-pack nutrition labels on food purchases: protocol for the Starlight randomised controlled trial.

Background: Interpretive front-of-pack nutrition labels are better understood than non-interpretive labels. However, robust evidence on the effects of such labels on consumer food purchases in the real-world is lacking. Our aim is to assess the effects of two interpretive front-of-pack nutrition labels, compared with a non-interpretive label, on the healthiness of consumer food purchases.

Emotion categorization of body expressions in narrative scenarios.

Humans can recognize emotions expressed through body motion with high accuracy even when the stimuli are impoverished. However, most of the research on body motion has relied on exaggerated displays of emotions. In this paper we present two experiments where we investigated whether emotional body expressions could be recognized when they were recorded during natural narration.

Marginal effects of glucose, insulin and insulin-like growth factor on chemotherapy response in endothelial and colorectal cancer cells.

Resistance to chemotherapy is a major clinical issue for patients with colorectal cancer. Obesity has been associated with a poorer outcome and is a possible mechanism of resistance. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of obesity-related factors on the cell response to standard chemotherapy in stromal and colorectal cancer cells.

The overexpression of nuclear envelope protein Lap2β induces endoplasmic reticulum reorganisation via membrane stacking.

Some nuclear envelope proteins are localised to both the nuclear envelope and the endoplasmic reticulum; therefore, it seems plausible that even small amounts of these proteins can influence the organisation of the endoplasmic reticulum. A simple method to study the possible effects of nuclear envelope proteins on endoplasmic reticulum organisation is to analyze nuclear envelope protein overexpression. Here, we demonstrate that Lap2β overexpression can induce the formation of cytoplasmic vesicular structures derived from endoplasmic reticulum membranes.