Tactile cues compensate for unbalanced vestibular cues during progression on inclined surfaces.

A previous study demonstrated that rodents on an inclined square platform traveled straight vertically or horizontally and avoided diagonal travel. Through behavior they aligned their head with the horizontal plane, acquiring similar bilateral vestibular cues - a basic requirement for spatial orientation and a salient feature of animals in motion. This behavior had previously been shown to be conspicuous in Tristram's jirds.

Metabolically Healthy Obesity Is a Misnomer: Components of the Metabolic Syndrome Linearly Increase with BMI as a Function of Age and Gender.

Objectives: We aimed to examine the relationships between body mass index (BMI) and metabolic syndrome (MS) components as a function of age and gender across weight categories.

Methods: This cross-sectional study included 19,328 subjects who participated in a health-screening program. We analyzed 14,093 apparently healthy subjects with a BMI ≥ 18.

Rethinking Conservative Treatment of Humeral Diaphyseal Fractures in Elderly Patients With Dementia.

Objectives: To assess outcomes and complications of conservatively managed humeral diaphyseal fractures in elderly patients, with an emphasis on the subgroup diagnosed with dementia.

Design: Retrospective.

Setting: Upper extremity surgery unit at an academic Level I trauma center.

Keep a level head to know the way ahead: How rodents travel on inclined surfaces?

Animals traveling on a horizontal surface stabilize their head in relation to the substrate in order to gather spatial information and orient. What, however, do they do when traveling on an incline? We examined how three rodent species differing in motor abilities and habitats explore a platform tilted at 0-90°, hypothesizing that they would attempt to maintain bilateral vestibular cues. We found that traveling up or down was mainly straight vertically rather than diagonally, which results in identical bilateral vestibular cues.

Deconvolution of the epigenetic age discloses distinct inter-personal variability in epigenetic aging patterns.

Background: The epigenetic age can now be extrapolated from one of several epigenetic clocks, which are based on age-related changes in DNA methylation levels at specific multiple CpG sites. Accelerated aging, calculated from the discrepancy between the chronological age and the epigenetic age, has shown to predict morbidity and mortality rate. We assumed that deconvolution of epigenetic age to its components could shed light on the diversity of epigenetic, and by inference, on inter-individual variability in the causes of biological aging.

Identifying protein function and functional links based on large-scale co-occurrence patterns.

Objective: The vast majority of known proteins have not been experimentally tested even at the level of measuring their expression, and the function of many proteins remains unknown. In order to decipher protein function and examine functional associations, we developed "Cliquely", a software tool based on the exploration of co-occurrence patterns.

Computational Model: Using a set of more than 23 million proteins divided into 404,947 orthologous clusters, we explored the co-occurrence graph of 4,742 fully sequenced genomes from the three domains of life.

The value(s) of social media rituals: a cross-cultural analysis of New Year's resolutions.

New Year's resolutions are acts of valuation where people express ideas about what is important and worthwhile in life. Although resolutions have a long history, the twenty-first century has transformed the practice into a social media ritual with greater visibility, interactivity, and reach. Using this unique event to explore the globalization of values, we analyze tweets about New Year's resolutions in English, German, Italian, Japanese, and Korean.

Conserved interactions required for inhibition of the main protease of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 requires a fast development of antiviral drugs. SARS-CoV-2 viral main protease (Mpro, also called 3C-like protease, 3CLpro) is a potential target for drug design. Crystal and co-crystal structures of the SARS-CoV-2 Mpro have been solved, enabling the rational design of inhibitory compounds.

Jargon use in papers over three decades.

is an interdisciplinary journal serving the scholarly community and practitioners. This article reports an analysis of the readability and jargon in articles published in Public Understanding of Science throughout its almost three decades of existence to examine trends in accessibility to diverse audiences. The accessibility of Public Understanding of Science articles published in 1999/2000 (47), 2009 (49) and 2019 (65) was assessed in terms of readability and use of jargon.

Stability of cubic tin sulphide nanocrystals: role of ammonium chloride surfactant headgroups.

New semiconducting metastable cubic phases have been recently discovered in the tin monosulfide and monoselenide systems. Surface energy calculations and experimental studies indicate that this cubic π-phase is stabilized by specific ligand adsorption on the surface. In this work, it is shown experimentally that the synthesis carried out using mixtures of oleylamine and oleylammonium chloride (OACl) surfactants results in the cubic phase, transforming the growth from orthorhombic to cubic nanoparticles with increasing OACl concentration up to a limiting point.

Conformers of Ubiquitin 6+ for Different Charge Distributions: Atomistic Structures and Ion Mobility Cross Sections.

Despite the fact that protein chemistry occurs in solution, studying the structure of desolvated proteins in mass spectrometry vacuum conditions allows one to study biological molecules in complete isolation. The electrospray ionization process results in charged protein conformers for which the charge locations distribution and the corresponding structure are not known. In this paper, we explore the influence of different charge distributions on the structure of conformers of ubiquitin 6+ in the vacuum conditions of mass spectrometry.

π-Phase Tin and Germanium Monochalcogenide Semiconductors: An Emerging Materials System.

Cubic π-phase monochalcogenides (MX, M = Sn, Ge; X = S, Se) are an emerging new class of materials that has recently been discovered. Here, their thermodynamic stability, progress in synthetic routes, properties, and prospective applications are reviewed. The thermodynamic stability is demonstrated through density functional theory total energy and phonon spectra calculations, which show that the π-phase polytype is stable across the monochalcogenide family.

Spatio-temporal organization during group formation in rats.

In the present study, the dynamic process of group formation in eight unfamiliar rats was followed in order to reveal how the group becomes oriented together in time and space, in light of the complexity that accompanies grouping. The focus was on who, where, and when joined together. We found that rats preferred to be in companionship over remaining alone, with all the rats gradually shifting to share the same location as a resting place.

Global and local "teachable moments": The role of Nobel Prize and national pride.

This study examined to what extent Nobel Prize announcements and awards trigger global and local searches or "teachable moments" related to the laureates and their discoveries. We examined the longitudinal trends in Google searches for the names and discoveries of Nobel laureates from 2012 to 2017. The findings show that Nobel Prize events clearly trigger more searches for laureates, but also for their respective discoveries.

Automatic identification of optimal marker genes for phenotypic and taxonomic groups of microorganisms.

Finding optimal markers for microorganisms important in the medical, agricultural, environmental or ecological fields is of great importance. Thousands of complete microbial genomes now available allow us, for the first time, to exhaustively identify marker proteins for groups of microbial organisms. In this work, we model the biological task as the well-known mathematical "hitting set" problem, solving it based on both greedy and randomized approximation algorithms.

Hairline fractures following volar plating of the distal radius: a recently recognized hardware-related complication.

Objectives: Intraoperative hairline longitudinal fractures were recently reported in association with distal radius volar plating. Our aim was to further analyze this newly described complication.

Methods: A retrospective radiographic and chart review was performed on 225 patients who underwent distal radius plating between June 2013 and June 2015.

Automatic jargon identifier for scientists engaging with the public and science communication educators.

Scientists are required to communicate science and research not only to other experts in the field, but also to scientists and experts from other fields, as well as to the public and policymakers. One fundamental suggestion when communicating with non-experts is to avoid professional jargon. However, because they are trained to speak with highly specialized language, avoiding jargon is difficult for scientists, and there is no standard to guide scientists in adjusting their messages.

Social spatial cognition in rat tetrads: how they select their partners and their gathering places.

Spatial organization is an extensively studied field, in which most of the research has been on how the physical environment is perceived and conceived. There is a consensus that physical attributes such as environment geometry and landmarks are key factors in shaping spatial cognition. Nevertheless, the numerous studies of spatial behavior have usually been carried out on individuals, thereby overlooking the possible impact of the social environment.

Temporal patterns of scientific information-seeking on Google and Wikipedia.

In response to the news coverage of scientific events and to science education, people increasingly go online to get more information. This study investigates how patterns of science and technology information-seeking on Google and Wikipedia change over time, in ways that differ between "ad hoc" terms that correspond to news coverage and "cyclic" terms that correspond to the academic period. Findings show that the science and technology activity in Google and Wikipedia was significantly associated with ad hoc and cyclic patterns.

A New Comparative-Genomics Approach for Defining Phenotype-Specific Indicators Reveals Specific Genetic Markers in Predatory Bacteria.

Predatory bacteria seek and consume other live bacteria. Although belonging to taxonomically diverse groups, relatively few bacterial predator species are known. Consequently, it is difficult to assess the impact of predation within the bacterial realm.

Multidisciplinary Treatment of the Metabolic Syndrome Lowers Blood Pressure Variability Independent of Blood Pressure Control.

Blood pressure (BP) variability (BPV) contributes to target organ damage independent of BP. The authors examined the effect of a 1-year multidisciplinary intervention on BPV in patients with the metabolic syndrome (MetS) as defined by criteria from the Third Report of the Adult Treatment Panel. Forty-four nondiabetic patients underwent clinical and biochemical profiling, 24-hour ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM), body composition, carotid intima-media thickness, and carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV).

"Shall two walk together except they be agreed?" Spatial behavior in rat dyads.

When animals explore an unfamiliar environment, they gather information that enables them to form a cognitive representation of that environment and to use it subsequently in traveling there. In the present study, rats were tested in a large arena as singles, then in dyads, and finally, again as singles, in order to examine the effect of the social environment on exploration. Traveling in dyads facilitated exploration compared to the behavior of the same rats when they explored alone.

Seeking science information online: Data mining Google to better understand the roles of the media and the education system.

Which extrinsic cues motivate people to search for science-related information? For many science-related search queries, media attention and time during the academic year are highly correlated with changes in information seeking behavior (expressed by changes in the proportion of Google science-related searches). The data mining analysis presented here shows that changes in the volume of searches for general and well-established science terms are strongly linked to the education system. By contrast, ad-hoc events and current concerns were better aligned with media coverage.

The half-life of a "teachable moment": The case of Nobel laureates.

Some science-related events stimulate public interest, and create a teachable moment in which the underlying science temporarily becomes more interesting. Here, media attention, expressed by Google News reference volume, and changes in information seeking behavior, expressed by Google Trends, were used to estimate the length of a teachable moment for 2004-2011 Nobel Prize announcements. On average, Nobel Prize announcements attracted the attention of online users for no longer than a week.

Muscle-bound primordial stem cells give rise to myofiber-associated myogenic and non-myogenic progenitors.

Myofiber cultures give rise to myogenic as well as to non-myogenic cells. Whether these myofiber-associated non-myogenic cells develop from resident stem cells that possess mesenchymal plasticity or from other stem cells such as mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) remain unsolved. To address this question, we applied a method for reconstructing cell lineage trees from somatic mutations to MSCs and myogenic and non-myogenic cells from individual myofibers that were cultured at clonal density.