Publications by authors named "Forde N"

Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs) are the end result of the irreversible, non-enzymatic glycation of proteins by reducing sugars. These chemical modifications accumulate with age and have been associated with various age-related and diabetic complications. AGEs predominantly accumulate on proteins with slow turnover rates, of which collagen is a prime example.

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Atypical face processing is commonly reported in autism. Its neural correlates have been explored extensively across single neuroimaging modalities within key regions of the face processing network, such as the fusiform gyrus (FFG). Nonetheless, it is poorly understood how variation in brain anatomy and function jointly impacts face processing and social functioning.

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This study presents large-scale normative models of white matter (WM) organization across the lifespan, using diffusion MRI data from over 25,000 healthy individuals aged 0-100 years. These models capture lifespan trajectories and inter-individual variation in fractional anisotropy (FA), a marker of white matter integrity. By addressing non-Gaussian data distributions, race, and site effects, the models offer reference baselines across diverse ages, ethnicities, and scanning conditions.

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  • Implantation in cattle is crucial for successful pregnancies and involves complex changes in the endometrium's transcriptional landscape.
  • Factors affecting implantation include embryo development, assisted reproductive technologies, and environmental conditions, showing different processes compared to other placental mammals.
  • Current knowledge gaps exist regarding the mechanisms of implantation and how various stressors influence it, but advancements in 3D modeling and data analysis may enhance our understanding and improve implantation outcomes.
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Multimodal data integration approaches, such as Linked Independent Component Analysis (LICA), increase sensitivity to brain-behaviour relationships and allow us to probe the relationship between modalities. Here we focus on inter-regional functional and structural organisation to determine if organisational patterns persist across modalities and if investigating multi-modality organisations provides increased sensitivity to brain-behaviour associations. We utilised multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI; T1w, resting-state functional [fMRI] and diffusion weighted [DWI]) and behavioural data from the Human Connectome Project (HCP, n=676; 51% female).

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We tested the hypothesis that the biosensor capability of the endometrium is mediated in part, by the effect of different cargo contained in the extracellular vesicles secreted by the conceptus during the peri-implantation period of pregnancy. We transferred Bos taurus taurus embryos of different origin, in vivo (high developmental potential (IV)), in vitro (intermediate developmental potential (IVF)), or cloned (low developmental potential (NT)), into Bos taurus indicus recipients. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) recovered from Day 16 conceptus-conditioned medium were characterized and their microRNA (miRNA) cargo sequenced alongside RNA sequencing of their respective endometria.

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  • * We identified 30 significant genetic variants linked to myelination and other brain processes that help shape structural connectivity, implicating specific genes involved in neuron growth, guidance, and overall brain structure.
  • * Our findings suggest that structural connectivity is highly influenced by genetics, with connections connected to various neuropsychiatric and cognitive traits, indicating that these genetic variants could affect brain health and cognitive abilities throughout life.
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  • Researchers have developed the "Lawnmower," an autonomous protein-based molecular motor designed to mimic biological motors.
  • This motor operates using a "burnt-bridge" motion mechanism, where the cleavage of a peptide lawn directs it towards areas that haven't been visited yet.
  • The Lawnmower can achieve speeds of up to 80 nm/s and shows the ability to move along specifically patterned tracks, paving the way for future applications in nanotechnology.
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  • The dairy industry faces challenges such as climate change and public perceptions, which have increased interest in identifying resilient animals with good reproductive and milk-producing traits.
  • Research hypothesized that in utero events, influenced by the developmental origins of health and disease, could affect calves' lifelong resilience and aimed to quantify lifetime resilience scores (LRS) based on various factors.
  • Analysis revealed that calves born to dams experiencing higher heat stress and low milk quality during pregnancy had lower LRS, while higher parity in dams was associated with decreased resilience scores in their offspring.
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Background: Autism spectrum disorder (henceforth autism) is a complex neurodevelopmental condition associated with differences in gray matter (GM) volume covariations, as reported in our previous study of the Longitudinal European Autism Project (LEAP) data. To make progress on the identification of potential neural markers and to validate the robustness of our previous findings, we aimed to replicate our results using data from the Enhancing Neuroimaging Genetics Through Meta-Analysis (ENIGMA) autism working group.

Methods: We studied 781 autistic and 927 non-autistic individuals (6-30 years, IQ ≥ 50), across 37 sites.

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For more than 100 years, germicidal lamps emitting 254 nm ultraviolet (UV) radiation have been used for drinking-water disinfection and surface sterilization. However, due to the carcinogenic nature of 254 nm UV, these lamps have been unable to be used for clinical procedures such as wound or surgical site sterilization. Recently, technical advances have facilitated a new generation of germicidal lamp whose emissions centre at 222 nm.

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  • Effective communication between the maternal endometrium and the developing embryo is crucial to ensure successful pregnancies in cattle, especially during the peri-implantation period when pregnancy loss is most common.
  • Current research on these interactions is hindered by inadequate in vitro models that do not effectively mimic the complex nature of the endometrium.
  • New technologies like organoid systems and microfluidics offer promising avenues for creating better in vitro models, enabling more comprehensive studies of the molecular interactions essential for pregnancy success in cattle.
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Background: The neurobiology of psychotic depression is not well understood and can be confounded by antipsychotics. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is an ideal tool to measure brain metabolites non-invasively. We cross-sectionally assessed brain metabolites in patients with remitted psychotic depression and controls.

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Neuroimaging analyses of brain structure and function in autism have typically been conducted in isolation, missing the sensitivity gains of linking data across modalities. Here we focus on the integration of structural and functional organisational properties of brain regions. We aim to identify novel brain-organisation phenotypes of autism.

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  • The study investigates how the metabolic stress from dairy cows, either lactating (LACT) or nonlactating (DRY), affects the molecular profiles of early embryos during a critical development phase known as embryonic genome activation (EGA).
  • Researchers transferred in vitro produced embryos into the oviducts of LACT and DRY cows and analyzed the resulting Day-2 and Day-4 embryos using RNA sequencing to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs).
  • The results showed that the embryos exposed to unfavorable maternal metabolic conditions had altered gene expression related to mitochondrial function and protein synthesis, suggesting that maternal health impacts embryo development and the chances of successful pregnancy.
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The endometrium is fundamentally required for successful pregnancy in ruminants and species where the posthatching conceptus undergoes a protracted elongation and peri-implantation phase of pregnancy. Moreover, there are substantial waves of pregnancy loss during this pre- and peri-implantation period of pregnancy the precise source of which has not been clearly defined i.e.

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Sensory atypicalities are particularly common in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Nevertheless, our knowledge about the divergent functioning of the underlying somatosensory region and its association with ASD phenotype features is limited. We applied a data-driven approach to map the fine-grained variations in functional connectivity of the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) to the rest of the brain in 240 autistic and 164 neurotypical individuals from the EU-AIMS LEAP dataset, aged between 7 and 30.

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Obesity is a rapidly growing public health issue among women of reproductive age associated with decreased reproductive function including implantation failure. This can result from a myriad of factors including impaired gametes and endometrial dysfunction. The mechanisms of how obesity-related hyperinsulinaemia disrupts endometrial function are poorly understood.

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  • The emergence of embryo implantation in mammals around 148 million years ago marked a significant change in reproductive strategies, but the molecular mechanisms behind this adaptation are still not fully understood.
  • Progesterone receptor signaling, crucial for mammal pregnancies, predates mammals but does not account for the diverse implantation methods seen in different species.
  • The study identifies 13 key microRNA gene families that originated with placental mammals, suggesting a dynamic miRNA network that responds to pregnancy signals and plays a crucial role in the distinct implantation strategies across various species like bovines and humans.
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Introduction: Poor quality T1-weighted brain scans systematically affect the calculation of brain measures. Removing the influence of such scans requires identifying and excluding scans with noise and artefacts through a quality control (QC) procedure. While QC is critical for brain imaging analyses, it is not yet clear whether different QC approaches lead to the exclusion of the same participants.

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We tested the hypothesis that conserved placental mammal-specific microRNAs and their targets facilitate endometrial receptivity to implantation. Expression of miR-340-5p, -542-3p, and -671-5p was regulated by exposure of endometrial epithelial cells to progesterone (10 μg/ml) for 24 h coordinate with 1,713 of their predicted targets. Proteomic analysis of cells transfected with miRNA mimic/inhibitor (48 h: n = 3) revealed 1,745 proteins altered by miR-340-5p (mimic; 1,369, inhibitor; 376) of which 171 were predicted targets and P4-regulated.

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The excitatory/inhibitory (E/I) imbalance hypothesis posits that imbalance between excitatory (glutamatergic) and inhibitory (GABAergic) mechanisms underlies the behavioral characteristics of autism. However, how E/I imbalance arises and how it may differ across autism symptomatology and brain regions is not well understood. We used innovative analysis methods-combining competitive gene-set analysis and gene-expression profiles in relation to cortical thickness (CT) to investigate relationships between genetic variance, brain structure and autism symptomatology of participants from the AIMS-2-TRIALS LEAP cohort (autism = 359, male/female = 258/101; neurotypical control participants = 279, male/female = 178/101) aged 6-30 years.

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Objective: The male preponderance in prevalence of autism is among the most pronounced sex ratios across neurodevelopmental conditions. The authors sought to elucidate the relationship between autism and typical sex-differential neuroanatomy, cognition, and related gene expression.

Methods: Using a novel deep learning framework trained to predict biological sex based on T-weighted structural brain images, the authors compared sex prediction model performance across neurotypical and autistic males and females.

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Environmental stressors to which a fetus is exposed affect a range of physiological functions in postnatal offspring. We aimed to determine the in utero effect of steroid hormones on the reproductive potential of female offspring using a porcine model. Reproductive tracts of pigs from female-biased (>65% female, n = 15), non-biased (45-54.

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