Centrioles are microtubule-based organelles required for the formation of centrosomes and cilia. Centriolar microtubules, unlike their cytosolic counterparts, are stable and grow very slowly, but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Here, we reconstituted in vitro the interplay between the proteins that cap distal centriole ends and control their elongation: CP110, CEP97, and CPAP/SAS-4.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: To better target stroke awareness efforts (pre and post first stroke) and thereby decrease the time window for help-seeking, this study aims to assess quantitatively whether stroke awareness is associated with appropriate help-seeking at symptom onset, and to investigate qualitatively why this may (not) be the case.
Methods: This study conducted in a German regional stroke network comprises a convergent quantitative-dominant, hypothesis-driven mixed methods design including 462 quantitative patient questionnaires combined with qualitative interviews with 28 patients and seven relatives. Quantitative associations were identified using Pearson's correlation analysis.
Background: Skeletal morbidity in patients with cancer has a major impact on the quality of life, and preserving bone health while improving outcomes is an important goal of modern antitumor treatment strategies. Despite their widespread use in early disease stages, the effects of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) on the skeleton are still poorly defined. Here, we initiated a comprehensive investigation of the impact of ICIs on bone health by longitudinal assessment of bone turnover markers in patients with cancer and by validation in a novel bioengineered 3D model of bone remodeling.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProgrammed DNA double-strand break (DSB) formation is a crucial feature of meiosis in most organisms. DSBs initiate recombination-mediated linking of homologous chromosomes, which enables correct chromosome segregation in meiosis. DSBs are generated on chromosome axes by heterooligomeric focal clusters of DSB-factors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnderstanding how anthropogenic activities induce changes in the functional traits of arthropod communities is critical to assessing their ecological consequences. However, we largely lack comprehensive assessments of the long-term impact of global-change drivers on the trait composition of arthropod communities across a large number of species and sites. This knowledge gap critically hampers our ability to predict human-driven impacts on communities and ecosystems.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn Europe, agri-environment schemes (AES) are a key instrument to combat the ongoing decline of farmland biodiversity. AES aim is to support biodiversity and maintain ecosystem services, such as pollination or pest control. To what extent AES affect crop yield is still poorly understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProgrammed DNA double-strand break (DSB) formation is a unique meiotic feature that initiates recombination-mediated linking of homologous chromosomes, thereby enabling chromosome number halving in meiosis. DSBs are generated on chromosome axes by heterooligomeric focal clusters of DSB-factors. Whereas DNA-driven protein condensation is thought to assemble the DSB-machinery, its targeting to chromosome axes is poorly understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Farming in Europe has been the scene of several important socio-economic and environmental developments and crises throughout the last century. Therefore, an understanding of the historical driving forces of farm change helps identifying potentials for navigating future pathways of agricultural development. However, long-term driving forces have so far been studied, e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Diverse agricultural land uses are a typical feature of multifunctional landscapes. The uncertain change in the drivers of global land use, such as climate, market and policy technology and demography, challenges the long-term management of agricultural diversification. As these global drivers also affect smaller scales, it is important to capture the traits of regionally specific farm activities to facilitate adaptation to change.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe interaction between monocytes and endothelial cells in inflammation is central to chemoattraction, adhesion, and transendothelial migration. Key players, such as selectins and their ligands, integrins, and other adhesion molecules, and their functions in these processes are well studied. Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2), expressed in monocytes, is critical for sensing invading pathogens and initiating a rapid and effective immune response.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Sci Technol
June 2023
Life cycle assessment (LCA) aims at providing standardized evaluations of processes involving resource use, human health, and environmental consequences. Currently, spatial dependencies are most often neglected, though they are essential for impact categories like biodiversity. The "Swiss Agricultural Life Cycle Assessment for Biodiversity (SALCA-BD)" evaluates the impact of agricultural field management on 11 indicator species groups.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Swi2/Snf2 family transcription regulator Modifier of Transcription 1 (Mot1) uses adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to dissociate and reallocate the TATA box-binding protein (TBP) from and between promoters. To reveal how Mot1 removes TBP from TATA box DNA, we determined cryogenic electron microscopy structures that capture different states of the remodeling reaction. The resulting molecular video reveals how Mot1 dissociates TBP in a process that, intriguingly, does not require DNA groove tracking.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Robotic lower-limb exoskeletons have the potential to provide additional clinical benefits for persons with spinal cord injury (SCI). However, high variability between protocols does not allow the comparison of study results on safety and feasibility between different exoskeletons. We therefore incorporated key aspects from previous studies into our study protocol and accordingly conducted a multicentre study investigating the safety, feasibility and usability of the ABLE Exoskeleton in clinical settings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn endothelial cells (ECs), stimulation of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) by the endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induces the release of diverse pro-inflammatory mediators, beneficial in controlling bacterial infections. However, their systemic secretion is a main driver of sepsis and chronic inflammatory diseases. Since distinct and rapid induction of TLR4 signaling is difficult to achieve with LPS due to the specific and non-specific affinity to other surface molecules and receptors, we engineered new light-oxygen-voltage-sensing (LOV)-domain-based optogenetic endothelial cell lines (opto-TLR4-LOV LECs and opto-TLR4-LOV HUVECs) that allow fast, precise temporal, and reversible activation of TLR4 signaling pathways.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In stroke networks, hospitals that do not provide thrombectomy (referring hospitals) refer patients to specialized hospitals (receiving hospitals) for this specific intervention. In order to improve the access and management of thrombectomy, the focus of research needs to be not only on the receiving hospitals but also on the prior stroke care pathways in referring hospitals.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the stroke care pathways in different referring hospitals as well as the advantages and disadvantages associated with these pathways.
We report on the commissioning results of the cold neutron multiplexing secondary spectrometer CAMEA (Continuous Angle Multi-Energy Analysis) at the Swiss Spallation Neutron Source at the Paul Scherrer Institut, Switzerland. CAMEA is optimized for efficient data acquisition of scattered neutrons in the horizontal scattering plane, allowing for detailed and rapid mapping of low-energy excitations under extreme sample environment conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClimate and land-use changes are main drivers of insect declines, but their combined effects have not yet been quantified over large spatiotemporal scales. We analysed changes in the distribution (mean occupancy of squares) of 390 insect species (butterflies, grasshoppers, dragonflies), using 1.45 million records from across bioclimatic gradients of Switzerland between 1980 and 2020.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: It has been shown that the COVID-19 pandemic affected some agricultural systems more than others, and even within geographic regions, not all farms were affected to the same extent. To build resilience of agricultural systems to future shocks, it is key to understand which farms were affected and why. In this study, we examined farmers' perceived robustness to COVID-19, a key resilience capacity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFContext: Flowering plants can enhance wild insect populations and their pollination services to crops in agricultural landscapes, especially when they flower before the focal crop. However, characterizing the temporal availability of specific floral resources is a challenge.
Objectives: Developing an index for the availability of floral resources at the landscape scale according to the specific use by a pollinator.
Context: Predatory insects contribute to the natural control of agricultural pests, but also use plant pollen or nectar as supplementary food resources. Resource maps have been proposed as an alternative to land cover maps for prediction of beneficial insects.
Objectives: We aimed at predicting the abundance of crop pest predating insects and the pest control service they provide with both, detailed flower resource maps and land cover maps.
Unlabelled: There is broad agreement that agriculture has to become more sustainable in order to provide enough affordable, healthy food at minimal environmental and social costs. But what is "more sustainable"? More often than not, different stakeholders have opposing opinions on what a more sustainable future should look like. This normative dimension is rarely explicitly addressed in sustainability assessments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeventy five percent of the world's food crops benefit from insect pollination. Hence, there has been increased interest in how global change drivers impact this critical ecosystem service. Because standardized data on crop pollination are rarely available, we are limited in our capacity to understand the variation in pollination benefits to crop yield, as well as to anticipate changes in this service, develop predictions, and inform management actions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Telemedical services can be used to complement on-site services when demand for specialists exceeds supply or when specialists are not evenly distributed across health systems. Using stroke as an example, this study aimed to explore how patients and staff experience telestroke cooperation in a stroke network in Germany.
Methods: We conducted a qualitative multi-method and multi-centre study combining 32 non-participant observations at one hub and four spoke hospitals with 26 semi-structured interviews with hub and spoke staff as well as stroke patients and relatives.
Kinetochores form the link between chromosomes and microtubules of the mitotic spindle. The heterodecameric Dam1 complex (Dam1c) is a major component of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae outer kinetochore, assembling into 3 MDa-sized microtubule-embracing rings, but how ring assembly is specifically initiated in vivo remains to be understood. Here, we describe a molecular pathway that provides local control of ring assembly during the establishment of sister kinetochore bi-orientation.
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