Locking Down Gender Roles? A Time-Use Perspective on Gender Division of Household Labour during the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown in Belgium.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the division of household labour could continue to lock down or start to break gender roles. Using time-use data of = 473 individuals collected during the lockdown restrictions in Belgium from March to May 2020, we analyse the gendered division of routine and non-routine household labour in absolute time use and relative shares. We compare against the Belgian time-use data of 2013 for the same time period ( = 678 individuals).

Exploring human mixing patterns based on time use and social contact data and their implications for infectious disease transmission models.

Background: The increasing availability of data on social contact patterns and time use provides invaluable information for studying transmission dynamics of infectious diseases. Social contact data provide information on the interaction of people in a population whereas the value of time use data lies in the quantification of exposure patterns. Both have been used as proxies for transmission risks within in a population and the combination of both sources has led to investigate which contacts are more suitable to describe these transmission risks.

Graduate students locked down? PhD students' satisfaction with supervision during the first and second COVID-19 lockdown in Belgium.

Background: Supervisor support is crucial for the successful and timely completion of the PhD and the largest contributor to PhD students' overall job satisfaction. The COVID-19 pandemic affected PhD students' life substantially through delayed experiments, missed timelines, running out of funding, change to online team- and supervisor meetings, mandatory working from home, and social confinement.

Aim: This contribution considers PhD students' satisfaction scores to reflect the extent to which PhD students felt supported by their supervisor during the COVID-19 pandemic so far and aims to investigate to what extent did PhD students' satisfaction with supervisor support changed over time.

Doublecortin-like expressing astrocytes of the suprachiasmatic nucleus are implicated in the biosynthesis of vasopressin and influences circadian rhythms.

We have recently identified a novel plasticity protein, doublecortin-like (DCL), that is specifically expressed in the shell of the mouse suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). DCL is implicated in neuroplastic events, such as neurogenesis, that require structural rearrangements of the microtubule cytoskeleton, enabling dynamic movements of cell bodies and dendrites. We have inspected DCL expression in the SCN by confocal microscopy and found that DCL is expressed in GABA transporter-3 (GAT3)-positive astrocytes that envelope arginine vasopressin (AVP)-expressing cells.

Testing compliance to WHO guidelines for physical activity in Flanders insights from time-use diaries.

Background: Regular physical activity decreases the risk for numerous non-communicable diseases. The World Health Organization has suggested physical activity (PA) guidelines that, based on previous research, would provide health benefits to those who comply. The first guideline for health benefits suggests 150 min of moderate PA or equivalent per week.

Active work, passive leisure? Associations between occupational and non-occupational physical activity on weekdays.

Research from recent years reports that physical inactivity is a major risk factor for global mortality. Several societal trends in the last decades are likely to have contributed to the increasing prevalence of sedentary lifestyles. Physical activity throughout the day has become much less self-evident and much more a matter of personal effort.

Towards a framework to assess, compare and develop monitoring and evaluation of climate change adaptation in Europe.

Adaptation is increasingly recognised as essential when dealing with the adverse impacts of climate change on societies, economies and the environment. However, there is insufficient information about the effectiveness of adaption policies, measures and actions. For this reason, the establishment of monitoring programmes is considered to be necessary.

A predominantly glial origin of axonal ribosomes after nerve injury.

Axonal mRNA transport and local protein synthesis are crucial for peripheral axon regeneration. To date, it remains unclear how ribosomes localize to axons. They may be co-transported with mRNAs or, as suggested by recent studies, transferred from Schwann cells (SC).

Differentiating the effects of climate and land use change on European biodiversity: A scenario analysis.

Current observed as well as projected changes in biodiversity are the result of multiple interacting factors, with land use and climate change often marked as most important drivers. We aimed to disentangle the separate impacts of these two for sets of vascular plant, bird, butterfly and dragonfly species listed as characteristic for European dry grasslands and wetlands, two habitats of high and threatened biodiversity. We combined articulations of the four frequently used SRES climate scenarios and associated land use change projections for 2030, and assessed their impact on population trends in species (i.

Demyelination induces transport of ribosome-containing vesicles from glia to axons: evidence from animal models and MS patient brains.

Glial cells were previously proven capable of trafficking polyribosomes to injured axons. However, the occurrence of such transfer in the general pathological context, such as demyelination-related diseases, needs further evidence. Since this may be a yet unidentified universal contributor to axonal survival, we study putative glia-axonal ribosome transport in response to demyelination in animal models and patients in both peripheral and central nervous system.

The molecular physiology of the axo-myelinic synapse.

Myelinated axons efficiently transmit information over long distances. The apposed myelin sheath confers favorable electrical properties, but restricts access of the axon to its extracellular milieu. Therefore, axonal metabolic support may require specific axo-myelinic communication.

Fluorescent Phosphorus Dendrimer as a Spectral Nanosensor for Macrophage Polarization and Fate Tracking in Spinal Cord Injury.

Dendrimers and dendriplexes, highly branched synthetic macromolecules, have gained popularity as new tools for a variety of nanomedicine strategies due to their unique structure and properties. We show that fluorescent phosphorus dendrimers are well retained by bone marrow-derived macrophages and exhibit robust spectral shift in its emission in response to polarization conditions. Fluorescence properties of this marker can also assist in identifying macrophage presence and phenotype status at different time points after spinal cord injury.

Convenience on the menu? A typological conceptualization of family food expenditures and food-related time patterns.

One of the most fundamental, but also controversial, food trends of the past years is convenience food. This article investigates the underexplored relationship between the heterogeneity in (convenience) food consumption (a feature of a food culture's cuisine) and meal patterns (characteristics of a food culture's structure). This study hopes to illustrate that convenience food can be interpreted both as a means to maintain a food culture's structure and as a means to overturn it.

Stimulation of monocytes, macrophages, and microglia by amphotericin B and macrophage colony-stimulating factor promotes remyelination.

Approaches to stimulate remyelination may lead to recovery from demyelinating injuries and protect axons. One such strategy is the activation of immune cells with clinically used medications, since a properly directed inflammatory response can have healing properties through mechanisms such as the provision of growth factors and the removal of cellular debris. We previously reported that the antifungal medication amphotericin B is an activator of circulating monocytes, and their tissue-infiltrated counterparts and macrophages, and of microglia within the CNS.

Calculating the Social Rhythm Metric (SRM) and Examining Its Use in Interpersonal Social Rhythm Therapy (IPSRT) in a Healthy Population Study.

In psychiatry, the social zeitgeber theory argues that social life provides important social cues that entrain circadian rhythms. Disturbance of these social cues might lead do dis-entrainment of circadian rhythms and evoke somatic symptoms that increase the risk of mood disorders. In preventing and treating patients with bipolar disorders, the Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy (IPSRT) relies on the Social Rhythm Metric (SRM) to (re)establish patients' social cues and an re-entrain circadian rhythms.

Increased axonal ribosome numbers is an early event in the pathogenesis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Myelinating glia cells support axon survival and functions through mechanisms independent of myelination, and their dysfunction leads to axonal degeneration in several diseases. In amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), spinal motor neurons undergo retrograde degeneration, and slowing of axonal transport is an early event that in ALS mutant mice occurs well before motor neuron degeneration. Interestingly, in familial forms of ALS, Schwann cells have been proposed to slow disease progression.

Skin-derived precursor Schwann cell myelination capacity in focal tibial demyelination.

Introduction: Skin-derived precursor cells (SKPs) are neural crest progenitor cells that can attain a Schwann cell-like phenotype through in vitro techniques (SKP-SCs). We hypothesized that SKP-SCs could produce mature myelin and, in doing so, facilitate the recovery of a focal demyelination injury.

Methods: We unilaterally injected DiI-labeled, green fluorescent protein (GFP)-producing SKP-SCs into the tibial nerves of 10 adult Lewis rats (with contralateral media control), 9 days after bilateral doxorubicin injury (0.

Measuring fast-temporal sediment fluxes with an analogue acoustic sensor: a wind tunnel study.

In aeolian research, field measurements are important for studying complex wind-driven processes for land management evaluation and model validation. Consequently, there have been many devices developed, tested, and applied to investigate a range of aeolian-based phenomena. However, determining the most effective application and data analysis techniques is widely debated in the literature.

NALCN ion channels have alternative selectivity filters resembling calcium channels or sodium channels.

NALCN is a member of the family of ion channels with four homologous, repeat domains that include voltage-gated calcium and sodium channels. NALCN is a highly conserved gene from simple, extant multicellular organisms without nervous systems such as sponges and placozoans and mostly remains a single gene compared to the calcium and sodium channels which diversified into twenty genes in humans. The single NALCN gene has alternatively-spliced exons at exons 15 or exon 31 that splices in novel selectivity filter residues that resemble calcium channels (EEEE) or sodium channels (EKEE or EEKE).

Early regenerative effects of NGF-transduced Schwann cells in peripheral nerve repair.

Peripheral nerve injury leads to a rapid and robust increase in the synthesis of neurotrophins which guide and support regenerating axons. To further optimize neurotrophin supply at the earliest stages of regeneration, we over-expressed NGF in Schwann cells (SCs) by transducing these cells with a lentiviral vector encoding NGF (NGF-SCs). Transplantation of NGF-SCs in a rat sciatic nerve transection/repair model led to significant increase of NGF levels 2weeks after injury and correspondingly to substantial improvement in axonal regeneration.

Will the real multiple sclerosis please stand up?

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is considered to be an autoimmune, inflammatory disease of the CNS. In most patients, the disease follows a relapsing-remitting course and is characterized by dynamic inflammatory demyelinating lesions in the CNS. Although on the surface MS may appear consistent with a primary autoimmune disease, questions have been raised as to whether inflammation and/or autoimmunity are really at the root of the disease, and it has been proposed that MS might in fact be a degenerative disorder.

Evidence for a systemic regulation of neurotrophin synthesis in response to peripheral nerve injury.

Up-regulation of neurotrophin synthesis is an important mechanism of peripheral nerve regeneration after injury. Neurotrophin expression is regulated by a complex series of events including cell interactions and multiple molecular stimuli. We have studied neurotrophin synthesis at 2 weeks time-point in a transvertebral model of unilateral or bilateral transection of sciatic nerve in rats.

More than preparing a meal? Concerning the meanings of home cooking.

Cooking is one of the basic activities in our lives. However, people frequently feel they fall short of time to cook when facing problems with the temporal organization of daily life. How people think about home cooking is considered to be important for the time they spend on preparing meals.

Limited availability of ZBP1 restricts axonal mRNA localization and nerve regeneration capacity.

Subcellular localization of mRNAs is regulated by RNA-protein interactions. Here, we show that introduction of a reporter mRNA with the 3'UTR of β-actin mRNA competes with endogenous mRNAs for binding to ZBP1 in adult sensory neurons. ZBP1 is needed for axonal localization of β-actin mRNA, and introducing GFP with the 3'UTR of β-actin mRNA depletes axons of endogenous β-actin and GAP-43 mRNAs and attenuates both in vitro and in vivo regrowth of severed axons.

Distribution of APGWamide-immunoreactivity in the brain and reproductive organs of adult pygmy squid, Idiosepius pygmaeus.

The neuropeptide APGWamide is involved in the control of the reproductive behavior in molluscs. Using immunocytochemistry, we investigated the distribution of APGWa-immunoreactive neurons in the brain and reproductive organs of adult male and female specimen of Idiosepius pygmaeus. The study showed that the APGWamide-immunoreactive neurons and fibers are localized in the dorsal basal and vertical lobes of the supraesophageal mass, the palliovisceral lobe of the posterior subesophageal mass and olfactory lobe of the optic tract in male brains, with the highest number of APGWamide-immunoreactive neurons in the palliovisceral and olfactory lobes.