Generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) are a cornerstone data analysis strategy in behavioral research because of their robustness in handling non-normally distributed variables. Recently, their integration with ordered beta regression (OBR), a novel statistical tool for managing percentage data, has opened new avenues for analyzing continuous response data. Here, we applied this combined approach to investigate nuanced differences between the 3xTg-AD model of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and their C57BL/6 non-transgenic (NTg) counterparts with normal aging in a 5-day Morris Water Maze (MWM) test protocol. Our longitudinal study included 22 3xTg-AD mice and 15 NTg mice (both male and female) assessed at 12 and 16 months of age. By identifying and analyzing multiple swimming strategies during three different paradigms (cue, place task, and removal), we uncovered genotypic differences in all paradigms. Thus, the NTg group exhibited a higher percentage of direct search behaviors, while an association between circling episodes and 3xTg-AD animals was found. Furthermore, we also propose a novel metric-the "Cognitive Flexibility Index"-which proved sensitive in detecting sex-related differences. Overall, our integrated GLMMs-OBR approach provides a comprehensive insight into mouse behavior in the MWM test, shedding light on the effects of aging and AD pathology.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14050501 | DOI Listing |
PLoS One
January 2025
Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), Dhaka, Bangladesh.
The gram-negative, facultative anaerobic bacterium Morganella morganii is linked to a number of illnesses, including nosocomial infections and urinary tract infections (UTIs). A clinical isolate from a UTI patient in Bangladesh was subjected to high-throughput whole genome sequencing and extensive bioinformatics analysis in order to gather knowledge about the genomic basis of bacterial defenses and pathogenicity in M. morganii.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
January 2025
Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637.
Many proteins form paralogous multimers-molecular complexes in which evolutionarily related proteins are arranged into specific quaternary structures. Little is known about the mechanisms by which they acquired their stoichiometry (the number of total subunits in the complex) and heterospecificity (the preference of subunits for their paralogs rather than other copies of the same protein). Here, we use ancestral protein reconstruction and biochemical experiments to study historical increases in stoichiometry and specificity during the evolution of vertebrate hemoglobin (Hb), an αβ heterotetramer that evolved from a homodimeric ancestor after a gene duplication.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfect Dis Model
June 2025
School of Science, Xi'an University of Technology, Xi'an, 710048, PR China.
During epidemic outbreaks, human behavior is highly influential on the disease transmission and hence affects the course, duration and outcome of the epidemics. In order to examine the feedback effect between the dynamics of the behavioral response and disease outbreak, a simple SIR- type model is established by introducing the independent variable of effective contact rate, characterizing how human behavior interacts with disease transmission dynamics and allowing for the feedback changing over time along the progress of epidemic and population's perception of risk. By a particle swarm optimization algorithm in the solution procedures and time series of COVID-19 data with different shapes of infection peaks, we show that the proposed model, together with such behavioral change mechanism, is capable of capturing the trend of the selected data and can give rise to oscillatory prevalence of different magnitude over time, revealing how different levels of behavioral response affect the waves of infection as well as the evolution of the disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObesity (Silver Spring)
January 2025
Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
Objective: We assessed the impact of a food-provisioning intervention on diet quality in children with obesity.
Methods: Participants (n = 33, aged 6-11 years) were randomly assigned to either usual care (intensive health behavior and lifestyle treatment) or intervention (usual care + food provisioning; high-fiber, low-dairy diet) for 4 weeks. The primary outcome was a change in child diet quality at Week 4.
J Physiol Sci
January 2025
Department of Frontier Health Sciences, Graduate School of Human Health Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 7-2-10 Higashiogu, Arakawa-Ku, 116-8551, Tokyo, Japan. Electronic address:
Actin linked regulatory mechanisms are known to contribute contraction/relaxation in smooth muscle. In order to clarify whether modulation of polymerization/depolymerization of actin filaments affects relaxation process, we examined the effects of cytochalasin D on relaxation process by Ca removal after Ca-induced contraction of β-escin skinned (cell membrane permeabilized) taenia cecum and carotid artery preparations from guinea pigs. Cytochalasin D, an inhibitor of actin polymerization, significantly suppressed the force during relaxation both in skinned taenia cecum and carotid artery.
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