Metagenomic analysis of pristine oil sheds new light on the global distribution of microbial genetic repertoire in hydrocarbon-associated ecosystems.

Oil reservoirs are society's primary source of hydrocarbons. While microbial communities in industrially exploited oil reservoirs have been investigated in the past, pristine microbial communities in untapped oil reservoirs are little explored, as are distribution patterns of respective genetic signatures. Here, we show that a pristine oil sample contains a complex community consisting of bacteria and fungi for the degradation of hydrocarbons.

How To Correct Erroneous Symmetry-Breaking in Coarse-Grained Constant-pH Simulations.

The constant-pH Monte Carlo method is a popular algorithm to study acid-base equilibria in coarse-grained simulations of charge regulating soft matter systems including weak polyelectrolytes and proteins. However, the method suffers from systematic errors in simulations with explicit ions, which lead to a symmetry-breaking between chemically equivalent implementations of the acid-base equilibrium. Here, we show that this artifact of the algorithm can be corrected a-posteriori by simply shifting the pH-scale.

Biomechanics of soft biological tissues and organs, mechanobiology, homeostasis and modelling.

The human body consists of many different soft biological tissues that exhibit diverse microstructures and functions and experience diverse loading conditions. Yet, under many conditions, the mechanical behaviour of these tissues can be described well with similar nonlinearly elastic or inelastic constitutive relations, both in health and some diseases. Such constitutive relations are essential for performing nonlinear stress analyses, which in turn are critical for understanding physiology, pathophysiology and even clinical interventions, including surgery.

Geographic differences in the phenology of gonadal development and moult, but not of egg laying, are genetically based in a small songbird.

To forecast how fast populations can adapt to climate change, it is essential to determine the evolutionary potential of different life-cycle stages under selection. In birds, timing of gonadal development and moult are primarily regulated by photoperiod, while laying date is highly phenotypically plastic to temperature. We tested whether geographic variation in phenology of these life-cycle events between populations of great tits () has a genetic basis, indicating that contemporary genetic adaptation is possible.

The promise of community-driven preprints in ecology and evolution.

Publishing preprints is quickly becoming commonplace in ecology and evolutionary biology. Preprints can facilitate the rapid sharing of scientific knowledge establishing precedence and enabling feedback from the research community before peer review. Yet, significant barriers to preprint use exist, including language barriers, a lack of understanding about the benefits of preprints and a lack of diversity in the types of research outputs accepted (e.

Synaptic cleft geometry modulates NMDAR opening probability by tuning neurotransmitter residence time.

Synaptic morphology plays a critical role in modulating the dynamics of neurotransmitter diffusion and receptor activation in interneuron communication. Central physical aspects of synaptic geometry, such as the curvature of the synaptic cleft, the distance between the presynaptic and postsynaptic membranes, and the surface area-to-volume ratio of the cleft, crucially influence glutamate diffusion and N-Methyl-D-Aspartate receptor (NMDAR) opening probabilities. In this study, we developed a stochastic model for receptor activation using realistic synaptic geometries.

Coexisting with large carnivores based on the Volterra principle.

Coexistence with large carnivores represents one of the world's highest profile conservation challenges. Ecologists have identified ecological benefits derived from large carnivores (and large herbivores), yet livestock depredation, perceived competition for shared game, risks to pets and humans, and social conflicts often lead to demands for reduction of predator numbers from a range of stakeholder groups. Nearly 100 years ago, Vito Volterra predicted that increased mortality on both prey and predators results in increased abundance of prey and decreased abundance of predators.

Body mass index is similar to alternative anthropometric indices in evaluating plasma lipids as proxy for cardiovascular disease in women with previous hypertensive disorders of pregnancy: A cross-sectional study.

Background: Women with previous hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) have increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Overweight is a modifiable risk factor for both conditions. Anthropometric indices such as waist circumference, hip circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, estimated total body fat, a body shape index, waist-to-hip-to-height ratio, and index of central obesity improve estimation of cardiovascular death risk in the general population as compared to body mass index (BMI).

Dopamine genetic risk scores and psychiatric symptoms: Interacting risk factors for impulse control behaviours in de novo Parkinson's disease.

Up to 45% of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) experience impulse control disorders (ICDs), characterized by a loss of voluntary control over impulses, drives or temptations. This study aimed to investigate whether previously identified genetic and psychiatric risk factors interact towards the development of ICDs in PD. A total of 278 de novo PD patients (ICD-free at enrollment) were selected from the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative database.

Assessment of a semiquantitative scoring system for mild-to-moderate gill lesions in Atlantic salmon reared in recirculating aquaculture systems in Norway.

Compromised gill health is a critical cause of forfeited welfare in Atlantic salmon farming. Detecting and quantifying the early onset of gill disease is important to reveal initial inflicting stimuli. We collected gill samples of 45 Atlantic salmon from 2 commercial recirculating aquaculture systems (RASs) spanning fry-to-market-size fish with no clinical signs of gill disease.

Saturated fat in an evolutionary context.

Evolutionary perspectives have yielded profound insights in health and medical sciences. A fundamental recognition is that modern diet and lifestyle practices are mismatched with the human physiological constitution, shaped over eons in response to environmental selective pressures. This Darwinian angle can help illuminate and resolve issues in nutrition, including the contentious issue of fat consumption.

Generation of IgM B cell-deficient Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) by CRISPR/Cas9-mediated IgM knockout.

Infectious diseases pose significant challenges to Norwegian Atlantic salmon aquaculture. Vaccines are critical for disease prevention; however, a deeper understanding of the immune system is essential to improve vaccine efficacy. Immunoglobulin M (IgM) is the main antibody involved in the systemic immune response of teleosts, including Atlantic salmon.

Associations between common genetic variants and income provide insights about the socio-economic health gradient.

We conducted a genome-wide association study on income among individuals of European descent (N = 668,288) to investigate the relationship between socio-economic status and health disparities. We identified 162 genomic loci associated with a common genetic factor underlying various income measures, all with small effect sizes (the Income Factor). Our polygenic index captures 1-5% of income variance, with only one fourth due to direct genetic effects.

Beta oscillations predict the envelope sharpness in a rhythmic beat sequence.

Periodic sensory inputs entrain oscillatory brain activity, reflecting a neural mechanism that might be fundamental to temporal prediction and perception. Most environmental rhythms and patterns in human behavior, such as walking, dancing, and speech do not, however, display strict isochrony but are instead quasi-periodic. Research has shown that neural tracking of speech is driven by modulations of the amplitude envelope, especially via sharp acoustic edges, which serve as prominent temporal landmarks.

Quantification and optimization of platinum-molybdenum carbide interfacial sites to enhance low-temperature water-gas shift reaction.

Pt/α-MoC catalysts exhibit exceptional activity in low-temperature water-gas shift reactions. However, quantitatively identifying and fine-tuning the active sites has remained a significant challenge. In this study, we reveal that fully exposed monolayer Pt nanoclusters on molybdenum carbides demonstrate mass activity that exceeds that of bulk molybdenum carbide catalysts by one to two orders of magnitude at 100-200 °C for low-temperature water-gas shift reactions.

Implementation of a clinical pathway for diabetes-related foot ulcers reduced the number of amputations and shortened hospital stay.

Introduction: Diabetes-related foot ulcer (DFU) is the leading cause for lower extremity amputations (LEAs) in western countries, and may cause social isolation, depression, and death. However, people with DFU are not offered the same prioritized care as cancer patients, despite comparable mortality rates. We therefore decided to create a clinical pathway for patients with DFU.

Orthodontic Treatment of Patients With Disabilities in Norway: A Survey Among Orthodontists.

Aim: The objective of this study was to examine orthodontic treatment of patients with disabilities in Norway, as perceived by orthodontists.

Methods And Results: A digital questionnaire was sent out to the 220 registered members of the Norwegian Orthodontic Society and a response rate of 41% (n = 90) was achieved. The majority (92%) had received referrals for patients with disabilities, 53% reported treating up to 10 patients, while 37% reported treating up to 50 patients in the last 5 years.

Impulse Control in Parkinson's Disease: Distinct Effects between Action and Choice.

Aside from typical motor symptoms, impulse control issues related to engaging in actions or decision-making can manifest in Parkinson's disease (PD). The lack of direct comparisons between impulsive action and impulsive choice domains hinders a comprehensive understanding of impaired impulse control in this population. Therefore, the current review integrates findings across behavioural measures of impulsive action and choice in PD samples, both on and off dopaminergic medication.

Chromosome-scale genome assembly reveals how repeat elements shape non-coding RNA landscapes active during newt limb regeneration.

Newts have large genomes harboring many repeat elements. How these elements shape the genome and relate to newts' unique regeneration ability remains unknown. We present here the chromosome-scale assembly of the 20.

Health networking on cancer in the European Union: a 'green paper' by the EU Joint Action on Networks of Expertise (JANE).

Health networking is in principle a formidable instrument to address many challenges posed by cancer, one of the two most common and most lethal non-communicable chronic diseases. The European Union (EU)'s Beating Cancer Plan foresaw the addition of new health networks to the four already existing European Reference Networks on rare cancers: the Network of Comprehensive Cancer Centres and several networks of expertise (NoEs), which will be shortly deployed on items as complex and poor-prognosis cancers, palliative care, survivorship, personalised primary and secondary prevention, omic technologies, hi-tech medical resources, and cancers in adolescents and young adults. The community of experts of the EU Joint Action, due to build such NoEs, has drafted this 'green paper', incorporating 13 open questions, in an effort to foster discussion on some open questions about health networking on cancer in the EU.

Network segregation during episodic memory shows age-invariant relations with memory performance from 7 to 82 years.

Lower episodic memory capability, as seen in development and aging compared with younger adulthood, may partly depend on lower brain network segregation. Here, our objective was twofold: (1) test this hypothesis using within- and between-network functional connectivity (FC) during episodic memory encoding and retrieval, in two independent samples (n = 734, age 7-82 years). (2) Assess associations with age and the ability to predict memory comparing task-general FC and memory-modulated FC.

Oncohistone-sculpted epigenetic mechanisms in pediatric brain cancer.

Chromatin dynamics, involving reversible changes in chromatin structure, shape key cellular processes and genomic integrity during development and proliferation, with disruptions leading to cancer. Histones, core components of chromatin and substrates for chromatin-modifying enzymes, play crucial roles in oncogenesis when misregulated or mutated. This is particularly pronounced in pediatric hind brain cancers, some of which are driven primarily by the oncohistone H3K27M and the recently identified oncohistone-mimic protein CXorf67/EZHIP.

The Effects of Hospital Delivery Volume and Travel Time on Perinatal Mortality and Delivery in Transit: Causal Inference with Triangulation.

Background: Hospital regionalization involves balancing hospital volume and travel time. We investigated how hospital volume and travel time affect perinatal mortality and the risk of delivery in transit using three different study designs.

Methods: This nationwide cohort study used data from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway (1999-2016) and Statistics Norway.