Ecological and anthropogenic effects on the genomic diversity of lemurs in Madagascar.

Ecological variation and anthropogenic landscape modification have had key roles in the diversification and extinction of mammals in Madagascar. Lemurs represent a radiation with more than 100 species, constituting roughly one-fifth of the primate order. Almost all species of lemurs are threatened with extinction, but little is known about their genetic diversity and demographic history.

Interruption of the visual cycle in a novel animal model induces progressive vision loss resembling Stargardts Disease.

Mutations in the gene ABCA4 coding for photoreceptor-specific ATP-binding cassette subfamily A member 4, are responsible for Stargardts Disease type 1 (STGD1), the most common form of inherited macular degeneration. STGD1 typically declares early in life and leads to severe visual handicap. Abca4 gene-deletion mouse models of STGD1 accumulate lipofuscin, a hallmark of the disease, but unlike the human disease show no or only moderate structural changes and no functional decline.

Influence of ecological and social factors on huddling behaviour and cluster organisation in Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata).

Huddling behaviour is present in many animal species. This behaviour involves maintaining close physical contact with conspecifics to minimise heat loss and, in general, reduce energy expenditure. Additionally, this behaviour also facilitates complex social interactions within a population.

RETRACTED: Zulfiqar et al. Obesity and Frailty Syndrome in the Elderly: Prospective Study in Primary Care. 2022, , 38.

The journal retracts the article titled "Obesity and Frailty Syndrome in the Elderly: Prospective Study in Primary Care" [...

Complete genome sequence of fluoroacetate-degrading sp. S22 strain (DSM 8341) as a reference resource for investigations of microbial defluorination.

A complete genome sequence of sp. strain S22 capable of growing with fluoroacetate as the sole source of carbon and energy was obtained by PacBio technology. It consists of seven circular replicons totaling 9,367 kb, with a gene cluster involved in fluoroacetate utilization on its smallest 172 kb plasmid.

Probing Out-Of-Plane Charge Transport in Organic Semiconductors Using Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy.

High contact resistance remains the primary obstacle that hinders further advancements of organic semiconductors (OSCs) in electronic circuits. While significant effort has been directed toward lowering the energy barrier at OSC/metal contact interfaces, approaches toward reducing another major contributor to overall contact resistance - the bulk resistance - have been limited to minimizing the thickness of OSC films. However, the out-of-plane conductivity of OSCs, a critical aspect of bulk resistance, has largely remained unaddressed.

Priors and decision thresholds in phase 2 and phase 3 randomized controlled trials evaluating drug efficacy using Bayesian methods: a systematic review.

Objectives: To describe the priors and decision thresholds in phase 2 and 3 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating drug efficacy using Bayesian methods.

Study Design And Setting: A systematic review of phase 2 and 3 RCTs evaluating drug efficacy through Bayesian inference was conducted across the MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane databases, with no date restrictions until September 2022. The type of prior used for the analysis of the primary endpoint and its characteristics (type and parameters of the distribution, justification, and sensitivity analysis), the use of a posterior probability decision threshold defined a priori, and its value, were extracted.

Exploring the druggability of the UEV domain of human TSG101 in search for broad-spectrum antivirals.

The ubiquitin E2 variant domain of TSG101 (TSG101-UEV) plays a pivotal role in protein sorting and virus budding by recognizing PTAP motifs within ubiquitinated proteins. Disruption of TSG101-UEV/PTAP interactions has emerged as a promising strategy for the development of host-oriented broad-spectrum antivirals with low susceptibility to resistance. TSG101 is a challenging target characterized by an extended and flat binding interface, low affinity for PTAP ligands, and complex binding energetics.

A pipeline for validation of Serendipita indica effector-like sRNA suggests cross-kingdom communication in the symbiosis with Arabidopsis.

Bidirectional communication between pathogenic microbes and their plant hosts via small (s)RNA-mediated cross-kingdom RNA interference (ckRNAi) is a key element for successful host colonisation. Whether mutualistic fungi of the Serendipitaceae family, known for their extremely broad host range, use sRNAs to colonize plant roots is still under debate. To address this question, we developed a pipeline to validate the accumulation, translocation, and activity of fungal sRNAs in post-transcriptional silencing of Arabidopsis thaliana genes.

Correlation Analysis Between Cortical Structural Features and Acoustic Features in Patients With Parkinson's Disease.

Purpose: Parkinson disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease. The aim of this study is to investigate the association between acoustic and cortical brain features in Parkinson's disease patients.

Methods: We recruited 19 (eight females, 11 males) Parkinson's disease patients and 19 (eight females, 11 males) healthy subjects to participate in the experiment.

Distinct Pathophysiologic Pathways Support Stratification of Sjögren's Disease Based on Symptoms, Clinical, and Routine Biological Data.

Objective: Recently, three distinct phenotypes of patients with Sjögren disease (SjD) have been described based on cluster analysis: B cell active with low symptoms (BALS), high systemic activity (HSA), and low systemic activity with high symptoms (LSAHS). We aimed to assess whether these clusters were associated with distinct biomarkers and the prognostic value of interferon (IFN) signature.

Methods: The Assessment of Systemic Signs and Evolution in Sjögren's Syndrome cohort is a 20-year prospective cohort of patients with SjD.

A general strategy for engineering GU base pairs to facilitate RNA crystallization.

X-ray crystallography is a fundamental technique that provides atomic-level insights into RNA structures. However, obtaining crystals of RNA structures diffracting to high resolution is challenging. We introduce a simple strategy to enhance the resolution limit of RNA crystals by the selective substitution of Watson-Crick pairs by GU pairs within RNA sequences.

Photochemical reactions of biomass derived platform chemicals.

Platform chemicals obtained from biomass will play an important role in chemical industry. Already existing compounds or not yet established chemicals are produced from this renewable feedstock. Using photochemical reactions as sustainable method for the conversion of matter furthermore permits to develop processes that are interesting from the ecological and economical point of view.

Breast implant silicone exposure induces immunogenic response and autoimmune markers in human periprosthetic tissue.

Silicone-based breast implants are commonly used, but there are concerns about their long-term safety. While implantation results in the formation of a periprosthetic tissue that isolates the implant from the rest of the host body, silicone can leak and reach surrounding tissues. We combined histological analysis and gene expression profiling (RNA sequencing) of samples from human patients with silicone breast implants with different fillers (silicone or serum), surface topographies and/or shell rupture, and performed systematic cross-comparisons.

Hepatectomy with Hepatic Vein Resection and Reconstruction Under Total Vascular Exclusion and Venous Drainage via a Venovenous Bypass: An Additional Approach for Complex Hepatectomies.

Background: Total vascular exclusion (TVE) with liver hypothermic perfusion under venovenous bypass (VVB) is usually needed to perform hepatectomy with Inferior vena cava and hepatic veins resection-reconstruction. An alternative technique is represented by liver resection under intermittent pedicular clamping, IVC total clamping and VVB, without cold perfusion and liver outflow drainage through the VVB. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The patient is a 60-year-old woman with past medical history of right hepatectomy for leiomyosarcoma 14 years previously.

Optimization of adsorption performance by mesoporous materials developed from local clays and zeolite. Application in the treatment of real pharmaceutical effluents.

The treatment of effluents from the pharmaceutical industry currently remains a major challenge due to their impact on the environment and public health along with the cost of treatments. Considering these issues, our work focused on the development of materials with effective adsorption properties to treat industrial effluents based on locally available and inexpensive clays and zeolite. Local Algerian kaolin (Djebel Debbagh), palygorskite (Ghoufi) and zeolite (Tinbdar) were treated thermally and chemically prior to synthesis into mesoporous materials of hexagonal structure using pluronic P123 as surfactant.

Centromeric localization of αKNL2 and CENP-C proteins in plants depends on their centromere-targeting domain and DNA-binding regions.

In eukaryotes, accurate chromosome segregation during cell division relies on the centromeric histone H3 variant, CENH3. Our previous work identified KINETOCHORE NULL2 (αKNL2) as a plant CENH3 assembly factor, which contains a centromere-targeting motif, CENPC-k, analogous to the CENPC motif found in CENP-C. We also demonstrated that αKNL2 can bind DNA in vitro in a sequence-independent manner, without the involvement of its CENPC-k motif.

Identifying meaningful aspects of health and concepts of interest for assessment in systemic lupus erythematosus: implications for digital clinical measure development.

Objectives: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disease with heterogeneous clinical manifestations which significantly impacts the daily lives of patients. Herein, we aimed to (i) investigate patients' perspectives on and experience with SLE; (ii) identify meaningful aspects of health (MAHs) and concepts of interest (COIs) in SLE that could be evaluated using digital clinical measures (DCMs); and (iii) identify target DCMs for their assessment.

Methods: A mixed-methods, multistep approach was deployed for (i) exploring patients' experience with SLE through a social media listening study and focused group discussions with patients; (ii) mapping patients' experiences to define MAHs and identify COIs measurable using DCMs; (iii) selecting DCMs for the target COIs; and (iv) identifying types of wearable sensors for measuring COIs in the patients.

Efficient synthesis of fluorinated triphenylenes with enhanced arene-perfluoroarene interactions in columnar mesophases.

The high potential of non-covalent arene-fluoroarene intermolecular interactions in the design of liquid crystals lies in their ability to strongly promote self-assembly, improve the order and stability of the supramolecular mesophases, and enable tuneability of the optical and electronic properties, which can potentially be exploited for advanced applications in display technologies, photonic devices, sensors, and organic electronics. We recently successfully reported the straightforward synthesis of several mesogens containing four lateral aliphatic chains and derived from the classical triphenylene core self-assembling in columnar mesophases based on this paradigm. These mesogenic compounds were simply obtained in good yields by the nucleophilic substitution (SFAr) of various types of commercially available fluoroarenes with the electrophilic organolithium derivatives 2,2'-dilithio-4,4',5,5'-tetraalkoxy-1,1'-biphenyl (2Li- ).

Long-Term Clinical and Biological Prognostic Factors of Anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis in Children.

Background And Objectives: Anti-NMDAR encephalitis (NMDARE) is a severe neurologic condition, and recently, the NMDAR Encephalitis One-Year Functional Status (NEOS) score has emerged as a 1-year prognostic tool. This study aimed to evaluate NEOS score and biomarker (neurofilament light chains [NfL], total-Tau protein, glial fibrillary acidic protein, and serum cytokines) correlation with modified Rankin Scale (mRS), cognitive impairment, and clinical recovery in pediatric NMDARE over 2 years.

Methods: In this French multicenter observational study, 104 pediatric patients with NMDARE were followed for a minimum of 2 years.

Interplay between Spinmerism and Spin-Orbit Coupling for a d Metal Ion in an Open-Shell Ligand Field.

Recent theoretical studies have shown that placing a spin-crossover ion in a field of radical ligands can induce local superpositions of spin states (see Ref. [1,2]). The stability of this phenomenon, termed spinmerism, is called into question when spin-orbit coupling is included.

Frontiers of conservation.

Action-oriented conservation sciences are crippled by 3 false assumptions. First, although it is recognized in theory that natural and anthropic components of ecosystems are tightly intertwined, in practice, many conservation policies and actions are still based on the assumption that human and nonhuman stakes should be dealt with in deeply different ways. Second, although the anchorage of environmental sciences in values is amply demonstrated, many conservation scientists still assume they will lose their scientific credentials if they actively participate in decision-making.