Oxytocin as an Indicator of Psychological and Social Well-Being in Domesticated Animals: A Critical Review.

Oxytocin is often portrayed as a hormone specific to social behavior, reflective of positive welfare states, and linked to mental states. Research on oxytocin in domesticated animal species has been few to date but is rapidly increasing (in dog, pig, cattle, sheep), with direct implications for animal welfare. This review evaluates the evidence for the specificity of oxytocin as an indicator of: 1.

Cross-Cultural Comparison of Self-Construal and Well-Being between Japan and South Korea: The Role of Self-Focused and Other-Focused Relational Selves.

Relational self, along with individual and collective selves, is a fundamental aspect that makes up self-concept. Proposing its two aspects: (i.e.

A PCR-Based Assay Targeting the Major Capsid Protein Gene of a Dinorna-Like ssRNA Virus That Infects Coral Photosymbionts.

The coral- association is a critical component of coral reefs as it is the main primary producer and builds the reef's 3-dimensional structure. A breakdown of this endosymbiosis causes a loss of the dinoflagellate photosymbiont, , and/or its photosynthetic pigments from the coral tissues (i.e.

Extensive Metabolic Remodeling Differentiates Non-pathogenic and Pathogenic Growth Forms of the Dimorphic Pathogen .

Fungal infections are an increasing public health problem, particularly in immunocompromised individuals. While these pathogenic fungi show polyphyletic origins with closely related non-pathogenic species, many undergo morphological transitions to produce pathogenic cell types that are associated with increased virulence. However, the characteristics of these pathogenic cells that contribute to virulence are poorly defined.

Erythropoietin Protects Against Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Microgliosis and Abnormal Granule Cell Development in the Ovine Fetal Cerebellum.

Erythropoietin (EPO) ameliorates inflammation-induced injury in cerebral white matter (WM). However, effects of inflammation on the cerebellum and neuroprotective effects of EPO are unknown. Our aims were to determine: (i) whether lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced intrauterine inflammation causes injury to, and/or impairs development of the cerebellum; and (ii) whether recombinant human EPO (rhEPO) mitigates these changes.

The Influence of Apical and Basal Defoliation on the Canopy Structure and Biochemical Composition of cv. Shiraz Grapes and Wine.

Defoliation is a commonly used viticultural technique to balance the ratio between grapevine vegetation and fruit. Defoliation is conducted around the fruit zone to reduce the leaf photosynthetic area, and to increase sunlight exposure of grape bunches. Apical leaf removal is not commonly practiced, and therefore its influence on canopy structure and resultant wine aroma is not well-studied.

Extensively Drug-Resistant Causing Nosocomial Bloodstream Infections in China: Molecular Investigation of Antibiotic Resistance Determinants, Informing Therapy, and Clinical Outcomes.

The rise in diversity of antimicrobial resistance phenotypes seen in is becoming a serious antibiotic management problem. We sought to investigate the molecular characteristics and clinical implications of extensively drug-resistant (XDR) isolated from different nosocomial bloodstream infections (BSIs) patients from July 2013 to November 2015. Even in combination treatment, meropenem did not protect against mortality of BSIs patients ( = 0.

Aripiprazole Facilitates Extinction of Conditioned Fear in Adolescent Rats.

Anxiety disorders are the most common type of mental disorder during adolescence, which is at least partly due to the resistance to extinction exhibited at this age. The dopaminergic system is known to be dysregulated during adolescence; therefore, we aimed to facilitate extinction in adolescent rats using the dopamine receptor 2 partial agonist aripiprazole (Abilify™), and examine the behavioral and neural outcomes. Adolescent rats were conditioned to fear a tone.

Cholera Toxin Induces Sustained Hyperexcitability in Myenteric, but Not Submucosal, AH Neurons in Guinea Pig Jejunum.

Cholera toxin (CT)-induced hypersecretion requires activation of secretomotor pathways in the enteric nervous system (ENS). AH neurons, which have been identified as a population of intrinsic sensory neurons (ISNs), are a source of excitatory input to the secretomotor pathways. We therefore examined effects of CT in the intestinal lumen on myenteric and submucosal AH neurons.

VPAC Receptor Subtypes Tune Purinergic Neuron-to-Glia Communication in the Murine Submucosal Plexus.

The enteric nervous system (ENS) situated within the gastrointestinal tract comprises an intricate network of neurons and glia which together regulate intestinal function. The exact neuro-glial circuitry and the signaling molecules involved are yet to be fully elucidated. Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) is one of the main neurotransmitters in the gut, and is important for regulating intestinal secretion and motility.

Moderated Online Social Therapy: A Model for Reducing Stress in Carers of Young People Diagnosed with Mental Health Disorders.

Family members caring for a young person diagnosed with the onset of mental health problems face heightened stress, depression, and social isolation. Despite evidence for the effectiveness of family based interventions, sustaining access to specialist family interventions is a major challenge. The availability of the Internet provides possibilities to expand and sustain access to evidence-based psychoeducation and personal support for family members.

Interactions of Circadian Rhythmicity, Stress and Orexigenic Neuropeptide Systems: Implications for Food Intake Control.

Many physiological processes fluctuate throughout the day/night and daily fluctuations are observed in brain and peripheral levels of several hormones, neuropeptides and transmitters. In turn, mediators under the "control" of the "master biological clock" reciprocally influence its function. Dysregulation in the rhythmicity of hormone release as well as hormone receptor sensitivity and availability in different tissues, is a common risk-factor for multiple clinical conditions, including psychiatric and metabolic disorders.

Musicians' Online Performance during Auditory and Visual Statistical Learning Tasks.

Musicians' brains are considered to be a functional model of neuroplasticity due to the structural and functional changes associated with long-term musical training. In this study, we examined implicit extraction of statistical regularities from a continuous stream of stimuli-statistical learning (SL). We investigated whether long-term musical training is associated with better extraction of statistical cues in an auditory SL (aSL) task and a visual SL (vSL) task-both using the embedded triplet paradigm.

Prefrontal Dopaminergic Mechanisms of Extinction in Adolescence Compared to Adulthood in Rats.

Adolescents with anxiety disorders attain poorer outcomes following extinction-based treatment compared to adults. Extinction deficit during adolescence has been identified to involve immaturity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Findings from adult rodents suggest extinction involves dopamine signaling in the mPFC.

Strain 130b Evades Macrophage Cell Death Independent of the Effector SidF in the Absence of Flagellin.

The human pathogen must evade host cell death signaling to enable replication in lung macrophages and to cause disease. After bacterial growth, however, is thought to induce apoptosis during egress from macrophages. The bacterial effector protein, SidF, has been shown to control host cell survival and death by inhibiting pro-apoptotic BNIP3 and BCL-RAMBO signaling.

The Effect of Selective D- or N-Methyl Arginine Substitution on the Activity of the Proline-Rich Antimicrobial Peptide, Chex1-Arg20.

pharmacokinetics studies have shown that the proline-rich antimicrobial peptide, A3-APO, which is a discontinuous dimer of the peptide, Chex1-Arg20, undergoes degradation to small fragments at positions Pro6-Arg7 and Val19-Arg20. With the aim of minimizing or abolishing this degradation, a series of Chex1-Arg20 analogs were prepared Fmoc/tBu solid phase peptide synthesis with D-arginine or, in some cases, peptide backbone N-methylated arginine, substitution at these sites. All the peptides were tested for antibacterial activity against the Gram-negative bacterium .

Are Pathotypes Still Relevant in the Era of Whole-Genome Sequencing?

The empirical and pragmatic nature of diagnostic microbiology has given rise to several different schemes to subtype .coli, including biotyping, serotyping, and pathotyping. These schemes have proved invaluable in identifying and tracking outbreaks, and for prognostication in individual cases of infection, but they are imprecise and potentially misleading due to the malleability and continuous evolution of .

The Agreement between Parent-Reported and Directly Measured Child Language and Parenting Behaviors.

Parenting behaviors are commonly targeted in early interventions to improve children's language development. Accurate measurement of both parenting behaviors and children's language outcomes is thus crucial for sensitive assessment of intervention outcomes. To date, only a small number of studies have compared parent-reported and directly measured behaviors, and these have been hampered by small sample sizes and inaccurate statistical techniques, such as correlations.

Better Than Nothing? Limitations of the Prediction Tool SecretomeP in the Search for Leaderless Secretory Proteins (LSPs) in Plants.

In proteomic analyses of the plant secretome, the presence of putative leaderless secretory proteins (LSPs) is difficult to confirm due to the possibility of contamination from other sub-cellular compartments. In the absence of a plant-specific tool for predicting LSPs, the mammalian-trained SecretomeP has been applied to plant proteins in multiple studies to identify the most likely LSPs. This study investigates the effectiveness of using SecretomeP on plant proteins, identifies its limitations and provides a benchmark for its use.

Retinal Changes in an ATP-Induced Model of Retinal Degeneration.

In rodents and felines, intravitreal administration of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) has been shown to induce photoreceptor death providing a tractable model of retinal degeneration in these species. This study investigated the long term effects of photoreceptor loss in an ATP induced feline model of retinal degeneration. Six normal sighted felines were unilaterally blinded using intravitreal ATP injections and assessed using electroretinography (ERG) and optical coherence tomography (OCT).

Glutamate Cysteine Ligase-Modulatory Subunit Knockout Mouse Shows Normal Insulin Sensitivity but Reduced Liver Glycogen Storage.

Glutathione (GSH) deficits have been observed in several mental or degenerative illness, and so has the metabolic syndrome. The impact of a decreased glucose metabolism on the GSH system is well-known, but the effect of decreased GSH levels on the energy metabolism is unclear. The aim of the present study was to investigate the sensitivity to insulin in the mouse knockout (KO) for the modulatory subunit of the glutamate cysteine ligase (GCLM), the rate-limiting enzyme of GSH synthesis.

Skull Defects in Finite Element Head Models for Source Reconstruction from Magnetoencephalography Signals.

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) signals are influenced by skull defects. However, there is a lack of evidence of this influence during source reconstruction. Our objectives are to characterize errors in source reconstruction from MEG signals due to ignoring skull defects and to assess the ability of an exact finite element head model to eliminate such errors.

The Anti-fibrotic Actions of Relaxin Are Mediated Through a NO-sGC-cGMP-Dependent Pathway in Renal Myofibroblasts In Vitro and Enhanced by the NO Donor, Diethylamine NONOate.

Introduction: The anti-fibrotic hormone, relaxin, has been inferred to disrupt transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1/Smad2 phosphorylation (pSmad2) signal transduction and promote collagen-degrading gelatinase activity via a nitric oxide (NO)-dependent pathway. Here, we determined the extent to which NO, soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) and cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) were directly involved in the anti-fibrotic actions of relaxin using a selective NO scavenger and sGC inhibitor, and comparing and combining relaxin's effects with that of an NO donor.

Methods And Results: Primary renal cortical myofibroblasts isolated from injured rat kidneys were treated with human recombinant relaxin (RLX; 16.