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Multiple toxins and a protease contribute to the aphid‐killing ability of Pseudomonas fluorescens PpR24
Get PDFAphids are globally important pests causing damage to a broad range of crops. Due to insecticide resistance, there is an urgent need to develop alternative control strategies. In our previous work, we found Pseudomonas fluorescens PpR24 can orally infect and kill the insecticide-resistant green-peach aphid (Myzus persicae). However, the genetic basis of the insecticidal capability of PpR24 remains unclear. Genome sequencing of PpR24 confirmed the presence of various insecticidal toxins such as Tc (toxin complexes), Rhs (rearrangement hotspot) elements, and other insect-killing proteases. Upon aphids infection with PpR24, RNA-Seq analysis revealed 193 aphid genes were differentially expressed with down-regulation of 16 detoxification genes. In addition, 1325 PpR24 genes (542 were upregulated and 783 downregulated) were subject to differential expression, including genes responsible for secondary metabolite biosynthesis, the iron-restriction response, oxidative stress resistance, and virulence factors. Single and double deletion of candidate virulence genes encoding a secreted protease (AprX) and four toxin components (two TcA-like; one TcB-like; one TcC-like insecticidal toxins) showed that all five genes contribute significantly to aphid killing, particularly AprX. This comprehensive host–pathogen transcriptomic analysis provides novel insight into the molecular basis of bacteria-mediated aphid mortality and the potential of PpR24 as an effective biocontrol agent
Study on slope stability of waste dump with a weak layer using finite element limit analysis method
No full textSlope stability is generally paid more attention to in slope protection works, especially for slope containing weak layers. Two indexes of safety factor and failure model are selected to perform slope stability. Moreover, the finite element limit analysis method comprehensively combines the advantage of the limit analysis method and the finite element method obtaining the upper and lower bounds of the safety factor and the failure mode under the slope stability limit state. In this study, taking a waste dump containing a weak layer as an engineering background, the finite element limit analysis method is adopted to explore the potential failure mode. Meanwhile, the sensitivity analysis of slope stability is performed on geometrical and geotechnical parameters of the waste dump. The results show that the failure mode of the waste dump slope is two wedges if the weak layer is located on the ground surface (Model A), while the slope can be observed as three wedges failure if the weak layer is below the ground surface (Model B). In addition, both failure modes are highly sensitive to the friction angle of the weak layer and the shear strength of waste disposal, and moderately sensitive to the heap height, the dip angle and cohesion of the weak layer, while the toe cutting has limited effect on the slope stability. Moreover, the sensitivity to the excavation of the ground depends on the location of the weak layer and failure mode
Exploring the relationship between falls, fall‐related psychological concerns, and personality traits in adults : a scoping review protocol
Get PDFBackground and Aims:
Personality traits, such as neuroticism and extraversion, are emerging as important predictors of falls. Despite their significance, existing fall prevention programs often overlook these traits, creating a notable research gap. This study aims to conduct a comprehensive scoping review to explore the existing literature on the relationships among personality traits, falls, and fall-related psychological concerns (FrPCs).
Methods:
This scoping review will adhere to the framework established by Arksey and O'Malley, incorporating extensions recommended by the Joanna Briggs Institute and using the PRISMA-ScR checklist. A thorough search strategy will be employed, aligning with the population, concept, and context (PCC) selection criteria. Electronic databases, including MEDLINE, APA PsycINFO, Web of Science, CINAHL, and SPORTDiscus, will be searched from their inception to the present. Additionally, a manual search of the reference lists of identified and relevant full-text articles will be conducted. Two independent reviewers will screen titles and abstracts, perform full-text reviews, and extract data from pertinent articles.
Discussion:
Personality traits are increasingly recognized as influential predictors of falls and related psychological concerns. This review aims to make a substantial contribution to the existing literature by being the first to comprehensively explore and provide a descriptive synthesis of the relationship between personality traits and falls, as well as FrPCs in adults. It is hoped that the outcomes of this review will enhance our comprehension of the role of personality traits in falls, potentially informing future research and strategies for this critical area of study.
Scoping Review Registration:
This scoping review protocol was registered with Open Science Framework (https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/KR74X)
Neighbourhood deprivation and access to early intervention and support for families of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities
Get PDFEnsuring families of children with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (e.g., developmental delay, intellectual disability, autism) can access early intervention and support is important. Current research indicates there are family-level socioeconomic disparities of access to early intervention and support, however, there is limited evidence on the relationship between neighbourhood-level socioeconomic deprivation and access to support. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the relationship between neighbourhood deprivation and families' access to and unmet need for early intervention and support. We collected cross-sectional data using a survey of 673 parental caregivers of young children with suspected or diagnosed intellectual and/or developmental disabilities in the UK. Multiple regression models were fitted for three early intervention and support outcome variables: access to early intervention; access to services across education, health, social care, and other sectors; and unmet need for services. Each regression model included a neighbourhood deprivation variable based on the index of multiple deprivation and five control variables: family-level economic deprivation, country, caregivers' educational level, developmental disability diagnosis, and informal support sources. Neighbourhood deprivation was a significant independent predictor of access to services, but neighbourhood deprivation was not a significant predictor of access to early intervention or unmet need for services. Families living in the most deprived neighbourhoods accessed fewer services than other families. Socioeconomic disparities of access to early intervention and support, at both a neighbourhood and family level, exist for families of young children with suspected or diagnosed intellectual and/or developmental disabilities in the UK. Future research should focus on policy and other interventions aimed at addressing socioeconomic disparities at the neighbourhood and family level, to ensure equitable access to early intervention and support
Did inequalities in mothers’ and children’s health and well-being in Japan increase through the pandemic? Evidence from nationwide surveys and routinely collected data
Get PDFMarginalised families faced significant challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explores inequalities in Japanese mothers’ and children’s health and well-being and family economic stability before and during the pandemic. Data sources were as follows: nationwide surveys in 2019 and 2021 of families with children using medical institutions across Japan; infant mortality and adolescent suicide rates between 2018 and 2021 from publicly available sources. Outcomes by poor and non-poor families were compared for 2019 and 2021 using simple descriptive statistics. Poor mothers’ part-time working increased from 41% to 61% and regular employment was reduced by two thirds. The well-being of poor mothers worsened from 39% to 55%. Employment opportunities and well-being did not change for non-poor mothers. School subsidies among poor families increased from 23% to 55%. The infant mortality rate (IMR) among unemployed families increased significantly from 12.9/1000 to 18.2/1000 between 2018 and 2021 compared with a decreasing overall IMR from 1.9/1000 to 1.7/1000. Suicide rates in 10–19-year-olds increased over the same period although no socio-economic indicators were available. Inequalities in mothers’ and children’s health and well-being indicators and family economics increased between 2019 to 2021 in Japan. This study cannot attribute causes but suggests a possible role of the pandemic
ArcKR expression modifies synaptic plasticity following epileptic activity : differential effects with in vitro and in vivo seizure induction protocols
No full textObjectives
Pathological forms of neural activity, such as epileptic seizures, modify the expression pattern of multiple proteins, leading to persistent changes in brain function. One such protein is activity-regulated cytoskeleton-associated protein (Arc), which is critically involved in protein-synthesis–dependent synaptic plasticity underlying learning and memory. In the present study, we have investigated how the expression of ArcKR, a form of Arc in which the ubiquitination sites have been mutated, resulting in slowed Arc degradation, modifies group I metabotropic glutamate receptor–mediated long-term depression (G1-mGluR-LTD) following seizures.
Methods
We used a knock-in mice line that express ArcKR and two hyperexcitation models: an in vitro model, where hippocampal slices were exposed to zero Mg2+, 6 mM K+; and an in vivo model, where kainic acid was injected unilaterally into the hippocampus. In both models, field excitatory postsynaptic potentials (fEPSPs) were recorded from the CA1 region of hippocampal slices in response to Schaffer collateral stimulation and G1-mGluR-LTD was induced chemically with the group 1 mGluR agonist DHPG.
Results
In the in vitro model, ArcKR expression enhanced the effects of seizure activity and increased the magnitude of G1-mGluR LTD, an effect that could be blocked with the mGluR5 antagonist MTEP. In the in vivo model, fEPSPs were significantly smaller in slices from ArcKR mice and were less contaminated by population spikes. In this model, the amount of G1-mGluR-LTD was significantly less in epileptic slices from ArcKR mice as compared to wildtype (WT) mice.
Significance
We have shown that expression of ArcKR, a form of Arc in which degradation is reduced, significantly modulates the magnitude of G1-mGluR-LTD following epileptic seizures. However, the effect of ArcKR on LTD depends on the epileptic model used, with enhancement of LTD in an in vitro model and a reduction in the kainate mouse model
Using games to simulate medication adherence and non-adherence : an application of Gamified Behavioral Simulation
Get PDFBackground. Medical non-adherence is a significant problem associated with worse clinical outcomes, higher downstream re-hospitalization rates and a higher use of resources. To improve medication adherence, it is vital for researchers and practitioners to have a solid theoretical understanding of what interventions are likely to work. To achieve this understanding, we propose that researchers should focus on creating small scale laboratory analogues to the larger real-world setting, and determine what interventions, such as nudges or incentives, work to change behaviour in the lab. To do this we took inspiration from the literature on serious games and gamification and experimental economics. We call our approach “Gamified Behavioural Simulation.” In this paper we modelled everyday life as the state of being engaged in a simple but addictive game, illness as being interruptions to the functionality of that game, treatment as being a serious of actions that can be taken to prevent or mitigate those interruptions, and adherence as sticking to a prescribed rule for the application of those actions.
Objective: This study carries out a behavioural diagnosis of the medication adherence problem through a theoretically informed framework and then develops the gamified behavioural modelling approach to simulate medication non-adherence.
Methods. A lab experiment was conducted, using a modified popular and addictive open-source video game called ‘2048’, which created an abstract model for the medication adherence behaviour observed in real life. Five hundred and nine participants assigned to the control and the four intervention groups (“incentive” group, “reminder” group, “commitment device” group and “elongated duration for symptoms” group).
Results. The results of the modelling experiment showed that having theoretically informed interventions can increase the likelihood for them to be successful. In particular, there is evidence that the use of reminders improves the medication adherence rates for patients, and the same result was found in the modelling experiment as they improved the adherence significantly by 23% (95% CI [-33.97, -11.72] p< .001). However, providing an incentive did not improve the adherence rate. We also tested the use of commitment devices, which, in line with real-world evidence, did not improve adherence rates. The fourth treatment tested elongated duration for symptoms, which attempted to show the power of modelling experiments where we test a ― what-if ―scenario that is extremely difficult to test in a real setting. The results indicated that if symptoms last longer, people didn’t adhere more to their medication regimen.
Conclusions. Gamified behavioural simulation is a useful tool to explain real health behaviours and help in identifying which interventions are most likely to work in a randomised trial
The art of speech : elocution, speech training, speech therapy and the performative limits of class in mid-twentieth-century Britain
No full textThis article argues that elocution, speech training, and speech therapy—three professions concerned with the voice—were intimately bound up with a shifting politics of class in early- and mid-twentieth-century Britain. The last two, in particular, attempted to stake new claims in the changed landscape of the post-1945 welfare state. Proponents of speech training distinguished themselves from elocutionists and saw their role to improve children’s speech, but they performatively disavowed class as an organizing category within it. This was paralleled by speech therapy, which emerged as a formal profession in Britain in 1945 through the unification of two separate (and often rival) halves of the profession under a single regulatory college, and which found itself having to justify where its pathologizing of vocal production ended and elocution’s focus on the aesthetics of accent began. I argue that these disavowals provide a useful framework through which to read class dynamics and consider the performative dimensions of class identities at this time. Mobilising select writers and speech experts—who straddled the boundaries of elocution, speech training, and speech therapy—this article shows how a variety of different categories, from gender to geography, were employed as proxies to allow for the problematization of dialect but not accent and to efface ‘class’
Three-dimensional spontaneous flow transition in a homeotropic active nematic
Get PDFActive nematics are driven, non-equilibrium systems relevant to biological processes including tissue mechanics and morphogenesis, and to active metamaterials in general. We study the three-dimensional spontaneous flow transition of an active nematic in an infinite slab geometry using a combination of numerics and analytics. We show that it is determined by the interplay of two eigenmodes – called S- and D-mode – that are unstable at the same activity threshold and spontaneously breaks both rotational symmetry and chiral symmetry. The onset of the unstable modes is described by a non-Hermitian integro-differential operator, which we determine their exponential growth rates from using perturbation theory. The S-mode is the fastest growing. After it reaches a finite amplitude, the growth of the D-mode is anisotropic, being promoted perpendicular to the S-mode and suppressed parallel to it, forming a steady state with a full three-dimensional director field and a well-defined chirality. Lastly, we derive a model of the leading-order time evolution of the system close to the activity threshold