Arc, a neuronal gene that is critical for synaptic plasticity, originated through the domestication of retrotransposon Gag genes and mediates intercellular messenger RNA transfer. We report ...high-resolution structures of retrovirus-like capsids formed by Drosophila dArc1 and dArc2 that have surface spikes and putative internal RNA-binding domains. These data demonstrate that virus-like capsid-forming properties of Arc are evolutionarily conserved and provide a structural basis for understanding their function in intercellular communication.
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FZAB, GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Local firms in their home countries often engage in behavior that constitutes corruption, at least through some cultural lenses. One such practice is bribery of public officials. This study uses ...multilevel theory to address the question of why bribery activity of this type differs among countries. We analyze responses from nearly 4,000 firms worldwide using hierarchical linear modeling to investigate cross-level predictions about bribery. Drawing from anomie theory, we find support for country-level cultural and institutional drivers of firm-level bribery. We extend anomie theory by showing how firm-level pressures can encourage the supplying of bribes as a firm strategy.
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BFBNIB, IZUM, KILJ, NMLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Inferior olivary activity causes both short-term and long-term changes in cerebellar output underlying motor performance and motor learning. Many of its neurons engage in coherent subthreshold ...oscillations and are extensively coupled via gap junctions. Studies in reduced preparations suggest that these properties promote rhythmic, synchronized output. However, the interaction of these properties with torrential synaptic inputs in awake behaving animals is not well understood. Here we combine electrophysiological recordings in awake mice with a realistic tissue-scale computational model of the inferior olive to study the relative impact of intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms governing its activity. Our data and model suggest that if subthreshold oscillations are present in the awake state, the period of these oscillations will be transient and variable. Accordingly, by using different temporal patterns of sensory stimulation, we found that complex spike rhythmicity was readily evoked but limited to short intervals of no more than a few hundred milliseconds and that the periodicity of this rhythmic activity was not fixed but dynamically related to the synaptic input to the inferior olive as well as to motor output. In contrast, in the long-term, the average olivary spiking activity was not affected by the strength and duration of the sensory stimulation, while the level of gap junctional coupling determined the stiffness of the rhythmic activity in the olivary network during its dynamic response to sensory modulation. Thus, interactions between intrinsic properties and extrinsic inputs can explain the variations of spiking activity of olivary neurons, providing a temporal framework for the creation of both the short-term and long-term changes in cerebellar output.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The COVID‐19 pandemic led to dramatic economic disruptions, including government‐imposed restrictions that temporarily shuttered millions of American businesses. We use a nationwide survey of ...thousands of small business owners to establish three main facts about business owners’ decisions to reopen at the end of the lockdowns. First, roughly 60 percent of firms planned to reopen within days of the end of legal restrictions, suggesting that the lockdowns were generally binding for businesses—although nearly 30 percent expected to delay their reopening by at least a month. Second, decisions to delay reopenings did not seem to be driven by concerns about employee or customer health; even businesses in high‐proximity sectors with the highest health risks generally reported intentions to reopen as soon as regulations allowed. Third, pessimistic demand projections primarily explain delays among firms that could legally reopen. Owners expected demand to be one‐third lower than before the crisis throughout the pandemic. Using experimentally induced shocks to perceived demand, we find that a 10 percent decline in expected demand results in a 1.5 percentage point (8 percent) increase in the likelihood that firms expected to remain closed for at least one month after being legally able to open. We use follow‐up surveys to cross‐validate expectations with realized outcomes. Overall, our results suggest that governments set more stringent guidelines for reopening than what many businesses would have selected, suggesting that governments may have internalized costs of contagion that businesses did not.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Neuroticism is a personality trait of fundamental importance for psychological well-being and public health. It is strongly associated with major depressive disorder (MDD) and several other ...psychiatric conditions. Although neuroticism is heritable, attempts to identify the alleles involved in previous studies have been limited by relatively small sample sizes. Here we report a combined meta-analysis of genome-wide association study (GWAS) of neuroticism that includes 91 370 participants from the UK Biobank cohort, 6659 participants from the Generation Scotland: Scottish Family Health Study (GS:SFHS) and 8687 participants from a QIMR (Queensland Institute of Medical Research) Berghofer Medical Research Institute (QIMR) cohort. All participants were assessed using the same neuroticism instrument, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised (EPQ-R-S) Short Form's Neuroticism scale. We found a single-nucleotide polymorphism-based heritability estimate for neuroticism of ~15% (s.e. = 0.7%). Meta-analysis identified nine novel loci associated with neuroticism. The strongest evidence for association was at a locus on chromosome 8 (P = 1.5 x 10.sup.-15) spanning 4Mb and containing at least 36 genes. Other associated loci included interesting candidate genes on chromosome 1 (GRIK3 (glutamate receptor ionotropic kainate 3)), chromosome 4 (KLHL2 (Kelch-like protein 2)), chromosome 17 (CRHR1 (corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor 1) and MAPT (microtubule-associated protein Tau)) and on chromosome 18 (CELF4 (CUGBP elav-like family member 4)). We found no evidence for genetic differences in the common allelic architecture of neuroticism by sex. By comparing our findings with those of the Psychiatric Genetics Consortia, we identified a strong genetic correlation between neuroticism and MDD and a less strong but significant genetic correlation with schizophrenia, although not with bipolar disorder. Polygenic risk scores derived from the primary UK Biobank sample captured ~1% of the variance in neuroticism in the GS:SFHS and QIMR samples, although most of the genome-wide significant alleles identified within a UK Biobank-only GWAS of neuroticism were not independently replicated within these cohorts. The identification of nine novel neuroticism-associated loci will drive forward future work on the neurobiology of neuroticism and related phenotypes. Molecular Psychiatry (2016) 21, 749-757; doi: 10.1038/mp.2016.49; published online 12 April 2016
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Birth defects result from interactions between genetic and environmental factors, but the mechanisms remain poorly understood. We find that mutations and teratogens interact in predictable ways to ...cause birth defects by changing target cell sensitivity to Hedgehog (Hh) ligands. These interactions converge on a membrane protein complex, the MMM complex, that promotes degradation of the Hh transducer Smoothened (SMO). Deficiency of the MMM component MOSMO results in elevated SMO and increased Hh signaling, causing multiple birth defects. In utero exposure to a teratogen that directly inhibits SMO reduces the penetrance and expressivity of birth defects in Mosmo-/- embryos. Additionally, tissues that develop normally in Mosmo-/- embryos are refractory to the teratogen. Thus, changes in the abundance of the protein target of a teratogen can change birth defect outcomes by quantitative shifts in Hh signaling. Consequently, small molecules that re-calibrate signaling strength could be harnessed to rescue structural birth defects.
Rapid advances in the genetics of psychiatric disorders mean that diagnostic and predictive genetic testing for schizophrenia risk may one day be a reality. This study examined how causal ...attributions for schizophrenia contribute to interest in a hypothetical genetic test. People with schizophrenia and first-degree relatives of people with schizophrenia were recruited through a schizophrenia research bank and mental health organisation. Semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with 13 individuals with schizophrenia and 8 first-degree relatives. Transcripts were subjected to a qualitative analysis using the thematic analysis framework. Five themes were developed: (i) "It is like a cocktail", with most participants aware that both genetic and environmental factors contributed to causation, and many mentioning the positive impact of genetic causal explanations; (ii) "Knowledge is power" (i.e., in favour of genetic testing); (iii) Genetic testing provides opportunities for early intervention and avoiding triggers, with participants citing a wide range of perceived benefits of genetic testing but few risks; (iv) Views on reproductive genetic testing for schizophrenia risk with a few participants viewing it as "playing God" but not necessarily being against it; and (v) "It snowballs", whereby participants' understanding of genetics was sophisticated with most believing that multiple rather than single genes contributed to schizophrenia. In conclusion, many individuals had a sound understanding of the role of genetic testing if it were to become available, with evidence of insight into the role of multiple genes and the contribution of other risk factors that may interact with any inherited genetic risk.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
18.
National culture and firm-level tax evasion Bame-Aldred, Charles W.; Cullen, John B.; Martin, Kelly D. ...
Journal of business research,
03/2013, Volume:
66, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
A significant research stream provides evidence that institutional, demographic, and attitudinal factors influence the likelihood of tax evasion. Assessments of culture's role in tax evasion are far ...more scarce and limited. Absent are investigations of how theoretically derived culture variables predict tax evasion likelihood. Institutional anomie theory (IAT) informs this research gap, suggesting cultural values that likely influence deviant firm behaviors. Accordingly, a cross-cultural perspective examines the influence of important cultural forces (individualism, achievement orientation, assertiveness, humane orientation) on tax evasion, simultaneously controlling for institutional, demographic, and attitudinal factors. Multilevel analysis, with both country- and firm-level data, examines actual reports of firm tax illegal evasion from over 3000 companies in 31 countries using hierarchical generalized linear modeling. After controlling for the above-mentioned factors, a subset of influential cultural values stipulated by IAT surfaces to predict tax evasion. Findings suggest a number of theoretical and practical cross-cultural research implications.
► Cultural values influence the likelihood of illegal tax evasion. ► Institutional anomie theory is used for cultural value selection. ► Increases in human orientation and collectivism reduce tax evasion as hypothesized. ► Higher achievement orientation and assertiveness reduce tax evasion, counter to expectations. ► Differences between achievement and assertive orientations versus ascription orientations.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
A critical step during human microRNA maturation is the processing of the primary microRNA transcript by the nuclear RNaseIII enzyme Drosha to generate the ∼60‐nucleotide precursor microRNA hairpin. ...How Drosha recognizes primary RNA substrates and selects its cleavage sites has remained a mystery, especially given that the known targets for Drosha processing show no discernable sequence homology. Here, we show that human Drosha selectively cleaves RNA hairpins bearing a large (⩾10 nucleotides) terminal loop. From the junction of the loop and the adjacent stem, Drosha then cleaves approximately two helical RNA turns into the stem to produce the precursor microRNA. Beyond the precursor microRNA cleavage sites, approximately one helix turn of stem extension is also essential for efficient processing. While the sites of Drosha cleavage are determined largely by the distance from the terminal loop, variations in stem structure and sequence around the cleavage site can fine‐tune the actual cleavage sites chosen.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
A generic daily time-step model of a dairy cow, designed to be included in whole-system pasture simulation models, is described that includes growth, milk production, and lactation in relation to ...energy and nitrogen dynamics. It is a development of a previously described animal growth and metabolism model that describes animal body composition in terms of protein, water, and fat, and energy dynamics in relation to growth requirements, resynthesis of degraded protein, and animal activity. This is further developed to include lactation and fetal growth. Intake is calculated in relation to stage of lactation, pasture availability, supplementary feed, and feed quality. Energy costs associated with urine N excretion and methane fermentation are accounted for. Milk production and fetal growth are then calculated in relation to the overall energy and nitrogen dynamics. The general behavior of the model is consistent with expected characteristics. Simulations using the model as part of a whole-system pasture simulation model (DairyMod) are compared with experimental data where good agreement between pasture, concentrate and forage intake, as well as milk production over 3 consecutive lactation cycles, is observed. The model is shown to be well suited for inclusion in large-scale system simulation models.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
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