Choosing valuable objects is critical for survival, but their values may change flexibly or remain stable. Therefore, animals should be able to update the object values flexibly by recent experiences ...and retain them stably by long-term experiences. However, it is unclear how the brain encodes the two conflicting forms of values and controls behavior accordingly. We found that distinct circuits of the primate caudate nucleus control behavior selectively in the flexible and stable value conditions. Single caudate neurons encoded the values of visual objects in a regionally distinct manner: flexible value coding in the caudate head and stable value coding in the caudate tail. Monkeys adapted in both conditions by looking at objects with higher values. Importantly, inactivation of each caudate subregion disrupted the high-low value discrimination selectively in the flexible or stable context. This parallel complementary mechanism enables animals to choose valuable objects in both flexible and stable conditions.
•Neurons in the primate caudate nucleus encode reward values of visual objects•Flexible and stable values are encoded in the caudate head and tail, respectively•Inactivation of caudate head disrupts gaze choice guided solely by flexible values•Inactivation of caudate tail disrupts gaze choice guided solely by stable values
Kim and Hikosaka show that neurons in the head and tail of the primate caudate nucleus, respectively, encode flexible and stable values of visual objects and thus separately regulate controlled and automatic saccades to the objects.
Background
Depression and anxiety during pregnancy are associated with adverse health outcomes for both mother and child. This study aims to investigate the occurrence of symptoms of depression and ...anxiety in early and late pregnancy, the longitudinal changes from early to late pregnancy, and factors associated with symptoms of depression and anxiety in pregnant women in the Netherlands.
Methods
We studied 2897 women participating in the PRegnancy and Infant DEvelopment (PRIDE) Study. To assess symptoms of depression and anxiety, web‐based questionnaires including the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and multiple questions on maternal characteristics were completed in early and late pregnancy. Cross‐sectional and longitudinal multivariable linear regression analyses were conducted.
Results
The depressive symptoms in our population increased, with a prevalence of probable depression from 5.4% in early pregnancy to 10.0% in late pregnancy (P < .001), whereas the anxiety symptoms decreased, with a prevalence of probable anxiety from 17.9% to 14.2% (P < .001). Characteristics associated with depressive or anxiety symptoms included low level of education, multiparity, a history of depression, severe nausea, extreme fatigue, lack of physical exercise, and negative life events. Being non‐Dutch, not living with a partner, and having an unplanned pregnancy or a long time to pregnancy were associated with the depressive and/or anxiety symptoms in early pregnancy only.
Discussion
Symptoms of depression and anxiety are common in both early and late pregnancy. Screening for risk factors in early pregnancy is important, since prenatal depression and anxiety may be related to adverse maternal and child health outcomes.
Siglecs (sialic acid-binding immunoglobulin-type lectins) are a family of immune regulatory receptors predominantly found on the cells of the hematopoietic system. A V-set Ig-like domain mediates the ...recognition of different sialylated glycoconjugates, which can lead to the activation or inhibition of the immune response, depending on the involved Siglecs. Siglecs are categorized into two subgroups: one including all CD33-related Siglecs and the other consisting of Siglec-1 (Sialoadhesin), Siglec-2 (CD22), Siglec-4 (myelin-associated glycoprotein, MAG) and Siglec-15. In contrast to the members of the CD33-related Siglecs, which share ∼50–99% sequence identity, Siglecs of the other subgroup show quite low homology (approximately 25–30% sequence identity). Based on the published sequences and functions of Siglecs, we performed phylogenetic analyses and sequence alignments to reveal the conservation of Siglecs throughout evolution. Therefore, we focused on the presence of Siglecs in different classes of vertebrates (fishes, amphibians, birds, reptiles and mammals), offering a bridge between the presence of different Siglecs and the biological situations of the selected animals.
•Highly conserved Siglecs are present after separation of bony from jawless fishes.•The development of the BCR system, myelination and bones comes along with Siglecs.•Mammalian family of CD33-related Siglecs appears during the development of lactation.
The steroid hormone ecdysone is the central regulator of insect developmental transitions. Recent new advances in our understanding of ecdysone action have relied heavily on the application of ...Drosophila melanogaster molecular genetic tools to study insect metamorphosis. In this review, we focus on three major aspects of Drosophila ecdysone biology: (a) factors that regulate the timing of ecdysone release, (b) molecular basis of stage- and tissue-specific responses to ecdysone, and (c) feedback regulation and coordination of ecdysone signaling.
Tomato variety Hawaii 7996 is resistant to the soil-borne pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum, whereas the Moneymaker variety is susceptible to the pathogen. To evaluate whether plant-associated ...microorganisms have a role in disease resistance, we analyzed the rhizosphere microbiomes of both varieties in a mesocosm experiment. Microbiome structures differed between the two cultivars. Transplantation of rhizosphere microbiota from resistant plants suppressed disease symptoms in susceptible plants. Comparative analyses of rhizosphere metagenomes from resistant and susceptible plants enabled the identification and assembly of a flavobacterial genome that was far more abundant in the resistant plant rhizosphere microbiome than in that of the susceptible plant. We cultivated this flavobacterium, named TRM1, and found that it could suppress R. solanacearum-disease development in a susceptible plant in pot experiments. Our findings reveal a role for native microbiota in protecting plants from microbial pathogens, and our approach charts a path toward the development of probiotics to ameliorate plant diseases.
Can Organic Solvent Nanofiltration (OSN) be considered green? Is OSN greener than other downstream processing technologies? These are the two main questions addressed critically in the present ...review. Further questions dealt with in the review are as follows: What is the carbon footprint associated with the fabrication and disposal of membrane modules? How much solvent has to be processed by OSN before the environmental burden of OSN is less than the environmental burden of alternative technologies? What are the main challenges for improving the sustainability of OSN? How can the concept of Quality by Design (QbD) improve and assist the progress of the OSN field? Does the scale have an effect on the sustainability of membrane processes? The green aspects of OSN membrane fabrication, processes development and scale-up as well as the supporting concept of QbD, and solvent recovery technologies are critically assessed and future research directions are given, in this review.
Aspects of OSN membrane fabrication, processes development and scale-up are critically assessed and future research directions are suggested.
ABSTRACT
The interpretation of redshift surveys requires modelling the relationship between large-scale fluctuations in the observed number density of tracers, δh, and the underlying matter density, ...δ. Bias models often express δh as a truncated series of integro-differential operators acting on δ, each weighted by a bias parameter. Due to the presence of ‘composite operators’ (obtained by multiplying fields evaluated at the same spatial location), the linear bias parameter measured from clustering statistics does not coincide with that appearing in the bias expansion. This issue can be cured by re-writing the expansion in terms of ‘renormalized’ operators. After providing a pedagogical and comprehensive review of bias renormalization in perturbation theory, we generalize the concept to non-perturbative dynamics and successfully apply it to dark-matter haloes extracted from a large suite of N-body simulations. When comparing numerical and perturbative results, we highlight the effect of the window function employed to smooth the random fields. We then measure the bias parameters as a function of halo mass by fitting a non-perturbative bias model (both before and after applying renormalization) to the cross spectrum $P_{\delta _\mathrm{h}\delta }(k)$. Finally, we employ Bayesian model selection to determine the optimal operator set to describe $P_{\delta _\mathrm{h}\delta }(k)$ for $k\lt 0.2\, h$ Mpc−1 at redshift z = 0. We find that it includes δ, ∇2δ, δ2 and the square of the traceless tidal tensor, s2. Considering higher order terms (in δ) leads to overfitting as they cannot be precisely constrained by our data. We also notice that next-to-leading-order perturbative solutions are inaccurate for k ≳ 0.1 h Mpc−1.
Water treatment technologies for arsenic removal from groundwater have been extensively studied due to widespread arsenic contamination of drinking water sources. Central to the successful ...application of arsenic water treatment systems is the consideration of appropriate disposal methods for arsenic-bearing wastes generated during treatment. However, specific recommendations for arsenic waste disposal are often lacking or mentioned as an area for future research and the proper disposal and stabilization of arsenic-bearing waste remains a barrier to the successful implementation of arsenic removal technologies. This review summarizes current disposal options for arsenic-bearing wastes, including landfilling, stabilization, cow dung mixing, passive aeration, pond disposal, and soil disposal. The findings from studies that simulate these disposal conditions are included and compared to results from shorter, regulatory tests. In many instances, short-term leaching tests do not adequately address the range of conditions encountered in disposal environments. Future research directions are highlighted and include establishing regulatory test conditions that align with actual disposal conditions and evaluating nonlandfill disposal options for developing countries.
ObjectiveGastric cancer (GC) is a leading cause of cancer-related mortality. Although microbes besides Helicobacter pylori may also contribute to gastric carcinogenesis, wild-type germ-free (GF) ...mouse models investigating the role of human gastric microbiota in the process are not yet available. We aimed to evaluate the histopathological features of GF mouse stomachs transplanted with gastric microbiota from patients with different gastric disease states and their relationships with the microbiota.DesignMicrobiota profiles in corpus and antrum tissues and gastric fluid from 12 patients with gastric dysplasia or GC were analysed. Thereafter, biopsied corpus and antrum tissues and gastric fluid from patients (n=15 and n=12, respectively) with chronic superficial gastritis, intestinal metaplasia or GC were inoculated into 42 GF C57BL/6 mice. The gastric microbiota was analysed by amplicon sequencing. Histopathological features of mouse stomachs were analysed immunohistochemically at 1 month after inoculation. An independent set of an additional 15 GF mice was also analysed at 1 year.ResultsThe microbial community structures of patients with dysplasia or GC in the corpus and antrum were similar. The gastric microbiota from patients with intestinal metaplasia or GC selectively colonised the mouse stomachs and induced premalignant lesions: loss of parietal cells and increases in inflammation foci, in F4/80 and Ki-67 expression, and in CD44v9/GSII lectin expression. Marked dysplastic changes were noted at 1 year post inoculation.ConclusionMajor histopathological features of premalignant changes are reproducible in GF mice transplanted with gastric microbiota from patients with intestinal metaplasia or GC. Our results suggest that GF mice are useful for analysing the causality of associations reported in human gastric microbiome studies.
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