A Novel Criticality Analysis Method for Assessing Obesity Treatment Efficacy

This is the final version. Available on open access from MDPI via the DOI in this recordData Availability Statement: In accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) guidelines, the database utilised in this study is maintained in a confidential and secure manner within the purview of the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences at Oxford Brookes University. Owing to privacy considerations, access to the dataset is restricted to authorised personnel only.Human gait is a significant indicator of overall health and well-being due to its dependence on metabolic requirements. Abnormalities in gait can indicate the presence of metabolic dysfunction, such as diabetes or obesity. However, detecting these can be challenging using classical methods, which often involve subjective clinical assessments or invasive procedures. In this work, a novel methodology known as Criticality Analysis (CA) was applied to the monitoring of the gait of teenagers with varying amounts of metabolic stress who are taking part in an clinical intervention to increase their activity and reduce overall weight. The CA approach analysed gait using inertial measurement units (IMU) by mapping the dynamic gait pattern into a nonlinear representation space. The resulting dynamic paths were then classified using a Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm, which is well-suited for this task due to its ability to handle nonlinear and dynamic data. The combination of the CA approach and the SVM algorithm demonstrated high accuracy and non-invasive detection of metabolic stress. It resulted in an average accuracy within the range of 78.2% to 90%. Additionally, at the group level, it was observed to improve fitness and health during the period of the intervention. Therefore, this methodology showed a great potential to be a valuable tool for healthcare professionals in detecting and monitoring metabolic stress, as well as other associated disorders.Newton Fun

The Influence of Different Stresses on Glomalin Levels in an Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungus—Salinity Increases Glomalin Content

Glomalin is a glycoprotein produced by arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, and the soil fraction containing glomalin is correlated with soil aggregation. Thus, factors potentially influencing glomalin production could be of relevance for this ecosystem process and for understanding AM fungal physiology. Previous work indicated that glomalin production in AM fungi may be a stress response, or related to suboptimal mycelium growth. We show here that environmental stress can enhance glomalin production in the mycelium of the AM fungus Glomus intraradices. We applied NaCl and glycerol in different intensities to the medium in which the fungus was grown in vitro, causing salinity stress and osmotic stress, respectively. As a third stress type, we simulated grazing on the extraradical hyphae of the fungus by mechanically injuring the mycelium by clipping. NaCl caused a strong increase, while the clipping treatment led to a marginally significant increase in glomalin production. Even though salinity stress includes osmotic stress, we found substantially different responses in glomalin production due to the NaCl and the glycerol treatment, as glycerol addition did not cause any response. Thus, our results indicate that glomalin is involved in inducible stress responses in AM fungi for salinity, and possibly grazing stress

Widespread Horizontal Gene Transfer from Circular Single-stranded DNA Viruses to Eukaryotic Genomes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In addition to vertical transmission, organisms can also acquire genes from other distantly related species or from their extra-chromosomal elements (plasmids and viruses) via horizontal gene transfer (HGT). It has been suggested that phages represent substantial forces in prokaryotic evolution. In eukaryotes, retroviruses, which can integrate into host genome as an obligate step in their replication strategy, comprise approximately 8% of the human genome. Unlike retroviruses, few members of other virus families are known to transfer genes to host genomes.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here we performed a systematic search for sequences related to circular single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) viruses in publicly available eukaryotic genome databases followed by comprehensive phylogenetic analysis. We conclude that the replication initiation protein (Rep)-related sequences of geminiviruses, nanoviruses and circoviruses have been frequently transferred to a broad range of eukaryotic species, including plants, fungi, animals and protists. Some of the transferred viral genes were conserved and expressed, suggesting that these genes have been coopted to assume cellular functions in the host genomes. We also identified geminivirus-like and parvovirus-like transposable elements in genomes of fungi and lower animals, respectively, and thereby provide direct evidence that eukaryotic transposons could derive from ssDNA viruses.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our discovery extends the host range of circular ssDNA viruses and sheds light on the origin and evolution of these viruses. It also suggests that ssDNA viruses act as an unforeseen source of genetic innovation in their hosts.</p

Blue carbon stock of the Bangladesh Sundarban mangroves: what could be the scenario after a century?

The total blue carbon stock of the Bangladesh Sundarban mangroves was evaluated and the probable future status after a century was predicted based on the recent trend of changes in the last 30 years and implementing a hybrid model of Markov Chain and Cellular automata. At present 36.24 Tg C and 54.95 Tg C are stored in the above-ground and below-ground compartments respectively resulting in total blue carbon stock of 91.19 Tg C. According to the prediction 15.88 Tg C would be lost from this region by the year 2115. The low saline species composition classes dominated mainly by Heritiera spp. accounts for the major portion of the carbon sock at present (45.60 Tg C), while the highly saline regions stores only 14.90 Tg C. The prediction shows that after a hundred years almost 22.42 Tg C would be lost from the low saline regions accompanied by an increase of 8.20 Tg C in the high saline regions dominated mainly by Excoecaria sp. and Avicennia spp. The net carbon loss would be due to both mangrove area loss (~ 510 km2) and change in species composition leading to 58.28 Tg of potential CO2 emission within the year 2115

How Plants Sense Wounds: Damaged-Self Recognition Is Based on Plant-Derived Elicitors and Induces Octadecanoid Signaling

Background: Animal-derived elicitors can be used by plants to detect herbivory but they function only in specific insect– plant interactions. How can plants generally perceive damage caused by herbivores? Damaged-self recognition occurs when plants perceive molecular signals of damage: degraded plant molecules or molecules localized outside their original compartment. Methodology/Principal Findings: Flame wounding or applying leaf extract or solutions of sucrose or ATP to slightly wounded lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus) leaves induced the secretion of extrafloral nectar, an indirect defense mechanism. Chemically related molecules that would not be released in high concentrations from damaged plant cells (glucose, fructose, salt, and sorbitol) did not elicit a detectable response, excluding osmotic shock as an alternative explanation. Treatments inducing extrafloral nectar secretion also enhanced endogenous concentrations of the defense hormone jasmonic acid (JA). Endogenous JA was also induced by mechanically damaging leaves of lima bean, Arabidopsis, maize, strawberry, sesame and tomato. In lima bean, tomato and sesame, the application of leaf extract further increased endogenous JA content, indicating that damaged-self recognition is taxonomically widely distributed. Transcriptomic patterns obtained with untargeted 454 pyrosequencing of lima bean in response to flame wounding or the application of leaf extract or JA were highly similar to each other, but differed from the response to mere mechanical damage. W

Transcriptome profiling of the rice blast fungus during invasive plant infection and in vitro stresses

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Rice blast is the most threatening disease to cultivated rice. <it>Magnaporthe oryzae</it>, its causal agent, is likely to encounter environmental challenges during invasive growth in its host plants that require shifts in gene expression to establish a compatible interaction. Here, we tested the hypothesis that gene expression patterns during <it>in planta </it>invasive growth are similar to <it>in vitro </it>stress conditions, such as nutrient limitation, temperature up shift and oxidative stress, and determined which condition most closely mimicked that of <it>in planta </it>invasive growth. Gene expression data were collected from these <it>in vitro </it>experiments and compared to fungal gene expression during the invasive growth phase at 72 hours post-inoculation in compatible interactions on two grass hosts, rice and barley.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We identified 4,973 genes that were differentially expressed in at least one of the <it>in planta </it>and <it>in vitro </it>stress conditions when compared to fungal mycelia grown in complete medium, which was used as reference. From those genes, 1,909 showed similar expression patterns between at least one of the <it>in vitro </it>stresses and rice and/or barley. Hierarchical clustering of these 1,909 genes showed three major clusters in which <it>in planta </it>conditions closely grouped with the nutrient starvation conditions. Out of these 1,909 genes, 55 genes and 129 genes were induced and repressed in all treatments, respectively. Functional categorization of the 55 induced genes revealed that most were either related to carbon metabolism, membrane proteins, or were involved in oxidoreduction reactions. The 129 repressed genes showed putative roles in vesicle trafficking, signal transduction, nitrogen metabolism, or molecular transport.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These findings suggest that <it>M. oryzae </it>is likely primarily coping with nutrient-limited environments at the invasive growth stage 72 hours post-inoculation, and not with oxidative or temperature stresses.</p

Lessons from Peer Support Among Individuals with Mental Health Difficulties: A Review of the Literature

We conducted a comprehensive narrative review and used a systematic search strategy to identify studies related to peer support among adults with mental health difficulties. The purposes of this review were to describe the principles, effects and benefits of peer support documented in the published literature, to discuss challenging aspects of peer support and to investigate lessons from peer support. Fifty-one studies, including 8 review articles and 19 qualitative studies, met the inclusion criteria for this review. Most of the challenges for peer support were related to “role” and “relationship” issues; that is, how peer support providers relate to people who receive peer support and how peer support providers are treated in the system. The knowledge gained from peer support relationships, such as mutual responsibility and interdependence, might be a clue toward redefining the helper-helper relationship as well as the concepts of help and support

Global dataset of soil organic carbon in tidal marshes.

Tidal marshes store large amounts of organic carbon in their soils. Field data quantifying soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks provide an important resource for researchers, natural resource managers, and policy-makers working towards the protection, restoration, and valuation of these ecosystems. We collated a global dataset of tidal marsh soil organic carbon (MarSOC) from 99 studies that includes location, soil depth, site name, dry bulk density, SOC, and/or soil organic matter (SOM). The MarSOC dataset includes 17,454 data points from 2,329 unique locations, and 29 countries. We generated a general transfer function for the conversion of SOM to SOC. Using this data we estimated a median (± median absolute deviation) value of 79.2 ± 38.1 Mg SOC ha-1 in the top 30 cm and 231 ± 134 Mg SOC ha-1 in the top 1 m of tidal marsh soils globally. This data can serve as a basis for future work, and may contribute to incorporation of tidal marsh ecosystems into climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies and policies