COVIDiSTRESS Global Survey dataset on psychological and behavioural consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak

This N = 173,426 social science dataset was collected through the collaborative COVIDiSTRESS Global Survey - an open science effort to improve understanding of the human experiences of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic between 30th March and 30th May, 2020. The dataset allows a cross-cultural study of psychological and behavioural responses to the Coronavirus pandemic and associated government measures like cancellation of public functions and stay at home orders implemented in many countries. The dataset contains demographic background variables as well as measures of Asian Disease Problem, perceived stress (PSS-10), availability of social provisions (SPS-10), trust in various authorities, trust in governmental measures to contain the virus (OECD trust), personality traits (BFF-15), information behaviours, agreement with the level of government intervention, and compliance with preventive measures, along with a rich pool of exploratory variables and written experiences. A global consortium from 39 countries and regions worked together to build and translate a survey with variables of shared interests, and recruited participants in 47 languages and dialects. Raw plus cleaned data and dynamic visualizations are available.Measurement(s) psychological measurement center dot anxiety-related behavior trait center dot Stress center dot response to center dot Isolation center dot loneliness measurement center dot Emotional Distress Technology Type(s) Survey Factor Type(s) geographic location center dot language center dot age of participant center dot responses to the Coronavirus pandemic Sample Characteristic - Organism Homo sapiens Sample Characteristic - Location global Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data:Peer reviewe

Stress and worry in the 2020 coronavirus pandemic: Relationships to trust and compliance with preventive measures across 48 countries in the COVIDiSTRESS global survey

The COVIDiSTRESS global survey collects data on early human responses to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic from 173 429 respondents in 48 countries. The open science study was co-designed by an international consortium of researchers to investigate how psychological responses differ across countries and cultures, and how this has impacted behaviour, coping and trust in government efforts to slow the spread of the virus. Starting in March 2020, COVIDiSTRESS leveraged the convenience of unpaid online recruitment to generate public data. The objective of the present analysis is to understand relationships between psychological responses in the early months of global coronavirus restrictions and help understand how different government measures succeed or fail in changing public behaviour. There were variations between and within countries. Although Western Europeans registered as more concerned over COVID-19, more stressed, and having slightly more trust in the governments' efforts, there was no clear geographical pattern in compliance with behavioural measures. Detailed plots illustrating between-countries differences are provided. Using both traditional and Bayesian analyses, we found that individuals who worried about getting sick worked harder to protect themselves and others. However, concern about the coronavirus itself did not account for all of the variances in experienced stress during the early months of COVID-19 restrictions. More alarmingly, such stress was associated with less compliance. Further, those most concerned over the coronavirus trusted in government measures primarily where policies were strict. While concern over a disease is a source of mental distress, other factors including strictness of protective measures, social support and personal lockdown conditions must also be taken into consideration to fully appreciate the psychological impact of COVID-19 and to understand why some people fail to follow behavioural guidelines intended to protect themselves and others from infection. The Stage 1 manuscript associated with this submission received in-principle acceptance (IPA) on 18 May 2020. Following IPA, the accepted Stage 1 version of the manuscript was preregistered on the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/g2t3b. This preregistration was performed prior to data analysis

Stress and worry in the 2020 coronavirus pandemic : relationships to trust and compliance with preventive measures across 48 countries in the COVIDiSTRESS global survey

The COVIDiSTRESS global survey collects data on early human responses to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic from 173 429 respondents in 48 countries. The open science study was co-designed by an international consortium of researchers to investigate how psychological responses differ across countries and cultures, and how this has impacted behaviour, coping and trust in government efforts to slow the spread of the virus. Starting in March 2020, COVIDiSTRESS leveraged the convenience of unpaid online recruitment to generate public data. The objective of the present analysis is to understand relationships between psychological responses in the early months of global coronavirus restrictions and help understand how different government measures succeed or fail in changing public behaviour. There were variations between and within countries. Although Western Europeans registered as more concerned over COVID-19, more stressed, and having slightly more trust in the governments' efforts, there was no clear geographical pattern in compliance with behavioural measures. Detailed plots illustrating between-countries differences are provided. Using both traditional and Bayesian analyses, we found that individuals who worried about getting sick worked harder to protect themselves and others. However, concern about the coronavirus itself did not account for all of the variances in experienced stress during the early months of COVID-19 restrictions. More alarmingly, such stress was associated with less compliance. Further, those most concerned over the coronavirus trusted in government measures primarily where policies were strict. While concern over a disease is a source of mental distress, other factors including strictness of protective measures, social support and personal lockdown conditions must also be taken into consideration to fully appreciate the psychological impact of COVID-19 and to understand why some people fail to follow behavioural guidelines intended to protect themselves and others from infection. The Stage 1 manuscript associated with this submission received in-principle acceptance (IPA) on 18 May 2020. Following IPA, the accepted Stage 1 version of the manuscript was preregistered on the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/g2t3b. This preregistration was performed prior to data analysis.Peer reviewe

A 96-wells fluidic system for high-throughput screenings under laminar high wall shear stress conditions

Abstract The ability of endothelial cells to respond to blood flow is fundamental for the correct formation and maintenance of a functional and hierarchically organized vascular network. Defective flow responses, in particular related to high flow conditions, have been associated with atherosclerosis, stroke, arteriovenous malformations, and neurodegenerative diseases. Yet, the molecular mechanisms involved in high flow response are still poorly understood. Here, we described the development and validation of a 96-wells fluidic system, with interchangeable cell culture and fluidics, to perform high-throughput screenings under laminar high-flow conditions. We demonstrated that endothelial cells in our newly developed 96-wells fluidic system respond to fluid flow-induced shear stress by aligning along the flow direction and increasing the levels of KLF2 and KLF4. We further demonstrate that our 96-wells fluidic system allows for efficient gene knock-down compatible with automated liquid handling for high-throughput screening platforms. Overall, we propose that this modular 96-well fluidic system is an excellent platform to perform genome-wide and/or drug screenings to identify the molecular mechanisms involved in the responses of endothelial cells to high wall shear stress

Serum response factor is required for sprouting angiogenesis and vascular integrity

Serum response factor (SRF) is a transcription factor that controls the expression of cytoskeletal proteins and immediate early genes in different cell types. Here, we found that SRF expression is restricted to endothelial cells (ECs) of small vessels such as capillaries in the mouse embryo. EC-specific Srf deletion led to aneurysms and hemorrhages from 11.5 days of mouse development (E11.5) and lethality at E14.5. Mutant embryos presented a reduced capillary density and defects in EC migration, with fewer numbers of filopodia in tip cells and ECs showing defects in actin polymerization and intercellular junctions. We show that SRF is essential for the expression of VE-cadherin and beta-actin in ECs both in vivo and in vitro. Moreover, knockdown of SRF in ECs impaired VEGF- and FGF-induced in vitro angiogenesis. Taken together, our results demonstrate that SRF plays an important role in sprouting angiogenesis and small vessel integrity in the mouse embryo

Mosaic inactivation of the serum response factor gene in the myocardium induces focal lesions and heart failure

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Regional alterations in ventricular mechanical functions are a primary determinant for the risk of myocardial injuries in various cardiomyopathies. The serum response factor (SRF) is a transcription factor regulating contractile and cytoskeletal genes and may play an important role in the remodelling of myocardium at the cellular level. METHODS: Using Desmin-Cre transgenic mice, we generated a model of mosaic inactivation of a floxed-Srf allele in the heart to analyze the consequence of regional alterations of SRF-mediated functions in the myocardium. RESULTS: Two types of cardiomyocytes co-existed in the Desmin-Cre:Sf/Sf mice. Cardiomyocytes lacking SRF became thin and elongated while cardiomyocytes containing SRF became hypertrophic. Several physiological contractile genes were down-regulated while skeletal alpha-actin was induced in SRF positive area only. Mutants developed heart failure associated with the presence of focal lesions in the myocardium, and died before month 11. CONCLUSIONS: Juxtaposition of functional SRF wild-type and failing SRF mutant cardiomyocytes generates deleterious heterogeneity in the myocardium. Our results show that SRF contributes to the capacity of cardiomyocytes to remodel their shape and contractile functions in response to their local environment; suggesting that it may play a role in pathologies involving regional alterations of ventricular mechanics in the heart

Alk1 and Alk5 inhibition by Nrp1 controls vascular sprouting downstream of Notch

Sprouting angiogenesis drives blood vessel growth in healthy and diseased tissues. Vegf and Dll4/Notch signalling cooperate in a negative feedback loop that specifies endothelial tip and stalk cells to ensure adequate vessel branching and function. Current concepts posit that endothelial cells default to the tip-cell phenotype when Notch is inactive. Here we identify instead that the stalk-cell phenotype needs to be actively repressed to allow tip-cell formation. We show this is a key endothelial function of neuropilin-1 (Nrp1), which suppresses the stalk-cell phenotype by limiting Smad2/3 activation through Alk1 and Alk5. Notch downregulates Nrp1, thus relieving the inhibition of Alk1 and Alk5, thereby driving stalk-cell behaviour. Conceptually, our work shows that the heterogeneity between neighbouring endothelial cells established by the lateral feedback loop of Dll4/Notch utilizes Nrp1 levels as the pivot, which in turn establishes differential responsiveness to TGF-β/BMP signalling

Laminin Receptor Involvement in the Anti-angiogenic Activity of Pigment Epithelium-derived Factor*S⃞♦

Pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) is a multifunctional protein with neurotrophic, anti-oxidative, and anti-inflammatory properties. It is also one of the most potent endogenous inhibitors of angiogenesis, playing an important role in restricting tumor growth, invasion, and metastasis. Studies show that PEDF binds to cell surface proteins, but little is known about how it exerts its effects. Recently, research identified phospholipase A2/nutrin/patatin-like phospholipase domain-containing 2 as one PEDF receptor. To identify other receptors, we performed yeast two-hybrid screening using PEDF as bait and discovered that the non-integrin 37/67-kDa laminin receptor (LR) is another PEDF receptor. Co-immunoprecipitation, His tag pulldown, and surface plasmon resonance assays confirmed the interaction between PEDF and LR. Using the yeast two-hybrid method, we further restricted the LR-interacting domain on PEDF to a 34-amino acid (aa) peptide (aa 44–77) and the PEDF-interacting domain on LR to a 91-aa fragment (aa 120–210). A 25-mer peptide named P46 (aa 46–70), derived from 34-mer, interacts with LR in surface plasmon resonance assays and binds to endothelial cell (EC) membranes. This peptide induces EC apoptosis and inhibits EC migration, tube-like network formation in vitro, and retinal angiogenesis ex vivo, like PEDF. Our results suggest that LR is a real PEDF receptor that mediates PEDF angiogenesis inhibition

The role of differential VE-cadherin dynamics in cell rearrangement during angiogenesis

Endothelial cells show surprising cell rearrangement behaviour during angiogenic sprouting; however, the underlying mechanisms and functional importance remain unclear. By combining computational modelling with experimentation, we identify that Notch/VEGFR-regulated differential dynamics of VE-cadherin junctions drive functional endothelial cell rearrangements during sprouting. We propose that continual flux in Notch signalling levels in individual cells results in differential VE-cadherin turnover and junctional-cortex protrusions, which powers differential cell movement. In cultured endothelial cells, Notch signalling quantitatively reduced junctional VE-cadherin mobility. In simulations, only differential adhesion dynamics generated long-range position changes, required for tip cell competition and stalk cell intercalation. Simulation and quantitative image analysis on VE-cadherin junctional patterning in vivo identified that differential VE-cadherin mobility is lost under pathological high VEGF conditions, in retinopathy and tumour vessels. Our results provide a mechanistic concept for how cells rearrange during normal sprouting and how rearrangement switches to generate abnormal vessels in pathologies

COVIDiSTRESS Global Survey dataset on psychological and behavioural consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak

Funder: Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONCYT); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100007350Funder: Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) postdoctoral fellowshipFunder: The HSE University Basic Research ProgramFunder: JSPS KAKENHI Grant JP20K14222Abstract: This N = 173,426 social science dataset was collected through the collaborative COVIDiSTRESS Global Survey – an open science effort to improve understanding of the human experiences of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic between 30th March and 30th May, 2020. The dataset allows a cross-cultural study of psychological and behavioural responses to the Coronavirus pandemic and associated government measures like cancellation of public functions and stay at home orders implemented in many countries. The dataset contains demographic background variables as well as measures of Asian Disease Problem, perceived stress (PSS-10), availability of social provisions (SPS-10), trust in various authorities, trust in governmental measures to contain the virus (OECD trust), personality traits (BFF-15), information behaviours, agreement with the level of government intervention, and compliance with preventive measures, along with a rich pool of exploratory variables and written experiences. A global consortium from 39 countries and regions worked together to build and translate a survey with variables of shared interests, and recruited participants in 47 languages and dialects. Raw plus cleaned data and dynamic visualizations are available