Fear, Parental Behavior, and Community Structure in Residential Lands

In an urbanizing world, residential lands present an opportunity for conservation of biodiversity right in our backyards. Informed conservation necessitates a mechanistic understanding of how development influences animal populations and communities. Birds nesting in residential lands are less productive in urban yards than rural yards. Urban yards also have higher densities of potential predators, but lower per capita predation, indicating that direct predation is not entirely responsible for lack of productivity. I suggest that fear effects, also known as non-lethal effects, could be a mechanism by which predators exert indirect influence on bird parental behavior and nestling condition in urban yards. I investigated how fear of adult-consuming predators interacts with urbanization to affect parental behavior and nestling condition in residential yards across an urban gradient in western Massachusetts. We conducted a predator playback experiment on nesting house wrens (Troglodytes aedon), measuring nestling condition and parental behavior. We found that nestlings exposed to predator playbacks and in urban yards had reduced mass compared nestlings exposed to control playbacks and in rural yards. To varying degrees across the gradient, predator playbacks suppressed provisioning rates and brooding durations. Nestling age, clutch size, habitat structure, and microclimate were also related to provisioning rates and brooding durations. In an associated study, we examined the relationship between landscape-scale and parcel-scale features and mammal community structure by deploying camera traps in the same yards. Many mammal species are potential nest and/or adult-consuming predators of house wrens, so changes in the mammal community could alter trophic dynamics and influence fear effects across the gradient. Mammalian community composition varied significantly across the urban gradient, and species richness responded non-linearly to urbanization, with peak richness in the suburbs and in yards with larger mean tree diameters. These results, coupled with fear’s influence on bird parental behavior and nestling condition, highlight the importance of considering both direct and indirect effects of trophic dynamics in urban systems

Diclidophora luscae (Monogenea: Diclidophoridae) in pouting, Trisopterus luscus (Linnaeus, 1758) from the northeast Atlantic; epidemiology, morphology, molecular and phylogenetic analysis

Diclidophora (Monogenea) species are gill parasites with a stenoxenic specifcity occurring only in Gadiformes. Epidemiologi‑cal, morphological, molecular and phylogenetic studies were performed on 594 Diclidophora specimens collected from 213 Trisopterus luscus captured in the northeast Atlantic of the Portuguese coast during 2012, 2013 and 2020. Prevalence, parasite abundance and infection intensity were determined. Positive correlation between fsh weight and length and infection intensity was observed. The efects of preservation on the parasite morphological features were studied, highlighting that specimen’s identifcation should be reinforced by molecular studies. A sequence of D. luscae capelanii from T. capelanus captured in the Mediterranean Sea included in the 28S rDNA molecular analysis was nested within a robust D. luscae clade. Data analysis suggested that this species is in fact D. luscae, which is compatible with T. luscus and T. capelanus. The identity of fsh hosts was confrmed by barcoding. For the frst time, data on the infection parameters is shown, highlighting the importance of including this parasite in the monitoring plans for a holistic approach with possible efects for the management of pouting resources aiming of attaining sustainable development and biodiversity conservation measures, according to the 14th objective of the 2030 agendainfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Preferential responses to faces in superior temporal and medial prefrontal cortex in three-year-old children

Perceiving faces and understanding emotions are key components of human social cognition. Prior research with adults and infants suggests that these social cognitive functions are supported by superior temporal cortex (STC) and medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC). We used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to characterize functional responses in these cortical regions to faces in early childhood. Three-year-old children (n = 88, M(SD) = 3.15(.16) years) passively viewed faces that varied in emotional content and valence (happy, angry, fearful, neutral) and, for fearful and angry faces, intensity (100%, 40%), while undergoing fNIRS. Bilateral STC and MPFC showed greater oxygenated hemoglobin concentration values to all faces relative to objects. MPFC additionally responded preferentially to happy faces relative to neutral faces. We did not detect preferential responses to angry or fearful faces, or overall differences in response magnitude by emotional valence (100% happy vs. fearful and angry) or intensity (100% vs. 40% fearful and angry). In exploratory analyses, preferential responses to faces in MPFC were not robustly correlated with performance on tasks of early social cognition. These results link and extend adult and infant research on functional responses to faces in STC and MPFC and contribute to the characterization of the neural correlates of early social cognition

Psychosocial impact of alternative management policies for low-grade cervical abnormalities : results from the TOMBOLA randomised controlled trial

Background: Large numbers of women who participate in cervical screening require follow-up for minor cytological abnormalities. Little is known about the psychological consequences of alternative management policies for these women. We compared, over 30-months, psychosocial outcomes of two policies: cytological surveillance (repeat cervical cytology tests in primary care) and a hospital-based colposcopy examination. Methods: Women attending for a routine cytology test within the UK NHS Cervical Screening Programmes were eligible to participate. 3399 women, aged 20–59 years, with low-grade abnormal cytology, were randomised to cytological surveillance (six-monthly tests; n = 1703) or initial colposcopy with biopsies and/or subsequent treatment based on colposcopic and histological findings (n = 1696). At 12, 18, 24 and 30-months post-recruitment, women completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). A subgroup (n = 2354) completed the Impact of Event Scale (IES) six weeks after the colposcopy episode or first surveillance cytology test. Primary outcomes were percentages over the entire follow-up period of significant depression (≥8) and significant anxiety (≥11; “30-month percentages”). Secondary outcomes were point prevalences of significant depression, significant anxiety and procedure-related distress (≥9). Outcomes were compared between arms by calculating fully-adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for initial colposcopy versus cytological surveillance. Results: There was no significant difference in 30-month percentages of significant depression (OR = 0.99, 95% CI 0.80–1.21) or anxiety (OR = 0.97, 95% CI 0.81–1.16) between arms. At the six-week assessment, anxiety and distress, but not depression, were significantly less common in the initial colposcopy arm (anxiety: 7.9% vs 13.4%; OR = 0.55, 95% CI 0.38–0.81; distress: 30.6% vs 39.3%, OR = 0.67 95% CI 0.54–0.84). Neither anxiety nor depression differed between arms at subsequent time-points. Conclusions: There was no difference in the longer-term psychosocial impact of management policies based on cytological surveillance or initial colposcopy. Policy-makers, clinicians, and women themselves can be reassured that neither management policy has a significantly greater psychosocial cost

Ant Possibilistic Fuzzy Clustered Forecasting on High Dimensional Data

ABSTRACT: Stock market plays a significant role and has greater influence on basic economic energies of a country. Rapid changes in the stock exchange market with high dimensional uncertain data make the investors to look for effective forecasting using prediction mining techniques. The high dimensional stock data are classified into profitability, stability, cash flow and growth rate but does not deal completely with uncertain attribute values. On the other hand with large amount of uncertainty, the stock attributes and classes are not included simultaneously with the conditional probabilistic (i.e., Fuzzy set) distributional functions. Moreover, the test Possibilistic approaches (i.e., predictive mining) is not carried out on genuine uncertain data. So, the research pay attention on solving the forecasting problem with predictive data mining approach and helps the investors to select suitable portfolios. To forecast complex high dimensional uncertain data, Ant Possibilistic Fuzzy Clustered Forecasting (AP-FCF) method is proposed in this paper. AP-FCF method avoids the repeating mistake on uncertain stock attributes and classes and provides domain knowledge to the investors according to the current feature salience

Heterocellular Contacts with Mouse Brain Endothelial Cells Via Laminin and alpha 6 beta 1 Integrin Sustain Subventricular Zone (SVZ) Stem/Progenitor Cells Properties

Neurogenesis in the subventricular zone (SVZ) is regulated by diffusible factors and cell-cell contacts. In vivo, SVZ stem cells are associated with the abluminal surface of blood vessels and such interactions are thought to regulate their neurogenic capacity. SVZ neural stem cells (NSCs) have been described to contact endothelial-derived laminin via (01 integrin. To elucidate whether heterocellular contacts with brain endothelial cells (BEG) regulate SVZ cells neurogenic capacities, cocultures of SVZ neurospheres and primary BEG, both obtained from C57BL/6 mice, were performed. The involvement of laminin integrin interactions in SVZ homeostasis was tested in three ways. Firstly, SVZ cells were analyzed following incubation of BEC with the protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide (GHX) prior to coculture, a treatment expected to decrease membrane proteins. Secondly, SVZ cells were cocultured with BEG in the presence of an anti-alpha 6 integrin neutralizing antibody. Thirdly, BEC were cultured with beta 1(-/-) SVZ cells. We showed that contact with BEC supports, at least in part, proliferation and stemness of SVZ cells, as evaluated by the number of BrdU positive (+) and Sox2+ cells in contact with BEG. These effects are dependent on BEG-derived laminin binding to alpha 6 beta 1 integrin and are decreased in cocultures incubated with anti-alpha 6 integrin neutralizing antibody and in cocultures with SVZ beta 1(-/-) cells. Moreover, BEG-derived laminin sustains sternness in SVZ cell cultures via activation of the Notch and mTOR signaling pathways. Our results show that BEC/SVZ interactions involving alpha 6 beta 1 integrin binding to laminin, contribute to SVZ cell proliferation and stemness

Foetal neural progenitors contribute to postnatal circuits formation ex vivo: an electrophysiological investigation

Neuronal progenitor cells (NPC) play an essential role in homeostasis of the central nervous system (CNS). Considering their ability to differentiate into specific lineages, their manipulation and control could have a major therapeutic impact for those CNS injuries or degenerative diseases characterized by neuronal cell loss. In this work, we established an in vitro co-culture and tested the ability of foetal NPC (fNPC) to integrate among post-mitotic hippocampal neurons and contribute to the electrical activity of the resulting networks. We performed extracellular electrophysiological recordings of the activity of neuronal networks and compared the properties of spontaneous spiking in hippocampal control cultures (HCC), fNPC, and mixed circuitries ex vivo. We further employed patch-clamp intracellular recordings to examine single-cell excitability. We report of the capability of fNPC to mature when combined to hippocampal neurons, shaping the profile of network activity, a result suggestive of newly formed connectivity ex vivo

New insights about the introduction of the Portuguese oyster, Crassostrea angulata, into the North East Atlantic from Asia based on a highly polymorphic mitochondrial region

It is commonly presumed that the Portuguese oyster Crassostrea angulata was introduced into the North East (NE) Atlantic from Asia. The analysis of the nucleotide sequence of a highly polymorphic non-coding mitochondrial region (major noncoding region - MNR) of C. angulata samples collected in Europe (Portugal), Africa (Morocco) and Asia (Shantou and Taiwan) provided new insight into the introduction of this species into the NE Atlantic. Sixty haplotypes and a nucleotide diversity of 0.0077 were observed in 130 analyzed sequences. Higher nucleotide diversity levels were observed in NE Atlantic sites than in Asian sites and significant genetic differentiation was found between the two. Our results suggest that C. angulata might have been introduced to the NE Atlantic by multiple introductory events, though the exact origins remain unknown since none of the analyzed Asian sites seemed to have been a source of introduction. The nucleotide diversity of C. angulata was higher than that previously reported for Pacific oyster C. gigas in Europe and Asia for the same mitochondrial region. The results obtained in the present study suggest that NE Atlantic C. angulata stocks are a unique genetic resource, which highlights the importance of their conservation