Equine degenerative myeloencephalopathy: prevalence, impact, and management.

Equine neuroaxonal dystrophy/equine degenerative myeloencephalopathy is an inherited neurodegenerative disorder affecting many horse breeds. Clinical signs include a symmetric ataxia and an abnormal stance at rest, similar to cervical vertebral compressive myelopathy, equine protozoal myeloencephalitis, and equine herpesvirus 1 myeloencephalopathy. This review will provide an update on the disease prevalence, management, impact, and ongoing research

Gendered Synthetic Love: Real Dolls and the Construction of Intimacy

Real Dolls are life-size, anatomically correct figures. Except for their lifelessness, they are made to look and feel like humans. The availability of Real Dolls allows us to examine the social significance of relationships and gender expectations in a new light. In this paper, we are interested in how the Real Dolls are being offered and accepted as alternative partners. Specifically, we examine the relationship between the commodification of the body and the agency individuals have to create intimacy and connection. We conducted an exploratory content analysis of the customer testimonials on the Real Doll website. Results suggest that the Dolls fit into the stereotypical ideal beauty and promote the commodification of bodies. Buyers use these Dolls not just for sexual gratification but are also used for emotional support. The consequences of these attachments are discussed

Generational Aspects of U.S. Public Opinion on Renewable Energy and Climate Change

The topics of climate change and renewable energy often are linked in policy discussions and scientific analysis, but public opinion on these topics exhibits both overlap and divergence. Although renewable energy has potentially broader acceptance than anthropogenic climate change, it can also sometimes face differently-based opposition. Analyses of U.S. and regional surveys, including time series of repeated surveys in New Hampshire (2010–2018) and northeast Oregon (2011–2018), explore the social bases of public views on both issues. Political divisions are prominent, although somewhat greater regarding climate change. Such divisions widen with education, an interaction effect documented in other studies as well. We also see robust age and temporal effects. Younger adults more often prioritize renewable energy development, and agree with scientists on the reality of anthropogenic climate change (ACC). Across all age groups and both regional series, support for renewable energy and recognition of ACC have been gradually rising. These trends, together with age-cohort replacement and possible changes in age-group voting participation, suggest that public pressure for action on these issues could grow

Romanian Men\u27s Masculinities in Online Personal Advertisements

The present paper analyses Romanian men\u27s masculinities via a quantitative and qualitative analysis of 380 online personal advertisements posted by men. The case of Romania is particularly interesting for understanding gender relations, since the country has recently experienced the impact of (post-) communisim, democratization, and resurging traditionalism. Romanian men\u27s advertisements often express traditional gender relations: men-seeking-women are interested in attractive, less educated partners, while men-seeking-men emphasize discretion. Some men resist such patriarchal standards: men-seeking-women who are highly educated prefer educated women, and some men-seeking-men give out recognizable photos of themselves. Limitations and further research directions are discussed

Differences in Romanian Men\u27s Online Personals by Sexualities

As Internet usage increases, its ability to provide almost instant connections and to pre-screen potential partners has made it a popular source for meeting people. To contribute to current literature, we examine differences in content between 187 men seeking men and 193 men seeking women in a sample of Romanian (Bucharest) personals in 2007. Results show that men seeking women provide more information about themselves than men seeking men. While the results also show that some Romanian men are more open about expressing their sexualities than others, there are still many obstacles affecting how men choose to share and express their sexualities in Romania

Single-trial learning of novel stimuli by individual neurons of the human hippocampus-amygdala complex

The ability to distinguish novel from familiar stimuli allows nervous systems to rapidly encode significant events following even a single exposure to a stimulus. This detection of novelty is necessary for many types of learning. Neurons in the medial temporal lobe (MTL) are critically involved in the acquisition of long-term declarative memories. During a learning task, we recorded from individual MTL neurons in vivo using microwire electrodes implanted in human epilepsy surgery patients. We report here the discovery of two classes of neurons in the hippocampus and amygdala that exhibit single-trial learning: novelty and familiarity detectors, which show a selective increase in firing for new and old stimuli, respectively. The neurons retain memory for the stimulus for 24 hr. Thus, neurons in the MTL contain information sufficient for reliable novelty-familiarity discrimination and also show rapid plasticity as a result of single-trial learning

Multiple ecological scales of host-parasite interactions using the three-spined stickleback and Schistocephalus solidus model system

Parasites are powerful forces of selection shaping evolutionary and ecological processes such as maintenance of genetic polymorphism, species diversity, divergent selection, or even the evolution of sex. Studying hostparasite interactions offers a great way to catch evolution in action, yet much remains to be discovered about the underlying mechanisms. Indeed, hostparasite interactions are often the results of complex interactions at different ecological and evolutionary scales. Predicting in which direction reciprocal hostparasite interactions are driving resistance and virulence is challenging, but crucial for diverse fields of research such as epidemiology, conservation or speciation as it helps to foresee infectious diseases epidemics, population dynamics, or species diversification. In this thesis I (and my co-authors) aimed at uncovering the underlying mechanisms of host-parasite interactions at different ecological scales for my model system. The three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) and its specific tapeworm Schistocephalus solidus offer a unique opportunity to combine field observations and controlled experimentation in a vertebrate host. We used populations differing in ecology and coevolutionary history in field studies and experimental infections to investigate host-parasite interactions at the within-host, between-host, population and community scales. In my first chapter I look at how the parasite community as a whole shapes host resistance by examining how relaxed parasite selection influence host immunocompetence and gene flow in a natural system. Over a 4-year field survey of the macroparasite community of two Norwegian three-spined stickleback populations, we found clear and stable patterns of drastically divergent parasite pressures potentially limiting the gene flow between locally adapted river and lake fish populations. We documented for the first time a macroparasite-free three-spined stickleback population and demonstrated experimentally its inferior resistance to two macroparasite species (S. solidus and Diplostomum pseudospathaceum) compare to the nearby parasite-rich population. These results confirmed theoretical predictions that while the population experiencing a relaxed parasite selection was found to be in better general condition in its native habitat, it actually had a reduced resistance when exposed to parasites. This shows that divergent parasite communities can select for different immunocompetence and limit gene flow between divergent host populations. In the second chapter, I disentangle the ecological and evolutionary components affecting S. solidus natural infection patterns in Canadian and European populations. By performing reciprocal infections of three-spined sticklebacks and S. solidus from the same or different continents, we were able to show that freshwater populations have recently evolved a global resistance to S. solidus infections when marine ancestral populations colonized new freshwater habitats. In those populations, S. solidus has counter adapted by evolving local infectivity to three-spined stickleback populations. The pattern of susceptibility/resistance observed in the different experimental combinations represents a departure from the main theoretical models of host-parasite interactions, “gene-for-gene” and “matching-allele”. We proposed a hybrid conceptual model in which hosts first evolve global resistance by recognizing a conserved parasite motif (targeted-recognition), and in response, parasites counter adapt with different local infectivity strategies (“matching-allele”). In my third chapter, I investigate the genetic basis of three-spined sticklebacks resistance to S. solidus in two studied populations. Using experimental infections and gene expression measurements (RT-qPCR), we evaluated the differential expression of specific immune candidate genes between sympatric (coevolved) and allopatric (non-coevolved) host-parasite combinations at three time points. We identified different rates of host exploitation for the different infection combinations, reflecting the importance of coevolution for optimal parasite virulence and host resistance. In particular, the sympatric combinations reached a similar optimal relative level of host exploitation, while in contrast allopatric combinations resulted in either over- or under-host exploitation. Differential expression of immune genes between treatment groups revealed the manipulation of the host immune system by their coevolved parasites. These results indicate a complex interplay between parasite and host via the host immune system during infections. Coevolution favoured local adaptation of both host and parasite genotypes through the selection for optimal host immune response and parasite evasion/manipulation. In my fourth chapter I explored how parasite-parasite competition influences the expression of virulence in competing parasite genotypes. We used a highly virulent and a less virulent strain of S. solidus to measure individual parasite virulence in homologous and heterologous co-infections. We found that while virulence is strongly genetically determined, there is also a plastic dimension to this trait, as virulence depended on the co-infection competitor. This plasticity might reflect that S. solidus exploits its host through the production of a combination of common and strain-specific goods, which also mediates within-host competition. Plasticity through within-host interactions could affect the strength of host-parasite interactions as it reduces the phenotypic variation between different parasite genotypes. Hence, virulence plasticity could contribute to the maintenance of virulence polymorphism at a meta-population level. This thesis highlights the complexity of factors shaping host-parasite interactions at different ecological and individual levels in the model system three-spined stickleback/S. solidus. Specifically, our results show a geographic structure of interactions as local environmental factors and coevolutionary histories create the conditions for local and reciprocal adaptation of host and parasite

Detection of node group membership in networks with group overlap

Most networks found in social and biochemical systems have modular structures. An important question prompted by the modularity of these networks is whether nodes can be said to belong to a single group. If they cannot, we would need to consider the role of "overlapping communities." Despite some efforts in this direction, the problem of detecting overlapping groups remains unsolved because there is neither a formal definition of overlapping community, nor an ensemble of networks with which to test the performance of group detection algorithms when nodes can belong to more than one group. Here, we introduce an ensemble of networks with overlapping groups. We then apply three group identification methods--modularity maximization, k-clique percolation, and modularity-landscape surveying--to these networks. We find that the modularity-landscape surveying method is the only one able to detect heterogeneities in node memberships, and that those heterogeneities are only detectable when the overlap is small. Surprisingly, we find that the k-clique percolation method is unable to detect node membership for the overlapping case.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures. To appear in Euro. Phys. J

X-ray Crystallographic Analysis of Quinoline N-oxide and Isoquinoline N-oxide with Zinc Halides, Nitrates, Perchlorates.

We have worked to analyze the chemistry between aromatic N-oxides, Quinoline N-oxide and Isoquinoline N-oxide, with zinc halides, nitrates, and perchlorates by X-ray crystallography. These structures were formed by reaction of the aromatic N-oxides with an equivalent of the zinc halide, nitrate, or perchlorate. These N-oxides had been chosen due to being the focus of this study. We will present the crystallographic X-ray structures of the synthesized novel complexes of the N-oxides with either a zinc halide, zinc nitrate, and zinc perchlorate