Patterns and Trends in Cetacean Occurrence Revealed by Shorewatch, a Land-Based Citizen Science Program in Scotland (United Kingdom)

Shorewatch is a citizen science project, managed by Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), that records the occurrence of cetaceans during regular, standardized watches from a series of locations along the coast of Scotland (United Kingdom). Observer training and a clearly defined protocol help deliver a valuable source of information about cetacean occurrence and activity along the coast. Between 2005–2018, over 52000 watches generated over 11000 sightings of at least 18 cetacean species. Generalized Additive Models based on sightings for the five most commonly sighted species (bottlenose dolphin, harbor porpoise, minke whale, Risso’s dolphin, and common dolphin), at those sites with the longest time series, demonstrated seasonal, geographical and year-to-year differences in their local occurrence and relative abundance. Bottlenose dolphins are mainly present at observation sites located on the east coast of Scotland, being uncommon on the west coast, while harbor porpoise and minke whale are principally present at sites located on the west coast. The seasonality observed in cetacean occurrence is consistent with peak abundance in summer months described by previous studies in the area. Mean depth around the observation sites is the static variable that apparently has the greatest influence on species presence and number of sightings, except for Risso’s dolphin. All the species except bottlenose dolphin showed upward trends in occurrence and number of sightings over the period 2012–2018. Evidence of temporal autocorrelation was found between results from consecutive watches at the same site on the same day as well as between results from consecutive days at the same site. The power to detect declines in local abundance over a 6-year period depends on the underlying sighting rate of each cetacean species, the number of watches performed and the rate of decline. Simulations performed to determine the power to detect a decline suggest that the current intensity of observation effort in some observation sites, of about 2500 watches per year, may offer good prospects of detecting a 30% decline of the most frequently sighted species (95% of the time) over a 6-year period, although a more even distribution of observation effort in space and time is desirable. The data could potentially be used for monitoring and 6-yearly reporting of the status of cetacean populations.En prens

Hallmarks of Furman\u27s 2011 retirees: Commitment, foresight and integrity

At the close of the 2010-11 academic year, Furman said farewell to five faculty members who worked at the university for a combined 173 years. As a tribute to the retirees, all of whom have been awarded emeritus status, Furman magazine asked departmental colleagues (and, in two cases, former students) to comment on their careers and contributions

When Is Experiential Avoidance Harmful in the Moment? Examining Global Experiential Avoidance as a Moderator

Background and Objectives: Although experiential avoidance has been shown to predict a wide range of mental health problems, there has been minimal research to-date on the more immediate effects of engaging in experiential avoidance in the moment or the moderators that predict when it is more or less harmful. Methods: An ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study was conducted with 70 undergraduate students who completed assessments three times a day, over seven days as well as a baseline assessment of global questionnaires. Results: Both greater global experiential avoidance and momentary experiential avoidance independently predicted greater momentary negative affect, lower positive affect, and lower valued action. Global experiential avoidance was also a significant moderator of momentary experiential avoidance such that experiential avoidance in the moment was more strongly related to negative effects among those high in global experiential avoidance. Limitations: Study limitations include a non-clinical student sample and use of unvalidated EMA items. Conclusions: Overall, these results suggest engaging in experiential avoidance in the moment has more negative, immediate effects particularly among those who engage in global, inflexible patterns of experiential avoidance

The draft genome of a socially polymorphic halictid bee, Lasioglossum albipes

Background: Taxa that harbor natural phenotypic variation are ideal for ecological genomic approaches aimed at understanding how the interplay between genetic and environmental factors can lead to the evolution of complex traits. Lasioglossum albipes is a polymorphic halictid bee that expresses variation in social behavior among populations, and common-garden experiments have suggested that this variation is likely to have a genetic component. Results: We present the L. albipes genome assembly to characterize the genetic and ecological factors associated with the evolution of social behavior. The de novo assembly is comparable to other published social insect genomes, with an N50 scaffold length of 602 kb. Gene families unique to L. albipes are associated with integrin-mediated signaling and DNA-binding domains, and several appear to be expanded in this species, including the glutathione-s-transferases and the inositol monophosphatases. L. albipes has an intact DNA methylation system, and in silico analyses suggest that methylation occurs primarily in exons. Comparisons to other insect genomes indicate that genes associated with metabolism and nucleotide binding undergo accelerated evolution in the halictid lineage. Whole-genome resequencing data from one solitary and one social L. albipes female identify six genes that appear to be rapidly diverging between social forms, including a putative odorant receptor and a cuticular protein. Conclusions: L. albipes represents a novel genetic model system for understanding the evolution of social behavior. It represents the first published genome sequence of a primitively social insect, thereby facilitating comparative genomic studies across the Hymenoptera as a whole

Detection and Identification of Salmonella enterica, Escherichia coli, and Shigella spp. via PCR-ESI-MS: Isolate Testing and Analysis of Food Samples

An assay to identify the common food-borne pathogens Salmonella, Escherichia coli, Shigella, and Listeria monocytogenes was developed in collaboration with Ibis Biosciences (a division of Abbott Molecular) for the Plex-ID biosensor system, a platform that uses electrospray ionization mass spectroscopy (ESI-MS) to detect the base composition of short PCR amplicons. The new food-borne pathogen (FBP) plate has been experimentally designed using four gene segments for a total of eight amplicon targets. Initial work built a DNA base count database that contains more than 140 Salmonella enterica, 139 E. coli, 11 Shigella, and 36 Listeria patterns and 18 other Enterobacteriaceae organisms. This assay was tested to determine the scope of the assay\u27s ability to detect and differentiate the enteric pathogens and to improve the reference database associated with the assay. More than 800 bacterial isolates of S. enterica, E. coli, and Shigella species were analyzed. Overall, 100% of S. enterica, 99% of E. coli, and 73% of Shigella spp. were detected using this assay. The assay was also able to identify 30% of the S. enterica serovars to the serovar level. To further characterize the assay, spiked food matrices and food samples collected during regulatory field work were also studied. While analysis of preenrichment media was inconsistent, identification of S. enterica from selective enrichment media resulted in serovar-level identifications for 8 of 10 regulatory samples. The results of this study suggest that this high-throughput method may be useful in clinical and regulatory laboratories testing for these pathogens

Integrin-β4 identifies cancer stem cell-enriched populations of partially mesenchymal carcinoma cells

Neoplastic cells within individual carcinomas often exhibit considerable phenotypic heterogeneity in their epithelial versus mesenchymal-like cell states. Because carcinoma cells with mesenchymal features are often more resistant to therapy and may serve as a source of relapse, we sought to determine whether such cells could be further stratified into functionally distinct subtypes. Indeed, we find that a basal epithelial marker, integrin- β4 (ITGB4), can be used to enable stratification of mesenchymallike triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells that differ from one another in their relative tumorigenic abilities. Notably, we demonstrate that ITGB4 + cancer stem cell (CSC)-enriched mesenchymal cells reside in an intermediate epithelial/mesenchymal phenotypic state. Among patients with TNBC who received chemotherapy, elevated ITGB4 expression was associated with a worse 5-year probability of relapse-free survival.Mechanistically,we find that the ZEB1 (zinc finger E-box binding homeobox 1) transcription factor activity in highly mesenchymal SUM159 TNBC cells can repress expression of the epithelial transcription factor TAp63α (tumor protein 63 isoform 1), a protein that promotes ITGB4 expression. In addition, we demonstrate that ZEB1 and ITGB4 are important in modulating the histopathological phenotypes of tumors derived from mesenchymal TNBC cells. Hence, mesenchymal carcinoma cell populations are internally heterogeneous, and ITGB4 is a mechanistically driven prognostic biomarker that can be used to identify the more aggressive subtypes of mesenchymal carcinoma cells in TNBC. The ability to rapidly isolate and mechanistically interrogate the CSC-enriched, partially mesenchymal carcinoma cells should further enable identification of novel therapeutic opportunities to improve the prognosis for high-risk patients with TNBC

COVID-19 and children

There has been substantial research on adult COVID-19 and how to treat it. But how do severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections afflict children? The COVID-19 pandemic has yielded many surprises, not least that children generally develop less severe disease than older adults, which is unusual for a respiratory disease. However, some children can develop serious complications from COVID-19, such as multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) and Long Covid, even after mild or asymptomatic COVID-19. Why this occurs in some and not others is an important question. Moreover, when children do contract COVID-19, understanding their role in transmission, especially in schools and at home, is crucial to ensuring effective mitigation measures. Therefore, in addition to nonpharmaceutical interventions, such as improved ventilation, there is a strong case to vaccinate children so as to reduce possible long-term effects from infection and to decrease transmission. But questions remain about whether vaccination might skew immune responses to variants in the long term. As the experts discuss below, more is being learned about these important issues, but much more research is needed to understand the long-term effects of COVID-19 in children

Structural and Functional MRI Differences in Master Sommeliers: A Pilot Study on Expertise in the Brain

Our experiences, even as adults, shape our brains. Regional differences have been found in experts, with the regions associated with their particular skill-set. Functional differences have also been noted in brain activation patterns in some experts. This study uses multimodal techniques to assess structural and functional patterns that differ between experts and nonexperts. Sommeliers are experts in wine and thus in olfaction. We assessed differences in Master Sommeliers’ brains, compared with controls, in structure and also in functional response to olfactory and visual judgment tasks. MRI data were analyzed using voxel-based morphometry as well as automated parcellation to assess structural properties, and group differences between tasks were calculated. Results indicate enhanced volume in the right insula and entorhinal cortex, with the cortical thickness of the entorhinal correlating with experience. There were regional activation differences in a large area involving the right olfactory and memory regions, with heightened activation specifically for sommeliers during an olfactory task. Our results indicate that sommeliers’ brains show specialization in the expected regions of the olfactory and memory networks, and also in regions important in integration of internal sensory stimuli and external cues. Overall, these differences suggest that specialized expertise and training might result in enhancements in the brain well into adulthood. This is particularly important given the regions involved, which are the first to be impacted by many neurodegenerative diseases

Ethanol reversal of tolerance to the respiratory depressant effects of morphine

Opioids are the most common drugs associated with unintentional drug overdose. Death results from respiratory depression. Prolonged use of opioids results in the development of tolerance but the degree of tolerance is thought to vary between different effects of the drugs. Many opioid addicts regularly consume alcohol (ethanol), and post-mortem analyses of opioid overdose deaths have revealed an inverse correlation between blood morphine and ethanol levels. In the present study, we determined whether ethanol reduced tolerance to the respiratory depressant effects of opioids. Mice were treated with opioids (morphine, methadone, or buprenorphine) for up to 6 days. Respiration was measured in freely moving animals breathing 5% CO(2) in air in plethysmograph chambers. Antinociception (analgesia) was measured as the latency to remove the tail from a thermal stimulus. Opioid tolerance was assessed by measuring the response to a challenge dose of morphine (10 mg/kg i.p.). Tolerance developed to the respiratory depressant effect of morphine but at a slower rate than tolerance to its antinociceptive effect. A low dose of ethanol (0.3 mg/kg) alone did not depress respiration but in prolonged morphine-treated animals respiratory depression was observed when ethanol was co-administered with the morphine challenge. Ethanol did not alter the brain levels of morphine. In contrast, in methadone- or buprenorphine-treated animals no respiratory depression was observed when ethanol was co-administered along with the morphine challenge. As heroin is converted to morphine in man, selective reversal of morphine tolerance by ethanol may be a contributory factor in heroin overdose deaths