Beebepeters6447

Autism is characterized by repetitive behaviors, impaired social interactions, and communication deficits. It is a prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder, and available treatments offer little benefit. Here, we show that genetically reducing the protein tau prevents behavioral signs of autism in two mouse models simulating distinct causes of this condition. Similar to a proportion of people with autism, both models have epilepsy, abnormally enlarged brains, and overactivation of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt (protein kinase B)/ mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway. All of these abnormalities were prevented or markedly diminished by partial or complete genetic removal of tau. We identify disinhibition of phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10 (PTEN), a negative PI3K regulator that tau controls, as a plausible mechanism and demonstrate that tau interacts with PTEN via tau's proline-rich domain. Our findings suggest an enabling role of tau in the pathogenesis of autism and identify tau reduction as a potential therapeutic strategy for some of the disorders that cause this condition. This is the fifth epidemiological report for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), reported in Australia as at 1900 Australian Eastern Daylight Time [AEDT] 29 February 2020. It includes data on COVID-19 cases diagnosed in Australia, the international situation and a review of current evidence. © Commonwealth of Australia CC BY-NC-ND.Background Dragon boat offers an opportunity to increase physical activity (quantity participation) in breast cancer survivors; however, quality participation experiences have yet to be explored. Quality participation is one's subjective perceptions and experiences. While there is evidence to suggest dragon boat may offer a quality experience, further exploration is needed.Purpose Guided by a conceptual framework to promote a positive, quality experience in parasport context, the purposes were (a) to explore strategies that are used to foster elements of quality participation in dragon boat teams for breast cancer survivors and (b) to understand the context in which these strategies are implemented within these teams (i.e., quality participation conditions).Materials and methods After completing a guiding questionnaire, current and previous leaders on dragon boat teams completed a structured, follow-up telephone interview. Transcripts were thematically analyzed inductively and deductively mapped onto a framewportunities will allow athletes to be seen as role models for both dragon boat and breast cancer survivorship.In biomineralization, it is essential to know the microstructural and crystallographic organization of natural hard tissues. This knowledge is virtually absent in the case of barnacles. Here, we have examined the crystal morphology and orientation of the wall plates of the giant barnacle Austromegabalanus psittacus by means of optical and electron microscopy, and electron backscatter diffraction. The wall plates are made of calcite grains, which change in morphology from irregular to rhombohedral, except for the radii and alae, where fibrous calcite is produced. Both the grains and fibres arrange into bundles made of crystallographically co-oriented units, which grow onto each other epitaxially. We call these areas crystallographically coherent regions (CCRs). Each CCR elongates and disposes its c-axis perpendicularly or at a high angle to the growth surfaces, whereas the a-axes of adjacent CCRs differ in orientation. In the absence of obvious organic matrices, this pattern of organization is interpreted to be produced by purely crystallographic processes. In particular, due to crystal competition, CCRs orient their fastest growth axes perpendicular to the growth surface. Since each CCR is an aggregate of grains, the fastest growth axis is that along which crystals stack up more rapidly, that is, the crystallographic c-axis in granular calcite. In summary, the material forming the wall plates of the studied barnacles is under very little biological control and the main role of the mantle cells is to provide the construction materials to the growth front.Social cohesion is an important determinant of community well-being, especially in times of distress such as disasters. This study investigates the phenomena of emergent social cohesion, which is characterized by abrupt, temporary and extensive social ties with the goal of sharing and receiving information regarding a particular event influencing a community. In the context of disasters, emergent social cohesion, enabled by social media usage, could play a significant role in improving the ability of communities to cope with disruptions in recent disasters. In this study, we employed a network reticulation framework to examine the underlying mechanisms influencing emergent social cohesion on social media while communities cope with disaster-induced disruptions. We analysed neighbourhood-tagged social media data (social media data whose users are tagged by neighbourhoods) in Houston, TX, USA, during Hurricane Harvey to characterize four modalities of network reticulation (i.e. this website enactment, activation, reticulation and performance) giving rise to emergent social cohesion. Our results show that, unlike regular social cohesion, communication history and physical proximity do not significantly affect emergent social cohesion. The results also indicate that weak social ties play an important role in bridging different social network communities, and hence reinforce emergent social cohesion. The findings can inform public officials, emergency managers and decision-makers regarding the important role of neighbourhood-tagged social media, as a new form of community infrastructure, for improving the ability of communities to cope with disaster disruptions through enhanced emergent social cohesion.We examine the practical identifiability of parameters in a spatio-temporal reaction-diffusion model of a scratch assay. Experimental data involve fluorescent cell cycle labels, providing spatial information about cell position and temporal information about the cell cycle phase. Cell cycle labelling is incorporated into the reaction-diffusion model by treating the total population as two interacting subpopulations. Practical identifiability is examined using a Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) framework, confirming that the parameters are identifiable when we assume the diffusivities of the subpopulations are identical, but that the parameters are practically non-identifiable when we allow the diffusivities to be distinct. We also assess practical identifiability using a profile likelihood approach, providing similar results to MCMC with the advantage of being an order of magnitude faster to compute. Therefore, we suggest that the profile likelihood ought to be adopted as a screening tool to assess practical identifiability before MCMC computations are performed.Cooperation is the backbone of modern human societies, making it a priority to understand how successful cooperation-sustaining mechanisms operate. Cyclic dominance, a non-transitive set-up comprising at least three strategies wherein the first strategy overrules the second, which overrules the third, which, in turn, overrules the first strategy, is known to maintain biodiversity, drive competition between bacterial strains, and preserve cooperation in social dilemmas. Here, we present a novel route to cyclic dominance in voluntary social dilemmas by adding to the traditional mix of cooperators, defectors and loners, a fourth player type, risk-averse hedgers, who enact tit-for-tat upon paying a hedging cost to avoid being exploited. When this cost is sufficiently small, cooperators, defectors and hedgers enter a loop of cyclic dominance that preserves cooperation even under the most adverse conditions. By contrast, when the hedging cost is large, hedgers disappear, consequently reverting to the traditional interplay of cooperators, defectors, and loners. In the interim region of hedging costs, complex evolutionary dynamics ensues, prompting transitions between states with two, three or four competing strategies. Our results thus reveal that voluntary participation is but one pathway to sustained cooperation via cyclic dominance.The analysis of internal trabecular and cortical bone has been an informative tool for drawing inferences about behaviour in extant and fossil primate taxa. Within the hand, metacarpal bone architecture has been shown to correlate well with primate locomotion; however, the extent of morphological differences across taxa is unexpectedly small given the variability in hand use. One explanation for this observation is that the activity-related differences in the joint loads acting on the bone are simply smaller than estimated based on commonly used proxies (i.e. external loading and joint posture), which neglect the influence of muscle forces. In this study, experimental data and a musculoskeletal finger model are used to test this hypothesis by comparing differences between climbing and knuckle-walking locomotion of captive bonobos (Pan paniscus) based on (i) joint load magnitude and direction predicted by the models and (ii) proxy estimations. The results showed that the activity-related differences in predicted joint loads are indeed much smaller than the proxies would suggest, with joint load magnitudes being almost identical between the two locomotor modes. Differences in joint load directions were smaller but still evident, indicating that joint load directions might be a more robust indicator of variation in hand use than joint load magnitudes. Overall, this study emphasizes the importance of including muscular forces in the interpretation of skeletal remains and promotes the use of musculoskeletal models for correct functional interpretations.There is increasing interest in the development of new, 'universal' influenza vaccines (UIVs) that--unlike current vaccines--are effective against a broad range of seasonal influenza strains, as well as against novel pandemic viruses. While the existing literature discusses the potential epidemiological benefits of UIVs, it is also important to anticipate their potential unintended population consequences. Using mathematical modelling, we illustrate two such types of adverse consequences. First, by reducing the amount of infection-induced immunity in a population without fully replacing it, a seasonal UIV programme may permit larger pandemics than in the absence of vaccination. Second, the more successful a future UIV programme is in reducing transmission of seasonal influenza, the more vulnerable the population could become to the emergence of a vaccine escape variant. These risks could be mitigated by optimal deployment of any future UIV vaccine namely, the use of a combined vaccine formulation (incorporating conventional as well as multiple universal antigenic targets) and achieving sufficient population coverage to compensate for any reductions in infection-induced immunity. In the absence of large-scale trials of UIVs, disease-dynamic models can provide helpful, early insights into their potential impact. In future, data from continuing vaccine development will be invaluable in developing robustly predictive modelling approaches.