Mouse button perspective Variability and balance through the aesthetic digesting hierarchy

Drought intensity and frequency are increasing under global warming, with soil water availability now being a major factor limiting tree growth in circumboreal forests. Still, the adaptive capacity of trees in the face of future climatic regimes remains poorly documented. ●Using 1,481 annually resolved tree-ring series from 29 year-old trees, we evaluated the drought sensitivity of 43 white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss) populations established in a common garden experiment. ●We show that genetic variation among populations in response to drought plays a significant role in growth resilience. Local genetic adaptation allowed populations from drier geographical origins to grow better, as indicated by higher resilience to extreme drought events, compared to populations from more humid geographical origins. The substantial genetic variation found for growth resilience highlights the possibility of selecting for drought resilience in boreal conifers. ●As a major research outcome, we showed that adaptive genetic variation in response to changing local conditions can shape drought vulnerability at the intra-specific level. Our findings have wide implications for forest ecosystem management and conservation. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.The timing of reproduction is a critical developmental decision in the life cycle of many plant species. Fine mapping of a rapid-flowering mutant was done using whole-genome sequence data from bulked DNA from a segregating F2 mapping populations. The causative mutation maps to a gene orthologous with the third subunit of DNA polymerase δ (POLD3), a previously uncharacterized gene in plants. Expression analyses of POLD3 were conducted via real time qPCR to determine when and in what tissues the gene is expressed. To better understand the molecular basis of the rapid-flowering phenotype, transcriptomic analyses were conducted in the mutant versus wild type. Consistent with the rapid-flowering mutant phenotype, a range of genes involved in floral induction and flower development are upregulated in the mutant. Our results provide the first characterization of the developmental and gene expression phenotypes that result from a lesion in POLD3 in plants. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.OBJECTIVES We aimed to use a dyadic approach to assess the effects of veterans' posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms (PTSS) and siblings' secondary PTSS, as well as veterans' and siblings' relationship quality, on primary and secondary posttraumatic growth (PTG). read more METHOD A volunteers' sample of 106 dyads of Israeli combat veterans and their close-in-age siblings responded to self-report questionnaires in a cross-sectional, dyadic design study. RESULTS Veterans' primary PTG was positively associated with siblings' secondary PTG. Veterans' PTSS and siblings' secondary PTSS were associated with higher levels of primary and secondary PTG, respectively. Furthermore, among veterans, warmth in siblings' relationships was associated with higher levels of primary PTG. However, among siblings, rivalry in sibling relationships was associated with lower levels of secondary PTG. CONCLUSIONS Both veterans' and siblings' PTSS are only related to their own PTG. Moreover, perception of siblings' relationship quality might have a differential effect on PTG among veterans and their siblings. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.BACKGROUND Sleep is thought to be important for behavioral and cognitive development. However, much of the prior research on sleep's role in behavioral/cognitive development has relied upon self-report measures and cross-sectional designs. METHODS The current study examined how early childhood sleep, measured actigraphically, was developmentally associated with child functioning at 54 months. Emphasis was on functioning at preschool, a crucial setting for the emergence of psychopathology. Participants included 119 children assessed longitudinally at 30, 36, 42, and 54 months. We examined correlations between child sleep and adjustment across three domains behavioral adjustment (i.e., internalizing and externalizing problems), socioemotional skills, and academic/cognitive abilities. We further probed consistent associations with growth curve modeling. RESULTS Internalizing problems were associated with sleep variability, and cognitive and academic abilities were associated with sleep timing. Growth curve analysis suggested that children with more variable sleep at 30 months had higher teacher-reported internalizing problems in preschool and that children with later sleep timing at 30 months had poorer cognitive and academic skills at 54 months. However, changes in sleep from 30 to 54 months were not associated with any of the domains of adjustment. CONCLUSIONS Findings indicate that objectively measured sleep variability and late sleep timing in toddlerhood are associated with higher levels of internalizing problems and poorer academic/cognitive abilities in preschool. © 2020 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.Delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is a very common condition in athletes and individuals not accustomed to physical activity that occurs after moderate/high-intensity exercise sessions. Activation of microglial Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) in the spinal cord has been described to be important for the induction and maintenance of persistent pain. Based on that, we hypothesize that 70 kilodalton heat shock protein (Hsp70), a mediator released by exercise, could activate microglial TLR4 in the spinal cord, releasing proinflammatory cytokines and contributing to the start of DOMS. In fact, we found that the knockout of TLR4, myeloid differentiation primary response 88 (MyD88), interleukin-6 (IL-6), or both TNF-α receptor 1 (TNFR1) and TNF-α receptor 2 (TNFR2) in mice prevented the development of DOMS following acute aerobic exercise in contrast to the findings in male C57BL/6 wild-type (WT) mice. Furthermore, DOMS in exercised WT mice was also prevented after pretreatment with microglia inhibitor, TLR4 antagonist and anti-Hsp70 antibody. During exercise-induced DOMS, Hsp70 mRNA, TLR4 mRNA and protein levels, as well as Iba-1 (a microglial marker), IL-6 and TNF-α protein levels, were increased in the muscle and/or spinal cord. Together, these findings suggest that Hsp70 released during exercise-induced DOMS activates the microglial TLR4/IL-6/TNF-α pathway in the spinal cord. Thus, the blockade of TLR4 activation may be a new strategy to prevent the development of DOMS before intense exercise. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.BACKGROUND Psoriasis is a chronic systemic disease that requires long-term management. Despite data on follow-up studies going back 5 years, little is known about the condition's sustainability based on patient profiles. The aim of this study was to analyze drug survival and discontinuation rates for secukinumab treatment under real-world conditions. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis treated in the dermatology department of five Spanish medical centers between 2015 and 2019 were included in our retrospective study. Drug survival was assessed with Kaplan-Meier analysis plots and multivariate regression. RESULTS In total, 171 treated patients were retrospectively recorded and analyzed for 152 weeks (37.40% had been diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis [PsA]). The discontinuation rate in the PsA group was 14.10% vs. 12.10% among those who had no PsA. The mean survival time of discontinuation was 63 weeks for PsA vs. 65 weeks for no PsA (P = 0.913). Secukinumab's estimated mean survival in PsA patients was 86% (estimated mean survival time 130 weeks) vs. 88% (estimated mean survival time of 133 weeks) in non-PsA patients (P = 0.676). CONCLUSION The mean survival time of patients in secukinumab treatment was comparable in all patient profiles and better than the data found in clinical trials and real-life studies. © 2020 the International Society of Dermatology.The contention that supportive and sensitive parenting is important to healthy emotional and behavioral development of children is a widely accepted maxim. There is also increasing consensus among developmentalists about the nature of optimal parenting practices. However, what remains under appreciated is just how powerful an influence these positive elements of caregiving have in shaping, driving, and fortifying a healthy developmental trajectory across multiple domains of function. The notion that positive caregiving is an 'essential ingredient' necessary for healthy human development has become increasingly evident. Importantly, both animal and human data have established that there are early sensitive periods, representing windows of opportunity, during which optimal caregiving has its most powerful effects (Curley & Champagne, Frontiers in neuroendocrinology, 40, 52, 2016; Nelson et al., Science, 318, 1937, 2007). These points are underscored by papers in this volume showing the sustained effects of early parenting interventions focused on enhancing attachment relationship (Zajac, Raby, & Dozier, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 57, 1099, 2019). Using another parenting program, Brody, Yu, Miller, and Chen (Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2019) report longitudinal data showing mechanistic pathways by which the effects of enhanced caregiving impact later adaptive functioning in a high risk sample. These findings suggest that early parenting interventions may have uniquely positive and enduring effects highlighting their unique importance as a focus for developmental enhancement. © 2020 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.Excitatory Amino Acid Transporter 5 (EAAT5) is a protein that is known to be alternately spliced and to be abundantly expressed in the retina by populations of neurons including photoreceptors and bipolar cells. EAAT5 acts as a slow glutamate transporter and also as glutamate-gated chloride channel, the chloride conductance being large enough for EAAT5 to serve functionally as an "inhibitory" glutamate receptor. However there has been a long-standing view that the classically spliced form of EAAT5 is not abundant or widespread in the brain and so it has not been extensively investigated in the literature. We recently identified a human-specific splicing form of EAAT5 that was not expressed by rodents but was shown to be a functional glutamate transporter. We have examined the expression of this form of EAAT5, hEAAT5v at the mRNA and protein level in human brain, and show that populations of human cortical pyramidal neurons and cerebellar Purkinje cells show significant expression of hEAAT5v. Accordingly we infer that EAAT5 may well be a player in modulating neuronal function in the human brain and propose that its localisation in both glutamatergic and GABAergic neurons could be compatible with a role in influencing intracellular chloride and thereby neuronal parameters such as membrane potential rather than acting as a presynaptic glutamate transporter. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES The prevalence of atopic dermatitis (AD) has increased significantly in industrialised countries in recent decades but data about the incidence or prevalence of AD in Australia are sparse. We aimed to determine the prevalence and incidence of AD among patients seen in Australian general practice and the use of specified medicines. METHODS This was a cross-sectional study of 2.1 million patients attending 494 general practices in the MedicineInsight program from 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2018. We assessed the prevalence (lifetime and current), incidence, management and severity of AD. RESULTS The lifetime (ever diagnosed) prevalence of AD in this general practice population was 16.4% and was greater in females (17.3%) than males (15.3%). One in five patients with AD were classified as having moderate-to-severe disease. Prevalence over the last two years was 6.3%. The incidence of AD in 2018 was 2.0% and was greater in females (2.2%) and for patients aged 0-4 years (3.9%). Patients with AD had an increased risk of insomnia, anxiety and depression, compared to those with no recorded AD.