The Psychosocial Adjustment of Kidney Recipients in Canada's Kidney Paired Donation Program

Introduction: Kidney paired donation programs have been implemented globally. The involvement of at least 2 donors in these programs might exacerbate recipients’ debt of gratitude and guilt, worries about the donor's health, and worries about graft failure documented by previous studies. However, there is an absence of research on the psychosocial implications of kidney paired donation. This study aimed to provide an in-depth examination of recipients’ experience of kidney paired donation, with a focus on psychosocial adjustment. Methods/Approach: Individual interviews were conducted with 8 recipients who received a transplant through Canada's Kidney Paired Donation program. Data was analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Findings: Four themes emerged: (a) an emotionally charged relationship with the known donor, (b) optimal distance regulation in the relationship with the anonymous donor, (c) kidney paired donation as a series of ups and downs, and (d) multilayered gratitude. Discussion: Findings are considered in relation to extant literature. Issues relevant to the transplant community's clinical and research efforts to provide kidney recipients responsive care are discussed.

The economy of chromosomal distances in bacterial gene regulation

In the transcriptional regulatory network (TRN) of a bacterium, the nodes are genes and a directed edge represents the action of a transcription factor (TF), encoded by the source gene, on the target gene. It is a condensed representation of a large number of biological observations and facts. Nonrandom features of the network are structural evidence of requirements for a reliable systemic function. For the bacterium Escherichia coli we here investigate the (Euclidean) distances covered by the edges in the TRN when its nodes are embedded in the real space of the circular chromosome. Our work is motivated by ’wiring economy’ research in Computational Neuroscience and starts from two contradictory hypotheses: (1) TFs are predominantly employed for long-distance regulation, while local regulation is exerted by chromosomal structure, locally coordinated by the action of structural proteins. Hence long distances should often occur. (2) A large distance between the regulator gene and its target requires a higher expression level of the regulator gene due to longer reaching times and ensuing increased degradation (proteolysis) of the TF and hence will be evolutionarily reduced. Our analysis supports the latter hypothesis.

Altered interpersonal distance regulation in autism spectrum disorder

Interpersonal distance regulation is an essential element of social communication. Its impairment in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is widely acknowledged among practitioners, but only a handful of studies reported empirical research in real-life settings focusing only on children. However, these studies did not measure the alterations of vegetative functions related to interpersonal distance. Here, we introduced a new experimental design to systematically measure interpersonal distance along with heart rate variability (HRV) in adults with ASD and tested the modulatory effect of intentionality, eye contact, moving activity, and attribution. Twenty-two adults diagnosed with ASD and 21 matched neurotypical controls participated in our study from 2019 October to 2020 February. Our new experimental design combined the modified version of the stop distance paradigm with HRV measurement controlling for eye contact between the experimenter and the participant to measure interpersonal distance in incidental and intentional conditions. Our results showed greater preferred distance in ASD in the intentional but not in the incidental condition. These results were altered with eye contact and the participant's role (active vs. passive) in the stop distance task. Moreover, we found lower baseline HRV and reduced HRV reactivity in ASD; however, these vegetative measurements could not predict preferred interpersonal distance. Our study highlights the importance of interpersonal space regulation in ASD and the need for sophisticated experimental designs to grasp the complexity and underlying factors of distance regulation in typical and atypical populations.

A grammatical construction in the service of interpersonal distance regulation. The case of the Polish directive infinitive construction

The aim of the paper is to consider the pragmatic effects of the Polish (Proszę) ‘request1 SG. NON-PAST.’ + VINF construction in different contexts. The specific research problem is how these effects are related to the conceptual make-up of the construction. The framework for the analysis is the theory of cognitive grammar (cf. e. g. Langacker 1987, 1991, 2008, 2009). The analysis starts with an account of the conceptual make-up of the construction. Then, its selected uses are considered, with emphasis on the pragmatic effects in the relevant contexts. The study offers a qualitative analysis of two kinds of data: a sample of hand-picked utterances and a corpus of utterances extracted from the National Corpus of Polish (NCP). The claim made in the study is that the construction profiles a process figuring in a directive scenario in the role of the process the speaker wishes the hearer to engage in. At the same time, it involves defocusing of the trajector of the profiled process, identified with the hearer. The construction’s pragmatic effects in specific contexts are claimed to follow from how this trajector defocusing is put in correspondence with specific aspects of the actual ground.

Contrast effect of emotional context on interpersonal distance with neutral social stimuli

In social interactions, valence-based judgements are an important component of interpersonal distances regulation. Within the framework of the Range-Frequency model, we tested whether the emotional context, which is known to produce a contrast effect on valence ratings, also contributes to the regulation of interpersonal distances. 51 participants divided in two groups were shown virtual characters with either a neutral facial expression (target-stimuli) or an emotional facial expression (contextual stimuli) in two successive sessions (angry then happy emotional context or vice-versa). The participants rated the valence of the virtual characters and judged the appropriateness of different interpersonal distances. For neutral characters, contrast effect of emotional context was observed, albeit only subtly on interpersonal distance judgments. Overall, the data suggest that although the emotional context influences valence-based judgments of social stimuli, it has a parsimonious effect on interpersonal distance regulation, presumably because the latter relies primarily on emotional facial expression categorical-information.

Social distance regulation for control of COVID-19 may foster the global obesity pandemic: Social distancing increases the desire for food

Social distance regulations have been suggested as one of the best ways to control and prevent the spread of coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19). Social connection and food are intertwined because both have played critical evolutionary roles in human survival. We tested whether the substitutability hypothesis in human motivation applies here in that cues signaling scarcity in one domain (e.g., social connection) might enhance the desire to acquire resources in another domain (e.g., food). In a laboratory experiment (N = 118), we found that, compared with controls, participants primed with social distancing consumed more ice cream in a taste test and reported a greater likelihood that they would engage in binge eating if they were placed in home quarantine. We may be the first to provide experimental evidence that social distancing can enhance the desire for food. The link between social distancing and the desire for food is pertinent to understanding how strongly social distance regulations may influence weight gain. Our findings have far-reaching implications for weight control under social distance regulations for prevention and control of COVID-19.

A role of the CTCF binding site at enhancer Eα in the dynamic chromatin organization of the Tcra–Tcrd locus

The regulation of T cell receptor Tcra gene rearrangement has been extensively studied. The enhancer Eα plays an essential role in Tcra rearrangement by establishing a recombination centre in the Jα array and a chromatin hub for interactions between Vα and Jα genes. But the mechanism of the Eα and its downstream CTCF binding site (here named EACBE) in dynamic chromatin regulation is unknown. The Hi-C data showed that the EACBE is located at the sub-TAD boundary which separates the Tcra–Tcrd locus and the downstream region including the Dad1 gene. The EACBE is required for long-distance regulation of the Eα on the proximal Vα genes, and its deletion impaired the Tcra rearrangement. We also noticed that the EACBE and Eα regulate the genes in the downstream sub-TAD via asymmetric chromatin extrusion. This study provides a new insight into the role of CTCF binding sites at TAD boundaries in gene regulation.

Identification of Grafting-Responsive MicroRNAs Associated with Growth Regulation in Pecan [Carya illinoinensis (Wangenh.) K. Koch]

Pecan [Carya illinoinensis (Wangenh.) K. Koch] is an economically important nut tree and grafting is often used for clonal propagation of cultivars. However, there is a lack of research on the effects of rootstocks on scions, which are meaningful targets for directed breeding of pecan grafts. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in many biological processes, but the mechanism underlying the involvement of miRNAs in grafting-conferred physiological changes is unclear. To identify the grafting-responsive miRNAs that may be involved in the regulation of growth in grafted pecan, six small RNA libraries were constructed from the phloem of two groups of grafts with significantly different growth performance on short and tall rootstocks. A total of 441 conserved miRNAs belonging to 42 miRNA families and 603 novel miRNAs were identified. Among the identified miRNAs, 24 (seven conserved and 17 novel) were significantly differentially expressed by the different grafts, implying that they might be responsive to grafting and potentially involved in the regulation of graft growth. Ninety-five target genes were predicted for the differentially expressed miRNAs; gene annotation was available for 33 of these. Analysis of their targets suggested that the miRNAs may regulate auxin transport, cell activity, and inorganic phosphate (Pi) acquisition, and thereby, mediate pecan graft growth. Use of the recently-published pecan genome enabled identification of a substantial population of miRNAs, which are now available for further research. We also identified the grafting-responsive miRNAs and their potential roles in pecan graft growth, providing a basis for research on long-distance regulation in grafted pecan.