Bacterial diversity in high Andean grassland soils disturbed with Lepidium meyenii crops evaluated by metagenomics

Soil quality is usually determined by its physical-chemical characteristics without taking into account the bacterial communities that play a fundamental role in the chemical decomposition of plant nutrients. In this context, the objective of the study was to evaluate bacterial diversity in high Andean grassland soils disturbed with Lepidium meyenii cultivation under different gradients of use (first, second and third use) and crop development (pre-sowing, hypocotyl development and post-harvest). The sampling was carried out in the Bombón plateau in the central Andes of Peru, during the rainy and low water seasons, by the systematic method based on a specific pattern assigned in a geometric rectangular shape at a depth of 0 - 20 cm. The characterization of the bacterial communities was carried out through the metagenomic sequencing of the 16S rRNA. 376 families of bacteria were reported, of which it was determined that there was a significant change in bacterial composition and distribution in relation to use pressure. There were no major changes due to the development of Lepidium meyenii. The families most sensitive to use pressure and soil poverty indicators were Verrucomicrobiaceae, Acidobacteraceae and Aakkermansiaceae.

Notes from the Field: The Construction of a Logistical Model for Sports-Related Injury Risk Assessment. A Cross-Sectional Pilot Study

Handball is a high-intensity contact sports activity characterized by repetitive movements, leading to sport-specific muscle patterns. However, at some stage, this pattern may turn into imbalance, predisposing athletes for injuries. The complexity of muscular interactions often makes it difficult to see a whole picture of an athlete’s postural disorders and assess them within the framework of his stereotyped movements. We attempted to find an association between the muscle pattern and the number of injuries in a limited group of handball players by constructing a static logistical model. The constructed decision table of the static logistical model included seven conditional attributes of the muscle imbalance as preconditions for injury development and one decision attribute representing the number of experienced injuries of 25 university handball players. The findings displayed a sport-specific pattern of muscle alignment in athletes without or only one injury. However, all players with repetitive injuries had unilateral m. gluteus maximus weakness. In the latter case, impaired core body musculature can lead to increased share forces and stress for the gluteus maximus muscle leading to weakness of this crucial dynamic stabilizer. The logistical model allowed defining muscle imbalance associated with sports-related injuries in a limited group of athletes.

A Triple Combination of Targeting Ligands Increases the Penetration of Nanoparticles across a Blood-Brain Barrier Culture Model

Nanosized drug delivery systems targeting transporters of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) are promising carriers to enhance the penetration of therapeutics into the brain. The expression of solute carriers (SLC) is high and shows a specific pattern at the BBB. Here we show that targeting ligands ascorbic acid, leucine and glutathione on nanoparticles elevated the uptake of albumin cargo in cultured primary rat brain endothelial cells. Moreover, we demonstrated the ability of the triple-targeted nanovesicles to deliver their cargo into midbrain organoids after crossing the BBB model. The cellular uptake was temperature- and energy-dependent based on metabolic inhibition. The process was decreased by filipin and cytochalasin D, indicating that the cellular uptake of nanoparticles was partially mediated by endocytosis. The uptake of the cargo encapsulated in triple-targeted nanoparticles increased after modification of the negative zeta potential of endothelial cells by treatment with a cationic lipid or after cleaving the glycocalyx with an enzyme. We revealed that targeted nanoparticles elevated plasma membrane fluidity, indicating the fusion of nanovesicles with endothelial cell membranes. Our data indicate that labeling nanoparticles with three different ligands of multiple transporters of brain endothelial cells can promote the transfer and delivery of molecules across the BBB.

Political ideas of the network society: why digitalization research needs critical conceptual analysis

In this article, I argue for an interpretive approach to digitalization research that analyzes the concepts, narratives, and belief systems in digitalization debates. I illustrate this methodological proposal by assessing the spread of network ideas. Many political actors and digitalization researchers follow network ideas, e.g. by claiming that the rise of a network society must lead to network governance. In contrast to this narrative, I argue that there are multiple visions of the digital society, each of which follows a specific pattern of epistemology, social imaginary, and political proposals. These competing self-interpretations must be investigated by digitalization research in order to map and evaluate different pathways into a digital society. For doing so, critical conceptual analysis draws on political theory, critical conceptual history, and the sociology of knowledge. It offers two major benefits for digitalization research. Firstly, it provides a systematic overview of competing governance rationalities in the digital society, enabling a critical evaluation of their potentials and proposals. Secondly, it enhances the methodological rigor of digitalization research by reviewing the narratives researchers themselves tell. I substantiate these claims by analyzing and historicizing the above network narrative. Tracing it back to cybernetics, I show that it has been used multiple times in efforts to reshape the way we think about society and politics, including our concepts of subjectivity, power, and governance.

Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor-Associated Colitis: From Mechanism to Management

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), as one of the innovative types of immunotherapies, including programmed cell death-1 (PD-1), programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), and cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4) inhibitors, have obtained unprecedented benefit in multiple malignancies. However, the immune response activation in the body organs could arise immune-related adverse events (irAEs). Checkpoint inhibitor colitis (CIC) is the most widely reported irAEs. However, some obscure problems, such as the mechanism concerning gut microbiota, the confusing differential diagnosis with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), the optimal steroid schedule, the reintroduction of ICIs, and the controversial prognosis features, influence the deep understanding and precise diagnosis and management of CIC. Herein, we based on these problems and comprehensively summarized the relevant studies of CIC in patients with NSCLC, further discussing the future research direction of this specific pattern of irAEs.

Metagenomic Anaysis of Nasal Microbiota-Derived Extracellular Vesicle in Patients with Allergic Rhinitis.

Nasal Microbiota is crucial for the pathogenesis of allergic rhinitis (AR). However, never study investigates the microbiota in nasal extracellular vesicles (EVs). Objective: We aim to compare the microbiome composition and diversity in EVs between AR and health controls (HCs), and reveal the potential metabolic mechanisms in AR. Eosinophil count and serum immunoglobulin E (IgE) were measured in AR patients (n=20) and HCs (n=19). Nasal EVs were identified by transmission electron microscopy and flow cytometry. 16S rRNA sequencing was used to profile microbial communities. Alpha and beta diversity were analyzed to reflect the microbial diversity. Taxonomic abundance was analyzed based on linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe). Microbial metabolic pathways were characterized using PICRUSt and KEGG analyses. Eosinophils, total serum IgE, and specific IgE to Dermatophagoides were increased in AR patients. Alpha diversity in nasal EVs from AR patients were lower than that in HCs. Beta diversity showed the microbiome differences between AR and HCs. Microbial abundance was distinct between AR and HCs at different taxonomic levels. The significant higher level of genera Acetobacter, Mycoplasma, Escherichia and Halomonas in AR patients than those in HCs. Conversely, the genera Zoogloea, Streptococcus, Burkholderia as well as Pseudomonas were more abundant in the HCs group. Moreover, 35 microbial metabolic pathways were different between AR and HCs, and 25 pathways were more abundant in AR. AR patients had distinguished microbiota characteristics in nasal EVs compared with HCs. The metabolic mechanisms of microbiota regulating AR development also altered. The nasal fluid may reflect the specific pattern of microbiome EVs in patients with AR.

From local to global matrix organization by fibroblasts: a 4D laser-assisted bioprinting approach

Fibroblasts and myofibroblasts play a central role in skin homeostasis through dermal organization and maintenance. Nonetheless, the dynamic interactions between (myo)fibroblasts and the extracellular matrix (ECM) remain poorly exploited in skin repair strategies. Indeed, there is still an unmet need for soft tissue models allowing to study the spatial-temporal remodeling properties of (myo)fibroblasts. In vivo, wound healing studies in animals are limited by species specificity. In vitro, most models rely on collagen gels reorganized by randomly distributed fibroblasts. But biofabrication technologies have significantly evolved over the past ten years. High-resolution bioprinting now allows to investigate various cellular micropatterns and the emergent tissue organizations over time. In order to harness the full dynamic properties of cells and active biomaterials, it is essential to consider “time” as the 4th dimension in soft tissue design. Following this 4D bioprinting approach, we aimed to develop a novel model that could replicate fibroblast dynamic remodeling in vitro. For this purpose, (myo)fibroblasts were patterned on collagen gels with laser-assisted bioprinting (LAB) to study the generated matrix deformations and reorganizations. First, distinct populations, mainly composed of fibroblasts or myofibroblasts, were established in vitro to account for the variety of fibroblastic remodeling properties. Then, LAB was used to organize both populations on collagen gels in even isotropic patterns with high resolution, high density and high viability. With maturation, bioprinted patterns of fibroblasts and myofibroblasts reorganized into dispersed or aggregated cells, respectively. Stress-release contraction assays revealed that these phenotype-specific pattern maturations were associated with distinct lattice tension states. The two populations were then patterned in anisotropic rows in order to direct the cell-generated deformations and to orient global matrix remodeling. Only maturation of anisotropic fibroblast patterns, but not myofibroblasts, resulted in collagen anisotropic reorganizations both at tissue-scale, with lattice contraction, and at microscale, with embedded microbead displacements. Following a 4D bioprinting approach, LAB patterning enabled to elicit and orient the dynamic matrix remodeling mechanisms of distinct fibroblastic populations and organizations on collagen. For future studies, this method provides a new versatile tool to investigate in vitro dermal organizations and properties, processes of remodeling in healing, and new treatment opportunities.

Hamstring injury patterns in professional male football (soccer): a systematic video analysis of 52 cas

ObjectiveTo closely describe the injury inciting events of acute hamstring injuries in professional male football (soccer) using systematic video analysis.MethodsVideo footage from four seasons (2014–2019) of the two highest divisions in German male football was searched for moderate and severe (ie, time loss of >7 days) acute non-contact and indirect contact match hamstring injuries. Two raters independently categorised inciting events using a standardised procedure to determine specific injury patterns and kinematics.Results52 cases of hamstring injuries were included for specific pattern analysis. The pattern analysis revealed 25 sprint-related (48%) and 27 stretch-related hamstring injuries (52%). All sprint-related hamstring injuries occured during linear acceleration or high-speed running. Stretch-related hamstring injuries were connected with closed chain movements like braking or stopping with a lunging or landing action and open chain movements like kicking. The kinematic analysis of stretch-related injuries revealed a change of movement involving knee flexion to knee extension and a knee angle of <45° at the assumed injury frame in all open and closed chain movements. Biceps femoris was the most affected muscle (79%) of all included cases.ConclusionDespite the variety of inciting events, rapid movements with high eccentric demands of the posterior thigh are likely the main hamstring injury mechanism. This study provides important data about how hamstring injuries occur in professional male football and supports the need for demand-specific multicomponent risk reduction programmes.

Brains in Metamorphosis: Temporal Transcriptome Dynamics in Hatchery-Reared Flatfishes

Metamorphosis is a captivating process of change during which the morphology of the larva is completely reshaped to face the new challenges of adult life. In the case of fish, this process initiated in the brain has traditionally been considered to be a critical rearing point and despite the pioneering molecular work carried out in other flatfishes, the underlying molecular basis is still relatively poorly characterized. Turbot brain transcriptome of three developmental stages (pre-metamorphic, climax of metamorphosis and post-metamorphic) were analyzed to study the gene expression dynamics throughout the metamorphic process. A total of 1570 genes were differentially expressed in the three developmental stages and we found a specific pattern of gene expression at each stage. Unexpectedly, at the climax stage of metamorphosis, we found highly expressed genes related to the immune response, while the biological pathway enrichment analysis in pre-metamorphic and post-metamorphic were related to cell differentiation and oxygen carrier activity, respectively. In addition, our results confirm the importance of thyroid stimulating hormone, increasing its expression during metamorphosis. Based on our findings, we assume that immune system activation during the climax of metamorphosis stage could be related to processes of larval tissue inflammation, resorption and replacement, as occurs in other vertebrates.

Robust bacterial co-occurence community structures are independent of r- and K-selection history

Selection for bacteria which are K-strategists instead of r-strategists has been shown to improve fish health and survival in aquaculture. We considered an experiment where microcosms were inoculated with natural seawater and the selection regime was switched from K-selection (by continuous feeding) to r-selection (by pulse feeding) and vice versa. We found the networks of significant co-occurrences to contain clusters of taxonomically related bacteria having positive associations. Comparing this with the time dynamics, we found that the clusters most likely were results of similar niche preferences of the involved bacteria. In particular, the distinction between r- or K-strategists was evident. Each selection regime seemed to give rise to a specific pattern, to which the community converges regardless of its prehistory. Furthermore, the results proved robust to parameter choices in the analysis, such as the filtering threshold, level of random noise, replacing absolute abundances with relative abundances, and the choice of similarity measure. Even though our data and approaches cannot directly predict ecological interactions, our approach provides insights on how the selection regime affects the composition of the microbial community, providing a basis for aquaculture experiments targeted at eliminating opportunistic fish pathogens.