Cell adhesion and immune response, two main functions altered in the transcriptome of seasonally regressed testes of two mammalian species

In species with seasonal breeding, male specimens undergo substantial testicular regression during the non-breeding period of the year. However, the molecular mechanisms that control this biological process are largely unknown. Here, we report a transcriptomic analysis on the Iberian mole, Talpa occidentalis, in which the desquamation of live, non-apoptotic germ cells is the major cellular event responsible for testis regression. By comparing testes at different reproductive states (active, regressing and inactive), we demonstrate that the molecular pathways controlling the cell adhesion function in the seminiferous epithelium, such as the MAPK, ERK and TGF-beta signalling, are altered during the regression process. In addition, inactive testes display a global upregulation of genes associated with immune response, indicating a selective loss of the immune privilege that normally operates in sexually active testes. Interspecies comparative analyses using analogous data from the Mediterranean pine vole, a rodent species where testis regression is controlled by halting meiosis entry, revealed a common gene expression signature in the regressed testes of these two evolutionary distant species. Our study advances in the knowledge of the molecular mechanisms associated to gonadal seasonal breeding, highlighting the existence of a conserved transcriptional program of testis involution across mammalian clades.

The Importance of Type D Personality in the Development of Temporomandibular Disorders (TMDs) and Depression in Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: a type D personality is a factor in a person’s susceptibility to general mental stress, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although many studies were conducted on the relationships among stressful situations, an individual’s personality, depression, and the occurrence of various diseases, e.g., cardiovascular disease or cancer, there are no analogous data on people with temporomandibular disorders (TMDs). Aim: the assessment of TMDs and depression symptoms in students with type D personality. Material and Methods: the research was carried out with the participation of 240 physiotherapy students. The study group (G1) consisted of 120 participants with type D personalities, the control group (G2) consisted of the same number of participants, without “stress” personalities. All subjects were assessed for the occurrence of TMD symptoms, as well as for depression and anxiety symptoms, using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), based on the proprietary questionnaire. Results: in students with type D personality symptoms, TMDs occurred significantly more often and in greater number (p = 0.00) than in those without stress personalities. The exception was the symptom of increased muscle tension, which showed no statistical difference (p = 0.22). Among the 240 respondents, depression was found in 128 people (53.3%). In the group of students with type D personalities, depression was significantly more frequent than in the group without type D personalities (p = 0.00). In participants with depression, TMD symptoms were more common, i.e., headaches, neck, and shoulder girdle pain, TMJ acoustic symptoms, increased masticatory muscle tension, teeth clenching, and teeth grinding. There was no significant difference between the incidence of depression and TMJ pain and jaw locking. There was a significant interaction between the occurrence of headaches and acoustic symptoms and the occurrence of depression. For headache and depression interactions, the OR was >1; based on the results, we may assume that a headache depends more on the occurrence of depression rather than it being a symptom of a TMJ disorder in people with type D personalities. Conclusion: type D personality and depression may contribute to the development of TMD symptoms.

Shell shape, morphometrics and relative growth of four sympatric limpet species from the Algarve coast (southern Portugal)

This study analysed and compared the shell shape, morphometrics and relative growth of four sympatric limpet species (Patella depressa, Patella ulyssiponensis, Patella vulgata and Siphonaria pectinata) collected at Praia da Luz in Lagos (Algarve coast – southern Portugal). Morphometric relationships were established through regression analysis between linear (shell length, width and height), ponderal (total weight), area (shell base and surface areas) and volume variables (shell internal and total volumes). Relative growth (isometry vs allometry) was analysed to assess variation in the growth rate of morphometric variables throughout the species ontogeny. In addition, morphometric indices (ellipticity, conicity, density, surface area and volumetry) were calculated to further characterize shell shape. Overall, 1482 individuals with broad size and weight ranges were analysed (P. depressa = 354; P. ulyssiponensis = 306; P. vulgata = 408; S. pectinata = 414). All regressions were highly significant (P < 0.001) and the morphometric variables were strongly correlated (r = 0.761 to 0.994). Among 28 morphometric relationships, there were 14 isometries, 13 positive allometries and only one negative allometry. The morphometric indices revealed clear morphological differences between species and were mostly size-dependent, reflecting gradual changes in shell shape during growth. The main results are compared with a compilation of analogous data reported for these limpet species throughout their distributional range. Overall, the general trends in relative growth are discussed in terms of the species life habits, main traits and functional morphology.

1145Obesity-related changes in metabolomic profiles in youth

Background Obesity during childhood and adolescence is linked to subclinical atherosclerosis, metabolic dysfunction and later cardiovascular disease. Adults with obesity have metabolomic profiles that predict cardiovascular disease and mortality. Analogous data from children with obesity are sparse. Here, we aimed to investigate i) the relationship between the severity of obesity (determined by the percentage above the 95th BMI-centile (%&gt;95th BMI-centile)) and metabolomic profiles, ii) the effect of changes in the severity of obesity on the metabolomic profile and iii) the relationship between obesity-related metabolites and subclinical atherosclerosis outcomes. Methods Participants from the Childhood Overweight Biorepository of Australia (COBRA) cohort had %&gt;95th BMI-centile and NMR metabolomic profile (Nightingale, Finland) from fasted blood analysed at two time-points (mean interval of 5.5 years). At the follow-up visit, subclinical atherosclerosis phenotypes (carotid elasticity, carotid intima-media thickness, and pulse-wave velocity) were assessed. Results There were 98 participants who attended both visit 1 (mean %&gt;95th BMI-centile 134.6±19.0) and visit 2 (mean %&gt;95th BMI-centile 130.7±26.2). Higher absolute, and increasing severity, of obesity between visits were associated with increased phenylalanine, tyrosine, GlycA (a marker of chronic inflammation), and pyruvate, in both sexes (estimated increases of 0.14-0.18 standard deviations per 10% BMI-centile at visit 2, and 0.15-0.25 per 10% increase in BMI-centile between visits). There was modest evidence for a relationship between lower alanine and higher carotid elasticity. Conclusions In children with obesity, the overall severity of obesity and changes in obesity severity were associated with a metabolomic pattern that in adults is predictive of cardiovascular disease. In children, these metabolites were not related subclinical atherosclerosis; these relationships may become manifest with increasing age. Key messages There is evidence for an early effect of severe obesity on metabolomic profiles in childhood and adolescence.

Current practice of induction of labour and maternal outcome in ≥37 week of gestation: an observational study

Background: As we know induction is done when benefit to mother and fetus overweigh benefits of continuing the pregnancy. According to NICE guidelines, induction of labor leads to 15% of instrumental deliveries and 22% of total LSCS. In new civil hospital, Surat (according to 2017) failure of induction of labor was 2nd most common indication of LSCS. The objective of this study were to analyse labor induction with respect to indication for induction of labor and its maternal outcome so that we optimize our protocol of labor and reduce our LSCS rates for the same, can reduce feto-maternal morbidities also.Methods: This was prospective observational descriptive study carried out over duration of 6 month. 200 consecutive cases of consenting women requiring induction of labour and fulfilling inclusion criteria were selected. Induction was done with prostaglandin analogous. Data were collected includes age, parity, gestational age, bishop score, indication of induction, and maternal outcome. And data was analyzed by using EMI software.Results: Timely induction of labor can reduce maternal morbidity and ensure the delivery of a healthy baby. Among 200 consenting women 58.5% were multigravida and 41.5% were primigravida. Most common indication of induction among study participants is prolong rupture of membrane which is 35.5%. Among them 71.4% had vaginal delivery having poor bishop score. Most common indication for LSCS were fetal distress (34.8%).Conclusions: We concluded that elective induction of labor was associated with lower rates of LSCS and improved maternal and neonatal outcome.

Word-Initial Prevocalic [H-] in Middle English

The present contribution discusses the phonological reality of initial fricative h- in words of Germanic and French origin in dialectally identified 106 texts from the Innsbruck Corpus of Middle English Prose (Markus 2008), with the focus on native words where initial h- is frequently mute, as confirmed by (a) h-less spellings like ouse for house or especially (b) the use of the article an before h-nouns. In the early texts a phrase like an house may testify to the survival of the historical determiner (OE ān) put before both initial vowels and consonants, but in later texts this position may indicate mute initial h- in the following noun (or in an adjective before a noun). The paper offers numerical data concerning such distributions in particular Corpus texts as well as analogous data referring to the adjectives MIN and THIN (later on my and thy), where the final nasal consonant was lost when used in the function of an attribute. Consequently, this development led to the rise of a set of possessive adjectives with a syntactic, not phonological, distribution The data from the Innsbruck Corpus seem to indicate that an early loss of initial prevocalic h- in Middle English words of Germanic origin took place in particular texts rather than in texts from the whole region. The evidence from the Corpus shows that the implementation of the contemporary distribution, i.e., a before consonants and an before vowels, had a partly regional character, its first traces coming from as early as the 13th century.

Meridional overturning circulation at 30ºS in the Pacific Ocean: 1992, 2003, 2009 and 2017.

&lt;div&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;The meridional circulation and transports at 32&lt;sup&gt;o&lt;/sup&gt;S in the Pacific Ocean in 1992 and 2017 are compared with analogous data from 2003 and 2009. The hydrographic data comes from the GO-SHIP database and an inverse box model has been applied with several constraints. In 1992, 2003 and 2017 the pattern of the overturning streamfunction is similar, but in 2009 the pattern of the circulation changes in the whole water column. The horizontal distribution of mass transports at all depths in 1992 and in 2017 changes notably from the &amp;#8220;bowed gyre&amp;#8221; found in 2009 and resembles that regular shape of 2003. The hydrographic data have also been compared with analogous data obtained from the numerical modelling output of GFDL, ECCO, and SOSE. Results show that the numerical modelling output in the upper layers (&lt;/span&gt;&amp;#947;&lt;sup&gt;&lt;span&gt;n&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;27.58 kg/m&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;3&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;) have a roughly similar pattern as hydrographic data. This is not the case, however, for deep and bottom layers (&lt;/span&gt;&amp;#947;&lt;sup&gt;&lt;span&gt;n&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;span&gt;&gt;27.58 kg/m&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;3&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;), where noticeable differences are found. Furthermore, the temperature transport in 2009 &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;(0.16 &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;#177; 0.12 PW&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; is significantly lower than in 1992 &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;(0.42 &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;#177; 0.12 PW&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;), &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;2003 &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;(0.38 &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;#177; 0.12 PW&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;) and &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;2017 &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;(0.42 &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;#177; 0.12 PW&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;). In addition, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;the &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;freshwater transport result in 2009 (0.50 &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;#177; 0.03 Sv&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;) is significantly higher than in 1992 (0.26 &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;#177; 0.08 Sv&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;), 2003 (0.25 &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;#177; 0.02 Sv&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;) and 2017 (0.34 &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;#177; 0.08 Sv&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;). Westward Rossby waves are presumably the dynamical forcing that changes the circulation pattern in 2009. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/div&gt;

First Results on Moss Biomonitoring of Trace Elements in the Central Part of Georgia, Caucasus

The moss biomonitoring technique was used for assessment of air pollution in the central part of Georgia, Caucasus, in the framework of the UNECE ICP Vegetation. A total of 35 major and trace elements were determined by two complementary analytical techniques, epithermal neutron activation analysis (Na, Mg, Al, Cl, K, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Zn, Se, B, Rb, Sr, Zr, Mo, Sb, I, Cs, Ba, La, Ce, Nd, Sm, Eu, Tb, Yb, Hf, Ta, W, Th, and U) and atomic absorption spectrometry (Cu, Cd, and Pb) in the moss samples collected in 2019. Principal Component Analyses was applied to show the association between the elements in the study area. Four factors were determined, of which two are of geogenic origin (Factor 1 including Na, Al, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Fe, Co, Ni, Th, and U and Factor 3 with As, Sb, and W), mixed geogenic–anthropogenic (Factor 2 with Cl, K, Zn, Se, Br, I, and Cu) and anthropogenic (Factor 4 comprising Ca, Cd, Pb, and Br). Geographic information system (GIS) technologies were used to construct distributions maps of factor scores over the investigated territory. Comparison of the median values with the analogous data of moss biomonitoring in countries with similar climatic conditions was carried out.

Molecular and phenotypic analysis of rodent models reveals conserved and species-specific modulators of human sarcopenia

Sarcopenia, the age-related loss of skeletal muscle mass and function, affects 5–13% of individuals aged over 60 years. While rodents are widely-used model organisms, which aspects of sarcopenia are recapitulated in different animal models is unknown. Here we generated a time series of phenotypic measurements and RNA sequencing data in mouse gastrocnemius muscle and analyzed them alongside analogous data from rats and humans. We found that rodents recapitulate mitochondrial changes observed in human sarcopenia, while inflammatory responses are conserved at pathway but not gene level. Perturbations in the extracellular matrix are shared by rats, while mice recapitulate changes in RNA processing and autophagy. We inferred transcription regulators of early and late transcriptome changes, which could be targeted therapeutically. Our study demonstrates that phenotypic measurements, such as muscle mass, are better indicators of muscle health than chronological age and should be considered when analyzing aging-related molecular data.

The SP19 chronology for the South Pole Ice Core – Part 2: gas chronology, Δage, and smoothing of atmospheric records

A new ice core drilled at the South Pole provides a 54 000-year paleoenvironmental record including the composition of the past atmosphere. This paper describes the SP19 chronology for the South Pole atmospheric gas record and complements a previous paper (Winski et al., 2019) describing the SP19 ice chronology. The gas chronology is based on a discrete methane (CH4) record with 20- to 190-year resolution. To construct the gas timescale, abrupt changes in atmospheric CH4 during the glacial period and centennial CH4 variability during the Holocene were used to synchronize the South Pole gas record with analogous data from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide ice core. Stratigraphic matching based on visual optimization was verified using an automated matching algorithm. The South Pole ice core recovers all expected changes in CH4 based on previous records. Gas transport in the firn results in smoothing of the atmospheric gas record with a smoothing function spectral width that ranges from 30 to 78 years, equal to 3 % of the gas-age–ice-age difference, or Δage. The new gas chronology, in combination with the existing ice age scale from Winski et al. (2019), allows a model-independent reconstruction of the gas-age–ice-age difference through the whole record, which will be useful for testing firn densification models.