Characterization of Cetacean Morbillivirus in Humpback Whales, Brazil.

Cetacean morbillivirus is an etiologic agent associated with strandings of live and dead cetacean species occurring sporadically or as epizootics worldwide. We report 2 cases of cetacean morbillivirus in humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in Brazil and describe the anatomopathological, immunohistochemical, and molecular characterization findings in the specimens.

Using full-text content to characterize and identify best seller books: A study of early 20th-century literature.

Artistic pieces can be studied from several perspectives, one example being their reception among readers over time. In the present work, we approach this interesting topic from the standpoint of literary works, particularly assessing the task of predicting whether a book will become a best seller. Unlike previous approaches, we focused on the full content of books and considered visualization and classification tasks. We employed visualization for the preliminary exploration of the data structure and properties, involving SemAxis and linear discriminant analyses. To obtain quantitative and more objective results, we employed various classifiers. Such approaches were used along with a dataset containing (i) books published from 1895 to 1923 and consecrated as best sellers by the Publishers Weekly Bestseller Lists and (ii) literary works published in the same period but not being mentioned in that list. Our comparison of methods revealed that the best-achieved result-combining a bag-of-words representation with a logistic regression classifier-led to an average accuracy of 0.75 both for the leave-one-out and 10-fold cross-validations. Such an outcome enhances the difficulty in predicting the success of books with high accuracy, even using the full content of the texts. Nevertheless, our findings provide insights into the factors leading to the relative success of a literary work.

Twenty-five years of Open-Top Chambers in tropical environments: where, how, and what are we looking at regarding flora response to climate change?

MAIN CONCLUSION: Open-Top Chambers should be more used in tropical ecosystems to study climate change effects in plants as they are still insufficient to extract plant response patterns in these ecosystems. Understanding flora response to climate change (CC) is critical for predicting future ecosystem dynamics. Open-Top Chambers (OTCs) have been widely used to study the effects of CC on plants and are very popular in temperate ecosystems but are still underused in tropical regions. In this systematic review, we aimed to discuss the use of OTCs in the study of the effects of different agents of climate change on tropical flora by presenting scientometric data, discussing the technical aspects of its use and enumerating some observations on plant response patterns to climatic alterations in the tropics. Our analysis indicated that the bottleneck in choosing an OTC shape is not strictly related to its purpose or the type of parameter modulated; instead, passive or active approaches seem to be a more sensitive point. The common critical point in using this technique in warmer regions is overheating and decoupling, but it can be overcome with simple adaptations and extra features. The most frequently parameter modulated was CO2, followed by O3 and temperature. The plant families with more representatives in the studies analyzed were Fabaceae, Myrtaceae, and Poaceae, and the most represented biome was tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests. In conclusion, OTCs are a valuable and feasible tool to study CC effects on various tropical ecosystems, regardless of structure, active/passive approach, or other technical features. One of the primary advantages of this methodology is its applicability for in situ use, eliminating the need for plant transplantation. We encourage studies using OTC experimental design for plant conservation in the tropics.

Astroglial Hmgb1 regulates postnatal astrocyte morphogenesis and cerebrovascular maturation.

Astrocytes are intimately linked with brain blood vessels, an essential relationship for neuronal function. However, astroglial factors driving these physical and functional associations during postnatal brain development have yet to be identified. By characterizing structural and transcriptional changes in mouse cortical astrocytes during the first two postnatal weeks, we find that high-mobility group box 1 (Hmgb1), normally upregulated with injury and involved in adult cerebrovascular repair, is highly expressed in astrocytes at birth and then decreases rapidly. Astrocyte-selective ablation of Hmgb1 at birth affects astrocyte morphology and endfoot placement, alters distribution of endfoot proteins connexin43 and aquaporin-4, induces transcriptional changes in astrocytes related to cytoskeleton remodeling, and profoundly disrupts endothelial ultrastructure. While lack of astroglial Hmgb1 does not affect the blood-brain barrier or angiogenesis postnatally, it impairs neurovascular coupling and behavior in adult mice. These findings identify astroglial Hmgb1 as an important player in postnatal gliovascular maturation.

Bartter Syndrome-Related Variants Distribution: Brazilian Data and Its Comparison with Worldwide Cohorts.

BACKGROUND: Genetic testing is recommended for accurate diagnosis of Bartter syndrome (BS) and serves as a basis for implementing specific target therapies. However, populations other than Europeans and North Americans are underrepresented in most databases and there are uncertainties in the genotype-phenotype correlation. We studied Brazilian BS patients, an admixed population with diverse ancestry. METHODS: We evaluated the clinical and mutational profile of this cohort and performed a systematic review of BS mutations from worldwide cohorts. RESULTS: Twenty-two patients were included; Gitelman syndrome was diagnosed in 2 siblings with antenatal BS and congenital chloride diarrhea in 1 girl. BS was confirmed in 19 patients: BS type 1 in 1 boy (antenatal BS); BS type 4a in 1 girl and BS type 4b in 1 girl, both of them with antenatal BS and neurosensorial deafness; BS type 3 (CLCNKB mutations): 16 cases. The deletion of the entire CLCNKB (1-20 del) was the most frequent variant. Patients carrying the 1-20 del presented earlier manifestations than those with other CLCNKB-mutations and the presence of homozygous 1-20 del was correlated with progressive chronic kidney disease. The prevalence of the 1-20 del in this BS Brazilian cohort was similar to that of Chinese cohorts and individuals of African and Middle Eastern descent from other cohorts. CONCLUSION: This study expands the genetic spectrum of BS patients with different ethnics, reveals some genotype/phenotype correlations, compares the findings with other cohorts, and provides a systematic review of the literature on the distribution of BS-related variants worldwide.

Coordination and expertise foster legal textualism.

A cross-cultural survey experiment revealed a dominant tendency to rely on a rule's letter over its spirit when deciding which behaviors violate the rule. This tendency varied markedly across (k = 15) countries, owing to variation in the impact of moral appraisals on judgments of rule violation. Compared with laypeople, legal experts were more inclined to disregard their moral evaluations of the acts altogether and consequently exhibited stronger textualist tendencies. Finally, we evaluated a plausible mechanism for the emergence of textualism: in a two-player coordination game, incentives to coordinate in the absence of communication reinforced participants' adherence to rules' literal meaning. Together, these studies (total n = 5,794) help clarify the origins and allure of textualism, especially in the law. Within heterogeneous communities in which members diverge in their moral appraisals involving a rule's purpose, the rule's literal meaning provides a clear focal point-an identifiable point of agreement enabling coordinated interpretation among citizens, lawmakers, and judges.

Automatic detection of the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi in blood smears using a machine learning approach applied to mobile phone images.

Chagas disease is a life-threatening illness caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. The diagnosis of the acute form of the disease is performed by trained microscopists who detect parasites in blood smear samples. Since this method requires a dedicated high-resolution camera system attached to the microscope, the diagnostic method is more expensive and often prohibitive for low-income settings. Here, we present a machine learning approach based on a random forest (RF) algorithm for the detection and counting of T. cruzi trypomastigotes in mobile phone images. We analyzed micrographs of blood smear samples that were acquired using a mobile device camera capable of capturing images in a resolution of 12 megapixels. We extracted a set of features that describe morphometric parameters (geometry and curvature), as well as color, and texture measurements of 1,314 parasites. The features were divided into train and test sets (4:1) and classified using the RF algorithm. The values of precision, sensitivity, and area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of the proposed method were 87.6%, 90.5%, and 0.942, respectively. Automating image analysis acquired with a mobile device is a viable alternative for reducing costs and gaining efficiency in the use of the optical microscope.

Unbiased analysis of mouse brain endothelial networks from two- or three-dimensional fluorescence images.

Significance: A growing body of research supports the significant role of cerebrovascular abnormalities in neurological disorders. As these insights develop, standardized tools for unbiased and high-throughput quantification of cerebrovascular structure are needed. Aim: We provide a detailed protocol for performing immunofluorescent labeling of mouse brain vessels, using thin ( 25 µ m ) or thick (50 to 150 µ m ) tissue sections, followed respectively by two- or three-dimensional (2D or 3D) unbiased quantification of vessel density, branching, and tortuosity using digital image processing algorithms. Approach: Mouse brain sections were immunofluorescently labeled using a highly selective antibody raised against mouse Cluster of Differentiation-31 (CD31), and 2D or 3D microscopy images of the mouse brain vasculature were obtained using optical sectioning. An open-source toolbox, called Pyvane, was developed for analyzing the imaged vascular networks. The toolbox can be used to identify the vasculature, generate the medial axes of blood vessels, represent the vascular network as a graph, and calculate relevant measurements regarding vascular morphology. Results: Using Pyvane, vascular parameters such as endothelial network density, number of branching points, and tortuosity are quantified from 2D and 3D immunofluorescence micrographs. Conclusions: The steps described in this protocol are simple to follow and allow for reproducible and unbiased analysis of mouse brain vascular structure. Such a procedure can be applied to the broader field of vascular biology.

Antimicrobial resistance of enterococci isolated from food in South Brazil: Comparing pre- and post-RDC 20/2011.

Antimicrobial resistance has been attributed to the overuse of antibiotics. To control the use of antibiotics, Brazil adopted the RDC 20/2011. A comparison the antibiotic-resistance profile of bacterial has provided important insights into resistance evolution. Enterococci are ubiquitous bacteria recommended to be used as a sentinel organism, in national surveillance systems, for tracking antimicrobial resistance through the food chain. The present study aimed to evaluate the diversity and antimicrobial resistance of enterococci collected from food in South Brazil in 2017 (pos-RDC 20/11) for comparison with isolated in 2007 (pre-RDC 20/11). A total of 310 enterococci were isolated from vegetables and products of animal origin, identified by PCR and MALDI-TOF, tested for antimicrobial susceptibility and screened for resistance genes. Enterococcus casseliflavus was dominant in vegetables and E. faecalis in products of animal origin. Enterococcal isolates in 2017 were mostly sensitive to ampicillin, gentamicin, chloramphenicol, and vancomycin when compared to isolated collected in 2007. While resistance levels to most compounds remained relatively stable, multidrug resistance decreased by 24% during this period. Our results suggest that RDC 20/11 had a positive outcome in controlling the spread of antimicrobial resistance. This study provides baseline data to measure future changes in the prevalence of resistant enterococci.

Maternal high-fat diet in mice induces cerebrovascular, microglial and long-term behavioural alterations in offspring.

Various environmental exposures during pregnancy, like maternal diet, can compromise, at critical periods of development, the neurovascular maturation of the offspring. Foetal exposure to maternal high-fat diet (mHFD), common to Western societies, has been shown to disturb neurovascular development in neonates and long-term permeability of the neurovasculature. Nevertheless, the effects of mHFD on the offspring's cerebrovascular health remains largely elusive. Here, we sought to address this knowledge gap by using a translational mouse model of mHFD exposure. Three-dimensional and ultrastructure analysis of the neurovascular unit (vasculature and parenchymal cells) in mHFD-exposed offspring revealed major alterations of the neurovascular organization and metabolism. These alterations were accompanied by changes in the expression of genes involved in metabolism and immunity, indicating that neurovascular changes may result from abnormal brain metabolism and immune regulation. In addition, mHFD-exposed offspring showed persisting behavioural alterations reminiscent of neurodevelopmental disorders, specifically an increase in stereotyped and repetitive behaviours into adulthood.

Gland context networks: A novel approach for improving prostate cancer identification.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is a pervasive condition that is manifested in a wide range of histologic patterns in biopsy samples. Given the importance of identifying abnormal prostate tissue to improve prognosis, many computerized methodologies aimed at assisting pathologists in diagnosis have been developed. It is often argued that improved diagnosis of a tissue region can be obtained by considering measurements that can take into account several properties of its surroundings, therefore providing a more robust context for the analysis. Here we propose a novel methodology that can be used for systematically defining contextual features regarding prostate glands. This is done by defining a Gland Context Network (GCN), a representation of the prostate sample containing information about the spatial relationship between glands as well as the similarity between their appearance. We show that such a network can be used for establishing contextual features at any spatial scale, therefore providing information that is not easily obtained from traditional shape and textural features. Furthermore, it is shown that even basic features derived from a GCN can lead to state-of-the-art classification performance regarding PCa. All in all, GCNs can assist in defining more effective approaches for PCa grading.

Publisher's Note: Entropy of weighted recurrence plots [Phys. Rev. E 90, 042919 (2014)].

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.90.042919.

Are There Cross-Cultural Legal Principles? Modal Reasoning Uncovers Procedural Constraints on Law.

Despite pervasive variation in the content of laws, legal theorists and anthropologists have argued that laws share certain abstract features and even speculated that law may be a human universal. In the present report, we evaluate this thesis through an experiment administered in 11 different countries. Are there cross-cultural principles of law? In a between-subjects design, participants (N = 3,054) were asked whether there could be laws that violate certain procedural principles (e.g., laws applied retrospectively or unintelligible laws), and also whether there are any such laws. Confirming our preregistered prediction, people reported that such laws cannot exist, but also (paradoxically) that there are such laws. These results document cross-culturally and -linguistically robust beliefs about the concept of law which defy people's grasp of how legal systems function in practice.

Serologic evidence of West Nile virus and Saint Louis encephalitis virus in horses from Southern Brazil.

Flaviviruses as West Nile virus (WNV), Saint Louis encephalitis virus (SLEV), Ilhéus virus (ILHV), and Rocio virus (ROCV) are previously reported in different Brazilian regions, but studies in Southern Brazil are still scarce. To improve the information regarding flaviviruses in Southern Brazil, horse serum samples were analyzed using RT-qPCR and a commercial ELISA-Ab against WNV followed by PRNT75. All 1000 samples analyzed by real-time RT-PCR resulted negative. The 465 subsampled samples were analyzed by a commercial ELISA-Ab against WNV, and the 18.5% (86/465) positive samples were further analyzed by PRNT75. In the PRNT75, 13/86 and 2/86 horses were positive for SLEV and WNV, respectively. It was observed that 5.8% (13/226) of the farms presented at least one positive animal for SLEV in PRNT75, whereas 0.9% (2/226) for WNV. Apart from the lower seroprevalences identified when compared to data previously reported in other Brazilian regions, our results suggest that public health professionals must be aware of the presence of these potential zoonotic pathogens.

Characteristics Associated with Acute-Phase Response following First Zoledronic Acid Infusion in Brazilian Population with Osteoporosis.

We aimed to evaluate characteristics associated with acute-phase response (APR) following first zoledronic acid infusion in a Brazilian cohort. This retrospective cohort study enrolled all adults with osteoporosis who underwent a first zoledronic acid infusion at our centre between June 2015 and June 2019. Clinical demographics (age, sex, diabetes, smoking, body mass index, and previous oral bisphosphonate use) and laboratory data (calcium, parathyroid hormone, renal function, and serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and carboxy-terminal crosslinked telopeptide of type 1 collagen [CTX], both before and after infusion) were compared between patients with and without APR. We evaluated association magnitude between the presence of APR and clinical variables through logistic regression. This study enrolled 400 patients (women, 80%). APR was observed in 24.5% (n = 98) of patients. The mean symptom duration in days was 3.5 ± 2.8. Patients with APR were younger (67 ± 12 vs. 71 ± 11 years; p=0.001), used oral bisphosphonates less frequently (34% × 50%; p=0.005), and had greater baseline CTX (0.535 ng/mL [0.375, 0.697] × 0.430 [0.249, 0.681]; p=0.03) and ΔCTX (-69 [-76; -50] × -54 [-72; -23]; p=0.002) than those without APR. The other variables were similar between the groups. Only ΔCTX was associated (OR, 0.62; 95% CI 0.41-0.98) with APR after accounting for age and bisphosphonate use. APR occurred in 24.5% of the cohort. Younger age and absence of prior oral bisphosphonate use were associated with APR following first zoledronic acid infusion. APR was associated with ΔCTX (but no other variables) after adjusting for these factors.

Effects of thermal shock on the survival and reproduction of Stratiolaelaps scimitus (Mesostigmata: Laelapidae).

The responses of arthropods to thermal stress are vital in ecological studies in order to understand survival, development, and reproduction. However, this subject is poorly addressed. In the order Mesostigmata, an abundance of species lives in the soil. Among these species, Stratiolaelaps scimitus (Womersley) is a predator used in the control of pest organisms that live in the soil. Mites of this species are commercialized in several countries, including Brazil, presenting efficiency in pest control in several crops. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of thermal shock on S. scimitus females, as well as to monitor the temperature variation in the environment. For each temperature, 80 experimental units were assembled for different periods (0.5, 1, 2, and 4 h). Experimental units were maintained at 25 °C, after exposure of the mites. Mortality and oviposition were evaluated. The results showed a 40% reduction in the survival of mites exposed to 37 °C for 4 h, compared to the control treatment (25 °C). Oviposition was less affected at 1 h exposure to temperatures of 19 and 12 °C and thermic fluctuation was observed in the greenhouse, especially inside the slabs. Understanding temperature effects in mites and the thermic fluctuation in the environment is essential to achieve satisfactory results in biological control. It is important to observe the scenario in which predatory mites will be released as these aspects are decisive in predatory activity.

Legal decision-making and the abstract/concrete paradox.

Higher courts sometimes assess the constitutionality of law by working through a concrete case, other times by reasoning about the underlying question in a more abstract way. Prior research has found that the degree of concreteness or abstraction with which an issue is formulated can influence people's prescriptive views: For instance, people often endorse punishment for concrete misdeeds that they would oppose if the circumstances were described abstractly. We sought to understand whether the so-called 'abstract/concrete paradox' also jeopardizes the consistency of judicial reasoning. In a series of experiments, both lay and professional judges sometimes reached opposite conclusions when reasoning about concrete cases versus the underlying issues formulated in abstract terms. This effect emerged whether participants reasoned with broad principles, such as human dignity, or narrow rules, and was largest among individuals high in trait empathy. Finally, to understand whether people reflectively endorse the discrepancy between abstract and concrete resolutions, we examined their reactions when evaluating both, either simultaneously or sequentially. These approaches revealed no single pattern across lay and expert populations, or exploratory and confirmatory studies. Taken together, our studies suggest that empathic concern plays a greater role in guiding the judicial resolution of concrete cases than in illuminating judges' professed standards-which may result in concrete decisions in violation of their own abstract principles.

A biochemical network modeling of a whole-cell.

All cellular processes can be ultimately understood in terms of respective fundamental biochemical interactions between molecules, which can be modeled as networks. Very often, these molecules are shared by more than one process, therefore interconnecting them. Despite this effect, cellular processes are usually described by separate networks with heterogeneous levels of detail, such as metabolic, protein-protein interaction, and transcription regulation networks. Aiming at obtaining a unified representation of cellular processes, we describe in this work an integrative framework that draws concepts from rule-based modeling. In order to probe the capabilities of the framework, we used an organism-specific database and genomic information to model the whole-cell biochemical network of the Mycoplasma genitalium organism. This modeling accounted for 15 cellular processes and resulted in a single component network, indicating that all processes are somehow interconnected. The topological analysis of the network showed structural consistency with biological networks in the literature. In order to validate the network, we estimated gene essentiality by simulating gene deletions and compared the results with experimental data available in the literature. We could classify 212 genes as essential, being 95% of them consistent with experimental results. Although we adopted a relatively simple organism as a case study, we suggest that the presented framework has the potential for paving the way to more integrated studies of whole organisms leading to a systemic analysis of cells on a broader scale. The modeling of other organisms using this framework could provide useful large-scale models for different fields of research such as bioengineering, network biology, and synthetic biology, and also provide novel tools for medical and industrial applications.

Vascular contributions to 16p11.2 deletion autism syndrome modeled in mice.

While the neuronal underpinnings of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are being unraveled, vascular contributions to ASD remain elusive. Here, we investigated postnatal cerebrovascular development in the 16p11.2df/+ mouse model of 16p11.2 deletion ASD syndrome. We discover that 16p11.2 hemizygosity leads to male-specific, endothelium-dependent structural and functional neurovascular abnormalities. In 16p11.2df/+ mice, endothelial dysfunction results in impaired cerebral angiogenesis at postnatal day 14, and in altered neurovascular coupling and cerebrovascular reactivity at postnatal day 50. Moreover, we show that there is defective angiogenesis in primary 16p11.2df/+ mouse brain endothelial cells and in induced-pluripotent-stem-cell-derived endothelial cells from human carriers of the 16p11.2 deletion. Finally, we find that mice with an endothelium-specific 16p11.2 deletion (16p11.2ΔEC) partially recapitulate some of the behavioral changes seen in 16p11.2 syndrome, specifically hyperactivity and impaired motor learning. By showing that developmental 16p11.2 haploinsufficiency from endothelial cells results in neurovascular and behavioral changes in adults, our results point to a potential role for endothelial impairment in ASD.