Overcoming Digital Exclusion during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Impact of Mobile Technology for Survivors of Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking - A Mixed Method Study of Survivors and Support Service Provider Views.

This collaborative, qualitative study aimed to understand the impact that smartphone technology can have for survivors of human trafficking and slavery in relation to their mental health, well-being and social connections, access to services and levels of independence and isolation. The pilot project was conceived shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic by anti-slavery charity Unseen and the telecommunications company BT, in recognition of the potential of smartphone technology to enhance survivors' recovery from trauma. BT donated smartphones and SIM cards with 6-month call and data packages that Unseen distributed to survivors they were supporting. Seventy-four survivors received a smartphone; 27 survivors were interviewed and 12 Unseen staff completed a free-text survey exploring perceptions of the intervention. A well-being capability measure (ICECAP-A) was conducted with survivors at the start and end of the project. Researchers analyzed all data, triangulating across data sources. Analysis showed support staff play a key role in the success of the intervention to increase digital inclusion. Smartphones helped survivors develop skills to assist them in their move toward independent living and navigate the systems and services in their environment. The intervention was highly valuable to survivors for support, integration and access to services. Our findings suggest that suitable technology packages should be assessed for inclusion as standard support for survivors of modern slavery within the UK Government's National Referral Mechanism (NRM). Achieving this change in NRM policy will go some way to realize the United Nations 2030 Agenda, specifically SDG 3 (Good health and wellbeing for all at all ages), SDG 8 (Decent Work-inclusive and sustained economic growth) and SDG 16 (Peace, justice and strong institutions-inclusive societies and access to justice for all).

Multiplex single-cell chemical genomics reveals the kinase dependence of the response to targeted therapy.

Chemical genetic screens are a powerful tool for exploring how cancer cells' response to drugs is shaped by their mutations, yet they lack a molecular view of the contribution of individual genes to the response to exposure. Here, we present sci-Plex-Gene-by-Environment (sci-Plex-GxE), a platform for combined single-cell genetic and chemical screening at scale. We highlight the advantages of large-scale, unbiased screening by defining the contribution of each of 522 human kinases to the response of glioblastoma to different drugs designed to abrogate signaling from the receptor tyrosine kinase pathway. In total, we probed 14,121 gene-by-environment combinations across 1,052,205 single-cell transcriptomes. We identify an expression signature characteristic of compensatory adaptive signaling regulated in a MEK/MAPK-dependent manner. Further analyses aimed at preventing adaptation revealed promising combination therapies, including dual MEK and CDC7/CDK9 or nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) inhibitors, as potent means of preventing transcriptional adaptation of glioblastoma to targeted therapy.

Wastewater surveillance for bacterial targets: current challenges and future goals.

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) expanded rapidly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the public health emergency has ended, researchers and practitioners are looking to shift the focus of existing wastewater surveillance programs to other targets, including bacteria. Bacterial targets may pose some unique challenges for WBE applications. To explore the current state of the field, the National Science Foundation-funded Research Coordination Network (RCN) on Wastewater Based Epidemiology for SARS-CoV-2 and Emerging Public Health Threats held a workshop in April 2023 to discuss the challenges and needs for wastewater bacterial surveillance. The targets and methods used in existing programs were diverse, with twelve different targets and nine different methods listed. Discussions during the workshop highlighted the challenges in adapting existing programs and identified research gaps in four key areas: choosing new targets, relating bacterial wastewater data to human disease incidence and prevalence, developing methods, and normalizing results. To help with these challenges and research gaps, the authors identified steps the larger community can take to improve bacteria wastewater surveillance. This includes developing data reporting standards and method optimization and validation for bacterial programs. Additionally, more work is needed to understand shedding patterns for potential bacterial targets to better relate wastewater data to human infections. Wastewater surveillance for bacteria can help provide insight into the underlying prevalence in communities, but much work is needed to establish these methods.IMPORTANCEWastewater surveillance was a useful tool to elucidate the burden and spread of SARS-CoV-2 during the pandemic. Public health officials and researchers are interested in expanding these surveillance programs to include bacterial targets, but many questions remain. The NSF-funded Research Coordination Network for Wastewater Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 and Emerging Public Health Threats held a workshop to identify barriers and research gaps to implementing bacterial wastewater surveillance programs.

Single-cell, whole-embryo phenotyping of mammalian developmental disorders.

Mouse models are a critical tool for studying human diseases, particularly developmental disorders1. However, conventional approaches for phenotyping may fail to detect subtle defects throughout the developing mouse2. Here we set out to establish single-cell RNA sequencing of the whole embryo as a scalable platform for the systematic phenotyping of mouse genetic models. We applied combinatorial indexing-based single-cell RNA sequencing3 to profile 101 embryos of 22 mutant and 4 wild-type genotypes at embryonic day 13.5, altogether profiling more than 1.6 million nuclei. The 22 mutants represent a range of anticipated phenotypic severities, from established multisystem disorders to deletions of individual regulatory regions4,5. We developed and applied several analytical frameworks for detecting differences in composition and/or gene expression across 52 cell types or trajectories. Some mutants exhibit changes in dozens of trajectories whereas others exhibit changes in only a few cell types. We also identify differences between widely used wild-type strains, compare phenotyping of gain- versus loss-of-function mutants and characterize deletions of topological associating domain boundaries. Notably, some changes are shared among mutants, suggesting that developmental pleiotropy might be 'decomposable' through further scaling of this approach. Overall, our findings show how single-cell profiling of whole embryos can enable the systematic molecular and cellular phenotypic characterization of mouse mutants with unprecedented breadth and resolution.

Embryo-scale reverse genetics at single-cell resolution.

The maturation of single-cell transcriptomic technologies has facilitated the generation of comprehensive cellular atlases from whole embryos1-4. A majority of these data, however, has been collected from wild-type embryos without an appreciation for the latent variation that is present in development. Here we present the 'zebrafish single-cell atlas of perturbed embryos': single-cell transcriptomic data from 1,812 individually resolved developing zebrafish embryos, encompassing 19 timepoints, 23 genetic perturbations and a total of 3.2 million cells. The high degree of replication in our study (eight or more embryos per condition) enables us to estimate the variance in cell type abundance organism-wide and to detect perturbation-dependent deviance in cell type composition relative to wild-type embryos. Our approach is sensitive to rare cell types, resolving developmental trajectories and genetic dependencies in the cranial ganglia neurons, a cell population that comprises less than 1% of the embryo. Additionally, time-series profiling of individual mutants identified a group of brachyury-independent cells with strikingly similar transcriptomes to notochord sheath cells, leading to new hypotheses about early origins of the skull. We anticipate that standardized collection of high-resolution, organism-scale single-cell data from large numbers of individual embryos will enable mapping of the genetic dependencies of zebrafish cell types, while also addressing longstanding challenges in developmental genetics, including the cellular and transcriptional plasticity underlying phenotypic diversity across individuals.

Proteostasis governs differential temperature sensitivity across embryonic cell types.

Embryonic development is remarkably robust, but temperature stress can degrade its ability to generate animals with invariant anatomy. Phenotypes associated with environmental stress suggest that some cell types are more sensitive to stress than others, but the basis of this sensitivity is unknown. Here, we characterize hundreds of individual zebrafish embryos under temperature stress using whole-animal single-cell RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) to identify cell types and molecular programs driving phenotypic variability. We find that temperature perturbs the normal proportions and gene expression programs of numerous cell types and also introduces asynchrony in developmental timing. The notochord is particularly sensitive to temperature, which we map to a specialized cell type: sheath cells. These cells accumulate misfolded protein at elevated temperature, leading to a cascading structural failure of the notochord and anatomic defects. Our study demonstrates that whole-animal single-cell RNA-seq can identify mechanisms for developmental robustness and pinpoint cell types that constitute key failure points.

Suicidality among university students in the Eastern Mediterranean region: A systematic review.

The prevalence of suicide attempts and suicidal ideation among university students is a global concern. Cultural values, social determinants, religion, and especially growing stress all play an important role in this. This systematic review aimed to identify potential protective and risk factors thought to be associated with suicidal ideation among students in the Eastern Mediterranean region and highlight the importance of developing an effective health care response. MEDLINE, CINAHL, Embase, PsycINFO, WHO Global Health Library, IMEMR, Web of Science Core Collections and Farsi and Arabic databases were searched for papers in English, Farsi, and Arabic. A combination of validated filters, free text keywords, and Mesh and Non-Mesh terms were used to retrieve relevant literature. A total of 2774 papers were found after the search, 257 selected for full-text review, and 72 papers included in the final review. Family and peer support play a potential protective role in the development of suicidal ideation among university students, while adverse life events, bullying, depression, anxiety, and other mental health conditions were identified as risk factors. Suicidality was likely under-reported due to stigma around social and cultural factors. Factors involving religion and culture may act as both protective and risk factors and require more in-depth investigation. The student population in the Eastern Mediterranean region face many challenges. The common theme of suicidality emerged as an indicator of an imbalance of resources and stress, which needs to be addressed proactively, given a most likely underreporting of suicidal ideation and attempts due to stigma.

Transcriptomic profiling of tissue environments critical for post-embryonic patterning and morphogenesis of zebrafish skin.

Pigment patterns and skin appendages are prominent features of vertebrate skin. In zebrafish, regularly patterned pigment stripes and an array of calcified scales form simultaneously in the skin during post-embryonic development. Understanding the mechanisms that regulate stripe patterning and scale morphogenesis may lead to the discovery of fundamental mechanisms that govern the development of animal form. To learn about cell types and signaling interactions that govern skin patterning and morphogenesis, we generated and analyzed single-cell transcriptomes of skin from wild-type fish as well as fish having genetic or transgenically induced defects in squamation or pigmentation. These data reveal a previously undescribed population of epidermal cells that express transcripts encoding enamel matrix proteins, suggest hormonal control of epithelial-mesenchymal signaling, clarify the signaling network that governs scale papillae development, and identify a critical role for the hypodermis in supporting pigment cell development. Additionally, these comprehensive single-cell transcriptomic data representing skin phenotypes of biomedical relevance should provide a useful resource for accelerating the discovery of mechanisms that govern skin development and homeostasis.

Multiplex single-cell chemical genomics reveals the kinase dependence of the response to targeted therapy.

Chemical genetic screens are a powerful tool for exploring how cancer cells' response to drugs is shaped by their mutations, yet they lack a molecular view of the contribution of individual genes to the response to exposure. Here, we present sci-Plex-Gene-by-Environment (sci-Plex-GxE), a platform for combined single-cell genetic and chemical screening at scale. We highlight the advantages of large-scale, unbiased screening by defining the contribution of each of 522 human kinases to the response of glioblastoma to different drugs designed to abrogate signaling from the receptor tyrosine kinase pathway. In total, we probed 14,121 gene-by-environment combinations across 1,052,205 single-cell transcriptomes. We identify an expression signature characteristic of compensatory adaptive signaling regulated in a MEK/MAPK-dependent manner. Further analyses aimed at preventing adaptation revealed promising combination therapies, including dual MEK and CDC7/CDK9 or NF-kB inhibitors, as potent means of preventing transcriptional adaptation of glioblastoma to targeted therapy.

Single-cell transcriptomic profiling of the zebrafish inner ear reveals molecularly distinct hair cell and supporting cell subtypes.

A major cause of human deafness and vestibular dysfunction is permanent loss of the mechanosensory hair cells of the inner ear. In non-mammalian vertebrates such as zebrafish, regeneration of missing hair cells can occur throughout life. While a comparative approach has the potential to reveal the basis of such differential regenerative ability, the degree to which the inner ears of fish and mammals share common hair cells and supporting cell types remains unresolved. Here, we perform single-cell RNA sequencing of the zebrafish inner ear at embryonic through adult stages to catalog the diversity of hair cells and non-sensory supporting cells. We identify a putative progenitor population for hair cells and supporting cells, as well as distinct hair and supporting cell types in the maculae versus cristae. The hair cell and supporting cell types differ from those described for the lateral line system, a distributed mechanosensory organ in zebrafish in which most studies of hair cell regeneration have been conducted. In the maculae, we identify two subtypes of hair cells that share gene expression with mammalian striolar or extrastriolar hair cells. In situ hybridization reveals that these hair cell subtypes occupy distinct spatial domains within the three macular organs, the utricle, saccule, and lagena, consistent with the reported distinct electrophysiological properties of hair cells within these domains. These findings suggest that primitive specialization of spatially distinct striolar and extrastriolar hair cells likely arose in the last common ancestor of fish and mammals. The similarities of inner ear cell type composition between fish and mammals validate zebrafish as a relevant model for understanding inner ear-specific hair cell function and regeneration.

Nuclear oligo hashing improves differential analysis of single-cell RNA-seq.

Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) offers a high-resolution molecular view into complex tissues, but suffers from high levels of technical noise which frustrates efforts to compare the gene expression programs of different cell types. "Spike-in" RNA standards help control for technical variation in scRNA-seq, but using them with recently developed, ultra-scalable scRNA-seq methods based on combinatorial indexing is not feasible. Here, we describe a simple and cost-effective method for normalizing transcript counts and subtracting technical variability that improves differential expression analysis in scRNA-seq. The method affixes a ladder of synthetic single-stranded DNA oligos to each cell that appears in its RNA-seq library. With improved normalization we explore chemical perturbations with broad or highly specific effects on gene regulation, including RNA pol II elongation, histone deacetylation, and activation of the glucocorticoid receptor. Our methods reveal that inhibiting histone deacetylation prevents cells from executing their canonical program of changes following glucocorticoid stimulation.

Thyroid hormone regulates abrupt skin morphogenesis during zebrafish postembryonic development.

Thyroid hormone is a key regulator of post-embryonic vertebrate development. Skin is a biomedically important thyroid hormone target organ, but the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying skin pathologies associated with thyroid dysfunction remain obscure. The transparent skin of zebrafish is an accessible model system for studying vertebrate skin development. During post-embryonic development of the zebrafish, scales emerge in the skin from a hexagonally patterned array of dermal papillae, like other vertebrate skin appendages such as feathers and hair follicles. We show here that thyroid hormone regulates the rate of post-embryonic dermal development through interaction with nuclear hormone receptors. This couples skin development with body growth to generate a well ordered array of correctly proportioned scales. This work extends our knowledge of thyroid hormone actions on skin by providing in-vivo evidence that thyroid hormone regulates multiple aspects of dermal development.

Troubles mictionnels et accès aux toilettes chez les enfants scolarisés : enquête dans l'Académie de Toulouse.

Not urinating regularly, voluntarily restraining oneself at school promotes the occurrence of voiding disorders. AIM: To determine the prevalence of such disorders in elementary schools (students from 1st to 5th grade) and analyze the role of access to school toilets on voiding habits. METHOD: Observational, descriptive epidemiological study during the 2017-2018 school year by electronic questionnaire with parents of pupils attending elementary school. RESULTS: 2119 questionnaires were analyzed. The graders sex ratio was 1.07 (1087 boys). 410 families (19%) were classified as "popular" class. First, second and third graders represented 60% of the enrollment (N = 1273). Overall use of school toilets was 87% and 69% of students had appropriate use for urine. The main obstacles to their use were lack of hygiene and comfort (51%), lack of security or privacy (33%), limited accessibility (28%). The overall prevalence of urinary elimination disorders was 9%. Girls had more inappropriate use of the toilet for urine (36% vs 27%, OR 1.5, P = 0.0004). The factors associated with urinary elimination disorders were: not using the toilet (13% vs 9 %, OR 1.5, P = 0.04), being a girl (14% vs 5%, OR 3.5, P < 0.0001), belonging to the working class (14% vs 8% OR 1.8, P = 0.0008). CONCLUSION: This situation, which is a long-denounced major public health problem, mainly affects girls and also reveals social inequalities in the use of school toilets.

A-kinase-anchoring protein 1 (dAKAP1)-based signaling complexes coordinate local protein synthesis at the mitochondrial surface.

Compartmentalization of macromolecules is a ubiquitous molecular mechanism that drives numerous cellular functions. The appropriate organization of enzymes in space and time enables the precise transmission and integration of intracellular signals. Molecular scaffolds constrain signaling enzymes to influence the regional modulation of these physiological processes. Mitochondrial targeting of protein kinases and protein phosphatases provides a means to locally control the phosphorylation status and action of proteins on the surface of this organelle. Dual-specificity protein kinase A anchoring protein 1 (dAKAP1) is a multivalent binding protein that targets protein kinase A (PKA), RNAs, and other signaling enzymes to the outer mitochondrial membrane. Many AKAPs recruit a diverse set of binding partners that coordinate a broad range of cellular processes. Here, results of MS and biochemical analyses reveal that dAKAP1 anchors additional components, including the ribonucleoprotein granule components La-related protein 4 (LARP4) and polyadenylate-binding protein 1 (PABPC1). Local translation of mRNAs at organelles is a means to spatially control the synthesis of proteins. RNA-Seq data demonstrate that dAKAP1 binds mRNAs encoding proteins required for mitochondrial metabolism, including succinate dehydrogenase. Functional studies suggest that the loss of dAKAP1-RNA interactions reduces mitochondrial electron transport chain activity. Hence, dAKAP1 plays a previously unappreciated role as a molecular interface between second messenger signaling and local protein synthesis machinery.

Thyroid hormone receptors mediate two distinct mechanisms of long-wavelength vision.

Thyroid hormone (TH) signaling plays an important role in the regulation of long-wavelength vision in vertebrates. In the retina, thyroid hormone receptor ß (thrb) is required for expression of long-wavelength-sensitive opsin (lws) in red cone photoreceptors, while in retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), TH regulates expression of a cytochrome P450 enzyme, cyp27c1, that converts vitamin A1 into vitamin A2 to produce a red-shifted chromophore. To better understand how TH controls these processes, we analyzed the phenotype of zebrafish with mutations in the three known TH nuclear receptor transcription factors (thraa, thrab, and thrb). We found that no single TH nuclear receptor is required for TH-mediated induction of cyp27c1 but that deletion of all three (thraa-/-;thrab-/-;thrb-/- ) completely abrogates its induction and the resulting conversion of A1- to A2-based retinoids. In the retina, loss of thrb resulted in an absence of red cones at both larval and adult stages without disruption of the underlying cone mosaic. RNA-sequencing analysis revealed significant down-regulation of only five genes in adult thrb-/- retina, of which three (lws1, lws2, and miR-726) occur in a single syntenic cluster. In the thrb-/- retina, retinal progenitors destined to become red cones were transfated into ultraviolet (UV) cones and horizontal cells. Taken together, our findings demonstrate cooperative regulation of cyp27c1 by TH receptors and a requirement for thrb in red cone fate determination. Thus, TH signaling coordinately regulates both spectral sensitivity and sensory plasticity.

Chromatin accessibility dynamics and single cell RNA-Seq reveal new regulators of regeneration in neural progenitors.

Vertebrate appendage regeneration requires precisely coordinated remodeling of the transcriptional landscape to enable the growth and differentiation of new tissue, a process executed over multiple days and across dozens of cell types. The heterogeneity of tissues and temporally-sensitive fate decisions involved has made it difficult to articulate the gene regulatory programs enabling regeneration of individual cell types. To better understand how a regenerative program is fulfilled by neural progenitor cells (NPCs) of the spinal cord, we analyzed pax6-expressing NPCs isolated from regenerating Xenopus tropicalis tails. By intersecting chromatin accessibility data with single-cell transcriptomics, we find that NPCs place an early priority on neuronal differentiation. Late in regeneration, the priority returns to proliferation. Our analyses identify Pbx3 and Meis1 as critical regulators of tail regeneration and axon organization. Overall, we use transcriptional regulatory dynamics to present a new model for cell fate decisions and their regulators in NPCs during regeneration.

Inferring Causal Gene Regulatory Networks from Coupled Single-Cell Expression Dynamics Using Scribe.

Here, we present Scribe (https://github.com/aristoteleo/Scribe-py), a toolkit for detecting and visualizing causal regulatory interactions between genes and explore the potential for single-cell experiments to power network reconstruction. Scribe employs restricted directed information to determine causality by estimating the strength of information transferred from a potential regulator to its downstream target. We apply Scribe and other leading approaches for causal network reconstruction to several types of single-cell measurements and show that there is a dramatic drop in performance for "pseudotime"-ordered single-cell data compared with true time-series data. We demonstrate that performing causal inference requires temporal coupling between measurements. We show that methods such as "RNA velocity" restore some degree of coupling through an analysis of chromaffin cell fate commitment. These analyses highlight a shortcoming in experimental and computational methods for analyzing gene regulation at single-cell resolution and suggest ways of overcoming it.

Dimensionality reduction by UMAP to visualize physical and genetic interactions.

Dimensionality reduction is often used to visualize complex expression profiling data. Here, we use the Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP) method on published transcript profiles of 1484 single gene deletions of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Proximity in low-dimensional UMAP space identifies groups of genes that correspond to protein complexes and pathways, and finds novel protein interactions, even within well-characterized complexes. This approach is more sensitive than previous methods and should be broadly useful as additional transcriptome datasets become available for other organisms.

Inhibition of Erwinia amylovora by Bacillus nakamurai.

A variety of potential inhibitors were tested for the first time for the suppression of Erwinia amylovora, the causal agent of fire blight in apples and pears. Strain variability was evident in susceptibility to inhibitors among five independently isolated virulent strains of E. amylovora. However, most strains were susceptible to culture supernatants from strains of Bacillus spp., and particularly to the recently described species B. nakamurai. Minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) were 5-20% (vol/vol) of culture supernatant from B. nakamurai against all five strains of E. amylovora. Although Bacillus species have been previously reported to produce lipopeptide inhibitors of E. amylovora, matrix-assisted laser desorption time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) and column chromatography indicated that the inhibitor from B. nakamurai was not a lipopeptide, but rather a novel inhibitor.

[Voiding dysfunction and access to toilets among elementary school children: A Toulouse school district study]. / Troubles mictionnels et accès aux toilettes chez les enfants scolarisés : enquête dans l'Académie de Toulouse.

Not urinating regularly, voluntarily restraining oneself at school promotes the occurrence of voiding disorders. AIM: To determine the prevalence of such disorders in elementary schools (students from 1st to 5th grade) and analyze the role of access to school toilets on voiding habits. METHOD: Observational, descriptive epidemiological study during the 2017-2018 school year by electronic questionnaire with parents of pupils attending elementary school. RESULTS: 2119 questionnaires were analyzed. The graders sex ratio was 1.07 (1087 boys). 410 families (19%) were classified as "popular" class. First, second and third graders represented 60% of the enrollment (N = 1273). Overall use of school toilets was 87% and 69% of students had appropriate use for urine. The main obstacles to their use were lack of hygiene and comfort (51%), lack of security or privacy (33%), limited accessibility (28%). The overall prevalence of urinary elimination disorders was 9%. Girls had more inappropriate use of the toilet for urine (36% vs 27%, OR 1.5, P = 0.0004). The factors associated with urinary elimination disorders were: not using the toilet (13% vs 9 %, OR 1.5, P = 0.04), being a girl (14% vs 5%, OR 3.5, P < 0.0001), belonging to the working class (14% vs 8% OR 1.8, P = 0.0008). CONCLUSION: This situation, which is a long-denounced major public health problem, mainly affects girls and also reveals social inequalities in the use of school toilets.