Explore the vast range of titles available.

A little girl greets people in her neighborhood in many different languages.

Searching for a fabled magical tree that bears golden fruit, Prince Ivan finds also a splendid creature, half bird and half woman, with feathers of flame. He captures the Firebird, then instantly free her. In gratitude, the Firebird gives him a feather that can summon her help in time of need. That time comes quickly, as Ivan soon falls into battle with the evil sorcerer, Katschei, and his monsters.

A toddler plays peek-a-boo throughout the day.

Harmful environmental stimuli during critical stages of development can profoundly affect behavior and susceptibility to diseases. Alzheimer disease (AD) is the most frequent neurodegenerative disease, and evidence suggest that inflammatory conditions act cumulatively, contributing to disease onset. Here we investigated whether infection early in life can contribute to synapse damage and cognitive impairment induced by amyloid-β oligomers (AβOs), neurotoxins found in AD brains. To this end, wild-type mice were subjected to neonatal (post-natal day 4) infection by Escherichia coli (1 × 10 4 CFU/g), the main cause of infection in low-birth-weight premature infants in the US. E. coli infection caused a transient inflammatory response in the mouse brain starting shortly after infection. Although infected mice performed normally in behavioral tasks in adulthood, they showed increased susceptibility to synapse damage and memory impairment induced by low doses of AβOs (1 pmol; intracerebroventricular) in the novel object recognition paradigm. Using in vitro and in vivo approaches, we show that microglial cells from E. coli -infected mice undergo exacerbated activation when exposed to low doses of AβOs. In addition, treatment of infected pups with minocycline, an antibiotic that inhibits microglial pro-inflammatory polarization, normalized microglial response to AβOs and restored normal susceptibility of mice to oligomer-induced cognitive impairment. Interestingly, mice infected with by E. coli (1 × 10 4 CFU/g) during adolescence (post-natal day 21) or adulthood (post-natal day 60) showed normal cognitive performance even in the presence of AβOs (1 pmol), suggesting that only infections at critical stages of development may lead to increased susceptibility to amyloid-β-induced toxicity. Altogether, our findings suggest that neonatal infections can modulate microglial response to AβOs into adulthood, thus contributing to amyloid-β-induced synapse damage and cognitive impairment.

A lyrical and evocative dreamscape of the Caribbean.

The introduction of alleles into commercial crop breeding pipelines is both time consuming and costly. Two technologies that are disrupting traditional breeding processes are doubled haploid (DH) breeding and genome editing (GE). Recently, these techniques were combined into a GE trait delivery system called HI-Edit (Haploid Inducer-Edit) [1]. In HI-Edit, the pollen of a haploid inducer line is reprogrammed to deliver GE traits to any variety, obviating recurrent selection. For HI-Edit to operate at scale, an efficient transformable HI line is needed, but most maize varieties are recalcitrant to transformation, and haploid inducers are especially difficult to transform given their aberrant reproductive behaviors. Leveraging marker assisted selection and a three-tiered testing scheme, we report the development of new Iodent and Stiff Stalk maize germplasm that are transformable, have high haploid induction rates, and exhibit a robust, genetically-dominant anthocyanin native trait that may be used for rapid haploid identification. We show that transformation of these elite “HI-Edit” lines is enhanced using the BABYBOOM and WUSCHEL morphogenetic factors. Finally, we evaluate the HI-Edit performance of one of the lines against both Stiff Stalk and non-Stiff Stalk testers. The strategy and results of this study should facilitate the development of commercially scalable HI-Edit systems in diverse crops.

Bea and her toddler ballet class perform \"The Nutcracker.\"

The wine industry generates billions of dollars of revenue annually, and economic productivity is in part associated with regional distinctiveness of wine sensory attributes. Microorganisms associated with grapes and wineries are influenced by region of origin, and given that some microorganisms play a role in fermentation, it is thought that microbes may contribute to the regional distinctiveness of wine. Ribosomal DNA amplicon sequencing of grape musts has demonstrated that microorganisms occur nonrandomly and are associated with the vineyard of origin, suggesting a role for the vineyard, grape, and wine microbiome in shaping wine fermentation outcomes. Here, ribosomal DNA amplicon sequencing from grape musts and RNA sequencing of eukaryotic transcripts from primary fermentations inoculated with the wine yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae RC212 were used to profile fermentations from 15 vineyards in California and Oregon across two vintages. These data demonstrate that the relative abundance of fungal organisms detected by ribosomal DNA amplicon sequencing correlated with neither transcript abundance from those same organisms within the RNA sequencing data nor gene expression of the inoculated RC212 yeast strain. These data suggest that the majority of the fungi detected in must by ribosomal DNA amplicon sequencing were not active during the primary stage of these inoculated fermentations and were not a major factor in determining RC212 gene expression. However, unique genetic signatures were detected within the ribosomal DNA amplicon and eukaryotic transcriptomic sequencing that were predictive of vineyard site and region. These signatures included S. cerevisiae gene expression patterns linked to nitrogen, sulfur, and thiamine metabolism. These genetic signatures of site offer insight into specific environmental factors to consider with respect to fermentation outcomes and vineyard site and regional wine characteristics. IMPORTANCE The wine industry generates billions of dollars of revenue annually, and economic productivity is in part associated with regional distinctiveness of wine sensory attributes. Microorganisms associated with grapes and wineries are influenced by region of origin, and given that some microorganisms play a role in fermentation, it is thought that microbes may contribute to the regional distinctiveness of wine. In this work, as in previous studies, it is demonstrated that specific bacteria and fungi are associated with individual wine regions and vineyard sites. However, this work further shows that their presence is not associated with detectable fungal gene expression during the primary fermentation or the expression of specific genes by the inoculate Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain RC212. The detected RC212 gene expression signatures associated with region and vineyard site also allowed the identification of flavor-associated metabolic processes and environmental factors that could impact primary fermentation outcomes. These data offer novel insights into the complexities and subtleties of vineyard-specific inoculated wine fermentation and starting points for future investigations into factors that contribute to regional wine distinctiveness.

Children explore their five senses, learning what they can see, smell, hear, touch, and taste.

Background Parathyroidectomy remains the only definitive treatment for primary hyperparathyroidism. We studied our large series of parathyroidectomies to identify factors predictive of failure to meet intraoperative parathyroid hormone (IOPTH) monitoring criteria. Methods We performed a retrospective cohort review of patients who underwent initial parathyroidectomy for primary hyperparathyroidism with IOPTH monitoring. Primary outcome was intraoperative failure, defined as failure to decrease IOPTH by ≥50 % and into normal range. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to determine factors associated with intraoperative failure. A subset analysis evaluated 6-month outcomes. Results Of 2,185 subjects, 5.0 % ( n  = 110) experienced intraoperative failure. The intraoperative failure group had more multigland disease (35.2 vs. 16.6 %, p  < 0.001) and smaller glands (1.3 vs. 1.5 cm, p  = 0.048) compared to patients who experienced intraoperative success. On multivariate analysis, PTH level was statistically, but not clinically, significantly associated with intraoperative failure (odds ratio 1.0, 95 % confidence interval 1.000–1.003). Persistent hyperparathyroidism was identified in 2.5 % ( n  = 15) of 592 patients with ≥6 month follow-up. Median IOPTH decrease was lower in patients with persistent hyperparathyroidism (67.1 vs. 85.8 %, p  < 0.001). IOPTH criteria were 93.7 % sensitive and 40.0 % specific for eucalcemia 6 months postoperatively. Of 15 patients with persistent hyperparathyroidism, 7 underwent reoperation with a 100 % cure rate. Reoperative diagnoses included ectopic mediastinal glands ( n  = 3), hyperplasia ( n  = 3), and missed second adenoma ( n  = 1). Conclusions Intraoperative failure is associated with higher rates of multigland disease and smaller parathyroid glands. Patients with persistent disease had significantly lower decreases in IOPTH, but half of patients who experienced failure by IOPTH criteria were eucalcemic 6 months postoperatively. All patients undergoing reoperation experienced successful cure.