Variation in pelvic morphology has a complex genetic basis and its patterning and specification is governed by conserved developmental pathways. Whether the mechanisms underlying the differentiation and specification of the pelvis also produce the morphological covariation on which natural selection may act is still an open question in evolutionary developmental biology. We use high-resolution Quantitative Trait Locus (QTL) mapping in the F34 generation of an advanced intercross experiment (LG,SM-G34) to characterize the genetic architecture of...

Breast cancer remains a general-threat event in the health of women. Currently, increasing records indicate that long non-coding RNA maternally expressed 3 (MEG3) plays a central role in breast cancer. The current research focused on the function of MEG3 in paclitaxel (PTX)-resistance and human breast cancer growth. Levels of MEG3, microRNA (miR)-4513, and phenazine biosynthesis-like domain-containing protein (PBLD) were evaluated using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) or western blot assays. 3-(4.5-dimethylghiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium Bromide (MTT) assay...

The H2A.Z histone variant, a genome-wide hallmark of permissive chromatin, is enriched near transcription start sites in all eukaryotes. H2A.Z is deposited by the SWR1 chromatin remodeler and evicted by unclear mechanisms. We tracked H2A.Z in living yeast at single-molecule resolution, and found that H2A.Z eviction is dependent on RNA Polymerase II (Pol II) and the Kin28/Cdk7 kinase, which phosphorylates Serine 5 of heptapeptide repeats on the carboxy-terminal domain of the largest Pol II subunit...

Epidemics are associated with increased burden of psychological distress. However, the role of boredom on mental health during epidemic periods has seldom been explored. This study attempted to examine the effect of state boredom on psychological outcomes, and the role of media use and meaning in life among the indirectly exposed Chinese adults in the initial phase of the COVID-19 outbreak. An online survey was administered to 917 Chinese adults on 28 January 2020 (1...

The domestication syndrome refers to a set of traits that are the incidental by-products of artificial selection for increased tolerance towards humans. One hypothesis is that some species like humans and bonobos “self domesticated”, that they have been under selection for that same suite of domesticated phenotypes. However, the evidence for this has been largely circumstantial. Here, we provide evidence that in marmoset monkeys, the size of a domestication phenotype—a white facial fur patch—is linked...

Sexual selection produces extravagant male traits, such as colorful ornaments, via female mate choice. More rarely, in mating systems in which males allocate mating effort between multiple females, female ornaments may evolve via male mate choice. Females of many anthropoid primates exhibit ornaments that indicate intra-individual cyclical fertility, but which have also been proposed to function as inter-individual quality signals. Rhesus macaque females are one such species, exhibiting cyclical facial color variation that indicates ovulatory...

Analyses of ancient food webs reveal important paleoecological processes and responses to a range of perturbations throughout Earth’s history, such as climate change. These responses can inform our forecasts of future biotic responses to similar perturbations. However, previous analyses of ancient food webs rarely accounted for key differences between modern and ancient community data, particularly selective loss of soft-bodied taxa during fossilization. To consider how fossilization impacts inferences of ancient community structure we (1) analyzed...

The hippocampus plays a critical role in storing and retrieving spatial information. By targeting the dorsal hippocampus and manipulating specific “candidate” molecules using pharmacological and genetic manipulations, we have previously discovered that long-term active place avoidance memory requires transient activation of particular molecules in dorsal hippocampus. These molecules include amongst others, the persistent kinases Ca-calmodulin kinase II (CaMKII) and the atypical protein kinase C isoform PKC iota/lambda for acquisition of the conditioned behavior, whereas persistent...

Studies of controlled lab animals and natural populations represent two insightful extremes of microbiota research. We bridged these two approaches by transferring lab-bred female C57BL/6 mice from a conventional mouse facility to an acclimation room and then to an outdoor enclosure, to investigate how the gut microbiota changes with environment. Mice residing under constant conditions served as controls. Using 16S rRNA sequencing of fecal samples, we found that the shift in temperature and humidity, as...

Epidemics are associated with increased burden of psychological distress. However, the role of boredom on mental health during epidemic periods has seldom been explored. This study attempted to examine the effect of state boredom on psychological outcomes, and the role of media use and meaning in life among the indirectly exposed Chinese adults in the initial phase of the COVID-19 outbreak. An online survey was administered to 917 Chinese adults on 28 January 2020 (1...

Perception depends on a complex interplay between feedforward and recurrent processing. Yet, while the former has been extensively characterized, the computational organization of the latter remains largely unknown. Here, we use magneto-encephalography to localize, track and decode the feedforward and recurrent processes of reading, as elicited by letters and digits whose level of ambiguity was parametrically manipulated. We first confirm that a feedforward response propagates through the ventral and dorsal pathways within the first 200...

This dataset comprises eleven years of historical data (2008 through 2018) for the 25 largest U.S. public pension plans and the ten largest Canadian public pension plans.

Studies of large free-ranging mammals incorporating physiological measurements typically require the collection of urine or faecal samples, due to ethical and practical concerns over trapping or darting animals. However, there is a dearth of validated biomarkers of immune activation and inflammation that can be measured non-invasively. We here evaluate the utility of urinary measurements of the soluble form of the urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR), for use as a health marker in studies of wild...

Humans engagement in music rests on underlying elements such as the listeners’ cultural background and interest in music. These factors modulate how listeners anticipate musical events, a process inducing instantaneous neural responses as the music confronts these expectations. Measuring such neural correlates would represent a direct window into high-level brain processing. Here we recorded cortical signals as participants listened to Bach melodies. We assessed the relative contributions of acoustic versus melodic components of the music...

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) are a large family of proteases comprising 24 members in vertebrates. They are well known for their extracellular matrix remodelling activity. MMP28 is the last member of the family to be discovered. It is a secreted MMP involved in wound healing, immune system maturation, cell survival and migration. MMP28 is also expressed during embryogenesis in human and mouse. Here we describe the detailed expression profile of MMP28 in Xenopus laevis embryos. We...

Mangrove forests are ecosystems that constitute a large portion of the world’s coastline and span tidal zones below, between, and above the waterline, while the ecosystem as a whole is defined by the health of these tidal microhabitats. However, we are only beginning to understand tidal zone microbial biodiversity and the role of these microbiomes in nutrient cycling. While extensive research has characterized microbiomes in pristine versus anthropogenically impacted mangroves these have, largely, overlooked differences...

This shapefile layer and associated datasets represent the movements of patients after they had been released from various healthcare facilities in New York during the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak in New York City during late-March and early-April, 2020. A team of field researchers recorded movements and observations, which have been aggregated to a shapefile layer for analysis. This data is released with an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. Please consult the documentation...

Breast cancer remains a general-threat event in the health of women. Currently, increasing records indicate that long non-coding RNA maternally expressed 3 (MEG3) plays a central role in breast cancer. The current research focused on the function of MEG3 in paclitaxel (PTX)-resistance and human breast cancer growth. Levels of MEG3, microRNA (miR)-4513, and phenazine biosynthesis-like domain-containing protein (PBLD) were evaluated using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) or western blot assays. 3-(4.5-dimethylghiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium Bromide (MTT) assay...