Abstract Previous studies have found evidence of adaptive suppression mechanisms for physically salient stimuli. However, it remains unclear whether a similar mechanism exists for threat-history stimuli. This study used a threat conditioning task to generate stimuli with and without a history of threat. In the subsequent visual search task, the spatial probability of distractors was manipulated to examine the influence of threat-history stimuli on distractor suppression. The results showed that distractors appearing at high-probability locations were effectively suppressed, and suppression was stronger for threat-history distractors than for no-threat-history distractors. These findings suggest that threat-history distractors are more effectively suppressed when they appear at a predictable location through an adaptive attentional suppression mechanism. Data availability All data supporting the findings are openly available via the Science Data Bank ( https://www.scidb.cn/anonymous/VlpqNm55 ).
Tobias Erik Reiners, David Prochotta, Tilman Schell
et al.
Abstract Background The European hamster (Cricetus cricetus) was once a pest on European farmland, but its numbers have declined dramatically in recent decades, making it a critically endangered species throughout Europe and beyond. While it is strictly protected by EU law and several conservations, breeding and release programs have been initiated, and little is known about the level of genetic erosion and inbreeding on a European scale. Results Here, we present a chromosome-level de novo genome of a female hamster and a first population genomic analysis from the western range of the species’ distribution, using Illumina short reads (10 × coverage) from 34 individuals. The genome is 2.89 Gbp long, with 11 chromosome-level scaffolds and around 600 unplaced scaffolds and scaffolds N50 of 267 Mbp. The genome is above the average length of a mammalian genome and longer than that of other studied hamster species. Four distinct hamster populations with no admixture can be identified, indicating highly isolated populations with limited connectivity. Heterozygosity (Ho) is generally low (< 0.05%, comparable to polar bears) with some exceptions of populations with Ho near zero and a few with Ho as high as 0.2%. Conclusions Most dramatically, the genomes of individuals used as founders for conservation breeding programs show exceptionally long runs of homozygosity, questioning its long-term suitability. This study confirms earlier concerns about the dramatically decreasing genetic diversity of the European hamster and provides a basis for future conservation efforts, which require consideration of population genetic factors.
Cinthya Soledad Manjarrez-Rangel, Silvana Raquel Halac, Luciana Del Valle Mengo
et al.
Eutrophication has intensified in lacustrine systems across the American continent, which has been primarily driven by human activities such as intensive agriculture, wastewater discharge, and land-use change. This phenomenon adversely affects water quality, biodiversity, and ecosystem functioning. However, studies addressing the historical evolution of trophic states in lakes and reservoirs remain limited—particularly in tropical and subtropical regions. In this context, sedimentary records serve as invaluable archives for reconstructing the environmental history of water bodies. Paleolimnological approaches enable the development of robust chronologies to further analyze physical, geochemical, and biological proxies to infer long-term changes in primary productivity and trophic status. This review synthesizes the main methodologies used in paleolimnological research focused on trophic state reconstruction with particular attention to the utility of proxies such as fossil pigments, diatoms, chironomids, and elemental geochemistry. It further underscores the need to broaden spatial research coverage, fostering interdisciplinary integration and the use of emerging tools such as sedimentary DNA among others. High-resolution temporal records are critical for disentangling natural variability from anthropogenically induced changes, providing essential evidence to inform science-based lake management and restoration strategies under anthropogenic and climate pressures.
Juan Manuel Vazquez, Jane I. Khudyakov, Carla B. Madelaire
et al.
Marine mammals are integral to global biodiversity and marine health through their roles in coastal, benthic, and pelagic ecosystems. Marine mammals face escalating threats from climate change, pollution, and human activities, which perturb their oceanic environment. The diverse biology and extreme adaptations evolved by marine mammals make them important study subjects for understanding anthropogenic pressures on marine ecosystems. However, ethical and logistical constraints restrict the tractability of experimental research with live marine mammals. Additionally, studies on the effects of changing ocean environments are further complicated by intricate gene-environment interactions across populations and species. These obstacles can be overcome with a comprehensive strategy that involves a systems-level approach integrating genotype to phenotype using rigorously defined experimental conditions in vitro and ex vivo. A thorough analysis of the interactions between the genetics of marine mammals and their exposure to anthropogenic pressures will enable robust predictions about how global environmental changes will affect their health and populations. In this perspective, we discuss four challenges of implementing such non-invasive approaches across scientific fields and international borders: 1) practical and ethical limitations of in vivo experimentation with marine mammals, 2) accessibility to relevant tissue samples and cell cultures; 3) open access to harmonized methods and datasets and 4) ethical and equitable research practices. Successful implementation of the proposed approach has the potential impact to inspire new solutions and strategies for marine conservation.
Science, General. Including nature conservation, geographical distribution
Mohammed Khalilia, Sanad Malaysha, Reem Suwaileh
et al.
This paper presents an overview of the Arabic Natural Language Understanding (ArabicNLU 2024) shared task, focusing on two subtasks: Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD) and Location Mention Disambiguation (LMD). The task aimed to evaluate the ability of automated systems to resolve word ambiguity and identify locations mentioned in Arabic text. We provided participants with novel datasets, including a sense-annotated corpus for WSD, called SALMA with approximately 34k annotated tokens, and the IDRISI-DA dataset with 3,893 annotations and 763 unique location mentions. These are challenging tasks. Out of the 38 registered teams, only three teams participated in the final evaluation phase, with the highest accuracy being 77.8% for WSD and the highest MRR@1 being 95.0% for LMD. The shared task not only facilitated the evaluation and comparison of different techniques, but also provided valuable insights and resources for the continued advancement of Arabic NLU technologies.
DNA methylation is a critical epigenetic modification that dynamically regulates gene expression in organisms facing abiotic stress. However, few studies have comprehensively examined the role of DNA methylation in marine fish during environmental adaptation. Therefore, this study explored the methylome dynamics and DNA methylation regulation mechanisms in large yellow croaker (Larimichthys crocea) during low-salinity adaption. The methylation level in the gills was notably raised in the S-group (5‰ salinity) compared to C-group (25‰ salinity). A total of 109 differentially methylated promoter target genes and 581 differentially expressed genes were identified via whole-genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) and RNA-seq of gills in the two salinity groups, respectively. Moreover, 23 hypo-methylated/up-regulated differentially methylated genes (DMGs) and 28 hyper-methylated/down-regulated DMGs were identified through integrative analysis, which were mainly enriched in signal transduction, ion exchange, energy metabolism, and cytoskeleton system and other biological processes. Collectively, our findings suggested that low-salinity stress can induce adaptive genome-wide DNA methylation changes, which can in turn affect the transcription of genes in large yellow croaker during low-salinity adaptation. Therefore, our findings provide new insights into the regulatory mechanisms of marine fish in response to rapid environmental changes.
Science, General. Including nature conservation, geographical distribution
Epibacteria of seaweeds play an important role for the development of hosts and are influenced by the planktonic surrounding seawater bacteria. However, to date, the knowledges related to both epiphytic and surrounding seawater bacterial communities associated with northern farmed Saccharina japonica are very limited. In this study, using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, the shifts of epiphytic and surrounding seawater bacterial communities of the northern farmed S. japonica from mature sporophytes, sporelings (3 time points) to juvenile sporophytes (2 time points) were investigated. The dominant genera of epibacterial communities were Alcanivorax (mature sporophytes and 4-week-old sporelings), Bacillus (7-week-old sporelings and 9-week-old sporelings), Halomonas (4-week-old juvenile sporophytes) and Cobetia (9-week-old juvenile sporophytes). Meanwhile, the Chao1 indexes and beta diversity of epibacterial communities were significantly different with the development of S. japonica (p < 0.05). Furthermore, Alcanivorax, Bacillus and Halomonas were both dominant and core genera, indicating that these taxa may be beneficial to the development of S. japonica. The alpha diversity indexes of both epiphytic and surrounding seawater bacterial communities were significantly different for 9-week-old juvenile sporophytes. Therefore, the epibacterial communities were influenced by both development of S. japonica and the surrounding seawater bacterial communities. This study not only extends the understanding of the bacterial communities associated with the northern farmed S. japonica, but also help to make production management by monitoring the variations in both epiphytic and surrounding seawater bacterial communities.
Science, General. Including nature conservation, geographical distribution
Yago Fontenla-Seco, Alberto Bugarín-Diz, Manuel Lama
In this paper, we propose a series of fuzzy temporal protoforms in the framework of the automatic generation of quantitative and qualitative natural language descriptions of processes. The model includes temporal and causal information from processes and attributes, quantifies attributes in time during the process life-span and recalls causal relations and temporal distances between events, among other features. Through integrating process mining techniques and fuzzy sets within the usual Data-to-Text architecture, our framework is able to extract relevant quantitative temporal as well as structural information from a process and describe it in natural language involving uncertain terms. A real use-case in the cardiology domain is presented, showing the potential of our model for providing natural language explanations addressed to domain experts.
Elliott J. Yee, C. L. Stewart, Michael R. Clay
et al.
Lipomatous tumors are among the most common soft tissue lesions encountered by the general surgeon. Shared history and clinical presentation make differentiation between benign lipomas and low-grade liposarcomas a diagnostic dilemma. This article reviews the epidemiology, clinical history, diagnostic workup, management, natural history, and surveillance of benign lipomas and atypical lipomatous tumors/well-differentiated liposarcomas. Although it is important that aggressive, potentially malignant atypical lipomatous tumors and liposarcomas be managed in a multidisciplinary, preferably high-volume setting, it is equally as important for the nonspecialist general surgeon to be familiar with lipoma and its doppelganger-the well-differentiated liposarcoma.
The history of the Institute of Physics at the University of Florence is traced from the beginning of the 20th century, with the arrival of Antonio Garbasso as Director (1913), to the 1960s. Thanks to Garbasso's expertise, not only did the Institute gain new premises on Arcetri hill, where the Astronomical Observatory was already located, but it also formed a brilliant group of young physicists made up of Enrico Fermi, Franco Rasetti, Enrico Persico, Bruno Rossi, Gilberto Bernardini, Daria Bocciarelli, Lorenzo Emo Capodilista, Giuseppe Occhialini and Giulio Racah, who were engaged in the emerging fields of Quantum Mechanics and Cosmic Rays. This Arcetri School disintegrated in the late 1930s for the transfer of its protagonists to chairs in other universities, for the environment created by the fascist regime and, to some extent, for the racial laws. After the war, the legacy was taken up by some students of this school who formed research groups in the field of nuclear physics and elementary particle physics. As far as theoretical physics was concerned, after the Fermi and Persico periods these studies enjoyed a new expansion towards the end of the 1950s, with the arrival of Giacomo Morpurgo and above all, that of Raoul Gatto, who created the first real Italian school of Theoretical Physics at Arcetri.