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International Journal of Molecular... Jun 2019Despite tremendous research efforts to identify regulatory factors that control energy metabolism, the prevalence of obesity has been continuously rising, with nearly... (Review)
Review
Despite tremendous research efforts to identify regulatory factors that control energy metabolism, the prevalence of obesity has been continuously rising, with nearly 40% of US adults being obese. Interactions between secretory factors from adipose tissues and the nervous system innervating adipose tissues play key roles in maintaining energy metabolism and promoting survival in response to metabolic challenges. It is currently accepted that there are three types of adipose tissues, white (WAT), brown (BAT), and beige (BeAT), all of which play essential roles in maintaining energy homeostasis. WAT mainly stores energy under positive energy balance, while it releases fuels under negative energy balance. Thermogenic BAT and BeAT dissipate energy as heat under cold exposure to maintain body temperature. Adipose tissues require neural and endocrine communication with the brain. A number of WAT adipokines and BAT batokines interact with the neural circuits extending from the brain to cooperatively regulate whole-body lipid metabolism and energy homeostasis. We review neuroanatomical, histological, genetic, and pharmacological studies in neuroendocrine regulation of adipose function, including lipid storage and mobilization of WAT, non-shivering thermogenesis of BAT, and browning of BeAT. Recent whole-tissue imaging and transcriptome analysis of differential gene expression in WAT and BAT yield promising findings to better understand the interaction between secretory factors and neural circuits, which represents a novel opportunity to tackle obesity.
Topics: Adipose Tissue; Adipose Tissue, Beige; Adipose Tissue, Brown; Adipose Tissue, White; Animals; Biomarkers; Energy Metabolism; Fatty Acids; Homeostasis; Humans; Neurosecretory Systems; Oxidation-Reduction; Sympathetic Nervous System; Thermogenesis
PubMed: 31159462
DOI: 10.3390/ijms20112707 -
Frontiers in Physiology 2020The concept of time whether considered through the lenses of physics or physiology is a relative measure. Alterations in time perception can have serious implications in... (Review)
Review
The concept of time whether considered through the lenses of physics or physiology is a relative measure. Alterations in time perception can have serious implications in sport, fitness and work. Accurate perception of time is an important skill with many time constrained sports (i.e., basketball, North American football, tennis, gymnastics, figure skating, ice hockey, and others), and work environments (i.e., workers who need to synchronize their actions such as police and military). In addition, time distortions may play a role in exercise adherence. Individuals may be disinclined to continue with healthy, exercise activities that seem protracted (time dilation). Two predominant theories (scalar expectancy theory and striatal beat frequency model) emphasize the perception of the number of events in a period and the role of neurotransmitters in activating and coordinating cortical structures, respectively. A number of factors including age, sex, body temperature, state of health and fitness, mental concentration and exercise intensity level have been examined for their effect on time perception. However, with the importance of time perception for work, sport and exercise, there is limited research on this area. Since work, sports, and exercise can involve an integration of many of these aforementioned factors, they are interventions that need further investigations. The multiplicity of variables involved with work, sport, and exercise offer an underdeveloped but fruitful field for future research. Thus, the objective of this review was to examine physiological and psychological factors affecting human perception of time and the mechanisms underlying time perception and distortion with activity.
PubMed: 32733275
DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2020.00770 -
Frontiers in Psychology 2020Previous work has shown how native listeners benefit from observing iconic gestures during speech comprehension tasks of both degraded and non-degraded speech. By...
Previous work has shown how native listeners benefit from observing iconic gestures during speech comprehension tasks of both degraded and non-degraded speech. By contrast, effects of the use of gestures in non-native listener populations are less clear and studies have mostly involved iconic gestures. The current study aims to complement these findings by testing the potential beneficial effects of beat gestures (non-referential gestures which are often used for information- and discourse marking) on language recall and discourse comprehension using a narrative-drawing task carried out by native and non-native listeners. Using a within-subject design, 51 French intermediate learners of English participated in a narrative-drawing task. Each participant was assigned 8 videos to watch, where a native speaker describes the events of a short comic strip. Videos were presented in random order, in four conditions: in Native listening conditions with frequent, naturally-modeled beat gestures, in Native listening conditions without any gesture, in Non-native listening conditions with frequent, naturally-modeled beat gestures, and in Non-native listening conditions without any gesture. Participants watched each video twice and then immediately recreated the comic strip through their own drawings. Participants' drawings were then evaluated for discourse comprehension (via their ability to convey the main goals of the narrative through their drawings) and recall (via the number of gesturally-marked elements in the narration that were included in their drawings). Results showed that for native listeners, beat gestures had no significant effect on either recall or comprehension. In non-native speech, however, beat gestures led to significantly lower comprehension and recall scores. These results suggest that frequent, naturally-modeled beat gestures in longer discourses may increase cognitive load for language learners, resulting in negative effects on both memory and language understanding. These findings add to the growing body of literature that suggests that gesture benefits are not a "one-size-fits-all" solution, but rather may be contingent on factors such as language proficiency and gesture rate, particularly in that whenever beat gestures are repeatedly used in discourse, they inherently lose their saliency as markers of important information.
PubMed: 33192882
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.575929 -
Bulletin of Emergency and Trauma Jul 2022To identify the elements of teamwork in resuscitation, an integrative review and synthesize current primary studies conducted. (Review)
Review
OBJECTIVE
To identify the elements of teamwork in resuscitation, an integrative review and synthesize current primary studies conducted.
METHODS
PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Embase, as well as Google Scholar search engine were searched from November 2015 to March 2020 to review previously published peer-reviewed studies. Out of the 5495 articles, 16 were finally included in the study. Search strategy implemented with these keywords (in the title/abstract) were (team* AND CPR) or (team* AND resuscitation). Six descriptive criteria was performed by using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guideline to analyze the articles and a modified version of Cooper's five-stage method.
RESULTS
Sixteen studies were included in this research. Twenty elements related to teamwork in resuscitation were identified by using data synthesis, then classified into four categories includes team interaction elements, leadership skills, individual elements and environmental elements. Communication, leadership, situation awareness and scene organization had the highest frequency of reviewed articles 10, 5, 4, 4, respectively.
CONCLUSION
The interactions between resuscitation team members and the skills of the leader and team members along with environmental elements had attracted the most attention of researchers by focusing on teamwork in resuscitation. Due to the limited number of articles related to this subject, more research is needed to reveal all the key elements of teamwork in resuscitation.
PubMed: 35991377
DOI: 10.30476/BEAT.2021.91963.1291 -
Behavioral Sciences (Basel, Switzerland) Apr 2022In this paper, we classify metaphors into four categories: motion-based metaphors, static space-based metaphors, static object-based metaphors, and static event-based...
In this paper, we classify metaphors into four categories: motion-based metaphors, static space-based metaphors, static object-based metaphors, and static event-based metaphors. Then, a study that investigated the use of gestures with these types of metaphors is reported. The aim was to examine how these types of metaphors are used with metaphoric and beat gestures during the process of re-telling stories. The participants of the study listened to three audio stories. Each story contained two motion-based metaphors, two static space-based metaphors, two static object-based metaphors, and two static event-based metaphors. After listening to each story, they had to retell the stories in front of a camera. The videos were analyzed to determine the number of metaphoric gestures and beat gestures that had been used by participants during the retelling of the stories. The results showed that the highest number of metaphoric gestures had been used with static space-based metaphors. This was followed by motion-based metaphors, static object-based metaphors, and static event-based metaphors, respectively. On the other hand, the highest number of beat gestures was used with static event-based metaphors. These findings indicate that the use of metaphoric gestures and beat gestures accompanying metaphors is highly dependent on the spatial and motoric properties of the base of the metaphors, which supports the idea of embodied metaphor comprehension.
PubMed: 35621426
DOI: 10.3390/bs12050129 -
American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine 2021There is a tendency to accept anxiety as an inevitable part of living in a stressful modern world. However, simple dietary changes can help attenuate the stress...
There is a tendency to accept anxiety as an inevitable part of living in a stressful modern world. However, simple dietary changes can help attenuate the stress response. While there are several approaches to treating anxiety, research by Peter Roy-Byrne in 2015 has shown that only 50% to 60% of people respond to medication and psychotherapy, and only a quarter of patients have complete resolution of their symptoms. According to statistics from the National Institute of Mental health, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, anxiety disorders were the most common mental health disorder in the United States, about 3 times more common than depression (18.1% vs 6.7%). A recent Express Scripts survey showed the percent increase in the number of new prescriptions for antianxiety medications by the middle March 2020 for antianxiety medications was 37.7%, underscoring the likely rise in anxiety associated with the pandemic. While traditional medications and therapies are well needed, to beat stress during times of a pandemic, it is important to think more broadly about how we can best affect our mental well-being. One of those ways is through our nutrition and dietary habits, and research by Opie et al in 2015 demonstrates that our dietary choices are more crucial than ever. This column reviews foods and substances that are important to consider in managing anxiety.
PubMed: 33456419
DOI: 10.1177/1559827620973936 -
Experimental Brain Research Sep 2021Nowadays a popular technique to improve mood and cognition is auditory beat stimulation (ABS), which is thought to induce a frequency-following response of brainwaves....
Nowadays a popular technique to improve mood and cognition is auditory beat stimulation (ABS), which is thought to induce a frequency-following response of brainwaves. The main types of ABS are monaural beats (MB) and binaural beats (BB). BB involves the presentation of a specific frequency to one ear and another frequency to the other ear which may induce neural entrainment. A difference between the frequencies of 40 Hz is assumed to improve cognition. The present study examined the effect of 40 Hz binaural beats (BB) and monaural beats (MB) on attention and electroencephalography (EEG). A total of 25 first-year psychology students (11 males, 14 females) performed a Flanker task while EEG was recorded during the 5 min-presentation of pink noise (PN), MB and BB. With respect to attention, as measured by the Flanker task, the number of false responses in the BB condition was smaller than that in the PN condition while the number of false responses in the MB condition was larger as compared to the PN condition. As there was no association of BB with a consistent increase in absolute 40 or 45 Hz power compared to PN or MB, EEG recordings could not confirm the hypothesized neural entrainment in the brain. Overall, the current findings show that listening to 40 Hz BB improves attention but do not show the occurrence of neural entrainment. Future research is recommended to include a larger sample, to use a broader cognitive test battery and to present auditory beats with a longer duration.
Topics: Acoustic Stimulation; Attention; Auditory Perception; Brain Waves; Electroencephalography; Female; Humans; Male
PubMed: 34245340
DOI: 10.1007/s00221-021-06155-z -
Genes Feb 2021Determination of the relative copy numbers of mixed molecular species in nucleic acid samples is often the objective of biological experiments, including...
Determination of the relative copy numbers of mixed molecular species in nucleic acid samples is often the objective of biological experiments, including Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP), indel and gene copy-number characterization, and quantification of CRISPR-Cas9 base editing, cytosine methylation, and RNA editing. Standard dye-terminator chromatograms are a widely accessible, cost-effective information source from which copy-number proportions can be inferred. However, the rate of incorporation of dye terminators is dependent on the dye type, the adjacent sequence string, and the secondary structure of the sequenced strand. These variable rates complicate inferences and have driven scientists to resort to complex and costly quantification methods. Because these complex methods introduce their own biases, researchers are rethinking whether rectifying distortions in sequencing trace files and using direct sequencing for quantification will enable comparable accurate assessment. Indeed, recent developments in software tools (e.g., TIDE, ICE, EditR, BEEP and BEAT) indicate that quantification based on direct Sanger sequencing is gaining in scientific acceptance. This commentary reviews the common obstacles in quantification and the latest insights and developments relevant to estimating copy-number proportions based on direct Sanger sequencing, concluding that bidirectional sequencing and sophisticated base calling are the keys to identifying and avoiding sequence distortions.
Topics: CRISPR-Cas Systems; DNA Copy Number Variations; Gene Dosage; INDEL Mutation; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; RNA Editing; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Software
PubMed: 33671263
DOI: 10.3390/genes12020283 -
Optics Express Feb 2021Injection locking and pulling characteristics of a long-loop optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) that has a large number of closely-spaced longitudinal modes are...
Injection locking and pulling characteristics of a long-loop optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) that has a large number of closely-spaced longitudinal modes are theoretically analyzed and experimentally evaluated. A differential phase equation that relates the phase difference between the OEO and the injected microwave signal to its instantaneous beat angular frequency is derived in the time domain. Based on the differential phase equation, both the locking and pulling characteristics of an injection-locked OEO are studied, and the phase noise performance is analyzed. It is found that the locking and pulling performance depends upon three parameters, the initial frequency difference between the frequency of the signal generated by the free-running OEO and frequency of the injected microwave signal, the voltage ratio between the signal generated by the free-running OEO and the injected microwave signal, and the Q factor of the free-running OEO. The phase noise performance depends upon the locking range, the phase noise performance of the free-running OEO as well as that of the injected microwave signal. The analysis is validated experimentally. Excellent agreement is found between the theoretical analysis and the experimental demonstration.
PubMed: 33771039
DOI: 10.1364/OE.416253 -
The New Phytologist Aug 2012Eukaryotic cilia/flagella are ancient organelles with motility and sensory functions. Cilia display significant ultrastructural conservation where present across the... (Review)
Review
Eukaryotic cilia/flagella are ancient organelles with motility and sensory functions. Cilia display significant ultrastructural conservation where present across the eukaryotic phylogeny; however, diversity in ciliary biology exists and the ability to produce cilia has been lost independently on a number of occasions. Land plants provide an excellent system for the investigation of cilia evolution and loss across a broad phylogeny, because early divergent land plant lineages produce cilia, whereas most seed plants do not. This review highlights the differences in cilia form and function across land plants and discusses how recent advances in genomics are providing novel insights into the evolutionary trajectory of ciliary proteins. We propose a renewed effort to adopt ciliated land plants as models to investigate the mechanisms underpinning complex ciliary processes, such as number control, the coordination of basal body placement and the regulation of beat patterns.
Topics: Axoneme; Cell Membrane; Centrioles; Cilia; Embryophyta; Evolution, Molecular; Flagella; Genome, Plant; Phylogeny; Plant Cells; Plant Proteins
PubMed: 22691130
DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2012.04197.x