Individuals In Population Research Articles

A neural mechanism for optic flow parsing in macaque visual cortex

For the brain to compute object motion in the world during self-motion, it must discount the global patterns of image motion (optic flow) caused by self-motion. Optic flow parsing is a proposed visual mechanism for computing object motion in the world, and studies in both humans and monkeys have demonstrated perceptual biases consistent with the operation of a flow-parsing mechanism. However, the neural basis of flow parsing remains unknown. We demonstrate, at both the individual unit and population levels, that neural activity in macaque middle temporal (MT) area is biased by peripheral optic flow in a manner that can at least partially account for perceptual biases induced by flow parsing. These effects cannot be explained by conventional surround suppression mechanisms or choice-related activity and have substantial neural latency. Together, our findings establish the first neural basis for the computation of scene-relative object motion based on flow parsing.

Effects of saline-alkali stress on cotton growth and physiochemical expression with cascading effects on aphid abundance.

Environmental stresses, such as soil salinity or alkalinity, usually affect crop growth and secondary plant metabolism, with follow on effects on foliar-feeding insects. Nevertheless, the underlying mechanism of how saline-alkali stress affects the key cotton pest Aphis gossypii Glover is poorly understood. In this study, we first considered effects of three types of saline-alkali stress (i.e., salinity alone, alkalinity alone - both at different concentration - and their mixed effects) on cotton plants. We then measured impacts of stress on (1) above and below plant growth traits (e.g., plant height, leaf area, root volume), (2) levels of nutrients and secondary metabolites in cotton leaves, and (3) feeding behavior, life-table parameters, and population growth of A. gossypii. We then used a path analysis to evaluate cascading effects of changes in plant growth (due to stress) and changes in levels of nutrients or secondary metabolites on growth of individual cotton aphids and aphid populations. We found either salinity or alkalinity stresses significantly reduced cotton growth, increased the content of tannin, soluble sugars, and proline in the leaves, and suppressed aphid growth and development, (including longevity, fecundity, and intrinsic rate of increase) and aphid population growth. Alkalinity had stronger effects on these traits than did salinity. This work provides insights into the bottom-up interaction mechanism by which these environmental stresses mediate aphid infestation levels in the cotton agricultural ecosystem.

Predicting anthropogenic food supplementation from individual tracking data

Many wildlife species consume food or refuse provided by humans. To understand the effect of anthropogenic food subsidies on wildlife populations, we first need to quantify where and when individuals can access such food sources. The Red Kite Milvus milvus is an opportunistic raptor species and uses both inadvertent and deliberate food subsidies provided by citizens. Here we present a new approach using global positioning system (GPS)‐tracking data to predict where anthropogenic food subsidies probably occur. We tracked 497 individuals with solar‐powered GPS transmitters over an average of 3.2 (range 1–9) breeding seasons in Switzerland, and combined these data with locations of 125 known feeding sites obtained through interviews. We used two sequential random forest models, at both individual movement and population levels, to predict where anthropogenic food subsidies were attended by Red Kites. The first model classified locations that were frequently and regularly revisited, and successfully predicted 85% of locations that were within 50 m of an externally validated feeding site. These predicted locations were aggregated in 500‐m grid cells to calculate the proportion of individuals and locations associated with predicted food subsidy. A second model related the presence of known food subsidies to the aggregated predictions. In our study area, 80% of known anthropogenic food provision locations could be correctly identified using Red Kite tracking data, but data sparsity beyond the core range of tracked individuals limits predictions of anthropogenic food subsidies at larger geographical scales. Nonetheless, biologging data can identify ephemeral food sources, and facilitate an assessment of the importance of anthropogenic food subsidies for the fitness of individuals in tracked populations.

Risk of death from hematological malignancies in the South Urals Population Exposed to Radiation cohort

The results of studies of long-term effects of population exposure in the South Urals in the 1950s were based for a long time on studies of the effects of exposure in the Techa River cohort and later in the East Urals Radioactive Trace cohort. After the creation of the South Urals Population Exposed to Radiation cohort, combining all persons exposed in the South Urals in the period from January 1, 1950, to December 31, 1960 the size of the cohort doubled, follow-up period reached 71 years, and the number of person-years at risk increased to 1,964,333. The average dose to red bone marrow for all cohort members was 231mGy. Regression analysis using a simple parametric excess relative risk model was performed using the EPICURE statistical package. The analysis resulted in confirmation of a statistically significant (p <0.001) linear doseresponse relationship of mortality for all hemoblastoses, and leukemia. The excess relative risk and 95% confidence intervals of death at 2-year latency period from all hemoblastoses were 0.71/Gy (0.28;1.31); from all leukemias - 1.28/Gy (0.55-2.39) and from leukemias excluding chronic lymphocytic leukemia -1.52/Gy (0.64-2.94). The quadratic model also significantly described the dose dependence; (the differences between the models were not significant). Increasing the follow-up period to 71 years resulted in a slight decrease in risk estimates. The width of the confidence intervals of the risk estimates decreased by more than a factor of 3 compared to earlier studies in the Techa River cohort, which indicates a decrease in uncertainties of risk estimates. Increasing the size of the cohort made it possible to obtain significant risk values for individual population groups (by sex, age, etc.). Analysis of risk values modification did not reveal significant differences in dose dependence on the studied factors, including attained age and age at exposure. The study will be continued to investigate in more detail the influence of time-dependent factors on dose dependence, as well as to assess the risk of death from different cellular forms of leukemia.

Assessment of the comparability of human facial dimensions obtained using direct anthropological measurements and photographs

Introduction. This research examines and evaluates the comparability of a specific set of anthropometric measurements of facial features obtained through direct measurements and frontal portrait photographs. With the growing trend towards utilizing photography instead of direct measurements, the question of the convergence and comparability between these two methods has become increasingly significant. Materials and methods. The study was conducted on a sample population of Chuvash individuals, who represent the indigenous population in the Chuvash Republic of the Russian Federation. The material for the study comprised cephalometric data and anthropological photographs of individuals from the Chuvash Republic, surveyed during the 2002 expedition under the guidance of V.A. Batsevich. The sample size consisted of 72 individuals, with 35 women and 37 men. Prior to statistical analysis, the male and female participants were divided into two age groups to account for potential age-related variations. Statistical analysis was conducted using the SPSS software package, applying Cronbach's alpha method. Results. In this study, gender differences were identified for a range of anthropometric indicators, demonstrating high convergence when employing two facial measurement methods. The obtained values of dimensions were generally comparable in terms of reliability and consistency. Conclusion. The research has revealed that the method of obtaining linear facial dimensions from portraits can serve as an analog/alternative to direct anthropometric measurements. In men, latitudinal dimensions are better correlated with each other, whereas in women they are high-altitude. The obtained results align well with existing data on this topic, highlighting the potential viability of facial portrait-based measurements in anthropometric studies.

Four in one: An integrative taxonomic revision of the Microhyla berdmorei complex (Amphibia: Anura: Microhylidae) illustrates the tremendous amphibian diversity of Southeast Asia

Abstract Berdmore’s narrow-mouthed frog, Microhyla berdmorei (Blyth, 1856), is the largest member of the genus Microhyla and is distributed all over Southeast Asia, from Northeast India and southern China to Sumatra and Borneo in Indonesia. Here we demonstrate that M. berdmorei represents a complex of four species that are morphologically, acoustically, and genetically distinct from each other, and we implement taxonomic revisions. Phylogenetic analyses of three mitochondrial DNA (hereafter mtDNA, including COI, 12S, and 16S rRNA; 3119 bp) and one nuclear (BDNF; 716 bp) gene sequences are corroborated by phylogenomic analyses of 2700 ddRAD-seq loci (387,270 bp). All support that the M. berdmorei complex, which originates from the early Miocene (ca. 19.7 mya), consists of two clades that we date to the late Miocene (ca. 7.5 mya). The first clade, which regroups populations of large-sized individuals, is distributed in Indo-Burma and includes a lineage from Northeast India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar (M. berdmorei sensu stricto) and a lineage from West Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam (for which we propose to resurrect the species M. malcolmi Cochran, 1927). The second clade, which regroups populations of small-sized individuals, occurs in Sundaland and also includes two lineages for which we provide taxonomic descriptions on species rank. The first new species is widely distributed from Peninsular Malaysia to the islands of Borneo and Sumatra (described herein as M. sundaicasp. nov.), while the second one is restricted to the Malay Peninsula and occurs in extreme southern Thailand and adjacent Malaysia (M. peninsularissp. nov.). We further provide evidence for the synonymy of Callula natatrix Cope, 1867 with M. berdmorei sensu stricto, and M. fowleri Taylor, 1934 with M. malcolmi. Our study illustrates the high diversity of Southeast Asian amphibians, especially in the genus Microhyla, which presently totals 54 species.

GenSynthPop: generating a spatially explicit synthetic population of individuals and households from aggregated data

Synthetic populations are representations of actual individuals living in a specific area. They play an increasingly important role in studying and modeling individuals and are often used to build agent-based social simulations. Traditional approaches for synthesizing populations use a detailed sample of the population (which may not be available) or combine data into a single joint distribution, and draw individuals or households from these. The latter group of existing sample-free methods fail to integrate (1) the best available data on spatial granular distributions, (2) multi-variable joint distributions, and (3) household level distributions. In this paper, we propose a sample-free approach where synthetic individuals and households directly represent the estimated joint distribution to which attributes are iteratively added, conditioned on previous attributes such that the relative frequencies within each joint group of attributes are maintained and fit granular spatial marginal distributions. In this paper we present our method and test it for the Zuid-West district of The Hague, the Netherlands, showing that spatial, multi-variable and household distributions are accurately reflected in the resulting synthetic population.

A Systematic Review of Unilateral Biportal Endoscopic Spinal Surgery versus Uniportal Endoscopic Spinal Surgery in Lumbar Canal Stenosis: Clinical Results and Complications

Abstract Background Lumbar spinal stenosis is an important cause of pain and disability in the aging population. The true prevalence of symptomatic spinal stenosis is unknown because radiographic evidence of the condition does not always lead to clinical symptoms. Boden performed a cross-sectional analysis of MRI findings in a population of asymptomatic individuals and found that 30% to 90% of asymptomatic adults had a major spinal abnormality, including disc herniation, disc degeneration, and spinal stenosis. Objective To compare the clinical outcomes and complications of uniportal endoscopic spine decompression versus unilateral biportal endoscopic spine decompression in management of lumbar spinal stenosis. Methods This study was Randomized control trials, We included 197 patients from 3 studies; 92 in uniportal group and 105 in biportal. We compared VAS score for back pain and leg pain immediate postoperative and after 12 months. Results There was highly statistically significant difference found between the two studied groups regarding operative time (minutes) with p-value <0.003. That there was no statistically significant difference found between the two studied groups regarding complications as dural tears as well as length of hospital stay. Conclusion Our study show that Biportal and uniportal endoscopic spine surgery are both safe and effective technique in treating LSS as well as the new Biportal endoscopic technique proves to be superior method to shorten the operation time as well as learning curve. However, more randomized controlled trials with larger sample sizes are needed to strengthen the demonstration of the current conclusions.

Love thy neighbour: Feral buffalos show greater space use, resource overlap and encounters during the wet season in the Northern Territory.

Managing feral water buffalo in the Northern Territory is a formidable challenge. As an introduced species, buffalo are associated with a myriad of biosecurity, economic, cultural and environmental issues ranging from overgrazing, decreased water quality, disease vectors to the destruction of cultural assets. Nevertheless, the buffalo are also a harvestable resource that can support economic development of the region. To mitigate some of the biosecurity, economic, cultural and environmental risks they pose and manage buffalo effectively, we need a detailed understanding of their spatial and behavioural ecology. However, several factors make understanding how best to manage the dense populations of wild individuals challenging as buffalo inhabit remote areas with limited infrastructure and accessibility and their large size and often aggressive nature can make them difficult to observe in otherwise inaccessible areas. GPS tracking allows for high-frequency data collection and surveillance of individual buffalo. Here, we investigated how the different seasonal periods of a Northern Territory floodplain area shaped patterns of habitat use for 17 buffalo tracked over 16 months. We found in the dry season, buffalo space use is restricted, and the size of home ranges are significantly smaller than in the wet season. During the wet season, buffalo expand their home range area as well as their social encounter area with other buffalo. These differences in their space use and social patterns suggest that increased disease surveillance may be needed for the wet season when buffalo are more likely to share space and interact. During the dry season, however, buffalo movement is more predictable and restricted, suggesting greater optimisation opportunities for buffalo management. Results from these models can be used by land holders, Traditional Owners and wildlife managers to make evidence-based decisions to improve buffalo management with respect to disease risk, sustainable harvest and damage to environmental and cultural assets.

Vulnerability to heat-related mortality and the effect of prevention measures: a time-stratified case-crossover study in Switzerland.

Swiss climate scenarios predict increases in the frequency and intensity of extreme heat episodes in the future. For the effective prevention of heat-related mortality, several aspects of the population's vulnerability to heat must be understood on a local level. A nationwide analysis of individual death records was conducted, enabling a more comprehensive understanding than typical heat studies based on aggregated data. A total of 320,306 individual death records from the Swiss National Cohort with precise address information during the warm season (May to September) from 2003-2016 were linked to indoor and outdoor high-resolution daily temperature estimates. A time-stratified case-crossover study combined with distributed lag non-linear models was then performed to assess the temperature-mortality associations for various causes of death and to estimate the potential effect modification of individual characteristics. Additionally, it was explored whether the effect of extreme heat changed over time in regions with and without cantonal heat-health action plans (HHAPs). Using the temperature with the lowest cause-specific mortality risk (minimum mortality temperature) as the reference temperature, extreme heat (defined as ambient daily maximum temperature reaching 33 °C) was associated with a strong increase in all-cause mortality (odds ratio (OR): 1.21, 95% CI: 1.17-1.25) and disease-specific mortality from Alzheimer's disease and dementia (OR: 1.67, 95% CI: 1.48-1.88), COPD (OR: 1.37, 95% CI: 1.12-1.67), diabetes (OR: 1.34, 95% CI: 1.06-1.70), and myocardial infarction (OR: 1.26, 95% CI: 1.10-1.44). Indoor temperatures above 24 °C were found to be critical for mortality. The population most vulnerable to heat included older adults (≥75 years), unmarried individuals, people with a low education level, older women with low neighbourhood socioeconomic position, and men under 75 years old with low socioeconomic position. Overall, the risk of heat-related all-cause mortality in 2009-2016 was lower than that in 2003-2008. The decrease was significantly stronger in the region where cantonal HHAPs were implemented. This study provides important information for planning targeted and effective measures to reduce heat-related health risks in Switzerland. It demonstrates that HHAPs contribute to reducing heat-related mortality, although they may not reach the high-risk population of individuals with low socioeconomic position. Future prevention efforts should also target the less privileged population, including people younger than 75 years.

Management Strategies for Obese Diabetes

In recent years, there has been a growing emphasis on the relationship between obesity and diabetes. An analysis of Korean data revealed that more than 75% of diabetic patients were overweight or obese, with two-thirds having abdominal obesity. Traditional treatment goals for diabetes have primarily focused on lowering blood glucose levels to prevent and treat microvascular and macrovascular complications, which is known as the glucocentric approach. However, with the recognition of the shared pathophysiology of insulin resistance in both diabetes and obesity, a weight-centric approach has emerged, particularly beneficial for patients in whom insulin resistance is a primary driver of type 2 diabetes. Of note, the overlap of various physiological aspects in diabetic patients necessitates a multicentric approach for effective type 2 diabetes management. Recent guidelines now recommend weight loss as a primary treatment goal alongside blood glucose control for overweight and obese diabetic patients, highlighting the significance of weight management in diabetes care. Medications such as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist or dual glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide/GLP-1 receptor agonist with weight-loss effects are recommended for this patient population. Ongoing research is exploring the potential of various gut hormone-based therapies, offering hope for effective weight management and improved diabetes outcomes in the growing population of obese diabetic individuals.

Incremental Inverse Design of Desired Soybean Phenotypes.

We present an application of computational inverse design, which reverses the conventional trial-and-error forward design paradigm, optimizes biological phenotype by directly modifying genotype. The limitations of inverse design in genotype-to-bulk phenotype (G-BP) mapping can be addressed via an established design paradigm: "design, build, test, learn" (DBTL), where computational inverse design automates both the design and learn phases. In any context, inverse design is limited by the fundamental "one-to-many" nature of the inverse function. G-BP inverse design is further limited by the number of single nucleotide polymorphisms that can be made to a member of the population while maintaining feasibility of genotype creation and biological viability. Considering these limitations, we propose a design paradigm based on incremental optimization of phenotype through a combined computational and experimental approach. We intend this work to be a foundational synthesis of well-known techniques applied to the context of genotype-to-bulk phenotype inverse design, which has not yet been performed in the literature. The design pipeline can optimize phenotype by either directly proposing genotypic changes, or simply by suggesting parents to be used for selective breeding. The soybean nested association matrix data set is used to present an in silico case study of the design pipeline by performing optimization that maximizes protein content while constraining other phenotypes. A random forest (RF) is used to model the genotype-to-phenotype relationship, and a genetic algorithm is used to query the RF until a feasible genotype with desired phenotype is discovered. After 20 in silico DBTL cycles, a final population of individuals with a mean protein content of 36.13%, an increase of three standard deviations above the original mean is suggested.

Germination responses to changing rainfall timing reveal potential climate vulnerability in a clade of wildflowers.

The seasonal timing of life history transitions is often critical to fitness, and many organisms rely upon environmental cues to match life cycle events with favorable conditions. In plants, the timing of seed germination is mediated by seasonal cues such as rainfall and temperature. Variation in cue responses among species can reflect evolutionary processes and adaptation to local climate and can affect vulnerability to changing conditions. Indeed, climate change is altering the timing of precipitation, and germination responses to such change can have consequences for individual fitness, population dynamics, and species distributions. Here, we assessed responses to the seasonal timing of germination-triggering rains for eleven species spanning the Streptanthus/Caulanthus clade (Brassicaceae). To do so, we experimentally manipulated the onset date of rainfall events, measured effects on germination fraction, and evaluated whether responses were constrained by evolutionary relationships across the phylogeny. We then explored the possible consequences of these responses to contemporary shifts in precipitation timing. Germination fractions decreased with later onset of rains and cooler temperatures for all but three Caulanthus species. Species' germination responses to the timing of rainfall and seasonal temperatures were phylogenetically constrained, with Caulanthus species appearing less responsive. Further, four species are likely already experiencing significant decreases in germination fractions with observed climate change, which has shifted the timing of rainfall towards the cooler, winter months in California. Overall, our findings emphasize the sensitivity of germination to seasonal conditions, underscore the importance of interacting environmental cues, and highlight vulnerability to shifting precipitation patterns with climate change, particularly in more northern, mesic species.

The Uprise of Human Leishmaniasis in Tuscany, Central Italy: Clinical and Epidemiological Data from a Multicenter Study.

Human leishmaniasis is facing important epidemiological changes in Southern Europe, driven by increased urbanization, climate changes, emerging of new animal reservoirs, shifts in human behavior and a growing population of immunocompromised and elderly individuals. In this evolving epidemiological landscape, we analyzed the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of human leishmaniasis in the Tuscany region of Central Italy. Through a multicentric retrospective analysis, we collected clinical and demographic data about all cases of leishmaniasis recorded between 2018 and 2023. We observed 176 cases of human leishmaniasis, with 128 (72.7%) visceral leishmaniasis (VL) and 47 (26.7%) cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL). Among these, 92.2% of VL and 85.1% of CL cases were autochthonous. The cumulative incidence of autochthonous human leishmaniasis was 0.22 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 2018, but reached 1.81/100,000 in 2023. We identified three main areas of transmission: around the city of Florence (North-East Tuscany), around Grosseto city (South-West Tuscany) and Elba Island. Our findings confirm that the epidemiology of leishmaniasis is undergoing significant changes in Central Italy. Awareness towards this emerging health threat and surveillance strategies need to be improved in order to reliably assess the disease's burden. Further research is needed in a "One-Health" perspective, to clarify the epidemiological dynamics at the environmental, reservoir, vector and human levels. The role of climate change and specific climatic factors affecting the epidemiological patterns of human leishmaniasis should be assessed. Further knowledge in these fields would promote targeted control and prevention strategies at regional and national levels.

An empirical isochrone archive for nearby open clusters

Context. The ages of star clusters and co-moving stellar groups contain essential information about the Milky Way. Their special properties and placement throughout the galactic disk make them excellent tracers of galactic structure and key components to unlocking its star formation history. Yet, even though the importance of stellar population ages has been widely recognized, their determination remains a challenging task often associated with highly model-dependent and uncertain results. Aims. We propose a new approach to this long-standing problem, which relies on empirical isochrones of known clusters extracted from high-quality observational data. These purely observation-based data products open up the possibility of relative age determination, free of stellar evolution model assumptions. Methods. For the derivation of the empirical isochrones, we used a combination of the statistical analysis tool principal component analysis for preprocessing and the supervised machine learning method support vector regression for curve extraction. To improve the statistical reliability of our result, we defined the empirical isochrone of a color-magnitude diagram (CMD) of a cluster as the median calculated from a set of nboot = 1000 curves derived from bootstrapped data. The algorithm requires no physical priors, is computationally fast, and can easily be generalized over a large range of CMD combinations and evolutionary stages of clusters. Results. We provide empirical isochrones in all Gaia DR2 and DR3 color combinations for 83 nearby clusters (d < 500 pc), which cover an estimated age range of 7 Myr to 3 Gyr. In doing so, we pave the way for a relative comparison between individual stellar populations based on an age-scaling ladder of empirical isochrones of known clusters. Furthermore, due to the exceptional precision of the available observational data, we report accurate lower main sequence empirical isochrones for many clusters in our sample, which are of special interest as this region is known to be especially complex to model. We validate our method and results by comparing the extracted empirical isochrones to cluster ages in the literature. We also investigate the added information that empirical isochrones covering the lower main sequence can provide on case studies of the IC 4665 cluster and the Meingast 1 stream. Conclusions. The archive of empirical isochrones offers a novel approach to validating age estimates and can be used as an age-scaling ladder or age brackets for new populations and serve as calibration data for further constraining stellar evolution models.

Serum Biochemical Factors as Indicators of Osteoporosis: A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction: Osteoporosis is a bone condition that disrupts bone structure, reduces its strength, and increases the risk of fractures. While osteoporosis is commonly recognized as a disorder affecting the elderly, it can also develop in younger adults and be accompanied by other disorders. Screening individuals and diagnosing those at higher risk of osteoporosis early may significantly reduce the likelihood of complications and associated costs. Objective: Serum biochemical factors are rather easily measured and accessible, making them valuable as predictive indicators for the prognosis and early diagnosis of osteoporosis. However, there is not enough evidence about possible relationships between these factors and osteoporosis in different bones. Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, we analyzed osteoporotic indices, including bone marrow density (BMD), T-score, Z-score, and standardized BMD, in a large population of individuals at risk of osteoporosis. We then investigated potential relationships between biochemical values and osteoporosis indices in the evaluated subjects. The collected data were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis test and Spearman correlation coefficient methods. Results: A total of 1104 patients were enrolled, with 87.7% being female and 12.3% male. The mean age of the patients was 56.48 ± 11.62 ( ± SE) years. Among them, 251 patients had normal bone density, while 556 patients had osteopenia, and 270 patients had osteoporosis. The Kruskal-Wallis analysis demonstrated that serum levels of Calcium (p=0.014), Phosphorus (p =0.002), and Vitamin D3 (p =0.045) were positively associated with the risk of osteoporosis, whereas serum albumin (p =0.005) and Alkaline phosphatase (p =0.002) levels were negatively associated. Additionally, the Spearman correlation coefficient showed a negative association between hemoglobin levels and BMD in both the spine (p =0.046) and femur (p =0.049). Conclusion: Serum levels of biochemical factors may serve as primary predictive markers for the early diagnosis of individuals at higher risk of osteoporosis and bone fractures. In addition to factors involved in calcium homeostasis, serum levels of albumin and hemoglobin are also associated with BMD scores and the development of osteoporosis.

Organ-specific Sympathetic Innervation Defines Visceral Functions.

The autonomic nervous system orchestrates the brain and body functions through the sympathetic and parasympathetic pathways. However, our understanding of the autonomic system, especially the sympathetic system, at the cellular and molecular levels is severely limited. Here, we show unique topological representations of individual visceral organs in the major abdominal sympathetic ganglion complex. Using multi-modal transcriptomic analyses, we identified distinct sympathetic populations that are both molecularly and spatially separable in the celiac-superior mesenteric ganglia (CG-SMG). Notably, individual CG-SMG populations exhibit selective and mutually exclusive axonal projections to visceral organs, targeting either the gastrointestinal (GI) tract or secretory areas including the pancreas and bile tract. This combinatorial innervation pattern suggests functional segregation between different CG-SMG populations. Indeed, our neural perturbation experiments demonstrated that one class of neurons selectively regulates GI food transit. Another class of neurons controls digestion and glucagon secretion independent of gut motility. These results reveal the molecularly diverse sympathetic system and suggest modular regulations of visceral organ functions through distinct sympathetic populations.

The role of mobility in epidemics near criticality

Abstract The general epidemic process (GEP), also known as susceptible-infected-recovered model, provides a minimal model of how an epidemic spreads within a population of susceptible individuals who acquire permanent immunization upon recovery. This model exhibits a second-order absorbing state phase transition, commonly studied assuming immobile healthy individuals. We investigate the impact of mobility on the scaling properties of disease spreading near the extinction threshold by introducing two generalizations of GEP, where the mobility of susceptible and recovered individuals is examined independently. In both cases, including mobility violates GEP’s rapidity reversal symmetry and alters the number of absorbing states. The critical dynamics of the models are analyzed through a perturbative renormalization group (RG) approach and large-scale stochastic simulations using a Gillespie algorithm. The RG analysis predicts both models to belong to the same novel universality class describing the critical dynamics of epidemic spreading when the infected individuals interact with a diffusive species and gain immunization upon recovery. At the associated RG fixed point, the immobile species decouples from the dynamics of the infected species, dominated by the coupling with the diffusive species. Numerical simulations in two dimensions affirm our RG results by identifying the same set of critical exponents for both models. Violation of the rapidity reversal symmetry is confirmed by breaking the associated hyperscaling relation. Our study underscores the significance of mobility in shaping population spreading dynamics near the extinction threshold.

A study on the identification of factors related to depression in a population with an increasing number of chronic diseases in the short term in China based on a health ecology model

BackgroundThe rapid increase in the number of patients with chronic diseases and depression, as well as the rapid spread of their effects, have led to these two health problems gradually developing into major public health issues in China and around the world. Currently, many individuals with chronic diseases are experiencing depressive symptoms one after another. Therefore, it is imperative to conduct research on how to prevent depression in this growing population of individuals with chronic diseases in a timely manner. MethodsBased on the data of the 2015 and 2018 national follow-up surveys of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, a total of 7641 patients with short-term increase in the number of chronic diseases were selected as the study objects, and a binary logistic regression model was constructed according to the five dimensions of the health ecology model. The neural network model was used to explore the main (first two) factors affecting the increase in the number of chronic diseases in China in the short term, and the random forest and extreme value gradient lifting algorithm were used to verify them, and effective suggestions were put forward. ResultsThe detection rate of depression in the population with increasing number of chronic diseases from 2015 to 2018 was 42.13 %. The model was established based on five dimensions of the health ecology model: Model 1 (Personal trait layer), Model 2 (Personal trait layer plus Behavioral feature layer), Model 3 (Personal trait layer plus Behavioral feature layer plus Living and working conditions layer), Model 4 (Personal trait layer plus Behavioral feature layer plus Living and working conditions layer plus Networking layer) and Model 5 (Personal trait layer plus Behavioral feature layer plus Living and working conditions layer plus Networking layer plus Policy environment layer).The prediction accuracy of the five models was 66.4 %, 68.3 %, 70.7 %, 71.6 % and 71.6 %, respectively, and Model 5 showed that the P values of gender, self-rated health, night's sleep time (h), disability, life satisfaction, child satisfaction, place of residence and highest level of education were all <0.05, life satisfaction and self-rated health importance were 0.249 (100 %) and 0.226 (90.8 %). ConclusionGender, self-rated health, night sleep duration, disability, satisfaction with life, satisfaction with children, place of residence and highest level of education were the main influencing factors for the increase of depressive symptoms in the population with chronic diseases in the short term, among which life satisfaction and self-rated health have the greatest impact on depressive symptoms, and there is an interaction between the two.

Abstract A045: Disrupting local immunosuppression through combination myCAF/myeloid targeting in pancreatic cancer

Abstract Immunotherapy has revolutionized clinical care for many cancers, yet the approach has not been fully realized in immunologically cold tumors like Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC). One striking hallmark of PDAC is local immunosuppression (LIS) which leads to cytotoxic T cell inactivation and exclusion. There is great need for an increased understanding of the cellular crosstalk within tumors and the identification of stromal and immune populations involved in shaping the tumor microenvironment (TME). Oncogenic KRAS activation in tumor cells promotes the invasion and proliferation of tumor-supporting stromal cells, while excluding cancer-targeted cytotoxic T cells. LIS is mediated by multiple subtypes of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and myeloid cells resident within the tumor parenchyma. Multiple prior attempts to reverse LIS in PDAC by targeting individual stromal cell populations have been unsuccessful, alluding to the complexity of stromal crosstalk within the TME. The stromal diversity of PDAC complicates investigating paracrine cascades involving multiple cell types. To decipher diverse drug effects on altering the TME, we employ in vivo studies in mouse models recapitulating the human disease, as well as a novel tumor explant model that enables the short-term culture of intact human or murine PDAC. Importantly, PDAC explants maintain their histopathological architecture and cellular diversity over time. This medium-throughput platform allows for testing of multiple drugs and mechanistic hypotheses in the native PDAC TME. We show in preliminary data that Smoothened inhibition (SMOi) decreases proliferation and activity of myCAFs, but provokes the expansion of CD11b-positive myeloid cells in vivo. Thus, we hypothesize that LIS in PDAC is maintained by a delicate balance between myCAFs and myeloid cells, preventing effective T cell invasion. Single cell RNA-seq data comparing ctrl vs. SMOi-treated murine PDAC elucidates stromal subpopulations involved in the LIS phenotype and guides the identification of myeloid subtypes emerging after SMOi. Strikingly, we demonstrated that simultaneous SMOi and targeting myeloid cells via anti-Gr1 or CCR1 inhibition (CCR1i) significantly elevates cytotoxic T cell numbers up to 20x within the TME. We are currently investigating whether the activity of these T cells may be further potentiated through combination with immunomodulatory agents. By testing various treatment combination in the same TME, we will identify the best synergistic effects for future immunotherapy approaches in human PDAC. In summary, we are elucidating the complex mechanism behind LIS in PDAC by employing our novel explant culture system alongside in vivo studies. We aim to develop a translatable regimen to neutralize LIS, reactivating the cytotoxic T cells in the tumor periphery to invade, proliferate, and attack cancer cells. Citation Format: Marie C Hasselluhn, Lukas Vlahos, Dafydd Thomas, Quin T Waterbury, Alvaro Curiel Garcia, Amanda R Decker-Farrell, Tanner C Dalton, Stephen A Sastra, Carmine F Palermo, Timothy C Wang, Andrea Califano, Kenneth P Olive. Disrupting local immunosuppression through combination myCAF/myeloid targeting in pancreatic cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference in Cancer Research: Advances in Pancreatic Cancer Research; 2024 Sep 15-18; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(17 Suppl_2):Abstract nr A045.