Development and Validation of the Behavioral Tendencies Questionnaire

At a fundamental level, taxonomy of behavior and behavioral tendencies can be described in terms of approach, avoid, or equivocate (i.e., neither approach nor avoid). While there are numerous theories of personality, temperament, and character, few seem to take advantage of parsimonious taxonomy. The present study sought to implement this taxonomy by creating a questionnaire based on a categorization of behavioral temperaments/tendencies first identified in Buddhist accounts over fifteen hundred years ago. Items were developed using historical and contemporary texts of the behavioral temperaments, described as “Greedy/Faithful”, “Aversive/Discerning”, and “Deluded/Speculative”. To both maintain this categorical typology and benefit from the advantageous properties of forced-choice response format (e.g., reduction of response biases), binary pairwise preferences for items were modeled using Latent Class Analysis (LCA). One sample (n1 = 394) was used to estimate the item parameters, and the second sample (n2 = 504) was used to classify the participants using the established parameters and cross-validate the classification against multiple other measures. The cross-validated measure exhibited good nomothetic span (construct-consistent relationships with related measures) that seemed to corroborate the ideas present in the original Buddhist source documents. The final 13-block questionnaire created from the best performing items (the Behavioral Tendencies Questionnaire or BTQ) is a psychometrically valid questionnaire that is historically consistent, based in behavioral tendencies, and promises practical and clinical utility particularly in settings that teach and study meditation practices such as Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

Factors Associated with Bovine Neonatal Pancytopenia (BNP) in Calves: A Case-Control Study

Bovine neonatal pancytopenia (BNP; previously known as idiopathic haemorrhagic diathesis and commonly known as bleeding calf syndrome) is a novel haemorrhagic disease of young calves which has emerged in a number of European countries during recent years. Data were retrospectively collected during June to November 2010 for 56 case calves diagnosed with BNP between 17 March and 7 June of the same year. These were compared with 58 control calves randomly recruited from herds with no history of BNP. Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that increased odds of a calf being a BNP case were associated with its dam having received PregSure® BVD (Pfizer Animal Health) vaccination prior to the birth of the calf (odds ratio (OR) 40.78, p<0.001) and its herd of origin being located in Scotland (OR 9.71, p = 0.006). Decreased odds of a calf being a BNP case were associated with the calf having been kept outside (OR 0.11, p = 0.006). The longer that a cattle herd had been established on the farm was also associated with decreased odds of a calf in that herd being a BNP case (OR 0.97, p = 0.011)

Exceptionally Preserved Jellyfishes from the Middle Cambrian

Cnidarians represent an early diverging animal group and thus insight into their origin and diversification is key to understanding metazoan evolution. Further, cnidarian jellyfish comprise an important component of modern marine planktonic ecosystems. Here we report on exceptionally preserved cnidarian jellyfish fossils from the Middle Cambrian (∼505 million years old) Marjum Formation of Utah. These are the first described Cambrian jellyfish fossils to display exquisite preservation of soft part anatomy including detailed features of structures interpreted as trailing tentacles and subumbrellar and exumbrellar surfaces. If the interpretation of these preserved characters is correct, their presence is diagnostic of modern jellyfish taxa. These new discoveries may provide insight into the scope of cnidarian diversity shortly after the Cambrian radiation, and would reinforce the notion that important taxonomic components of the modern planktonic realm were in place by the Cambrian period

Cross-Talk between Signaling Pathways Can Generate Robust Oscillations in Calcium and cAMP

BACKGROUND:To control and manipulate cellular signaling, we need to understand cellular strategies for information transfer, integration, and decision-making. A key feature of signal transduction is the generation of only a few intracellular messengers by many extracellular stimuli. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:Here we model molecular cross-talk between two classic second messengers, cyclic AMP (cAMP) and calcium, and show that the dynamical complexity of the response of both messengers increases substantially through their interaction. In our model of a non-excitable cell, both cAMP and calcium concentrations can oscillate. If mutually inhibitory, cross-talk between the two second messengers can increase the range of agonist concentrations for which oscillations occur. If mutually activating, cross-talk decreases the oscillation range, but can generate 'bursting' oscillations of calcium and may enable better filtering of noise. CONCLUSION:We postulate that this increased dynamical complexity allows the cell to encode more information, particularly if both second messengers encode signals. In their native environments, it is unlikely that cells are exposed to one stimulus at a time, and cross-talk may help generate sufficiently complex responses to allow the cell to discriminate between different combinations and concentrations of extracellular agonists

Pyrosequencing of Bacterial Symbionts within Axinella corrugata Sponges: Diversity and Seasonal Variability

Background: Marine sponge species are of significant interest to many scientific fields including marine ecology, conservation biology, genetics, host-microbe symbiosis and pharmacology. One of the most intriguing aspects of the sponge ‘‘holobiont’’ system is the unique physiology, interaction with microbes from the marine environment and the development of a complex commensal microbial community. However, intraspecific variability and temporal stability of sponge-associated bacterial symbionts remain relatively unknown. Methodology/Principal Findings: We have characterized the bacterial symbiont community biodiversity of seven different individuals of the Caribbean reef sponge Axinella corrugata, from two different Florida reef locations during variable seasons using multiplex 454 pyrosequencing of 16 S rRNA amplicons. Over 265,512 high-quality 16 S rRNA sequences were generated and analyzed. Utilizing versatile bioinformatics methods and analytical software such as the QIIME and CloVR packages, we have identified 9,444 distinct bacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs). Approximately 65,550 rRNA sequences (24%) could not be matched to bacteria at the class level, and may therefore represent novel taxa. Differentially abundant classes between seasonal Axinella communities included Gammaproteobacteria, Flavobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria, Cyanobacteria, Acidobacter and Nitrospira. Comparisons with a proximal outgroup sponge species (Amphimedon compressa), and the growing sponge symbiont literature, indicate that this study has identified approximately 330 A. corrugata-specific symbiotic OTUs, many of which are related to the sulfur-oxidizing Ectothiorhodospiraceae. This family appeared exclusively within A. corrugata, comprising \u3e34.5% of all sequenced amplicons. Other A. corrugata symbionts such as Deltaproteobacteria, Bdellovibrio, and Thiocystis among many others are described. Conclusions/Significance: Slight shifts in several bacterial taxa were observed between communities sampled during spring and fall seasons. New 16 S rDNA sequences and concomitant identifications greatly expand the microbial community profile for this model reef sponge, and will likely be useful as a baseline for any future comparisons regarding sponge microbial community dynamics

Modulation of Interleukin-1 Transcriptional Response by the Interaction between VRK2 and the JIP1 Scaffold Protein

Background. Cellular biological responses to specific stimulation are determined by a balance among signaling pathways. Protein interactions are likely to modulate these pathways. Vaccinia-related kinase-2 (VRK2) is a novel human kinase that can modulate different signaling pathways. Principal findings. We report that in vivo, the activity of JIP1-JNK complexes is downregulated by VRK2 in response to interleukin-1β. Also the reduction of endogenous VRK2 with shRNA increases the transcriptional response to IL-1β. The JIP1 scaffold protein assembles three consecutive members of a given MAPK pathway forming signaling complexes and their signal can be modulated by interactions with regulatory proteins that remain to be identified. Knocking-down JIP1 with siRNA resulted in elimination of the AP1 transcriptional response to IL-1β. VRK2, a member of novel Ser-Thr kinase family, is able to stably interact with JIP1, TAK1 and MKK7, but not JNK, and can be isolated forming oligomeric complexes with different proportions of TAK1, MKK7β1 and JNK. JIP1 assembles all these proteins in an oligomeric signalosome. VRK2 binding to the JIP1 signalosome prevents the association of JNK and results in a reduction in its phosphorylation and downregulation of AP1-dependent transcription. Conclusions/Significance. This work suggests that the intracellular level of VRK2 protein can modulate the flow through a signaling pathway and alter the response from a receptor that can be distributed by more than one pathway, and thus contribute to the cellular specificity of the response by forming alternative signaling complexes. Furthermore, the effect might be more general and affect other signaling routes assembled on the JIP1 scaffold protein for which a model is proposed.S.B., M. S-G, and C.R.S. have predoctoral fellowships from Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, CSIC (Spain) and Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal) respectively. This work was funded by grants from Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (SAF2004-02900, SAF2007-60242 and Consolider CSD-2007-0017), Fundación de Investigación Médica MM and Federación de Cajas de Ahorro de Castilla y León to P.A.L.Peer reviewe