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Summary: Background: Severe alcoholic hepatitis (AH) is the most aggressive form of alcohol‐related liver disease with high mortality. The microbiome is an emerging therapeutic target in alcohol‐related liver disease. Aims: To investigate the microbiome composition in patients with severe AH, and to determine microbiome recovery after rifaximin treatment in gut bacteria and bacteria derived‐extracellular vesicles. Methods: We enrolled 24 patients with severe AH and 24 healthy controls. Additional faecal samples were collected after 4 weeks in 8 patients with severe AH who completed rifaximin treatment. Treatment response was defined based on Lille score model after 7 days of treatment. Metagenomic profiling was performed using 16S ribosomal RNA amplicon sequencing. Results: Faecal microbiomes of patients with severe AH had lower alpha diversity and higher beta diversity than those of healthy controls in both gut bacteria and extracellular vesicles. Bacilli, Lactobacillales and Veillonella were significantly increased in the gut bacteria of patients with severe AH, and Veillonella, Veillonella parvula group and Lactobacillales were significantly increased in the extracellular vesicles of patients with severe AH. Eubacterium_g23, Oscillibacter and Clostridiales decreased in the gut bacteria of patients with severe AH, and Eubacterium_g23, Oscillibacter and Christensenellaceae decreased in the extracellular vesicles of patients with severe AH. After rifaximin treatment, 17 taxa in the gut bacteria and 23 taxa in extracellular vesicles were significantly restored in patients with severe AH. In common, Veillonella and Veillonella parvula group increased in patients with severe AH and decreased after rifaximin treatment, and Prevotella and Prevotellaceae decreased in patients with severe AH and increased after rifaximin treatment. Treatment non‐responders showed a significantly lower abundance of Prevotella at baseline than did treatment responders. Conclusion: Dysbiosis was confirmed in severe AH but was alleviated by rifaximin treatment. Taxa associated with severe AH can be candidate biomarkers or therapeutic targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the consequence of the choice process for mental resources and the desire to obtain the selected products. The authors draw a distinction between instrumental choice, which serves preexisting consumption goals, and experiential choice, which serves as its own end. Across four studies, they find that instrumental choice undermines mental resources and experiential choice increases these resources. As a result, although experiential choice is made with no consumption goal in mind, compared with instrumental choice, it increases the desire to obtain the selected product. The authors demonstrate these effects on choice among a variety of consumer products (e.g., vacation packages, novels, flower bouquets). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although ecotoxicological and toxicological risk assessments are performed separately from each other, recent efforts have been made in both disciplines to reduce animal testing and develop predictive approaches instead, for example, via conserved molecular markers, and in vitro and in silico approaches. Among them, adverse outcome pathways (AOPs) have been proposed to facilitate the prediction of molecular toxic effects at larger biological scales. Thus, more toxicological data are used to inform on ecotoxicological risks and vice versa. An AOP has been previously developed to predict reproductive toxicity of silver nanoparticles via oxidative stress on the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (AOPwiki ID 207). Following this previous study, our present study aims to extend the biologically plausible taxonomic domain of applicability (tDOA) of AOP 207. Various types of data, including in vitro human cells, in vivo, and molecular to individual, from previous studies have been collected and structured into a cross‐species AOP network that can inform both human toxicology and ecotoxicology risk assessments. The first step was the collection and analysis of literature data to fit the AOP criteria and build a first AOP network. Then, key event relationships were assessed using a Bayesian network modeling approach, which gave more confidence in our overall AOP network. Finally, the biologically plausible tDOA was extended using in silico approaches (Genes‐to‐Pathways Species Conservation Analysis and Sequence Alignment to Predict Across Species Susceptibility), which led to the extrapolation of our AOP network across over 100 taxonomic groups. Our approach shows that various types of data can be integrated into an AOP framework, and thus facilitates access to knowledge and prediction of toxic mechanisms without the need for further animal testing. Environ Toxicol Chem 2024;00:1–14. © 2024 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of SETAC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Refugees from diverse socio-cultural backgrounds and geopolitical locations face temporal challenges during their transition, yet more research needs to be conducted to understand their time conception in the host society. This study explores how North Korean refugees from remote rural areas in North Korea and China adjusted their time conception in a metropolitan city in South Korea. Data were collected through a pilot study (January-March 2017) and ethnographic fieldwork (February-July 2018), entailing semi-structured interviews, informal conversations, and field notes. Vygotsky’s psychological tool and Ricoeur’s interpretive approach were employed to solicit the mediation of time conception through organizational activities and narrative meanings. The analysis reveals themes that challenge refugees’ time conception reflecting North Korean values and daily activities—Kimilsungism, collectivism, and task-oriented attitude—and the changes in time conception on the sense of the self. Refugees’ learning in time conception is a holistic spiritual, social, and personal process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The way in which emotional responses to fiction can be aesthetically warranted is discussed, with a focus on fiction films. Topics include the real-life principle, the correspondence model, and a functional model.

With the rapid advancement and numerous applications of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) in science and technology, their effects on animal health, environment and safety should be considered carefully. However, quick assessment of their effects on developmental and reproductive health and an understanding of how they cause such adverse toxic effects remain challenging, because of the fast‐growing number of ENMs and the limitations of the different toxicity assays currently in use as well as lack of suitable animal model systems. In this study, we performed a high‐throughput complex object parametric analyzer and sorter (COPAS) assay for assessing the developmental and reproductive toxicity of ENMs using Caenorhabditis elegans and provide descriptions of the data and their subsequent analysis. The results showed significant reproductive and developmental toxicity potential of different ENMs. We assessed the usefulness of this method in terms of error‐free data, user‐friendliness and results being consistent with those of visual, molecular and cellular studies. Moreover, the COPAS Biosort system could be used on a larger scale to screen thousands of chemicals, drugs, pharmaceuticals and ENMs. This study also indicates that the COPAS‐based high‐throughput screening system is highly reliable for the assessment of toxicity and health risks of NMs. With the rapid advancement and numerous applications of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs), their toxicity should be considered carefully. In this study, we performed high‐throughput COPAS assays to assess developmental and reproductive toxicity of ENMs using Caenorhabditis elegans and provide descriptions of the data and their subsequent analysis. The results showed significant reproductive and developmental toxicity potential of different ENMs. This study indicates that COPAS‐based high‐throughput screening system is highly reliable for assessing the toxicity and risks associated with NMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters constitute one of the largest gene families in all living organisms, most of which mediate transport across biological membranes by hydrolyzing ATP. However, detailed studies of ABC transporter genes in the important oil crop, soybean, are still lacking. In the present study, we carried out genome-wide identification and phylogenetic and transcriptional analyses of the ABC gene family in G. max. A total of 261 G. max ABC (GmABCs) genes were identified and unevenly localized onto 20 chromosomes. Referring to protein-domain orientation and phylogeny, the GmABC family could be classified into eight (ABCA-ABCG and ABCI) subfamilies and ABCG were the most abundantly present. Further, investigation of whole genome duplication (WGD) signifies the role of segmental duplication in the expansion of the ABC transporter gene family in soybean. The Ka/Ks ratio indicates that several duplicated genes are governed by intense purifying selection during evolution. In addition, in silico expression analysis based on RNA-sequence using publicly available database revealed that ABC transporters are differentially expressed in tissues and developmental stages and in dehydration. Overall, we provide an extensive overview of the GmABC transporter gene family and it promises the primary basis for the study in development and response to dehydration tolerance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within flowering plants, boxwood family and several satellite groups form a distinct taxon (suborder Buxineae) diverged from the base of angiosperm phylogenetic tree in the lower Cretaceous. Six genera comprise about 138 species, mainly associated with Tropical America, East and South Africa and Madagascar, and East Asia. The largest are well-known tree-like or shrubby boxwoods, Buxus. Sarcococca and Pachysandra are small genera of low shrubs or even rhizomatous herbs. Few species of woody Styloceras grow in South America. Two last genera are more distinct: Didymeles with three species, all from Madagascar, and monotypic Haptanthus from Honduras. Data from rbcL and ITS2 were integrated in the phylogeny tree thus represented both nuclear and chloroplast genomes. This tree allows to establish the comprehensive classification of the Buxineae, trace the times of diversification and biogeographic relationships between subgroups., Jinhee Choi * (U), Sarah DeSpiegelaere, Hye Ji Lee, Alexey Shipunov Biology, Minot State University, Minot, ND Support: This work was supported by ND INBRE, the Department of Biology of [...]