Bacterial endophytic community composition varies by hemp cultivar in commercially sourced seed.

The seed-endophytic bacterial community is a potentially beneficial and heritable fraction of the plant microbiome. Its utilization as a sustainable crop improvement strategy could be especially valuable for species such as hemp, where production is being scaled up and new challenges will be faced in managing crop productivity and health. However, little is known about the makeup and variation of the hemp seed microbiome. This study profiled the endophytic bacterial communities harboured by 16 hemp cultivars sourced from commercial suppliers in Europe. A 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing approach identified 917 amplicon sequence variants across samples. Taxonomic classification of sequences revealed 4 phyla and 87 genera to be represented in the dataset. Several genera were widespread while some were specific to one or a few cultivars. Flavobacterium, Pseudomonas, and Pantoea were notable in their high overall abundance and prevalence, but community composition was variable and no one taxon was universally abundant, suggesting a high degree of flexibility in community assembly. Taxonomic composition and alpha diversity differed among cultivars, though further work is required to understand the relative influence of hemp genetic factors on community structure. The taxonomic profiles presented here can be used to inform further work investigating the functional characteristics and potential plant-growth-promoting traits of seed-borne bacteria in hemp.

Barriers to accessing and continuing mental health treatment among individuals with dissociative symptoms.

Background: Dissociative disorders (DDs) are characterized by interruptions of identity, thought, memory, emotion, perception, and consciousness. Patients with DDs are at high risk for engaging in dangerous behaviours, such as self-harm and suicidal acts; yet, only between 28% and 48% of individuals with DDs receive mental health treatment. Patients that do pursue treatment are often misdiagnosed, repeatedly hospitalized, and experience disbelief from providers about their trauma history and dissociative symptoms. Lack of dissociation-specific treatment can result in poor quality of life, severe symptoms requiring utilization of hospitalization and intensive outpatient treatment, and high rates of disability. Objective: Given the extensive and debilitating symptoms experienced by individuals with DDs and the infrequent utilization of treatment, the current study explored barriers to accessing and continuing mental health treatment for individuals with dissociative symptoms and DDs. Method: A total of 276 participants with self-reported dissociative symptoms were recruited via online social media platforms. Participants completed a survey which featured 35 possible barriers to accessing treatment and 45 possible reasons for discontinuing treatment, along with open text boxes for adding barriers/reasons that were not listed. Results: Results showed 97% of participants experienced one or more barriers to accessing treatment (M = 9 barriers) and 92% stopped treatment with a provider due to at least one of the reasons captured in the survey (e.g. limited insurance coverage, poor therapeutic alliance, disbelief from providers, etc.; M = 7 barriers). Conclusions: The most frequently endorsed barriers were structural barriers, such as those related to finances, insurance, and lack of provider availability. It is imperative more service providers are trained to treat dissociation and that insurers and health care systems recognize the need for specialized, dissociation-focused treatment.

Antecedentes: Los trastornos disociativos (TD) se caracterizan por interrupciones en la identidad, pensamiento, memoria, emoción, percepción y conciencia. Los pacientes con TD tienen un alto riesgo de participar en conductas peligrosas, como autolesiones y actos suicidas; sin embargo, solo entre el 28­48% de las personas con TD reciben tratamiento de salud mental. Los pacientes que buscan tratamiento a menudo son mal diagnosticados, hospitalizados repetidamente y experimentan incredulidad por parte de los proveedores sobre su historial de trauma y síntomas disociativos. La falta de un tratamiento específico para la disociación puede resultar en una mala calidad de vida, síntomas graves que requieren hospitalización y tratamiento ambulatorio intensivo y altas tasas de discapacidad.Objetivo: Dados los síntomas extensos y debilitantes que experimentan las personas con TD y la utilización poco frecuente del tratamiento, el presente estudio exploró las barreras para acceder y continuar el tratamiento de salud mental para las personas con síntomas disociativos y TD.Método: Un total de 276 participantes con síntomas disociativos auto-reportados fueron reclutados a través de plataformas de redes sociales en línea. Los participantes completaron una encuesta que presentaba 35 posibles barreras para acceder al tratamiento y 45 posibles razones para interrumpir el tratamiento, junto con cuadros de texto abiertos para agregar barreras/razones no incluidas en la lista.Resultados: Los resultados mostraron que el 97% de los participantes experimentó una o más barreras para acceder al tratamiento (M = 9 barreras) y el 92% interrumpió el tratamiento con un proveedor debido al menos a una de las razones capturadas en la encuesta (por ejemplo, cobertura de seguro médico limitada, pobre alianza terapéutica, incredulidad por parte de los proveedores, etc.; M = 7 barreras).Conclusiones: Las barreras confirmadas con mayor frecuencia fueron las barreras estructurales, como las relacionadas con las finanzas, los seguros médicos y la falta de disponibilidad de proveedores. Es imperativo que más proveedores de servicios estén capacitados para tratar la disociación y que las aseguradoras y los sistemas de atención médica reconozcan la necesidad de un tratamiento especializado centrado en la disociación.

Evaluating "The REST of Your Life," a Workplace Health Program to Improve Employee Sleep, Health, Energy, and Productivity.

PURPOSE: Sleep is critical for employee health, well-being, and productivity. Our purpose is to evaluate a sleep-focused interactive workplace health promotion program. DESIGN: We evaluate sleep and mental health before and after exposure to the program using a pre/post quasi-experimental pilot study design with surveys administered at baseline and 1-, 6-, and 12 months post-exposure (Phase 1). We design program evaluation surveys for dissemination when the program is offered broadly to hospital employees (Phase 2). SETTING: The study was conducted at a large teaching hospital in the Southeast U.S. in 2016. SUBJECTS: Subjects were full-time hospital employees. INTERVENTION: The program was presented to subjects in one four-hour interactive session. MEASURES: In Phase 1 (n = 55), surveys included the validated Apnea Risk Evaluation System, Dysfunctional Beliefs About Sleep, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Patient Health Questionnaire. Phase 2 (n = 3935) utilized program evaluation surveys. ANALYSIS: We compare survey responses between pre- and post-program using a repeated measures analysis of variance with post-hoc tests. RESULTS: Statistically significant improvement in all sleep and mental health domains was demonstrated. In Phase 2, 81.9% reported "strongly agree" to willingness to recommend the program to co-workers. CONCLUSION: We demonstrate improvement in employee sleep and mental health after exposure to a novel workplace health promotion program to improve sleep.

Patient-led Remote IntraCapillary pharmacoKinetic Sampling (fingerPRICKS) for Therapeutic Drug Monitoring in patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Because of COVID-19 public health restrictions, telemedicine has replaced conventional outpatient follow up for most patients with chronic immune-mediated inflammatory disorders treated with biologic drugs. Innovative solutions to facilitate remote therapeutic drug monitoring are therefore required. Low-volume intracapillary blood sampling can be undertaken by patients at home and samples returned by post to central laboratories. We sought to report the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on requests for therapeutic drug monitoring and the equivalence, acceptability and effectiveness of low volume Patient-led Remote IntraCapillary pharmacoKinetic Sampling [fingerPRICKS] compared to conventional venepuncture. METHODS: We undertook a cross-sectional blood sampling methods comparison study and compared sample types using linear regression models. Drug and antidrug antibody levels were measured using standard ELISAs. Acceptability was assessed using a purpose-designed questionnaire. RESULTS: Therapeutic drug monitoring requests for adalimumab (96.5 [70.5-106] per week to 52 [33.5-57.0], p < 0.001) but not infliximab (184.5 [161.2-214.2] to 161 [135-197.5], p = 0.34) reduced during the first UK stay-at-home lockdown compared with the preceding 6 months. Fingerprick sampling was equivalent to conventional venepuncture for adalimumab, infliximab, vedolizumab and ustekinumab drug, and anti-adalimumab and anti-infliximab antibody levels. The median [interquartile range] volume of serum obtained using intracapillary sampling was 195 µL [130-210]. More than 87% [90/103] of patients agreed that intracapillary testing was easy and 69% [71/103] preferred it to conventional venepuncture. In routine care, 75.3% [58/77] of patients returned two blood samples within 14 days to permit remote assessment of biologic therapeutic drug monitoring. CONCLUSIONS: Therapeutic drug monitoring can be undertaken using patient-led remote intracapillary blood sampling and has the potential to be a key adjunct to telemedicine in patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases.

Correction: Musical improvisation enhances interpersonal coordination in subsequent conversation: Motor and speech evidence.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0250166.].

Musical improvisation enhances interpersonal coordination in subsequent conversation: Motor and speech evidence.

This study explored the effects of musical improvisation between dyads of same-sex strangers on subsequent behavioural alignment. Participants-all non-musicians-conversed before and after either improvising music together (Musical Improvisation-MI-group) or doing a motoric non-rhythmic cooperative task (building a tower together using wooden blocks; the Hands-Busy-HB-group). Conversations were free, but initially guided by an adaptation of the Fast Friends Questionnaire for inducing talk among students who are strangers and meeting for the first time. Throughout, participants' motion was recorded with an optical motion-capture system (Mocap) and analysed in terms of speed cross-correlations. Their conversations were also recorded on separate channels using headset microphones and were analysed in terms of the periodicity displayed by rhythmic peaks in the turn transitions across question and answer pairs (Q+A pairs). Compared with their first conversations, the MI group in the second conversations showed: (a) a very rapid, partially simultaneous anatomical coordination between 0 and 0.4 s; (b) delayed mirror motoric coordination between 0.8 and 1.5 s; and (c) a higher proportion of Periodic Q+A pairs. In contrast, the HB group's motoric coordination changed slightly in timing but not in degree of coordination between the first and second conversations, and there was no significant change in the proportion of periodic Q+A pairs they produced. These results show a convergent effect of prior musical interaction on joint body movement and use of shared periodicity across speech turn-transitions in conversations, suggesting that interaction in music and speech may be mediated by common processes.

Differential expression of starch and sucrose metabolic genes linked to varying biomass yield in Miscanthus hybrids.

BACKGROUND: Miscanthus is a commercial lignocellulosic biomass crop owing to its high biomass productivity and low chemical input requirements. Within an interspecific Miscanthus cross, progeny with high biomass yield were shown to have low concentrations of starch and sucrose but high concentrations of fructose. We performed a transcriptional RNA-seq analysis between selected Miscanthus hybrids with contrasting values for these phenotypes to clarify how these phenotypes are genetically controlled. RESULTS: We observed that genes directly involved in the synthesis and degradation of starch and sucrose were down-regulated in high-yielding Miscanthus hybrids. At the same time, glycolysis and export of triose phosphates were up-regulated in high-yielding Miscanthus hybrids. These differentially expressed genes and biological functions were regulated by a well-connected network of less than 25 co-regulated transcription factors. CONCLUSIONS: Our results evidence a direct relationship between high expression of essential enzymatic genes in the starch and sucrose pathways and co-expression with their transcriptional regulators, with high starch concentrations and lower biomass production. The strong interconnectivity between gene expression and regulators, chemotype and agronomic traits opens the door to use the expression of well-characterised genes associated with carbohydrate metabolism, particularly in the starch and sucrose pathway, for the early selection of high biomass-yielding genotypes from large Miscanthus populations.

Cognitive bias in forensic pathology decisions.

Forensic pathologists' decisions are critical in police investigations and court proceedings as they determine whether an unnatural death of a young child was an accident or homicide. Does cognitive bias affect forensic pathologists' decision-making? To address this question, we examined all death certificates issued during a 10-year period in the State of Nevada in the United States for children under the age of six. We also conducted an experiment with 133 forensic pathologists in which we tested whether knowledge of irrelevant non-medical information that should have no bearing on forensic pathologists' decisions influenced their manner of death determinations. The dataset of death certificates indicated that forensic pathologists were more likely to rule "homicide" rather than "accident" for deaths of Black children relative to White children. This may arise because the base-rate expectation creates an a priori cognitive bias to rule that Black children died as a result of homicide, which then perpetuates itself. Corroborating this explanation, the experimental data with the 133 forensic pathologists exhibited biased decisions when given identical medical information but different irrelevant non-medical information about the race of the child and who was the caregiver who brought them to the hospital. These findings together demonstrate how extraneous information can result in cognitive bias in forensic pathology decision-making.

Influence of Turn-Taking in Musical and Spoken Activities on Empathy and Self-Esteem of Socially Vulnerable Young Teenagers.

This study describes a preliminary test of the hypothesis that, when people engage in musical and linguistic activities designed to enhance the interactive, turn-taking properties of typical conversation, they benefit in ways that enhance empathy and self-esteem, relative to people who experience activities that are similar except that synchronous action is emphasized, with no interactional turn-taking. Twenty-two 12-14 year olds identified as socially vulnerable (e.g., for anxiety) received six enjoyable 1-h sessions of musical improvisation, language games that developed sensitivity to linguistic rhythm and melody, and cross-over activities like rap. The Turn-taking group (n = 11), practiced characteristics of conversation in language games, and these were also introduced into musical activities. This involved much turn-taking and predicting what others would do. A matched control group, the Synchrony group, did similar activities but in synchrony, with less prediction and no turn-taking. Task complexity increased over the six sessions. Psychometric testing before and after the series showed that the Turn-taking group increased in empathy on self-report (Toronto Empathy Questionnaire) and behavioral ('Reading the Mind in the Eyes') measures, and in the General subtest of the Culture-Free Self-Esteem Inventory. While more work is needed to confirm the conclusions for relevant demographic groups, the current results point to the social value of musical and linguistic activities that mimic entrained, tightly coordinated parameters of everyday conversational interaction, in which, at any one time, individuals act as equal participants who have different roles.