title: PeerJ description: Articles published in PeerJ link: https://peerj.com/articles/index.rss3?journal=peerj&page=269 creator: info@peerj.com PeerJ errorsTo: info@peerj.com PeerJ language: en title: Forage yields and nutritive values of oat and triticale pastures for grazing sheep in early spring link: https://peerj.com/articles/17840 last-modified: 2024-08-22 description: BackgroundSmall-grain winter cereals can be utilized as early spring pastures in temperate climates to relieve grazing pressure and potentially mitigate feed shortages. This study was conducted to determine the effects of triticale and oat cereal pastures grazed by sheep during early spring on forage yields, nutritive values, and nutritional requirements of sheep.MethodsThe research was carried out over three consecutive years, from 2015 to 2017, at the Sheep Research Institute in Bandırma-Balıkesir, located in the Marmara region of Türkiye. The treatments were arranged in a completely randomized block design, with the two forage species, triticale and oat, randomized within each of three blocks. The animal material for the study consisted of 24 Karacabey Merino sheep, each 2 years old, with an average live weight of 57.6 ± 0.5 kg, all in the late lactation stage. In each replication, four sheep were included, resulting in a total of 12 sheep grazing in each of the triticale and oat pastures. The sheep grazed exclusively on the cereal pastures without any additional feed, and had unrestricted access to water throughout the entire period of the experiment. The dry matter yields (DMY), dry matter intakes (DMI), nutritive values, and mineral contents of the cereal species were determined.ResultsThe DMY showed significant differences over the years (P < 0.05). No differences in DMY were observed between pastures, with oats yielding 11.99 t ha−1 and triticale yielding 11.08 t ha−1. During the grazing period, the change in DMY was significant in all years (P < 0.05). The average DMI of the sheep was 2,003.5 g d−1 for triticale and 2,156.6 g d−1 for oat, respectively, and DMI exhibited no significant differences across pastures. Although there was no difference in DMI between 2015 and 2016, the lowest consumption occurred in 2017 (P < 0.05). Additionally, while DMI showed different trends each year based on the periods, it generally decreased by the end of the grazing period. While both pastures provided similar nutritive values, significant differences were observed in the crude protein (CP), acid detergent fiber (ADF), in vitro true DM digestibility (DDM), and metabolisable energy (ME) values across the years. Over the years, as the grazing period progressed, CP levels decreased while neutral detergent fiber (NDF), ADF, and acid detergent lignin (ADL) increased, resulting in reduced DDM and ME values. The phosphorus (P) content in triticale was higher than in oats, but there were no differences in the content of other minerals between them. Between the years, significant differences were observed in the levels of phosphorus (P) and iron (Fe), while changes in other elements were insignificant. The variation in mineral content during the grazing process differed over the three years. Study results indicated that the nutritional values of triticale and oat pastures are similar, and both can effectively be used to provide sufficient feed to meet the early spring forage requirements for sheep. creator: Hülya Hanoğlu Oral uri: https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.17840 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 rights: ©2024 Hanoğlu Oral title: Achilles tendon thickness and serum asprosin level significantly increases in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome link: https://peerj.com/articles/17905 last-modified: 2024-08-22 description: AimIn our study, we aimed to investigate the Achilles tendon thickness (ATT) and asprosin levels in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and to evaluate the relationship of these parameters, which may be related to cardio-metabolic diseases.MethodsIn our prospective cross-sectional study, 45 female patients with PCOS and 30 female healthy individuals similar in age were included. Serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS), total testosterone, anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) and asprosin levels were measured using appropriate kits and homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), luteinizing hormone (LH) to follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) ratio was calculated. ATT measurements were performed by two radiologists using a high-resolution ultrasound doppler system.ResultsSerum DHEAS, total testosterone, AMH and asprosin levels, HOMA-IR value, LF/FSH ratio, and ATT values were higher in patients with PCOS compared to healthy controls. Correlation analysis was performed between ATT and other parameters in patients with PCOS. In univariate analysis, parameters associated with ATT were detected as asprosin, DHEAS and AMH. In the linear regression analysis performed with significant parameters, asprosin and DHEAS levels were found to be associated with ATT.ConclusionATT values and serum asprosin levels were found to be significantly increased in patients with PCOS, and there is a very close positive relationship between ATT and serum asprosin levels. For this reason, it was thought that ATT measurement could be a cheap, simple and non-invasive monitoring parameter that can be used in the routine cardiometabolic follow-up of patients with PCOS. creator: Huseyin Ali Ozturk creator: Fatih Necip Arici uri: https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.17905 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ rights: © 2024 Ozturk and Arici title: Polyandry contributes to Gonipterus platensis (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) rearing link: https://peerj.com/articles/17929 last-modified: 2024-08-22 description: BackgroundGonipterus platensis Marelli, 1926 (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) is one of the main defoliating beetles in Eucalyptus plantations. Biological control with egg parasitoids is one of the main control strategies for this pest and a constant supply of fresh host eggs is required to rear the parasitoids. Polyandry can influence Gonipterus oviposition by increasing female fecundity and fertility; however, the high density of individuals in laboratory colonies can lead to male harassment, resulting in lower reproduction rate. The aim of this study was to measure the effects of monoandry and polyandry on the reproduction of G. platensis and the effects of male harassment on laboratory rearing conditions.MethodsReproductive parameters were compared between three treatments: monoandry, where the female was allowed to mate daily with the same male; no choice polyandry, where the female was allowed to mate daily with a different male; and polyandry with choice, where the female was allowed to mate daily, but with a choice between five different males. Another experiment varying the density of males was conducted to evaluate the effect of male harassment.ResultsPolyandry with choice resulted in the longest period of oviposition, highest fecundity and highest number of eggs per egg capsules when compared to monoandrous females. No negative effect related to male harassment in the laboratory, such as decreased fertility, fecundity, or number of eggs per egg capsule, was detected.ConclusionPolyandry contributes to mass rearing as it increases fecundity and oviposition period on females and there is no evidence of male harassment on G. platensis. creator: Murilo Fonseca Ribeiro creator: Gabriela Cavallini creator: Gabriel Negri Solce creator: Ana Laura Favoreto creator: José Raimundo De Souza Passos creator: Brett Hurley creator: Carlos Frederico Wilcken uri: https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.17929 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ rights: © 2024 Ribeiro et al. title: Inter-subspecies diversity of maize to drought stress with physio-biochemical, enzymatic and molecular responses link: https://peerj.com/articles/17931 last-modified: 2024-08-22 description: BackgroundDrought is the most significant factor limiting maize production, given that maize is a crop with a high water demand. Therefore, studies investigating the mechanisms underlying the drought tolerance of maize are of great importance. There are no studies comparing drought tolerance among economically important subspecies of maize. This study aimed to reveal the differences between the physio-biochemical, enzymatic, and molecular mechanisms of drought tolerance in dent (Zea mays indentata), popcorn (Zea mays everta), and sugar (Zea mays saccharata) maize under control (no-stress), moderate, and severe drought stress.MethodsThree distinct irrigation regimes were employed to assess the impact of varying levels of drought stress on maize plants at the V14 growth stage. These included normal irrigation (80% field capacity), moderate drought (50% field capacity), and severe drought (30% field capacity). All plants were grown under controlled conditions. The following parameters were analyzed: leaf relative water content (RWC), loss of turgidity (LOT), proline (PRO) and soluble protein (SPR) contents, membrane durability index (MDI), malondialdehyde (MDA), and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) content, the antioxidant enzyme activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), and catalase (CAT). Additionally, the expression of heat shock proteins (HSPs) was examined at the transcriptional and translational levels.ResultsThe effects of severe drought were more pronounced in sugar maize, which had a relatively high loss of RWC and turgor, membrane damage, enzyme activities, and HSP90 gene expression. Dent maize, which is capable of maintaining its RWC and turgor in both moderate and severe droughts, and employs its defense mechanism effectively by maintaining antioxidant enzyme activities at a certain level despite less MDA and H2O2 accumulation, exhibited relatively high drought tolerance. Despite the high levels of MDA and H2O2 in popcorn maize, the up-regulation of antioxidant enzyme activities and HSP70 gene and protein expression indicated that the drought coping mechanism is activated. In particular, the positive correlation of HSP70 with PRO and HSP90 with enzyme activities is a significant result for studies examining the relationships between HSPs and other stress response systems. The discrepancies between the transcriptional and translational findings provide an opportunity for more comprehensive investigations into the role of HSPs in stress conditions. creator: Gokhan Eskikoy creator: Imren Kutlu uri: https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.17931 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ rights: © 2024 Eskikoy and Kutlu title: Kinesiophobia among health professionals’ interventions: a scoping review link: https://peerj.com/articles/17935 last-modified: 2024-08-22 description: Health professionals are regularly confronted with patients suffering from a fear of movement-related pain (unknown as kinesiophobia). The fear-avoidance attitudes and beliefs of healthcare professionals are likely to play a key role in their patients’ therapeutic approach. However, kinesiophobia among health professionals is a relatively young topic. This scoping review aims to explore and catalogue the extent of scientific research that identifies the causes and consequences of kinesiophobia among health professionals while they perform their interventions. The review was based on the Joanna Briggs Institute manual and the PRISMA method for a scoping review. The research was conducted in May 2024 using CINHAL, Medline and Sportdiscus databases with the search terms “fear-avoidance”, ”kinesiophobia“, “pain-related” and “physical therapist”. Out of 2,162 potential studies, thirteen articles were included. No study directly mentioned kinesiophobia among health professionals, but it was studied through fear-avoidance beliefs. Two-thirds of the articles indicate that professionals with fear-avoidance beliefs tend to refer their patients to other specialists less frequently and limit their patients’ activity, despite treatment guidelines. Most of the studies found were physiotherapists’ interventions for chronic back pain patients. The current review emphasizes the need for additional studies involving more healthcare professionals and diverse health conditions. creator: Lilian Doutre creator: Maryse Beaumier creator: Andrée-Anne Parent creator: Sébastien Talbot creator: Mathieu Tremblay uri: https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.17935 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ rights: ©2024 Doutre et al. title: Rapid estimation of soil water content based on hyperspectral reflectance combined with continuous wavelet transform, feature extraction, and extreme learning machine link: https://peerj.com/articles/17954 last-modified: 2024-08-22 description: BackgroundSoil water content is one of the critical indicators in agricultural systems. Visible/near-infrared hyperspectral remote sensing is an effective method for soil water estimation. However, noise removal from massive spectral datasets and effective feature extraction are challenges for achieving accurate soil water estimation using this technology.MethodsThis study proposes a method for hyperspectral remote sensing soil water content estimation based on a combination of continuous wavelet transform (CWT) and competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS). Hyperspectral data were collected from soil samples with different water contents prepared in the laboratory. CWT, with two wavelet basis functions (mexh and gaus2), was used to pre-process the hyperspectral reflectance to eliminate noise interference. The correlation analysis was conducted between soil water content and wavelet coefficients at ten scales. The feature variables were extracted from these wavelet coefficients using the CARS method and used as input variables to build linear and non-linear models, specifically partial least squares (PLSR) and extreme learning machine (ELM), to estimate soil water content.ResultsThe results showed that the correlation between wavelet coefficients and soil water content decreased as the decomposition scale increased. The corresponding bands of the extracted wavelet coefficients were mainly distributed in the near-infrared region. The non-linear model (ELM) was superior to the linear method (PLSR). ELM demonstrated satisfactory accuracy based on the feature wavelet coefficients of CWT with the mexh wavelet basis function at a decomposition scale of 1 (CWT(mexh_1)), with R2, RMSE, and RPD values of 0.946, 1.408%, and 3.759 in the validation dataset, respectively. Overall, the CWT(mexh_1)-CARS-ELM systematic modeling method was feasible and reliable for estimating the water content of sandy clay loam. creator: Shaomin Chen creator: Jiachen Gao creator: Fangchuan Lou creator: Yunfei Tuo creator: Shuai Tan creator: Yuyang Shan creator: Lihua Luo creator: Zhilin Xu creator: Zhengfu Zhang creator: Xiangyu Huang uri: https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.17954 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ rights: ©2024 Chen et al. title: Holobiont dysbiosis or acclimatation? Shift in the microbial taxonomic diversity and functional composition of a cosmopolitan sponge subjected to chronic pollution in a Patagonian bay link: https://peerj.com/articles/17707 last-modified: 2024-08-21 description: Dysbiosis and acclimatization are two starkly opposing outcomes of altered holobiont associations in response to environmental pollution. This study assesses whether shifts in microbial taxonomic composition and functional profiles of the cosmopolitan sponge Hymeniacidon perlevis indicate dysbiotic or acclimatized responses to water pollution. To do so, sponge and water samples were collected in a semi-enclosed environment (San Antonio Bay, Patagonia, Argentina) from variably polluted sites (i.e., eutrophication, heavy metal contamination). We found significant differences in the microbiome of H. perlevis with respect to the pollution history of the sites. Several indicators suggested that acclimatization, rather than dysbiosis, explained the microbiome response to higher pollution: 1) the distinction of the sponge microbiome from the water microbiome; 2) low similarity between the sponge and water microbiomes at the most polluted site; 3) the change in microbiome composition between sponges from the different sites; 4) a high similarity in the microbiome among sponge individuals within sites; 5) a similar ratio of common sponge microbes to opportunistic microbes between sponges at the most and least polluted sites; and 6) a distinctive functional profile of the sponge microbiome at the most polluted site. This profile indicated a more expansive metabolic repertoire, including the degradation of pollutants and the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, suggesting a relevant role of these microbial communities in the adaptation of the holobiont to organic pollution. Our results shed light on the rearrangement of the H. perlevis microbiome that could allow it to successfully colonize sites with high anthropogenic impact while resisting dysbiosis. creator: Marianela Gastaldi creator: M. Sabrina Pankey creator: Guillermo Svendsen creator: Alonso Medina creator: Fausto Firstater creator: Maite Narvarte creator: Mariana Lozada creator: Michael Lesser uri: https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.17707 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ rights: © 2024 Gastaldi et al. title: Validation of PozQoL scale in Turkish population living with HIV: a cross-cultural adaptation study link: https://peerj.com/articles/17873 last-modified: 2024-08-21 description: BackgroundThe increasing number of people living with HIV requires a simple and easy-to-use quality of life (QoL) scale for people living with HIV (PLWH). This study aims to adapt the PozQoL scale into Turkish and assess its reliability and validity for the PLWH population in Turkey.MethodsTranslation-back-translation methodology was employed, and face-to-face interviews were conducted with 130 patients using the PozQoL, socio-demographic, and clinical data questionnaire. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were utilized to identify the underlying factor structure and examine the validity of the measurement model, respectively. Cronbach’s alpha and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were used to assess internal consistency and test-retest reliability, respectively.ResultsEFA revealed four factors with an eigenvalue of 0.88, explaining 62.1% of the cumulative variance. CFA indicated that the four-factor solution achieved good levels of fit. The total Cronbach’s alpha was 0.81, indicating high internal consistency. The ICC for the total score was 0.92 (95% confidence interval (CI) [0.90–0.94]; p < 0.05), demonstrating high test-retest reliability.ConclusionThe Turkish version of the PozQoL was found to be a valid and reliable tool for assessing the health-related QoL of PLWH in Turkey. creator: Sabri Atalay creator: Zeynep Sedef Varol creator: Sarp Singil creator: Ufuk Sönmez uri: https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.17873 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ rights: © 2024 Atalay et al. title: Focused ultrasound-induced cell apoptosis for the treatment of tumours link: https://peerj.com/articles/17886 last-modified: 2024-08-21 description: Cancer is a serious public health problem worldwide. Traditional treatments, such as surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy, do not always yield satisfactory results; therefore, an efficient treatment for tumours is urgently needed. As a convenient and minimally invasive modality, focused ultrasound (FUS) has been used not only as a diagnostic tool but also as a therapeutic tool in an increasing number of studies. FUS can help treat malignant tumours by inducing apoptosis. This review describes the three apoptotic pathways, apoptotic cell clearance, and how FUS affects these three apoptotic pathways. This review also discusses the role of thermal and cavitation effects on apoptosis, including caspase activity, mitochondrial dysfunction, and Ca2+ elease. Finally, this article reviews various aspects of FUS combination therapy, including sensitization by radiotherapy and chemotherapy, gene expression upregulation, and the introduction of therapeutic gases, to provide new ideas for clinical tumour therapy. creator: Na Wang creator: Li Luo creator: Xinzhi Xu creator: Hang Zhou creator: Fang Li uri: https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.17886 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ rights: ©2024 Wang et al. title: Use of an age-simulation suit as an empathy-building method for dental students: a pre-post study link: https://peerj.com/articles/17908 last-modified: 2024-08-21 description: BackgroundThe aging of the population highlights the need to establish empathetic connections with older adults. To achieve this, age simulation suits have been designed, allowing users to experience the physical limitations associated with aging. This study aimed to evaluate the experience of dental students with these devices, using psychometric tools to measure the impact on their understanding and empathy.MethodsA pre/post-test study was conducted with the participation of 63 dental students from Rey Juan Carlos University who were fitted with an age simulation suit and asked to perform different tasks. Psychometric tools were used to assess specific parameters. Empathy was measured using the Jefferson Empathy Scale, emotional intelligence was assessed with the Trait Meta-Mood Scale-24 (TMMS-24), and the emotional attention dimension was analyzed using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS).ResultsThe scores on the Jefferson Empathy Scale significantly improved from 88.44 ± 6.8 to 91.06 ± 10.11 after using the simulation suit (P < 0.026). Pearson’s product moment correlation analysis showed no significant positive association or correlation between age and scores from the three questionnaires. In the rest, a positive and significant correlation was observed (P < 0.0001).ConclusionsAge simulation activities effectively enhance empathy among dental students. However, more studies are needed to foster positive attitudes toward aging and prevent negative stereotypes. creator: Jesus Rodriguez-Molinero creator: Esther Delgado-Somolinos creator: Blanca C. Miguelañez-Medrán creator: Rosario Ramirez-Puerta creator: Inmaculada Corral-Liria creator: Raquel Jiménez-Fernández creator: Marta Elena Losa-Iglesias creator: Antonio F. López-Sánchez uri: https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.17908 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ rights: ©2024 Rodriguez-Molinero et al.