Assessing Human Spatial Navigation in a Virtual Space and its Sensitivity to Exercise.

Spatial navigation (SN) is the ability to locomote through the environment, which requires an understanding of where one is located in time and space. This capacity is known to rely on the sequential firing of place cells within the hippocampus. SN is an important behavior to investigate as this process deteriorates with age, especially in neurodegenerative disorders.

Dispositional mindfulness and its relationship to exercise motivation and experience.

Mindfulness is the psychological state of staying attuned to the present moment, without ruminating on past or future events, and allowing thoughts, feelings, or sensations to arise without judgment or attachment. Previous work has shown that heightened dispositional mindfulness is associated with the awareness of the importance of exercise, exercise self-efficacy, exercise motivation, and self-reported exercise level. However, more methodologically rigorous studies are needed to understand the relationship between mindfulness and the psychological mechanisms related to exercise motivation, including the identification of why individuals are motivated to engage in exercise, the subjective experience of exercise, and the propensity for exercise dependence and addiction.

Inhibition of Neutrophil Extracellular Trap Formation after Stem Cell Transplant by Prostaglandin E2.

Rationale: Autologous and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) patients are susceptible to pulmonary infections, including bacterial pathogens, even after hematopoietic reconstitution. We previously reported that murine bone marrow transplant (BMT) neutrophils overexpress cyclooxygenase-2, overproduce prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), and exhibit defective intracellular bacterial killing. Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) are DNA structures that capture and kill extracellular bacteria and other pathogens.