Neuroanatomy of the nociceptive system: From nociceptors to brain networks.

This chapter reviews the neuroanatomy of the nociceptive system and its functional organization. We describe three main compartments of the nervous system that underlie normal nociception and the resulting pain percept: Peripheral, Spinal Cord, and Brain. We focus on how ascending nociceptive processing streams traverse these anatomical compartments, culminating in the multidimensional experience of pain.

Long-term optical imaging of the spinal cord in awake behaving mice.

Advances in optical imaging and fluorescent biosensors enable study of the spatiotemporal and long-term neural dynamics in the brain of awake animals. However, methodological difficulties and fibrosis limit similar advances in the spinal cord. Here, to overcome these obstacles, we combined in vivo application of fluoropolymer membranes that inhibit fibrosis, a redesigned implantable spinal imaging chamber and improved motion correction methods that together permit imaging of the spinal cord in awake behaving mice, for months to over a year.

Electrochemical Doping of Two-Dimensional Superatomic Materials.

We report an electrochemical method for doping two-dimensional (2D) superatomic semiconductor ReSeCl that significantly improves the material's electrical transport while retaining the in-plane and stacking structures. The electrochemical reduction induces the complete dissociation of chloride anions from the surface of each superatomic nanosheet. After the material is dehalogenated, we observe the electrical conductivity () increases by two orders of magnitude while the 3D electron carrier density () increases by three orders of magnitude.

Sex-specific expression of distinct serotonin receptors mediates stress vulnerability of adult hippocampal neural stem cells in mice.

Women are more vulnerable to stress and have a higher likelihood of developing mood disorders. The serotonin (5HT) system has been highly implicated in stress response and mood regulation. However, sex-dependent mechanisms underlying serotonergic regulation of stress vulnerability remain poorly understood.

Human cytomegalovirus infection coopts chromatin organization to diminish TEAD1 transcription factor activity.

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infects up to 80% of the world's population. Here, we show that HCMV infection leads to widespread changes in human chromatin accessibility and chromatin looping, with hundreds of thousands of genomic regions affected 48 hours after infection. Integrative analyses reveal HCMV-induced perturbation of Hippo signaling through drastic reduction of TEAD1 transcription factor activity.

Anterior cingulate cortex projections to the dorsal medial striatum underlie insomnia associated with chronic pain.

Chronic pain often leads to the development of sleep disturbances. However, the precise neural circuit mechanisms responsible for sleep disorders in chronic pain have remained largely unknown. Here, we present compelling evidence that hyperactivity of pyramidal neurons (PNs) in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) drives insomnia in a mouse model of nerve-injury-induced chronic pain.

Evaluation of a new online cognitive remediation therapy (CIRCuiTS) training for mental health professionals.

Objective: Cognitive remediation (CR) improves cognition and aids recovery in people with psychosis. An active therapist provides increased benefit, but CR training for therapists is not routinely available, so CR has limited scalability. This study describes the development and evaluation of the first online CR therapist training programme.

Synthesis of graded CdSSe nanoplatelet alloys and heterostructures from pairs of chalcogenoureas with tailored conversion reactivity.

A mixture of ,,'-trisubstituted thiourea and cyclic ,,','-tetrasubstituted selenourea precursors were used to synthesize three monolayer thick CdSSe nanoplatelets in a single synthetic step. The microstructure of the nanoplatelets could be tuned from homogeneous alloys, to graded alloys to core/crown heterostructures depending on the relative conversion reactivity of the sulfur and selenium precursors. UV-visible absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopy and scanning transmission electron microscopy electron energy loss spectroscopy (STEM-EELS) images demonstrate that the elemental distribution is governed by the relative precursor conversion kinetics.

Addressing disparities in European Social Sciences & Humanities research on climate, energy and mobility: insights from a Call for Evidence survey and analysis workshops on the challenges and opportunities of working in Southern and Central & Eastern Europe.

Despite the efforts of the EU, disparities remain in terms of the participation of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) researchers from both Southern and Central & Eastern Europe in research collaborations, as compared to Northern and Western European scholars. To better understand these disparities, the EU Horizon Europe SSH CENTRE project ran a Call for Evidence over December 2022 to March 2023. Specifically, respondents were asked about the challenges they faced in conducting SSH research on climate, energy and/or mobility, as well as the ways in which these challenges could be addressed.

Long-term optical imaging of the spinal cord in awake, behaving animals.

Advances in optical imaging approaches and fluorescent biosensors have enabled an understanding of the spatiotemporal and long-term neural dynamics in the brain of awake animals. However, methodological difficulties and the persistence of post-laminectomy fibrosis have greatly limited similar advances in the spinal cord. To overcome these technical obstacles, we combined application of fluoropolymer membranes that inhibit fibrosis; a redesigned, cost-effective implantable spinal imaging chamber; and improved motion correction methods that together permit imaging of the spinal cord in awake, behaving mice, for months to over a year.

Who uses recovery colleges? Casemix analysis of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics and representativeness of recovery college students.

Objective: Recovery Colleges support recovery for adults with mental health problems, through coproduction and education principles. This study aimed to determine whether students at three Recovery Colleges in England were representative of mental health service users.

Methods: Gender, age, ethnicity, diagnosis, involuntary detention, and inpatient admission were extracted from clinical records.

Ecological flexibility and adaptation to past climate change in the Middle Nile Valley: A multiproxy investigation of dietary shifts between the Neolithic and Kerma periods at Kadruka 1 and Kadruka 21.

Human responses to climate change have long been at the heart of discussions of past economic, social, and political change in the Nile Valley of northeastern Africa. Following the arrival of Neolithic groups in the 6th millennium BCE, the Northern Dongola Reach of Upper Nubia witnessed a cultural florescence manifested through elaborate funerary traditions. However, despite the wealth of archaeological data available from funerary contexts, including evidence for domesticated animals and plants as grave goods, the paucity of stratified habitation contexts hinders interpretation of local subsistence trajectories.

A few-layer covalent network of fullerenes.

The two natural allotropes of carbon, diamond and graphite, are extended networks of sp-hybridized and sp-hybridized atoms, respectively. By mixing different hybridizations and geometries of carbon, one could conceptually construct countless synthetic allotropes. Here we introduce graphullerene, a two-dimensional crystalline polymer of C that bridges the gulf between molecular and extended carbon materials.

The crises of a crisis: The impact of Covid-19 on localised decarbonisation ambitions in the United Kingdom.

Responding to crises leads to a shift in priorities and actions, with this affecting the achievement of longer-term strategic ambitions. This paper contributes to understandings of governing crises by exploring the tension between short-term crisis response and the achievement of longer-term policy goals, through the discussion of the Covid-19 pandemic and localised decarbonisation ambitions in Greater Manchester. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, Greater Manchester outlined ambitions to achieve carbon neutrality by 2038 through the use of a place-based approach.

Bactericidal and anti-biofilm effects of uncharged and cationic ultrasound-responsive nitric oxide microbubbles on biofilms.

Bacterial biofilms are a major and ongoing concern for public health, featuring both inherited genetic resistance traits and a conferred innate tolerance to traditional antibiotic therapies. Consequently, there is a growing need for novel methods of drug delivery, to increase the efficacy of antimicrobial agents. This research evaluated the anti-biofilm and bactericidal effects of ultrasound responsive gas-microbubbles (MBs) of either air or nitric oxide, using an biofilm model grown in artificial wound medium.

Palaeogenomic analysis of black rat (Rattus rattus) reveals multiple European introductions associated with human economic history.

The distribution of the black rat (Rattus rattus) has been heavily influenced by its association with humans. The dispersal history of this non-native commensal rodent across Europe, however, remains poorly understood, and different introductions may have occurred during the Roman and medieval periods. Here, in order to reconstruct the population history of European black rats, we first generate a de novo genome assembly of the black rat.

Superatom Regiochemistry Dictates the Assembly and Surface Reactivity of a Two-Dimensional Material.

The area of two-dimensional (2D) materials research would benefit greatly from the development of synthetically tunable van der Waals (vdW) materials. While the bottom-up synthesis of 2D frameworks from nanoscale building blocks holds great promise in this quest, there are many remaining hurdles, including the design of building blocks that reliably produce 2D lattices and the growth of macroscopic crystals that can be exfoliated to produce 2D materials. Here we report the regioselective synthesis of the cluster [-CoSe(CN)(CO)], a "superatomic" building block designed to polymerize and assemble into a 2D cyanometalate lattice whose surfaces are chemically addressable.

Species identification of Australian marsupials using collagen fingerprinting.

The study of faunal remains from archaeological sites is often complicated by the presence of large numbers of highly fragmented, morphologically unidentifiable bones. In Australia, this is the combined result of harsh preservation conditions and frequent scavenging by marsupial carnivores. The collagen fingerprinting method known as zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS) offers a means to address these challenges and improve identification rates of fragmented bones.

67,000 years of coastal engagement at Panga ya Saidi, eastern Africa.

The antiquity and nature of coastal resource procurement is central to understanding human evolution and adaptations to complex environments. It has become increasingly apparent in global archaeological studies that the timing, characteristics, and trajectories of coastal resource use are highly variable. Within Africa, discussions of these issues have largely been based on the archaeological record from the south and northeast of the continent, with little evidence from eastern coastal areas leaving significant spatial and temporal gaps in our knowledge.

Collagen fingerprinting traces the introduction of caprines to island Eastern Africa.

The human colonization of eastern Africa's near- and offshore islands was accompanied by the translocation of several domestic, wild and commensal fauna, many of which had long-term impacts on local environments. To better understand the timing and nature of the introduction of domesticated caprines (sheep and goat) to these islands, this study applied collagen peptide fingerprinting (Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry or ZooMS) to archaeological remains from eight Iron Age sites, dating between 300 and 1000 CE, in the Zanzibar, Mafia and Comoros archipelagos. Where previous zooarchaeological analyses had identified caprine remains at four of these sites, this study identified goat at seven sites and sheep at three, demonstrating that caprines were more widespread than previously known.

Earliest known human burial in Africa.

The origin and evolution of hominin mortuary practices are topics of intense interest and debate. Human burials dated to the Middle Stone Age (MSA) are exceedingly rare in Africa and unknown in East Africa. Here we describe the partial skeleton of a roughly 2.

Superatomic solid solutions.

In atomic solids, substitutional doping of atoms into the lattice of a material to form solid solutions is one of the most powerful approaches to modulating its properties and has led to the discovery of various metal alloys and semiconductors. Herein we have prepared solid solutions in hierarchical solids that are built from atomically precise clusters. Two geometrically similar metal chalcogenide clusters, CoSe(PEt) and CrTe(PEt), were combined as random substitutional mixture, in three different ratios, in a crystal lattice together with fullerenes.

Ancient proteins provide evidence of dairy consumption in eastern Africa.

Consuming the milk of other species is a unique adaptation of Homo sapiens, with implications for health, birth spacing and evolution. Key questions nonetheless remain regarding the origins of dairying and its relationship to the genetically-determined ability to drink milk into adulthood through lactase persistence (LP). As a major centre of LP diversity, Africa is of significant interest to the evolution of dairying.

Mobilizing the past to shape a better Anthropocene.

As our planet emerges into a new epoch in which humans dominate the Earth system, it is imperative that societies initiate a new phase of responsible environmental stewardship. Here we argue that information from the past has a valuable role to play in enhancing the sustainability and resilience of our societies. We highlight the ways that past data can be mobilized for a variety of efforts, from supporting conservation to increasing agricultural sustainability and food security.