Thermally induced neuronal plasticity in the hypothalamus mediates heat tolerance.

Heat acclimation is an adaptive process that improves physiological performance and supports survival in the face of increasing environmental temperatures, but the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. Here we identified a discrete group of neurons in the mouse hypothalamic preoptic area (POA) that rheostatically increase their activity over the course of heat acclimation, a property required for mice to become heat tolerant. In non-acclimated mice, peripheral thermoafferent pathways via the parabrachial nucleus activate POA neurons and mediate acute heat-defense mechanisms.

A Framework to Diagnose Autism Spectrum Disorder Using Morphological Connectivity of sMRI and XGBoost.

In this study, we automated the diagnostic procedure of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with the help of anatomical alterations found in structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) data of the ASD brain and machine learning tools. Initially, the sMRI data was preprocessed using the FreeSurfer toolbox. Further, the brain regions were segmented into 148 regions of interest using the Destrieux atlas.

Photocatalytic degradation of fluoroquinolone antibiotics using chitosan biopolymer functionalized copper oxide nanoparticles prepared by facile sonochemical method.

Photocatalytic degradation is an excellent method for removing pharmaceutical residues due to their simplicity, ecological benignity, high efficiency, and exceptional stability. Herein, we demonstrate the sonochemically synthesised chitosan biopolymer functionalized copper oxide nanoparticles as an efficient photocatalyst for the degradation of fluoroquinolone-based antibiotics. The X-ray diffraction Rietveld refinement revealed the formation of single-phase copper oxide (CuO) with a monoclinic structure.

Epigenetics, genomics imprinting and non-coding RNAs.

Epigenetic traits are heritable phenotypes caused by alterations in chromosomes rather than DNA sequences. The actual epigenetic expression of the somatic cells of a species is identical, however, they may show distinct subtleties in various cell types in which they may be affected. Several recent studies demonstrated that the epigenetic system plays a very important role in regulating all biological natural processes in the body from birth to death.

Identification of the novel allele, HLA-B*44:256, in an individual from West Bengal in Eastern India.

Next generation sequencing based HLA typing has led to the identification of a novel allele HLA-B*44:256. The novel allele HLA-B*44:256 differs from B*44:02:01:01 by eight nucleotides in exon 3.