Opportunities in Bottlebrush Block Copolymers for Advanced Materials.

Bottlebrush block copolymers (BBCPs) are a unique class of materials that contain a backbone with densely grafted and chemically distinct polymeric side chains. The nonlinear architecture of BBCPs provides numerous degrees of freedom in their preparation, including control over key parameters such as grafting density, side chain length, block arrangement, and overall molecular weight. This uniquely branched structure provides BBCPs with several important distinctions from their linear counterparts, including sterically induced side chain and backbone conformations, rapid and large self-assembled nanostructures, and reduced or eliminated entanglement effects (assuming sufficient grafting density and that the molecular weight of the side chains is below their respective entanglement molecular weight).

Phylogeny and virulence determinant detection of Fusobacterium necrophorum strains isolated at the UK Anaerobe Reference Unit between 1982 and 2019.

Objectives: Explore the presence, or absence, of virulence genes and the phylogeny of a multi-decade UK collection of clinical and reference Fusobacterium necrophorum isolates.

Methods: Three hundred and eighty-five F. necrophorum strains (1982-2019) were recovered from storage (-80°C).

Evaluation of a Pilot College Student-Based Physical Activity Implementation Strategy in a Rural Middle School.

Background: Physical inactivity in the U.S. poses a significant risk of developing chronic health factors associated with cardiovascular disease.

Intervention Mapping for Refining a Sport-Based Public Health Intervention in Rural Schools.

Sport-based youth development programs, delivered through campus-community partnerships, can create impactful experiences for college students, meet university objectives, and improve the health of children in under-resourced rural communities. This study aimed to pilot test intervention mapping (IM), a systematic approach to intervention development and implementation, to refine the Hoosier Sport intervention, which is a local public health initiative that utilizes the Obesity-Related Behavioral Intervention Trials (ORBITs) model to improve physical activity in middle school children. The IM process, which included a diverse IM planning and advisory group of university representatives and local schools, was guided by self-determination theory (SDT) and social cognitive theory (SCT) and followed four steps: Logic Model of the Problem, Logic Model of Change, Program Design, and Program Production.

Cardiac fibroblast BAG3 regulates TGFBR2 signaling and fibrosis in dilated cardiomyopathy.

Loss of Bcl2-associated athanogene 3 (BAG3) is associated with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). BAG3 regulates sarcomere protein turnover in cardiomyocytes; however, the function of BAG3 in other cardiac cell types is understudied. In this study, we used an isogenic pair of BAG3-knockout and wild-type human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) to interrogate the role of BAG3 in hiPSC-derived cardiac fibroblasts (CFs).