Electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) are unique from combustible cigarettes due to the availability of flavor options which make these devices popular among adolescents. However, there are no preclinical investigations into the impact of vaporized nicotine on late-developing brain regions such as the prefrontal cortex. Here, we investigated how neuronal function and drug self-administration differed between adult-exposed and adolescent-exposed mice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe amygdala is an established site for fear memory formation, and clinical studies suggest involvement of hormone signaling cascades in development of trauma-related disorders. While an association of thyroid hormone (TH) status and mood disorders is established, the related brain-based mechanisms and the role of TH in anxiety disorders are unknown. Here we examine the role that TH receptor (TR, a nuclear transcriptional repressor when unbound and a transcriptional activator when bound to TH) may have in mediating the initial formation of fear memories in the amygdala.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClin Child Fam Psychol Rev
June 2024
Evidence-based parenting interventions (EBPI) support children and families to promote resilience, address emotional and behavioral concerns, and prevent or address issues related to child maltreatment. Critiques of EBPIs include concerns about their relevance and effectiveness for diverse populations when they are implemented at population scale. Research methods that center racial equity and include community-based participatory approaches have the potential to address some of these concerns.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConventional life-history theory predicts that energy-demanding events such as reproduction and migration must be temporally segregated to avoid resource limitation. Here, we provide, to our knowledge, the first direct evidence of 'itinerant breeding' in a migratory bird, an incredibly rare breeding strategy (less than 0.1% of extant bird species) that involves the temporal overlap of migratory and reproductive periods of the annual cycle.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicrofluidic artificial lungs (μALs) are a new class of membrane oxygenators. Compared to traditional hollow-fiber oxygenators, μALs closely mimic the alveolar microenvironment due to their size-scale and promise improved gas exchange efficiency, hemocompatibility, biomimetic blood flow networks, and physiologically relevant blood vessel pressures and shear stresses. Clinical translation of μALs has been stalled by restrictive microfabrication techniques that limit potential artificial lung geometries, overall device size, and throughput.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOn January 15, 2022, an ongoing eruption at the Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha'apai volcano generated a large explosion which resulted in a globally observed tsunami and atmospheric pressure wave. This paper presents time series observations of the event from Australia including 503 mean sea level pressure (MSLP) sensors and 103 tide gauges. Data is provided in its original format, which varies between data providers, and a post-processed format with consistent file structure and time zone.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlast Reconstr Surg Glob Open
March 2022
Patients with a history of massive weight loss who are undergoing autologous breast reconstruction after mastectomy represent a unique surgical challenge. Although these patients often have an abundance of excess skin, it may be difficult to acquire sufficient tissue volume for adequate reconstruction of bilateral breasts using single flap techniques due to the paucity of subcutaneous fat. Stacked flap techniques have emerged as an effective method in thinner patients with suboptimal fat distribution who desire autologous breast reconstruction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHere we report a new series of hydrolytically stable chemotype heteroaromatic azoline thioethers (HATs) to achieve highly selective, rapid, and efficient covalent labeling of cysteine under physiological conditions. Although the resulting cysteine-azoline conjugate is stable, we highlight traceless decoupling of the conjugate to afford unmodified starting components in response to reducing conditions. We demonstrated that HAT probes reverse the reactivity of nucleophilic cysteine to electrophilic dehydroalanine (Dha) under mild basic conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn intervention studies, high rates of implementation fidelity are important markers of a study's success; however, the definition of is both complex and dynamic. In this synthesis, we examined the dimensions of implementation fidelity measured and reported in 99 studies in which researchers utilized a mathematics intervention for elementary students (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDoublecortin (DCX) has long been implicated in, and employed as a marker for, neurogenesis, yet little is known about its function in non-neurogenic brain regions, including the amygdala. This study sought first to explore, in rodents, whether fear learning and extinction modulate amygdala DCX expression and, second, to assess the utility of peripheral DCX correlates as predictive biomarkers of trauma response in rodents and humans. Pavlovian conditioning was found to alter DCX protein levels in mice 24 h later, resulting in higher DCX expression associated with enhanced learning in paradigms examining both the acquisition and extinction of fear (p < 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAntimicrobial therapy for asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB) is often unnecessary and is a common reason for inappropriate antimicrobial use in hospitalized patients. Unnecessary ASB treatment leads to collateral damage such as resistance, and infections. This study evaluated the impact of interdisciplinary antimicrobial stewardship interventions on antimicrobial utilization in ASB.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIssue Addressed: Rural Australians experience significant barriers in accessing mental health services, some of which may be overcome by increasing mental health literacy in rural communities. This paper evaluates Mental Health Support Skills (MHSS), short training courses developed by the Rural Adversity Mental Health Program (RAMHP). MHSS was designed to build the capacity of community members and gatekeepers to identify people with mental health concerns and link them to appropriate resources or services.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol
June 2021
Throughout the world, including the United States, men have worse outcomes from COVID-19 than women. SARS-CoV-2, the causative virus of the COVID-19 pandemic, uses angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) to gain cellular entry. ACE2 is a member of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) and plays an important role in counteracting the harmful effects mediated by the angiotensin type 1 receptor.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe objective of this research was to investigate potential changes to unfolding energy barriers for ubiquitin in the presence of the noncanonical amino acid β-methylamino-l-alanine (BMAA). Although BMAA has been implicated in neurodegenerative disease, its specific role remains unclear. We hypothesized that formation of a ubiquitin + BMAA noncovalent complex would alter the protein's unfolding dynamics in comparison with native ubiquitin alone or in noncovalent complexes with other amino acids.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCompr Psychoneuroendocrinol
May 2021
17β-estradiol (E2) levels in women correlate with multiple neuropsychiatric symptoms, including those that are stress-related. Furthermore, prior work from our group has demonstrated that E2 status influences DNA methylation (DNAm) across the genome. We developed and validated a DNAm-based predictor of E2 (one of four naturally occurring estrogens) using a training set of 183 females and a test set of 79 females from the same traumatized cohort.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThere are many different types of surfaces found in nature which can increase or reduce friction, such as the well-studied frog toe or lotus leaf. However, methods for replicating these surfaces on a large scale for use in industrial applications are needed in order to take advantage of this natural friction engineering. Most replication processes rely on molding that requires an input surface size comparable to the desired output surface.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA concerning number of students enter kindergarten facing an intractable variation of mathematics difficulties (MD). This study investigated the impact of an explicit, core kindergarten mathematics program on the mathematical outcomes of kindergartners who demonstrated risk for severe MD at kindergarten entry and examined whether these students improved from a category of high MD risk (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe report a highly efficient ortho-selective electrophilic chlorination of phenols utilizing a Lewis basic selenoether catalyst. The selenoether catalyst resulted in comparable selectivities to our previously reported bis-thiourea ortho-selective catalyst, with a catalyst loading as low as 1%. The new catalytic system also allowed us to extend this chemistry to obtain excellent ortho-selectivities for unprotected anilines.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Paternò-Büchi (PB) reaction is a common organic reaction in which a carbonyl radical formed by exposure to UV radiation reacts with an alkene to form an oxetane ring. Recent analytical applications of this reaction have included the determination of C═C bond position in lipid fatty acyl tails using tandem mass spectrometry. Our group has recently investigated methods for structurally modifying steroid isomers to improve their identification and resolution using ion mobility spectrometry.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImplementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs) is paramount to students' development of mathematics proficiency. This study investigated "practice-based evidence" of interventionists' actual use of explicit mathematics instruction, a well-established EBP. Specifically, this study analyzed direct observation data collected in a federally funded efficacy trial involving a Tier 2 first-grade mathematics intervention to examine whether the quantity and quality of explicit mathematics instruction was associated with the mathematics outcomes of 470 first-grade students with or at risk for mathematics learning disabilities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFContext: The Rural Adversity Mental Health Program (RAMHP) connects people who need mental health assistance in rural and remote New South Wales (NSW), Australia with appropriate services and resources. In 2016, RAMHP underwent a comprehensive reorientation to meet new state and federal priorities. A full assessment of program data collection methods for management, monitoring and evaluation was undertaken.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHerein we demonstrate the first application of ozone-induced cleavage of endocyclic C═C double bonds for improved steroid isomer separation using ion mobility-mass spectrometry. Steroids represent a challenging biomolecular class for ion mobility (IM) separations due to their structural rigidity and subtle stereochemical differences. In this work, we compare the effects of ozonolysis on the relative mobilities of a model stereoisomer pair, testosterone and epitestosterone.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiarylamines and related scaffolds are among the most common chemotypes in modern drug discovery. While they can potentially possess two chiral axes, there are no studies on their enantioselective synthesis, as these axes typically possess lower stereochemical stabilities. Herein, we report a chiral phosphoric acid catalyzed atroposelective electrophilic halogenation of -aryl quinoids, a class of compounds that are analogous to diarylamines.
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