The Use of Cognition by Amphibians Confronting Environmental Change: Examples from the Behavioral Ecology of Crawfish Frogs ().

Amphibian conservation concerns frequently center on the idea of 'saving' them, with the underlying assumption they are the passive victims of anthropogenic environmental change. But this approach ignores the physiological, biochemical, and behavioral flexibility amphibians have employed since they first evolved ~365 million years ago. One overlooked advantage amphibians possess in the struggle for survival, and one humans might use in their efforts to conserve them, is their brains share the same blueprint as human brains, which allows them to acquire knowledge and understanding through experiences-in other words, amphibians have cognitive capabilities that assist them in their effort to survive.

Multiplexed Assays of Variant Effect and Automated Patch Clamping Improve -LQTS Variant Classification and Cardiac Event Risk Stratification.

Background: Long QT syndrome is a lethal arrhythmia syndrome, frequently caused by rare loss-of-function variants in the potassium channel encoded by . Variant classification is difficult, often because of lack of functional data. Moreover, variant-based risk stratification is also complicated by heterogenous clinical data and incomplete penetrance.

Community Health Workers: Bridge to Pediatric Mental Health Equity.

We currently face a national crisis in youth mental health and well-being and significant child behavioral health inequities. There is a growing recognition among health care institutions, policymakers, researchers, and communities that major health problems of our time, including this crisis, must be confronted by addressing the underlying "causes of the causes," or social determinants of health. Social determinants of health are defined by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as the conditions in which people live, learn, work, play, worship, and age and highlight the role that power and privilege occupy in shaping societal access to these resources.

Multiplexed Assays of Variant Effect and Automated Patch-clamping Improve -LQTS Variant Classification and Cardiac Event Risk Stratification.

Background: Long QT syndrome (LQTS) is a lethal arrhythmia syndrome, frequently caused by rare loss-of-function variants in the potassium channel encoded by . Variant classification is difficult, often owing to lack of functional data. Moreover, variant-based risk stratification is also complicated by heterogenous clinical data and incomplete penetrance.

Public health benefits of zero-emission electric power generation in Virginia.

Curbing the worst impacts of global climate change will require rapidly transitioning away from fossil fuel across all sectors of the economy. This transition will also yield substantial co-benefits, as fossil fuel combustion releases harmful pollutants into the air. In this article, we present an analysis of the co-benefits to health and health-care costs related from decarbonization of the power sector, using the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) as a case study.

Disseminating early interventions for disaster mental health response using the ECHO model.

Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO)-based telementoring was evaluated for disseminating early disaster interventions, Psychological First Aid (PFA) and Skills for Psychological Recovery (SPR), to school professionals throughout rural, disaster-affected communities further affected by COVID-19. PFA and SPR complemented their Multitiered System of Support: PFA complemented tier 1 (universal) and SPR tier 2 (targeted) prevention. We evaluated the outcomes of a pretraining webinar (164 participants, January 2021) and four-part PFA training (84 participants, June 2021) and SPR training (59 participants, July 2021) across five levels of Moore's continuing medical education evaluation framework: (1) participation, (2) satisfaction, (3) learning, (4) competence, and (5) performance, using pre-, post-, and 1-month follow-up surveys.

Leveraging community health workers in extending pediatric telebehavioral health care in rural communities: Evaluation design and methods.

Objective: The pandemic exacerbated and intensified pediatric behavioral health and access needs in rural and underserved areas due to long-standing workforce shortages, lack of resources, and multigenerational poverty and trauma. Kansas is a predominantly rural and frontier state with 94% of counties designated as mental health professional shortage areas.

Innovation: The Telehealth ROCKS (THR) program is among the first of its kind to increase the behavioral health workforce capacity by integrating trained school-based community health workers (CHWs) directly into rural communities.

Oncolytic Urabe mumps virus: A promising virotherapy for triple-negative breast cancer.

Historically, the clinical utility of oncolytic virotherapy as a treatment for a wide range of cancer types was first demonstrated by three pilot human clinical trials conducted in Japan in the 1970s and 1980s using a wild-type Urabe mumps virus (MuV) clinical isolate. Using a sample of the actual original oncolytic Urabe MuV clinical trial virus stock (MuV-U-Japan) used in these Japanese clinical trials, we found that MuV-U-Japan consisted of a wide variety of very closely related Urabe MuVs that differed by an average of only three amino acids. Two MuV-U-Japan isolates, MuV-UA and MuV-UC, potently killed a panel of established human breast cancer cell lines , significantly extended survival of nude mice with human triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) MDA-MB-231 tumor xenografts , and demonstrated significant killing activity against breast cancer patient-derived xenograft (PDX) cell lines grown as 3D organoids, including PDXs from patients resistant to anthracycline- and taxane-based chemotherapy.

Early expression of mature αβ TCR in CD4CD8 T cell progenitors enables MHC to drive development of T-ALL bearing NOTCH mutations.

During normal T cell development in mouse and human, a low-frequency population of immature CD4CD8 double-negative (DN) thymocytes expresses early, mature αβ T cell antigen receptor (TCR). We report that these early αβ TCR+ DN (EADN) cells are DN3b-DN4 stage and require CD3δ but not major histocompatibility complex (MHC) for their generation/detection. When MHC - is present, however, EADN cells can respond to it, displaying a degree of coreceptor-independent MHC reactivity not typical of mature, conventional αβ T cells.

Sex-related differences in aging rate are associated with sex chromosome system in amphibians.

Sex-related differences in mortality are widespread in the animal kingdom. Although studies have shown that sex determination systems might drive lifespan evolution, sex chromosome influence on aging rates have not been investigated so far, likely due to an apparent lack of demographic data from clades including both XY (with heterogametic males) and ZW (heterogametic females) systems. Taking advantage of a unique collection of capture-recapture datasets in amphibians, a vertebrate group where XY and ZW systems have repeatedly evolved over the past 200 million years, we examined whether sex heterogamy can predict sex differences in aging rates and lifespans.

A Population-Based Registry of Patients With Inherited Cardiac Conditions and Resuscitated Cardiac Arrest.

Background: The relative proportion of each cardiac inherited disease (CID) causing resuscitated sudden cardiac arrest (RSCA) on a population basis is unknown.

Objectives: This study describes the profile of patients with CIDs presenting with RSCA; their data were collected by the national Cardiac Inherited Diseases Registry New Zealand (CIDRNZ).

Methods: Data were collated from CIDRNZ probands presenting with RSCA (2002 to 2018).

What Procedures Are Rural General Surgeons Performing and Are They Prepared to Perform Specialty Procedures in Practice?

Rural surgeons are performing operations typically performed by "specialists." This study describes specialty procedures performed by general surgeons operating in a rural state and how prepared the surgeons felt starting their rural practice after residency A survey was sent to all exclusively rural surgeons actively practicing in the state, inquiring about their perception of preparedness for rural practice and specialty procedures performed. The survey had a 65.

The early proximal αβ TCR signalosome specifies thymic selection outcome through a quantitative protein interaction network.

During αβ T cell development, T cell antigen receptor (TCR) engagement transduces biochemical signals through a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network that dictates dichotomous cell fate decisions. It remains unclear how signal specificity is communicated, instructing either positive selection to advance cell differentiation or death by negative selection. Early signal discrimination might occur by PPI signatures differing qualitatively (customized, unique PPI combinations for each signal), quantitatively (graded amounts of a single PPI series), or kinetically (speed of PPI pathway progression).

Pain Assessment: Use of the Defense and Veterans Pain Rating Scale in Patients With Cancer.

Background: Thorough, consistent pain assessment and reassessment are critical to guide and evaluate interventions designed to improve pain.

Objectives: Based on a literature review about functional pain assessment, clinicians selected and then implemented the Defense and Veterans Pain Rating Scale (DVPRS) as a pain assessment instrument option in a comprehensive cancer center.

Methods: The DVPRS was added as a pain assessment instrument in clinical oncology practice.

Evaluation of Protective Equipment Used Among Motorbike Riders.

Introduction: This study compared outcomes between patients injured at a motorbike track, which requires riders to follow safety equipment guidelines, and those involved in recreational riding where safety equipment usage is voluntary.

Methods: A retrospective review was conducted of all patients presenting with motorbike-related injuries at an American College of Surgeons verified level-I trauma center between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2013. Data collected included demographics, injury details, safety equipment use, hospitalization details, and discharge disposition.

Intrinsic-mediated caspase activation is essential for cardiomyocyte hypertrophy.

Cardiomyocyte hypertrophy is the cellular response that mediates pathologic enlargement of the heart. This maladaptation is also characterized by cell behaviors that are typically associated with apoptosis, including cytoskeletal reorganization and disassembly, altered nuclear morphology, and enhanced protein synthesis/translation. Here, we investigated the requirement of apoptotic caspase pathways in mediating cardiomyocyte hypertrophy.

Slow angled-descent forepaw grasping (SLAG): an innate behavioral task for identification of individual experimental mice possessing functional vision.

Background: There is significant interest in the generation of improved assays to clearly identify experimental mice possessing functional vision, a property that could qualify mice for inclusion in behavioral and neuroscience studies. Widely employed current methods rely on mouse responses to visual cues in assays of reflexes, depth perception, or cognitive memory. However, commonly assessed mouse reflexes can sometimes be ambiguous in their expression, while depth perception assays are sometimes confounded by variation in anxiety responses and exploratory conduct.

A co-housing strategy to improve fecundity of mice in timed matings.

Timed matings of mice are often carried out to obtain offspring of a precise age when required for a study. Timed matings involve housing male and female mice together for a limited time period, typically overnight. A limitation of this practice is that many mouse pairs fail to mate during the brief co-housing period.

Wnt11 promotes cardiomyocyte development by caspase-mediated suppression of canonical Wnt signals.

Specification and early patterning of the vertebrate heart are dependent on both canonical and noncanonical wingless (Wnt) signal pathways. However, the impact of each Wnt pathway on the later stages of myocardial development and differentiation remains controversial. Here, we report that the components of each Wnt signal conduit are expressed in the developing and postnatal heart, yet canonical/β-catenin activity is restricted to nonmyocardial regions.

Measurement of drinking water contaminants by solid phase microextraction initially quantified in source water samples by the USGS.

Two adsorbent solid phase microextraction (SPME) fibers, 70 microm Carbowax divinylbenzene (CW/DVB) and 65 microm polydimethylsiloxane divinylbenzene (PDMS/DVB), were selected for the analysis of several target analytes (phenols, phosphates, phthalates, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and chlorinated pesticides) identified by the USGS in surface waters. Detection limits for standards ranged from 0.1 to 1 ng/mL for the CW/ DVB fiber and 0.

Anion-induced adsorption of ferrocenated nanoparticles.

Au nanoparticles fully coated with omega-ferrocenyl hexanethiolate ligands, with average composition Au225(omega-ferrocenyl hexanethiolate)43, exhibit a unique combination of adsorption properties on Pt electrodes. The adsorbed layer is so robust that electrodes bearing submonolayer, monolayer, and multilayer quantities of these nanoparticles can be transferred to fresh electrolyte solutions and there exhibit stable ferrocene voltammetry over long periods of time. The kinetics of forming the robustly adsorbed layer are slow; monolayer and submonolayer deposition can be described by a rate law that is first order in nanoparticle concentration and in available electrode surface.

Size limitations for the formation of ordered striped nanoparticles.

A combination of immiscible molecules in the ligand shell of a gold nanoparticle (NP) has been shown to phase separate into a rippled structure; this phase separation can be used to direct the assembly of the NPs into chains. Here we demonstrate that only NPs within a certain size range can form chains, and we conclude that the rippled morphology of the ligand shell also exists only within that given size range. We corroborate this result with simulations of the ligand arrangement on NPs of various sizes.