Legacy Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs) Trends in Top Predator Fish of the Laurentian Great Lakes (GL) from 1979 to 2016: Will Concentrations Continue to Decrease?

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were widely used as fire retardants and have been detected throughout the Great Lakes (GL) ecosystem. The concentration trends (after fish age normalization) of PBDEs in top predator fish (lake trout and walleye) of the GLs were determined from 1979 to 2016, which includes most of the period when PBDEs were manufactured and used in this region. The fish samples were collected by two national (U.

Repeated neonatal isoflurane exposures in the mouse induce apoptotic degenerative changes in the brain and relatively mild long-term behavioral deficits.

Epidemiological studies suggest exposures to anesthetic agents and/or sedative drugs (AASDs) in children under three years old, or pregnant women during the third trimester, may adversely affect brain development. Evidence suggests lengthy or repeated AASD exposures are associated with increased risk of neurobehavioral deficits. Animal models have been valuable in determining the type of acute damage in the developing brain induced by AASD exposures, as well as in elucidating long-term functional consequences.

Anesthetic MS-222 eliminates nerve and muscle activity in frogs used for physiology teaching laboratories.

Frogs are routinely used in physiology teaching laboratories to demonstrate important physiological processes. There have been recent directives that promote the use of the anesthetic MS-222 (tricaine methanesulfonate), rather than lowering body temperature with a cold water bath to prepare reptiles and amphibians for physiological experiments or euthanasia. Indeed, the most recent edition of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Guidelines for the Euthanasia of Animals proclaims that chilling in water is not an appropriate method and advocates for the usage of MS-222 or other anesthetics.

An analysis of online pregnancy message boards: Mother-to-mother advice on medication use.

Problem And Background: Psychotropic medication use is increasingly common among pregnant women. Many women solicit information from other mothers about the safety of these medications for use during pregnancy, yet little is known about the specific advice they receive.

Aim: The purpose of the current study was to examine the type of feedback women receive on a popular internet message board about psychotropic medication use during pregnancy.

Cerebral organoids reveal early cortical maldevelopment in schizophrenia-computational anatomy and genomics, role of FGFR1.

Studies of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from schizophrenia patients and control individuals revealed that the disorder is programmed at the preneuronal stage, involves a common dysregulated mRNA transcriptome, and identified Integrative Nuclear FGFR1 Signaling a common dysregulated mechanism. We used human embryonic stem cell (hESC) and iPSC-derived cerebral organoids from four controls and three schizophrenia patients to model the first trimester of in utero brain development. The schizophrenia organoids revealed an abnormal scattering of proliferating Ki67+ neural progenitor cells (NPCs) from the ventricular zone (VZ), throughout the intermediate (IZ) and cortical (CZ) zones.

Polychlorinated biphenyls and organochlorine pesticides concentration patterns and trends in top predator fish of Laurentian Great Lakes from 1999 to 2014.

Concentration patterns and temporal trends of legacy persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) contaminants were determined using the Great Lake Fish Monitoring and Surveillance Program (GLFMSP) top predator fish data from 1999 to 2014 and applying Kendall-Theil robust regression after cluster-based age normalization. For most Great Lakes sites, significant decreasing concentration trends ranging from -4.1% to -21.

Synthetic Polymer Contamination in Bottled Water.

Eleven globally sourced brands of bottled water, purchased in 19 locations in nine different countries, were tested for microplastic contamination using Nile Red tagging. Of the 259 total bottles processed, 93% showed some sign of microplastic contamination. After accounting for possible background (lab) contamination, an average of 10.

Microplastic in riverine fish is connected to species traits.

Microplastic is a contaminant of concern worldwide. Rivers are implicated as major pathways of microplastic transport to marine and lake ecosystems, and microplastic ingestion by freshwater biota is a risk associated with microplastic contamination, but there is little research on microplastic ecology within freshwater ecosystems. Microplastic uptake by fish is likely affected by environmental microplastic abundance and aspects of fish ecology, but these relationships have rarely been addressed.

An mHealth Platform for Supporting Clinical Data Integration into Augmentative and Alternative Communication Service Delivery: User-Centered Design and Usability Evaluation.

Background: The recent trend of increasing health care costs in the United States is likely not sustainable. To make health care more economically sustainable, attention must be directed toward improving the quality while simultaneously reducing the cost of health care. One of the recommended approaches to provide better care at a lower cost is to develop high-quality data collection and reporting systems, which support health care professionals in making optimal clinical decisions based on solid, extensive evidence.

Population Structure, Movement Patterns, and Frequency of Multiple Matings in Tenodera sinensis (Mantodea: Mantidae).

Models of the evolution of sexual cannibalism show that the frequency of male mating opportunities has significant impact on male choice and male risk aversion. In this study, we examined ecological components that should affect opportunities for multiple mating in wild populations of the Chinese mantid (Tenodera sinensis Saussure). While conducting mark-recapture studies of two field populations over the course of two seasons, along with Global Positioning System data on locations of individuals, we collected data on population densities, movement patterns, and individual ranges to estimate the overlap of adult males and female mantids.

Anthropogenic contamination of tap water, beer, and sea salt.

Plastic pollution has been well documented in natural environments, including the open waters and sediments within lakes and rivers, the open ocean and even the air, but less attention has been paid to synthetic polymers in human consumables. Since multiple toxicity studies indicate risks to human health when plastic particles are ingested, more needs to be known about the presence and abundance of anthropogenic particles in human foods and beverages. This study investigates the presence of anthropogenic particles in 159 samples of globally sourced tap water, 12 brands of Laurentian Great Lakes beer, and 12 brands of commercial sea salt.

Using animal models to evaluate the functional consequences of anesthesia during early neurodevelopment.

Fifteen years ago Olney and colleagues began using animal models to evaluate the effects of anesthetic and sedative agents (ASAs) on neurodevelopment. The results from ongoing studies indicate that, under certain conditions, exposure to these drugs during development induces an acute elevated apoptotic neurodegenerative response in the brain and long-term functional impairments. These animal models have played a significant role in bringing attention to the possible adverse effects of exposing the developing brain to ASAs when few concerns had been raised previously in the medical community.

Comprehensive Analysis of the Great Lakes Top Predator Fish for Novel Halogenated Organic Contaminants by GC×GC-HR-ToF Mass Spectrometry.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Great Lakes Fish Monitoring and Surveillance Program (GLFMSP) has traced the fate and transport of anthropogenic chemicals in the Great Lakes region for decades.

Age-Corrected Trends and Toxic Equivalence of PCDD/F and CP-PCBs in Lake Trout and Walleye from the Great Lakes: 2004-2014.

Our research reports polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), and coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls (CP-PCBs) concentrations and age-corrected trends for lake trout and walleye in the Great Lakes over the 2004-2014 period. We determined that age-contaminant corrections are required to accurately report contaminant trends due to significant lake trout age structure changes. The age-trend model (ATM) described here uses a lake-specific age-contaminant regression to mitigate the effect of a fluctuating lake trout age structure to directly improve the log-linear regression model.

The occurrence of microplastic contamination in littoral sediments of the Persian Gulf, Iran.

Microplastics (MPs; <5 mm) in aquatic environments are an emerging contaminant of concern due to their possible ecological and biological consequences. This study addresses that MP quantification and morphology to assess the abundance, distribution, and polymer types in littoral surface sediments of the Persian Gulf were performed. A two-step method, with precautions taken to avoid possible airborne contamination, was applied to extract MPs from sediments collected at five sites during low tide.

Harm and the concept of medical disorder.

According to Jerome Wakefield's harmful dysfunction analysis (HDA) of medical disorder, the inability of some internal part or mechanism to perform its natural function is necessary, but not sufficient, for disorder. HDA also requires that the part dysfunction be harmful to the individual. I consider several problems for HDA's harm criterion in this article.

Structure and Dynamics of RNA Repeat Expansions That Cause Huntington's Disease and Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1.

RNA repeat expansions cause a host of incurable, genetically defined diseases. The most common class of RNA repeats consists of trinucleotide repeats. These long, repeating transcripts fold into hairpins containing 1 × 1 internal loops that can mediate disease via a variety of mechanism(s) in which RNA is the central player.

Nematophagous fungus mimics olfactory cues of sex and food to lure its nematode prey.

To study the molecular basis for predator-prey coevolution, we investigated how responds to the predatory fungus . and other nematodes were attracted to volatile compounds produced by . Gas-chromatographic mass-spectral analyses of -derived volatile metabolites identified several odors mimicking food cues attractive to nematodes.

Determination of the gut retention of plastic microbeads and microfibers in goldfish (Carassius auratus).

Microplastics are ubiquitous pollutants in aquatic habitats and commonly found in the gut contents of fish yet relatively little is known about the retention of these particles by fish. In this study, goldfish were fed a commercial fish food pellet amended with 50 particles of one of two microplastics types, microbeads and microfibers. Microbeads were obtained from a commercial facial cleanser while microfibers were obtained from washed synthetic textile.

A Frustrated and Confused Lewis Pair.

We report a new class of frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs) by the hydroboration of bulky isocyanates ArNCO ( Ar=2,6-iPr C H ) and ArNCO ( Ar=2,6-Ph -4-tBuC H ) with Piers' borane (HB(C F ) ). While hydroboration of smaller isocyanates such as ArNCO leads to isocyanate-N/B FLP adducts, hydroboration of the bulkier ArNCO allows isolation of the substrate-free aminoborane with a short, covalent N-B bond. This confused FLP reversibly binds unsaturated substrates such as isocyanates and isocyanides, suggesting the intermediacy of a "normal" FLP along the reaction pathway, supported by high-level DFT studies and variable-temperature NMR spectroscopy.

Controlling Proton Delivery through Catalyst Structural Dynamics.

The fastest synthetic molecular catalysts for H production and oxidation emulate components of the active site of hydrogenases. The critical role of controlled structural dynamics is recognized for many enzymes, including hydrogenases, but is largely neglected in designing synthetic catalysts. Our results demonstrate the impact of controlling structural dynamics on H production rates for [Ni(P N ) ] catalysts (R=n-hexyl, n-decyl, n-tetradecyl, n-octadecyl, phenyl, or cyclohexyl).

Plastic Debris in 29 Great Lakes Tributaries: Relations to Watershed Attributes and Hydrology.

Plastic debris is a growing contaminant of concern in freshwater environments, yet sources, transport, and fate remain unclear. This study characterized the quantity and morphology of floating micro- and macroplastics in 29 Great Lakes tributaries in six states under different land covers, wastewater effluent contributions, population densities, and hydrologic conditions. Tributaries were sampled three or four times each using a 333 μm mesh neuston net.

Fluid consumption, exercise, and cognitive performance.

Laboratory evidence supports the notion that dehydration degrades exercise performance and impairs certain cognitive processes. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of a voluntary versus a dictated drinking condition on exercise and cognitive performance. The study used a double-blind and paired design.

Microplastic pollution is widely detected in US municipal wastewater treatment plant effluent.

Municipal wastewater effluent has been proposed as one pathway for microplastics to enter the aquatic environment. Here we present a broad study of municipal wastewater treatment plant effluent as a pathway for microplastic pollution to enter receiving waters. A total of 90 samples were analyzed from 17 different facilities across the United States.

From Drug-Induced Developmental Neuroapoptosis to Pediatric Anesthetic Neurotoxicity-Where Are We Now?

The fetal and neonatal periods are critical and sensitive periods for neurodevelopment, and involve rapid brain growth in addition to natural programmed cell death (i.e., apoptosis) and synaptic pruning.