Regulation of Dopamine Release by Tonic Activity Patterns in the Striatal Brain Slice.

Voluntary movement, motivation, and reinforcement learning depend on the activity of ventral midbrain neurons, which extend axons to release dopamine (DA) in the striatum. These neurons exhibit two patterns of action potential activity: low-frequency tonic activity that is intrinsically generated and superimposed high-frequency phasic bursts that are driven by synaptic inputs. acute striatal brain preparations are widely employed to study the regulation of evoked DA release but exhibit very different DA release kinetics than recordings.

Physical Activity Amid a Pandemic: How Socioeconomic and Demographic Factors Shaped Behaviors During COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to significant shifts in societal norms and individual behaviors, including changes in physical activity levels. This study examines the relationship between socioeconomic and sociodemographic factors and changes in physical activity levels during the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic levels among adult Arkansans. Survey data were collected from 1,205 adult Arkansans in July and August 2020, capturing socioeconomic and sociodemographic characteristics and information on physical activity changes since the onset of the pandemic.

Global research trends and emerging hotspots in nano-drug delivery systems for lung cancer: a comprehensive bibliometric analysis (1998-2024).

Purpose: Nano-drug delivery systems (NDDS) have become a promising alternative and adjunctive strategy for lung cancer (LC) treatment. However, comprehensive bibliometric analyses examining global research efforts on NDDS in LC are scarce. This study aims to fill this gap by identifying key research trends, emerging hotspots, and collaboration networks within the field of NDDS and LC.

Updates on Methods for Body Composition Analysis: Implications for Clinical Practice.

Background: Recent technological advances have introduced novel methods for measuring body composition, each with unique benefits and limitations. The choice of method often depends on the trade-offs between accuracy, cost, participant burden, and the ability to measure specific body composition compartments.

Objective: To review the considerations of cost, accuracy, portability, and participant burden in reference and emerging body composition assessment methods, and to evaluate their clinical applicability.

Assessing the Risk of Sexually Transmitted Infections among Men who have Sex with Men in San Francisco during COVID-19: A Socio-ecological Analysis.

Background: Men who have sex with men (MSM) are disproportionately affected by sexually transmitted infections, a disparity that has only worsened in recent years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, an overall increasing trend remained.

Methods: We utilized data from the MSM cycle of the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance (NHBS) study in San Francisco, California, conducted from June 2021 through December 2021, to identify socio-ecological disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic that were associated with sexually transmitted infections.

Revealing Toxicological Mechanisms of Small Molecules Using Chemical Biology.

Defining the underlying toxicological mechanisms of various small molecules is of utmost importance in understanding the pathogenesis of chemical exposure-related human diseases and developing safe and effective therapeutics. Herein, we discuss the toxicological mechanisms of different small molecules utilizing the different tools of chemical biology.

Comparison of lipid dynamics and permeability in styrene-maleic acid and diisobutylene-maleic acid copolymer lipid nanodiscs by electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy.

Lipid nanoparticles formed with copolymers are a new and increasingly powerful tool for studying membrane proteins, but the extent to which these systems affect the physical properties of the membrane is not completely understood. This is critical to understanding the caveats of these new systems and screening for structural and functional artifacts that might be caused in the membrane proteins they are used to study. To better understand these potential effects, the fluid properties of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine lipid bilayers were examined by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy with spin-labeled reporter lipids in either liposomes or incorporated into nanoparticles with the copolymers diisobutylene-maleic acid or styrene maleic acid.

Assessing Mitigation Translocation as a Tool to Reduce Human-great Horned owl Conflicts.

The great horned owl (Bubo virginianus) is a generalist predator that inhabits wide-ranging territories that are relatively stable throughout the year. These owls are also involved in a variety of human-owl conflicts, including killing of domestic poultry, predating colonially nesting seabirds and shorebirds, and pose a hazard to safe aircraft operations. Managing these conflict situations presents unique challenges as great horned owls are nocturnally active and occupy a wide range of habitats.

Light-Dependent Chemoselective Amide or Thioamide Ligation of Acylsilanes with Amines using Elemental Sulfur.

Due to the diverse chemical and physical properties of functional groups, mild and controllable ligation methods are often required to construct complex drugs and functional materials. To make diverse sets of products with tunable physicochemical properties, it is also useful to employ complimentary ligation methods that adopt the same starting materials. Here, we disclose the efficient and modular synthesis of amides or thioamides through the chemical ligation of acyl silanes with amines, simply by turning a light on or off.

A Primer on Carceral Health for Clinicians: Care Delivery, Regulatory Oversight, Legal and Ethical Considerations, and Clinician Responsibilities.

The United States has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, with approximately 1.7 million individuals detained in jails or federal or state prisons. Chronic medical conditions are more prevalent among adults in custody than among their nonincarcerated counterparts, resulting in needs that often surpass the on-site medical treatment capabilities of carceral facilities.

Growth Differentiation Factor-15 Is Associated With Congestion-Related Anorexia and Weight Loss in Advanced Heart Failure.

Background: Growth differentiation factor (GDF)-15 is a pleiotropic cytokine that is associated with appetite-suppressing effects and weight loss in patients with malignancy.

Objectives: This study aims to investigate the relationships between GDF-15 levels, anorexia, cachexia, and clinical outcomes in patients with advanced heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).

Methods: In this observational, retrospective analysis, a total of 344 patients with advanced HFrEF (age 58 ± 10 years, 85% male, 67% NYHA functional class III), underwent clinical and echocardiographic examination, body composition evaluation by skinfolds and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, circulating metabolite assessment, Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire, and right heart catheterization.

The PERFORMANCE II Trial: A Prospective Multicenter Investigation of a Novel Carotid Stent System.

Background: Several randomized clinical trials have shown that the composite endpoint of death, stroke, and myocardial infarction (MI) is equivalent between carotid artery stenting and carotid endarterectomy. However, the risk of minor stroke has been consistently higher with carotid artery stenting.

Objectives: The authors sought to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of a novel carotid stent system comprised of a stent, an adjustable integrated embolic filter and a postdilation balloon, in patients at elevated risk for adverse events from carotid endarterectomy.

Vernonolide A, a Sesquiterpene Lactone with a Unique Carbon Skeleton from .

A novel sesquiterpene lactone derivative, vernonolide A (), featuring an unprecedented carbon skeleton, along with its plausible biosynthetic precursor, vercinolide I (), and eight known sesquiterpene lactones (-) were isolated and characterized from the whole plants of (L.). The structures of and were elucidated using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopic analysis and calculated and experimental electronic circular dichroism spectra.

Atomic Gap-State Engineering of MoS for Alkaline Water and Seawater Splitting.

Transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), such as molybdenum disulfide (MoS), have emerged as a generation of nonprecious catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), largely due to their theoretical hydrogen adsorption energy close to that of platinum. However, efforts to activate the basal planes of TMDs have primarily centered around strategies such as introducing numerous atomic vacancies, creating vacancy-heteroatom complexes, or applying significant strain, especially for acidic media. These approaches, while potentially effective, present substantial challenges in practical large-scale deployment.

EOSnet: Embedded Overlap Structures for Graph Neural Networks in Predicting Material Properties.

Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) have emerged as powerful tools for predicting material properties, yet they often struggle to capture many-body interactions and require extensive manual feature engineering. Here, we present EOSnet (Embedded Overlap Structures for Graph Neural Networks), a novel approach that addresses these limitations by incorporating Gaussian Overlap Matrix (GOM) fingerprints as node features within the GNN architecture. Unlike models that rely on explicit angular terms or human-engineered features, EOSnet efficiently encodes many-body interactions through orbital overlap matrices, providing a rotationally invariant and transferable representation of atomic environments.

Challenges to Cardiovascular Health Among Female U.S. Veterans and Future Implications: A Scoping Review.

Introduction: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death for women in the United States, and U.S. female Veterans have higher rates of CVD compared to civilian women.

The Expanding Role of the U.S. Army Paramedic.

The combat medic (68W) will play a critical role in medical operations in the event of future large-scale combat operations (LSCOs). However, the combat medic is largely not prepared for LSCOs. The revised Medical Education and Demonstration of Individual Competence (TC 8-800) state 68Ws much be able to provide advanced airway and trauma management, medication administration, and advanced casualty movement.

Recent Orthopedic Trauma Volume in the United States Military Health System.

Introduction: As illustrated by the "Walker Dip," there is growing concern regarding the lack of combat casualty care during peacetime. Surgical volume and case complexity are paramount for training and skill sustainment. We sought to quantify the recent orthopedic trauma surgical case load of all military orthopedic surgeons across the Military Health System (MHS).

Cascade-Responsive Nanoparticles for Efficient CRISPR/Cas9-Based Glioblastoma Gene Therapy.

CRISPR/Cas9 (CRISPR, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) gene editing technology represents great promise for treating glioblastoma (GBM) due to its potential to permanently eliminate tumor pathogenic genes. Unfortunately, delivering CRISPR to the GBM in a safe and effective manner is challenging. Herein, a glycosylated and cascade-responsive nanoparticle (GCNP) that can effectively cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and activate CRISPR/Cas9-based gene editing only in the GBM is designed.

Veteran and healthcare team perspectives on the TeleWound Practice Program within the Veterans Health Administration.

Objective: The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) recently piloted the implementation of the TeleWound Practice Program (TWP), which provides interprofessional wound care to Veterans remotely. We assessed the perceptions of Veterans and healthcare team members (HCTMs), and their experiences with the TWP.

Method: We surveyed Veterans from four VHA medical centres who had received at least one TWP visit between 1 May 2020 and 31 May 2021, and HCTMs associated with any TWP encounter between 1 September 2019 and 31 March 2021.

Evidence for intrinsic DNA dynamics and deformability in damage sensing by the Rad4/XPC nucleotide excision repair complex.

Altered DNA dynamics at lesion sites are implicated in how DNA repair proteins sense damage within genomic DNA. Using laser temperature-jump (T-jump) spectroscopy combined with cytosine-analog Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) probes that sense local DNA conformations, we measured the intrinsic dynamics of DNA containing 3 base-pair mismatches recognized in vitro by Rad4 (yeast ortholog of XPC). Rad4/XPC recognizes diverse lesions from environmental mutagens and initiates nucleotide excision repair.

Cognitive Trajectory Before and After Cataract Surgery: A Population-Based Approach.

Background: Cataract surgery is the most common surgical procedure performed for older US adults. Cataracts are associated with poor cognition and higher rates of dementia, but whether cataract surgery improves cognition for US older adults is not known. We examined the relationship between cataract surgery and long-term change in cognition in the Health and Retirement Study, a population-based study of older US adults linked with Medicare billing data.

The link of FOXO1 and FOXO4 transcription factors to development of the lens.

Background: The FOXOs regulate the transcription of many genes, including ones directly linked to pathways required for lens development. However, this transcription factor family has rarely been studied in the context of development, including the development of the lens. FOXO expression, regulation, and function during lens development remained unexplored.

Associations Between Peak Expiratory Flow and Community Mobility Loss Among Older Adults in the United States.

Background: Community mobility is a vital patient-centered outcome for older adults living in the community. These deficits in mobility are linked to social isolation, increased hospitalizations, and higher mortality rates. Impaired pulmonary function may be a modifiable risk factor for mobility decline, with existing inequities in lung health potentially contributing disproportionately to mobility loss among Black older adults.

Progressive central cardiorespiratory rate downregulation and intensifying epilepsy lead to sudden unexpected death in epilepsy in mouse model of the most common human ATP1A3 mutation.

Objective: This study was undertaken to test the following hypotheses in the Atp1a3 mouse (which carries the most common human ATP1A3 (the major subunit of the neuronal Na/K-adenosine triphosphatase [ATPase]) mutation, D801N): sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) occurs during seizures and is due to terminal apneas in some and due to lethal cardiac arrhythmias in others; and Atp1a3 mice have central cardiorespiratory dysregulation and abnormal respiratory drive.

Methods: Comparison was made of littermate wild-type and Atp1a3 groups using (1) simultaneous in vivo video-telemetry recordings of electroencephalogram, electrocardiogram, and breathing; (2) whole-body plethysmography; and (3) hypoglossal nerve recordings.

Results: In Atp1a3 mice, (1) SUDEP consistently occurred during seizures that were more severe than preterminal seizures; (2) seizure clustering occurred in periods preceding SUDEP; (3) slowing of breathing rate (BR) and heart rate was observed preictally before preterminal and terminal seizures; and (4) the sequence during terminal seizures was as follows: bradypnea with bradycardia/cardiac arrhythmias, then terminal apnea, followed by terminal cardiac arrhythmias.