Δ-Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC): A Critical Overview of Recent Clinical Trials and Suggested Guidelines for Future Research.

In this overview, we seek to appraise recent experimental and observational studies investigating THC and its potential role as adjunctive therapy in various medical illnesses. Recent clinical trials are suggestive of the diverse pharmacologic potentials for THC but suffer from small sample sizes, short study duration, failure to address tolerance, little dose variation, ill-defined outcome measures, and failure to identify and/or evaluate confounds, all of which may constitute significant threats to the validity of most trials. However, the existing work underscores the potential therapeutic value of THC and, at the same time, calls attention to the critical need for better-designed protocols to fully explore and demonstrate safety and efficacy.

Community-Based Designed Pilot Cooking and Texting Intervention on Health-Related Quality of Life among College Students.

As emerging adulthood is an important area of life for developing healthful habits, the current study aimed to test the feasibility of a pilot program for improving health-related quality of life (HRQOL), food security, and diet quality among college students. Students 18-26 years old were recruited from two land-grant institutions to participate in an online survey and self-selected to participate in an intervention study. An intervention program was developed by student peers to include (1) a four-session cooking curriculum and a (2) semester-long text message program to share health resources on the relevant college campus.

Protocol to assess bioenergetics and mitochondrial fuel usage in murine autoreactive immunocytes using the Seahorse Extracellular Flux Analyzer.

Efficient metabolism, or the means by which cells produce energy resources, is critical for proper effector function. Here, we present a protocol for examining the bioenergetics and mitochondrial fuel utilization of primary murine autoreactive immunocytes using cellular metabolism-modulating drugs. We describe steps for plate calibration, isolation of primary immunocytes, and Seahorse assay plate preparation.

Altered Grooming Cycles in Transgenic Drosophila.

Head grooming in Drosophila consists of repeated sweeps of the legs across the head, comprising regular cycles. We used the GAL4-UAS system to study the effects of overexpressing shibire and of Adar knockdown via RNA interference, on the period of head-grooming cycles in Drosophila. Overexpressing shibire interferes with synaptic vesicle recycling and thus with cell communication, while Adar knockdown reduces RNA editing of neuronal transcripts for a large number of genes.

Effect of organic biostimulants on cannabis productivity and soil microbial activity under outdoor conditions.

In 2019 and 2020, we investigated the individual and combined effects of two biofertilizers (manure tea and bioinoculant) and one humic acid (HA) product on cannabis biochemical and physiological parameters and soil CO evolution under outdoor conditions. Our hypothesis was that HA would increase the microbial activity in the biofertilizers and synergy of both compounds would promote better plant performance and stimulate soil microbial activity. In 2020, the individual and combined application of biofertilizers and HA increased cannabis height, chlorophyll content, photosynthetic efficiency, aboveground biomass, and bucked biomass by 105, 52, 43, 122, and 117%, respectively.

Incorporating plant phenological responses into species distribution models reduces estimates of future species loss and turnover.

Anthropogenetic climate change has caused range shifts among many species. Species distribution models (SDMs) are used to predict how species ranges may change in the future. However, most SDMs rarely consider how climate-sensitive traits, such as phenology, which affect individuals' demography and fitness, may influence species' ranges.

Convexity, superquadratic growth, and dot products.

Let be a point set with cardinality . We give an improved bound for the number of dot products determined by , proving that A crucial ingredient in the proof of this bound is a new superquadratic expander involving products and shifts. We prove that, for any finite set , there exist such that This is derived from a more general result concerning growth of sets defined via convexity and sum sets, and which can be used to prove several other expanders with better than quadratic growth.

Recent Advances on Metal Oxide Based Sensors for Environmental Gas Pollutants Detection.

Optimizing materials and associated structures for detecting various environmental gas pollutant concentrations has been a major challenge in environmental sensing technology. Semiconducting metal oxides (SMOs) fabricated at the nanoscale are a class of sensor technology in which metallic species are functionalized with various dopants to modify their chemiresistivity and crystalline scaffolding properties. Studies focused on recent advances of gas sensors utilizing metal oxide nanostructures with a special emphasis on the structure-surface property relationships of some typical n-type and p-type SMOs for efficient gas detection are presented.

Pilfering personalities: Effects of small mammal personality on cache pilferage.

Small mammals such as mice and voles play a fundamental role in the ecosystem service of seed dispersal by caching seeds in small hoards that germinate under beneficial conditions. Pilferage is a critical step in this process in which animals steal seeds from other individuals' caches. Pilferers often recache stolen seeds, which are often pilfered by new individuals, who may recache again, and so on, potentially leading to compounded increased dispersal distance.

Prolonged Particulate Hexavalent Chromium Exposure Induces DNA Double-Strand Breaks and Inhibits Homologous Recombination Repair in Primary Rodent Lung Cells.

Hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] is a known lung carcinogen and a driving mechanism in human lung cells for Cr(VI)-induced lung cancer is chromosome instability, caused by prolonged Cr(VI) exposure inducing DNA double-strand breaks, while simultaneously inhibiting the repair of these breaks. In North Atlantic right whales, Cr(VI) induces breaks but does not inhibit repair. It is unclear if this repair inhibition is specific to human lung cells or occurs in other species, as it has only been considered in humans and North Atlantic right whales.

Microglia Depletion leads to Increased Susceptibility to Ocular Hypertension-Dependent Glaucoma.

In recent years, microglia have been highlighted for playing integral roles in neurodegenerative diseases, like glaucoma. To better understand the role of microglia during chronic ocular hypertension, we depleted microglia from aged (9-12 months old) DBA/2J (D2) mice, which exhibit age-related increases in intraocular pressure, using a dietary CSF1R antagonist, PLX5622. Retinal ganglion cell (RGC) somas were counted, and optic nerve cross-sections stained and assessed for glaucomatous damage.

A data mining approach to analyze the role of biomacromolecules-based nanocomposites in sustainable packaging.

Recent decades have witnessed a surge in research interest in bio-nanocomposite-based packaging materials, but still, a lack of systematic analysis exists in this domain. Bio-based packaging materials pose a sustainable alternative to petroleum-based packaging materials. The current work employs bibliometric analysis to deliver a comprehensive outline on the role of bio nanocomposites in packaging.

Ecological characteristics explain neutral genetic variation of three coastal sparrow species.

Eco-phylogeographic approaches to comparative population genetic analyses allow for the inclusion of intrinsic influences as drivers of intraspecific genetic structure. This insight into microevolutionary processes, including changes within a species or lineage, provides better mechanistic understanding of species-specific interactions and enables predictions of evolutionary responses to environmental change. In this study, we used single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) identified from reduced representation sequencing to compare neutral population structure, isolation by distance (IBD), genetic diversity and effective population size (N) across three closely related and co-distributed saltmarsh sparrow species differing along a specialization gradient-Nelson's (Ammospiza nelsoni subvirgata), saltmarsh (A.

A reevaluation and redescription of the branchiobdellidan Sathodrilus tetrodonta (Pierantoni, 1906) new comb. (Annelida: Clitellata).

The questionable status of Branchiobdella tetrodonta Pierantoni, 1906 is resolved and the species is transferred to the correct genus. The original description was made from specimens removed from signal crayfish collected in California, USA, unfortunately, Pierantoni (1906c) did not designate any type specimens nor where the preparations were deposited; they are now presumed lost. Holt (1967) believed B.

Secondary School Athletic Trainers' Experiences Managing Workplace Organizational-Professional Conflict.

Context: Athletic trainers (ATs) face organizational-professional conflict (OPC), often surrounding return-to-sport decisions. To prioritize patient safety and establish a healthy work environment, OPC must be mitigated, yet few researchers have determined how ATs manage conflicts with stakeholders.

Objective: To explore ATs' experiences with OPC in the secondary school setting.

Testing SIPA1L2 as a modifier of CMT1A using mouse models.

Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1A (CMT1A) is a demyelinating peripheral neuropathy caused by the duplication of peripheral myelin protein 22 (PMP22), leading to muscle weakness and loss of sensation in the hands and feet. A recent case-only genome-wide association study of CMT1A patients conducted by the Inherited Neuropathy Consortium identified a strong association between strength of foot dorsiflexion and variants in signal induced proliferation associated 1 like 2 (SIPA1L2), indicating that it may be a genetic modifier of disease. To validate SIPA1L2 as a candidate modifier and to assess its potential as a therapeutic target, we engineered mice with deletion of exon 1 (including the start codon) of the Sipa1l2 gene and crossed them to the C3-PMP22 mouse model of CMT1A.

New directions for Alzheimer's disease research from the Jackson Laboratory Center for Alzheimer's and Dementia Research 2022 workshop.

Introduction: In September 2022, The Jackson Laboratory Center for Alzheimer's and Dementia Research (JAX CADR) hosted a workshop with leading researchers in the Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) field.

Methods: During the workshop, the participants brainstormed new directions to overcome current barriers to providing patients with effective ADRD therapeutics. The participants outlined specific areas of focus.

f. sp. Affects Plant Susceptibility to Subsequent Pathogen Infections Under Controlled-Environment Conditions.

f. sp. (Sss) is a soilborne potato pathogen responsible for causing powdery scab on tubers and galls on roots, reducing root water uptake through colonizing root hairs, and vectoring of Potato mop-top virus (PMTV).

Assessing the Negative Binomial-Lindley model for crash hotspot identification: Insights from Monte Carlo simulation analysis.

Identifying hazardous crash sites (or hotspots) is a crucial step in highway safety management. The Negative Binomial (NB) model is the most common model used in safety analyses and evaluations - including hotspot identification. The NB model, however, is not without limitations.

Transcriptome analysis reveals organ-specific effects of 2-deoxyglucose treatment in healthy mice.

Objective: Glycolytic inhibition via 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2DG) has potential therapeutic benefits for a range of diseases, including cancer, epilepsy, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and COVID-19, but the systemic effects of 2DG on gene function across different tissues are unclear.

Methods: This study analyzed the transcriptional profiles of nine tissues from C57BL/6J mice treated with 2DG to understand how it modulates pathways systemically. Principal component analysis (PCA), weighted gene co-network analysis (WGCNA), analysis of variance, and pathway analysis were all performed to identify modules altered by 2DG treatment.

The influence of diet quality on health-related quality of life in undergraduates.

Explore the relationship between fruit and vegetable (FV) intake and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in undergraduates. Undergraduates ( = 655). Using the Centers for Disease Control's Healthy Days Core Module and National Cancer Institute's (NCI) FV screener, differences in HRQOL between students who had consumed above the sample's average FV intake and their counterparts were evaluated.