Gestational exposure to PM, NO, and sex steroid hormones: Identifying critical windows of exposure in the Rochester UPSIDE Cohort.

Background: Sex steroid hormones are critical for maintaining pregnancy and optimal fetal development. Air pollutants are potential endocrine disruptors that may disturb sex steroidogenesis during pregnancy, potentially leading to adverse health outcomes.

Methods: In the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes Understanding Pregnancy Signals and Infant Development pregnancy cohort (Rochester, NY), sex steroid concentrations were collected at study visits in early-, mid-, and late-pregnancy in 299 participants.

Shear localisation controls the dynamics of earthquakes.

Earthquakes are produced by the propagation of rapid slip along tectonic faults. The propagation dynamics is governed by a balance between elastic stored energy in the surrounding rock, and dissipated energy at the propagating tip of the slipping patch. Energy dissipation is dictated by the mechanical behaviour of the fault, which is itself the result of feedbacks between thermo-hydro-mechanical processes acting at the mm to sub-mm scale.

Starch phosphorylation - A new perspective: A review.

The phosphorylation of the storage carbohydrates, starch and glycogen, is a process that is fundamental to their physicochemical properties and their turnover. Therefore, the interest utilising phosphorylation as a biotechnological tool to customize polysaccharides has risen permanently. Today, the phosphoesterification of both carbohydrate forms is much better understood.

Bernoulli trial under subsystem restarts: Two competing searchers looking for a target.

We study a pair of independent searchers competing for a target under restarts and find that introduction of restarts tends to enhance the search efficiency of an already efficient searcher. As a result, the difference between the search probabilities of the individual searchers increases when the system is subject to restarts. This result holds true independent of the identity of individual searchers or the specific details of the distribution of restart times.

PFAS Destruction and Near-Complete Defluorination of Undiluted Aqueous Film-Forming Foams at Ambient Conditions by Piezoelectric Ball Milling.

The nonthermal destruction of aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) stockpiles, one of the major culprits responsible for water and soil contamination by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), is extremely challenging because of the coexistence of mixed recalcitrant PFAS and complicated organic matrices at extremely high concentrations. To date, the complete defluorination of undiluted AFFF at ambient conditions has not been demonstrated. This study reports a novel piezoelectric ball milling approach for treating AFFF with a total organic fluorine concentration of 9080 mg/L and total organic carbon of 234 g/L.

Continuous Near-Bed Movements of Microplastics in Open Channel Flows: Statistical Analysis.

The ubiquitous distribution of microplastics (MPs) in aquatic environments is linked to their transport in rivers and streams. However, the specific mechanism of bedload microplastic (MP) transport, notably their stochastic behaviors, remains an underexplored area. To investigate this, particle tracking velocimetry was employed to examine the continuous near-bed movements of four types of MPs under nine setups with different experimental conditions in a laboratory flume, with an emphasis on their streamwise transport.

Mitigating triplet loss in 2D WSe/non-fullerene heterostructures using halogenated acceptors.

Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (2D TMDCs) can be combined with organic semiconductors to form hybrid van der Waals heterostructures. Specially, non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs) stand out due to their excellent absorption and exciton diffusion properties. Here, we couple monolayer tungsten diselenide (ML-WSe) with two well performing NFAs, ITIC, and IT-4F (fluorinated ITIC) to achieve hybrid architectures.

Inflammatory Potential of the Diet and Risk of Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis.

Background: Association between dietary factors and the risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has been studied extensively. However, identification of deleterious dietary patterns merits further study.

Aim: To investigate the risk of developing Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) according to the inflammatory score of the diet (ISD) in the multinational European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort.

Subjective motoric cognitive risk syndrome: Preliminary prevalence from an online survey of a German cohort aged 50.

The motoric cognitive risk syndrome (MCR) is a novel and clinically relevant pre-dementia syndrome indicating a higher dementia risk (e.g., for Alzheimer's disease).

Reduced antioxidant high-density lipoprotein function in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.

Background: Heart failure (HF) is a heterogeneous clinical syndrome affecting a growing global population. Due to the high incidence of cardiovascular risk factors, a large proportion of the Western population is at risk for heart failure. Oxidative stress and inflammation play a crucial role in the pathophysiology of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF).

Age-specific effects of a sustained cognitive activity on perceived cognitive fatigue as well as single- and dual-task treadmill walking performance.

During their daily lives humans are often confronted with sustained cognitive activities (SCA) leading to state fatigue, a psychobiological state characterized by a decrease in cognitive and/or motor performance and/or an increase in perception of fatigue. It was recently shown that performing SCA can impair overground dual-task gait performance in older adults, but it is currently unknown whether there is a task- and/or age-specific modulation in gait performance during treadmill walking. Therefore, the effect of a SCA on single- and dual-task treadmill walking performance was investigated in young and old adults.

Leveraging Metal Complexes for Microsecond Lifetime-Based Chloride Sensing.

Chloride is the most abundant anion in cells and plays many critical roles in maintaining cellular homeostasis. However, current chloride indicators are rare with inherent sensitivity in their emission properties, such as vulnerability to pH changes or short emission lifetimes. These limitations restrict their application in aqueous media and imaging.

Phylogeographic analyses reveal recent dispersal and multiple Wolbachia infections of the bright-eyed ringlet Erebia oeme within the European mountain systems.

The genus Erebia comprises numerous species in Europe. Due to preference of cold environments, most species have disjunct distributions in the European mountain systems. However, their biogeographical patterns may differ significantly.

Potential plant extinctions with the loss of the Pleistocene mammoth steppe.

During the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, the dominant mammoth steppe ecosystem across northern Eurasia vanished, in parallel with megafauna extinctions. However, plant extinction patterns are rarely detected due to lack of identifiable fossil records. Here, we introduce a method for detection of plant taxa loss at regional (extirpation) to potentially global scale (extinction) and their causes, as determined from ancient plant DNA metabarcoding in sediment cores (sedaDNA) from lakes in Siberia and Alaska over the past 28,000 years.

Disentangling emotional source memory: a mega-analysis on the effects of emotion on item-context binding in episodic long-term memory.

Introduction: It has long been known that highly arousing emotional single items are better recollected than low arousing neutral items. Despite the robustness of this memory advantage, emotional arousing events may not always promote the retrieval of source details (i.e.

Exploring 1-alkene biosynthesis in bacterial antagonists and jeotgalicoccus sp. ATCC 8456.

Terminal olefins are important platform chemicals, drop-in compatible hydrocarbons and also play an important role as biocontrol agents of plant pathogens. Currently, 1-alkenes are derived from petroleum, although microbial biosynthetic routes are known. Jeotgalicoccus sp.

Structural determinants of oxygen resistance and Zn-mediated stability of the [FeFe]-hydrogenase from .

[FeFe]-hydrogenases catalyze the reversible two-electron reduction of two protons to molecular hydrogen. Although these enzymes are among the most efficient H-converting biocatalysts in nature, their catalytic cofactor (termed H-cluster) is irreversibly destroyed upon contact with dioxygen. The [FeFe]-hydrogenase CbA5H from has a unique mechanism to protect the H-cluster from oxygen-induced degradation.

CryoCrane: an open-source GUI for analyzing cryo-EM screening data sets.

Screening of cryo-EM samples is essential for the generation of high-resolution cryo-EM structures. Often, it is cumbersome to correlate the appearance of specific grid squares and micrograph quality. Here, CryoCrane (Correlate atlas and exposures), a visualization tool for cryo-EM screening data, is presented.

The contribution of general intelligence to cognitive performance across the lifespan: A differentiation analysis of the wechsler tests.

Human cognitive abilities exhibit positive interrelationships that can be represented by a latent general intelligence factor (g). Differentiation hypotheses propose that there are systematic interindividual differences in the strength of g, specifically along the dimensions of ability level (ability differentiation) and age (age differentiation). Despite the potential implications for cognitive theory and assessment, the available evidence on the matter is inconclusive.

Prebiotics as modulators of colonic calcium and magnesium uptake.

Ca and Mg are essential nutrients, and deficiency can cause serious health problems. Thus, lack of Ca and Mg can lead to osteoporosis, with incidence rising both in absolute and age-specific terms, while Mg deficiency is associated with type II diabetes. Prevention via vitamin D or estrogen is controversial, and the bioavailability of Ca and Mg from supplements is significantly lower than that from milk products.

Molecular Characterization and Potential Inhibitors Prediction of Protein Arginine Methyltransferase-2 in Carcinoma: An Insight from Molecular Docking, ADMET Profiling and Molecular Dynamics Simulation Studies.

Objectives: To predict and characterize the three-dimensional (3D) structure of protein arginine methyltransferase 2 (PRMT2) using homology modeling, besides, the identification of potent inhibitors for enhanced comprehension of the biological function of this protein arginine methyltransferase (PRMT) family protein in carcinogenesis.

Materials And Methods: An method was employed to predict and characterize the three-dimensional structure. The bulk of PRMTs in the PDB shares just a structurally conserved catalytic core domain.

Effects of tire wear particles on freshwater bacterial-fungal community dynamics and subsequent elemental cycles using microcosms.

Ecological impacts of tire wear particles (TWPs) on microbial communities and biogeochemical cycles in freshwater remain largely unknown. Here, we conducted a microcosm experiment to investigate interactions between the overlying water and sediment without and with TWPs addition in a rural vs. urban lake system.

A carbon fiber modified with tin oxide/graphitic carbon nitride as an electrochemical indirect competitive immuno-sensor for ultrasensitive aflatoxin M detection.

The importance of developing multifunctional nanomaterials for sensing technologies is increasing with the arrival of nanotechnology. In this study, we describe the introduction of novel nanoprobe electro-active material into the architecture of an electrochemical immuno-sensor. Based on the electrochemical immuno-sensor, functionalized tin oxide/graphitic carbon nitride nanocomposite (fSnO/g-CN) was synthesized and then analyte specific anti-aflatoxin M monoclonal antibody (AFM-ab) combined to form an electro-active nanoprobe (fSnO/g-CN/AFM-ab).

Protocol for the purification of the plastid-encoded RNA polymerase from transplastomic tobacco plants.

The plastid-encoded RNA polymerase (PEP) plays an essential role in the transcription of the chloroplast genome. Here, we present a strategy to purify the transcriptionally active protein complex from transplastomic tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) lines in which one of the PEP core subunits is fused to an epitope tag. We describe experimental procedures for designing transformation constructs for PEP purification, selection, and analysis of transplastomic tobacco plants.