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Pediatric bipolar disorder (PBD) is a severe mood dysregulation condition that affects 0.5–1% of children and teens in the United States. It is associated with recurrent episodes of mania and depression and an increased risk of suicidality. However, the genetics and neuropathology of PBD are largely unknown. Here, we used a combinatorial family-based approach to characterize cellular, molecular, genetic, and network-level deficits associated with PBD. We recruited a PBD patient and three unaffected family members from a family with a history of psychiatric illnesses. Using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI), we detected altered resting-state functional connectivity in the patient as compared to an unaffected sibling. Using transcriptomic profiling of patient and control induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived telencephalic organoids, we found aberrant signaling in the molecular pathways related to neurite outgrowth. We corroborated the presence of neurite outgrowth deficits in patient iPSC-derived cortical neurons and identified a rare homozygous loss-of-function PLXNB1variant (c.1360C>C; p.Ser454Arg) responsible for the deficits in the patient. Expression of wild-type PLXNB1, but not the variant, rescued neurite outgrowth in patient neurons, and expression of the variant caused the neurite outgrowth deficits in cortical neurons from PlxnB1knockout mice. These results indicate that dysregulated PLXNB1 signaling may contribute to an increased risk of PBD and other mood dysregulation-related disorders by disrupting neurite outgrowth and functional brain connectivity. Overall, this study established and validated a novel family-based combinatorial approach for studying cellular and molecular deficits in psychiatric disorders and identified dysfunctional PLXNB1 signaling and neurite outgrowth as potential risk factors for PBD.

Single- and multi-layered composites of carbon nanotubes, with various weight percent, were fabricated to evaluate their electromagnetic interference shielding effect. Carbon nanotubes of two different lengths were tested for the selection of best nano-fillers as well as fillers for high microwave absorption. Our findings confirmed that longer multi-walled carbon nanotubes can be used for electromagnetic interference shielding where the shielding mechanism was found to be dominated by absorption in the microwave frequency region (2–18 GHz). Long carbon nanotubes-based composites show good electromagnetic wave absorption performance (reflection loss ≈37db) at high frequencies and reveal a broader bandwidth for microwave absorption. The mechanical properties, i.e., tensile strength, hardness, and electrical conductivity, were also improved with the incorporation of multi-walled carbon nanotubes. The measured absorption values, bandwidth, and tensile strength are believed to find attractive applications in the effective electromagnetic interference shielding and reduction of a radar signature. The observed results combined with the advantages of lightweight and corrosion resistant highlight the attractiveness of carbon nanotubes as shielding materials for commercial applications.

We propose an efficient formulation using the framework of Generalized Finite Element Method (GFEM) for the solutions of transient heat diffusion problems having multiple heat sources in the solution domain. The purpose here is to use minimal computational resources and rely on coarse mesh grids to capture the sharp variations of temperature field. We use Gaussian functions of global nature to enrich the GFEM approximation space which ensure efficient solution in the whole solution domain. To capture steep thermal gradients at multiple locations, a multiplicity of enrichment functions is used and the peaks of enrichment functions are centred at the cores of heat sources. The advantage of this approach is that no further degrees of freedom (DOFs) are added to capture the solution at multiple locations. Besides, the enrichment functions are time-independent; the temporal variation of temperature is embedded in the definition of the enrichment functions. This formulation requires the assembly of system matrix once and only the right-hand side of the system of equations is updated at subsequent time steps which results in a significant reduction in the overall computational time. We consider problems in two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) domains to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach. A reduction of more than 95% in DOFs and more than 80% in computational time is achieved as compared to the h-version of finite element method.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The spread of the virus was rapid and currently COVID-19 cases are present worldwide in 213 countries, area or territories. Researchers worldwide are working and sharing their contribution regarding epidemiology, prevention, treatment, clinical and diagnostic patterns of the COVID-19. Current review is another contribution to the current knowledge, presenting the data in organized and systematic format about the current pandemic of COVID-19. The epidemiological information presented in the paper is subject to change as new cases are diagnosed and status of active cases is updated on daily basis.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The spread of the virus was rapid and currently COVID-19 cases are present worldwide in 213 countries, area or territories. Researchers worldwide are working and sharing their contribution regarding epidemiology, prevention, treatment, clinical and diagnostic patterns of the COVID-19. Current review is another contribution to the current knowledge, presenting the data in organized and systematic format about the current pandemic of COVID-19. The epidemiological information presented in the paper is subject to change as new cases are diagnosed and status of active cases is updated on daily basis.

In this paper, the governing equations of steady three-dimensional problem of condensation film on inclined rotating disk are reduced to a system of five coupled nonlinear ordinary differential equations through a similarity transformation. This system is analytically solved by newly developed method namely extended optimal homotopy asymptotic method (EOHAM). The velocity and temperature profiles are shown along with the influence of Prandtl number. These results are verified by homotopy analysis method (HAM) and numerical method. This method controls the convergence of approximate solution in a convenient way, when it is compared with HAM. The results show that EOHAM is simpler, easier, effective and explicit.

To directly address the function of a putative auxin receptor designated ABP1, a reverse genetic approach was taken to identify and characterize ABP1 mutant alleles in Arabidopsis. A homozygous null mutation in ABP1 confers embryo lethality. Null mutant embryos develop normally until the early stages of the globular embryo but are unable to make the transition to a bilaterally symmetrical structure because cells fail to elongate. Cell division was also aberrant both in the suspensor and embryo proper. Antisense suppression of ABP1 in tobacco cells causes slow proliferation and eliminates auxin-induced cell elongation and reduces cell division. The complete lack of auxin-inducible elongation in individual cells confirms the results observed in embryos, indicates a cell autonomous function, and, taken together with biochemical evidence that ABP1 binds auxins, suggests that ABP1 mediates auxin-induced cell elongation and, directly or indirectly, cell division.

Fluoride is found naturally in water, soil, plants, and animals in trace amount. The level of fluoride in drinking water has to be controlled in order to get rid of dental and skeletal fluorosis. A study conducted on children of Quetta city aged 12-year from randomly selected areas showed that dental fluorosis has been found in 63% of children (the data is available) which is a very high percentage. Hence, the focus of this research is mainly to assess the contents of fluoride and its correlation with other physicochemical parameters of drinking water quality in Quetta city. By applying an even sampling plan with the samples distribution taken from tube wells of different sites of Quetta city, where the drinking water quality is known to have been deteriorated. The technique for the analysis of fluoride in groundwater sample is the colorimetric SPADNS method. The study shows that the Concentration of fluoride varies from 0.32 ppm to 3.0 ppm (Hazara town to the western by-pass area of Quetta) as compared with World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines of drinking water for fluoride (i.e., 1.5 ppm). A total number of 13 drinking water samples out of 20 were found unfit for human consumption due to increase in fluoride concentration. The statistical correlation results of drinking water show that solubility of fluoride depends on the level of pH. The salts of, K+, Na+, Ca2+, SO4 2- and Cl- ions take a major role in attaining the favourable pH for the dissolution of fluoride-containing compounds in drinking water. However, fluoride correlation with other physicochemical parameters has not been studied in drinking water of Quetta city. Therefore, this aspect of research was studied accordingly. Furthermore, it is observed that the prevalence of fluoride-related health problems in the study area is due to high fluoride concentration in drinking water, which is expected from rocks with fluoride-bearing minerals of Quetta valley. On the account of the results, de-fluoridation of the identified sampling sites, and regular monitoring of drinking water is recommended at government level to avert further fluorosis risk.

The present investigation is focused on to find out the effects of the structure of epoxy/tri functional mercaptan resins based polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) films on the morphology of polymer matrix via heat curing system. The interaction between epoxy reaction and polythiol group (-SH) resins turn played an essential role in step-growth polymerization reaction for the preparation of PDLC films. In addition to this, the polymer morphologies in this heat curing system have been regulated from polymer beads to porous polymer matrix by changing the liquid crystals (LCs) contents, chemical structures of epoxy tri functional mercaptan resins, and functionality of thiol hardeners. On the other hand, the thiol group (-SH) fractured the PDLC films continuously with changing driving voltage radically. With the enhancing content of the epoxy resins, the LC domain size decreased, while the thiol had a various effect on the LC domain size. It was of great importance for the optimisation and the possible applications of the PDLC films.