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Plastic litter is now pervasive in the aquatic environment. Several marine and terrestrial organisms can fragment plastic with their feeding appendages, facilitating its breakdown and generating microplastics. However, similar studies with freshwater organisms are extremely limited. We explored the interactions between the caddisfly larvae Agrypnia sp. and polylactic acid (PLA) film. The use of plastic by larvae to build their protective cases was investigated, along with their ability to fragment the plastic film as they do with leaf litter. Caddisfly consistently incorporated PLA into their cases alongside leaf material. They also used their feeding appendages to rapidly fragment PLA—forming hundreds of submillimeter‐sized microplastics. Although larvae showed a preference for leaf material when constructing cases, plastic use and fragmentation still occurred when leaf material was replete, indicating that this behavior is likely to occur in natural environments that are polluted with plastics. This is thought to be the first documented evidence of active plastic modification by a freshwater invertebrate and therefore reveals a previously unidentified mechanism of plastic fragmentation and microplastic formation in freshwater. Further work is now needed to determine the extent of this behavior across freshwater taxa and the potential implications for the wider ecosystem. Environ Toxicol Chem 2022;41:3058–3069. © 2022 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of SETAC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discrete trial training is a commonly used to teach children with autism spectrum disorder and related intellectual disabilities. A number of prompting and error correction strategies can be implemented when using discrete trial training. These strategies need to be effective and efficient. We compared a novel procedure, responsive prompt delay, to most to least prompting and no‐no prompting. A parallel treatments design, nestled in a modified multiple probe design (Horner & Baer, 1978), was used to compare the three procedures with three participants. The responsive prompt delay procedure was at least as effective as the most to least prompting and no‐no prompting procedures for three participants; the time required for each participant to master the skills was variable across procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report a new planar antenna design in the shape of a diamond. The performance of the antenna design is initially obtained through simulation, then fabricated, and its performance evaluated through experiment. Experimental characterization of the diamond-shaped monopole antenna shows good agreement with simulation. In comparison with a simple monopole antenna, our diamond-shaped monopole antenna features smaller geometric footprint and displays a higher bandwidth at millimeteric wave frequencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thirteenth-century theologians believed that grace and theological virtues count as created habits, infused by God. They held that this belief placed them in a stronger position to give an account of the grace given to those with severe cognitive impairments than those who denied such habits. Aquinas argued that the faith infused in baptism, in the case of those who lack reason, nevertheless needs to be supplemented by other church members' actual occurrent assent to the Christian faith. Duns Scotus gives reasons to deny this, and thus defends a view of church membership that avoids any kind of non-mutual dependence in this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on insights from the medieval theologians Duns Scotus and Hervaeus Natalis, I argue that medieval views of the incarnation require that there is a sense in which the divine person depends on his human nature for his human personhood, and thus that the paradigmatic pattern of human personhood is in some way dependent existence. I relate this to a modern distinction between impairment and disability to show that impairment-understood as dependence-is normative for human personhood. I try to show how medieval theories of the resurrection of the body can provide, within this context, plausible accounts of what it might be for human persons to be redeemed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the barriers that are experienced by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in moving toward sustainability in manufacturing. It provides an overview of sustainability and environmentally benign production, its role in SMEs, and the growing research interests in SME. It presents the special features of SMEs including its management and organizational structure, focus on local markets, and day-to-day orientation. It emphasizes on the barriers in adopting sustainable practices in SMS and the corresponding process in overcoming those barriers. It reveals the use of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) analysis and life-cycle assessment (LCA) in studying the problems. It further cites the conduct of life-cycle inventory (LCI) in ABC Ltd.

Hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP) is an interstitial lung disease that develops following repeated exposure to inhaled particulate antigens. The disease is characterized by lymphocytic alveolitis, granuloma formation and fibrosis. IFN-γ is required for the formation of granulomas in HP, and we therefore focused on identifying the cellular sources of IFN-γ during the disease. Using the Saccharopolyspora rectivirgula (SR) animal model of HP, we demonstrated that the majority of IFN-γ cells in the lung following SR exposure are neutrophils. Ab-mediated depletion of neutrophils in mice prior to exposure to SR resulted in a decrease in the level of IFN-γ mRNA and protein compared to isotype Ab-treated mice, suggesting that neutrophils are an important source of IFN-γ during HP. To determine the contribution of T and non-T cell sources of IFN-γ to granuloma formation, we performed adoptive transfer studies. RAG-1 mice reconstituted with spleen cells from IFN-γ mice developed granulomas similarly to RAG-1 mice reconstituted with normal spleen cells. Therefore innate immune cell IFN-γ production in the absence of T cell IFN-γ production is sufficient for granuloma formation. These results provide new insight into the pathogenesis of HP and demonstrate the important contribution of innate immune cells to the disease process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Members of the FoF1, AoA1 and VoV1 family of ATP synthases and ATPases have undergone at least two reversals in primary function. The first was from a progenitor proton-pumping ATPase to a proton-driven ATP synthase. The second involved transforming the synthase back into a proton-pumping ATPase. As proposed earlier [FEBS Lett. 259 (1990) 227], these reversals required changes in the H+/ATP coupling ratio from an optimal value of about 2 for an ATPase function to about 4 for an ATP synthase function. The doubling of the ratio that occurred at the ATPase-to-Synthase transition was accomplished by duplicating the gene that encodes the nucleotide-binding catalytic subunits followed by loss of function in one of the genes. The halving of the ratio that occurred at the Synthase-to-ATPase transition was achieved by a duplication/fusion of the gene that encodes the proton-binding transporter subunits, followed by a loss of function in one half of the double-sized protein. These events allowed conservation of quaternary structure, while maintaining a sufficient driving force to sustain an adequate phosphorylation potential or electrochemical gradient. Here, we describe intermediate evolutionary steps and a fine-tuning of the H+/ATP coupling ratio to optimize synthase function in response to different environments. In addition, we propose a third reversal of function, from an ATPase back to an ATP synthase. In contrast to the first two reversals which required a partial loss in function, the change in coupling ratio required for the third reversal is explained by a gain in function. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP) is an interstitial lung disease that develops following repeated exposure to inhaled particulate antigens. Individuals with HP develop lymphocytic alveolitis,granuloma formation, and fibrosis. HP is categorized as a Th1 disease, and granuloma formation is dependent on T cells and the Th1 cytokine IFN-γ. We therefore hypothesized that the IFN-γ-inducible chemokines IP-10, Mig, and I-TAC, which are frequently associated with Th1 diseases, would play an important role in the pathogenesis of disease. We analyzed the expression of multiple chemokines in the lungs of wild-type (WT) and IFN-γ-knockout (GKO) mice exposed to the particulate antigen Saccharopolyspora rectivirgula (SR). Our results demonstrate the production of IP-10, Mig, and I-TAC in WT mice during the development of HP, whereas GKO mice have reduced levels of IP-10 and no Mig or I-TAC mRNA in the lungs in response to SR exposure. The production of these chemokines is associated with an influx of CXCR3/CD4 T cells into lungs of WT mice, which is reduced in GKO mice. These results suggest that IFN-γ mediates the recruitment of CXCR3/CD4 T cells into the lung via production of the chemokines IP-10, Mig, and I-TAC, resulting in granuloma formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores Schlatter's doctrine of the Trinity in the light of the contemporary debate, focusing on the relation of the economic and the ontological Trinity. It is shown that Schlatter relates God's triune being and God's trinitarian action through the notion of love – where God's love ad extra as well as ad intra is oriented toward the particular in such a way as to enable true otherness. It will be argued, moreover, that Schlatter's contribution to the contemporary trinitarian debate lies in propounding an applied trinitarian theology which is faithful to its object. When God in himself and in relation to creation is oriented toward and actively seeks the other, then theology cannot talk about God's being apart from the actuality of his actions in this world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Juvenile California ground squirrel responses to adult alarm calls and juvenile alarm calling may be modified during development to achieve adult form. Adult conspecific chatter and whistle alarm calls were played back to juvenile and adult ground squirrels at an agricultural field site. In response to chatter playbacks, adults spent more time visually orienting to the environment and less time out of view and in covered habitats than juveniles; the converse was true in response to whistle playbacks. To test the evocativeness of juvenile calling, a subset of adult subjects received juvenile chatter and whistle playbacks. Adults spent less time out of view to juvenile call types than to adult calls, and showed more similar responses to juvenile chatters and whistles than to adult chatters and whistles. Age differences in the ground squirrel's alarm call system may reflect adjustments to changing risks during development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the chaperonin GroEL/GroES complex hinds and hydrolyzes ATP, its structure is unlike other known ATPases. In order to better characterize its nucleotide binding sites, we have photolabeled the complex with the affinity analog 2-azido-ATP. Three residues of GroEL, Pro137, Cys138 and Thr468, are labeled by the probe. The location of these residues in the GroEL crystal structure (Bruig, K., Otwinowski, Z., Hedge, R., Boisvert, D., Joachimiak, A., Horwich, A. & Sigler, P. (1994) Nature 371, 578- 586, Boisvert, D. C., Wang, J., Otwinowski, Z., Horwich, A. L. & Sigler, P. B. (1996) Nat. Struct. Biol. 3, 170- 177] suggests that 2-azido-ATP binds to an alternative conformer of GroEL in the presence of GroES. The labeled site appears to he located at the GroEL/GroEL subunit interface since modification of Pro137 and Cys138 is most readily explained by attack of a probe molecule bound to the adjacent GroEL subunit. Labeling of the co-chaperonin. GroES, is clearly demonstrated on gels and the covalent tethering of nucleotide allows detection of a GroES dimer in the presence of SDS. However, no stable peptide derivative of GroES could be purified for sequencing, in contrast, the GroES homolog, yeast cpn10, does give a stable derivative. The modified amino acid is identified as the conserved Pro 13, which corresponds to Pro5 in Escherichia coli GroES. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]