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Background: Fifteen percent of women worldwide experience depression in the perinatal period. Suicide is now one of the leading causes of maternal mortality in developed countries. Internationally, many healthcare systems screen post-natal women for depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation to facilitate early assessment and intervention. To our knowledge, no Irish data exists on the prevalence of suicidal ideation in this cohort. Aims: To evaluate the prevalence of suicidal ideation and depressive symptoms using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) in post-natal women attending a large Dublin maternity hospital. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted. Women were randomly selected by delivery date over a 6 month period. Demographic and medical information was collected from their booking visit and discharge summary data. EPDS results at discharge post-partum were examined. Results: Data was collected on 643 women. Post-partum, 19 women (3.4%) had experienced suicidal ideation in the previous 7 days. Just over half of these women also had high EPDS scores (>12). Overall, 29 women (5.2%) screened positive for depression (EPDS score > 12). Conclusions: The rate of suicidal ideation is in line with the published international data and emphasises the need for all clinicians to inquire about such thoughts. Training of midwifery and obstetric staff is required. Maternity units should have a policy on the management of suicidal ideation and risk. The prevalence of depressive symptoms post-partum was comparatively low in our study. This could suggest that antenatal screening and early intervention, which are integral parts of the perinatal mental health service, are effective. However, due to limitations of the study, it could also reflect an under-representation of depressive symptom burden in this cohort.

The advantage of locally applied anesthetics is that they are not associated with the many adverse effects, including addiction liability, of systemically administered analgesics. This therapeutic approach has two inherent pitfalls: specificity and a short duration of action. Here, we identified nociceptor endocytosis as a promising target for local, specific, and long-lasting treatment of inflammatory pain. We observed preferential expression of AP2α2, an α-subunit isoform of the AP2 complex, within CGRP+/IB4- nociceptors in rodents and in CGRP+ dorsal root ganglion neurons from a human donor. We utilized genetic and pharmacological approaches to inhibit nociceptor endocytosis demonstrating its role in the development and maintenance of acute and chronic inflammatory pain. One-time injection of an AP2 inhibitor peptide significantly reduced acute and chronic pain-like behaviors and provided prolonged analgesia. We evidenced sexually dimorphic recovery responses to this pharmacological approach highlighting the importance of sex differences in pain development and response to analgesics., The authors show the endocytotic adaptor subunit called AP2A2 is differentially expressed in CGRP+ nociceptors. Locally inhibiting nociceptor endocytosis with a lipidated AP2 inhibitor peptide reduces acute and chronic pain-like behaviour in mice and rats, indicating prolonged analgesia.

We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of the young, gas-rich debris disk around HD 110058 at 0.″3–0.″6 resolution. The disk is detected in the 0.85 and 1.3 mm continuum, as well as the J = 2–1 and J = 3–2 transitions of 12CO and 13CO. The observations resolve the dust and gas distributions and reveal that this is the smallest debris disk around stars of similar luminosity observed by ALMA. The new ALMA data confirm the disk is very close to edge-on, as shown previously in scattered-light images. We use radiative transfer modeling to constrain the physical properties of dust and gas disks. The dust density peaks at around 31 au and has a smooth outer edge that extends out to ∼70 au. Interestingly, the dust emission is marginally resolved along the minor axis, which indicates that it is vertically thick if truly close to edge-on with an aspect ratio between 0.13 and 0.28. We also find that the CO gas distribution is more compact than the dust (similar to the disk around 49 Ceti), which could be due to a low viscosity and a higher gas release rate at small radii. Using simulations of the gas evolution taking into account the CO photodissociation, shielding, and viscous evolution, we find that HD 110058's CO gas mass and distribution are consistent with a secondary origin scenario. Finally, we find that the gas densities may be high enough to cause the outward drift of small dust grains in the disk.

We present high resolution Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) observations of the protostar L1527 IRS at 7 mm, 1.3 cm, and 2 cm wavelengths. We detect the edge-on dust disk at all three wavelengths and find that it is asymmetric, with the southern side of the disk brighter than the northern side. We confirm this asymmetry through analytic modeling and also find that the disk is flared at 7 mm. We test the data against models including gap features in the intensity profile, and though we cannot rule such models out, they do not provide a statistically significant improvement in the quality of fit to the data. From these fits, we can however place constraints on allowed properties of any gaps that could be present in the true, underlying intensity profile. The physical nature of the asymmetry is difficult to associate with physical features due to the edge-on nature of the disk, but could be related to spiral arms or asymmetries seen in other imaging of more face-on disks., 20 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables; accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

Fire has been part of the natural environment of south-eastern Australia for tens of millions of years. Aboriginal people used fire selectively, with skill, for many reasons. The removal of Aborigi...

Cheap and abundant waste from bioethanol and agricultural processing industries are an alluring alternative feedstock for biorefineries. In this work, we employ reductive catalytic fractionation (RCF) to depolymerize, over Ru/C powder and Ru/Al2O3 pellets, five herbaceous biomass feedstocks, namely corn stover, miscanthus, switchgrass, sugarcane bagasse, and wheat straw into phenolic monomers with high yields (∼40 wt% based on total (Klason + acid soluble) lignin and >50 wt% when stabilized using aldehydes), leaving behind a carbohydrate pulp residue. Interestingly, a polar solvent is sufficient to solubilize and fragment the lignin polymer into monomers without any catalyst. Contrary to woody biomass, where the monomer yields are positively correlated with the S-content of lignin, principal component analysis indicates that the monomer yields from herbaceous biomass depend on the content of lignin crosslinker – ferulate. Using NMR, we further identify α-6 C–C linked oligomers formed from condensation reactions, explaining the unexpected low monomer yields of high β-O-4 herbaceous biomass. Recyclability experiments indicate that catalyst deactivation occurs through sintering, leaching, and fouling. Lignin oil from herbaceous biomass exhibits bacteriostatic effects against Staphylococcus aureus, highlighting a potential application in functional food development and as a food or feed preservative.

We present Markov Chain Monte Carlo radiative transfer modeling of a joint ALMA 345 GHz and spectral energy distribution dataset for a sample of 97 protostellar disks from the VLA and ALMA Nascent Disk and Multiplicity Survey of Orion Protostars. From this modeling, we derive disk and envelope properties for each protostar, allowing us to examine the bulk properties of a population of young protostars. We find that disks are small, with a median dust radius of $ 29.4^{+ 4.1}_{- 2.7}$ au and a median dust mass of $ 5.8^{+ 4.6}_{- 2.7}$ M$_{\oplus}$. We find no statistically significant difference between most properties of Class 0, I, and Flat Spectrum sources with the exception of envelope dust mass and inclination. The distinction between inclination is an indication that the Class 0/I/Flat Spectrum system may be difficult to tie uniquely to the evolutionary state of protostars. When comparing with Class II disk dust masses in Taurus from similar radiative transfer modeling, we further find that the trend of disk dust mass decreasing from Class 0 to Class II disks is no longer present, though it remains unclear whether such a comparison is fair due to differences in star forming region and modeling techniques. Moreover, the disks we model are broadly gravitationally stable. Finally, we compare disk masses and radii with simulations of disk formation and find that magnetohydrodynamical effects may be important for reproducing the observed properties of disks., 31 pages, 15 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ

VLA 1623 West is an ambiguous source that has been described as a shocked cloudlet as well as a protostellar disk. We use deep ALMA 1.3 and 0.87 millimeter observations to constrain its shape and structure to determine its origins better. We use a series of geometric models to fit the uv visibilities at both wavelengths with GALARIO. Although the Real visibilities show structures similar to what has been identified as gaps and rings in protoplanetary disks, we find that a modified Flat-Topped Gaussian at high inclination provides the best fit to the observations. This fit agrees well with expectations for an optically thick, highly inclined disk. Nevertheless, we find that the geometric models consistently yield positive residuals at the four corners of the disk at both wavelengths. We interpret these residuals as evidence that the disk is flared in the millimeter dust. We use a simple toy model for an edge-on flared disk and find that the residuals best match a disk with flaring that is mainly restricted to the outer disk at $R \gtrsim 30$ au. Thus, VLA 1623W may represent a young protostellar disk where the large dust grains have not yet had enough time to settle into the mid-plane. This result may have implications for how disk evolution and vertical dust settling impact the initial conditions leading to planet formation., Comment: Accepted by ApJ, 12 pages, 13 figures

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited., We present Atacama Large Millimeter Array band 6/7 (1.3 mm/0.87 mm) and Very Large Array Ka-band (9 mm) observations toward NGC 2071 IR, an intermediate-mass star-forming region. We characterize the continuum and associated molecular line emission toward the most luminous protostars, i.e., IRS1 and IRS3, on ∼100 au (0farcs2) scales. IRS1 is partly resolved in the millimeter and centimeter continuum, which shows a potential disk. IRS3 has a well-resolved disk appearance in the millimeter continuum and is further resolved into a close binary system separated by ∼40 au at 9 mm. Both sources exhibit clear velocity gradients across their disk major axes in multiple spectral lines including C18O, H2CO, SO, SO2, and complex organic molecules like CH3OH, 13CH3OH, and CH3OCHO. We use an analytic method to fit the Keplerian rotation of the disks and give constraints on physical parameters with a Markov Chain Monte Carlo routine. The IRS3 binary system is estimated to have a total mass of 1.4–1.5 M⊙. IRS1 has a central mass of 3–5 M⊙ based on both kinematic modeling and its spectral energy distribution, assuming that it is dominated by a single protostar. For both IRS1 and IRS3, the inferred ejection directions from different tracers, including radio jet, water maser, molecular outflow, and H2 emission, are not always consistent, and for IRS1 these can be misaligned by ∼50°. IRS3 is better explained by a single precessing jet. A similar mechanism may be present in IRS1 as well but an unresolved multiple system in IRS1 is also possible. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society., Support for this work was provided by the NSF through the Grote Reber Fellowship Program (to Y.C.) administered by Associated Universities, Inc./National Radio Astronomy Observatory. J.J.T. acknowledges funding from NSF grant AST-1814762. Y.-L.Y. acknowledges the support of the Virginia Initiative of Cosmic Origins (VICO) Postdoctoral Fellowship. M.L.R.H. acknowledges support from the Michigan Society of Fellows. Z.-Y.L. is supported in part by NASA 80NSSC20K0533 and NSF AST-1815784. G.A. and M.O. acknowledge support from the Spanish MINECO/AEI through the AYA2017-84390-C2 grant (co-funded by FEDER), MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 through the PID2020-114461GB-I00 and from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the "Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa" award for the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (SEV-2017-0709). M.O. also acknowledges financial support from the Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades of the Junta de Andalucía, and the European Regional Development Fund from the European Union through the grant P20-00880. This paper makes use of the following ALMA data: ADS/JAO.ALMA#2015.1.00041.S and ADS/JAO.ALMA #2018.1.01038.S. ALMA is a partnership of ESO (representing its member states), NSF (USA) and NINS (Japan), together with NRC (Canada), MOST and ASIAA (Taiwan), and KASI (Republic of Korea), in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. The Joint ALMA Observatory is operated by ESO, AUI/NRAO, and NAOJ. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

We compiled a human metagenome assembled plasmid (MAP) database and interrogated differences across multiple studies that were originally designed to investigate the composition of the human microbiome across various lifestyles, life stages and events. This was performed as plasmids enable bacteria to rapidly expand their functional capacity through mobilisation, yet their contribution to human health and disease is poorly understood. We observed that inter-sample β-diversity differences of plasmid content (plasmidome) could distinguish cohorts across a multitude of conditions. We also show that reduced intra-sample plasmidome α-diversity is consistent amongst patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and Clostridioides difficile infections. We also show that faecal microbiota transplants can restore plasmidome diversity. Overall plasmidome diversity, specific plasmids, and plasmid-encoded functions can all potentially act as biomarkers of IBD or its severity. The human plasmidome is an overlooked facet of the microbiome and should be integrated into investigations regarding the role of the microbiome in promoting health or disease. Including MAP databases in analyses will enable a greater understanding of the roles of plasmid-encoded functions within the gut microbiome and will inform future human metagenome analyses.

Highlights • The sciatic nerve cuff model of neuropathic pain exhibits pain recovery. • Thermal hyperalgesia and dynamic weight bearing display similar pain recovery profiles, whereas mechanical allodynia persists. • Dynamic weight bearing is a non-reflexive, pain assessment of ongoing pain during nerve entrapment., Chronic constriction injuries (CCI) of the sciatic nerve are widely used nerve entrapment animal models of neuropathic pain. Two common pain behaviors observed following CCI are thermal hyperalgesia and mechanical allodynia, measured by the Hargreaves and von Frey tests, respectively. While thermal hyperalgesia tends to recover by 30 days, mechanical allodynia can persist for many more months thereafter. Consequently, mechanical allodynia has been used extensively as a measure of ‘chronic pain’ focusing on the circuitry changes that occur within the spinal cord. Here, using the sciatic nerve cuff variant of CCI in mice, we propose that in contrast to these evoked measures of nociceptive hypersensitivity, dynamic weight bearing provides a more clinically relevant behavioral measure for ongoing pain during nerve injury. We found that the effect of sciatic nerve cuff on the ratio of weight bearing by the injured relative to uninjured hindlimbs more closely resembled that of thermal hyperalgesia, following a trend toward recovery by 30 days. We also found an increase in the percent of body weight bearing by the contralateral paw that is not seen in the previously tested behaviors. These results demonstrate that dynamic weight bearing is a reliable measure of non-evoked neuropathic pain and suggest that thermal hyperalgesia, rather than mechanical allodynia, provides a proxy measure for nerve entrapment-induced ongoing pain.

Voltage-dependent sodium (Na(V)) 1.8 channels regulate action potential generation in nociceptive neurons, identifying them as putative analgesic targets. Here, we show that Na(V)1.8 channel plasma membrane localization, retention, and stability occur through a direct interaction with the postsynaptic density-95/discs large/zonula occludens-1–and WW domain–containing scaffold protein called membrane-associated guanylate kinase with inverted orientation (Magi)-1. The neurophysiological roles of Magi-1 are largely unknown, but we found that dorsal root ganglion (DRG)–specific knockdown of Magi-1 attenuated thermal nociception and acute inflammatory pain and produced deficits in Na(V)1.8 protein expression. A competing cell-penetrating peptide mimetic derived from the Na(V)1.8 WW binding motif decreased sodium currents, reduced Na(V)1.8 protein expression, and produced hypoexcitability. Remarkably, a phosphorylated variant of the very same peptide caused an opposing increase in Na(V)1.8 surface expression and repetitive firing. Likewise, in vivo, the peptides produced diverging effects on nocifensive behavior. Additionally, we found that Magi-1 bound to sequence like a calcium-activated potassium channel sodium-activated (Slack) potassium channels, demonstrating macrocomplexing with Na(V)1.8 channels. Taken together, these findings emphasize Magi-1 as an essential scaffold for ion transport in DRG neurons and a central player in pain.—Pryce, K. D., Powell, R., Agwa, D., Evely, K. M., Sheehan, G. D., Nip, A., Tomasello, D. L., Gururaj, S., Bhattacharjee, A. Magi-1 scaffolds Na(V)1.8 and Slack K(Na) channels in dorsal root ganglion neurons regulating excitability and pain.

Proteins are abundant biochemical components of microalgae and food wastes that can be used as feedstocks for producing renewable bio-crude oils and value-added chemicals. We elucidated the reaction pathways of a model peptide, tetra-alanine, in hot, compressed liquid water and examined the effects of pH, temperature, and time. We developed a chemical kinetic model that incorporated pH effects and estimated rate parameters from the experimental data. pH influenced the dissociation states of tetra-alanine and the selectivity of reactions. Zwitterionic tetra-alanine predominately formed di-alanine and alanine anhydride as primary products. Anionic tetra-alanine preferentially underwent hydrolysis into tri-alanine, di-alanine, and alanine. The kinetic model provided an excellent correlation to the experimental data. Highly alkaline conditions mitigated yields of alanine anhydride, a N- and O-containing heterocycle representative of compounds that undesirably partition into bio-crude oils. Accordingly, highly alkaline conditions may offer processing conditions for lessening the heteroatom content of bio-crude oils.

We present new Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations toward a compact (∼230 au separation) triple protostar system, L1448 IRS3B, at 879 μm with 011 × 005 resolution. Spiral arm structure within the circum-multiple disk is well resolved in dust continuum toward IRS3B, and we detect the known wide (∼2300 au) companion, IRS3A, also resolving possible spiral substructure. Using dense gas tracers, C17O (J = 3 2), H13CO+ (J = 4 3), and H13CN (J = 4 3), we resolve the Keplerian rotation for both the circum-triple disk in IRS3B and the disk around IRS3A. Furthermore, we use the molecular line kinematic data and radiative transfer modeling of the molecular line emission to confirm that the disks are in Keplerian rotation with fitted masses of M ⊙ for IRS3B-ab and M ⊙ for IRS3A and place an upper limit on the central protostar mass for the tertiary IRS3B-c of 0.2 M ⊙. We measure the mass of the fragmenting disk of IRS3B to be ∼0.29 M ⊙ from the dust continuum emission of the circum-multiple disk and estimate the mass of the clump surrounding IRS3B-c to be 0.07 M ⊙. We also find that the disk around IRS3A has a mass of ∼0.04 M ⊙. By analyzing the Toomre Q parameter, we find the IRS3A circumstellar disk is gravitationally stable (Q > 5), while the IRS3B disk is consistent with a gravitationally unstable disk (Q

We present observations toward HOPS 383, the first known outbursting Class 0 protostar located within the Orion molecular cloud using ALMA, VLA, and SMA. The SMA observations reveal envelope scale continuum and molecular line emission surrounding HOPS 383 at 0.85 mm, 1.1 mm, and 1.3 mm. The images show that HCO$^+$ and H$^{13}$CO$^+$ peaks on or near the continuum, while N$_2$H$^+$ is reduced at the same position. This reflects the underlying chemistry where CO evaporating close to the protostar destroys N$_2$H$^+$ while forming HCO$^+$. We also observe the molecular outflow traced by $^{12}$CO ($J = 2 \rightarrow 1$) and ($J = 3 \rightarrow 2$). A disk is resolved in the ALMA 0.87 mm dust continuum, orthogonal to the outflow direction, with an apparent radius of $\sim$62 AU. Radiative transfer modeling of the continuum gives disk masses of 0.02 M$_{\odot}$ when fit to the ALMA visibilities. The models including VLA 8 mm data indicate that the disk mass could be up to a factor of 10 larger due to lower dust opacity at longer wavelengths. The disk temperature and surface density profiles from the modeling, and an assumed protostar mass of 0.5 M$_{\odot}$ suggest that the Toomre $Q$ parameter $< 1$ before the outburst, making gravitational instability a viable mechanism to explain outbursts at an early age if the disk is sufficiently massive., Accepted by ApJ

We have conducted a survey of 328 protostars in the Orion molecular clouds with ALMA at 0.87 mm at a resolution of $\sim$0.1" (40 au), including observations with the VLA at 9 mm toward 148 protostars at a resolution of $\sim$0.08" (32 au). This is the largest multi-wavelength survey of protostars at this resolution by an order of magnitude. We use the dust continuum emission at 0.87 mm and 9 mm to measure the dust disk radii and masses toward the Class 0, Class I, and Flat Spectrum protostars, characterizing the evolution of these disk properties in the protostellar phase. The mean dust disk radii for the Class 0, Class I, and Flat Spectrum protostars are 44.9$^{+5.8}_{-3.4}$, 37.0$^{+4.9}_{-3.0}$, and 28.5$^{+3.7}_{-2.3}$ au, respectively, and the mean protostellar dust disk masses are 25.9$^{+7.7}_{-4.0}$, 14.9$^{+3.8}_{-2.2}$, 11.6$^{+3.5}_{-1.9}$ Earth masses, respectively. The decrease in dust disk masses is expected from disk evolution and accretion, but the decrease in disk radii may point to the initial conditions of star formation not leading to the systematic growth of disk radii or that radial drift is keeping the dust disk sizes small. At least 146 protostellar disks (35% out of 379 detected 0.87 mm continuum sources plus 42 non-detections) have disk radii greater than 50 au in our sample. These properties are not found to vary significantly between different regions within Orion. The protostellar dust disk mass distributions are systematically larger than that of Class II disks by a factor of $>$4, providing evidence that the cores of giant planets may need to at least begin their formation during the protostellar phase., 107 pages, 21 Figures, 11 Tables, accepted to ApJ. Version with all source figures: https://www.cv.nrao.edu/~jtobin/Orion-disks-fullfigs.pdf Reduced data available from https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataverse/VANDAMOrion

Stellar masses are fundamental but often difficult to measure. Thanks to the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) and $Gaia$, dynamical masses of pre-main sequence stars can be precisely measured using the Keplerian rotation of protoplanetary disks. We used ALMA CO(2-1) and CO(3-2) observations of CT Cha and DS Tau to determine their masses by modeling the geometry, kinematics, and physical properties of their disks with a Bayesian-based radiative transfer modeling code $pdspy$. We found that the posterior distributions of the masses from the two transitions are inconsistent at the 2-4 $\sigma$ level. These systematic errors may originate from assumptions in the disk model, or perhaps the modest spatial or spectral resolutions used in this study. Regardless, this indicates that dynamical mass measurements using disk kinematics should be treated with caution when using only a single transition line because of these systematic errors., Comment: Published on RNAAS

We present ALMA (0.87 and 1.3 mm) and VLA (9 mm) observations toward the candidate intermediate-mass protostar OMC2-FIR3 (HOPS-370; L bol ∼ 314 L o˙) at ∼0.″1 (40 au) resolution for the continuum emission and ∼0.″25 (100 au) resolution of nine molecular lines. The dust continuum observed with ALMA at 0.87 and 1.3 mm resolves a near edge-on disk toward HOPS-370 with an apparent radius of ∼100 au. The VLA observations detect both the disk in dust continuum and free-free emission extended along the jet direction. The ALMA observations of molecular lines (H2CO, SO, CH3OH, 13CO, C18O, NS, and H13CN) reveal rotation of the apparent disk surrounding HOPS-370 orthogonal to the jet/outflow direction. We fit radiative transfer models to both the dust continuum structure of the disk and molecular line kinematics of the inner envelope and disk for the H2CO, CH3OH, NS, and SO lines. The central protostar mass is determined to be ∼2.5 M o˙ with a disk radius of ∼94 au, when fit using combinations of the H2CO, CH3OH, NS, and SO lines, consistent with an intermediate-mass protostar. Modeling of the dust continuum and spectral energy distribution yields a disk mass of 0.035 M o˙ (inferred dust+gas) and a dust disk radius of 62 au; thus, the dust disk may have a smaller radius than the gas disk, similar to Class II disks. In order to explain the observed luminosity with the measured protostar mass, HOPS-370 must be accreting at a rate of (1.7-3.2) × 10-5 M o˙ yr-1. © 2020. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved., The authors thank the anonymous referee for a constructive report that improved the quality of the manuscript. The authors wish to acknowledge useful discussions with L. Hartmann and J. Bae about the results. J.J.T. acknowledges support from grant AST-1814762 from the National Science Foundation and past support from the Homer L. Dodge Endowed Chair at the University of Oklahoma. P.D.S is supported by a National Science Foundation Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship under Award No. 2001830. G.A., M.O., and A.K.D.-R. acknowledge financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the AYA2017-84390-C2-1-R grant (co-funded by FEDER) and through the "Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa" award for the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (SEV-2017-0709). Z.Y.L. is supported in part by NASA 80NSSC18K1095 and NSF AST-1716259. M.K. gratefully acknowledges funding by the University of Tartu ASTRA project 2014-2020.4.01.16-0029 KOMEET "Benefits for Estonian Society from Space Research and Application," financed by the EU European Regional Development Fund. M.L.R.H. acknowledges support from the Michigan Society of Fellows. This paper makes use of the following ALMA data: ADS/JAO.ALMA#2015.1.00041.S and ADS/JAO.ALMA#2017.1.00419.S. ALMA is a partnership of ESO (representing its member states), NSF (USA), and NINS (Japan), together with NRC (Canada), NSC and ASIAA (Taiwan), and KASI (Republic of Korea), in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. The Joint ALMA Observatory is operated by ESO, AUI/NRAO, and NAOJ. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. These results are based on observations obtained with the Apache Point Observatory 3.5m telescope, which is owned and operated by the Astrophysical Research Consortium (ARC). We wish to thank the APO 3.5m telescope operators in their assistance in obtaining these data. Access to the APO 3.5m telescope is funded by the University of Oklahoma and the Homer L. Dodge Endowed Chair. This research made use of APLpy, an open-source plotting package for Python hosted at.http://aplpy.github.com.This research made use of Astropy, a community-developed core Python package for Astronomy (Astropy Collaboration, 2013) http://www.astropy.org.

The present work investigates the solubility of dipotassium and monopotassium phosphate in near- and supercritical water. The highest solubilities exceeded 100 mmol·kg-1 at 633.15 K and 30 MPa, the lowest temperature and highest pressure conditions examined, while at 723.15 K and 19 MPa, the lowest solubilities were observed for approximately 0.2 mmol·kg-1and 0.001 mmol·kg-1. For potassium phosphates, increasing density and decreasing temperature monotonically increased their solubility. Three semi-empirical models were employed to correlate the measured solubility data. Enthalpy model and ionization model were demonstrated to provide the highest accuracies for correlating the experimental solubility of di- and monopotassium phosphate, respectively. The chemical equilibrium reactions facilitating the dissolution and precipitation of potassium phosphates were assessed by theoretical calculations via R-HKF equations of state. Calculations by the R-HKF EOS indicated that precipitation was thermodynamically favored under all conditions, however, increasing temperature and water density promoted the dissolution and hydrolysis of potassium phosphates.

SUMMARYOwing to the continuing shortage of organs, the demand for transplantation outstrips supply. Liaison psychiatrists, as part of a multidisciplinary team, have a key role in the assessment of transplant candidates and participate in the decision-making process regarding ‘listing’ the patient for transplantation. Psychiatric and psychosocial factors affect prognosis post-transplantation and there are absolute and relative contraindications to transplantation. The skills of the liaison psychiatrist are employed throughout the patient's illness journey, in the pre-, peri- and post-transplantation periods.LEARNING OBJECTIVES•Learn the salient factors in a pre-transplantation psychosocial assessment•Know the contraindications to transplantation•Appreciate the factors associated with a poor outcome post-transplantationDECLARATION OF INTERESTNone.

WL 17 is a young transition disk in the Ophiuchus L1688 molecular cloud complex. Even though WL 17 is among the brightest disks in L1688 and massive enough to expect dust self-scattering, it was undetected in polarization down to ALMA's instrument sensitivity limit. Such low polarization fractions could indicate unresolved polarization within the beam or optically thin dust emission. We test the latter case by combining the high sensitivity 233 GHz Stokes I data from the polarization observations with previous ALMA data at 345 GHz and 100 GHz. We use simple geometric shapes to fit the observed disk visibilities in each band. Using our simple models and assumed dust temperature profiles, we estimate the optical depth in all three bands. The optical depth at 233 GHz peaks at $\tau_{233} \sim 0.3$, which suggests the dust emission may not be optically thick enough for dust self-scattering to be efficient. We also find the higher sensitivity 233 GHz data show substructure in the disk for the first time. The substructure appears as brighter lobes along the major axis, on either side of the star. We attempt to fit the lobes with a simple geometric model, but they are unresolved in the 233 GHz data. We propose that the disk may be flared at 1 mm such that there is a higher column of dust along the major axis than the minor axis when viewed at an inclination. These observations highlight the strength of high sensitivity continuum data from dust polarization observations to study disk structures., Comment: Accepted to ApJ, 13 pages, 6 figures

Study Objective: In October 2020, New York State initiated a micro-cluster strategy (“hot spotting”) that divides into three categories based on COVID-19 cases and hospital capacity, each with successively more restrictions: Yellow, Orange, and Red Zones. Our objectives were to evaluate the influence of hot spotting on mobility and subsequent mortality, and then to identify underlying social determinants of health associated with the neighborhoods most affected by hot spotting. Study Design: We combine several data sources in our analysis. Time-dependent data were obtained from SafeGraph for cellphone mobility at the Census Block Group, New York State Governor’s Office for hot spotting, school and indoor dining, and NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) for COVID-19 cases and mortality. Using the DOHMH’s “Modified Zip Code Tabulation Areas” (MODZCTA), we matched these to community-level data obtained from 2018 American Community Survey 5-year estimates for population density. Our main outcomes are Average Median Percentage Time Home (AMPTH) and Device-Weighted Average Median Percentage Time Home (DWAMPTH) from SafeGraph Social Distancing Metrics summarized to MODZCTA boundaries. Home is defined as the common nighttime location of each mobile device over a 6-week period to a Geohash-7 granularity (∼153m x ∼153m). We implemented the Wilcoxon rank-sum test with a 0.1 (2 days for AMPTH and 3 for DWAMPTH). Looking at individual boroughs, Brooklyn had 42 statistically significant days for AMPTH and 49 for DWAMPTH, while Queens had 12 statistically significant days for AMPTH and 7 for DWAMPTH. Conclusions: New York State’s micro-cluster focus Zones is associated with decreased mobility in high COVID-19 prevalence areas. Our study suggests that shutdowns targeted at small geographic areas may reduce mobility and thus can potentially help control COVID-19 spread.

Biodiversity indicators are essential for monitoring the impacts of pressures on the state of nature, determining the effectiveness of policy responses, and tracking progress towards biodiversity targets and sustainable development goals. Indicators based on trends in the abundance of birds are widely used for these purposes in Europe and have been identified as priorities for development elsewhere. To facilitate this we established bird population monitoring schemes in three African countries, based on citizen science approaches used in Europe, aiming to monitor population trends in common and widespread species. We recorded > 500 bird species from c. 450 2-km transects in Botswana, > 750 species from c. 120 transects in Uganda, and > 630 species from c. 90 transects in Kenya. Provisional Wild Bird Indices indicate a strong increase in bird populations in Botswana and a small decrease in Uganda. We also provide comparisons between trends of habitat generalists and specialists, of birds within and outside protected areas, and between Afro-Palearctic migrants and resident birds. Challenges encountered included recruiting, training and retaining volunteer surveyors, and securing long-term funding. However, we show that with technical support and modest investment (c. USD 30,000 per scheme per year), meaningful biodiversity indicators can be generated and used in African countries. Sustained resourcing for the existing schemes, and replication elsewhere, would be a cost-effective way to improve our understanding of biodiversity trends globally, and measure progress towards environmental goals.

We examined the decomposition of and product formation from a model protein, bovine serum albumin (BSA), under hydrothermal conditions. BSA forms smaller polypeptides as it decomposes, primarily via hydrolytic cleavage of the peptide bonds. It also forms insoluble aggregates in high yields at mild conditions, which subsequently decompose. There were no polypeptides (MW > 5 kDa) remaining after 5 min at 350 °C, but smaller peptides persisted in yields of about 15 wt %. The total yield of free amino acids was typically

Summary: Early infantile epileptic encephalopathies (EOEE) are a debilitating spectrum of disorders associated with cognitive impairments. We present a clinical report of a KCNT2 mutation in an EOEE patient. The de novo heterozygous variant Phe240Leu SLICK was identified by exome sequencing and confirmed by Sanger sequencing. Phe240Leu rSlick and hSLICK channels were electrophysiologically, heterologously characterized to reveal three significant alterations to channel function. First, [Cl−]i sensitivity was reversed in Phe240Leu channels. Second, predominantly K+-selective WT channels were made to favor Na+ over K+ by Phe240Leu. Third, and consequent to altered ion selectivity, Phe240Leu channels had larger inward conductance. Further, rSlick channels induced membrane hyperexcitability when expressed in primary neurons, resembling the cellular seizure phenotype. Taken together, our results confirm that Phe240Leu is a “change-of-function” KCNT2 mutation, demonstrating unusual altered selectivity in KNa channels. These findings establish pathogenicity of the Phe240Leu KCNT2 mutation in the reported EOEE patient. : Gururaj et al. report a KCNT2 mutation in a patient with epileptic encephalopathy and employ electrophysiological analyses to establish channel properties that could underlie epileptogenesis: namely, inhibition by high [Cl−]i and loss of exclusive selectivity to K+. Furthermore, primary neurons expressing Ph240Leu display a hyperexcitable phenotype. Keywords: seizures, epileptic encephalopathy, ion channels, potassium channels, Slick, KCNT2, selectivity, Xenopus oocytes, Slack, KCNT1

The delivery of treatment and supply solutions for the management of water infrastructure for small and remote communities presents unique challenges. The identification of water quality hazards, the management of risks and conducting plant performance validation and verification activities can all be problematic. The ‘Demonstration of Robust Water Recycling’ (Robust Recycling) Project was funded by the Australian Water Recycling Centre of Excellence (AWRCoE) and the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) as a means of developing strategies for the provision of small scale water treatment schemes from non-traditional water sources. Using the example of the AAD's Davis Station, this project featured an alternative approach to the establishment of a risk management framework for water recycling. This approach may be applicable to both drinking and recycled water schemes in other small and remote communities.

The Keplerian rotation in protoplanetary disks can be used to robustly measure stellar masses at very high precision if the source distance is known. We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of spatially and spectrally resolved $^{12}$CO (2--1) emission towards the disks around 2MASS J16262774--2527247 (the tertiary companion to ROXs 12 at 5100 au), CT Cha, and DH Tau. We employ detailed modeling of the Keplerian rotation profile, coupled with accurate distances from $Gaia$, to directly measure the stellar masses with $\sim$2\% precision. We also compare these direct mass measurements with the masses inferred from evolutionary models, determined in a statistically rigorous way. We find that 2MASS J16262774--2527247 has a mass of $0.535^{+0.006}_{-0.007}~M_{\odot}$ and CT Cha has a mass of $0.796^{+0.015}_{-0.014}~M_{\odot}$, broadly consistent with evolutionary models, although potentially significant differences remain. DH Tau has a mass of $0.101^{+0.004}_{-0.003}~M_{\odot}$, but it suffers from strong foreground absorption that may affect our mass estimate. The combination of ALMA, $Gaia$, and codes like \texttt{pdspy}, presented here, can be used to infer the dynamical masses for large samples of young stars and substellar objects, and place constraints on evolutionary models., 22 pages, 16 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ

We present new 0.6 - 4 $\mu$m imaging of the SR 21 transition disk from Keck/NIRC2 and Magellan/MagAO. The protoplanetary disk around SR 21 has a large (~ 30 - 40 AU) clearing first inferred from its spectral energy distribution and later detected in sub-millimeter imaging. Both the gas and small dust grains are known to have a different morphology, with an inner truncation in CO at ~7 AU, and micron-sized dust detected within the millimeter clearing. Previous near-infrared imaging could not distinguish between an inner dust disk with a truncation at ~7 AU or one that extended to the sublimation radius. The imaging data presented here require an inner dust disk radius of a few AU, and complex structure such as a warp or spiral. We present a parametric warped disk model that can reproduce the observations. Reconciling the images with the spectral energy distribution gathered from the literature suggests grain growth to ~2 - 5 $\mu$m within the sub-millimeter clearing. The complex disk structure and possible grain growth can be connected to dynamical shaping by a giant-planet mass companion, a scenario supported by previous observational and theoretical studies., Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

We conducted nonisothermal fast hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of soy protein isolate (SPI) for batch holding times of 10–300 s and at temperatures up to 500 °C. The SPI solids rapidly formed water-soluble products, some of which subsequently formed biocrude. The highest biocrude yields (38–40 wt %) were obtained within 45–120 s, at which times the reactor temperatures had reached 375–435 °C. The highest recovery of nitrogen in the aqueous-phase products (80% of that present in SPI) occurred prior to formation of high biocrude yields. Ammonia formation was significant when the hydrothermal reaction medium reached supercritical conditions; over 50% of the atomic N appeared as ammonia under such conditions. We deduced the reaction pathways and developed a kinetic model from the experimental data. The reaction network includes two types of aqueous-phase products formed during HTL of protein. The first type arises directly from the SPI and the second arise from biocrude. The model accurately correlated the p...