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The increasing adoption of distributed recycling via additive manufacturing (DRAM) has facilitated the revalorization of materials derived from waste streams for additive manufacturing. Recycled materials frequently contain impurities and mixed polymers, which can degrade their properties over multiple cycles. This degradation, particularly in rheological properties, limits their applicability in 3D printing. Consequently, there is a critical need for a tool that enables the rapid assessment of the flowability of these recycled materials. This study presents the design, development, and manufacturing of an open-source melt flow index (MFI) apparatus. The open-source MFI was validated with tests on virgin polylactic acid pellets, shredded recycled poly(ethylene) terephthalate glycol flakes, and high-density polyethylene/poly(ethylene) terephthalate blends to demonstrate the range of polymer types and recyclability. The proposed MFI tool offers a user-friendly and cost-effective solution for evaluating the flow properties of materials from waste streams, thereby enhancing their viability for additive manufacturing applications.

Microtubule acetylation is implicated in regulating cell motility, yet its physiological role in directional migration and the underlying molecular mechanisms have remained unclear. This knowledge gap has persisted primarily due to a lack of tools capable of rapidly manipulating microtubule acetylation in actively migrating cells. To overcome this limitation and elucidate the causal relationship between microtubule acetylation and cell migration, we developed a novel optogenetic actuator, optoTAT, which enables precise and rapid induction of microtubule acetylation within minutes in live cells. Using optoTAT, we observed striking and rapid responses at both molecular and cellular level. First, microtubule acetylation triggers release of the RhoA activator GEF-H1 from sequestration on microtubules. This release subsequently enhances actomyosin contractility and drives focal adhesion maturation. These subcellular processes collectively promote sustained directional cell migration. Our findings position GEF-H1 as a critical molecular responder to microtubule acetylation in the regulation of directed cell migration, revealing a dynamic crosstalk between the actin and microtubule cytoskeletal networks., Competing Interests: Competing Interests The authors declare that there is a pending patent application related to optoTAT.

Rhodosporidium toruloides has emerged as an excellent option for microbial lipid production due to its ability to accumulate up to 70 % of lipids per cell dry weight, consume multiple substrates such as glucose and xylose, and tolerate toxic compounds. Despite the potential of Rhodosporidium toruloides for high lipid yields, achieving these remains is a significant hurdle. A comprehensive review is essential to thoroughly evaluate the advancements in processes and technologies to enhance lipid production in R. toruloides. The review covers various strategies for enhancing lipid production like co-culture, adaptive evolution, carbon flux analysis, as well as different modes of fermentation. This review will help researchers to better understand the recent developments in technologies for sustainable and scalable lipid production from R. toruloides and simultaneously emphasize the need for developing an efficient and sustainable bioprocess., Competing Interests: Declarations of Competing Interest The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier GmbH.. All rights reserved.)

Wood hydrolysate has been regarded as sustainable and renewable substrate to produce microbial lipids, a potential feedstock for the biodiesel industry. Moreover, the major by-product of biofuel industries is crude glycerol but its implementation as a carbon source is still constrained due to the presence of impurities resulting in low biomass production and low lipid titer. Thus, this study investigates the effect of different carbon ratios of hydrolysate and crude glycerol on R. toruloides-1588. Hydrolysate to crude glycerol ratio of 60:40 resulted in maximum lipid accumulation of 49% (w/w), more than 90% of sugars and glycerol consumption. Further, scale-up to bench-scale fermenter resulted in 12% higher lipid accumulation (56.3% w/w, 0.15 g/L∙h) in 50% less time than flask fermentation. Hence, the ability of R. toruloides-1588 to flourish on different carbohydrates and accumulate high lipid content will be beneficial for the further development of biorefinery industries., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Renewable biofuel has a great potential in replacing the conventional transportation fuels as well as aiding the current issue of climate change and global warming. In the present scenario, tremendous initiatives have been implemented to encourage large-scale biofuel production and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, the information on the current biofuel status specifically in Canada and where it lacks in biofuel production, tax rebate and policies in comparison with other countries is limited. In this sense, the current work focuses on the liquid biofuel status, recent advancements and evaluation of programs aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions in coming years. Additionally, the role of private and government programs in scaling up the projects is elaborated using several examples of successful as well as failed attempts to commercialize biofuels. Moreover, the Canadian government regulations and policies for greenhouse gas mitigation, and biofuel blending policies are also briefly described. In summary, future aspects and suggestions to further increase biofuel production are portrayed in this review.

Utilizing the undetoxified wood hydrolysate to accumulate maximum lipids in Rhodosporidium toruloides under optimum conditions has been regarded as a renewable and cost-effective strategy. The current investigation aims to identify the best carbon to nitrogen (C/N 20, 70, and 120) ratio for maximum lipid accumulation in R. toruloides-1588 using wood hydrolysate. Additionally, a fed-batch-like condition was employed, where C/N ratios were maintained during the fermentation that inherently decreases in batch fermentation. The C/N ratio 70 has been identified as the best condition with 3 times higher lipid accumulation (43% w/w) than the control. Additionally, >95% and 70% of glucose and xylose consumption were observed, respectively. Moreover, 50% increase in polyunsaturated fatty acids compared to the control media reinforced the potential of R. toruloides-1588 to thrive on undetoxified hydrolysate, high lipid productivity (3.8 mg/g of dry weight per hour) and produce high value monosaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The current study investigated how parents' and teachers' educational expectations both directly and indirectly shaped young people's academic outcomes in a nationally-representative sample of high school students (Education Longitudinal Study; N = 9654 adolescents). Higher parent and math teacher expectations in 10th grade were associated with better 12th grade math scores and higher grade point averages, math course-taking sequence, and educational attainment two years post-high school. High parent expectations generally magnified the particularly strong positive effects of high math teacher expectations, and there was some evidence of variation in links between adult expectations and outcomes by both student race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Parents' educational involvement at school, teacher-student relationships, and school-parent communication mediated the links between adult educational expectations and academic outcomes., (© 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Secondary exposure to violence in the community is a prevalent developmental risk with implications for youths' short- and long-term socioemotional functioning. This study used longitudinal, multilevel data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods to consider how family structure, including parental instability, is associated with youths' secondary exposure to violence across diverse neighborhood contexts. Results showed that both living in a stable single-parent household and experiencing parental instability were associated with greater secondary exposure to violence compared with living in a stable two-parent household. The associations between having a single parent or experiencing parental instability and secondary exposure to violence were especially strong in neighborhoods with high levels of crime and strong neighborhood ties.

Background: Alterations in resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) occur in the acute and chronic phases following traumatic brain injury (TBI); however, few studies have assessed long-term (>1 year) changes in rsFC., Methods: Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging ( r sfMRI) scans were obtained from the Federal Interagency Traumatic Brain Injury Research Informatics Systems. Patients with primarily mild TBI (n = 39) completed r sfMRI scans at the sub-acute (~10 days) and long-term (~18 months) phases. We examined changes in voxel-based rsFC from anterior medial prefrontal cortex (aMPFC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) seeds in the default mode network (DMN) between both phases. The effect of age at the time of injury on long-term rsFC was also examined., Results: Increased rsFC from the aMPFC and the PCC to frontal and temporal regions was shown at ~18-months post-injury. Widespread increases in rsFC from the aMPFC and between the PCC and frontal regions were shown for younger patients at time of injury, but limited increases of rsFC were noted at ~18 months in older patients., Conclusion: Long-term increases in rsFC were found following TBI, but age at the time of injury was associated with distinct rsFC profiles suggesting that younger patients show greater increases in rsFC over time.

Aims: To assess the effect of etidronic acid (EA) mixed with sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) and two ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid-containing preparations (EDTA and SmearClear) alternated with NaOCl, as a final rinse, on root fracture resistance to a compressive force., Materials and Methods: Seventy-two premolar roots were randomly allocated to the following groups according to the irrigant solutions. For the EA group, 9% EA + 2.5% NaOCl were used throughout the assays ( n = 21). The remaining groups received 2.5% NaOCl during and immediately after chemo-mechanical instrumentation. Intermediately, the roots received 17% EDTA ( n = 19), or SmearClear ( n = 16), or no irrigation (control) ( n = 16) plus a final rinse with 2.5% NaOCl. The specimens were subjected to a vertical compressive force loaded at a crosshead speed of 0.02 mm/s parallel to the long axis of the root until fracture occurred. The results were compared statistically using the one-way analysis of variance for intergroup comparisons., Results: The negative control presented with the highest values, whereas the SmearClear presented with the lowest values, though no significant differences were found when comparing the different groups ( P = 0.82)., Conclusions: The use of EA + NaOCl or two EDTA formulations in association with NaOCl does not affect the fracture resistance of previously chemo-mechanically prepared roots., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright: © 2021 Journal of Conservative Dentistry.)

Background: Chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) is a neurogenetic disorder that is associated with a 25-fold increase in schizophrenia. Both individuals with 22q11.2DS and those with schizophrenia present with social cognitive deficits, which are putatively subserved by a network of brain regions that are involved in the processing of social cognitive information. This study used two-tensor tractography to examine the white matter tracts believed to underlie the social brain network in a group of 57 young adults with 22q11.2DS compared to 30 unaffected controls., Results: Results indicated that relative to controls, participants with 22q11.2DS showed significant differences in several DTI metrics within the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, cingulum bundle, thalamo-frontal tract, and inferior longitudinal fasciculus. In addition, participants with 22q11.2DS showed significant differences in scores on measures of social cognition, including the Social Responsiveness Scale and Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire. Further analyses among individuals with 22q11.2DS demonstrated an association between DTI metrics and positive and negative symptoms of psychosis, as well as differentiation between individuals with 22q11.2DS and overt psychosis, relative to those with positive prodromal symptoms or no psychosis., Conclusions: Findings suggest that white matter disruption, specifically disrupted axonal coherence in the right inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, may be a biomarker for social cognitive difficulties and psychosis in individuals with 22q11.2DS.

In Escherichia coli, the ferric uptake regulator (Fur) controls expression of the iron regulon in response to iron availability while the cyclic AMP receptor protein (Crp) regulates expression of the carbon regulon in response to carbon availability. We here identify genes subject to significant changes in expression level in response to the loss of both Fur and Crp. Many iron transport genes and several carbon metabolic genes are subject to dual control, being repressed by the loss of Crp and activated by the loss of Fur. However, the sodB gene, encoding superoxide dismutase, and the aceBAK operon, encoding the glyoxalate shunt enzymes, show the opposite responses, being activated by the loss of Crp and repressed by the loss of Fur. Several other genes including the sdhA-D, sucA-D, and fumA genes, encoding key constituents of the Krebs cycle, proved to be repressed by the loss of both transcription factors. Finally, the loss of both Crp and Fur activated a heterogeneous group of genes under sigmaS control encoding, for example, the cyclopropane fatty acid synthase, Cfa, the glycogen synthesis protein, GlgS, the 30S ribosomal protein, S22, and the mechanosensitive channel protein, YggB. Many genes appeared to be regulated by the two transcription factors in an apparently additive fashion, but apparent positive or negative cooperativity characterized several putative Crp/Fur interactions. Relevant published data were evaluated, putative Crp and Fur binding sites were identified, and representative results were confirmed by real-time PCR. Molecular explanations for some, but not all, of these effects are provided.

In this work we present data which show stimulation of Cl- transport in the isolated toad skin by four agonists: L-isoproterenol, L-adrenalin, angiotensin II and ADH. This response was demonstrated by raising mucosal amiloride concentration to block the sodium transport in the skin. With transepithelial sodium influx almost completely inhibited, it was likely that the response reflected transport events in the glands. Inhibition of the bioelectric parameters by removing chloride from the serosal bathing medium in the amiloride-inhibited preparation eliminated the response to all four agents, indicating that these responses are chloride dependent. The similarity of the bioelectric responses of the amiloride-treated preparation to db cAMP and to the four agents tested in this work add further evidence that this second messenger may account largely for the Cl- transport mechanism in the toad skin glands by increasing the apical membrane permeability to Cl-.