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This article summarizes a Symposium on Radiation risks of the central nervous system held virtually at the 67th Annual Meeting of the Radiation Research Society, 3-6 October 2021. Repeated low-dose radiation exposure over a certain period could lead to reduced neuronal proliferation, altered neurogenesis, neuroinflammation and various neurological complications, including psychological consequences, necessitating further research in these areas. Four speakers from radiation biology, genetics and epidemiology presented the latest data from their studies seeking insights into this important topic. This symposium highlighted new and important directions for further research on mental health disorders, neurodegenerative conditions and cognitive impairment. Future studies will examine risks of mental and behavioral disorders and neurodegenerative diseases following protracted radiation exposures to better understand risks of occupational exposures as well as provide insights into risks from exposures to galactic cosmic rays.

The Consortium for Top-Down Proteomics (www.topdownproteomics.org) launched the present study to assess the current state of top-down mass spectrometry (TD MS) and middle-down mass spectrometry (MD MS) for characterizing monoclonal antibody (mAb) primary structures, including their modifications. To meet the needs of the rapidly growing therapeutic antibody market, it is important to develop analytical strategies to characterize the heterogeneity of a therapeutic product's primary structure accurately and reproducibly. The major objective of the present study is to determine whether current TD/MD MS technologies and protocols can add value to the more commonly employed bottom-up (BU) approaches with regard to confirming protein integrity, sequencing variable domains, avoiding artifacts, and revealing modifications and their locations. We also aim to gather information on the common TD/MD MS methods and practices in the field. A panel of three mAbs was selected and centrally provided to 20 laboratories worldwide for the analysis: Sigma mAb standard (SiLuLite), NIST mAb standard, and the therapeutic mAb Herceptin (trastuzumab). Various MS instrument platforms and ion dissociation techniques were employed. The present study confirms that TD/MD MS tools are available in laboratories worldwide and provide complementary information to the BU approach that can be crucial for comprehensive mAb characterization. The current limitations, as well as possible solutions to overcome them, are also outlined. A primary limitation revealed by the results of the present study is that the expert knowledge in both experiment and data analysis is indispensable to practice TD/MD MS.

Dysregulation of synaptic glutamate levels can lead to excitotoxicity such as that observed in stroke, traumatic brain injury, and epilepsy. The role of increased intracellular calcium (Ca2+) in the development of excitotoxicity is well established. However, less is known regarding the impact of glutamate on endoplasmic reticulum (ER)‐Ca2+‐mediated processes such as proteostasis. To investigate this, we expressed a secreted ER Ca2+ modulated protein (SERCaMP) in primary cortical neurons to monitor exodosis, a phenomenon whereby ER calcium depletion causes the secretion of ER‐resident proteins that perform essential functions to the ER and the cell. Activation of glutamatergic receptors (GluRs) led to an increase in SERCaMP secretion indicating that normally ER‐resident proteins are being secreted in a manner consistent with ER Ca2+ depletion. Antagonism of ER Ca2+ channels attenuated the effects of glutamate and GluR agonists on SERCaMP release. We also demonstrate that endogenous proteins containing an ER retention/retrieval sequence (ERS) are secreted in response to GluR activation supporting that neuronal activation by glutamate promotes ER exodosis. Ectopic expression of KDEL receptors attenuated the secretion of ERS‐containing proteins caused by GluR agonists. Taken together, our data indicate that excessive GluR activation causes disruption of neuronal proteostasis by triggering the secretion of ER‐resident proteins through ER Ca2+ depletion and describes a new facet of excitotoxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Broken windows theory identifies community social control as a central mechanism for controlling crime. In turn, controlling disorder is seen as the primary method that police or other government agents can use to strengthen community social controls. Our study examined the antecedents of informal community social control, measured as collective efficacy, at street segments. Methods: This article leverages multi-wave primary data collection at 447 street segments in Baltimore, MD including official crime statistics, survey responses, physical observations, and systematic social observations. We used mixed-effects OLS regression models to examine antecedents of collective efficacy at the street-level. Results: We find that social disorder and crime, rather than physical disorder, are the primary antecedents of collective efficacy at the street-level. We also find that fear of crime does not have a direct impact on collective efficacy. Conclusions: Our study suggests that police and city government more generally should not look to controlling physical disorder as a means of increasing community controls. At the same time addressing social disorder is an important mechanism to bolster collective efficacy, though care is needed to avoid bias or backfire effects from aggressive order-maintenance policing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the current study is to examine the influence tensions over high-profile officer-involved shootings have had on Atlanta police officers' ability to do their jobs and whether these impacts vary by officer race. Data was collected between August and October of 2016. A total of 241 police officers across six zones completed the self-administered survey. Findings indicate that while white officers, on average, felt the impacts of recent tensions surrounding officer-involved shootings more strongly, non-white officers were more likely to say they would leave policing if offered a better paying job in another field. This study provides insight into racial differences in the impacts of recent tensions and protests over fatal officer-involved shootings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article summarizes a Symposium on 'Radiation risks of the central nervous system' held virtually at the 67th Annual Meeting of the Radiation Research Society, 3–6 October 2021. Repeated low-dose radiation exposure over a certain period could lead to reduced neuronal proliferation, altered neurogenesis, neuroinflammation and various neurological complications, including psychological consequences, necessitating further research in these areas. Four speakers from radiation biology, genetics and epidemiology presented the latest data from their studies seeking insights into this important topic. This symposium highlighted new and important directions for further research on mental health disorders, neurodegenerative conditions and cognitive impairment. Future studies will examine risks of mental and behavioral disorders and neurodegenerative diseases following protracted radiation exposures to better understand risks of occupational exposures as well as provide insights into risks from exposures to galactic cosmic rays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: Although broken windows theory has had strong influence on policy and practice in policing, there are still many questions and debates about the nature of disorder itself and, particularly, how people perceive and define it. The current study aims to examine whether Black and White residents living on the same street segments in Baltimore City, Maryland perceive similar levels of social and physical disorder. We find strong and significant differences between Black and White residents after controlling for key sociodemographic variables and street‐level covariates. Policy Implications: Our findings suggest that police efforts to reduce disorder are less likely to be noticed by Black residents and that any benefits from targeting disorder may vary across places depending on the racial composition of streets. In this context, police must recognize racial differences in perceptions of disorder when developing disorder policing interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Police officers act under highly variable constraints. Some drug arrests occur on routine patrols in which officers' exercise discretion, others are a product of departmental priorities, and the remainder occur after police are called to the scene. In his treatise on the Behavior of Law, Donald Black asserted that law behaves directionally according to rank, status, and social integration. Using multilevel data on felony drug arrests in one metropolitan Southern U.S. county, we examine the extent to which police behavior shows the discretionary application of law to be disproportionately levied against offenders in disadvantaged neighborhoods or against black individuals. The findings suggest that Black's theory is well-equipped to explain police discretion in drug enforcement patterns, with disadvantage and race predicting discretion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we argue that prosecutors ought to embrace deflection programs as an option for substance users who commit low-level offenses. Deflection programs provide services to substance users and other vulnerable populations before, or outside of the point of arrest. They offer participants voluntary admission and wrap-around services to help them get back on their feet-out from under the threat of incarceration if they relapse. Innovators have embraced the term "deflection" because the goal is to keep the substance user out of the legal system entirely and to provide a warm handoff to service providers instead of a cold transport to county jail. The benefits of prosecutor involvement are numerous. County-level prosecutors can, for example, positively influence police and community buy-in, coordinate programming across a much larger terrain than cities alone can handle, run interference for offenders in court, and open access to new funding streams. Moreover; their involvement in deflection partnerships would reflect a deep commitment to disentangling substance abuse treatment from criminal justice control, thereby enhancing perceptions of procedural justice in disadvantaged communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]