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The accumulation of microplastics in various ecosystems has now been well documented and recent evidence suggests detrimental effects on various biological processes due to this pollution. Accumulation of microplastics in the natural environment is ultimately due to the chemical nature of widely used petroleum-based plastic polymers, which typically are inaccessible to biological processing. One way to mitigate this crisis is adoption of plastics that biodegrade if released into natural environments. In this work, we generated microplastic particles from a bio-based, biodegradable thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU-FC1) and demonstrated their rapid biodegradation via direct visualization and respirometry. Furthermore, we isolated multiple bacterial strains capable of using TPU-FC1 as a sole carbon source and characterized their depolymerization products. To visualize biodegradation of TPU materials as real-world products, we generated TPU-coated cotton fabric and an injection molded phone case and documented biodegradation by direct visualization and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), both of which indicated clear structural degradation of these materials and significant biofilm formation.

Abstract Powerful associations that link drugs of abuse with cues in the drug-paired environment often serve as prepotent relapse triggers. Drug-associated contexts and cues activate ensembles of nucleus accumbens (NAc) neurons, including D1-class medium spiny neurons (MSNs) that typically promote, and D2-class MSNs that typically oppose, drug seeking. We found that in mice, cocaine conditioning upregulated transiently the activity-regulated transcription factor, Neuronal PAS Domain Protein 4 (NPAS4), in a small subset of NAc neurons. The NPAS4+ NAc ensemble was required for cocaine conditioned place preference. We also observed that NPAS4 functions within NAc D2-, but not D1-, MSNs to support cocaine-context associations and cue-induced cocaine, but not sucrose, seeking. Together, our data show that the NPAS4+ ensemble of NAc neurons is essential for cocaine-context associations in mice, and that NPAS4 itself functions in NAc D2-MSNs to support cocaine-context associations by suppressing drug-induced counteradaptations that oppose relapse-related behaviour.

Abstract Return to use, or relapse, is a major challenge in the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD). Relapse can be precipitated by several factors, including exposure to drug-conditioned cues. Identifying successful treatments to mitigate cue-induced relapse has been challenging, perhaps due to extinction memory recall (EMR) deficits. Previously, inhibition of estradiol (E2) signaling in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) impaired heroin-cue EMR. This effect was recapitulated by antagonism of BLA estrogen receptors (ER) in a sex-specific manner such that blocking ERα in males, but ERβ in females, impaired EMR. However, it is unclear whether increased E2 signaling, in the BLA or systemically, enhances heroin-cue EMR. We hypothesized that ERβ agonism would enhance heroin-cue EMR in a sex- and region-specific manner. To determine the capacity of E2 signaling to improve EMR, we pharmacologically manipulated ERβ across several translationally designed experiments. First, male and female rats acquired heroin or sucrose self-administration. Next, during a cued extinction session, we administered diarylpropionitrile (DPN, an ERβ agonist) and tested anxiety-like behavior on an open field. Subsequently, we assessed EMR in a cue-induced reinstatement test and, finally, measured ERβ expression in several brain regions. Across all experiments, females took more heroin and sucrose than males and had greater responses during heroin-cued extinction. Administration of DPN in the BLA enhanced EMR in females only, driven by ERβ’s impacts on memory consolidation. Interestingly, however, systemic DPN administration improved EMR for heroin cues in both sexes across several different tests, but did not impact sucrose-cue EMR. Immunohistochemical analysis of ERβ expression across several different brain regions showed that females only had greater expression of ERβ in the basal nucleus of the BLA. Here, in several preclinical experiments, we demonstrated that ERβ agonism enhances heroin-cue EMR and has potential utility in combatting cue-induced relapse.

This research investigated whether observing beat gesture and hearing contrastive accenting with novel words enhances their learning in early childhood and whether these effects differ by sex in light of sex differences in the pace of language development. Fifty-three 3- to 5-year-old boys and girls learned pairs of novel words with contrasting referents with beat gesture, contrastive accenting, both, or neither. Knowledge of these words was then tested via a referent identification task. Novel word learning did not differ by beat gesture or contrastive accenting, nor did use of these cues to support word learning differ by age. However, 3-year-old boys were better able to identify the referents of novel words learned with rather than without beat gesture, and boys' ability to identify the referents of novel words learned without beat gesture improved from ages 3 to 5 years. By contrast, no such effects of beat gesture on novel word learning by age were observed for girls. These results suggest that, for 3-year-old boys, beat gesture may compensate for difficulty deducing contrast from speech alone, and that their reliance on beat gesture as a cue to contrast decreases as their ability to deduce contrast from speech improves during early childhood. Thus, beat gesture may serve as a visual cue to contrast that scaffolds young children's learning of words with contrasting meanings by supplementing the use of cues to contrast conveyed via speech.

Conventional human stress responses are mediated by the sympathetic adrenal medullar (SAM) axis and the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis. The SAM axis mediates the immediate response to stress through norepinephrine and epinephrine while the HPA axis mediates the slow response through corticosteroids, primarily cortisol, to effect systemic changes. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a psychiatric disorder that develops in a small subset of people exposed to a traumatic event, may dysregulate these systems and result in increased risk of various clinical conditions. These conditions include but are not limited to cardiovascular disease, metabolic conditions, autoimmune diseases, neurocognitive disorders, and women's health complications such as preterm birth, polycystic ovarian syndrome, and endometriosis to name a few. This review focuses on how PTSD dysregulates the HPA axis, and further, how these alterations affect the immune system and physical health outcomes.

Cerebral ischemic stroke accounts for more than 80% of all stroke cases. During cerebral ischemia, reactive oxygen species produced in the ischemic brain induce oxidative stress and inflammatory responses. Nrf2 is a transcription factor responsible for regulating cellular redox balance through the induction of protective antioxidant and phase II detoxification responses. Although the induction of endogenous Nrf2/HO-1 axis activation has been observed in the ischemic brain, whether ischemia-induced endogenous Nrf2/HO-1 axis activation plays a role in modulating microglia (MG) phenotypes and restraining ischemic brain injury is not characterized and requires further exploration. To investigate that, we generated mice with Nrf2 knockdown specifically in MG to rigorously assess the role of endogenous Nrf2 activation in ischemic brain injury after stroke. Our results showed that MG-specific Nrf2 knockdown exacerbated ischemic brain injury after stroke. We found that Nrf2 knockdown altered MG phenotypes after stroke, in which increased frequency of inflammatory MG and decreased frequency of anti-inflammatory MG were detected in the ischemic brain. Moreover, we identified attenuated Nrf2/HO-1 axis activation led to increased CD68/IL-1β and suppressed CD206 expression in MG, resulting in aggravated inflammatory MG in MG-specific Nrf2 knockdown mice after stroke. Intriguingly, using type II diabetic preclinical models, we revealed that diabetic mice exhibited attenuated Nrf2/HO-1 axis activation in MG and exacerbated ischemic brain injury after stroke that phenocopy mice with MG-specific Nrf2 knockdown. Finally, the induction of exogenous Nrf2/HO-1 axis activation in MG through pharmacological approaches ameliorated ischemic brain injury in diabetic mice. In conclusion, our findings provide cellular and molecular insights demonstrating ischemia-induced endogenous Nrf2/HO-1 axis activation modulates MG phenotypes and restrains ischemic brain injury. These results further strengthen the therapeutic potential of targeting Nrf2/HO-1 axis in MG for the treatment of ischemic stroke and diabetic stroke.

Abstract Increasing amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the atmosphere are a leading cause of climate change. Ultrathin film composite (UTFC) membranes have the potential to effectively reduce CO2 emissions from energy production and industrial processes. UTFC membranes typically require a gutter layer, to provide flat surfaces above the porous substrate for an ultrathin selective layer to be deposited. Removing the gutter layer, while maintaining compatibility with the support layer, can have substantial benefits of high gas permeation, cost‐effectiveness, and fewer manufacturing steps. However, achieving this faces significant challenges, due to limitations on the geometric design of gas pathways and incompatibility between the substrate and selective layers. Herein, zeolitic imidazolate framework‐8 (ZIF‐8) is used as an initiating core, and arms of poly(1,3‐dioxolane) dimethacrylate (PDXLMA), which possesses superior CO2/N2 selectivity, are used to create core‐shell nanoparticles. These two‐layered UTFC membranes are successfully produced from the nanoparticles via a simple drop‐spreading method. The importance of designing core‐shell structures is also investigated to achieve defect‐free two‐layered UTFC membranes and enable precision thickness control. The resulting membranes exhibit remarkable CO2 permeance of 3969 – 6035 GPU with CO2/N2 selectivity of 28.0–20.4, demonstrating their considerable performance improvement compared to the current three‐layered UTFC membranes.

Abstract The accumulation of microplastics in various ecosystems has now been well documented and recent evidence suggests detrimental effects on various biological processes due to this pollution. Accumulation of microplastics in the natural environment is ultimately due to the chemical nature of widely used petroleum-based plastic polymers, which typically are inaccessible to biological processing. One way to mitigate this crisis is adoption of plastics that biodegrade if released into natural environments. In this work, we generated microplastic particles from a bio-based, biodegradable thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU-FC1) and demonstrated their rapid biodegradation via direct visualization and respirometry. Furthermore, we isolated multiple bacterial strains capable of using TPU-FC1 as a sole carbon source and characterized their depolymerization products. To visualize biodegradation of TPU materials as real-world products, we generated TPU-coated cotton fabric and an injection molded phone case and documented biodegradation by direct visualization and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), both of which indicated clear structural degradation of these materials and significant biofilm formation.

Os objetivos deste trabalho foram diagnosticar Aelurostrongylus abstrusus por meio das técnicas de histologia e impressão de tecido pulmonar de gato doméstico e realizar a caracterização morfométrica de ovos e mórulas desse nematódeo. Pela histologia, os ovos (n=100) mediram, em média, 83,4 x 65,5mim, índice morfométrico (IM) 0,8 e as mórulas (n=100) mediram, em média, 45,4 x 31,8mim, IM 0,7. Pela impressão de pulmão, os ovos (n=100) mediram, em média, 105,3 x 93,6mim, IM 0,9, e as mórulas (n=100) mediram, em média, 43,1 x 36,5mim, IM 0,8. A utilização da técnica de impressão de tecido permitiu a observação das mesmas formas parasitárias visualizadas histologicamente. Os resultados sugerem a viabilidade da utilização dessa técnica no diagnóstico pós-morte de A. abstrusus.

Wheat is one of the major sources of protein worldwide. Its hexaploidy significantly complicates the identification of genes that may be crucial for improving wheat production to meet the challenges of an increased world population and climate change. Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) using Barley stripe mosaic virus (BSMV)-based constructs has proven to be a very useful tool in the analysis of gene function in the hexaploid plant, wheat. However, most published applications of this technique focus on phenotypes that can be observed in the leaves of wheat. A few studies have reported successful VIGS in the spikes of wheat, but this has proven to be more difficult than the seedling leaf assays. This study reports a time course analysis of the movement of BSMV from the site of inoculation into the meristematic region of wheat. It also describes how the photobleaching phenotype resulting from silencing phytoene desaturase (PDS), which is often used as a reporter for VIGS, does not indicate the full extent of where VIGS occurs, and this can mislead scientists as they design silencing studies. These findings provide guidance for more effective VIGS studies to determine the function of genes expressed in the spikes of wheat and may be important for wheat improvement.

Abstract The mosquito species Aedes aegypti (L.) is known to act as a vector in the transmission of various diseases, including dengue fever and yellow fever. The use of insect repellents is one of precautionary measures used to mitigate the risk of these diseases in humans by reducing mosquito biting. Nepetalactone, a potent natural insect repellent primarily found in catnip (Nepeta cataria) essential oil, has emerged as a promising candidate for mosquito repellence. Here, we evaluated the potential of catnip essential oil (> 95% nepetalactone) for use as a mosquito repellent. Using a Y-tube olfactometer and human hands as an attractant, we analysed the effectiveness of catnip oil at repelling the mosquito species Aedes aegypti. We tested a range of dilutions of catnip essential oil and found that concentrations as low as 2% were effective at repelling > 70% of mosquitoes for between one and four hours after repellent application. These findings suggest that nepetalactone could potentially be used as a natural, effective alternative to synthetic mosquito repellents, thereby offering protection against vector-borne diseases.

Fusarium head blight (FHB) is a devastating fungal disease of hexaploid wheat (Triticum aestivum). Several genetic loci were previously identified that control FHB resistance in wheat, including Fhb1. Fhb7, a major QTL conferring resistance to FHB, controlling for mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON) production, has been introgressed into soft red winter wheat (SRWW). As an exotic QTL, Fhb7 is associated with linkage drag, affecting agronomic and end-use quality performance. This study outlines a breeding strategy for introducing and pyramiding Fhb7 into SRWW breeding populations that already possessed Fhb1 and harbored some additional disease-resistance genes. In addition to the Fhb1-Fhb7 pyramiding, we developed gene-based markers for both genes and examined them on 57 SRWW breeding lines. Our data showed that 15 out of 57 breeding lines possessed both Fhb1 and Fhb7 resistant alleles. Two years of phenotypic data from the inoculated and misted irrigation field showed that the combination of Fhb1-Fhb7 lowers mycotoxin DON accumulation in kernels, which provides protection for end-users and the milling industry. The Fhb gene-pyramided lines, with the additional regionally important disease resistance genes, produced in this breeding pipeline showed reasonable agronomic traits and can be used in crossing programs for the widespread introgression in elite wheat cultivars.

Coral bleaching is occurring more frequently as the climate changes, with multiple mass mortality events recently recorded on the Great Barrier Reef. Thermal stress coupled with high irradiance have previously been shown to be primary causes for coral bleaching. Therefore, a reduction in either of these pressures could reduce coral stress and eventual bleaching. Herein, we report the early development of a novel technology capable of reducing the amount of light entering a water body by ~20% in open ocean conditions. This mono-particle “sun shield” consists of an ultra-thin monolayer material and reflective calcium carbonate particles. The monolayer enables spreading of the particles into a thin film across the water surface, with only small amounts of material needed: 7.1 g/m2. A numerical modelling case study of residence times and the build-up of reactive oxygen stress in corals showed that the successful application of a stable film over the Lizard Island reef flat could reduce the reactive oxygen stress to below bleaching levels across approximately 1.5 km2 of reef area. With further development, mono-particle films such as this have the potential to be deployed over at-risk coral reefs at relatively small scales during predicted heatwave conditions, potentially reducing the severity of bleaching on coral reefs.

Sjögrens disease is a complex autoimmune disease with twelve established susceptibility loci. This genome-wide association study (GWAS) identifies ten novel genome-wide significant (GWS) regions in Sjögrens cases of European ancestry: CD247, NAB1, PTTG1-MIR146A, PRDM1-ATG5, TNFAIP3, XKR6, MAPT-CRHR1, RPTOR-CHMP6-BAIAP6, TYK2, SYNGR1. Polygenic risk scores yield predictability (AUROC = 0.71) and relative risk of 12.08. Interrogation of bioinformatics databases refine the associations, define local regulatory networks of GWS SNPs from the 95% credible set, and expand the implicated gene list to >40. Many GWS SNPs are eQTLs for genes within topologically associated domains in immune cells and/or eQTLs in the main target tissue, salivary glands.

This study compared pre-treatment distress and the changes in that distress over the course of therapy between sexual trauma clients and non-sexual trauma clients. Reasons for therapy ending were also examined. Data for this study were collected at 139 university counseling centers. Psychological distress was measured using the Counseling Center Assessment of Psychological Symptoms; presenting concerns were determined using the Clinician Index of Client Concerns; and reason for end of treatment was measured using a standardized Termination Form. MANOVA was utilized to test differences in psychological distress at the start of therapy and a MANCOVA was used to examine psychological distress over the course of therapy. Chi-square tests were used to examine if different reasons existed for why treatment ended. Clients that experienced sexual trauma presented to treatment with significantly higher levels of distress but demonstrated greater distress change. No statistical differences in reasons associated with the end of treatment.

The barley (Hordeum vulgare subsp. vulgare) disease-resistance protein AvrPphB Response 1 (PBR1) mediates recognition of the Pseudomonas syringae effector, AvrPphB. PBR1 belongs to the coiled-coil nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat family. However, little is known about the molecular mechanisms that lead to PBR1-dependent cell death (hypersensitive reaction; HR) in response to AvrPphB. Here, we investigated PBR1 immune signaling after Agrobacterium-mediated transient expression in Nicotiana benthamiana. The N-terminal tagging of PBR1 with super yellow fluorescent protein abolished PBR1-mediated cell death, demonstrating that an N-terminal epitope tag disrupts PBR1-mediated immune signaling. Furthermore, none of the individual protein domains (CC, NB-ARC, and LRR) or truncations (CC—NB-ARC and NB-ARC—LRR) of PBR1 induced a HR-like cell death response as strong as full-length PBR1 when coexpressed with AvrPphB, indicating that the individual domains and fragments of PBR1 are insufficient to trigger HR. Intriguingly, introducing the typically autoactivating D496V mutation within NB-ARC-containing fragments of PBR1 does not activate immune signaling, revealing that PBR1-mediated immune signaling requires the cooperation of all domains in cis. Using coimmunoprecipitation and split-luciferase assays, we also show full-length PBR1 self-associates in the absence of AvrPphB, and such self-association is not dependent on a functional P-loop/Walker A motif. Collectively, these findings provide valuable insights into PBR1-mediated disease resistance and extend our understanding of NLR-mediated immune signaling. [Figure: see text] Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.

Barley stripe mosaic virus (BSMV)-based vectors are frequently used in virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) and, more recently, viral overexpression (VOX) studies in wheat. Two general strategies are employed to initiate infection in wheat plants with BSMV in VIGS and VOX studies. One method involves the direct infection of wheat using viral RNA produced via the in vitro transcription of BSMV constructs. The second class utilizes viral replication in an intermediate host plant to produce large amounts of BSMV viral particles that are then used to inoculate wheat plants. This study was designed to examine the potential for BSMV-VIGS constructs to rearrange during replication in the intermediate host and result in initiating the VIGS studies with a virus that is significantly different from the original experimental construct. It is shown that in the case of BSMV-VIGS constructs harboring a PDS-silencing fragment, significant rearrangement can occur during replication in the intermediate host that has the potential to introduce artifactual experimental outcomes.

This study used satellite remote sensing to investigate trends in harmful algal blooms (HABs) over the last 21 years, focusing on four regions within the Laurentian Great Lakes: western Lake Erie, Green Bay, Saginaw Bay, and western Lake Superior. HABs in the water column were identified from remote sensing-derived chlorophyll concentrations, and surface HAB scums were classified based on the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) band ratio index. Using imagery from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer sensor on the Aqua satellite (MODIS-Aqua) from 2002 to 2022, we generated daily estimates of the HAB and surface scum extents for each region, which were then averaged to generate mean annual extents. We observed a significant decline in the Saginaw Bay mean annual HAB extents over the 21-year study period. Otherwise, no significant changes were observed over this period in any region for either the HAB or surface scum mean annual extents, thus suggesting that HABs are not increasing in the Great Lakes. Despite the lack of increasing trends, the blooms are still recurring annually and causing a negative impact on the nearby communities; thus, we believe that it is crucial to continue studying Great Lakes HABs to monitor the impact of current and future abatement strategies.