This study indicated that BC may prevent I/R induced ventricular arrhythmias and myocyte death by blocking Na+ channels and decreasing necroptosis, respectively. Since most of the available antiarrhythmic remedies have unwanted adverse actions, BC could be a novel candidate for the treatment of myocardial infarction and ventricular arrhythmia. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Increased deposition of silica dust in pulmonary interstitial tissues leads to silicosis, in which autophagy plays a defensive role in silica dust-associated stress response and cell death. Our previous studies revealed that silica dust exposure contributed to autophagy in pulmonary macrophages in vivo, while the specific regulatory mechanism is still unclear. This study aimed to figure out the regulatory mechanism as well as the role of autophagy in the pathogenesis of experimental silicosis. We used 3-methyladenine (3-MA) and ABT-737 to suppress the expression of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase catalytic subunit type 3 (PIK3C3) and B cell leukemia/lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2), two critical initiators of autophagy, and detected and evaluated the autophagy in NR8383 cells with or without silica dust exposure. We found that exposure of silica dust increased autophagy in NR8383 cells and elevated the expression of Beclin1 and PIK3C3, but it reduced the expression of Bcl-2. The relationship among Beclin1, PIK3C3, and Bcl-2 were then investigated using immunoprecipitation analysis, and we found that suppression of PIK3C3 and/or Bcl-2 using 3-MA and/or ABT-737 could alter the autophagy induced by silica dust in NR8383 cells, and the complexes of Beclin1/PIK3C3 and Beclin1/Bcl-2 were both downregulated, which may be that inhibition of PIK3C3 and Bcl-2 altered the affinity of Beclin1 with PIK3C3 and Bcl-2 and lead to the silence of PIK3C3 signaling. These findings indicate that silica dust exposure induces autophagy via changing the connectivity of Beclin1 from Bcl-2 to PIK3C3. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Behavioral problems in children are increasingly acknowledged as a global issue in mental health. Preadolescence is the transitory phase of development that links childhood and adolescence, and the presence of behavioral problems in this phase could be detrimental to children’s present and future. This study aimed to describe the epidemiology of „behavioral problems” in preadolescents aged 11 to 12 years and to examine their distribution by socioeconomic status and children’s characteristics while developing an in-depth understanding of the role of gender as a risk factor for such problems. A school-based, cross-sectional study was conducted in Karachi, Pakistan. Participants were selected from a middle-class, coeducational school chain. Sociodemographic questionnaires and an officially adapted version of Youth Self Report Form, which is child- and adolescent-reported version of Child Behavior Checklist, were used to collect data from children. The prevalence of Overall Behavioral Problems was 28.6%. From Broolescents. © 2020 The Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.Microcystins (MCs), as the most dominant bloom-forming strains in eutrophic surface water, can induce hepatotoxicity by oxidative stress. Alpha-lipoic acid (α-LA) is a super antioxidant that can induce the synthesis of antioxidants, such as glutathione (GSH), by nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2). However, the potential molecular mechanism of α-LA regeneration of GSH remains unclear. The present study aimed to investigate whether α-LA could reduce the toxicity of MCs induced in human hepatoma (HepG2), Bel7420 cells, and BALB/c mice by activating Nrf2 to regenerate GSH. Results showed that exposure to 10 μM microcystin-leucine arginine (MC-LR) reduced viability of HepG2 and Bel7402 cells and promoted the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) compared with untreated cells. Moreover, the protection of α-LA included reducing the level of ROS, increasing superoxide dismutase activity, and decreasing malondialdehyde. Levels of reduced glutathione (rGSH) and rGSH/oxidized glutathione were significantly increased in cells cotreated with α-LA and MC-LR compared to those treated with MC-LR alone, indicating an ability of α-LA to attenuate oxidative stress and MC-LR-induced cytotoxicity by increasing the amount of rGSH. α-LA can mediate GSH regeneration through the Nrf2 pathway under the action of glutathione reductase in MC-LR cell lines. Furthermore, the data also showed that α-LA-induced cytoprotection against MC-LR is associated with Nrf2 mediate pathway in vivo. These findings demonstrated the potential of α-LA to resist MC-LR-induced oxidative damage of liver. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Diosmin, a naturally occurring flavonoid commonly present in citrus fruit, is known to exhibit anti-inflammatory, antimutagenic, antioxidant, and free radical scavenging as well as blood lipid lowering activities among others. Diosmin has also been used for the treatment of various diseases including diabetes mellitus and Alzheimer’s disease. Our study explores the role of Diosmin in pulmonary toxicity (lung injury) induced by environmental contaminant benzo(a)pyrene [B(a)P]. Swiss Albino Mice (SAM) were administered with either Diosmin 100 or 200 mg/kg body weight daily for 14 days and then challenged with a single dose of B(a)P. On the 15th day, animals were sacrificed; lung tissues and blood were collected for molecular analysis. B(a)P administration in mice induced the thickening of lung epithelium, damaged alveolar architecture, and promoted inflammatory cell infiltration in the lung tissues. Also, B[a]P significantly increased the expression of NF-kB, COX-2, IL-6, Bax, cleaved caspase 3, and cleaved PARP proteins and decreased antioxidant enzyme levels. Diosmin-100 and Diosmin-200 significantly attenuated the damage to lung epithelium, alveolar architecture, and reduced inflammatory cell infiltration in the lung tissues of mice. Diosmin significantly (P  less then  .05) attenuated the levels of oxidative stress markers lactate dehydrogenase and xanthine oxidase. A decrease in expression of NF-kB, COX-2, IL-6, Bax, cleaved caspase 3, and cleaved PARP proteins in mice was challenged with B[a]P. Diosmin thus could be a promising therapeutic adjuvant against B[a]P-induced oxidative stress and lung damage. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.In the past decade, the rapid development of portable electronic devices, electric vehicles, and electrical devices has stimulated extensive interest in fundamental research and the commercialization of electrochemical energy-storage systems. Biomass-derived carbon has garnered significant research attention as an efficient, inexpensive, and eco-friendly active material for energy-storage systems. Therefore, high-performance carbonaceous materials, derived from renewable sources, have been utilized as electrode materials in sodium-ion batteries and sodium-ion capacitors. Herein, the charge-storage mechanism and utilization of biomass-derived carbon for sodium storage in batteries and capacitors are summarized. In particular, the structure-performance relationship of biomass-derived carbon for sodium storage in the form of batteries and capacitors is discussed. Despite the fact that further research is required to optimize the process and application of biomass-derived carbon in energy-storage devices, the current review demonstrates the potential of carbonaceous materials for next-generation sodium-related energy-storage applications. © 2020 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.Endocannabinoids, anandamide (AEA) and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG), are endogenous lipids that activate cannabinoid receptors. Activation of these receptors produces anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects. Fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) is a membrane enzyme that hydrolases endocannabinoids; thus, inhibition of FAAH represents an attractive approach to develop new therapeutics for treating inflammation and pain. Previously, potent rat FAAH inhibitors containing 2-naphthyl- and 4-phenylthiazole scaffolds were identified, but up to the present time, very little structure-activity relationship studies have been performed on these moieties. We designed and synthesized several analogs containing these structural motifs and evaluated their inhibition potencies against human FAAH enzyme. In addition, we built and validated a homology model of human FAAH enzyme and performed docking experiments. We identified several inhibitors in the low nanomolar range and calculated their ADME predicted values. These FAAH inhibitors represent promising drug candidates for future preclinical in vivo studies. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons A/S.Phytocannabinoids (and synthetic analogs thereof) are gaining significant attention as promising leads in modern medicine. Considering this, new directions for the design of phytocannabinoid-inspired molecules is of immediate interest. In this regard, we have hypothesized that axially-chiral-cannabinols (ax-CBNs), unnatural and unknown isomers of cannabinol (CBN) may be valuable scaffolds for cannabinoid-inspired drug discovery. There are two main factors directing our interest to these scaffolds (a) ax-CBNs would have ground-state three-dimensionality; ligand-receptor interactions can be more significant with complimentary 3D-topology, and (b) ax-CBNs at their core structure are biaryl molecules, generally attractive platforms for pharmaceutical development due to their ease of functionalization and stability. Herein we report a synthesis of ax-CBNs, examine physical properties experimentally and computationally, and perform a comparative analysis of ax-CBN and THC in mice behavioral studies. © 2020 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.The present study investigated whether morphological processing in reading is influenced by the orthographic consistency of a language or its morphological complexity. Developing readers in Grade 3 and skilled adult readers participated in a reading aloud task in four alphabetic orthographies (English, French, German, Italian), which differ in terms of both orthographic consistency and morphological complexity. English is the least consistent, in terms of its spelling-to-sound relationships, as well as the most morphologically sparse, compared to the other three. Two opposing hypotheses were formulated. If orthographic consistency modulated the use of morphology in reading, readers of English should show more robust morphological processing than readers of the other three languages, because morphological units increase the reliability of spelling-to-sound mappings in the English language. In contrast, if the use of morphology in reading depended on the morphological complexity of a language, readers of French, German, and Italian should process morphological units in printed letter strings more efficiently than readers of English. Both developing and skilled readers of English showed greater morphological processing than readers of the other three languages. These results support the idea that the orthographic consistency of a language, rather than its morphological complexity, influences the extent to which morphology is used during reading. We explain our findings within the remit of extant theories of reading acquisition and outline their theoretical and educational implications. © 2020 The Authors. Developmental Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.