Increased understanding of the role of cortical structures in respiratory control may help the understanding of seizure-induced respiratory dysfunction that leads to sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP). The aim of this study was to characterize respiratory responses to electrical stimulation (ES), including inhibition and enhancement of respiration.

We prospectively recruited 19 consecutive patients with intractable epilepsy undergoing stereotactic electroencephalography (EEG) evaluation from June 2015 to June 2018. Inclusion criteria were patients ≥18years in whom ES was indicated for clinical mapping of ictal onset or eloquent cortex as part of the presurgical evaluation. ES was carried out at 50Hz, 0.2msec, and 1-10mA current intensity. Common brain regions sampled across all patients were amygdala (AMY), hippocampus (HG), anterior cingulate gyrus (CING), orbitofrontal cortex (OrbF), temporal neocortex (TNC), temporal pole (TP), and entorhinal cortex (ERC). Seven hundred fifty-five stimulationsreathing may be important in paving the way to future development of strategies for prevention of SUDEP.

These findings suggest that breathing responses other than apnea can be induced by ES. Identification of two regions-the temporal pole and anterior cingulate gyrus-for enhancement of breathing may be important in paving the way to future development of strategies for prevention of SUDEP.The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of Coronavirus (COVID-19)-related stressors and family health on adult anxiety and depressive symptoms 1 year into the pandemic. The sample consisted of 442 adults living in the United States who were recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk. Data were analyzed using multiple logistic regression. Results indicated that compared to a sample 1 month into the pandemic, participants in the current sample reported worse family health and increases in both positive and negative perceptions of the pandemic on family life and routines. COVID-19 stressors and perceived negative effects of the pandemic on family life increased the odds for moderate-to-severe depression and anxiety while having more family health resources decreased the odds for depression and anxiety symptoms. Participants reported lower odds for worse depression and anxiety since the beginning of the pandemic when they reported more positive family meaning due to the pandemic. The results suggest a need to consider the impact of family life on mental health in pandemics and other disasters.Molecular methods for body fluid identification have been extensively researched in the forensic community over the last decade, mostly focusing on RNA-based methods. Microbial DNA analysis has long been used for forensic applications, such as postmortem interval estimations, but only recently has it been applied to body fluid identification. High-throughput sequencing of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene by previous research groups revealed that microbial signatures and abundances vary across human body fluids at the genus and/or species taxonomic level. Since quantitative PCR is still the current technique used in forensic DNA analysis, the purpose of this study was to design a qPCR multiplex targeting the 16S gene of Bacteroides uniformis, Streptococcus salivarius, and Lactobacillus crispatus that can distinguish between feces, saliva, and vaginal/menstrual secretions, respectively. Primers and probes were designed at the species level because these bacteria are highly abundant within their respective fluid. The validated 16S triplex was evaluated in DNA extracts from thirty donors of each body fluid. A classification regression tree model resulted in 96.5% classification accuracy of the population data, which demonstrates the ability of this 16S triplex to presumptively identify these fluids with high confidence at the quantification step of the forensic workflow using minimal input volume of DNA extracted from evidentiary samples.Estuaries represent steep stress gradients for aquatic organisms, with abiotic stress due to temperature and salinity typically increasing with distance into estuary. Invertebrate communities and their predators are strongly influenced by these stress gradients. The environmental stress model predicts that the importance of predation in structuring communities decreases with increasing environmental stress. Estuaries contain a stress gradient for marine organisms this includes salinity, temperature, and other abiotic properties. Additionally, estuaries are hotspots for biological invasions; increased stress tolerance among non-native species could change the predictions of the environmental stress model. In this study, we investigate how introduced species alter the predictions of the environmental stress model by examining the effects of predators on sessile invertebrates across an estuarine gradient. To do this, we deployed recruitment plates across the estuarine gradient of Tomales Bay, California, USA using various caging treatments over the summer of 2019. We found that the effect of predation changed across sites, with the mid-estuary site experiencing the greatest reductions in prey abundance and prey species richness when exposed to predators. This was likely to be due to higher proportions of non-native prey and predator taxa mid-estuary, including solitary ascidians, which are highly susceptible to predation. Overall, predation did not follow the predictions of the environmental stress model, but rather followed the abundance of functional groups with non-native species, whose distribution could be mediated by environmental stress gradients. We suggest that this may be a general result and that communities subject to large numbers of stress-tolerant invaders may have high rates of consumption in high stress areas, contrasting predictions by previous models.

This study was undertaken to examine the prevalence of self-reported experiences with abuse in pregnant women with epilepsy and the association between having experienced abuse and childbirth expectations, particularly the fear of childbirth.

We performed a cross-sectional study of women with and without epilepsy enrolled in the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study 1999-2008. Data on epilepsy diagnosis; antiseizure medication (ASM) use; emotional, physical, and sexual abuse; and childbirth expectations were collected from questionnaires completed during gestational Weeks 17-19 and 30.

Our study population included 295 women with ASM-treated epilepsy, 318 women with ASM-untreated epilepsy, and 93949 women without epilepsy. A total of 115 women (47%) with ASM-treated and 132 women (57%) with ASM-untreated epilepsy reported any emotional, physical, or sexual abuse, compared to 25100 women (32%) without epilepsy. The adjusted odds ratios (aORs) for having experienced any abuse were 1.8 (95% confhildbirth expectations.Understanding drivers of metapopulation dynamics remains a critical challenge for ecology and conservation. In particular, the degree of synchrony in metapopulation dynamics determines how resilient a metapopulation is to a widespread disturbance. In this study, we used 21 years of egg mass count data across 64 nonpermanent freshwater ponds in Connecticut, USA to evaluate patterns of abundance and growth and to assess regional as well as local factors in shaping the population dynamics of wood frogs (Rana sylvatica = Lithobates sylvaticus). In particular, we asked whether a species known to undergo metapopulation dynamics exhibited spatial synchrony in abundances. With the exception of a single year when breeding took place during severe drought conditions, our analyses revealed no evidence of synchrony despite close proximity (mean minimum distance less then  300 m) of breeding ponds across the 3213-ha study area. Instead, local, pond-scale conditions best predicted patterns of abundance and population growth rate. We found negative density dependence on population growth rate within ponds as well as evidence that larger neighboring pond populations had a negative effect on focal ponds. Beyond density, pond depth was a critical predictor; deeper ponds supported larger populations. Drought conditions and warm winters negatively affected populations. Overall, breeding ponds vary in critical ways that either support larger, more persistent populations or smaller populations that are not represented by breeding pairs in some years. The infrequency of spatial synchrony in this system is surprising and suggests greater resilience to stressors than would have been expected if dynamics were strongly synchronized. More generally, understanding the characteristics of systems that determine synchronous population dynamics will be critical to predicting which species are more or less resilient to widespread disturbances like land conversion or climate change.Targeting cancer metabolism has emerged as an attractive approach to improve therapeutic regimens in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). Mitochondrial proteases are closely related to cancer metabolism, but their biological functions have not been well characterized in AML. According to different categories, we comprehensively review the role of mitochondrial proteases in AML. This review highlights some 'powerful’ mitochondrial protease targets, including their biological function, chemical modulators, and applicative prospect in AML.The compartment model (CM) is a well-known approach for computationally affordable, spatially resolved hydrodynamic modeling of unit operations. Recent implementations use flow profiles based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations, and several authors included microbial kinetics to simulate gradients in bioreactors. However, these studies relied on black-box kinetics that do not account for intracellular changes and cell population dynamics in response to heterogeneous environments. In this paper, we report the implementation of a Lagrangian reaction model, where the microbial phase is tracked as a set of biomass-parcels, each linked with an intracellular composition vector and a structured reaction model describing their intracellular response to extracellular variations. A stochastic parcel tracking approach is adopted, in contrast to the resolved trajectories used in CFD implementations. A penicillin production process is used as a case study. We show good performance of the model compared with full CFD simulations, both regarding the extracellular gradients and intracellular pool response, using the mixing time as a matching criterion and taking into account that the mixing time is sensitive to the number of compartments. The sensitivity of the model output towards some of the inputs is explored. The coarsest representative CM requires a few minutes to solve 80 h of flow time, compared with approximately 2 weeks for a full Euler-Lagrange CFD simulation of the same case. This alleviates one of the major bottlenecks for the application of such CFD simulations towards the analysis and optimization of industrial fermentation processes.

The interaction of arrestins with G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) desensitizes agonist-dependent receptor responses and often leads to receptor internalization. GPCRs that internalize without arrestin have been classified as „class A” GPCRs whereas „class B” GPCRs co-internalize with arrestin into endosomes. The interaction of arrestins with GPCRs requires both agonist activation and receptor phosphorylation. Here, we ask the question whether agonists with very slow off-rates can cause the formation of particularly stable receptor-arrestin complexes.

The stability of GPCR-arrestin-3 complexes at two class A GPCRs, the β

-adrenoceptor and the μ opioid receptor, was assessed using two different techniques, fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) employing several ligands with very different off-rates. Arrestin trafficking was determined by confocal microscopy.

Upon agonist washout, GPCR-arrestin-3 complexes showed markedly different dissociation rates in single-cell FRET experiments.