Narrative simulation of financial scarcity: Effects on delay discounting, cigarette craving, and cigarette demand in adults who smoke cigarettes.

Financial scarcity is associated with greater delay discounting and cigarette smoking. In experimental research, narrative simulation of scarcity increases delay discounting, but the effects of simulated scarcity on smoking behaviors have not yet been examined. In an online survey study, we examined the effects of scarcity narratives on delay discounting, cigarette craving, and behavioral economic demand for cigarettes.

The Role of Noninferiority Studies in Orthopaedic Surgery: Determining Whether Outcomes Are the Same, No Worse, or Simply Not Different.

➢ With any study, readers should be cautious and critical when the conclusion is that "these treatments are the same."➢ If only superiority testing was performed, failing to find a difference does not mean that the treatments are the same, even when the study was adequately powered.➢ Noninferiority analysis is the correct method to compare treatments that researchers and clinicians think may be "the same" for the primary outcome.

Analysis of Systolic Cardiac Function in PERM1-knockout Mice: Insights from A Retrospective Study in Large Cohorts of Animals.

Several groups demonstrated that PERM1 is a positive regulator of mitochondrial bioenergetics in the heart. However, discrepant results have emerged with regard to whether PERM1 loss-of-function affect cardiac contractility. Here we present data from a retrospective study collecting echocardiography data from all knockout (-KO) mice and their wildtype (WT) littermates used for various molecular biological experiments in our lab between April of 2022 and September of 2023.

Elevated EGR1 binding at enhancers in excitatory neurons correlates with neuronal subtype-specific epigenetic regulation.

Background: Brain development and neuronal cell specification are accompanied by epigenetic changes that enable the regulation of diverse gene expression patterns. During these processes, transcription factors interact with cell-type-specific epigenetic marks, binding to unique sets of cis-regulatory elements in different cell types. However, the detailed mechanisms through which cell-type-specific gene regulation is established in neurons remain to be explored.

A Simultaneous Inhibition of ID1 and ID3 Protects Against Pulmonary Fibrosis.

Background: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a fatal lung disease for which novel therapeutic approaches are desperately needed. Inhibitor of DNA binding (ID) proteins are regulated by Transforming Growth Factor-b. However, the regulation and the effects of ID proteins in IPF remain poorly understood.

Bidirectional Crosstalk Between Sleep and Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.

Background: Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) is a devastating cardiopulmonary disease characterized by pulmonary vascular remodeling due to vascular cells dysfunction. Among other clinical signs, emerging data suggest poor sleep quality in patients with PAH; however, how poor sleep impacts hemodynamic burden, symptom severity, and pulmonary vascular remodeling during PAH progression remains unknown.

Methods: We used two models of sleep disturbances (sleep fragmentation and chronic jet lag) and different mouse models of PAH to determine the effects of poor sleep on PAH.

Modeling Laryngeal Dystonia through Spectral Analyses of Vocalizations in a Dystonia Mouse Model.

Laryngeal dystonia is a task-specific, focal dystonia that disrupts vocal-motor control and significantly alters quality of life through impaired communication. Despite its early onset in many hereditary dystonias, effective treatments remain limited, in part due to the lack of a preclinical model that captures its circuit-level pathophysiology. Our experiment evaluates ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) in ; mice, a cerebellum-specific generalized dystonia model, to assess translational relevance for laryngeal dystonia.

Paracrine Action of Bone Morphogenetic Protein 3 in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.

Background: Despite recent advancements in the management of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), the disease remains devastating, with limited survival. Although the Bone Morphogenetic Protein (BMP) signaling pathway is known to play an important role in PAH, our current understanding of this pathway remains limited.

Methods: We assessed BMP3 levels in the lungs of mice, rats, and pigs with pulmonary hypertension, and in pulmonary vascular cells from human patients with PAH.

Neuromodulation of the Cingulate Cortex for Pain.

The subgenual (sACC) and pregenual (pACC) anterior cingulate and anterior midcingulate (aMCC) cortices are structurally and functionally distinct subregions of the cingulate cortex with critical roles in pain processing. These regions may be promising therapeutic targets using non-invasive neuromodulation techniques, including transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), transcranial electrical stimulation (TES), and low-intensity focused ultrasound (LIFU). In this review, we synthesize emerging evidence on the function and connectivity of these subregions in both acute and chronic pain, highlighting their differential roles in the sensory, affective, and autonomic contributions to pain processing.

Gap junctional and ephaptic coupling in cardiac electrical propagation: homocellular and heterocellular perspectives.

Electrical communication in the heart is crucial for maintaining normal cardiac function. Traditionally, gap junctional coupling between cardiomyocytes has been accepted as the primary mechanism governing electrical propagation in the heart. However, numerous studies have demonstrated that gap junctions are also present between different cell types in heterocellular structures and disruption of such gap junctional coupling can be associated with cardiac dysfunction.

The economic factors that determine smoking abstinence: a survival and mediation analysis.

Background: Higher taxes stimulate quit attempts and higher rates of smoking abstinence. Additionally, taxes on tobacco cigarettes and e-cigarettes (ECs) may influence consumers' perceptions of the relative costs of these products. Understanding the relationship between cigarette and EC taxes, cost perceptions, and smoking abstinence is therefore crucial.

Cytoplasmic connexin43-microtubule interactions promote glioblastoma stem-like cell maintenance and tumorigenicity.

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common primary tumor of the central nervous system. One major challenge in GBM treatment is the resistance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy observed in subpopulations of cancer cells, including GBM stem-like cells (GSCs). These cells have the capacity to self-renew and differentiate and as such, GSCs participate in tumor recurrence following treatment.

AEOL-induced NRF2 activation and DWORF overexpression mitigate myocardial I/R injury.

Background: The causal relationship between the activation of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (NRF2) and the preservation of SERCA2a function in mitigating myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (mI/R) injury, along with the associated regulatory mechanisms, remains incompletely understood. This study aims to unravel how NRF2 directly or indirectly influences SERCA2a function and its regulators, phospholamban (PLN) and Dwarf Open Reading Frame (DWORF), by testing the pharmacological repositioning of AEOL-10150 (AEOL) in the context of mI/R injury.

Methods: C57BL6/J, Nrf2 knockout (Nrf2), and wild-type (Nrf2) mice, as well as human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSCMs) were subjected to I/R injury.

Flecainide sensitizes conduction to hyponatremia through an ephaptic mechanism.

Background: Studies suggest that voltage-gated sodium channel (SC) loss-of-function (LoF), often through the use of SC blockers, such as tricyclic anti-depressants, some recreational drugs, and importantly, class 1c anti-arrhythmics, sensitizes cardiac conduction to hyponatremia. However, the mechanism driving conduction velocity (CV) sensitivity to sodium ion (Na) concentration ([Na]) is unknown. We recently demonstrated CV-[Na] sensitivity in haploinsufficient Scn5a+/- mouse and reduced CV-[Na] sensitivity when ephaptic coupling (extracellular conduction by electric fields) is also reduced.

Fear Synchrony of Mouse Dyads: Interaction of Sex Composition and Stress.

Background: Socially coordinated threat responses support a group's survival. Given the distinct social roles of each sex, social coordination can differ between males and females and mixed-sex groups. We investigated how the sex composition of mouse dyads affected one form of social coordination, the synchronization of conditioned freezing, and assessed how emotional state and social context influenced synchronization by exposure to stress and altering the partner's familiarity, respectively.

Food for thought: The relationship between poor eating habits, delay discounting, and quality of life in substance use recovery.

Background: Research on poor eating habits among individuals recovering from substance use disorders (SUD) is limited. This study examines the relationship between poor eating habits, delay discounting (DD), quality of life (QOL), and remission status, in addition to examining DD as a mediator of the relationship between poor eating and QOL.

Methods: Participants (n = 257) in recovery from SUD, completed the Health Behaviors Questionnaire (poor eating was measured using the food domain), a DD task, the World Health Organization QOL questionnaire, demographics, and SUD-related questions.

Common Data Elements for Rehabilitation Research in Neurologic Disorders (NeuroRehab CDEs).

Objective: Common data elements (CDEs) help harmonize data collection across clinical trials and observational studies, allowing for cross-study and cross-condition comparisons. Although CDEs exist for multiple clinical conditions and diseases, this work was extended only recently to neurorehabilitation research.

Design: Subgroups of clinical neurorehabilitation investigators operationalized a domain definition, selected applicable CDEs from 23 existing National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) CDE projects and National Institutes of Health (NIH) CDE repositories, and identified areas needing further development.

Viral Infection and Connexin Dysfunction in the Heart.

Purpose Of Review: Gap junctions, comprising connexin proteins, enable the direct intercellular electrical coupling of cardiomyocytes, and disruption of this process is arrhythmogenic. In addition, gap junctions effect metabolic coupling and of relevance to this review, propagate host antiviral immune responses. Accordingly, connexins have emerged as viral targets during infection.

Effects of acute aerobic exercise on emotional memory formation in individuals with methamphetamine use disorder: Encoding vs consolidation.

Objective: This study investigates the effects of acute aerobic exercise on the encoding and consolidation processes of emotional memory in individuals with methamphetamine use disorder (MUD).

Methods: A within-subject cross-over design was utilized for both experiments. In Experiment 1, thirty-two participants engaged in 30 min of moderate-to-high intensity (70 %-80 % of predicted HRmax) aerobic exercise and a sedentary task before completing a learning task.

Assessment of Blood-Brain Barrier Integrity Using Dyes and Tracers.

Under physiological conditions, the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is required for regulating the passage of substances between the bloodstream and the brain. To date, disruption of the BBB has been associated with nearly all neurological diseases. Dye and tracer experiments have been used to assess BBB integrity for decades, yet quantitative assessment of these experiments has only recently been implemented.

Imaging Techniques for the Analysis of the Blood-Brain Barrier and Gliovascular Unit Dysfunction.

Proper blood-brain barrier (BBB) function is essential to maintain homeostasis, keeping the central nervous system healthy. Disruption of the BBB has been described in nearly all neurological disease and injury contexts. Given the various physical and metabolic roles of the BBB and gliovascular unit (GVU), dysfunction should be assessed across multiple levels to pinpoint the exact nature of the impairment.

Ex Vivo Model of Breast Cancer Cell Invasion in Live Lymph Node Tissue.

Lymph nodes (LNs) are common sites of metastatic invasion in breast cancer, often preceding spread to distant organs and serving as key indicators of clinical disease progression. However, the mechanisms of cancer cell invasion into LNs are not well understood. Existing in vivo models struggle to isolate the specific impacts of the tumor-draining lymph node (TDLN) milieu on cancer cell invasion due to the coevolving relationship between TDLNs and the upstream tumor.

Age-Associated Perinexal Narrowing Masks Consequences of Sodium Channel Gain of Function in Guinea Pig Hearts.

Background: Voltage-gated sodium channel gain of function (NaGOF) is associated with an elevated risk for cardiac arrhythmia. Recent studies have demonstrated that NaGOF can be exacerbated by widening the sodium channel-rich perinexus next to gap junction plaques. Clinically, the incidence of NaGOF-related cardiac events increases with advancing age.

Transient Lymphatic Remodeling Follows Sub-Ablative High-Frequency Irreversible Electroporation Therapy in a 4T1 Murine Model.

High-frequency irreversible electroporation (H-FIRE) is a minimally invasive local ablation therapy known to activate the adaptive immune system and reprogram the tumor microenvironment. Its predecessor, irreversible electroporation (IRE), transiently increases microvascular density and immune cell infiltration within the surviving non-ablated and non-necrotic tumor region, also known as the viable tumor region. However, the impact of pulse electric field therapies on lymphatic vessels, crucial for T-cell fate and maturation, remains unclear.