Diagnosing autism spectrum disorders using a double deep Q-Network framework based on social media footprints.

Introduction: Social media is increasingly used in many contexts within the healthcare sector. The improved prevalence of Internet use via computers or mobile devices presents an opportunity for social media to serve as a tool for the rapid and direct distribution of essential health information. Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a comprehensive neurodevelopmental syndrome with enduring effects.

Genotype for hypocretin receptor (hcrtr2) affects appetite in zebrafish.

We investigated the role of hypocretin receptor in signaling appetite in zebrafish (Danio rerio). Hypocretin is a small neuropeptide known for its effects on circadian rhythm and appetite. Wild-type and heterozygous hu2098 (knockout for hcrtr2) zebrafish were raised to adulthood (3-4 months post fertilization) and genotyped.

Models of Surfactant Replacement Therapy in Neonatal Lungs.

The lungs play a critical role in gas exchange and overall respiratory functions, relying on a delicate balance of pulmonary mechanics and surfactant homeostasis. Surfactant replacement therapy (SRT) is a life-saving intervention for conditions such as neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (NRDS), where surfactant deficiency impairs alveolar stability and normal gas exchange. To improve treatment strategies of lung disorders such as NRDS, researchers have developed a variety of computational, benchtop, and animal models to investigate surfactant transport and drug delivery in the lungs.

On-Demand Porous Carbon Fabrication via Selective Laser Sintering for Electrochemical Energy Storage.

Manufacturing structured carbon with tunable three-dimensional (3D) architectures remains a major hurdle for widescale use due to process complexity and high cost of current methods. This work demonstrates the fabrication of structured carbon using selective laser sintering (SLS)-based additive manufacturing, enabling control over both the macroscopic geometry and the nanoscale pore textures. Our process employs polyethylene (PE) as the carbon precursor and only involves steps of printing, cross-linking, and pyrolysis.

Goblet Cell Density of Adhesive Structures Correlates With Climbing Ability in Hawaiian Stream Gobies.

Hawaiian stream gobies exhibit diverse adhesive abilities that can be used by these fishes to help climb waterfalls. Mucus is recognized as contributing to successful performance in many adhesive systems, but potential specializations of mucus production and composition have not been tested in these fishes. This study examines how anatomical (sucker size and goblet cell density) and biochemical (mucus composition) traits may contribute to adhesive success in climbing gobies.

Design of Stable Diradicals Based on Group 13 Dyes of NO-Bis(phenolate) Aza-Dipyrromethene and Aza-BODIPY.

We have prepared a series of strongly fluorescent NO-bis (phenolate) aza-dipyrromethene dyes incorporating boron (aza-BODIPY), aluminum (aza-ALDIPY), gallium (aza-GADIPY), and indium (aza-INDIPY). These compounds were oxidized both chemically and electrochemically to give diradical molecules - with an open-shell singlet ground state and a thermally accessible triplet excited state. The ground state behavior of these diradical molecules was confirmed by a wide array of magnetic spectroscopies, including variable-temperature H NMR, EPR, and SQUID.

Mechanochemical Degradation of Polystyrene Into Benzene for Recycling and Upcycling.

Synthetic plastics sourced from petroleum have gained widespread use since the 1950s. Polystyrene (PS) is one of the most extensively used plastics, as it is colorless, has high mechanical strength, and exhibits excellent chemical and thermal stability; however, it is also one of the least recycled plastics because of the high cost and low profit in recycling. Herein, we demonstrate a mechanochemical recycling approach that allows PS to be efficiently degraded into benzene when it is ground in a ball mill with AlCl.

Real-time pH and temperature monitoring in solid-state fermentation reveals culture physiology and optimizes enzyme harvesting for tailored applications.

Enzyme production is crucial for biorefinery applications and the valorization of agricultural residues. However, real-time monitoring of pH and temperature in enzyme-producing solid-state fermentation (SSF) is generally regarded as challenging due to the system's complexity, with previous studies relying primarily on sacrificial sampling for pH measurements. This study integrates real-time monitoring of pH and temperature with systematic nutrient medium optimization to enhance the SSF enzyme production of α-galactosidase, invertase, pectinase, xylanase, and cellulase by Aspergillus niger NRRL 322 using soybean hulls as the sole carbon source.

A Spatiotemporally Controllable DNA Hydrogel Mesh for Focused Antimetastasis Therapy of Cancer.

Cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed diseases with high mortality, and approximately 50% of patients are prone to present metastasis after various treatments. The shedding of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) during tumor therapy is the root cause of metastasis. In this work, we proposed a focused antimetastasis therapy strategy based on a spatiotemporally controllable DNA hydrogel mesh (SNARE: just like a turtle trapped in the jar) in vivo.

The damaging legacy of damage-centered LGBTIQ+ research: Implications for healthcare and LGBTIQ+ health.

Research on LGBTIQ+ populations has focused primarily on identifying problems in the community (e.g., health disparities) and their predictors (e.

A simple, cost-effective, method for creating electronic cigarette vapor condensate.

Methods to create electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) vapor condensate are needed for use in e-cigarette vapor exposure studies. There are currently several methods to produce condensate described in the literature, but they are often cost-prohibitive, complex, or potentially hazardous, thus limiting the true availability of these methods to many researchers in the field. Here, we developed a method to make e-cigarette vapor condensate utilizing a button-activated vaping device and inexpensive supplies such as a syringe, vinyl tubing of varying diameters, an assortment of fittings, a conical tube, and ordinary, hard-sided, ice packs.

Tuning Catalytic Reactivity via Wetting Control through Oxygen Vacancies: Ru Clusters on Anatase TiO and CeO Supports.

The shape of supported metal particles regulates their catalytic reactivity and is determined by the degree of wetting between the metal particle and the support surface. Flattened particles that wet support surfaces were reported in various catalytic systems, particularly in the subnanometer size regime. Such consequential metal-support wetting phenomena are poorly understood, and methods to study them on powder catalysts under realistic conditions are lacking.

The Surface-Topography Challenge: A Multi-Laboratory Benchmark Study to Advance the Characterization of Topography.

Unlabelled: Surface performance is critically influenced by topography in virtually all real-world applications. The current standard practice is to describe topography using one of a few industry-standard parameters. The most commonly reported number is a, the average absolute deviation of the height from the mean line (at some, not necessarily known or specified, lateral length scale).

Effectiveness of various anterior noncontiguous cervical spine surgeries for treatment of noncontiguous cervical degenerative disk disease: a network meta-analysis.

We conducted a systematic review and network meta-analysis (NMA) to compare the effectiveness of noncontiguous anterior cervical surgical techniques for noncontiguous cervical degenerative disk disease (CDDD) in terms of clinical outcomes. There is a lack of consensus regarding optimal surgical management of noncontiguous CDDD. This NMA compared the clinical effectiveness of various anterior cervical surgical techniques to guide decision-making and improve patient outcomes.

'Little Baby's gone to Heaven': A Mixed-Methods Study of Black Children's Survival Disadvantage in Jim Crow-Era Arkansas.

Nearly all US Black children born before 1910 were born in the American South. We use a mixed-methods design to examine Black children's survival disadvantage over the twentieth century's turn under the rising regime of Jim Crow. We focus on 1910 Arkansas, taking advantage of within-state heterogeneity in agriculture (plantation vs.

Structural and Quantitative Analysis of Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs) and Para-Phenylenediamines (PPDs) by Direct Analysis in Real Time Ion Mobility Mass Spectrometry (DART-IM-MS).

Polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) and para-phenylenediamines (PPDs) are emerging classes of anthropogenic contaminants that are environmentally persistent (most often found in ground and surface water sources), bioaccumulative, and harmful to human health. These chemicals are currently regulated in the US by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Analysis of these contaminants is currently spearheaded by mass spectrometry (MS) coupled to liquid chromatography (LC) because of their high sensitivity and separation capabilities.

Mechanisms of Improving Feeding Function With Capsaicin Following Local Anesthesia in Infant Pigs.

Objectives: Sensory deficits are detrimental to feeding performance, whereas sensory stimulation can improve feeding. Capsaicin is one sensory intervention that improves swallowing in adult humans and alters feeding in an infant animal model. This study assessed the role of the inferior alveolar nerve (IAN) in infant feeding, and determined whether capsaicin reversed or compensated for deficits associated with IAN anesthesia.

Continuing bonds, complicated grief, and posttraumatic growth among bereaved parents after the loss of a child to cancer.

Purpose: Bereaved parents who have lost a child to cancer often maintain ongoing connections with their deceased child. However, the interplay among continuing bonds, complicated grief, and posttraumatic growth remains unclear in Asian cultures, where societal pressure on bereaved parents discourages such connections. This study investigated the relationships of these variables among parents whose child died from cancer in South Korea.

Structure-function relationships in mole crickets: Patterns of transition metal allocation among cuticular tools support the metal-prioritization hypothesis.

Transition metals are well known to enrich the cuticle of structural tools among many insect lineages through the formation of metal-ligand coordinated bonds. Investigations that focus on the distribution patterns of metals among different structures, however, are lacking, despite some structural tools hosting different transition metal profiles. Here, we hypothesized that the enrichment of structures with transition metals, including specific metals and their abundances, is contingent on the types of physical forces those structures experience.

Closed-Loop and Selective Recyclable Fluoro-Containing Graft Copolymers with Diverse Applications.

The intrinsic chemically inert fluoropolymers, constitute a large portion of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), granting them unique properties and prolonged lifetime while also bring substantial environmental concerns. This study develops fluoro-containing graft copolymer with closed-loop and selective recyclability of side chains. The poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-chlorotrifluoroethylene) (PVDF-CTFE) backbone is modified via 4-vinylbenzyl alcohol (VBOH) units and then grafted by poly (trimethylene carbonate) (PTMC) side chains, yielding the graft copolymer with improved ionic conductivity and enhanced mechanical robustness, demonstrating it as a polymer electrolyte for battery application.

Chrys Wesdemiotis: Our Adviser, Mentor, and Friend.

I recall the day when Laurence Charles and Richard Cole approached me to be a guest editor for a special issue honoring the life work of my former PhD adviser and friend, Distinguished Professor Chrys Wesdemiotis, at The University of Akron. It took me less than one second to say I would be honored to participate because of how Chrys made an impact, not just on my life, but for the countless others who have worked with him over the years. Many of us know Chrys for his vast scientific achievements, crossing multi-disciplinary fields of research.

Determination of Intermolecular Distances in Dilute Solutions of Macroions and Their Direct Correlations with Self-Assembly and Macrophase Transitions.

This work demonstrates new attempts to determine the intermolecular distances between charged macroionic solutes in their dilute solutions, which regulate the solute's microphase (self-assembly) and macrophase transitions. Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and analytical ultracentrifuge (AUC) techniques were applied to determine the intermolecular distances for the 2.42 nm-sized, spherical uranyl peroxide molecular cluster {U} in their self-assembled states in dilute aqueous solution and concentrated phases, respectively.

Technology Roadmap of Micro/Nanorobots.

Inspired by Richard Feynman's 1959 lecture and the 1966 film , the field of micro/nanorobots has evolved from science fiction to reality, with significant advancements in biomedical and environmental applications. Despite the rapid progress, the deployment of functional micro/nanorobots remains limited. This review of the technology roadmap identifies key challenges hindering their widespread use, focusing on propulsion mechanisms, fundamental theoretical aspects, collective behavior, material design, and embodied intelligence.

Big team science reveals promises and limitations of machine learning efforts to model physiological markers of affective experience.

Researchers are increasingly using machine learning to study physiological markers of emotion. We evaluated the promises and limitations of this approach via a big team science competition. Twelve teams competed to predict self-reported affective experiences using a multi-modal set of peripheral nervous system measures.