The effects of diesel exhaust pollution on floral volatiles and the consequences for honey bee olfaction

There is growing evidence of a substantial decline in pollinators within Europe and North America, most likely caused by multiple factors such as diseases, poor nutrition, habitat loss, insecticides, and environmental pollution. Diesel exhaust could be a contributing factor to this decline, since we found that diesel exhaust rapidly degrades floral volatiles, which honey bees require for flower recognition. In this study, we exposed eight of the most common floral volatiles to diesel exhaust in order to investigate whether it can affect volatile mediated plant-pollinator interaction. Exposure to diesel exhaust altered the blend of common flower volatiles significantly: myrcene was considerably reduced, β-ocimene became undetectable, and β-caryophyllene was transformed into its cis-isomer isocaryophyllene. Proboscis extension response (PER) assays showed that the alterations of the blend reduced the ability of honey bees to recognize it. The chemically reactive nitrogen oxides fraction of diesel exhaust gas was identified as capable of causing degradation of floral volatiles

Roadmap for a sustainable circular economy in lithium-ion and future battery technologies

The market dynamics, and their impact on a future circular economy for lithium-ion batteries (LIB), are presented in this roadmap, with safety as an integral consideration throughout the life cycle. At the point of end-of-life (EOL), there is a range of potential options—remanufacturing, reuse and recycling. Diagnostics play a significant role in evaluating the state-of-health and condition of batteries, and improvements to diagnostic techniques are evaluated. At present, manual disassembly dominates EOL disposal, however, given the volumes of future batteries that are to be anticipated, automated approaches to the dismantling of EOL battery packs will be key. The first stage in recycling after the removal of the cells is the initial cell-breaking or opening step. Approaches to this are reviewed, contrasting shredding and cell disassembly as two alternative approaches. Design for recycling is one approach that could assist in easier disassembly of cells, and new approaches to cell design that could enable the circular economy of LIBs are reviewed. After disassembly, subsequent separation of the black mass is performed before further concentration of components. There are a plethora of alternative approaches for recovering materials; this roadmap sets out the future directions for a range of approaches including pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, short-loop, direct, and the biological recovery of LIB materials. Furthermore, anode, lithium, electrolyte, binder and plastics recovery are considered in order to maximise the proportion of materials recovered, minimise waste and point the way towards zero-waste recycling. The life-cycle implications of a circular economy are discussed considering the overall system of LIB recycling, and also directly investigating the different recycling methods. The legal and regulatory perspectives are also considered. Finally, with a view to the future, approaches for next-generation battery chemistries and recycling are evaluated, identifying gaps for research. This review takes the form of a series of short reviews, with each section written independently by a diverse international authorship of experts on the topic. Collectively, these reviews form a comprehensive picture of the current state of the art in LIB recycling, and how these technologies are expected to develop in the future

Evaluation of individual and ensemble probabilistic forecasts of COVID-19 mortality in the United States

Short-term probabilistic forecasts of the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States have served as a visible and important communication channel between the scientific modeling community and both the general public and decision-makers. Forecasting models provide specific, quantitative, and evaluable predictions that inform short-term decisions such as healthcare staffing needs, school closures, and allocation of medical supplies. Starting in April 2020, the US COVID-19 Forecast Hub (https://covid19forecasthub.org/) collected, disseminated, and synthesized tens of millions of specific predictions from more than 90 different academic, industry, and independent research groups. A multimodel ensemble forecast that combined predictions from dozens of groups every week provided the most consistently accurate probabilistic forecasts of incident deaths due to COVID-19 at the state and national level from April 2020 through October 2021. The performance of 27 individual models that submitted complete forecasts of COVID-19 deaths consistently throughout this year showed high variability in forecast skill across time, geospatial units, and forecast horizons. Two-thirds of the models evaluated showed better accuracy than a naïve baseline model. Forecast accuracy degraded as models made predictions further into the future, with probabilistic error at a 20-wk horizon three to five times larger than when predicting at a 1-wk horizon. This project underscores the role that collaboration and active coordination between governmental public-health agencies, academic modeling teams, and industry partners can play in developing modern modeling capabilities to support local, state, and federal response to outbreaks

The United States COVID-19 Forecast Hub dataset

Academic researchers, government agencies, industry groups, and individuals have produced forecasts at an unprecedented scale during the COVID-19 pandemic. To leverage these forecasts, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) partnered with an academic research lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to create the US COVID-19 Forecast Hub. Launched in April 2020, the Forecast Hub is a dataset with point and probabilistic forecasts of incident cases, incident hospitalizations, incident deaths, and cumulative deaths due to COVID-19 at county, state, and national, levels in the United States. Included forecasts represent a variety of modeling approaches, data sources, and assumptions regarding the spread of COVID-19. The goal of this dataset is to establish a standardized and comparable set of short-term forecasts from modeling teams. These data can be used to develop ensemble models, communicate forecasts to the public, create visualizations, compare models, and inform policies regarding COVID-19 mitigation. These open-source data are available via download from GitHub, through an online API, and through R packages

Exploring the roles of membrane proteins in Manganese homeostasis of higher plants

Manganese (Mn) is an essential heavy metal micronutrient in plant growth and development, but becomes toxic when present in excess, with potential agricultural yield losses under both nutritional extremes. Membrane transporters play a key role in enabling plant growth under Mn deficiency and toxicity. This study directly compares the roles of members from different ubiquitous transporter families in Mn homeostasis: Group 8/9 members of the Metal Tolerance Proteins (MTPs), At MTP8–MTP11; At ECA3, a P2A-type ATPase; and Natural Resistance Associated Macrophage Proteins, At NRAMP1 and At NRAMP2. MTP8 plays a significant role in Mn detoxification at the tonoplast, conferring Mn hypertolerance when overexpressed; it is also the only Group 8/9-MTP involved in alleviating Mn/iron antagonism. A role in Mn detoxification is also assigned to MTP10, identified through comparison of novel double and triple mtp knockout mutants. Expression in yeast provides evidence that these proteins can transport Mn, with greater Mn tolerance conferred by MTP8 and MTP10 than MTP11. ECA3 is also shown to play a minor role in conferring tolerance to Mn toxicity in planta, but this is only apparent when MTP11 is non-functional; its major role appears to lie in alleviating Mn deficiency. This thesis also clarifies the disputed subcellular localisations of ECA3 and MTP11, demonstrating targeting to the trans- and cis-Golgi, respectively. Additionally, NRAMP2 is shown to alleviate Mn deficiency at the cis-Golgi. Characterisation of double and triple mutants has begun to clarify the relative contribution of NRAMP1, NRAMP2 and ECA3 in Mn deficiency. The use of mutants in this study has also highlighted the antagonistic effects of calcium in Mn homeostasis. Overall, this study provides a more comprehensive understanding of how key transporters function together in Mn homeostasis, identifying targets that may be useful for crop improvement

Exploring the roles of membrane proteins in Manganese homeostasis of higher plants

Manganese (Mn) is an essential heavy metal micronutrient in plant growth and development, but becomes toxic when present in excess, with potential agricultural yield losses under both nutritional extremes. Membrane transporters play a key role in enabling plant growth under Mn deficiency and toxicity. This study directly compares the roles of members from different ubiquitous transporter families in Mn homeostasis: Group 8/9 members of the Metal Tolerance Proteins (MTPs), At MTP8–MTP11; At ECA3, a P2A-type ATPase; and Natural Resistance Associated Macrophage Proteins, At NRAMP1 and At NRAMP2. MTP8 plays a significant role in Mn detoxification at the tonoplast, conferring Mn hypertolerance when overexpressed; it is also the only Group 8/9-MTP involved in alleviating Mn/iron antagonism. A role in Mn detoxification is also assigned to MTP10, identified through comparison of novel double and triple mtp knockout mutants. Expression in yeast provides evidence that these proteins can transport Mn, with greater Mn tolerance conferred by MTP8 and MTP10 than MTP11. ECA3 is also shown to play a minor role in conferring tolerance to Mn toxicity in planta, but this is only apparent when MTP11 is non-functional; its major role appears to lie in alleviating Mn deficiency. This thesis also clarifies the disputed subcellular localisations of ECA3 and MTP11, demonstrating targeting to the trans- and cis-Golgi, respectively. Additionally, NRAMP2 is shown to alleviate Mn deficiency at the cis-Golgi. Characterisation of double and triple mutants has begun to clarify the relative contribution of NRAMP1, NRAMP2 and ECA3 in Mn deficiency. The use of mutants in this study has also highlighted the antagonistic effects of calcium in Mn homeostasis. Overall, this study provides a more comprehensive understanding of how key transporters function together in Mn homeostasis, identifying targets that may be useful for crop improvement

<b>Bridging the Gap: Neuroscience & Clinical Practice in Mental Health</b> Workshop report

In October 2023 Wellcome hosted a workshop to bring together researchers and clinicians at all career stages to better understand how neuroscience could inform clinical practice. The workshop aimed to foster collaboration between neuroscientists and clinician scientists. This report summarises three important opportunities that arose throughout the workshop. Harnessing them could enable preclinical neuroscience to reach its full potential and deliver much-needed interventions for people with mental health conditions.</p

OsMTP11 is localised at the Golgi and contributes to Mn tolerance

Membrane transporters play a key role in obtaining sufficient quantities of manganese (Mn) but also in protecting against Mn toxicity. We have characterized OsMTP11, a member of the Cation Diffusion Facilitator/Metal Tolerance Protein (CDF/MTP) family of metal cation transporters in Oryza sativa. We demonstrate that OsMTP11 functions in alleviating Mn toxicity as its expression can rescue the Mn-sensitive phenotype of the Arabidopsis mtp11-3 knockout mutant. When expressed stably in Arabidopsis and transiently in rice and tobacco, it localises to the Golgi. OsMTP11 partially rescues the Mn-hypersensitivity of the pmr1 yeast mutant but only slightly alleviates the Zn sensitivity of the zrc1 cot1 yeast mutant. Overall, these results suggest that OsMTP11 predominantly functions as a Mn-transporting CDF with lower affinity for Zn. Site-directed mutagenesis studies revealed four substitutions in OsMTP11 that appear to alter its transport activity. OsMTP11 harbouring a substitution of leucine 150 to a serine fully rescued pmr1 Mn-sensitivity at all concentrations tested. The other substitutions, including those at conserved DxxxD domains, reduced complementation of pmr1 to different levels. This indicates their importance for OsMTP11 function and is a starting point for refining transporter activity/specificity

Dissecting the relative contribution of ECA3 and group 8/9 cation diffusion facilitators to manganese homeostasis in <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i>

Manganese (Mn) is an essential micronutrient for plant growth but becomes toxic when present in excess. A number of Arabidopsis proteins are involved in Mn transport including ECA3, MTPs, and NRAMPs; however, their relative contributions to Mn homeostasis remain to be demonstrated. A major focus here was to clarify the importance of ECA3 in responding to Mn deficiency and toxicity using a range of mutants. We show that ECA3 localizes to the trans-Golgi and plays a major role in response to Mn deficiency with severe effects seen in eca3 nramp1 nramp2 under low Mn supply. ECA3 plays a minor role in Mn-toxicity tolerance, but only when the cis-Golgi-localized MTP11 is non-functional. We also use mutants and overexpressors to determine the relative contributions of MTP members to Mn homeostasis. The trans-Golgi-localized MTP10 plays a role in Mn-toxicity tolerance, but this is only revealed in mutants when MTP8 and MTP11 are non-functional and when overexpressed in mtp11 mutants. MTP8 and MTP10 confer greater Mn-toxicity resistance to the pmr1 yeast mutant than MTP11, and an important role for the first aspartate in the fifth transmembrane domain DxxxD motif is demonstrated. Overall, new insight into the relative influence of key transporters in Mn homeostasis is provided