Life History Attributes of Asian Carps in the Upper Mississippi River System

INTRODUCTION: The Upper Mississippi River (UMR) system starts at the confluence of the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois, and serves as a conduit for many aquatic invasive species to enter the waterways of the central and northern interior of the United States, including the Great Lakes. One well-established group found in this waterway is the Asian carps including the common carp Cyprinus carpio, grass carp Ctenopharyngodon idella, and two recent invaders, the bighead car

Measurement of glucose exclusion from the fully hydrated DOPE inverse hexagonal phase

The degree of exclusion of glucose from the inverse hexagonal HII phase of fully hydrated DOPE is determined using contrast variation small angle neutron scattering and small angle X-ray scattering. The presence of glucose is found to favour the formation of the non-lamellar HII phase over the fluid lamellar phase, over a wide range of temperatures, while having no significant effect on the structure of the HII phase. Glucose is preferentially excluded from the lipid-water interface resulting in a glucose concentration in the HII phase of less than half that in the coexisting aqueous phase. The degree of exclusion is quantified and the results are consistent with a hydration layer of pure water adjacent to the lipid head groups from which glucose is excluded. The osmotic gradient created by the difference in glucose concentration is determined and the influence of glucose on the phase behaviour of non-lamellar phase forming lipid systems is discussed

Toward the fabrication of advanced nanofiltration membranes by controlling morphologies and mesochannel orientations of hexagonal lyotropic liquid crystals

Water scarcity has been recognized as one of the major threats to human activity, and, therefore, water purification technologies are increasingly drawing attention worldwide. Nanofiltration (NF) membrane technology has been proven to be an efficient and cost-effective way in terms of the size and continuity of the nanostructure. Using a template based on hexagonal lyotropic liquid crystals (LLCs) and partitioning monomer units within this structure for subsequent photo-polymerisation presents a unique path for the fabrication of NF membranes, potentially producing pores of uniform size, ranging from 1 to 5 nm, and large surface areas. The subsequent orientation of this pore network in a direction normal to a flat polymer film that provides ideal transport properties associated with continuous pores running through the membrane has been achieved by the orientation of hexagonal LLCs through various strategies. This review presents the current progresses on the strategies for structure retention from a hexagonal LLCs template and the up-to-date techniques used for the reorientation of mesochanels for continuity through the whole membrane

Spontaneous Self-Assembly of Thermoresponsive Vesicles Using a Zwitterionic and an Anionic Surfactant.

Spontaneous formation of vesicles from the self-assembly of two specific surfactants, one zwitterionic (oleyl amidopropyl betaine, OAPB) and the other anionic (Aerosol-OT, AOT), is explored in water using small-angle scattering techniques. Two factors were found to be critical in the formation of vesicles: surfactant ratio, as AOT concentrations less than equimolar with OAPB result in cylindrical micelles or mixtures of micellar structures, and salt concentration, whereby increasing the amount of NaCl promotes vesicle formation by reducing headgroup repulsions. Small-angle neutron scattering measurements reveal that the vesicles are approximately 30-40 nm in diameter, depending on sample composition. Small-angle X-ray scattering measurements suggest preferential partitioning of OAPB molecules on the vesicle inner layer to support vesicular packing. Heating the vesicles to physiological temperature (37 °C) causes them to collapse into smaller ellipsoidal micelles (2-3 nm), with higher salt concentrations (≥10 mM) inhibiting this transition. These aggregates could serve as responsive carriers for loading or unloading of aqueous cargoes such as drugs and pharmaceuticals, with temperature changes serving as a simple release/uptake mechanism.Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT160100191) to Rico Tabor. and a Discovery Early Career Research Award (DE190100531) to Andrew Clulow

Structural Atrophy of the Right Superior Frontal Gyrus in Adolescents With Severe Irritability

Severe irritability is common in youths with psychiatric disorders and results in significant dysfunction across domains (academic, social, and familial). Prior structural MRI studies in the pediatric population demonstrated that aberrations of cortical thickness (CT) and gray matter volume (GMV) in the fronto-striatal-temporal regions which have been associated with irritability. However, the directions of the correlations between structural alteration and irritability in the individual indices were not consistent. Thus, we aim to address this by implementing comprehensive assessments of CT, GMV, and local gyrification index (LGI) simultaneously in youths with severe levels of irritability by voxel-based morphometry and surface-based morphometry. One hundred and eight adolescents (46 youths with severe irritability and 62 healthy youths, average age = 14.08 years, standard deviation = 2.36) were scanned with a T1-weighted MRI sequence. The severity of irritability was measured using the affective reactivity index. In youths with severe irritability, there was decreased CT, GMV, and LGI in the right superior frontal gyrus (SFG) compared to healthy youths, and negative correlations between these indices of the SFG and irritability. Our findings suggest that structural deficits in the SFG, potentially related to its role in inhibitory control, may be critical for the neurobiology of irritability

Growth, Fecundity, and Diets of Newly Established Silver Carp in the Middle Mississippi River

The silver carp Hypophthalmichthys molitrix has spread throughout the Mississippi River drainage. During 2003, we determined its population status and potential impact in the middle Mississippi River (MMR), the conduit between the lower Mississippi River and the upper Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois rivers. We quantified growth, age structure, fecundity, and diets of silver carp sampled with trammel nets and AC electrofishing in main-channel areas. Mean length at age in the MMR exceeded that of populations in Asia by as much as 26%. Individuals were typically more than 1 year old and 230 mm total length, suggesting that small, young fish were absent. Individuals in this population matured earlier (age 2) than in the species\u27 native range. Regardless of phytoplankton variation (using chlorophyll a as a surrogate) and zooplankton concentration at MMR sites, phytoplankton was consistently most abundant in diets. Silver carp are finding suitable resources within the MMR, allowing individuals to grow rapidly during early life, persist as adults, and successfully disperse upstream

Just add sugar for carbohydrate induced self-assembly of curcumin

In nature, self-assembly processes based on amphiphilic molecules play an integral part in the design of structures of higher order such as cells. Among them, amphiphilic glycoproteins or glycolipids take on a pivotal role due to their bioactivity. Here we show that sugars, in particular, fructose, are capable of directing the self-assembly of highly insoluble curcumin resulting in the formation of well-defined capsules based on non-covalent forces. Simply by mixing an aqueous solution of fructose and curcumin in an open vessel leads to the generation of capsules with sizes ranging between 100 and 150 nm independent of the initial concentrations used. Our results demonstrate that hydrogen bonding displayed by fructose can induce the self-assembly of hydrophobic molecules such as curcumin into well-ordered structures, and serving as a simple and virtually instantaneous way of making nanoparticles from curcumin in water with the potential for template polymerization and nanocarriers.S.W. is grateful for UNSW PhD scholarship. J.H. acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council (DE160100807) and supercomputer resources from the NCI, Pawsey Supercomputing Centre and Intersect Australian Ltd. Finally, M.H.S. and C.J.G. would like to thank the Australian Research Council (ARC DP 160101172) for fundin

Association of Rapid Care Process Implementation on Reperfusion Times Across Multiple ST-Segment–Elevation Myocardial Infarction Networks

BACKGROUND: The Mission: Lifeline STEMI Systems Accelerator program, implemented in 16 US metropolitan regions, resulted in more patients receiving timely reperfusion. We assessed whether implementing key care processes was associated with system performance improvement. METHODS AND RESULTS: Hospitals (n=167 with 23 498 ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction patients) were surveyed before (March 2012) and after (July 2014) program intervention. Data were merged with patient-level clinical data over the same period. For reperfusion, hospitals were grouped by whether a specific process of care was implemented, preexisting, or never implemented. Uptake of 4 key care processes increased after intervention: prehospital catheterization laboratory activation (62%-91%; P<0.001), single call transfer protocol from an outside facility (45%-70%; P<0.001), and emergency department bypass for emergency medical services direct presenters (48%-59%; P=0.002) and transfers (56%-79%; P=0.001). There were significant differences in median first medical contact-to-device times among groups implementing prehospital activation (88 minutes implementers versus 89 minutes preexisting versus 98 minutes nonimplementers; P<0.001 for comparisons). Similarly, patients treated at hospitals implementing single call transfer protocols had shorter median first medical contact-to-device times (112 versus 128 versus 152 minutes; P<0.001). Emergency department bypass was also associated with shorter median first medical contact-to-device times for emergency medical services direct presenters (84 versus 88 versus 94 minutes; P<0.001) and transfers (123 versus 127 versus 167 minutes; P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The Accelerator program increased uptake of key care processes, which were associated with improved system performance. These findings support efforts to implement regional ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction networks focused on prehospital catheterization laboratory activation, single call transfer protocols, and emergency department bypass