Standing With Asian Clients Affected by Pandemic: Counseling Recommendations Through MSJCC Framework

As COVID-19 exacerbates racial discrimination against Asian populations in the U.S., mental health concerns among Asians have increased accordingly. Thus, counselors are encouraged to provide culturally competent counseling for Asian clients who experience racial discrimination and its detrimental impacts. This article proposes recommendations for counselors to effectively serve Asian clients based on the Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies (MSJCC) framework. Counselors can utilize the proposed considerations to alleviate mental health concerns among Asian clients

Standing With Asian Clients Affected by Pandemic: Counseling Recommendations Through MSJCC Framework

As COVID-19 exacerbates racial discrimination against Asian populations in the U.S., mental health concerns among Asians have increased accordingly. Thus, counselors are encouraged to provide culturally competent counseling for Asian clients who experience racial discrimination and its detrimental impacts. This article proposes recommendations for counselors to effectively serve Asian clients based on the Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies (MSJCC) framework. Counselors can utilize the proposed considerations to alleviate mental health concerns among Asian clients

Direct observation of DNA target searching and cleavage by CRISPR-Cas12a

Cas12a (also called Cpf1) is a representative type V-A CRISPR effector RNA-guided DNA endonuclease, which provides an alternative to type II CRISPR-Cas9 for genome editing. Previous studies have revealed that Cas12a has unique features distinct from Cas9, but the detailed mechanisms of target searching and DNA cleavage by Cas12a are still unclear. Here, we directly observe this entire process by using single-molecule fluorescence assays to study Cas12a from Acidaminococcus sp. (AsCas12a). We determine that AsCas12a ribonucleoproteins search for their on-target site by a one-dimensional diffusion along elongated DNA molecules and induce cleavage in the two DNA strands in a well-defined order, beginning with the non-target strand. Furthermore, the protospacer-adjacent motif (PAM) for AsCas12a makes only a limited contribution of DNA unwinding during R-loop formation and shows a negligible role in the process of DNA cleavage, in contrast to the Cas9 PAM.

Reconsidering repurposing: long-term metformin treatment impairs cognition in Alzheimer’s model mice

Metformin, a primary anti-diabetic medication, has been anticipated to provide benefits for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), also known as “type 3 diabetes”. Nevertheless, some studies have demonstrated that metformin may trigger AD pathology and even elevate AD risk in humans. Despite this, limited research has elucidated the behavioral outcomes of metformin treatment, which would hold significant translational value. Thus, we aimed to perform thorough behavioral research on the prolonged administration of metformin to mice: We administered metformin (300 mg/kg/day) to transgenic 3xTg-AD and non-transgenic (NT) C57BL/6 mice over 1 and 2 years, respectively, and evaluated their behaviors across multiple domains via touchscreen operant chambers, including motivation, attention, memory, visual discrimination, and cognitive flexibility. We found metformin enhanced attention, inhibitory control, and associative learning in younger NT mice (≤16 months). However, chronic treatment led to impairments in memory retention and discrimination learning at older age. Furthermore, metformin caused learning and memory impairment and increased levels of AMPKα1-subunit, β-amyloid oligomers, plaques, phosphorylated tau, and GSK3β expression in AD mice. No changes in potential confounding factors on cognition, including levels of motivation, locomotion, appetite, body weight, blood glucose, and serum vitamin B12, were observed in metformin-treated AD mice. We also identified an enhanced amyloidogenic pathway in db/db mice, as well as in Neuro2a-APP695 cells and a decrease in synaptic markers, such as PSD-95 and synaptophysin in primary neurons, upon metformin treatment. Our findings collectively suggest that the repurposing of metformin should be carefully reconsidered when this drug is used for individuals with AD

A Comparison of Physical Parameterization on Tropical Cyclones Simulations Using a Global Non-Hydrostatic Model

A non-hydrostatic global model (MPAS) is being implemented in CESM and tested for short-time weather forecasting regime. In this study, tropical cyclone simulations are carried out with two physics suite in MPAS to investigate their role in extreme weather cases. During real-time forecasting, CAM physics package shows comparable results with WRF physics suite in TC track forecasting. However, in CAM-MPAS, there is an intensity bias reflected by a small RMW and strong radial winds in the boundary layer compare to WRF-MPAS. Similar results are also given when we focus on an idealized tropical cyclone test. During this presentation, we will analyze these bias focusing on TC structure and introduce tropical cyclone forecast results using a variable resolution mesh, whose high-resolution has horizontal size of about 15km. At present, a horizontal mesh resolution of around 10km lies in the overlap between global NWP and high-resolution climate experiments. One of main advantage of tropical cyclone simulation using MPAS is capturing meso- or convective scales by linking with synoptic conditions on the globe. Testing and analysis of model results at this resolution is a good step toward seamless prediction

Methodologies for Fabricating Flexible Supercapacitors

The spread of wearable and flexible electronics devices has been accelerating in recent years for a wide range of applications. Development of an appropriate flexible power source to operate these flexible devices is a key challenge. Supercapacitors are attractive for powering portable lightweight consumer devices due to their long cycle stability, fast charge-discharge cycle, outstanding power density, wide operating temperatures and safety. Much effort has been devoted to ensure high mechanical and electrochemical stability upon bending, folding or stretching and to develop flexible electrodes, substrates and overall geometrically-flexible structures. Supercapacitors have attracted considerable attention and shown many applications on various scales. In this review, we focus on flexible structural design under six categories: paper-like, textile-like, wire-like, origami, biomimetics based design and micro-supercapacitors. Finally, we present our perspective of flexible supercapacitors and emphasize current technical difficulties to stimulate further research

Methodologies for Fabricating Flexible Supercapacitors

The spread of wearable and flexible electronics devices has been accelerating in recent years for a wide range of applications. Development of an appropriate flexible power source to operate these flexible devices is a key challenge. Supercapacitors are attractive for powering portable lightweight consumer devices due to their long cycle stability, fast charge-discharge cycle, outstanding power density, wide operating temperatures and safety. Much effort has been devoted to ensure high mechanical and electrochemical stability upon bending, folding or stretching and to develop flexible electrodes, substrates and overall geometrically-flexible structures. Supercapacitors have attracted considerable attention and shown many applications on various scales. In this review, we focus on flexible structural design under six categories: paper-like, textile-like, wire-like, origami, biomimetics based design and micro-supercapacitors. Finally, we present our perspective of flexible supercapacitors and emphasize current technical difficulties to stimulate further research

Effect of alkyl chain topology on the structure, optoelectronic properties and solar cell performance of thienopyrroledione-cored oligothiophene chromophores

We have investigated a series of oligothiophenes containing a central thienopyrroledione group with rhodanine, dicyanovinyl and octylcyanoacrylate end-capping groups. For each end capping group, two alkyl chain configurations were explored by appending n-octyl chains to the oligothiophenes in both proximal and distal topologies. Substitution of different alkyl topologies and end-capping groups altered not only intramolecular conformations but also intermolecular interactions, thus affecting frontier molecular orbitals and bulk properties such as optical, thermal transitions, solid state packing, and device properties. The electronic properties of the materials were probed in field effect transistors (FETs), single carrier diodes and bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cell devices. FET devices revealed that all materials behaved as p-type semiconductors with mobilities in the range of 10(-5) to 10(-3) cm(2) V-1 s(-1). In solar cell devices, we observed that the optimal end capping group was rhodanine, while the optimal alkyl chain configuration was the proximal configuration. The rhodanine capped molecule with proximal alkyl chain isomerism led to a power conversion efficiency of similar to 2%. Grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering studies of this series of molecules revealed a strong tendency to undergo edge-on packing with no pi-pi stacking in the vertical direction, which may limit their performance in BHJ solar cells.clos