Triphasic nature of polymers of intrinsic microporosity (PIM-1 and PIM-PY) induces storage and catalysis effects in hydrogen and oxygen reactivity at electrode surfaces

Hydrogen oxidation and oxygen reduction are two crucial energy conversion reactions, which are shown to be both strongly affected by the presence of intrinsically microporous polymer coatings on electrodes. Polymers of intrinsic microporosity (PIMs) are known to possess extremely high internal surface area and ability to bind gases under dry conditions. It is shown here that both, hydrogen‐ and oxygen gas binding into PIMs, also occurs under wet or “triphasic” conditions in aqueous electrolyte environments (when immersed in 0.01 M phosphate buffer at pH 7). For two known PIM materials (PIM‐1 and PIM‐PY), nanoparticles are formed by an anti‐solvent precipitation protocol and then cast as a film onto platinum or glassy carbon electrodes. Voltammetry experiments reveal evidence for hydrogen and oxygen binding. Both, PIM‐1 and PIM‐PY, locally store hydrogen or oxygen gas at the electrode surface and thereby significantly affect electrocatalytic reactivity. The onset of oxygen reduction on glassy carbon is shifted by 0.15 V in the positive direction

Affinity-based proteomics reveals novel binding partners for Rab46 in endothelial cells

Rab46 is a novel Ca2+-sensing Rab GTPase shown to have important functions in endothelial and immune cells. The presence of functional Ca2+-binding, coiled-coil and Rab domains suggest that Rab46 will be important for coupling rapid responses to signalling in many cell types. The molecular mechanisms underlying Rab46 function are currently unknown. Here we provide the first resource for studying Rab46 interacting proteins. Using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) to identify affinity purified proteins that bind to constitutively active GFP-Rab46 or inactive GFP-Rab46 expressed in endothelial cells, we have revealed 922 peptides that interact with either the GTP-bound Rab46 or GDP-bound Rab46. To identify proteins that could be potential Rab46 effectors we performed further comparative analyses between nucleotide-locked Rab46 proteins and identified 29 candidate effector proteins. Importantly, through biochemical and imaging approaches we have validated two potential effector proteins; dynein and the Na2+/ K+ ATPase subunit alpha 1 (ATP1α1). Hence, our use of affinity purification and LC–MS/MS to identify Rab46 neighbouring proteins provides a valuable resource for detecting Rab46 effector proteins and analysing Rab46 functions

Methods to predict the timing and status of biological maturation in male adolescent soccer players: A narrative systematic review

The aim of this review was to summarise the methods used to predict and assess maturity status and timing in adolescent, male, academy soccer players. A systematic search was conducted on PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL, Medline and SPORTDiscus. Only experimental studies including male, academy players aged U9-U18 years registered with a professional soccer club were included. The methodological quality of the included studies was assessed using guidelines from the Framework of Potential Biases. Fifteen studies fulfilled our inclusion criteria. Studies were mainly conducted in European countries (n = 12). In total, 4,707 players were recruited across all 15 studies, with an age range of 8-18 years. Five studies were longitudinal, two studies were mixed-method designs and eight studies were cross-sectional. Due to high heterogeneity within the studies, a meta-analysis was not performed. Our findings provided no equivalent estimations of adult height, skeletal age, or age at PHV. Discrepancies were evident between actual and predicted adult height and age at PHV. The Bayley-Pinneau (1952), Tanner-Whitehouse 2 (1983) and Khamis-Roche (1994) methods produced estimates of adult height within 1cm of actual adult height. For age at PHV, both Moore (2015) equations produced the closest estimates to actual age at PHV, and the Fransen (2018) equation correlated highly with actual age at PHV (>90%), even when the period between chronological age and age at PHV was large. Medical imaging techniques (e.g., Magnetic Resonance Imaging, X-Ray, Dual energy X-ray Absorptiometry) demonstrated high intra/inter-rater reliability (ICC = 0.83-0.98) for skeletal maturity assessments. The poor concordance between invasive and non-invasive methods, is a warning to practitioners to not use these methods interchangeably for assessing maturational status and timing in academy soccer players. Further research with improved study designs is required to validate these results and improve our understanding of these methods when applied in this target population

Investigating human audio-visual object perception with a combination of hypothesis-generating and hypothesis-testing fMRI analysis tools

Primate multisensory object perception involves distributed brain regions. To investigate the network character of these regions of the human brain, we applied data-driven group spatial independent component analysis (ICA) to a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data set acquired during a passive audio-visual (AV) experiment with common object stimuli. We labeled three group-level independent component (IC) maps as auditory (A), visual (V), and AV, based on their spatial layouts and activation time courses. The overlap between these IC maps served as definition of a distributed network of multisensory candidate regions including superior temporal, ventral occipito-temporal, posterior parietal and prefrontal regions. During an independent second fMRI experiment, we explicitly tested their involvement in AV integration. Activations in nine out of these twelve regions met the max-criterion (A < AV > V) for multisensory integration. Comparison of this approach with a general linear model-based region-of-interest definition revealed its complementary value for multisensory neuroimaging. In conclusion, we estimated functional networks of uni- and multisensory functional connectivity from one dataset and validated their functional roles in an independent dataset. These findings demonstrate the particular value of ICA for multisensory neuroimaging research and using independent datasets to test hypotheses generated from a data-driven analysis

Acceptability of a Positive Parenting Programme on a Mother and Baby Unit: Q-Methodology with Staff

The Baby Triple P Positive Parenting Programme, a new addition to the established Triple P programmes, is currently being considered for a trial in a Mother and Baby Unit with the aim of exploring its benefits to mothers presenting with severe mental illness. The aim of the current study was to investigate staff views of the acceptability and feasibility of a parenting programme such as the Baby Triple P Positive Parenting Programme in a Mother and Baby Unit. Q-methodology, using an 88-item Q-sort, was employed to explore the opinions of 16 staff working in a Mother and Baby Unit in the North West of England. Results obtained from the Q-sort analysis identified two distinct factors: (1) staff qualified acceptance and (2) systemic approach/systemic results. Preliminary findings indicate that staff perceived Baby Triple P to be an acceptable and feasible intervention for the Mother and Baby Unit setting and that mothers on the unit would be open and receptive to the programme. Further research is required to expand these findings and assess the potential for this type of intervention to be used more widely across a number of Mother and Baby Unit settings

Laugh Like You Mean It:Authenticity Modulates Acoustic, Physiological and Perceptual Properties of Laughter

Several authors have recently presented evidence for perceptual and neural distinctions between genuine and acted expressions of emotion. Here, we describe how differences in authenticity affect the acoustic and perceptual properties of laughter. In an acoustic analysis, we contrasted spontaneous, authentic laughter with volitional, fake laughter, finding that spontaneous laughter was higher in pitch, longer in duration, and had different spectral characteristics from volitional laughter that was produced under full voluntary control. In a behavioral experiment, listeners perceived spontaneous and volitional laughter as distinct in arousal, valence, and authenticity. Multiple regression analyses further revealed that acoustic measures could significantly predict these affective and authenticity judgements, with the notable exception of authenticity ratings for spontaneous laughter. The combination of acoustic predictors differed according to the laughter type, where volitional laughter ratings were uniquely predicted by harmonics-to-noise ratio (HNR). To better understand the role of HNR in terms of the physiological effects on vocal tract configuration as a function of authenticity during laughter production, we ran an additional experiment in which phonetically trained listeners rated each laugh for breathiness, nasality, and mouth opening. Volitional laughter was found to be significantly more nasal than spontaneous laughter, and the item-wise physiological ratings also significantly predicted affective judgements obtained in the first experiment. Our findings suggest that as an alternative to traditional acoustic measures, ratings of phonatory and articulatory features can be useful descriptors of the acoustic qualities of nonverbal emotional vocalizations, and of their perceptual implications

Multimodal Functional Network Connectivity: An EEG-fMRI Fusion in Network Space

EEG and fMRI recordings measure the functional activity of multiple coherent networks distributed in the cerebral cortex. Identifying network interaction from the complementary neuroelectric and hemodynamic signals may help to explain the complex relationships between different brain regions. In this paper, multimodal functional network connectivity (mFNC) is proposed for the fusion of EEG and fMRI in network space. First, functional networks (FNs) are extracted using spatial independent component analysis (ICA) in each modality separately. Then the interactions among FNs in each modality are explored by Granger causality analysis (GCA). Finally, fMRI FNs are matched to EEG FNs in the spatial domain using network-based source imaging (NESOI). Investigations of both synthetic and real data demonstrate that mFNC has the potential to reveal the underlying neural networks of each modality separately and in their combination. With mFNC, comprehensive relationships among FNs might be unveiled for the deep exploration of neural activities and metabolic responses in a specific task or neurological state

Dynamical Principles of Emotion-Cognition Interaction: Mathematical Images of Mental Disorders

The key contribution of this work is to introduce a mathematical framework to understand self-organized dynamics in the brain that can explain certain aspects of itinerant behavior. Specifically, we introduce a model based upon the coupling of generalized Lotka-Volterra systems. This coupling is based upon competition for common resources. The system can be regarded as a normal or canonical form for any distributed system that shows self-organized dynamics that entail winnerless competition. Crucially, we will show that some of the fundamental instabilities that arise in these coupled systems are remarkably similar to endogenous activity seen in the brain (using EEG and fMRI). Furthermore, by changing a small subset of the system's parameters we can produce bifurcations and metastable sequential dynamics changing, which bear a remarkable similarity to pathological brain states seen in psychiatry. In what follows, we will consider the coupling of two macroscopic modes of brain activity, which, in a purely descriptive fashion, we will label as cognitive and emotional modes. Our aim is to examine the dynamical structures that emerge when coupling these two modes and relate them tentatively to brain activity in normal and non-normal states