The Effect of Water Extracted Silibinin on Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) Production of Macrophages

The world is actively looking for technology to produce sustainable liquid fuels to replace our reliance on petroleum-based fuels. Biomass can be converted either through the thermochemical or saccharification platforms into fuels such as ethanol or butanol. In addition to converting the biomass into liquid fuels, valuable phytochemicals can be extracted prior, during, or after the conversion. Extracting useful phytochemicals, as a part of the overall conversion of biomass to fuels, is included in the concept of the biobased biorefinery. However, the key to effectively and economically extract phytochemicals from biomass is the ability to couple the extraction to the energy conversion steps; that is, extraction with either dilute acid or water. Phytochemical extraction with organic solvents cannot be easily coupled with an energy conversion process because the solvents must be removed before proceeding to energy conversion, thereby complicating and increasing the cost of the process. By extracting the phytochemicals with water or dilute acid, a simple unit operation can be added to the existing biomass conversion technology, ultimately adding value to the biomass

Probing mid-infrared plasmon resonances in extended radial fractal structures.

Infrared (IR) antennas made of metallic nanostructures are widely tunable from the near- to the far-IR range. They can be utilized for a variety of applications such as light harvesting and photonic filters, and their structural linear or circular anisotropy can be exploited to further enhance the sensitivity of spectroscopic measurements. Here gold dendritic fractal structures that were optimized to exhibit multiple resonances in the mid-IR range were characterized using a scattering-type scanning near-field optical IR microscope. The spatially resolved IR maps associated with the individual modes serve as a basis to understand the mode evolution between each fractal generation

Hidden in Plain Sight: A Machine Learning Approach for Detecting Prostitution Activity in Phoenix, Arizona

Prostitution has been a topic of study for decades, yet many questions remain about where prostitution occurs. Difficulty in identifying prostitution activity is often attributed to the hidden and seemingly victimless nature of the crime. Despite numerous challenges associated with policing street prostitution, these encounters become more difficult to identify when they take place indoors, especially in locations away from public view, such as hotels. The purpose of this paper is to develop a strategy for identifying hotel facilities and surrounding areas that may be experiencing elevated levels of prostitution activity using high-volume, user-generated data, namely hotel reviews written by guests and posted to Travelocity.com. A unique synthesis of methods including data mining, natural language processing, machine learning, and basic spatial analysis are combined to identify facilities that may require additional law enforcement resources and/or social/health service outreach. Prostitution hotspots are identified within the city of Phoenix, Arizona and policy implications are discussed

Desistance and Legitimacy: The Impact of Offender Notification Meetings on Recidivism Among High Risk Offenders

Objective: Legitimacy-based approaches to crime prevention operate under the assumption that individuals — including violent offenders — are more likely to comply with the law when they believe that the law and its agents are legitimate and act in ways that seem inherently “fair” and “just.” While mounting evidence finds an association between such legitimacy-based programs and reductions in aggregate levels of crime and violence, no study has investigated whether such programs influence individual offending. This study evaluates the effectiveness of one such program — Project Safe Neighborhoods’ (PSN) Offender Notification Meetings — at reducing individual recidivism among a population of returning prisoners in Chicago. Methods: This study uses a quasi-experimental design and two types of survival analyses (Cox hazard models and competing risk models) to evaluate the effects of PSN on the subsequent recidivism of program participants relative to the control group. Results: Cox hazard models and competing risk models suggest that involvement in PSN significantly reduces the risk of subsequent incarceration. In fact, participation in PSN Offender Notification Forums is associated with a significant lengthening of the time that offenders remain on the street and out of prison. Conclusion: This study provides some of the first individual-level evidence of the efficacy of such programs on patterns of individual offending. Results suggest that interventions such as these do indeed reduce rates of recidivism in the treatment group

Examining the Association Between Massage Parlors and Neighborhood Crime

Although massage parlors have been associated with illicit activities including prostitution, less is known about their association with neighborhood crime. Employing the Computer Automated Dispatch/Record Management System (CAD/RMS), online user review, licensing, Census, and zoning data, we examine the impact of massage parlors on crime in their surrounding neighborhoods. Using spatial autoregressive models, our results indicate the total number of massage parlors was associated with increased social disorder. The presence of illicit massage parlors in adjacent neighborhoods was associated with crime and physical disorder in the focal neighborhoods. This study has consequences for how police address crime associated with massage parlors. Specifically, the use of online user review forums could be an effective way to identify illicit massage parlors. Recommendations for policing and code enforcement are discussed

Recidivism in context: A meta-analysis of neighborhood concentrated disadvantage and repeat offending

The relationship between macro-level concentrated disadvantage and crime is well established. Recent research has assessed whether macro-level concentrated disadvantage is similarly linked to individual-level recidivism, yielding mixed results. These equivocal results raise methodological concerns and questions as to the theoretical underpinnings of this relationship. To build consensus regarding the relation between concentrated disadvantage and recidivism, this study meta-analytically synthesized prior research (k = 32), and tested the degree to which study and sample characteristics explain variation in effects across studies. We find little support for concentrated disadvantage as a risk factor for recidivism after studies adjust for individual-level risk markers and factors (pooled log OR = 0.03, p = 0.07). We also, however, find effects vary by the age group studied and type of recidivism measured, with significant effects for juveniles and arrests/revocations. In turn, concentrated disadvantage should not be summarily dismissed as irrelevant to recidivism. Ultimately, the overrepresentation of disadvantaged neighborhoods among the justice involved—and the overrepresentation of the justice involved in disadvantaged neighborhoods—requires further research that is both empirically tenable and theoretically informative

The Emerging Role of Protein Phosphorylation as a Critical Regulatory Mechanism Controlling Cellulose Biosynthesis

Plant cell walls are extracellular matrices that surround plant cells and critically influence basic cellular processes, such as cell division and expansion. Cellulose is a major constituent of plant cell walls, and this paracrystalline polysaccharide is synthesized at the plasma membrane by a large protein complex known as the cellulose synthase complex (CSC). Recent efforts have identified numerous protein components of the CSC, but relatively little is known about regulation of cellulose biosynthesis. Numerous phosphoproteomic surveys have identified phosphorylation events in CSC associated proteins, suggesting that protein phosphorylation may represent an important regulatory control of CSC activity. In this review, we discuss the composition and dynamics of the CSC in vivo, the catalogue of CSC phosphorylation sites that have been identified, the function of experimentally examined phosphorylation events, and potential kinases responsible for these phosphorylation events. Additionally, we discuss future directions in cellulose synthase kinase identification and functional analyses of CSC phosphorylation sites

Redundant Gs-coupled serotonin receptors regulate amyloid-β metabolism in vivo

BACKGROUND: The aggregation of amyloid-β (Aβ) into insoluble plaques is a hallmark pathology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Previous work has shown increasing serotonin levels with selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor (SSRI) compounds reduces Aβ in the brain interstitial fluid (ISF) in a mouse model of AD and in the cerebrospinal fluid of humans. We investigated which serotonin receptor (5-HTR) subtypes and downstream effectors were responsible for this reduction. RESULTS: Agonists of 5-HT(4)R, 5-HT(6)R, and 5-HT(7)R significantly reduced ISF Aβ, but agonists of other receptor subtypes did not. Additionally, inhibition of Protein Kinase A (PKA) blocked the effects of citalopram, an SSRI, on ISF Aβ levels. Serotonin signaling does not appear to change gene expression to reduce Aβ levels in acute timeframes, but likely acts within the cytoplasm to increase α-secretase enzymatic activity. Broad pharmacological inhibition of putative α-secretases increased ISF Aβ and blocked the effects of citalopram. CONCLUSIONS: In total, these studies map the major signaling components linking serotonin receptors to suppression of brain ISF Aβ. These results suggest the reduction in ISF Aβ is mediated by a select group of 5-HTRs and open future avenues for targeted therapy of AD. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13024-016-0112-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Electromyographic activation levels of gluteus maximus, hamstrings and quadriceps in squat and hip thrust exercises: a systematic review

This systematic review aimed to compare the activation levels of hip and knee extensors between the squat exercises and their variations and the hip thrust exercise (HT). To this end, articles published with a time window starting in November 2022 were collected from the electronic databases PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science. The following selection criteria were adopted: cross-sectional or longitudinal study (experimental or cohort); studies that evaluated the neuromuscular activation during the squat and HT exercises or their variations; studies that included healthy, injury-free participants; studies that analyzed the amplitude of electromyographic signals. In total, 4 articles met the study criteria. The following results were found: a) The HT provided greater activation of the hip extensors; b) The squat and its variations increased muscle activation in the vastus lateralis; c) The results are inconclusive for activation of the biceps femoris. The study presented some limitations, such as the low number of articles found, small sample size, lack of studies with a more complete analysis by EMG between the muscle groups of the lower limbs, and lack of chronic records related to muscle hypertrophy and neuromuscular activity