Electro-optical method of distinguishing recyclable plastics

The UK produces 3 million tonnes of plastic waste each year, of which 85% is landfilled, 8% is incinerated and only 7% recycled. Recycling just one plastic bottle saves enough energy to power a 60W light bulb for six hours. Our local East Riding of Yorkshire Council is trying to reduce the amount of waste by recycling different types of waste. However, not all plastics can be recycled by the council currently. The aim of this project is to develop a device that can distinguish between the different types of plastic which can be and cannot be recycled with the help of an infrared spectrometer. Different types of plastics (e.g., PVC, PET, HDPE) have different forms of spectra. Materials can be identified by comparing their spectra to reference spectra. The aim here is to make a cheap and simple device to do this in the home. This could be in a form of a box containing an infrared source that will illuminate the plastic to be tested, perhaps through a set of filters of plastics that can be recycled. If the light passes through both filter and plastic under test onto a detector this will collect the radiation and pass a signal to an electronic circuit to indicate its suitability for recycling

Electro-optical method of distinguishing recyclable plastics

The UK produces 3 million tonnes of plastic waste each year, of which 85% is landfilled, 8% is incinerated and only 7% recycled. Recycling just one plastic bottle saves enough energy to power a 60W light bulb for six hours. Our local East Riding of Yorkshire Council is trying to reduce the amount of waste by recycling different types of waste. However, not all plastics can be recycled by the council currently. The aim of this project is to develop a device that can distinguish between the different types of plastic which can be and cannot be recycled with the help of an infrared spectrometer. Different types of plastics (e.g., PVC, PET, HDPE) have different forms of spectra. Materials can be identified by comparing their spectra to reference spectra. The aim here is to make a cheap and simple device to do this in the home. This could be in a form of a box containing an infrared source that will illuminate the plastic to be tested, perhaps through a set of filters of plastics that can be recycled. If the light passes through both filter and plastic under test onto a detector this will collect the radiation and pass a signal to an electronic circuit to indicate its suitability for recycling

Elevated glutamatergic compounds in pregenual anterior cingulate in pediatric autism spectrum disorder demonstrated by 1H MRS and 1H MRSI.

Recent research in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has aroused interest in anterior cingulate cortex and in the neurometabolite glutamate. We report two studies of pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (pACC) in pediatric ASD. First, we acquired in vivo single-voxel proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ((1)H MRS) in 8 children with ASD and 10 typically developing controls who were well matched for age, but with fewer males and higher IQ. In the ASD group in midline pACC, we found mean 17.7% elevation of glutamate + glutamine (Glx) (p<0.05) and 21.2% (p<0.001) decrement in creatine + phosphocreatine (Cr). We then performed a larger (26 subjects with ASD, 16 controls) follow-up study in samples now matched for age, gender, and IQ using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging ((1)H MRSI). Higher spatial resolution enabled bilateral pACC acquisition. Significant effects were restricted to right pACC where Glx (9.5%, p<0.05), Cr (6.7%, p<0.05), and N-acetyl-aspartate + N-acetyl-aspartyl-glutamate (10.2%, p<0.01) in the ASD sample were elevated above control. These two independent studies suggest hyperglutamatergia and other neurometabolic abnormalities in pACC in ASD, with possible right-lateralization. The hyperglutamatergic state may reflect an imbalance of excitation over inhibition in the brain as proposed in recent neurodevelopmental models of ASD

Multi-domain training enhances attentional control

Multi-domain cognitive training potentially increases the likelihood for an overlap in processing component with transfer tasks and everyday life, and hence is a promising training approach for older adults. To empirically test this, 84 healthy older adults aged 65 to 75 years were randomly assigned to one of three single-domain training conditions (inhibition, visuomotor function, spatial navigation) or to the simultaneous training of all three cognitive functions (multi-domain training condition). All participants trained on an iPad at home for 50 training sessions. Before and after the training, and at a six-month follow-up measurement, cognitive functioning and training transfer were assessed with a neuropsychological test battery including tests targeting the trained functions (near transfer) and transfer to executive functions (far transfer: attentional control, working memory, speed). Participants in all four training groups showed a linear increase in training performance over the 50 training sessions. Using a latent difference score model, the multi-domain training group, compared to the single-domain training groups, showed more improvement on the far transfer, executive attentional control composite. Individuals with initially lower baseline performance showed higher training-related improvements, indicating that training compensated for lower initial cognitive performance. At the six-month follow-up, performance on the cognitive test battery remained stable. This is one of the first studies that systematically investigated multi-domain training including comparable single-domain training conditions. Our findings suggest that multi-domain training enhances executive attentional control involved in handling several different tasks at the same time, an aspect in everyday life that is particularly challenging for older people

DNA repair deficiency biomarkers and the 70-gene ultra-high risk signature as predictors of veliparib/carboplatin response in the I-SPY 2 breast cancer trial.

Veliparib combined with carboplatin (VC) was an experimental regimen evaluated in the biomarker-rich neoadjuvant I-SPY 2 trial for breast cancer. VC showed improved efficacy in the triple negative signature. However, not all triple negative patients achieved pathologic complete response and some HR+HER2- patients responded. Pre-specified analysis of five DNA repair deficiency biomarkers (BRCA1/2 germline mutation; PARPi-7, BRCA1ness, and CIN70 expression signatures; and PARP1 protein) was performed on 116 HER2- patients (VC: 72 and concurrent controls: 44). We also evaluated the 70-gene ultra-high risk signature (MP1/2), one of the biomarkers used to define subtype in the trial. We used logistic modeling to assess biomarker performance. Successful biomarkers were combined using a simple voting scheme to refine the 'predicted sensitive' group and Bayesian modeling used to estimate the pathologic complete response rates. BRCA1/2 germline mutation status associated with VC response, but its low prevalence precluded further evaluation. PARPi-7, BRCA1ness, and MP1/2 specifically associated with response in the VC arm but not the control arm. Neither CIN70 nor PARP1 protein specifically predicted VC response. When we combined the PARPi-7 and MP1/2 classifications, the 42% of triple negative patients who were PARPi7-high and MP2 had an estimated pCR rate of 75% in the VC arm. Only 11% of HR+/HER2- patients were PARPi7-high and MP2; but these patients were also more responsive to VC with estimated pathologic complete response rates of 41%. PARPi-7, BRCA1ness and MP1/2 signatures may help refine predictions of VC response, thereby improving patient care

Mining Disaggregase Sequence Space to Safely Counter TDP-43, FUS, and α-Synuclein Proteotoxicity.

Hsp104 is an AAA+ protein disaggregase, which can be potentiated via diverse mutations in its autoregulatory middle domain (MD) to mitigate toxic misfolding of TDP-43, FUS, and α-synuclein implicated in fatal neurodegenerative disorders. Problematically, potentiated MD variants can exhibit off-target toxicity. Here, we mine disaggregase sequence space to safely enhance Hsp104 activity via single mutations in nucleotide-binding domain 1 (NBD1) or NBD2. Like MD variants, NBD variants counter TDP-43, FUS, and α-synuclein toxicity and exhibit elevated ATPase and disaggregase activity. Unlike MD variants, non-toxic NBD1 and NBD2 variants emerge that rescue TDP-43, FUS, and α-synuclein toxicity. Potentiating substitutions alter NBD1 residues that contact ATP, ATP-binding residues, or the MD. Mutating the NBD2 protomer interface can also safely ameliorate Hsp104. Thus, we disambiguate allosteric regulation of Hsp104 by several tunable structural contacts, which can be engineered to spawn enhanced therapeutic disaggregases with minimal off-target toxicity

The first year in formal schooling improves working memory and academic abilities

Neurocognition and academic abilities during the period of 4 and 7 years of age are impacted by both the transition from kindergarten to primary school and age-related developmental processes. Here, we used a school cut-off design to tease apart the impact of formal schooling from age, on working memory (WM) function, vocabulary, and numeracy scores. We compared two groups of children with similar age, across two years: first-graders (FG), who were enrolled into primary school the year that they became eligible and kindergarteners (KG), who were deferred school entry until the following year. All children completed a change detection task while brain activation was recorded using portable functional near-infrared spectroscopy, a vocabulary assessment, and a numeracy screener. Our results revealed that FG children showed greater improvement in WM performance and greater engagement of a left-lateralized fronto-parietal network compared to KG children. Further, they also showed higher gains in vocabulary and non-symbolic numeracy scores. This improvement in vocabulary and non-symbolic numeracy scores following a year in primary school was predicted by WM function. Our findings contribute to a growing body of literature examining neurocognitive and academic benefits conferred to children following exposure to formal schooling

Synergistic epistasis enhances cooperativity of mutualistic interspecies interactions

Frequent fluctuations in sulfate availability rendered syntrophic interactions between the sulfate reducing bacterium Desulfovibrio vulgaris (Dv) and the methanogenic archaeon Methanococcus maripaludis (Mm) unsustainable. By contrast, prolonged laboratory evolution in obligate syntrophy conditions improved the productivity of this community but at the expense of erosion of sulfate respiration (SR). Hence, we sought to understand the evolutionary trajectories that could both increase the productivity of syntrophic interactions and sustain SR. We combined a temporal and combinatorial survey of mutations accumulated over 1000 generations of 9 independently-evolved communities with analysis of the genotypic structure for one community down to the single-cell level. We discovered a high level of parallelism across communities despite considerable variance in their evolutionary trajectories and the perseverance of a rare SR+ Dv lineage within many evolution lines. An in-depth investigation revealed that synergistic epistasis across Dv and Mm genotypes had enhanced cooperativity within SR- and SR+ assemblages, allowing their co-existence as r- and K-strategists, respectively

A five‑year retrospective study on the epidemiology of hand, foot and mouth disease in Sabah, Malaysia

Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is endemic in Malaysia, with the number of cases increasing. Sabah has experienced several HFMD outbreaks, but information on the epidemiology and molecular characteristics of responsible viruses is scarce. In this study, data of 17,574 reports of HFMD cases in Sabah from 2015 to 2019 were extracted from a public health disease surveillance system and analyzed. Twenty-one swab samples from 13 children were collected from Beaufort, Sabah, during an outbreak in August 2018 for detection and serotyping of causative viruses by semi-nested reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (snRT-PCR) of the VP4–VP2 region and consensus degenerate hybrid oligonucleotide primer PCR of the VP1 region, respectively. Nucleotide sequencing and phylogenetic analysis were conducted by the neighbor-joining method. The average annual incidence of HFMD was 94.3 per 100,000 people, with the greatest yearly increase between 2017 and 2018. Swabs from six children were tested positive for enterovirus, of which five were positive for CVA16 and one for EV71. All CVA16 strains belonged to sub-genotype B1a, and the EV71 strain belonged to sub-genotype B5. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that enterovirus genotype shift might be responsible for the increasing trend of HFMD in Sabah, however, further study is needed