Dietary options to reduce the environmental impact of milk production

A range of options was explored to test the hypothesis that diets for dairy cows could be formulated to reduce the carbon footprint (CFP) of feed, increase efficiency of conversion of potentially human-edible feed into milk, increase nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) and reduce methane (CH4) emissions per kg milk. Diets based on grazed grass, grass silage, maize silage or straw, supplemented with raw material feeds, were formulated to meet requirements for metabolizable energy and metabolizable protein for a range of daily milk yields. At similar levels of milk yield, NUE, predicted CH4 emissions and diet CFP were generally higher for diets based on maize silage than for those based on grazed grass, grass silage or straw. Predicted CH4 emissions and human-edible proportion decreased, while NUE increased with the increasing level of milk yield. It is concluded that there is potential to reduce the environmental impact of milk production by altering diet formulation, but the extent to which this might occur is likely to depend on availability of raw material feeds with low CFPs

Excitation and relaxation in atom-cluster collisions

Electronic and vibrational degrees of freedom in atom-cluster collisions are treated simultaneously and self-consistently by combining time-dependent density functional theory with classical molecular dynamics. The gradual change of the excitation mechanisms (electronic and vibrational) as well as the related relaxation phenomena (phase transitions and fragmentation) are studied in a common framework as a function of the impact energy (eV...MeV). Cluster "transparency" characterized by practically undisturbed atom-cluster penetration is predicted to be an important reaction mechanism within a particular window of impact energies.Comment: RevTeX (4 pages, 4 figures included with epsf

A systematic review of digital and face-to-face cognitive behavioral therapy for depression

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) represents one of the major treatment options for depressive disorders besides pharmacological interventions. While newly developed digital CBT approaches hold important advantages due to higher accessibility, their relative effectiveness compared to traditional CBT remains unclear. We conducted a systematic literature search to identify all studies that conducted a CBT-based intervention (face-to-face or digital) in patients with major depression. Random-effects meta-analytic models of the standardized mean change using raw score standardization (SMCR) were computed. In 106 studies including n = 11854 patients face-to-face CBT shows superior clinical effectiveness compared to digital CBT when investigating depressive symptoms (p < 0.001, face-to-face CBT: SMCR = 1.97, 95%-CI: 1.74–2.13, digital CBT: SMCR = 1.20, 95%-CI: 1.08–1.32) and adherence (p = 0.014, face-to-face CBT: 82.4%, digital CBT: 72.9%). However, after accounting for differences between face-to-face and digital CBT studies, both approaches indicate similar effectiveness. Important variables with significant moderation effects include duration of the intervention, baseline severity, adherence and the level of human guidance in digital CBT interventions. After accounting for potential confounders our analysis indicates comparable effectiveness of face-to-face and digital CBT approaches. These findings underline the importance of moderators of clinical effects and provide a basis for the future personalization of CBT treatment in depression

Association between age of cannabis initiation and gray matter covariance networks in recent onset psychosis

Cannabis use during adolescence is associated with an increased risk of developing psychosis. According to a current hypothesis, this results from detrimental effects of early cannabis use on brain maturation during this vulnerable period. However, studies investigating the interaction between early cannabis use and brain structural alterations hitherto reported inconclusive findings. We investigated effects of age of cannabis initiation on psychosis using data from the multicentric Personalized Prognostic Tools for Early Psychosis Management (PRONIA) and the Cannabis Induced Psychosis (CIP) studies, yielding a total sample of 102 clinically-relevant cannabis users with recent onset psychosis. GM covariance underlies shared maturational processes. Therefore, we performed source-based morphometry analysis with spatial constraints on structural brain networks showing significant alterations in schizophrenia in a previous multisite study, thus testing associations of these networks with the age of cannabis initiation and with confounding factors. Earlier cannabis initiation was associated with more severe positive symptoms in our cohort. Greater gray matter volume (GMV) in the previously identified cerebellar schizophrenia-related network had a significant association with early cannabis use, independent of several possibly confounding factors. Moreover, GMV in the cerebellar network was associated with lower volume in another network previously associated with schizophrenia, comprising the insula, superior temporal, and inferior frontal gyrus. These findings are in line with previous investigations in healthy cannabis users, and suggest that early initiation of cannabis perturbs the developmental trajectory of certain structural brain networks in a manner imparting risk for psychosis later in life

E. coli Histidine Triad Nucleotide Binding Protein 1 (ecHinT) Is a Catalytic Regulator of D-Alanine Dehydrogenase (DadA) Activity In Vivo

Histidine triad nucleotide binding proteins (Hints) are highly conserved members of the histidine triad (HIT) protein superfamily. Hints comprise the most ancient branch of this superfamily and can be found in Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukaryota. Prokaryotic genomes, including a wide diversity of both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, typically have one Hint gene encoded by hinT (ycfF in E. coli). Despite their ubiquity, the foundational reason for the wide-spread conservation of Hints across all kingdoms of life remains a mystery. In this study, we used a combination of phenotypic screening and complementation analyses with wild-type and hinT knock-out Escherichia coli strains to show that catalytically active ecHinT is required in E. coli for growth on D-alanine as a sole carbon source. We demonstrate that the expression of catalytically active ecHinT is essential for the activity of the enzyme D-alanine dehydrogenase (DadA) (equivalent to D-amino acid oxidase in eukaryotes), a necessary component of the D-alanine catabolic pathway. Site-directed mutagenesis studies revealed that catalytically active C-terminal mutants of ecHinT are unable to activate DadA activity. In addition, we have designed and synthesized the first cell-permeable inhibitor of ecHinT and demonstrated that the wild-type E. coli treated with the inhibitor exhibited the same phenotype observed for the hinT knock-out strain. These results reveal that the catalytic activity and structure of ecHinT is essential for DadA function and therefore alanine metabolism in E. coli. Moreover, they provide the first biochemical evidence linking the catalytic activity of this ubiquitous protein to the biological function of Hints in Escherichia coli

Ets1 Induces Dysplastic Changes When Expressed in Terminally-Differentiating Squamous Epidermal Cells

BACKGROUND: Ets1 is an oncogene that functions as a transcription factor and regulates the activity of many genes potentially important for tumor initiation and progression. Interestingly, the Ets1 oncogene is over-expressed in many human squamous cell cancers and over-expression is highly correlated with invasion and metastasis. Thus, Ets1 is believed to mainly play a role in later stages of the oncogenic process, but not early events. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To better define the role of Ets1 in squamous cell carcinogenesis, we generated a transgenic mouse model in which expression of the Ets1 oncogene could be temporally and spatially regulated. Upon Ets1 induction in differentiating cells of stratified squamous epithelium, these mice exhibited dramatic changes in epithelial organization including increased proliferation and blocked terminal differentiation. The phenotype was completely reversed when Ets1 expression was suppressed. In mice where Ets1 expression was re-induced at a later age, the phenotype was more localized and the lesions that developed were more invasive. Many potential Ets1 targets were upregulated in the skin of these mice with the most dramatic being the metalloprotease MMP13, which we demonstrate to be a direct transcriptional target of Ets1. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Collectively, our data reveal that upregulation of Ets1 can be an early event that promotes pre-neoplastic changes in epidermal tissues via its regulation of key genes driving growth and invasion. Thus, the Ets1 oncogene may be important for oncogenic processes in both early and late stages of tumor development

A multivariate neuromonitoring approach to neuroplasticity-based computerized cognitive training in recent onset psychosis

Two decades of studies suggest that computerized cognitive training (CCT) has an effect on cognitive improvement and the restoration of brain activity. Nevertheless, individual response to CCT remains heterogenous, and the predictive potential of neuroimaging in gauging response to CCT remains unknown. We employed multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) on whole-brain resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) to (neuro)monitor clinical outcome defined as psychosis-likeness change after 10-hours of CCT in recent onset psychosis (ROP) patients. Additionally, we investigated if sensory processing (SP) change during CCT is associated with individual psychosis-likeness change and cognitive gains after CCT. 26 ROP patients were divided into maintainers and improvers based on their SP change during CCT. A support vector machine (SVM) classifier separating 56 healthy controls (HC) from 35 ROP patients using rsFC (balanced accuracy of 65.5%,P < 0.01) was built in an independent sample to create a naturalistic model representing the HC-ROP hyperplane. This model was out-of-sample cross-validated in the ROP patients from the CCT trial to assess associations between rsFC pattern change, cognitive gains and SP during CCT. Patients with intact SP threshold at baseline showed improved attention despite psychosis status on the SVM hyperplane at follow-up (p < 0.05). Contrarily, the attentional gains occurred in the ROP patients who showed impaired SP at baseline only if rsfMRI diagnosis status shifted to the healthy-like side of the SVM continuum. Our results reveal the utility of MVPA for elucidating treatment response neuromarkers based on rsFC-SP change and pave the road to more personalized interventions

Importance of non-CO2 emissions in carbon management

Background: GHG budgets highlight a need for urgency, yet analyses are often CO2-focused, with less attention paid to non-CO2. Results: In this paper, scenarios are used to explore non-CO2 drivers and barriers to their mitigation, drawing out implications for CO2 management. Results suggest that even optimistic technological and consumption-related developments lead to on-going increases in global N2O, largely to improve food security within a changing climate. This contrasts with existing analysis, where lower levels of N2O by 2050 are projected. Conclusions: As avoiding '2°C' limits the emissions budget, constraints on reducing non-CO2 add pressure to energy system decarbonization. Overlooking how a changing climate and rising consumption restricts efforts to curb non-CO2 will result in policies aiming to avoid 2°C falling short of the mark

Association between age of cannabis initiation and gray matter covariance networks in recent onset psychosis

Cannabis use during adolescence is associated with an increased risk of developing psychosis. According to a current hypothesis, this results from detrimental effects of early cannabis use on brain maturation during this vulnerable period. However, studies investigating the interaction between early cannabis use and brain structural alterations hitherto reported inconclusive findings. We investigated effects of age of cannabis initiation on psychosis using data from the multicentric Personalized Prognostic Tools for Early Psychosis Management (PRONIA) and the Cannabis Induced Psychosis (CIP) studies, yielding a total sample of 102 clinically-relevant cannabis users with recent onset psychosis. GM covariance underlies shared maturational processes. Therefore, we performed source-based morphometry analysis with spatial constraints on structural brain networks showing significant alterations in schizophrenia in a previous multisite study, thus testing associations of these networks with the age of cannabis initiation and with confounding factors. Earlier cannabis initiation was associated with more severe positive symptoms in our cohort. Greater gray matter volume (GMV) in the previously identified cerebellar schizophrenia-related network had a significant association with early cannabis use, independent of several possibly confounding factors. Moreover, GMV in the cerebellar network was associated with lower volume in another network previously associated with schizophrenia, comprising the insula, superior temporal, and inferior frontal gyrus. These findings are in line with previous investigations in healthy cannabis users, and suggest that early initiation of cannabis perturbs the developmental trajectory of certain structural brain networks in a manner imparting risk for psychosis later in life