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Friis Gallegos posted an update 1 day, 11 hours ago
The protracted recovery of CFA motor performance demonstrated in rats with unrepaired skulls following TBI suggests this model may be beneficial for testing new therapeutic approaches to prevent SoT.Yawning is highly contagious, yet both its proximate mechanism(s) and its ultimate causation remain poorly understood. Scholars have suggested a link between contagious yawning (CY) and sociality due to its appearance in mostly social species. Nevertheless, as findings are inconsistent, CY’s function and evolution remains heavily debated. One way to understand the evolution of CY is by studying it in hominids. Although CY has been found in chimpanzees and bonobos, but is absent in gorillas, data on orangutans are missing despite them being the least social hominid. Orangutans are thus interesting for understanding CY’s phylogeny. Here, we experimentally tested whether orangutans yawn contagiously in response to videos of conspecifics yawning. Furthermore, we investigated whether CY was affected by familiarity with the yawning individual (i.e. a familiar or unfamiliar conspecific and a 3D orangutan avatar). In 700 trials across 8 individuals, we found that orangutans are more likely to yawn in response to yawn videos compared to control videos of conspecifics, but not to yawn videos of the avatar. Interestingly, CY occurred regardless of whether a conspecific was familiar or unfamiliar. We conclude that CY was likely already present in the last common ancestor of humans and great apes, though more converging evidence is needed.A high bituminous shale horizon from the Gurha mine in the Bikaner sub-basin of the Rajasthan District, NW India, was studied using a collection of geochemical and petrological techniques. This study investigated the nature and environmental conditions of the organic matter and its relation to the unconventional oil-shale resources of the bituminous shale. The analyzed shales have high total organic carbon and total sulfur contents, suggesting that these shale sediments were deposited in a paralic environment under reducing conditions. The dominant presence of organic matter derived from phytoplankton algae suggests warm climatic marine environment, with little connection to freshwater enhancing the growth of algae and other microorganisms. CBL0137 research buy The analyzed bituminous shales have high aquatic-derived alginite organic matters, with low Pr/Ph, Pr/n-C17, and Ph/n-C18 ratios. It is classified as Type II oil-prone kerogen, consistent with high hydrogen index value. Considering the maturity indicators of geochemical Tmax ( less then 430 °C) and vitrinite reflectance values less than 0.40%VRo, the analyzed bituminous shale sediments are in an immature stage of the oil window. Therefore, the oil-prone kerogen Type II in the analyzed bituminous shales has not been cracked by thermal alteration to release oil; thus, unconventional heating is recommended for commercial oil generation.Ti2O3 exhibits unique metal-insulator transition (MIT) at ~ 450 K over a wide temperature range of ~ 150 K. The close relationship between MIT and crystal deformation has been proposed. However, as physical properties are governed by the thermodynamic equilibrium in bulk systems, conducting experimental studies under different lattice deformations remains challenging. Epitaxial thin films can offer high flexibility to accommodate adaptive crystal lattices and provide efficient platforms for investigating the MIT. In this study, we report the synthesis of corundum-type Ti2O3 films on various growth temperatures. We found that the metallic ground states appeared in the films grown at low temperatures. The electronic ground states were further investigated by the electronic-structure calculations. Results suggest that the electrical properties of Ti2O3 films were governed by the c/a ratio of the crystal structure, and the absence of the MIT was attributed to the lattice deformation characterized by an elongated c lattice constant.Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSA) is associated with cardiovascular morbidity in adults and children. NFκB activity is enhanced in circulating monocytes of adults with OSA, that decreases following positive pressure therapy. OSA children’s serum activates NFκB in a cell line. We hypothesized that OSA children’s serum can activate NFκB in cardiomyocytes (CM) and effect their viability. In order to explore the role played by NFκB in OSA cardiovascular pathophysiology, rat, mouse and human immortalized CM were exposed to human serum drawn from OSA children and matched controls. Increased expression of NFκB classical subunits p65/p50 as well as major morphological changes occurred in cardiomyocytes following OSA’s serum exposure. OSA children’s serum induced NFκB activity as measured by p65 nuclear translocation in immortalized human CM and rat cardiomyocytes as well as dense immunostaining of the nucleus. Trypan blue and XTT assays showed that OSA sera induced CM apoptosis. We conclude that NFκB is systemically activated in cardiomyocytes, who also demonstrate decreased viability and contractility following exposure to OSA serum. It supports the hypothesis NFκB plays a role in the evolution of cardiovascular morbidity in OSA. It may support the search for new therapeutic interventions controlling NFκB activation in OSA.Magnesium aluminate spinel (MgAl2O4) supported Co3O4 catalysts are synthesized and tested for the oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of ethylbenzene using CO2 as a soft oxidant. The effect of spinel calcination temperature on the catalytic performance has been systematically investigated. With an increase in the activation temperature from 600 to 900 °C, the active presence of a single-phase MgAl2O4 spinel is observed. A catalyst series consisting of MgAl2O4 spinel with varying Co loadings (10-20 wt%) were prepared and systematically distinguished by ICP, XRD, BET, TPR, NH3-TPD, UV-Vis DRS, FT-IR, XPS, SEM, and TEM. Among the tested cobalt catalysts, 15Co/800MA sample derived by calcination of MgAl2O4 support at 800 °C exhibits the most excellent catalytic performance with the maximum ethylbenzene conversion (≥ 82%). Also, high yields of styrene (≥ 81%) could be consistently achieved on the same active catalyst. Further, the catalyst exhibited almost stable activity during 20 h time-on-stream with a slow decrease in the ethylbenzene conversion from 82 to 59%.