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TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT 1021 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1023 I. INTRODUCTION 1024 II. NOTICE AND COMMENT RULEMAKING AND THE IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION 1026 III. E-RULEMAKING 1037 A. The Transition [...], [Technological innovations since the turn of the century have created opportunities to increase public participation in notice and comment rulemaking, increase the efficiency of the process, and increase the quality of the rules adopted by agencies. For some rules, online rulemaking and social media have facilitated increased public participation, but have not necessarily facilitated improvements in the quality of public comments. In addition, in some cases, the transformation of the process has created new challenges for government agencies by making it easier for supporters or opponents of rules to flood agencies with duplicative and potentially false comments to which the agencies must respond. Artificial intelligence, including ChatGPT, is the latest tech trend to create opportunities to transform notice and comment rulemaking. If ChatGPT is only used by members of the public and organizations as a tool to draft comments, it may increase the involvement of the public in the process and assist them in drafting clear and intelligible comments. However, it is unlikely to improve the quality of public comments that they provide to agencies, because it will not help them understand the type of information that agencies are seeking in public comments. In addition, if ChatGPT is used to any significant extent in drafting comments, it could create challenges for agencies by flooding agencies with significantly greater numbers of seemingly unique comments, most of which merely express sentiment, values or preferences, and many of which may include false information. There is, however, an alternative path forward for ChatGPT and artificial intelligence in notice and comment rulemaking. If agencies use ChatGPT to create tools that help members of the public understand proposed rules, the rulemaking process and the types of comments that are effective in that process, agencies may enable members of the public to provide them with more useful comments. In addition, agencies may be able to use other artificial intelligence tools to make it easier to organize and analyze the comments they receive and to notify members of the public about proposed rules that might be of interest to them. Embracing these alternative uses of artificial intelligence and ChatGPT could generate some of the gains in public participation that other technological tools have promised, but not delivered.]

Technological innovations since the turn of the century have created opportunities to increase public participation in notice and comment rulemaking, increase the efficiency of the process, and increase the quality of the rules adopted by agencies. For some rules, online rulemaking and social media have facilitated increased public participation, but have not necessarily facilitated improvements in the quality of public comments. In addition, in some cases, the transformation of the process has created new challenges for government agencies by making it easier for supporters or opponents of rules to flood agencies with duplicative and potentially false comments to which the agencies must respond. Artificial intelligence, including ChatGPT, is the latest tech trend to create opportunities to transform notice and comment rulemaking. If ChatGPT is only used by members of the public and organizations as a tool to draft comments, it may increase the involvement of the public in the process and assist them in drafting clear and intelligible comments. However, it is unlikely to improve the quality of public comments that they provide to agencies, because it will not help them understand the type of information that agencies are seeking in public comments. In addition, if ChatGPT is used to any significant extent in drafting comments, it could create challenges for agencies by flooding agencies with significantly greater numbers of seemingly unique comments, most of which merely express sentiment, values or preferences, and many of which may include false information. There is, however, an alternative path forward for ChatGPT and artificial intelligence in notice and comment rulemaking. If agencies use ChatGPT to create tools that help members of the public understand proposed rules, the rulemaking process and the types of comments that are effective in that process, agencies may enable members of the public to provide them with more useful comments. In addition, agencies may be able to use other artificial intelligence tools to make it easier to organize and analyze the comments they receive and to notify members of the public about proposed rules that might be of interest to them. Embracing these alternative uses of artificial intelligence and ChatGPT could generate some of the gains in public participation that other technological tools have promised, but not delivered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 13-lined ground squirrel (Ictidomys tridecemlineatus), a hibernating species, is a natural model of physiological adaption to an extreme environment. During torpor, body temperature drops to 0-4[degrees]C, and the cortex is electrically silent, yet the brain stem continues to regulate cardiorespiratory function. The mechanisms underlying selective inhibition in the brain during torpor are not known. To test whether altered GABAergic function is involved in regional and seasonal differences in neuronal activity, conical and medullary slices from summer-active (SA) and interbout aroused (IBA) squirrels were placed in a standard in vitro recording chamber. Silicon multichannel electrodes were placed in cortex, ventral respiratory column (VRC), and nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS) to record spontaneous neuronal activity. In slices from IBA squirrels, bath-applied pentobarbital sodium (300 [micro]M) nearly abolished conical neuronal activity, but VRC and NTS neuronal activity was unaltered. In contrast, pentobarbital sodium (300 [micro]M) nearly abolished all spontaneous cortical, VRC, and NTS neuronal activity in slices from SA squirrels. Muscimol (20 [micro]M; [GABA.sub.A] receptor agonist) abolished all neuronal activity in cortical and medullary slices from both IBA and SA squirrels, thereby demonstrating the presence of functional [GABA.sub.A] receptors. Pretreatment of cortical slices from IBA squirrels with bicuculline (100 [micro]M; [GABA.sub.A] receptor antagonist) blocked pentobarbital-dependent inhibition of spontaneous neuronal activity. We hypothesize that [GABA.sub.A] receptors undergo a seasonal modification in subunit composition, such that cardiorespiratory neurons are uniquely unaffected by surges of an endogenous positive allosteric modulator. [gamma]-aminobutyric acid receptors; ventral respiratory groups; nucleus tractus solitarius; respiratory control doi: 10.1152/ajpregu.00239.2009

For ectothermic vertebrates, such as reptiles, the effects of opioid receptor subtype activation on breathing are poorly understood. On the basis of previous studies on mammals and lampreys, we hypothesized that [mu]- and [delta]-opioid receptor (MOR and DOR, respectively) activation would cause respiratory depression, whereas [kappa]-opioid receptor (KOR) activation would have no effect. To address this question, we measured respiration in awake, freely swimming adult red-eared slider turtles (Trachemys scripta) before and after injection with agonists for specific opioid receptors. Injection of the MOR agonist [D-[Ala.sup.2],NMe-[Phe.sup.4], [Gly.sup.5]-ol]-enkephalin acetate salt (DAMGO, 1.5 or 6.5 mg/ kg) decreased ventilation ([V.sub.E]) by 72 [+ or -] 9% and 95 [+ or -] 3%, respectively, 4.0 h after injection as a result of decreased breathing frequency and no change in tidal volume ([V.sub.T]). DOR agonists, such as [D-[Pen.sup.2.5]]-enkephalin hydrate (DPDPE, 5.0 mg/kg) and [D-[Ala.sup.2],D[Leu.sup.5]]-enkephalin acetate salt (DADLE, 6.3 mg/kg), decreased [V.sub.E] by 44 [+ or -] 10% and 89 [+ or -] 4%, respectively, 4.0 h after injection as a result of decreased breathing frequency and no change in [V.sub.T]. DADLE also increased breath duration by a maximum of 25 [+ or -] 9% at 6.0 h after injection. The KOR agonist U-50488 (6.2 mg/kg) increased [V.sub.T] by a maximum of 52 [+ or -] 30% at 5.0 h after injection, with variable nonsignificant changes in [V.sub.E] and breathing frequency. Naloxone injections (0.25-0.5 mg/kg) 1.0 h before opioid agonist injections blocked all DAMGO-dependent effects, DPDPE-dependent frequency depression, and DADLE-dependent breath duration augmentation for 2.0 h after agonist injections. These results show that MOR and DOR activation causes respiratory depression as a result of decreased breathing frequency, whereas [V.sub.T] is increased after KOR activation. reptile; respiration; chelonian

The role of pacemaker properties in vertebrate respiratory rhythm generation is not well understood. To address this question from a comparative perspective, brain stems from adult turtles were isolated in vitro, and respiratory motor bursts were recorded on hypoglossal (XII) nerve rootlets. The goal was to test whether burst frequency could be altered by conditions known to alter respiratory pacemaker neuron activity in mammals (e.g., increased bath KCl or blockade of specific inward currents). While bathed in artificial cerebrospinal fluid (aCSF), respiratory burst frequency was not correlated with changes in bath KCl (0.5-10.0 mM). Riluzole (50 [micro]M; persistent [Na.sup+] channel blocker) increased burst frequency by 31 [+ or -] 5% (P < 0.05) and decreased burst amplitude by 42 [+ or -] 4% (P < 0.05). In contrast, flufenamic acid (FFA, 20-500 [micro]M; [Ca.sup.2+]-activated cation channel blocker) reduced and abolished burst frequency in a dose- and timedependent manner (P < 0.05). During synaptic inhibition blockade with bicuculline (50 micro]M; GABAA channel blocker) and strychnine (50 [micro]M; glycine receptor blocker), rhythmic motor activity persisted, and burst frequency was directly correlated with extracellular KCl (0.5-10.0 mM; P = 0.005). During synaptic inhibition blockade, riluzole (50 [micro]M) did not alter burst frequency, whereas FFA (100 [micro]M) abolished burst frequency (P < 0.05). These data are most consistent with the hypothesis that turtle respiratory rhythm generation requires [Ca.sup.2+]-activated cation channels but not pacemaker neurons, which thereby favors the group-pacemaker model. During synaptic inhibition blockade, however, the rhythm generator appears to be transformed into a pacemaker-driven network that requires [Ca.sup.2+]activated cation channels. control of breathing; respiratory control; reptile; chelonian