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Background: The amygdala is highly implicated in an array of psychiatric disorders but is not accessible using currently available noninvasive neuromodulatory techniques. Low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound (TFUS) is a neuromodulatory technique that has the capability of reaching subcortical regions noninvasively. Methods: We studied healthy older adult participants (N = 21, ages 48–79 years) who received TFUS targeting the right amygdala and left entorhinal cortex (active control region) using a 2-visit within-participant crossover design. Before and after TFUS, behavioral measures were collected via the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and an emotional reactivity and regulation task utilizing neutral and negatively valenced images from the International Affective Picture System. Heart rate and self-reported emotional valence and arousal were measured during the emotional reactivity and regulation task to investigate subjective and physiological responses to the task. Results: Significant increases in both self-reported arousal in response to negative images and heart rate during emotional reactivity and regulation task intertrial intervals were observed when TFUS targeted the amygdala; these changes were not evident when the entorhinal cortex was targeted. No significant changes were found for state anxiety, self-reported valence to the negative images, cardiac response to the negative images, or emotion regulation. Conclusions: The results of this study provide preliminary evidence that a single session of TFUS targeting the amygdala may alter psychophysiological and subjective emotional responses, indicating some potential for future neuropsychiatric applications. However, more work on TFUS parameters and targeting optimization is necessary to determine how to elicit changes in a more clinically advantageous way.

The global prevalence of drug resistance has created an urgent need for the discovery of novel anti-infective drugs. The major source of antibiotics in current clinical practice is terrestrial actinobacteria; the less-exploited deep-sea actinobacteria may serve as an unprecedented source of novel natural products. In this study, we evaluated 50 actinobacteria strains derived from diverse deep water sponges and environmental niches for their anti-microbial activities against a panel of pathogens including Candida albicans, Clostridium difficile, Staphylococcus aureus, and methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. More than half of the tested strains (27) were identified as active in at least one assay. The rare earth salt lanthanum chloride (LaCl3) was shown to be as an effective elicitor. Among the 27 strains, the anti-microbial activity of 15 were induced or enhanced by the addition of LaCl3. This part of study focused on one strain R818, in which potent antifungal activity was induced by the addition of LaCl3. We found that the LaCl3-activated metabolites in R818 are likely antimycin-type compounds. One of them, compound 1, has been purified. Spectroscopic analyses including HR-MS and 1D NMR indicated that this compound is urauchimycin D. The antifungal activity of compound 1 was confirmed with a minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 25 μg/mL; the purified compound also showed a moderate activity against C. difficile. Additional notable strains are: strain N217 which showed both antifungal and antibacterial (including P. aeruginosa) activities and strain M864 which showed potent activity against C. difficile with an MIC value (0.125 μg/mL) lower than those of vancomycin and metronidazole. Our preliminary studies show that deep-sea actinobacteria is a promising source of anti-infective natural products.

This research article is a collaborative set of reflections and provocations stemming from the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded workshop on STS as a Critical Pedagogy, hosted online during the summer of 2021 by Shannon N. Conley and Emily York at James Madison University. The workshop occurred over four separate sessions, bringing together forty participants (including six undergraduate students who contributed as both facilitators and research assistants). Participants self-organized into panels, leading the workshop collective to engage a host of questions, challenges, methods, and practices related to STS and critical pedagogy. Questions included the following. What characterizes critical STS pedagogies? How are critical STS pedagogies enabled and constrained by our institutional and disciplinary locations? What makes STS pedagogies travel? How might we imagine STS pedagogies otherwise? How do our pedagogies shape our research and engagement in the world? How might we critically interrogate the boundaries between research, teaching, service, and engagement, and what becomes visible when we do so?

Abstract We report the photon (PL), electron (CL) and X-ray (XEL) induced luminescence characteristics of high aspect ratio ultra-long (~ 50 µm) ZnO nanorods (NRs) and discuss the potential for fast X-ray detection based on the consistent and efficient visible emission (~ 580 nm) from ZnO NRs. Nanostructured ZnO scintillators were rearranged to form a vertically well-aligned NR design in order to help light absorption and coupling resulting in luminescent and fast scintillation properties. The design of the nanorod array combines the key advantages of a low-cost growth technique together with environmentally friendly and widely available materials. A low temperature hydrothermal method was adopted to grow ZnO NRs in one cycle growth and their structural, optical and X-ray scintillation properties were investigated. The relatively short (~ 10 µm) ZnO NRs emitting in the near-band-edge region were found to be almost insensitive to X-rays. On the other hand, the higher XEL response of long ZnO NRs, which is a key parameter for evaluation of materials to be used as scintillators for high quality X-ray detection and imaging, along with a decay time response in the order of ns confirmed promising scintillation properties for fast and high-resolution X-ray detector applications.

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jet.2006.09.005 Byline: Nolan H. Miller (a), John W. Pratt (b), Richard J. Zeckhauser (a), Scott Johnson (c) Abstract: We consider the mechanism design problem when agents' types are multidimensional and continuous, and their valuations are interdependent. If there are at least three agents whose types satisfy a weak correlation condition, then for any decision rule and any E0 there exist balanced transfers that render truthful revelation a Bayesian E-equilibrium. A slightly stronger correlation condition ensures that there exist balanced transfers that induce a Bayesian Nash equilibrium in which agents' strategies are nearly truthful. Author Affiliation: (a) Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 79JFK St, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA (b) Harvard Business School, Harvard University, Boston, MA 02163, USA (c) Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Article History: Received 6 December 2004; Revised 11 September 2006