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Environmentally relevant concentrations of the tricyclic antidepressant, amitriptyline, affect feeding and reproduction in a freshwater mollusc
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Data will be made available on request.Supplementary material is available online at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0147651324007322#:~:text=Appendix%20A.-,Supplementary%20material,-Data%20availability .Antidepressant drugs (ADDs) are one of the most extensively used pharmaceuticals globally. They act at particularly low therapeutic concentrations to modulate monoamine neurotransmission, which is one of the most evolutionary conserved pathways in both humans and animal species including invertebrates. As ADDs are widely detected in the aquatic environment at low concentrations (ng/L to low µg/L), their potential to exert drug-target mediated effects in aquatic species has raised serious concerns. Amitriptyline (AMI) is the most widely used tricyclic ADD, while monoamines, the target of ADDs, are major bioregulators of multiple key physiological processes including feeding, reproduction and behaviour in molluscs. However, the effects of AMI on feeding, reproduction and mating behaviour are unknown in molluscs despite their ecological importance, diversity and reported sensitivity to ADDs. To address this knowledge gap, we investigated the effects of environmentally relevant concentrations of AMI (0, 10, 100, 500 and 1000 ng/L) on feeding, reproduction and key locomotor behaviours, including mating, in the freshwater gastropod, Biomphalaria glabrata over a period of 28 days. To further provide insight into the sensitivity of molluscs to ADDs, AMI concentrations (exposure water and hemolymph) were determined using a novel extraction method. The Fish Plasma Model (FPM), a critical tool for prioritization assessment of pharmaceuticals with potential to cause drug target-mediated effects in fish, was then evaluated for its applicability to molluscs for the first time. Disruption of food intake (1000 ng/L) and reproductive output (500 and 1000 ng/L) were observed at particularly low hemolymph levels of AMI, whereas locomotor behaviours were unaffected. Importantly, the predicted hemolymph levels of AMI using the FPM agreed closely with the measured levels. The findings suggest that hemolymph levels of AMI may be a useful indicator of feeding and reproductive disruptions in wild population of freshwater gastropods, and confirm the applicability of the FPM to molluscs for comparative pharmaceutical hazard identification.MEI received funding from TETFund, Nigeria
Representative Kernels-based CNN for Faster Transmission in Federated Learning
Get PDFFederated Learning (FL) has attracted many attentions because of its ability to ensure data privacy and security. In FL, due to the contradiction between limited bandwidth and huge transmission parameters, it has been an ongoing challenge to reduce the model parameters that need to be transmitted to the server in the clients for fast transmission. Existing works that attempt to reduce the amount of transmitted parameters have limitations: 1) the reduced number of parameters is not significant; 2) the performance of the global model is limited. In this paper, we propose a novel method called Fed-KGF that significantly reduces the amount of model parameters that need to be transferred while improving the performance of the global model in FL. Since convolution kernels in a Convolution Neural Network (CNN) account for most parameters, our goal is to reduce the parameter transmission between the clients and the server by reducing the number of convolution kernels. Specifically, we construct an incomplete model with a few representative kernels, referred to the convolution kernels, that are solely updated during training. We propose Kernel Generation Function (KGF) to generate convolution kernels to render the incomplete model to be a complete one, and discard those generated kernels after training local models. The parameters that need to be transmitted only reside in the representative kernels, which are significantly reduced. Furthermore, there is a client-drift in the traditional FL because it adopts the averaging method, which hurts the global model performance. We innovatively select one or few modules (a module indicates a convolution function + several non-convolution functions) from all client models in a permutation way, and only aggregate the uploaded modules rather than averaging them in server to reduce client-drift, thereby improving the performance of the global model and further reducing the transmitted parameters. Experimental results on both non-Independent and Identically Distributed (non-IID) and IID scenarios for image classification and object detection tasks demonstrate that our Fed-KGF outperforms the SOTA methods. Fed-KGF achieves approximately 11% higher classification accuracy and roughly 33% fewer parameters than the recent FedCAMS model on CIFAR-10, and gains approximately 3.64% higher detection precision and around 37% fewer parameters than the SOTA SmartIdx model on COCO2017 datasets
Diagnostic accuracy of research criteria for prodromal frontotemporal dementia
Get PDFBackground The Genetic Frontotemporal Initiative Staging Group has proposed clinical criteria for the diagno
sis of prodromal frontotemporal dementia (FTD), termed mild cognitive and/or behavioral and/or motor impair
ment (MCBMI). The objective of the study was to validate the proposed research criteria for MCBMI‑FTD in a cohort
of genetically confirmed FTD cases against healthy controls.
Methods A total of 398 participants were enrolled, 117 of whom were carriers of an FTD pathogenic variant
with mild clinical symptoms, while 281 were non‑carrier family members (healthy controls (HC)). A subgroup
of patients underwent blood neurofilament light (NfL) levels and anterior cingulate atrophy assessment.
Results The core clinical criteria correctly classified MCBMI vs HC with an AUC of 0.79 (p < 0.001), while the addition
of either blood NfL or anterior cingulate atrophy significantly increased the AUC to 0.84 and 0.82, respectively (p <
0.001). The addition of both markers further increased the AUC to 0.90 (p < 0.001).
Conclusions The proposed MCBMI criteria showed very good classification accuracy for identifying the prodromal
stage of FTD.MRC UK GENFI grant (MR/M023664/1), the Bluefield Project, and the JPND GENFI-PROX grant (2019-02248). Several authors of this publication are members of the European Reference Network for Rare Neurological Diseases – Project ID No 739510. AB was supported by the Airalzh-AGYR2020, by Fondazione Cariplo (grant n° 2021-1516), and by the Fondation pour la Recherche sur Alzheimer. JCVS was supported by the Dioraphte Foundation grant 09-02-03-00, the Association for Frontotemporal Dementias Research Grant 2009, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) grant HCMI 056-13-018, ZonMw Memorabel (Deltaplan Dementie, project number 733 051 042), Alzheimer Nederland, and the Bluefield project. FM received funding from the Tau Consortium and the Center for Networked Biomedical Research on Neurodegenerative Disease (CIBERNED). RS-V has received funding from Fundació Marató de TV3, Spain (grant no. 20143810). CG received funding from JPND-Prefrontals VR Dnr 529-2014-7504, VR 2015-02926, and 2018-02754; the Swedish FTD Inititative-Schörling Foundation; Alzheimer Foundation; Brain Foundation; and Stockholm County Council ALF. MM has received funding from a Canadian Institute of Health Research operating grant and the Weston Brain Institute and Ontario Brain Institute. JBR has received funding from the Welcome Trust (220258), the Cambridge University Centre for Frontotemporal Dementia, the Medical Research Council (SUAG/051 G101400), and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre (BRC-1215-20014). EF has received funding from a CIHR grant #327387. DG received support from the EU Joint Programme – Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) and the Italian Ministry of Health (PreFrontALS) grant 733051042. RV has received funding from the Mady Browaeys Fund for Research into Frontotemporal Dementia. MO has received funding from BMBF (FTLDc). HZ is a Wallenberg Scholar supported by grants from the Swedish Research Council (#2018-02532); the European Research Council (#681712), Swedish State Support for Clinical Research (#ALFGBG-720931); the Alzheimer Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF), USA (#201809-2016862); the AD Strategic Fund and the Alzheimer’s Association (#ADSF-21-831376-C, #ADSF-21-831381-C, and #ADSF-21-831377-C); the Olav Thon Foundation; the Erling-Persson Family Foundation, Stiftelsen för Gamla Tjänarinnor, Hjärnfonden, Sweden (#FO2019-0228); the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 860197 (MIRIADE); the European Union Joint Program for Neurodegenerative Disorders (JPND2021-00694); and the UK Dementia Research Institute at UCL. JL received funding for this work from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy within the framework of the Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (EXC 2145 SyNergy – ID 390857198). JDR is supported by the Miriam Marks Brain Research UK Senior Fellowship and has received funding from an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship (MR/M008525/1) and the NIHR Rare Disease Translational Research Collaboration (BRC149/NS/MH)
What does it take to renature cities? An expert-based analysis of barriers and strategies for the implementation of nature-based solutions
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Data will be made available on request.Supplementary data are available online at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479724003712#appsec1 .This paper uses an expert-based methodology to survey the barriers and strategies related to the implementation of nature-based solutions (NBS). The ambition of the paper is to offer a bird's eye overview of the difficulties encountered by NBS deployment and ways to overcome them. With a wide participation of 80 experts from COST Action Circular City, we identify barriers specific to 35 pre-defined NBS of the following four categories: Vertical Greening Systems and Green Roofs; Food and Biomass Production; Rainwater Management; and Remediation, Treatment, and Recovery. The research sheds light on how a major interdisciplinary – yet predominantly technically-oriented - community of scientists and practitioners views this important topic. Overall, the most relevant barriers are related to technological complexity, lack of skilled staff and training programs and the lack of awareness that NBS is an option. Our results highlight concerns related to post implementation issues, especially operation and maintenance, which subsequently affect social acceptance. The paper identifies a “chain” effect across barriers, meaning that one barrier can affect the existence or the relevance of other barriers. In terms of strategies, most of them target governance, information, and education aspects, despite the predominantly technical expertise of the participants. The study innovates with respect to state-of-the-art research by showing a fine-grained connection between barriers, strategies and individual NBS and categories, a level of detail which is not encountered in any other study to date.The work was carried out within the COST Action CA17133 Circular City (“Implementing nature-based solutions for creating a resourceful circular city” (http://www.circularcity.eu), funded within the EU Horizon Programmes and duration 22 October 2018–21 April 2023). Hence, the authors are grateful for the support and would like to acknowledge all participants of the Circular City workshops that contributed during the discussions on barriers and strategies for Nature-Based Solutions implementation at the workshops in February and March 2021. Joana A.C. Castellar (FJC2021-047232-I) and Lucia Alexandra Popartan (FJC2021-047857-I) acknowledge the support from Juan de la Cierva Formación grants financed by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and European Union “NextGenerationEU”/PRTR. Joana A.C. Castellar and Joaquim Comas acknowledge EdiCitNet project (grant agreement 776665) and Multisource project (grant agreement 101003527), both from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research Program. The authors would like to thank the Government of Catalonia through Consolidated Research Groups 2021 SGR 01283 (ICRA) and 2021-SGR-01352 (LEQUIA). The ICRA researchers wish to express their thanks for funding from the CERCA programme/Government of Catalonia. Lucia Alexandra Popartan acknowledges the support of project Clepsidra (Ref: TED2021-131862B–I00) and the Juan de la Cierva 2021 grant, reference FJC2021-047857-I, financed by MICIN/AEI/10,13039501100011033 and the European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR. Finally, the authors would like to thank CRUE-CSIC agreement with Elsevier for the Open Access funding
Synthesis of biomass combustion fly ash derived zeolites for CO2 adsorption: Optimisation of hydrothermal synthetic pathway
Get PDFThe authors would like to thank and acknowledge the Experimental Techniques Centre (ETC) at Brunel University London and their scientific officers (namely, Dr Ashley Howkins, Dr Myles Worsley, Dr Nicholas Nelson, Dr Uche Onwukwe and Dr Sophia Haghani) for facilitating access to analytical equipment and their continued support.
Last but not least, we would also like to acknowledge the continued generous support from Drax Group UK, with a special thanks to Dr James Hammerton throughout this research.Industrial biomass combustion fly ash has been investigated as a precursor for zeolites with a view to evaluate the potential for adsorption of CO2. The synthesis methodology has been optimised via Design of Experiment by employing a Taguchi L9 array. Three variables were identified as statistically significant, the crystallisation temperature, crystallisation time and the liquid to solid ratio. Analysis of the main effects revealed an optimum set of conditions which produced a sample with the highest adsorption capacity of those prepared, 1.84 mmol g−1 at 50 °C. This was a result of the conversion of the as-received fly ash into type A (LTA) and type X (FAU) zeolites after alkaline fusion with NaOH and hydrothermal treatment. The enthalpy of adsorption was estimated at -40.2kJmol−1 and was shown to be dependent on surface coverage; the isosteric enthalpy of adsorption at zero coverage was -86 kJ mol−1. The working capacity of the adsorbent was maintained at 85 % of the first adsorption uptake after a total of 40 cycles in a simulated temperature swing adsorption process (50 °C/150 °C adsorption/desorption). The equilibrium and kinetic CO2 adsorption isotherms are presented and modelled through non-linear regression to reveal the adsorption mechanisms demonstrated by the fly ash-derived zeolites. Significant heterogeneity exists within the multi-phase zeolite which presents both micro and mesoporosity. The developed adsorbent presents a feasible route to valorisation of biomass combustion fly ash with good potential for application in the separation of CO2.This work has been funded by the UK Carbon Capture and Storage Research Centre (EP/W002841/1) through the flexible funded research programme “Investigation of Environmental and Operational Challenges of Adsorbents Synthesised from Industrial Grade Biomass Combustion Residues”. The UKCCSRC is supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), UK, as part of the UKRI Energy Programme.
This work has also been supported by the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), as part of the UKRI, via the NERC Studentship (PhD) Award (project reference: 2360667)
Dietary n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids alter the number, fatty acid profile and coagulatory activity of circulating and platelet-derived extracellular vesicles: a randomized, controlled crossover trial
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Data described in the manuscript will be made publicly and freely available without restriction from the University of Reading Research Data Archive at [URL: https://doi.org/10.17864/1947.000513]Supplementary data are available online at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002916524003435?via%3Dihub#appsec1 .Background:
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are proposed to play a role in the development of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and are considered emerging markers of CVDs. n-3 PUFAs are abundant in oily fish and fish oil and are reported to reduce CVD risk, but there has been little research to date examining the effects of n-3 PUFAs on the generation and function of EVs.
Objectives:
We aimed to investigate the effects of fish oil supplementation on the number, generation, and function of EVs in subjects with moderate risk of CVDs.
Methods:
A total of 40 participants with moderate risk of CVDs were supplemented with capsules containing either fish oil (1.9 g/d n-3 PUFAs) or control oil (high-oleic safflower oil) for 12 wk in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover intervention study. The effects of fish oil supplementation on conventional CVD and thrombogenic risk markers were measured, along with the number and fatty acid composition of circulating and platelet-derived EVs (PDEVs). PDEV proteome profiles were evaluated, and their impact on coagulation was assessed using assays including fibrin clot formation, thrombin generation, fibrinolysis, and ex vivo thrombus formation.
Results:
n-3 PUFAs decreased the numbers of circulating EVs by 27%, doubled their n-3 PUFA content, and reduced their capacity to support thrombin generation by >20% in subjects at moderate risk of CVDs. EVs derived from n-3 PUFA-enriched platelets in vitro also resulted in lower thrombin generation, but did not alter thrombus formation in a whole blood ex vivo assay.
Conclusions:
Dietary n-3 PUFAs alter the number, composition, and function of EVs, reducing their coagulatory activity. This study provides clear evidence that EVs support thrombin generation and that this EV-dependent thrombin generation is reduced by n-3 PUFAs, which has implications for prevention and treatment of thrombosis.
Clinical Trial Registry:
This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03203512.Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, United Kingdom (reference BB/N021185/1)
The distributional effects of oil supply news shocks
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Data will be made available on request.JEL classification: C32; E32; Q54.Supplementary data are available online at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176524002532#appSB.This paper uses high frequency data on the distribution of US income to investigate the heterogeneous effects of oil supply news shocks. Using a FAVAR with an external instrument, We show that these shocks have large negative effects on the left and right tail of the distribution. For low income individuals, the effect is driven by a decline in wages and proprietor’s income, while a fall in corporate profits and interest income drives the effect for affluent individuals
Combined acoustic methods in monitoring the crack development in granite
Get PDFDtata Availability: The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.Detecting cracks of various sizes is crucial for monitoring and predicting rock failure. This study combines two acoustic methods—the passive acoustic emission (AE) and the active ultrasonic P-wave velocity to investigate the cracking process from initiation to propagation and coalescence of rocks containing pre-existing flaws, which simulate the intrinsic defects in natural rocks or rock masses, across different scales in three-dimensional space. The resultant AE activity is found sensitive to microcracks even in the early loading stage and can be divided into three stages: quiet, stable, and high growth periods. The positions of the microcracks can be obtained with the assistance of several AE sensors. It is also found that the P-wave velocity attenuation is more sensitive to macrocracks but less sensitive to microcracks. The results indicate that combining the AE and active ultrasonic-wave methods can provide comprehensive information to evaluate the damage levels and localize the internal cracks with multiple scales in the entire cracking process of rocks. The study also indicates the potential for predicting crack coalescence and failure based on the combination of these two nondestructive methods. In addition, the findings can also be applicable in the monitoring and prediction of failure in other brittle materials.National Natural Science Foundation of China (NNSFC) (No. 52278504), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (No. BK20220141), and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2020M681610)
Dual frequency ultrasonic liquid phase exfoliation method for the production of few layer graphene in green solvents
Get PDFData availability: The data that supports the findings of this study are available upon request from the corresponding author.Supplementary data are available online at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1350417724002025#s0095 .In this work, we implement a dual frequency (24 kHz and 1174 kHz) ultrasonic assisted liquid phase exfoliation (ULPE) technique in deionized water (DIW) and other eco-friendly solvents, to produce a variety of high-quality few-layer graphene (FLG) solutions under controlled ultrasonication conditions. The resulting FLG dispersions of variable sizes (∼0.2–1.5 μm2) confirmed by characterisation techniques comprising UV–Vis spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM). For the first time we demonstrate that high yield of FLG flakes with minimal defects, stable for 6 + months in a solution (stability ∼ 70 %), can be obtained in less than 1-hour of treatment in either water/ethanol (DIW:EtOH) or water/isopropyl alcohol (DIW:IPA) eco-friendly mixtures.
We also scrutinized the underlying mechanisms of cavitation using high-speed imaging synchronized with acoustic pressure measurements. The addition of ethanol or IPA to deionized water is proposed to play a central role in exfoliation as it regulates the extend of the cavitation zone, the intensity of the ultrasonic field and, thus, the cavitation effectiveness. Our study revealed that lateral sizes of the obtained FLG depend on the choice of exfoliating media and the diameter of a sonotrode used. This variability offers flexibility in producing FLG of different sizes, applicable in a wide spectrum of size-specific applications.UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), to the project “Sustainable and industrially scalable ultrasonic liquid phase exfoliation technologies for manufacturing 2D advanced functional materials” (EcoUltra2D), with the grant nos. EP/R031665/1; EP/R031401/1; EP/R031819/1; EP/R031975/1, Royal Society via the Isaac Newton International Fellowship to the project “Large Scale Exfoliation of 2D nanomaterials using an Environmentally Friendly Hybrid Cavitation Reactor” with grant number NIF\R1\221238 and EPSRC-PAAM project grant numbers (EP/W006774/1, EP/W006154/1 and EP/W00593X/1)
Cultivating staff equality, diversity, and inclusion in higher education in the post-pandemic era: an organizational compassion perspective
Get PDFThe COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing challenges faced by academic staff in UK higher education and drawn attention to issues of Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI). Amidst global competitiveness and workplace pressures, challenges such as managerialism, increased workload, and inequalities have worsened, significantly impacting mental health. This paper presents a conceptual analysis connecting EDI with organizational compassion within the context of Higher Education. The prioritization of organizational compassion is presented as a means to enhance sensitivity to EDI in the reconstruction of post-pandemic learning environments. Anchored in the organizational compassion theory and the NEAR Mechanisms Model, our study contributes to the intersection of the organizational compassion, EDI and higher education literatures by exploring how fostering compassion relations can contribute to enhancing EDI. This offers a new perspective to creating a more humane and supportive higher education environment
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