Title
Topic
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‘Interceptive Abilities in Autism Spectrum Sisorder: Comparing Naturalistic and Virtual Visuomotor Tasks’
“A growing body of research reveals that autistic individuals exhibit motor coordination challenges. Multiple theoretical frameworks propose that the seemingly disparate features of autism may arise from a common underlying process: a diminished ability to make predictions. Sensorimotor skills, such as catching a ball, critically rely on predicting the ball’s trajectory as well as anticipatory coordination of the entire body. Here, we assessed four different naturalistic and virtual interception tasks with 31 neurotypical and 23 autistic children (ages 7–12).” Find the paper and full list of authors in Autism Research.
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‘Spontaneous Anthropocentric Language Use in University Students’ Explanations of Biological Concepts’
“Previous research has shown that students employ intuitive thinking when understanding scientific concepts. Three types of intuitive thinking—essentialist, teleological, and anthropic thinking—are used in biology learning and can lead to misconceptions. … In this study, we examined how frequently undergraduate students across two U.S. universities (N = 807) used construal-consistent language (CCL) to explain in response to open-ended questions related to five core biology concepts (e.g., evolution), how CCL use differed by concept, and how this usage was related to misconceptions agreement.” Find the paper and full list of authors in LSE.
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‘Role of Ryanodine Receptor Cooperativity in Ca 2+ Wave-Mediated Triggered Activity in Cardiomyocytes’
“Ca2+ waves are known to trigger delayed after-depolarizations that can cause malignant cardiac arrhythmias. However, modelling Ca2+ waves using physiologically realistic models has remained a major challenge. Existing models with low Ca 2+ sensitivity of ryanodine receptors(RyRs) necessitate large release currents, leading to an unrealistically large Ca2+ transient amplitude incompatible with the experimental observations. Consequently, current physiologically detailed models of delayed after-depolarizations resort to unrealistic cell architectures. … Here, we address these challenges by incorporatingRyR cooperativity into a physiologically detailed model with a realistic cell architecture.” Find the paper and full list of authors in The Journal of Physiology.
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‘Climate Effects on Belowground Tea Litter Decomposition Depend on Ecosystem and Organic Matter Types in Global Wetlands’
“Patchy global data on belowground litter decomposition dynamics limit our capacity to discern the drivers of carbon preservation and storage across inland and coastal wetlands. We performed a global, multiyear study in over 180 wetlands across 28 countries and 8 macroclimates using standardized litter as measures of “recalcitrant” (rooibos tea) and “labile” (green tea) organic matter (OM) decomposition. … Our study highlights the potential for reduction in belowground OM in coastal and inland wetlands under increased warming.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Environmental Science & Technology.
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Sun receives patent for energy-saving material
“Electrical and computer engineering distinguished professor Nian Sun was awarded a patent for ‘Topological insulator/normal metal bilayers as spin hall materials for spin orbit torque devices, and methods of fabrication of same.'”
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Bai receives patent to strengthen soft materials
“Mechanical and industrial engineering assistant professor Ruobing Bai, in collaboration with Michigan State University, is leading a $705,664 NSF grant for the ‘Mechanics of End-Linked Polymer Networks With Strain-Induced Crystallization Regulated by Topological Defects.’ The research will lead to understanding mechanisms and developing new end-linked polymer networks with desired mechanical properties, which can facilitate emerging applications such as soft robotics, medical devices, and wearable electronics.”
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Patent protecting against side-channel attacks
“Electrical and computer engineering professor and associate dean for faculty affairs Yunsi Fei was awarded a patent for ‘Methods and Systems for Protecting Against Memory-Based Side-Channel Attacks.'”
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Melodia, Bonati, D’Oro receive patent for ‘self-optimizing’ cellular network systems
“Electrical and computer engineering William Lincoln Smith professor Tommaso Melodia, associate research scientist Leonardo Bonati and associate research professor Salvatore D’Oro were awarded a patent for ‘Operating System for Software-Defined Cellular Networks.'”
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Annual award named for university distinguished professor of law
“To recognize the trailblazing career of University Distinguished Professor of Law and Humanities Patricia Williams, the Race and Private Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools has named an annual award in her honor. The Patricia J. Williams Award celebrates Williams’ role as a leading critical race theorist, feminist legal theorist and private law trailblazer.”
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‘Effects of Lipid Headgroups on the Mechanical Properties and In Vitro Cellular Internalization of Liposomes’
“We performed all-atom and coarse-grained simulations of lipid bilayer mixtures of the unsaturated lipid DOPC, with saturated lipids having the same 18-carbon acyl tails and different headgroups, to understand their mechanical properties.”
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Collection chronicles 12 years of ‘Columns That Cut’
Joseph M. Giglio, executive professor of international business and strategy in the D’Amore-McKim School of Business, has published “Columns that Cut: Reflections and Arguments,” which collects 12 years of newspaper columns, covering topics like “major domestic issues, the 2008 financial crisis, trade and globalization, transportation infrastructure, public-private partnerships” and more, according to the book’s description. While each column comes from a particular time and place, the book also serves as “a practical guide for navigating the unpredictable waters of the public and private sectors.”
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‘DNA methylation correlates with transcriptional noise in response to elevated pCO2 in the eastern oyster’
“Ocean acidification significantly affects marine calcifiers like oysters, warranting the study of molecular mechanisms like DNA methylation that contribute to adaptive plasticity in response to environmental change. However, a consensus has not been reached on the extent to which methylation modules gene expression, and in turn plasticity, in marine invertebrates. In this study, we investigated the impact of pCO2 on gene expression and DNA methylation in the eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Environmental Epigenetics.
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‘L1-ORF1p Nucleoprotein Can Rapidly Assume Distinct Conformations and… Bind More than One Nucleic Acid’
“LINE-1 (L1) is a parasitic retrotransposable DNA element, active in primates for the last 80–120 Myr. L1 has generated nearly one-third of the human genome by copying its transcripts, and those of other genetic elements. … We used optical tweezers to examine ORF1p binding to individual single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) molecules and found that the arrangement of ORF1p on the ssDNA depends on their molar ratio. … Our results suggest that ORF1p displaced from its RNA template during TPRT could bind and destabilize remaining downstream L1 RNP.”Find the paper and full list of authors in Nucleic Acids Research.
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‘Self-Consistent Evaluation of Proximity and Inverse Proximity Effects With Pair-Breaking in Diffusive Superconducting–Normal Metal Junctions’
“We consider a planar superconducting–normal metal junction with both inelastic and spin-flip scattering processes present. …We use a one-dimensional formulation of the Usadel equation to compute the self-consistent energy dependence of the single-particle density of states as a function of distance from the interface on both the superconducting and metallic sides for various spatial profiles of a pair-breaking spin-flip term. The pair-breaking processes fill in the superconducting gap at zero energy, which is reflected in the zero-bias tunneling conductance in scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy experiments, in the vicinity of the junction.” Find the paper and authors in Physical Review B.
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‘Strategies to Stabilize Dalbavancin in Aqueous Solutions; Section-2: The Effects of 2 Hydroxypropyl-β-Cyclodextrin…’
“The effect of 2-hydroxpropyl-β-cyclodextrin (2HPβCD) with or without divalent metal ions (Ca2+, Mg2+, and Zn2+) on the stability of dalbavancin in acetate buffer was investigated. … The stability of the dalbavancin formulations after 4 weeks at 55 °C in 10 mM acetate buffer was significantly improved with 0.6 mM, 5.5 mM, and 55 mM 2HPβCD relative to without 2HPβCD. … 2HPβCD significantly improves the short- and long-term heat stability of dalbavancin in pH 4.5 acetate buffer at and above molar ratios of 1:1.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Pharmaceutics.
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‘Keeping in Touch With the Road Not Taken’
Associate professor of biology Javier Apfeld pens an opinion piece on why he’s kept in touch with the field of structural biology, despite having moved on professionally to other fields. “In my case, keeping up with the discoveries others made as they journeyed along paths I didn’t,” he writes, “has allowed me to share in the joy and fulfillment brought by the advancements in knowledge from their journeys.”
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NIH funds Ivanov’s proteome profiling
“Deep proteomic profiling of scarce biological and clinical samples is still a major challenge since no amplification techniques are available for proteins and proteoforms, and current state-of-the-art proteomic techniques based on conventional chromatography columns coupled with mass spectrometry provide suboptimal performance and sensitivity levels. In this study, based on our novel, currently unavailable on the market, chromatographic column technology, we plan to build a reliable, robust, thoroughly evaluated commercialization-ready prototype chromatography platform to enable ultrasensitive proteomic profiling and address the challenges of numerous clinical, academic, and industrial laboratories.”
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‘Persistent Tissue-Specific Resident Microbiota in Oysters Across a Broad Geographical Range’
“Marine animals often harbour complex microbial communities that influence their physiology. However, strong evidence for resident microbiomes in marine bivalves is lacking, despite their contribution to estuarine habitats and coastal economies. We investigated whether marine bivalves harbour stable, resident microorganisms in specific tissues or if their microbiomes primarily consist of transient members reflecting the environmental microbial pool. … [Our] findings underscore the oyster host’s role in selecting its microbiome and highlight the importance of tissue-specific microbial communities in understanding bivalve-associated microbiomes.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Environmental Biology.
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‘Choroid Plexus Volume Only Increases Early after Traumatic Brain Injury’
“Traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects nearly 2.5 million people each year and results in a cascade of neurometabolic effects, including prolonged inflammatory processes. Choroid plexus (ChP) swelling has been postulated to occur following TBI due to neuroinflammation. However, it is unknown if the ChP swells as a consequence of the post-TBI neuroinflammatory cascade, and it is unknown if swelling could be detectable via human volumetric imaging. Therefore, this study aims to test for the effect of TBI on ChP volume using a case–control study design.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Neurotrauma Reports.
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‘Enhanced Proteomic Profiling of Human Plasma-Derived Extracellular Vesicles Through Charge-Based Fractionation’
“The study introduces a charge-based fractionation method for fractionating plasma-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) into sub-populations aimed at the improved purification from free plasma proteins to enhance the diagnostic potential of EV sub-populations for specific pathophysiological states. Here, we present a novel approach for EV fractionation that leverages EVs’ inherent surface charges, differentiating them from other plasma components and, thus, reducing the sample complexity and increasing the purity of EVs.” Find the paper and full list of authors in the Journal of Extracellular Vesicles.
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‘What I Learned at the White House, or, the Importance of Measurement Researchers Engaging with Policy’
“Computing systems now impact almost every aspect of our daily lives. As these systems evolve and develop, they often raise new challenges to our security and privacy, as well as to our commitments to equity and justice. To identify and mitigate the risks that these new technologies present, it is crucial to have scientific and technological experts participate in the conversation. … In this talk, I’ll reflect on my 18 months serving at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) as Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer for Privacy.”
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DoE funds Feiguin’s quantum materials research
“Our ultimate goal is to accelerate discovery in quantum materials at DOE-supported user facilities. We will meet this goal through three specific aims. Aim 1 — generating and confirming novel low-energy effective many-body models for quantum materials. … Aim 2 — accelerating model solutions for advanced non-perturbative computational methods — is creating new state-of-the-art computational approaches for solving these models. … Finally, aim 3 — creating end-to-end experiment and theory workflows — is laying the foundation for integrating Aims 1 and 2 into new scientific workflows for scattering experiments.”
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Shansky receives National Institute of Mental Health support to study brain development post-pregnancy
“Pregnancy is characterized by marked changes in circulating hormones that can induce long-lasting changes in the brain. The goal of this project is to determine how the hormone allopregnanolone may induce a robust neural inhibition in the medial prefrontal cortex during pregnancy, resulting in over-compensatory actions that persist well after birth. Our work will provide much-needed insight into the development of the brain post-pregnancy.”