Alcohol availability during withdrawal gates the impact of alcohol vapor exposure on responses to alcohol cues

Background: Chronic intermittent ethanol (CIE) vapor inhalation is a widely used model of alcohol dependence, but the impact of CIE on cue-elicited alcohol seeking is not well understood. Here, we assessed the effects of CIE on alcohol-seeking elicited by previously learned cues, and on acquisition of new cue-alcohol associations. Methods: In Experiment 1, male and female Long Evans rats were first trained in a discriminative stimulus (DS) task, in which one auditory cue (the DS) predicts the availability of 15% ethanol and a control cue (the NS) predicts nothing. Rats then underwent CIE or served as controls. Subsets of each group received access to oral ethanol twice a week during acute withdrawal. After CIE, rats were presented with the DS and NS cues under extinction and retraining conditions to determine whether they would alter their responses to these cues. In Experiment 2, rats underwent CIE prior to training in the DS task. We also assessed alcohol consumption, aversion resistant drinking, somatic withdrawal symptoms, and behavior in an open field. Results: We found that CIE enhanced behavioral responses to previously learned alcohol cues, but only in rats that received access to alcohol during acute withdrawal. CIE disrupted cue responses in rats that did not. When CIE occurred before cue learning, male rats were slower to develop cue responses and less likely to enter the alcohol port, even though they had received alcohol during acute withdrawal. We also found that CIE increased alcohol consumption and aversion-resistant drinking in male but not female rats. Conclusions: These results suggest that CIE alone does not potentiate the motivational value of alcohol cues, but that an increase in cue responses requires the potentiation of the value of alcohol during acute withdrawal. Further, under some conditions CIE may disrupt responses to previously learned and subsequently acquired alcohol cues.

Influence of surface structure and morphology of PEDOT: PSS on its optical and electrophysical characteristics

This paper presents the results of a study of the effect of modification of the structure of the PEDOT: PSS polymer with hole conductivity on the optical and electrophysical properties of an organic solar cell. It was found that the modification of a polymer film with ethyl and isopropyl alcohols leads to a change in the morphology and roughness of the film surface. It has been determined that annealing of films in alcohol vapor promotes the formation of more uniform films. It is shown that upon modification of the PEDOT: PSS film in alcohol vapor the absorption spectrum shifts the absorption maximum of PEDOT to the short-wavelength region of the spectrum, the absorption of the aromatic PSS fragment decrease. X-ray phase analysis showed that after surface modification with alcohol vapor, the PEDOT and PSS chains change their structure. It is shown that the structural features of the surface morphology of PEDOT: PSS affect the electrophysical parameters of the films, such as the effective extraction rate and the effective time of flight of charge carriers. It was found that the modification of the surface of the PEDOT: PSS film leads to an improvement in the electrical transport properties of the films.

Recovery of free volume in PIM-1 membranes through alcohol vapor treatment

Physical aging is currently a major obstacle for the commercialization of PIM-1 membranes for gas separation applications. A well-known approach to reversing physical aging effects of PIM-1 membranes at laboratory scale is soaking them in lower alcohols, such as methanol and ethanol. However, this procedure does not seem applicable at industrial level, and other strategies must be investigated. In this work, a regeneration method with alcohol vapors (ethanol or methanol) was developed to recover permeability of aged PIM-1 membranes, in comparison with the conventional soaking-in-liquid approach. The gas permeability and separation performance, before and post the regeneration methods, were assessed using a binary mixture of CO2 and CH4 (1:1, v:v). Our results show that an 8-hour methanol vapor treatment was sufficient to recover the original gas permeability, reaching a CO2 permeability > 7000 barrer.

SOME TEMPERATURE CHARACTERISTICS SUB-LAYER AEROSOL EXTINGUISHING OF ALCOHOLS

Problem Statement: Nowadays, the process of sublayer aerosol quenching has not been studied at all, and its basic parameters, such as changes in flame temperature, liquid surface layer, tank sides, and approximate time of alcohol quenching and quenching, are unknown. The purpose of the work is to determine the parameters of sublayer aerosol quenching - flame temperature, the surface layer of liquid, tank sides, and the impact on the efficiency of sublayer quenching of aerosols dispersion – as one of the main parameters characterizing the process of alcohol quenching. The scientific novelty of the work is that for the first time the parameters of sublayer aerosol quenching at different sizes of aerosol bubbles were determined and it was found that at smaller bubbles the surface layer temperature decreases to 15%, aerosol distribution on the liquid surface is more uniform and a heterogeneous system is formed, which contains both aerosol solid particles – K2CO3, KOH, KNSO3, NH4HCO3, gases – CO2, N2, H2O, alcohol vapors, and the alcohol itself in the vapor and liquid phases. The main results of the study: The paper describes the developed installation and methodology for determining the parameters of sublayer aerosol quenching at different stages of the aerosol release process. The values of the flame temperature reduction and its behavior when the aerosol enters the flame are established. The established values are plotted and it is determined that when the aerosol enters the flame, the flame temperature begins to decrease actively and in 40 seconds reaches about 600 degrees Celsium. It was also found that the flame turns orange, which indicates that the combustion zone is the thermal dissociation of potassium salts, the flame size decreases, which indicates a decrease in the amount of alcohol vapor entering the combustion zone. The rate of cooling the sides at the exit of the aerosol from different-sized holes was also determined and it was found that the amount of cooling of the tank side is slightly higher at smaller hole diameters with a more uniform distribution of the aerosol on the surface. The range of reduction of liquid and board temperatures for each of the alcohols is less than the boiling point by 30-40 degrees Celsium. The decrease in temperature occurs at approximately the same rate and slows down until the end of the aerosol release. Analysis of the experimental results showed that the action of fire-extinguishing aerosol when it comes to the surface leads to intensive alcohol cooling due to bubbling of the aerosol through the alcohol layer, with active mixing of alcohol layers and the rise of cold liquids to the surface. This phenomenon leads to further cooling of burning surface of the liquid, which can have a temperature of 60 degrees Celsium to 97 degrees Celsium, as well as the sides of the tank as a result of alcohol on them and its intense evaporation. The result is the establishment of the parameters of the sublayer aerosol quenching – the temperature of the liquid surface, the temperature of the sides of the tank, the rate of aerosol to the surface, and the flame temperature when the aerosol enters the combustion zone.

CB1R Promotes Chronic Alcohol-Induced Neuronal Necroptosis in Mice Prefrontal Cortex

Aims Alcohol abuse induces multiple neuropathology and causes global burden to human health. Prefrontal cortex (PFC) is one of the most susceptible regions to alcohol-induced neuropathology. However, precise mechanisms underlying these effects on PFC remain to be elucidated. Herein, we investigated whether RIP1/RIP3/MLKL-mediated necroptosis was involved in the alcohol-induced PFC injury, and explored the effect that cannabinoid receptors (CBRs) exerted on the neurotoxicity of alcohol. Methods In this study, dynamic development of neuronal necroptosis in the PFC region was monitored after 95% (v/v) alcohol vapor administration for 15 and 30 days, respectively. Selective CBRs agonists or inverse agonists were pretreated according to the experimental design. All the PFC tissues were isolated and further examined by biochemical and histopathological analyses. Results It was found that chronic alcohol exposure increased the protein level of MLKL and also the phosphorylated levels of RIP1, RIP3 and MLKL in a time-dependent manner, all of which indicated the activation of necroptosis signaling. Particularly, compared to astrocytes, neurons from the PFC showed more prototypical necrotic morphology in response to alcohol insults. In parallel, an increased protein level of CB1R was also found after 15 and 30 days alcohol exposure. Administration of specific inverse agonists of CB1R (AM251 and AM281), but not its agonists or CB2R modulators, significantly alleviated the RIP1/RIP3/MLKL-mediated neuronal necroptosis. Conclusion We reported the involvement of RIP1/RIP3/MLKL-mediated necroptosis in alcohol-induced PFC neurotoxicity, and identified CB1R as a critical regulator of neuronal necroptosis that enhanced our understanding of alcohol-induced neuropathology in the PFC.

Filtration Performance Degradation of In-Use Masks by Vapors from Alcohol-Based Hand Sanitizers and the Mitigation Solutions

How often does one perform hand disinfection while wearing a mask? In the current COVID-19 pandemic, wearing masks and hand disinfection are widely adopted hygiene practices. However, our study indicated that exposure to the vapors from alcohol-based sanitizers during hand disinfection might degrade the filtration performance of the in-use masks, and the degradation worsened with the increasing number of hand disinfection. After five times of hand disinfection, the filtration efficiencies of surgical masks decreased by >8% for 400 and 500nm particles and by 3.68±1.83 % for 1μm particles. This was attributed to the dissipation of electrostatic charges on the masks when exposed to the alcohol vapor generated during hand disinfection. Simple practice of vapor-avoiding hand disinfection could mitigate the effects of alcohol vapor, which was demonstrated on two brands of surgical masks. The vapor-avoiding hand disinfection is recommended to be included in the hygiene guide to maintain the mask performance.Graphic abstract

Electrospinning-Derived PLA/Shellac/PLA Sandwich—Structural Membrane Sensor for Detection of Alcoholic Vapors with a Low Molecular Weight

The development of gas sensors for detecting alcoholic vapors with a low molecular weight is essential for environmental protection, industrial process control, and the monitoring of the living atmosphere in daily life to avoid health problems in human beings. Here, poly (lactic acid) (PLA)/shellac/PLA sandwich-structural membranes were fabricated via an electrospinning approach and the interaction with alcoholic vapors with a low molecular weight was investigated. It was found that the PLA/shellac/PLA sandwich-structural membrane exhibited fast response to the alcoholic vapors with low molecular weight, especially for methanol vapor. After being treated with alcohol vapor with a low molecular weight, the PLA/shellac/PLA sandwich-structural membrane could change its transmission in a short time (~5 s) and with a concentration of 10 wt% of methanol (ethanol) in water. In the meantime, the PLA/shellac/PLA sandwich-structural membrane can hopefully be potentially used again after evaporating the alcoholic vapor at an elevated temperature.