Binge-like Alcohol Exposure in Adolescence: Behavioural, Neuroendocrine and Molecular Evidence of Abnormal Neuroplasticity… and Return

Binge alcohol consumption among adolescents affects the developing neural networks underpinning reward and stress processing in the nucleus accumbens (NAc). This study explores in rats the long-lasting effects of early intermittent exposure to intoxicating alcohol levels at adolescence, on: (1) the response to natural positive stimuli and inescapable stress; (2) stress-axis functionality; and (3) dopaminergic and glutamatergic neuroadaptation in the NAc. We also assess the potential effects of the non-intoxicating phytocannabinoid cannabidiol, to counteract (or reverse) the development of detrimental consequences of binge-like alcohol exposuredimensions. Our results show that adolescent binge-like alcohol exposure alters the sensitivity to positive stimuli, exerts social and novelty-triggered anxiety-like behaviour, and passive stress-coping during early and prolonged withdrawal. In addition, serum corticosterone and hypothalamic and NAc corticotropin-releasing hormone levels progressively increase during withdrawal. Besides, NAc tyrosine hydroxylase levels increase at late withdrawal, while the expression of dopamine transporter, D1 and D2 receptors xpression is dynamically altered during binge and withdrawal. Furthermore, the expression of markers of excitatory postsynaptic signaling —PSD95; Homer-1 and -2 and the activity-regulated spine-morphing proteins Arc, LIM Kinase 1 and FOXP1—increase at late withdrawal. Notably, subchronic cannabidiol, during withdrawal, attenuates social- and novelty-induced aversion and passive stress-coping and rectifies the hyper-responsive stress axis and NAc dopamine and glutamate-related neuroplasticity. Overall, the exposure to binge-like alcohol levels in adolescent rats makes the NAc, during withdrawal, a locus minoris resistentiae as a result of perturbations in neuroplasticity and in stress-axis homeostasis. Cannabidiol holds a promising potential for increasing behavioural, neuroendocrine and molecular resilience against binge-like alcohol level’s harmful effects.

Modeling of sensitive element for pressure sensor based on bipolar piezotransistor

The paper describes modeling of high-sensitivity MEMS pressure sensor based on a circuit containing both active and passive stress-sensitive elements: a differential amplifier utilizing two n-p-n transistors and four p-type piezoresistors. The analysis on the basis of the developed mathematical model for a pressure sensor with traditional piezoresistive Wheatstone bridge and theoretical conclusions regarding the change in the electrical parameters of a bipolar transistor under the influence of deformation was carried out.

Research on the Mechanism of Soybean Resistance to Phytophthora Infection Using Machine Learning Methods

Since the emergence of the Phytophthora sojae infection, economic losses of 10–20 billion U.S. dollars have been annually reported. Studies have revealed that P. sojae works by releasing effect factors such as small RNA in the process of infecting soybeans, but research on the interaction mechanism between plants and fungi at the small RNA level remains vague and unclear. For this reason, studying the resistance mechanism of the hosts after P. sojae invades soybeans has critical theoretical and practical significance for increasing soybean yield. The present article is premised on the high-throughput data published by the National Center of Biotechnology Information (NCBI). We selected 732 sRNA sequences through big data analysis whose expression level increased sharply after soybean was infected by P. sojae and 36 sRNA sequences with massive expression levels newly generated after infection. This article analyzes the resistance mechanism of soybean to P. sojae from two aspects of plant’s own passive stress and active resistance. This article analyzes the resistance mechanism of soybean to P. sojae from two aspects of plant’s own passive stress and active resistance. These 768 sRNA sequences are targeted to soybean mRNA and P. sojae mRNA, and 2,979 and 1,683 targets are obtained, respectively. The PageRank algorithm was used to screen the core functional clusters, and 50 core nodes targeted to soybeans were obtained, which were analyzed for functional enrichment, and 12 KEGG_Pathway and 18 Go(BP) were obtained. The node targeted to P. sojae was subjected to functional enrichment analysis to obtain 11 KEGG_Pathway. The results show that there are multiple Go(BP) and KEGG_Pathway related to soybean growth and defense and reverse resistance of P. sojae. In addition, by comparing the small RNA prediction model of soybean resistance with Phytophthora pathogenicity constructed by the three machine learning methods of random forest, support vector machine, and XGBoost, about the accuracy, precision, recall rate, and F-measure, the results show that the three models have satisfied classification effect. Among the three models, XGBoost had an accuracy rate of 86.98% in the verification set.

Establishing the validity of a novel passive stress task

Laboratory tasks used to elicit a cardiovascular stress response in the laboratory can involve either active or passive coping. However, in previous work, passive stress tasks often incorporate a distinct physical stress element, such as the handgrip or cold pressor task, meaning observed changes in cardiovascular parameters may be the result of the physical element of the stressor rather than truly reflecting psychological stress. The present study aimed to establish the validity of a psychological passive stressor; one more analogous to active tasks than those previously employed in laboratory studies. Twenty-six young, healthy adults completed a speech task in the laboratory following a resting baseline period. Twelve months later, they were invited back to the laboratory and watched the video recording of their speech. Analyses confirmed that while both tasks elicited significant SBP and DBP change (all ps < .001), only the active task was associated with HR and CO reactivity (both ps < .001), while only the passive task was associated with TPR reactivity (p = .028). Furthermore, the passive stressor was associated with a mixed hemodynamic profile, whereas the active stressor was associated with a clear myocardial profile. This study confirms that watching a video recording of oneself complete a speech task is associated with a more vascular response profile, a response associated with passive coping contexts.

Perinatal selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor exposure and behavioral outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analyses of animal studies

In the Western world, 2-5% of pregnant women use selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants. There is no consensus on the potential long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes of early SSRI exposure. Our aim was to determine whether there is an overall effect of perinatal SSRI exposure in animals on a spectrum of behavioral domains. After a comprehensive database search in PubMed, PsycINFO, and Web of Science, we included 99 publications. We performed nine meta-analyses and two qualitative syntheses corresponding to different behavioral categories, aggregating data from thousands of animals. We found evidence for reduced activity and exploration behavior (standardized mean difference (SMD) −0.28 [-0.38, −0.18]), more passive stress coping (SMD −0.37 [-0.52, −0.23]), and less efficient sensory processing (SMD −0.37 [-0.69, −0.06]) in SSRI-versus vehicle-exposed animals. No differences were found for anxiety (p=0.06), social behavior, learning and memory, ingestive- and reward behavior, motoric behavior, or reflex and pain sensitivity. Exposure in the period equivalent to the human third trimester was associated with the strongest effects.HighlightsPerinatal SSRI exposure in rodents alters outcomes in three behavioral domains.It leads to reduced activity, passive stress coping, and weaker sensory processing.Females are understudied but seem to be less vulnerable than males.Early postnatal exposure in rodents leads to the largest effects on behavior.This is equivalent to the third trimester of pregnancy in humans.