The Costs (and Benefits?) of Effortful Listening for Older Adults: Insights from Simultaneous Electrophysiology, Pupillometry, and Memory.

Although the impact of acoustic challenge on speech processing and memory increases as a person ages, older adults may engage in strategies that help them compensate for these demands. In the current preregistered study, older adults (n = 48) listened to sentences-presented in quiet or in noise-that were high constraint with either expected or unexpected endings or were low constraint with unexpected endings. Pupillometry and EEG were simultaneously recorded, and subsequent sentence recognition and word recall were measured. Like young adults in prior work, we found that noise led to increases in pupil size, delayed and reduced ERP responses, and decreased recall for unexpected words. However, in contrast to prior work in young adults where a larger pupillary response predicted a recovery of the N400 at the cost of poorer memory performance in noise, older adults did not show an associated recovery of the N400 despite decreased memory performance. Instead, we found that in quiet, increases in pupil size were associated with delays in N400 onset latencies and increased recognition memory performance. In conclusion, we found that transient variation in pupil-linked arousal predicted trade-offs between real-time lexical processing and memory that emerged at lower levels of task demand in aging. Moreover, with increased acoustic challenge, older adults still exhibited costs associated with transient increases in arousal without the corresponding benefits.

The Role of Virtual Reality in the Management of Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a disorder of gut-brain interaction that significantly impacts health-related quality of life (HRQOL). This article explores the potential role of virtual reality (VR)-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in treating patients with IBS. RECENT FINDINGS: While CBT is a proven, skills-based therapy approach that modifies behaviors and alters dysfunctional thinking patterns to influence the gut-brain axis and improve IBS symptoms, it is rarely prescribed given a paucity of CBT-trained clinicians. We developed a novel VR program that delivers a standardized CBT program over an 8-week period to help patients manage their symptoms. In initial qualitative validation testing, patients expressed positive perceptions about using VR CBT for IBS. Home-based, standardized VR CBT has the potential to be an effective and scalable treatment option for patients with IBS. While initial studies have shown proof-of-concept definitive randomized controlled trials are needed to demonstrate the efficacy of self-administered VR CBT in IBS.

Older Adults Show Intraindividual Variation in the Use of Predictive Processing.

BACKGROUND: The use of prediction can aid language comprehension through preactivation of relevant word features. However, predictions can be wrong, and it has been proposed that resolving the mismatch between the predicted and presented item requires cognitive resources. Older adults tend not to predict and instead rely more on passive comprehension. Here, we tested, using an intraindividual approach, whether older adults consistently use this less demanding processing strategy while reading or whether they attempt to predict on some trials. METHODS: We used a cross-task conflict paradigm. Younger and older participants self-paced to read sentences that ended with either an expected or unexpected word. Each sentence was then followed by a flanker stimulus that could be congruent or incongruent. We examined responses within and across the two tasks. RESULTS: Unexpected words were in general read as quickly as expected words, indicating that typical processing of these words was similar. However, for both younger and older adults, there was a greater proportion of very slow trials for unexpected words, revealing different processing on a subset of trials. Critically, in older adults, these slowly read unexpected words engaged control, as seen in speeded responses to incongruent flanker stimuli. CONCLUSION: Using a cross-task conflict paradigm, we showed that older adults are able to predict and engage cognitive resources to cope with prediction violations, but do not opt to use these processes consistently.

Decreased proliferation of aged rat beta cells corresponds with enhanced expression of the cell cycle inhibitor p27KIP1.

BACKGROUND: Over 400 million people are diabetic. Type 1 and type 2 diabetes are characterized by decreased functional ß-cell mass and, consequently, decreased glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. A potential intervention is transplantation of ß-cell containing islets from cadaveric donors. A major impediment to greater application of this treatment is the scarcity of transplant-ready ß-cells. Therefore, inducing ß-cell proliferation ex vivo could be used to expand functional ß-cell mass prior to transplantation. Various molecular pathways are sufficient to induce proliferation of young ß-cells; however, aged ß-cells are refractory to these proliferative signals. Given that the majority of cadaveric donors fit an aged demographic, defining the mechanisms that impede aged ß-cell proliferation is imperative. RESULTS: We demonstrate that aged rat (5-month-old) ß-cells are refractory to mitogenic stimuli that otherwise induce young rat (5-week-old) ß-cell proliferation. We hypothesized that this change in proliferative capacity could be due to differences in cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor expression. We measured levels of p16INK4a , p15INK4b , p18INK4c , p19INK4d , p21CIP1 , p27KIP1 and p57KIP2 by immunofluorescence analysis. Our data demonstrates an age-dependent increase of p27KIP1 in rat ß-cells by immunofluorescence and was validated by increased p27KIP1 protein levels by western blot analysis. Interestingly, HDAC1, which modulates the p27KIP1 promoter acetylation state, is downregulated in aged rat islets. These data demonstrate increased p27KIP1 protein levels at 5 months of age, which may be due to decreased HDAC1 mediated repression of p27KIP1 expression. SIGNIFICANCE: As the majority of transplant-ready ß-cells come from aged donors, it is imperative that we understand why aged ß-cells are refractory to mitogenic stimuli. Our findings demonstrate that increased p27KIP1 expression occurs early in ß-cell aging, which corresponds with impaired ß-cell proliferation. Furthermore, the correlation between HDAC1 and p27 levels suggests that pathways that activate HDAC1 in aged ß-cells could be leveraged to decrease p27KIP1 levels and enhance ß-cell proliferation.

Text Captioning Buffers Against the Effects of Background Noise and Hearing Loss on Memory for Speech.

OBJECTIVE: Everyday speech understanding frequently occurs in perceptually demanding environments, for example, due to background noise and normal age-related hearing loss. The resulting degraded speech signals increase listening effort, which gives rise to negative downstream effects on subsequent memory and comprehension, even when speech is intelligible. In two experiments, we explored whether the presentation of realistic assistive text captioned speech offsets the negative effects of background noise and hearing impairment on multiple measures of speech memory. DESIGN: In Experiment 1, young normal-hearing adults (N = 48) listened to sentences for immediate recall and delayed recognition memory. Speech was presented in quiet or in two levels of background noise. Sentences were either presented as speech only or as text captioned speech. Thus, the experiment followed a 2 (caption vs no caption) × 3 (no noise, +7 dB signal-to-noise ratio, +3 dB signal-to-noise ratio) within-subjects design. In Experiment 2, a group of older adults (age range: 61 to 80, N = 31), with varying levels of hearing acuity completed the same experimental task as in Experiment 1. For both experiments, immediate recall, recognition memory accuracy, and recognition memory confidence were analyzed via general(ized) linear mixed-effects models. In addition, we examined individual differences as a function of hearing acuity in Experiment 2. RESULTS: In Experiment 1, we found that the presentation of realistic text-captioned speech in young normal-hearing listeners showed improved immediate recall and delayed recognition memory accuracy and confidence compared with speech alone. Moreover, text captions attenuated the negative effects of background noise on all speech memory outcomes. In Experiment 2, we replicated the same pattern of results in a sample of older adults with varying levels of hearing acuity. Moreover, we showed that the negative effects of hearing loss on speech memory in older adulthood were attenuated by the presentation of text captions. CONCLUSIONS: Collectively, these findings strongly suggest that the simultaneous presentation of text can offset the negative effects of effortful listening on speech memory. Critically, captioning benefits extended from immediate word recall to long-term sentence recognition memory, a benefit that was observed not only for older adults with hearing loss but also young normal-hearing listeners. These findings suggest that the text captioning benefit to memory is robust and has potentially wide applications for supporting speech listening in acoustically challenging environments.

Expansion of immature, nucleated red blood cells by transient low-dose methotrexate immune tolerance induction in mice.

Biological treatments such as enzyme-replacement therapies (ERT) can generate anti-drug antibodies (ADA), which may reduce drug efficacy and impact patient safety and consequently led to research to mitigate ADA responses. Transient low-dose methotrexate (TLD-MTX) as a prophylactic ITI regimen, when administered concurrently with ERT, induces long-lived reduction of ADA to recombinant human alglucosidase alfa (rhGAA) in mice. In current clinical practice, a prophylactic ITI protocol that includes TLD-MTX, rituximab and intravenous immunoglobulin (optional), successfully induced lasting control of ADA to rhGAA in high-risk, cross-reactive immunological material (CRIM)-negative infantile-onset Pompe disease (IOPD) patients. More recently, evaluation of TLD-MTX demonstrated benefit in CRIM-positive IOPD patients. To more clearly understand the mechanism for the effectiveness of TLD-MTX, non-targeted transcriptional and proteomic screens were conducted and revealed up-regulation of erythropoiesis signatures. Confirmatory studies showed transiently larger spleens by weight, increased spleen cellularity and that following an initial reduction of mature red blood cells (RBCs) in the bone marrow and blood, a significant expansion of Ter-119+ CD71+ immature RBCs was observed in spleen and blood of mice. Histology sections revealed increased nucleated cells, including hematopoietic precursors, in the splenic red pulp of these mice. This study demonstrated that TLD-MTX induced a transient reduction of mature RBCs in the blood and immature RBCs in the bone marrow followed by significant enrichment of immature, nucleated RBCs in the spleen and blood during the time of immune tolerance induction, which suggested modulation of erythropoiesis may be associated with the induction of immune tolerance to rhGAA.

Cross-lagged relationships between sense of purpose in life, memory performance, and subjective memory beliefs in adulthood over a 9-year interval.

OBJECTIVES: Previous studies have found a positive association between having a sense of purpose in life and memory functioning in old age. We extend these findings by examining the relationships between sense of purpose, memory performance, and subjective memory beliefs over time in a large sample of adults in mid to later adulthood. METHOD: We used data from 3633 participants of the second and third wave of the MIDUS study. Cross-lagged panel analysis investigated the relationships between the variables at the two points, which were approximately 9 years apart, while controlling for gender, age, education, positive and negative affect, and self-rated health. RESULTS: Sense of purpose in life, memory performance, and subjective memory beliefs were all cross-sectionally related to each other at both times. Longitudinally, sense of purpose was a positive predictor of subjective memory beliefs. Memory performance and subjective memory beliefs positively predicted each other over time. Furthermore, all three variables showed correlated changes over time. Exploratory analyses suggest that the covariates of affect and self-rated health are possible mediators or confounders in respectively the relationship between subjective memory beliefs and later sense of purpose, and sense of purpose and later objective memory performance. CONCLUSION: Our findings underscore once more the relevance of sense of purpose in life as a predictor of positive late life functioning, as it is related to both performance-based and subjective cognitive outcomes. More work is needed to understand mechanisms underlying the purpose-memory association in order to develop and implement purpose interventions.

Coupling ecological wastewater treatment with the production of livestock feed and irrigation water provides net benefits to human health and the environment: A life cycle assessment.

Ecologically designed wastewater treatment systems (ex., Eco-Machines™) utilize a diverse ecosystem to treat wastewater to the same extent as conventional treatment, but require less energy and chemical inputs. The environmental benefits of Eco-Machines™ can be theoretically maximized by incorporating hyperaccumulating aquatic plants (ex., duckweed) to facilitate nutrient recovery and conversion into protein-rich biomass, which can then be harvested for a range of agricultural and bioenergy applications. Although it has been established that ecological wastewater treatment systems are more cost- and energy-efficient than conventional wastewater treatment systems, a systematic life cycle assessment (LCA) of an Eco-Machine™ coupled with its beneficial by-products has not been conducted. In this study, a series of LCAs were performed on different operational scenarios for a 1000 gallon per day, pilot-scale Eco-Machine™ that, in addition to producing irrigation-quality water, also produces duckweed biomass for aquaculture. The analysis revealed that Eco-Machines™ located in warm climates, which do not require a greenhouse or supplemental heating, use approximately a third of the energy and produce half of the greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional wastewater treatment systems in similar locations, while also providing benefits to human health, ecosystem quality, climate change, and resources. In addition, increasing the growth area for duckweed using vertical farming techniques improves the overall impact of the system. This study suggests that with proper management, ecological wastewater treatment systems that upcycle nutrients and water into beneficial products can provide a net benefit to human health and the environment.

Linking openness to cognitive ability in older adulthood: The role of activity diversity.

Relatively few studies have examined the reasons older individuals participate in activities that may benefit cognition with aging. Personality traits, particularly, openness to experience, are likely to influence how activities are selected. Openness to experience has also reliably shown to relate to cognitive and intellectual capacities. The current study tested whether diversity in activity helped to explain the overlap between openness to experience and cognitive functioning in an older adult sample (n = 476, mean age: 72.5 years). Results suggest that openness is a better predictor of activity diversity than of time spent engaged in activities or time spent in cognitively challenging activities. Further, activity diversity explained significant variance in the relationship between openness and cognitive ability for most constructs examined. This relationship did not vary with age, but differed as a function of education level, such that participating in a more diverse array of activities was most beneficial for those with less formal education. These results suggest that engagement with a diverse behavioral repertoire in late life may compensate for lack of early life resources.

Soil phosphorus dynamics following land application of unsaturated and partially saturated red mud and water treatment residuals.

The secondary use of P-sorbing industrial by-products as a fertilizer or soil conditioner is gaining increased attention, particularly in light of diminishing reserves of rock phosphate traditionally used to manufacture P fertilizer. This study examined applications of red mud (RM) and water treatment residuals (WTR) at two levels of P saturation (i.e. 'as received' and partially saturated) in a soil incubation and runoff plot study. When incubated with soils ranging in texture and initial P concentration, P-sorbing residuals that were less enriched with P decreased water-extractable soil P (WEP) concentration to a greater extent than more P saturated residuals. In contrast to WTR treatments, not all of the RM applications decreased soil WEP concentrations below those of the control soils. The runoff study investigated soil P dynamics when partially P-saturated RM and WTR's were surface applied to grass plots at 2 t ha-1 on Day 0, followed by three rainfall simulations (7 cm h-1 for 30 min, Days 2, 7 and 28) and at 3 t ha-1 on Day 70 followed by two more rainfall simulations (Days 77 and 96). Application of residuals at these rates did not significantly increase dissolved reactive P (DRP) in runoff compared with unamended controls during the study. Forage cuttings taken 90 days after the first rainfall simulation indicated that nutrient uptake was not compromised by the application of the residuals. Overall results indicate that WTRs may be a more suitable soil amendment than RM residuals given their greater ability to reduce soil WEP across a range of soils without simultaneously increasing Mehlich-3 extractable soil P concentrations above the upper threshold limit (150 mg P kg-1), and their minimal impact on plant nutrient uptake.

Self-perceived Difficulties in Everyday Function Precede Cognitive Decline among Older Adults in the ACTIVE Study.

OBJECTIVES: Careful characterization of how functional decline co-evolves with cognitive decline in older adults has yet to be well described. Most models of neurodegenerative disease postulate that cognitive decline predates and potentially leads to declines in everyday functional abilities; however, there is mounting evidence that subtle decline in instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) may be detectable in older individuals who are still cognitively normal. METHODS: The present study examines how the relationship between change in cognition and change in IADLs are best characterized among older adults who participated in the ACTIVE trial. Neuropsychological and IADL data were analyzed for 2802 older adults who were cognitively normal at study baseline and followed for up to 10 years. RESULTS: Findings demonstrate that subtle, self-perceived difficulties in performing IADLs preceded and predicted subsequent declines on cognitive tests of memory, reasoning, and speed of processing. CONCLUSIONS: Findings are consistent with a growing body of literature suggesting that subjective changes in everyday abilities can be associated with more precipitous decline on objective cognitive measures and the development of mild cognitive impairment and dementia. (JINS, 2018, 24, 104-112).

The ACTIVE conceptual framework as a structural equation model.

Background/Study Context: Conceptual frameworks are analytic models at a high level of abstraction. Their operationalization can inform randomized trial design and sample size considerations. METHODS: The Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) conceptual framework was empirically tested using structural equation modeling (N=2,802). ACTIVE was guided by a conceptual framework for cognitive training in which proximal cognitive abilities (memory, inductive reasoning, speed of processing) mediate treatment-related improvement in primary outcomes (everyday problem-solving, difficulty with activities of daily living, everyday speed, driving difficulty), which in turn lead to improved secondary outcomes (health-related quality of life, health service utilization, mobility). Measurement models for each proximal, primary, and secondary outcome were developed and tested using baseline data. Each construct was then combined in one model to evaluate fit (RMSEA, CFI, normalized residuals of each indicator). To expand the conceptual model and potentially inform future trials, evidence of modification of structural model parameters was evaluated by age, years of education, sex, race, and self-rated health status. RESULTS: Preconceived measurement models for memory, reasoning, speed of processing, everyday problem-solving, instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) difficulty, everyday speed, driving difficulty, and health-related quality of life each fit well to the data (all RMSEA < .05; all CFI > .95). Fit of the full model was excellent (RMSEA = .038; CFI = .924). In contrast with previous findings from ACTIVE regarding who benefits from training, interaction testing revealed associations between proximal abilities and primary outcomes are stronger on average by nonwhite race, worse health, older age, and less education (p < .005). CONCLUSIONS: Empirical data confirm the hypothesized ACTIVE conceptual model. Findings suggest that the types of people who show intervention effects on cognitive performance potentially may be different from those with the greatest chance of transfer to real-world activities.

Pace Yourself: Intraindividual Variability in Context Use Revealed by Self-paced Event-related Brain Potentials.

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) have revealed multiple mechanisms by which contextual constraints impact language processing. At the same time, little work has examined the trial-to-trial dynamics of context use in the brain. In the current study, we probed intraindividual variability in behavioral and neural indices of context processing during reading. In a concurrent self-paced reading and ERP paradigm, participants read sentences that were either strongly or weakly constraining completed with an expected or unexpected target word. Our findings revealed substantial within-subject variability in behavioral and neural responses to contextual constraints. First, context-based amplitude reductions of the N400, a component linked to semantic memory access, were largest among trials eliciting the slowest RTs. Second, the RT distribution of unexpected words in strongly constraining contexts was positively skewed, reflecting an increased proportion of very slow RTs to trials that violated semantic predictions. Among those prediction-violating trials eliciting faster RTs, a late sustained anterior positivity was observed. However, among trials producing the differentially slowed RTs to prediction violations, we observed a markedly earlier effect of constraint in the form of an anterior N2, a component linked to conflict resolution and the cognitive control of behavior. The current study provides the first neurophysiological evidence for the direct role of cognitive control functions in the volitional control of reading. Collectively, our findings suggest that context use varies substantially within individual participants and that coregistering behavioral and neural indices of online sentence processing offers a window into these single-item dynamics.

Getting ahead of yourself: Parafoveal word expectancy modulates the N400 during sentence reading.

An important question in the reading literature regards the nature of the semantic information readers can extract from the parafovea (i.e., the next word in a sentence). Recent eye-tracking findings have found a semantic parafoveal preview benefit under many circumstances, and findings from event-related brain potentials (ERPs) also suggest that readers can at least detect semantic anomalies parafoveally (Barber, Van der Meij, & Kutas, Psychophysiology, 50(1), 48-59, 2013). We use ERPs to ask whether fine-grained aspects of semantic expectancy can affect the N400 elicited by a word appearing in the parafovea. In an RSVP-with-flankers paradigm, sentences were presented word by word, flanked 2° bilaterally by the previous and upcoming words. Stimuli consisted of high constraint sentences that were identical up to the target word, which could be expected, unexpected but plausible, or anomalous, as well as low constraint sentences that were always completed with the most expected ending. Findings revealed an N400 effect to the target word when it appeared in the parafovea, which was graded with respect to the target's expectancy and congruency within the sentence context. Furthermore, when targets appeared at central fixation, this graded congruency effect was mitigated, suggesting that the semantic information gleaned from parafoveal vision functionally changes the semantic processing of those words when foveated.

Treatment of landfill leachate in municipal wastewater treatment plants and impacts on effluent ammonium concentrations.

Landfill leachate is the result of water percolating through waste deposits that have undergone aerobic and anaerobic microbial decomposition. In recent years, increasingly stringent wastewater discharge requirements have raised questions regarding the efficacy of co-treatment of leachate in municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). This study aimed to (1) examine the co-treatment of leachate with a 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5): chemical oxygen demand (COD) ratio less than or slightly greater than 0.26 (intermediate age leachate) in municipal WWTPs (2) quantify the maximum hydraulic and mass (expressed as mass nitrogen or COD) loading of landfill leachate (as a percentage of the total influent loading rate) above which the performance of a WWTP may be inhibited, and (3) quantify the impact of a range of hydraulic loading rates (HLRs) of young and intermediate age leachate, loaded on a volumetric basis at 0 (study control), 2, 4 and 10% (volume landfill leachate influent as a percentage of influent municipal wastewater), on the effluent ammonium concentrations. The leachate loading regimes examined were found to be appropriate for effective treatment of intermediate age landfill leachate in the WWTPs examined, but co-treatment may not be suitable in WWTPs with low ammonium-nitrogen (NH4-N) and total nitrogen (TN) emission limit values (ELVs). In addition, intermediate leachate, loaded at volumetric rates of up to 4% or 50% of total WWTP NH4-N loading, did not significantly inhibit the nitrification processes, while young leachate, loaded at volumetric rates greater of than 2% (equivalent to 90% of total WWTP NH4-N loading), resulted in a significant decrease in nitrification. The results show that current hydraulic loading-based acceptance criteria recommendations should be considered in the context of leachate NH4-N composition. The results also indicate that co-treatment of old leachate in municipal WWTPs may represent the most sustainable solution for ongoing leachate treatment in the cases examined.

The impact of HLA class I and EBV latency-II antigen-specific CD8(+) T cells on the pathogenesis of EBV(+) Hodgkin lymphoma.

In 40% of cases of classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) latency-II antigens [EBV nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1)/latent membrane protein (LMP)1/LMP2A] are present (EBV(+) cHL) in the malignant cells and antigen presentation is intact. Previous studies have shown consistently that HLA-A*02 is protective in EBV(+) cHL, yet its role in disease pathogenesis is unknown. To explore the basis for this observation, gene expression was assessed in 33 cHL nodes. Interestingly, CD8 and LMP2A expression were correlated strongly and, for a given LMP2A level, CD8 was elevated markedly in HLA-A*02(-) versus HLA-A*02(+) EBV(+) cHL patients, suggesting that LMP2A-specific CD8(+) T cell anti-tumoral immunity may be relatively ineffective in HLA-A*02(-) EBV(+) cHL. To ascertain the impact of HLA class I on EBV latency antigen-specific immunodominance, we used a stepwise functional T cell approach. In newly diagnosed EBV(+) cHL, the magnitude of ex-vivo LMP1/2A-specific CD8(+) T cell responses was elevated in HLA-A*02(+) patients. Furthermore, in a controlled in-vitro assay, LMP2A-specific CD8(+) T cells from healthy HLA-A*02 heterozygotes expanded to a greater extent with HLA-A*02-restricted compared to non-HLA-A*02-restricted cell lines. In an extensive analysis of HLA class I-restricted immunity, immunodominant EBNA3A/3B/3C-specific CD8(+) T cell responses were stimulated by numerous HLA class I molecules, whereas the subdominant LMP1/2A-specific responses were confined largely to HLA-A*02. Our results demonstrate that HLA-A*02 mediates a modest, but none the less stronger, EBV-specific CD8(+) T cell response than non-HLA-A*02 alleles, an effect confined to EBV latency-II antigens. Thus, the protective effect of HLA-A*02 against EBV(+) cHL is not a surrogate association, but reflects the impact of HLA class I on EBV latency-II antigen-specific CD8(+) T cell hierarchies.

Effect of 4-nonylphenol on the immune response of the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas following bacterial infection with Vibrio campbellii.

The xenoestrogen 4-nonylphenol (NP) is a ubiquitous aquatic pollutant and has been shown to impair reproduction, development, growth and, more recently, immune function in marine invertebrates. We investigated the effects of short-term (7 d) exposure to low (2 µg l-1) and high (100 µg l-1) levels of NP on cellular and humoral elements of the innate immune response of Crassostrea gigas to a bacterial challenge. To this end, we measured 1) total hemocyte counts (THC), 2) relative transcript abundance of ten immune-related genes (defh1, defh2, bigdef1, bigdef2, bpi, lysozyme-1, galectin, C-type lectin 2, timp, and transglutaminase) in the hemocytes, gill and mantle, and 3) hemolymph plasma lysozyme activity, following experimental Vibrio campbellii infection. Both low and high levels of NP were found to repress a bacteria-induced increase in THC observed in the control oysters. While several genes were differentially expressed following bacterial introduction (bigdef2, bpi, lysozyme-1, timp, transglutaminase), only two genes (bpi in the hemocytes, transglutaminase in the mantle) exhibited a different bacteria-induced expression profile following NP exposure, relative to the control oysters. Independently of infection-status, exposure to NP also altered mRNA transcript abundance of several genes (bpi, galectin, C-type lectin 2) in naïve, saline-injected oysters. Finally, plasma lysozyme activity levels were significantly higher in low dose NP-treated oysters (both naïve and bacteria challenged) relative to control oysters. Combined, these results suggest that exposure to ecologically-relevant (low) and extreme (high) levels of NP can alter both cellular and humoral elements of the innate immune response in C. gigas, an aquaculture species of global economic importance.

Zeolite Combined with Alum and Polyaluminum Chloride Mixed with Agricultural Slurries Reduces Carbon Losses in Runoff from Grassed Soil Boxes.

Carbon (C) losses from agricultural soils to surface waters can migrate through water treatment plants and result in the formation of disinfection by-products, which are potentially harmful to human health. This study aimed to quantify total organic carbon (TOC) and total inorganic C losses in runoff after application of dairy slurry, pig slurry, or milk house wash water (MWW) to land and to mitigate these losses through coamendment of the slurries with zeolite (2.36-3.35 mm clinoptilolite) and liquid polyaluminum chloride (PAC) (10% AlO) for dairy and pig slurries or liquid aluminum sulfate (alum) (8% AlO) for MWW. Four treatments under repeated 30-min simulated rainfall events (9.6 mm h) were examined in a laboratory study using grassed soil runoff boxes (0.225 m wide, 1 m long; 10% slope): control soil, unamended slurries, PAC-amended dairy and pig slurries (13.3 and 11.7 kg t, respectively), alum-amended MWW (3.2 kg t), combined zeolite and PAC-amended dairy (160 and 13.3 kg t zeolite and PAC, respectively) and pig slurries (158 and 11.7 kg t zeolite and PAC, respectively), and combined zeolite and alum-amended MWW (72 and 3.2 kg t zeolite and alum, respectively). The unamended and amended slurries were applied at net rates of 31, 34, and 50 t ha for pig and dairy slurries and MWW, respectively. Significant reductions of TOC in runoff compared with unamended slurries were measured for PAC-amended dairy and pig slurries (52 and 56%, respectively) but not for alum-amended MWW. Dual zeolite and alum-amended MWW significantly reduced TOC in runoff compared with alum amendment only. We conclude that use of PAC-amended dairy and pig slurries and dual zeolite and alum-amended MWW, although effective, may not be economically viable to reduce TOC losses from organic slurries given the relatively low amounts of TOC measured in runoff from unamended slurries compared with the amounts applied.

Age Differences in Language Segmentation.

Reading bears the evolutionary footprint of spoken communication. Prosodic contour in speech helps listeners parse sentences and establish semantic focus. Readers' regulation of input mirrors the segmentation patterns of prosody, such that reading times are longer for words at the ends of syntactic constituents. As reflected in these "micropauses," older readers are often found to segment text into smaller chunks. The mechanisms underlying these micropauses are unclear, with some arguing that they derive from the mental simulation of prosodic contour and others arguing they reflect higher-level language comprehension mechanisms (e.g., conceptual integration, consolidation with existing knowledge, ambiguity resolution) that are common across modality and support the consolidation of the memory representation. The authors review evidence based on reading time and comprehension performance to suggest that (a) age differences in segmentation derive both from age-related declines in working memory, as well as from crystallized ability and knowledge, which have the potential to grow in adulthood, and that (b) shifts in segmentation patterns may be a pathway through which language comprehension is preserved in late life.

Organic neem compounds inhibit soft-rot fungal growth and improve the strength of anthracite bricks bound with collagen and lignin for use in iron foundry cupolas.

AIMS: To examine organic neem compounds for their effective growth inhibition of saprotrophic soft-rot fungi on anthracite bricks bound with collagen and lignin for use in iron foundry cupolas as an alternative fuel source. METHODS AND RESULTS: Azadirachtin, crude neem oil (NO), and clarified neem oil extract (CNO) were combined with copper to inhibit the growth of the soft-rot fungus, Chaetomium globosum. A synergistic interaction was observed between CNO and a low dose of copper on nutrient media (two-factor anova with triplicate replication: P < 0·05). Interaction was confirmed on lab-scale collagen-lignin-anthracite briquettes by measuring their unconfined compressive (UC) strength. The effective collagen strength of the briquettes was enhanced by applying CNO to their surface prior to inoculation: the room temperature UC strength of the briquettes was 28 ± 4·6% greater when CNO (0·4 mg cm(-2) ) was surface-applied, and was 43 ± 3·0% greater when CNO plus copper (0·14 µg cm(-2) ) were surface-applied. CONCLUSION: Surface application of CNO and copper synergistically prevents fungal growth on bindered anthracite briquettes and increases their room temperature strength. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: This novel organic fungicidal treatment may increase the storage and performance of anthracite bricks in iron foundries, thereby saving 15-20% of the energy used in conventional coke production.