Mushrooms use convectively created airflows to disperse their spores.

Thousands of basidiomycete fungal species rely on mushroom spores to spread across landscapes. It has long been thought that spores depend on favorable winds for dispersal--that active control of spore dispersal by the parent fungus is limited to an impulse delivered to the spores to carry them clear of the gill surface. Here we show that evaporative cooling of the air surrounding the pileus creates convective airflows capable of carrying spores at speeds of centimeters per second. Convective cells can transport spores from gaps that may be only 1 cm high and lift spores 10 cm or more into the air. This work reveals how mushrooms tolerate and even benefit from crowding and explains their high water needs.

Effects of periconceptional maternal alcohol intake and a postnatal high-fat diet on obesity and liver disease in male and female rat offspring.

The effects of maternal alcohol consumption around the time of conception on offspring are largely unknown and difficult to determine in a human population. This study utilized a rodent model to examine if periconceptional alcohol (PC:EtOH) consumption, alone or in combination with a postnatal high-fat diet (HFD), resulted in obesity and liver dysfunction. Sprague-Dawley rats were fed a control or an ethanol-containing [12.5% (vol/vol) EtOH] liquid diet from 4 days before mating until 4 days of gestation ( n = 12/group). A subset of offspring was fed a HFD between 3 and 8 mo of age. In males, PC:EtOH and HFD increased total body fat mass ( PPC:EtOH < 0.05, PHFD < 0.0001); in females, only HFD increased fat mass ( PHFD < 0.0001). PC:EtOH increased microvesicular liver steatosis in male, but not female, offspring. Plasma triglycerides, HDL, and cholesterol were increased in PC:EtOH-exposed males ( PPC:EtOH < 0.05), and LDL, cholesterol, and leptin (Lep) were increased in PC:EtOH-exposed females ( PPC:EtOH < 0.05). mRNA levels of Tnf-α and Lep in visceral adipose tissue were increased by PC:EtOH in both sexes ( PPC:EtOH < 0.05), and Il-6 mRNA was increased in males ( PPC:EtOH < 0.05). These findings were associated with reduced expression of microRNA-26a, a known regulator of IL-6 and TNF-α. Alcohol exposure around conception increases obesity risk, alters plasma lipid and leptin profiles, and induces liver steatosis in a sex-specific manner. These programmed phenotypes were similar to those caused by a postnatal HFD, particularly in male offspring. These results have implications for the health of offspring whose mothers consumed alcohol around the time of conception.

A scalable platform for acquisition of high-fidelity human intracranial EEG with minimal clinical burden.

Human neuroscience research has been significantly advanced by neuroelectrophysiological studies from people with refractory epilepsy-the only routine clinical intervention that acquires multi-day, multi-electrode human intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG). While a sampling rate below 2 kHz is sufficient for manual iEEG review by epileptologists, computational methods and research studies may benefit from higher resolution, which requires significant technical development. At adult and pediatric Stanford hospitals, research ports of commercial clinical acquisition systems were configured to collect 10 kHz iEEG of up to 256 electrodes simultaneously with the clinical data. The research digital stream was designed to be acquired post-digitization, resulting in no loss in clinical signal quality. This novel framework implements a near-invisible research platform to facilitate the secure, routine collection of high-resolution iEEG that minimizes research hardware footprint and clinical workflow interference. The addition of a pocket-sized router in the patient room enabled an encrypted tunnel to securely transmit research-quality iEEG across hospital networks to a research computer within the hospital server room, where data was coded, de-identified, and uploaded to cloud storage. Every eligible patient undergoing iEEG clinical evaluation at both hospitals since September 2017 has been recruited; participant recruitment is ongoing. Over 350+ terabytes (representing 1000+ days) of neuroelectrophysiology were recorded across 200+ participants of diverse demographics. To our knowledge, this is the first report of such a research integration within a hospital setting. It is a promising approach to promoting equitable participant enrollment and building comprehensive data repositories with consistent, high-fidelity specifications towards new discoveries in human neuroscience.

Early gestational ethanol exposure in mice: Effects on brain structure, energy metabolism and adiposity in adult offspring.

We examined whether an early-life event - ethanol exposure in the initial stages of pregnancy - affected offspring brain structure, energy metabolism, and body composition in later life. Consumption of 10% (v/v) ethanol by inbred C57BL/6J female mice from 0.5 to 8.5 days post coitum was used to model alcohol exposure during the first 3-4 weeks of gestation in humans, when pregnancy is not typically recognized. At adolescence (postnatal day [P] 28) and adulthood (P64), the brains of male offspring were scanned ex vivo using ultra-high field (16.4 T) magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor imaging. Energy metabolism and body composition were measured in adulthood by indirect calorimetry and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), respectively. Ethanol exposure had no substantial impact on white matter organization in the anterior commissure, corpus callosum, hippocampal commissure, internal capsule, optic tract, or thalamus. Whole brain volume and the volumes of the neocortex, cerebellum, and caudate putamen were also unaffected. Subtle, but non-significant, effects were observed on the hippocampus and the hypothalamus in adult ethanol-exposed male offspring. Ethanol exposure was additionally associated with a trend toward decreased oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide production, and reduced daily energy expenditure, as well as significantly increased adiposity, albeit with normal body weight and food intake, in adult male offspring. In summary, ethanol exposure restricted to early gestation had subtle long-term effects on the structure of specific brain regions in male offspring. The sensitivity of the hippocampus to ethanol-induced damage is reminiscent of that reported by other studies - despite differences in the level, timing, and duration of exposure - and likely contributes to the cognitive impairment that characteristically results from prenatal ethanol exposure. The hypothalamus plays an important role in regulating metabolism and energy homeostasis. Our finding of altered daily energy expenditure and adiposity in adult ethanol-exposed males is consistent with the idea that central nervous system abnormalities also underpin some of the metabolic phenotypes associated with ethanol exposure in pregnancy.