Increased Oxidative Stress in the Prefrontal Cortex as a Shared Feature of Depressive- and PTSD-Like Syndromes: Effects of a Standardized Herbal Antioxidant

Major depression (MD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) share common brain mechanisms and treatment strategies. Nowadays, the dramatically developing COVID-19 situation unavoidably results in stress, psychological trauma, and high incidence of MD and PTSD. Hence, the importance of the development of new treatments for these disorders cannot be overstated. Herbal medicine appears to be an effective and safe treatment with fewer side effects than classic pharmaca and that is affordable in low-income countries. Currently, oxidative stress and neuroinflammation attract increasing attention as important mechanisms of MD and PTSD. We investigated the effects of a standardized herbal cocktail (SHC), an extract of clove, bell pepper, basil, pomegranate, nettle, and other plants, that was designed as an antioxidant treatment in mouse models of MD and PTSD. In the MD model of “emotional” ultrasound stress (US), mice were subjected to ultrasound frequencies of 16–20 kHz, mimicking rodent sounds of anxiety/despair and “neutral” frequencies of 25–45 kHz, for three weeks and concomitantly treated with SHC. US-exposed mice showed elevated concentrations of oxidative stress markers malondialdehyde and protein carbonyl, increased gene and protein expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-6 and other molecular changes in the prefrontal cortex as well as weight loss, helplessness, anxiety-like behavior, and neophobia that were ameliorated by the SHC treatment. In the PTSD model of the modified forced swim test (modFST), in which a 2-day swim is followed by an additional swim on day 5, mice were pretreated with SHC for 16 days. Increases in the floating behavior and oxidative stress markers malondialdehyde and protein carbonyl in the prefrontal cortex of modFST-mice were prevented by the administration of SHC. Chromatography mass spectrometry revealed bioactive constituents of SHC, including D-ribofuranose, beta-D-lactose, malic, glyceric, and citric acids that can modulate oxidative stress, immunity, and gut and microbiome functions and, thus, are likely to be active antistress elements underlying the beneficial effects of SHC. Significant correlations of malondialdehyde concentration in the prefrontal cortex with altered measures of behavioral despair and anxiety-like behavior suggest that the accumulation of oxidative stress markers are a common biological feature of MD and PTSD that can be equally effectively targeted therapeutically with antioxidant therapy, such as the SHC investigated here.

Current Trends in Diagnostics of Viral Infections of Unknown Etiology

Viruses are evolving at an alarming rate, spreading and inconspicuously adapting to cutting-edge therapies. Therefore, the search for rapid, informative and reliable diagnostic methods is becoming urgent as ever. Conventional clinical tests (PCR, serology, etc.) are being continually optimized, yet provide very limited data. Could high throughput sequencing (HTS) become the future gold standard in molecular diagnostics of viral infections? Compared to conventional clinical tests, HTS is universal and more precise at profiling pathogens. Nevertheless, it has not yet been widely accepted as a diagnostic tool, owing primarily to its high cost and the complexity of sample preparation and data analysis. Those obstacles must be tackled to integrate HTS into daily clinical practice. For this, three objectives are to be achieved: (1) designing and assessing universal protocols for library preparation, (2) assembling purpose-specific pipelines, and (3) building computational infrastructure to suit the needs and financial abilities of modern healthcare centers. Data harvested with HTS could not only augment diagnostics and help to choose the correct therapy, but also facilitate research in epidemiology, genetics and virology. This information, in turn, could significantly aid clinicians in battling viral infections.

Separation of weighable amounts of 10Be from proton irradiated graphite

Large amounts of ¹⁰Be are produced at the PSI muon production facility by high-energy proton spallation in polycrystalline graphite. For the extraction of ¹⁰Be out of large amounts of carbon, pyrolysis followed by chemical purification has been performed. Approx. 270g of graphite from Target E92, which had received a total proton charge of 29 Ah between 2002 and 2005, have been burned at 1000°C in a stream of oxygen. The volatile radioactive oxidation product ³H₂O was trapped in 3 water bubblers connected in series. The remainder, a white hygroscopic solid material mainly consisting of ⁷Li₂O, ^9/10BeO and ^10/11B₂O₃, was dissolved in HF and subsequently purified by ion exchange chromatography. Radioactive impurities such as ²²Na, ⁴⁴Ti, ⁵⁴Mn, ⁶⁰Co, ¹⁰¹Rh, ¹³³Ba and ¹⁷²Hf have been separated from the final product. The purified material represents a mixture of approx. 6.5mg ⁹Be and 3.5mg (3.3MBq) ¹⁰Be. It is ready to be used for scientific investigations requiring large amounts of this precious isotope.

Measurement of the neutron electric to magnetic form factor ratio at Q2=1.58 GeV2 using the reaction 3He[over →](e[over →],e'n)pp

A measurement of beam helicity asymmetries in the reaction 3He[over →](e[over →],e'n)pp is performed at the Mainz Microtron in quasielastic kinematics to determine the electric to magnetic form factor ratio of the neutron GEn/GMn at a four-momentum transfer Q2=1.58  GeV2. Longitudinally polarized electrons are scattered on a highly polarized 3He gas target. The scattered electrons are detected with a high-resolution magnetic spectrometer, and the ejected neutrons are detected with a dedicated neutron detector composed of scintillator bars. To reduce systematic errors, data are taken for four different target polarization orientations allowing the determination of GEn/GMn from a double ratio. We find μnGEn/GMn=0.250±0.058(stat)±0.017(syst).

New measurements of high-momentum nucleons and short-range structures in nuclei

We present new measurements of electron scattering from high-momentum nucleons in nuclei. These data allow an improved determination of the strength of two-nucleon correlations for several nuclei, including light nuclei where clustering effects can, for the first time, be examined. The data also include the kinematic region where three-nucleon correlations are expected to dominate.

Local electromechanical properties of ferroelectric materials for piezoelectric applications

Local electromechanical characterization is becoming prerequisite for the development of ferroelectric-based piezoelectric devices including multilayer actuators, micromotors, piezoelectric filters and, especially, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), which combine piezoelectric elements and control electronics on the same chip. In this work, we present the results of local electromechanical characterization of several important ferroelectric materials including Pb(Zr, Ti)O3 (PZT) and (Pb, La)(Zr, Ti)O3 (PLZT) in both thin film and ceramic form. Local piezoelectric hysteresis measurements are performed by the piezoelectric force microscopy (PFM) that detects small electric field-induced deformation on the nanoscale e. g., within the single grain of a polycrystalline material. A number of novel phenomena is observed with increasing dc bias voltage including the jump of ferroelectric domain wall to the grain boundary, the “fingerlike” instability of domain wall, and the local phase transition into ferroelectric phase.

Measurements of the electric form factor of the neutron up to Q2=3.4 GeV2 using the reaction 3He(e,e'n)pp

The electric form factor of the neutron was determined from studies of the reaction 3He(e,e'n)pp in quasielastic kinematics in Hall A at Jefferson Lab. Longitudinally polarized electrons were scattered off a polarized target in which the nuclear polarization was oriented perpendicular to the momentum transfer. The scattered electrons were detected in a magnetic spectrometer in coincidence with neutrons that were registered in a large-solid-angle detector. More than doubling the Q2 range over which it is known, we find G(E)(n)=0.0236±0.0017(stat)±0.0026(syst), 0.0208±0.0024±0.0019, and 0.0147±0.0020±0.0014 for Q(2)=1.72, 2.48, and 3.41 GeV2, respectively.

Scaling of the F2 structure function in nuclei and quark distributions at x>1

We present new data on electron scattering from a range of nuclei taken in Hall C at Jefferson Lab. For heavy nuclei, we observe a rapid falloff in the cross section for x>1, which is sensitive to short-range contributions to the nuclear wave function, and in deep inelastic scattering corresponds to probing extremely high momentum quarks. This result agrees with higher energy muon scattering measurements, but is in sharp contrast to neutrino scattering measurements which suggested a dramatic enhancement in the distribution of the "superfast" quarks probed at x>1. The falloff at x>1 is noticeably stronger in 2H and 3He, but nearly identical for all heavier nuclei.

Probing quark-gluon interactions with transverse polarized scattering

We have extracted QCD matrix elements from our data on doubly polarized inelastic scattering of electrons on nuclei. We find the higher twist matrix element d˜2, which arises strictly from quark-gluon interactions, to be unambiguously nonzero. The data also reveal an isospin dependence of higher twist effects if we assume that the Burkhardt-Cottingham sum rule is valid. The fundamental Bjorken sum rule obtained from the a0 matrix element is satisfied at our low momentum transfer.

Magnetized boxes for housing polarized spins in homogeneous fields

We present novel types of permanently magnetized as well as current powered boxes built from soft-ferromagnetic materials. They provide shielded magnetic fields which are homogeneous within a large fraction of the enclosed volume, thus minimizing size, weight, and costs. For the permanently magnetized solutions, homogenization is achieved either by an optimized distribution of the permanent field sources or by jacketing the field with a soft-ferromagnetic cylindrical shell which is magnetized in parallel to the enclosed field. The latter principle may be applied up to fields of about 0.1T. With fields of about 1mT, such boxes are being used for shipping spin-polarized (3)He worldwide for MRI purposes. For current powered boxes, we present concepts and realizations of uniaxial and tri-axial shielded magnetic fields which are homogeneous on the level of 10(-4) within the entire shielded volume. This is achieved by inserting tightly fitting solenoids into a box from soft-magnetic material. The flexible tri-axial solution suits in particular laboratory applications, e.g. for establishing a spin quantization axis.

New measurements of the European Muon Collaboration effect in very light nuclei

New Jefferson Lab data are presented on the nuclear dependence of the inclusive cross section from (2)H, (3)He, (4)He, (9)Be and (12)C for 0.3 < x < 0.9, Q(2) approximately 3-6 GeV(2). These data represent the first measurement of the EMC effect for (3)He at large x and a significant improvement for (4)He. The data do not support previous A-dependent or density-dependent fits to the EMC effect and suggest that the nuclear dependence of the quark distributions may depend on the local nuclear environment.

Dynamics of ferroelectric nanodomains in BaTiO(3) epitaxial thin films via piezoresponse force microscopy

Ferroelectric nanodomains were created in BaTiO(3) thin films by applying a voltage to a sharp conducting tip of a scanning force microscope (SFM). The films were epitaxially grown on SrRuO(3)-covered (001)-oriented SrTiO(3) substrates by a high-pressure sputtering. They appeared to be single-crystalline with the (001) crystallographic orientation relative to the substrate. Using the piezoresponse mode of the SFM to detect the out-of-plane film polarization, the domain sizes were measured as a function of the applied writing voltage and the pulse time. It was found that the time dependence of the domain diameter in a 60 nm thick BaTiO(3) film deviates significantly from the logarithmic law observed earlier in Pb(Zr(0.2)Ti(0.8))O(3) (PZT) films. At a given writing time, the domain size increases nonlinearly with increasing applied voltage, in contrast to the linear behavior reported earlier for PZT films and LiNbO(3) single crystals. The dynamics of domain growth is analyzed theoretically taking into account the strong inhomogeneity of the external electric field in the film and the influence of the bottom electrode. It is shown that the observed writing time and voltage dependences of the domain size can be explained by the domain-wall creep in the presence of random-bond disorder.