Keene State College

In the title complex salt, [Cd2(C3H7NO)2(CH5N3S)4](C6H2N3O7)4, (I), the binuclear cation is located about a crystallographic center of symmetry. The asymmetric unit of the complex cation is composed of two bidentate thio­semicarbazide ligands and one mol­ecule of di­methyl­formamide coordinated to a cadmium(II) atom. The S atom of one of the thio­semicarbazide ligands bridges the cadmium atoms about the inversion center. The positive charge of the complex is balanced by picrate anions. In the crystal, the cation is linked to the picrate anions by side-by-side bifurcated N—H⋯(O,O) hydrogen bonds in which the central O atom acts as a double acceptor for two such bonds, enclosing R¹2(6) and R²1(6) ring motifs. In the crystal, further N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds link the various units to form slabs lying parallel to the (001) plane and the slabs are linked by C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, thereby forming a three-dimensional network.

Introduction A workshop for adolescents was derived from an interdisciplinary model of hope. The workshop was created for delivery by professionals or lay helpers and is structured around the needs for attachment, survival, mastery, and spirituality. Methods Adolescents, 13 to 17 years of age, received a five-week group intervention led by pairs of advanced psychology students. Hope, depression, anxiety, coping, and self-acceptance were assessed before and after the intervention. A delayed waitlist control group, matched for age, received identical outcome measures, also five-weeks apart. Group membership was randomly assigned. Results More than three-quarters of the participants found the more left-brain writing exercises helpful, and nearly 85% rated the more right-brain reflections and meditative exercises favorably. Significant increases in hope as well as greater utilization of social coping methods and self-acceptance were found for the treatment group but not controls. Group participants (but not controls) also reported a significant reduction in depression. Anxiety levels were not impacted. Secondary analysis suggested that participant engagement and socioeconomic status may play a role in moderating the efficacy of this intervention. Discussion This relatively low-cost intervention offers new hope for counteracting the global increase in youth despair. The effect sizes obtained in this study compare favorably with outcome data for cognitive-behavioral treatments and a few available agency-centered hope interventions. There is a potential for broad impact via the implementation of an accessible training program as well as online deliveries in either synchronous or asynchronous modes.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of violence against women on health outcomes and how this relationship varies by race. Data were drawn from the annual Alaska Victimization Survey (AVS) conducted from 2010 to 2015. The final sample consisted of 10,883 noninstitutionalized Alaskan women (over the age of 18). A series of ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions were employed. Overall, different types of victimization (psychological aggression, physical violence, and sexual violence) were significantly related to adverse health outcomes. In addition, women who identified as more than one racial category were more likely to report adverse health outcomes. Contributions and limitations of the study were discussed.

Pollution from cordwood stoves includes fine particulate matter (PM), hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), greenhouse gases (GHGs), and other compounds that impact human health and climate. To better understand emissions under typical homeowner use patterns, we tested five U.S. cordwood stoves (four meeting 2020 New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) and one pre-NSPS, circa 1980 stove) across three technology types using the novel Integrated Duty Cycle (IDC) protocol. We report emissions factors by IDC phase, which better represent "real world" operating conditions (such as "start-up," "high heat," and "overnight burn") and fuel loading patterns. We evaluated the effect of operating conditions and dry burn rate on PM, HAP and GHG emissions and determined significant effects from IDC phase in uncertified and catalytic/hybrid stove emissions, but not in noncatalytic stoves. This has important implications for use of emissions factors in air quality science, policy, and stove design, as different U.S. climate zones will influence the number of cordwood stove starts, fuel loading patterns, and the frequencies of the IDC phases.

In [1], the following problem appears on page 205. 12. A right-angle tool can be used to draw a line through two points and erect a perpendicular to a given line at a given point. Use this tool to drop a perpendicular from a given point to a given line.

The field of tissue engineering has made significant advancements with extrusion-based bioprinting, which uses shear forces to create intricate tissue structures. However, the success of this method heavily relies on the rheological properties of bioinks. Most bioinks use shear-thinning. While a few component-based efforts have been reported to predict the viscosity of bioinks, the impact of shear rate has been vastly ignored. To address this gap, our research presents predictive models using machine learning (ML) algorithms, including polynomial fit (PF), decision tree (DT), and random forest (RF), to estimate bioink viscosity based on component weights and shear rate. We utilized novel bioinks composed of varying percentages of alginate (2–5.25%), gelatin (2–5.25%), and TEMPO-Nano fibrillated cellulose (0.5–1%) at shear rates from 0.1 to 100 s⁻¹. Our study analyzed 169 rheological measurements using 80% training and 20% validation data. The results, based on the coefficient of determination (R2) and mean absolute error (MAE), showed that the RF algorithm-based model performed best: [(R2, MAE) RF = (0.99, 0.09), (R2, MAE) PF = (0.95, 0.28), (R2, MAE) DT = (0.98, 0.13)]. These predictive models serve as valuable tools for bioink formulation optimization, allowing researchers to determine effective viscosities without extensive experimental trials to accelerate tissue engineering.

Introduction Five million US Veterans had possible exposure to open burn pits used for waste disposal through service in Iraq (2003–2011) and Afghanistan (2001–2014). Burn pits generate toxic exposures that may be associated with adverse health outcomes. We examined all-cause and cause-specific mortality in relation to deployment to bases with open burn pits. Methods We analysed a cohort of 474 634 Veterans who received some healthcare from the Veterans Health Administration, linked to Department of Defense deployment records to identify assignments to bases with burn pits. In multivariable logistic regression models, we assessed the association between duration of deployment to bases with burn pits and all-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality from the six most common causes among this population of Veterans. Results Duration of deployment to bases with burn pits was modestly related to all-cause mortality, with adjusted ORs of 1.07 (95% CI 0.99 to 1.15), 1.08 (95% CI 1.00 to 1.16) and 1.16 (95% CI 1.06 to 1.27) across tertiles, but not associated with mortality due to cancer, heart disease or chronic liver disease/cirrhosis. Positive associations were also found for unintentional injuries, suicide and stroke. Discussion These data are suggestive of an association between duration of deployment to bases with burn pits and overall mortality, but not from cancer or heart disease. Unexpected associations with injury and suicide call for a more detailed evaluation. Conclusions are restricted by the broad aggregations of causes of death, a limited number of deaths in this relatively young cohort and the lack of more detailed information on exposure to burn pits.

The global aquaculture industry has grown substantially, with consequences for coastal ecology and biogeochemistry. Oyster aquaculture can alter the availability of resources for microbes that live in sediments as oysters move large quantities of organic material to the sediments via filter-feeding, possibly leading to changes in the structure and function of sediment microbial communities. Further, oysters can initiate changes in sediment elemental concentrations, several of which are important mediators of microbial metabolism. Here, we use a chronosequence approach to investigate the impacts of oyster farming on sediment microbial communities over 7 yr of aquaculture activity in a temperate coastal system. We detected shifts in bacterial composition (16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing), changes in gene expression (meta-transcriptomics), and variations in sediment elemental concentrations (sediment geochemistry) across different durations of oyster farming. Our results indicate that both the structure and function of bacterial communities vary between control (no oysters) and farm sites, with an overall increase in diversity and a shift towards anoxic tolerance in farm sites. However, little to no variation was observed in either structure or function with respect to farming duration, suggesting these sediment microbial communities are resilient to change. We also did not find any significant impact of farming on heavy metal accumulation in the sediments. The minimal influence of long-term oyster farming on sediment bacterial function and biogeochemical processes observed here provides important insights for establishing best practices for sustainable farming in these areas.

Species conservation and management benefit from precise understanding of natural patterns of dispersal and genetic variation. Using recent advances in indirect genetic methods applied to both adult plants and dispersed seeds, we find that the mean seed dispersal in a threatened marine foundation plant (the eelgrass Zostera marina) is approximately 100–200 m. This distance is surprisingly more similar to that of wind‐dispersed terrestrial seeds (~10s to 100s of meters) than the passive dispersal of marine propagules via currents (~10s to 100s of kilometres). Because nearshore marine plants like Zostera are commonly distributed across strong selective gradients driven by bathymetry (depth) even within these restricted spatial scales, seeds are capable of dispersing to novel water depths and experiencing profound shifts in light availability, temperature and wave exposure. We documented strong phenotypic variation and genome‐wide differentiation among plants separated by approximately the spatial scale of mean realised dispersal. This result suggests genetic isolation by environment in response to depth‐related environmental gradients as one plausible explanation for this pattern. The ratio of effective to census size (or Ne/Nc) approximated 0.1%, indicating that a fraction of existing plants provides the genetic variation to allow adaptation to environmental change. Our results suggest that successful conservation of seagrass meadows that can adapt to microspatial and temporal variation in environmental conditions will be low without direct and persistent intervention using large numbers of individuals or a targeted selection of genotypes.

In this investigation, the bio‐activity and biosafe potential of thiosemicarbazonates of nickel(II) as well as that of ligands are described. Reactions of nickel(II) acetate with a series of thiosemicarbazones, {R¹(py)C²=N³‐N²(H)‐C¹(=S)‐NHR; R¹=py, Me, H and Ph; R=H, Me, Et, Ph}, led to the loss of acidic hydrazinic N²(H) protons, and resulted in the formation of six‐coordinated complexes of stoichiometry, [Ni(N,N,S−L)2], where anionic N,N,S−L=py2tsc‐NHR, 1–4; apytsc‐NHR, 5–8; pytsc‐NHR, 9–12 and bpytsc‐NHR, 13–16. All these complexes have been characterized using analytical data, IR and UV‐visible spectroscopy and ESI‐mass spectrometry. The single crystal X‐ray crystal structure of several complexes {2(Me), 7(Et), 11(Et), 12(Ph), 13(H),14(Me) and 15(Et)} were also determined. Thio‐ligands coordinate to nickel(II) through pyridyl nitrogen‐N⁴, azomethine nitrogen‐N³ and thiolato sulfur atoms, resulting in the formation of homoleptic complexes with octahedral structures. Complexes 1–16 and uncoordinated thiosemicarbzones, were evaluated for their antimicrobial activity, in terms of ZOI, MIC, time kill assay and in vitro percent cell viability MTT assay, against clinical isolate methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Staphylococcus aureus (MTCC740), Klebsiella pneumonia (MTCC109), Salmonella typhimurium (MTCC1251), and Candida albicans (MTCC227), a yeast. Both the ligands and their metal complexes exhibited moderate to high bioactivity, and were found to be biosafe with high cell viability, 88–92 %, in several cases.

Over six million Americans rely on solid fuels for residential heating, which can result in high concentrations of fine and ultrafine particulate matter (PM). Little is known on the characteristics of indoor PM in rural homes, including lung deposited surface area (LDSA) concentration and metals composition, and whether these characteristics may vary by fuel type.Homes using oil, cordwood, or pellet were recruited into the study. Indoor air quality assessment over 48 h included PM2.5 and PM10 mass concentration (Purple Air monitors) and ultrafine (LDSA) PM < 1 μm, number concentration, and diameter (Partector). Teflon© or polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) filters were used to collect PM mass for metals characterization by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Participants completed a time activity diary to link household behaviors to changes in LDSA, particle number, and size distribution.Ten homes completed the study- three used primary oil-fueled furnaces/boilers, four used primarily cordwood, and three used pellet fuel. Activity logs and real time measurements highlighted elevated indoor pollution events such as loading wood stoves and cooking. Maximum indoor air particle number concentrations measured were similar across fuel types, though total average particle concentrations, maximum mass, and LDSA concentrations were highly variable. For individual elements Ca, K, Cu, Cd, and Pb, there was a trend of higher concentrations in cordwood heated home, followed by pellet, and then oil heat.

The typological, technological, and use-wear analyses of obsidian artifacts from Terminal Classic Pook's Hill (AD 830–950+) provide opportunities to better reconstruct socioeconomic activities in this plazuela group, including long-distance trade, tool production, subsistence practices, domestic tasks, and the organization of craft production. Based on visual sourcing, most of the obsidian originated from highland Guatemala, specifically El Chayal. The majority of obsidian artifacts were prismatic blades, although both casual and bipolar reduction of blade cores and the recycling of blades from earlier occupations occurred at the site. Use-wear analysis reveals that obsidian tools were mainly used for subsistence and domestic household activities; however, the concentrations of tools with specific wear patterns (bone, ceramic, plants, and shell) at some locations in the plazuela provide evidence for local craft production among the population. Further support for craft production is provided by comparable use-wear on chert/chalcedony tools from these same locations. The products of low-level craft production were used within Pook's Hill itself and may have been distributed to neighboring communities within the Roaring Creek and Upper Belize River Valleys. Despite the sociopolitical and socioeconomic disruptions to lifeways that accompanied the Terminal Classic period, the Pook's Hill Maya seem to have experienced minimal upheaval in their daily lives and continued local low-level craft production. However, one important change in the Terminal Classic appears to be the increased difficulty in obtaining obsidian at Pook's Hill and the growing need for tool recycling and raw material conservation.

Current research practice for optimizing bioink involves exhaustive experimentation with multi-material composition for determining the printability, shape fidelity and biocompatibility. Predicting bioink properties can be beneficial to the research community but is a challenging task due to the non-Newtonian behavior in complex composition. Existing models such as Cross model become inadequate for predicting the viscosity for heterogeneous composition of bioinks. In this paper, we utilize a machine learning framework to accurately predict the viscosity of heterogeneous bioink compositions, aiming to enhance extrusion-based bioprinting techniques. Utilizing Bayesian optimization (BO), our strategy leverages a limited dataset to inform our model. This is a technique especially useful of the typically sparse data in this domain. Moreover, we have also developed a mask technique that can handle complex constraints, informed by domain expertise, to define the feasible parameter space for the components of the bioink and their interactions. Our proposed method is focused on predicting the intrinsic factor (e.g. viscosity) of the bioink precursor which is tied to the extrinsic property (e.g. cell viability) through the mask function. Through the optimization of the hyperparameter, we strike a balance between exploration of new possibilities and exploitation of known data, a balance crucial for refining our acquisition function. This function then guides the selection of subsequent sampling points within the defined viable space and the process continues until convergence is achieved, indicating that the model has sufficiently explored the parameter space and identified the optimal or near-optimal solutions. Employing this AI-guided BO framework, we have developed, tested, and validated a surrogate model for determining the viscosity of heterogeneous bioink compositions. This data-driven approach significantly reduces the experimental workload required to identify bioink compositions conducive to functional tissue growth. It not only streamlines the process of finding the optimal bioink compositions from a vast array of heterogeneous options but also offers a promising avenue for accelerating advancements in tissue engineering by minimizing the need for extensive experimental trials.

The rapid advancement of 3D bioprinting has created a need for cost-effective and versatile 3D printers capable of handling bio-inks at various scales. This study introduces a novel framework for a specialized nozzle-holding device designed for an extrusion-based 3D bioprinter, specifically tailored to address the rigorous requirements of tissue engineering applications. The proposed system combines a pneumatically actuated plunger mechanism with an adaptive nozzle system, ensuring the safe inhibition and precise dispensing of bio-inks. Rigorous thermal management strategies are employed to maintain consistently low temperatures, thereby preserving bio-ink integrity without changing chemical stability. A key component of this design is a precision-milled aluminum block, which optimizes thermal characteristics while providing a protective barrier. Additionally, a 3D-printed extruder head bracket, fabricated using a high-precision resin printer, effectively mitigates potential thermal inconsistencies. The integration of these meticulously engineered components results in a modified extrusion-based 3D bioprinter with the potential to significantly advance tissue engineering methodologies. This study not only contributes to the advancement of bioprinting technology but also underscores the crucial role of innovative engineering in addressing tissue engineering challenges. The proposed bioprinter design lays a solid foundation for future research, aiming to develop more accurate, efficient, and reliable bioprinting solutions.

Air pollution from residential wood heating (RWH) presents challenges at the intersection of climate and public health. With a revised National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS, at 9 μg/m³) for particulate matter (PM) in the United States (U.S.), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will likely classify new non-attainment areas due primarily to emissions from RWH. Agencies will use emissions factors (EFs) to develop attainment strategies. Many will rely on EPA modeling platforms based on data from the National Emissions Inventory (NEI). The NEI uses RWH EFs based on data from mid-1990’s in-situ studies and a speciation profile from a 2001 study of fireplace emissions. The NEI does not include greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for this sector, which plays a key role when assessing climate reduction strategies for the buildings sector. Here, we tested seven wood stoves to determine EFs, representing various vintages and control technologies, using a novel test method that reflects in-use operational settings called the Integrated Duty Cycle. The study measured multiple pollutants concurrently: criteria pollutants (particulate matter [PM], CO, and NOx), nonmethane total hydrocarbons (NMTHCs), GHGs, black carbon (eBC), brown carbon (BrC), and multiple hazardous air pollutants (HAPs). We found no significant difference in PM EFs between uncertified and non-catalytic stove technologies. RWH EF results from this study exceeded 2020 NEI RWH EFs for NMTHC and multiple HAPs. Applying our study’s EFs to the 2020 NEI suggests that RWH, compared to all other sources, ranks as the 2nd largest source category of formaldehyde; the 3rd largest of benzene, 1,3-butadiene, and acrolein; and the 4th largest of Pb emissions. RWH also emits more methane compared to natural gas or oil residential heating, raising questions about substitution of wood as a climate neutral heating fuel. However, compared to uncertified stoves, pellet stove EFs (except toxic metals) were significantly lower (p < 0.01). In summary, RWH appears to be an underestimated source of PM (non-catalytic technology), methane, NMTHC, toxic metals, and other HAPs, which has important implications for climate and public health policy in the U.S. and globally.

The expansion of 3,5-bis(arylidene)-4-piperidone derivatives with heterocyclic compounds such as 1,3-thiazole should take into account this correlation. The synthesized aminothiazolylacetamido-substituted 3,5-bis(arylidene)-4-piperidone derivatives 3a–j were found to have GI50 values in the range of 0.15–0.28 μM against HeLa and HCT116 cancer cell lines. In silico docking studies confirmed that the proteasome inhibition mechanism involves a nucleophilic attack from the N-terminal threonine residue of the β-subunits to the C=O group of compounds. A C=O group of amide was able to interact with the NH group of the alanine residue and the 5g NH group of amino thiazole, along with an OH group of the serine residue. These results strongly suggest that the synthesized compounds could be a potential candidate inhibitor of the 20S proteasome. These molecules have the potential to be developed as cytotoxic and anticancer agents, as revealed by this study.