occidentalis at pH 5.0 and 40 °C with 4 h of incubation time after applying 1 M NaOH as a pretreatment step.Math anxiety (MA) is associated with negative thoughts and emotions when encountering mathematics, often resulting in under-performance on math tasks. One hypothesized mechanism by which MA affects performance is through anxiety-related increases in working memory (WM) load, diverting resources away from mathematical computations. We examined whether this effect is specific to WM or whether the impact of MA extends to an overall depletion of executive function (EF) resources. In this fMRI experiment, we manipulated two separate factors known to impact EF demands-task-switching (TS) and increased WM load-in order to evaluate how MA relates to behavioral performance and neural activity related to mathematical calculations. Relative to a difficult non-math task (analogies), we observed MA-related deficits in math performance and reduced neural activity in a network of regions in the brain associated with arithmetic processing. In response to TS demands, higher levels of math anxiety were associated with a pattern of avoidance and disengagement. When switching from the control task, high math anxiety (HMA) was associated with disengagement from math trials, speeding through these trials, and exhibiting reduced neural activity in regions associated with arithmetic processing. The effects of math anxiety and WM were most pronounced at the lowest levels of WM load. Overall, the results of this study indicate that the effects of MA are broader than previously demonstrated and provide further insight into how EF deficits in MA might impact recruitment of neural resources that are important for successful math computations.This study describes the effects of graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) on the acetoclastic, hydrogenotrophic and methylotrophic pathways of methanogenesis by an anaerobic consortium. The results showed that GO negatively affected the hydrogenotrophic and acetoclastic pathways at a concentration of 300 mg/L, causing a decrease of ~ 38% on the maximum specific methanogenic activity (MMA) with respect to the controls lacking GO. However, the presence of rGO (300 mg/L) promoted an improvement of the MMA (> 45%) achieved with all substrates, except for the hydrogenotrophic pathway, which was relatively insensitive to rGO. The presence of either rGO or GO enhanced the methylotrophic pathway and resulted in an increase of the MMA of up to 55%. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis revealed that GO underwent microbial reduction during the incubation period. Electrons derived from substrates oxidation were deviated from methanogenesis towards the reduction of GO, which may explain the MMA decreased observed in the presence of GO. BEZ235 cost Furthermore, XPS evidence indicated that the extent of GO reduction depended on the metabolic pathway triggered by a given substrate.INTRODUCTION Opening of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) by pulsed low intensity ultrasound has been developed during the last decade and is now recognized as a safe technique to transiently and repeatedly open the BBB. This non- or minimally invasive technique allows for a targeted and uniform dispersal of a wide range of therapeutic substances throughout the brain, including immune cells and antibodies. METHODS In this review article, we summarize pre-clinical studies that have used BBB-opening by pulsed low intensity ultrasound to enhance the delivery of immune therapeutics and effector cell populations, as well as several recent clinical studies that have been initiated. Based on this analysis, we propose immune therapeutic strategies that are most likely to benefit from this strategy. The literature review and trial data research were performed using Medline/Pubmed databases and clinical trial registry http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. The reference lists of all included articles were searched for additional studies. RESULTS A wide range of immune therapeutic agents, including small molecular weight drugs, antibodies or NK cells, have been safely and efficiently delivered to the brain with pulsed low intensity ultrasound in preclinical models, and both tumor control and increased survival have been demonstrated in different types of brain tumor models in rodents. Ultrasound-induced BBB disruption may also stimulate innate and cellular immune responses. CONCLUSIONS Ultrasound BBB opening has just recently entered clinical trials with encouraging results, and the association of this strategy with immune therapeutics creates a new field of brain tumor treatment.BACKGROUND The prevalence of myocardial ischemia is associated with anxiety. State and trait anxiety are more common in younger women compared to men, and high anxiety levels could affect hemodynamic reactivity during cardiac stress testing. The aim is to examine whether anxiety plays a role in gender differences in patients ≤ 65 and > 65 years in hemodynamic reactivity and ischemia during cardiac stress testing. METHODS AND RESULTS Included were 291 patients (66.8 ± 8.7 years, 45% women) with suspect ischemia undergoing myocardial perfusion single-photon emission computed tomography (MPI-SPECT). Primary outcomes were semi-quantitative summed difference score (SDS) and summed stress score (SSS), as continuous indicators of myocardial ischemia. Analyses were stratified by age. Trait anxiety was measured using a validated questionnaire (GAD-7) and state anxiety using facial expression analyses software. Overall, trait and state anxiety were not associated with the prevalence of ischemia (N = 107, 36%). A significant interaction was found between gender and trait anxiety in women ≤ 65 years for SDS (F(1,4) = 5.73, P = .019) and SSS (F(1,10) = 6.50, P = .012). This was not found for state anxiety. CONCLUSION SDS and SSS were significantly higher in women younger than 65 years with high trait anxiety. This interaction was not found in men and women over 65 years.Relational thinking has recently gained increasing prominence across academic disciplines in an attempt to understand complex phenomena in terms of constitutive processes and relations. Interdisciplinary fields of study, such as science and technology studies (STS), the environmental humanities, and the posthumanities, for example, have started to reformulate academic understanding of nature-cultures based on relational thinking. Although the sustainability crisis serves as a contemporary backdrop and in fact calls for such innovative forms of interdisciplinary scholarship, the field of sustainability research has not yet tapped into the rich possibilities offered by relational thinking. Against this background, the purpose of this paper is to identify relational approaches to ontology, epistemology, and ethics which are relevant to sustainability research. More specifically, we analyze how relational approaches have been understood and conceptualized across a broad range of disciplines and contexts relevant to sustainability to identify and harness connections and contributions for future sustainability-related work.