Children with congenital heart disease (CHD) can face neurodevelopmental, psychological, and behavioural difficulties beginning in infancy and continuing through adulthood. Despite overall improvements in medical care and a growing focus on neurodevelopmental screening and evaluation in recent years, neurodevelopmental disabilities, delays, and deficits remain a concern. The Cardiac Neurodevelopmental Outcome Collaborative was founded in 2016 with the goal of improving neurodevelopmental outcomes for individuals with CHD and pediatric heart disease. This paper describes the establishment of a centralised clinical data registry to standardize data collection across member institutions of the Cardiac Neurodevelopmental Outcome Collaborative. The goal of this registry is to foster collaboration for large, multi-centre research and quality improvement initiatives that will benefit individuals and families with CHD and improve their quality of life. We describe the components of the registry, initial research projects proposed using data from the registry, and lessons learned in the development of the registry.

Since the discovery of Legionnaires’ disease (LD), limited progress has been made in understanding the epidemiology of sporadic cases of LD. Outbreaks have confirmed that air conditioning and potable water systems can be sources of community-acquired LD. However, studying the association between water quality and LD incidence has been challenging due to the heterogeneity of water systems across large geographic areas. Furthermore, although seasonal trends in incidence have been linked to increased rainfall and temperatures, the large geographic units have posed similar difficulties. To address this issue, a retrospective ecological study was conducted in Washington, DC, from 2001 to 2019. The study identified aseasonal pattern of LD incidence, with the majority of cases occurring between June and December, peaking in August, October, and November. Increased temperature was found to be associated with LD incidence. In surface water, higher concentrations of manganese, iron, and strontium were positively associated with LD, while aluminum and orthophosphate showed a negative association. Intreatment plant water, higher concentrations of total organic carbon, aluminum, barium, and chlorine were positively associated with LD, while strontium, zinc, and orthophosphate showed a negative association. The results for orthophosphates and turbidity were inconclusive, indicating the need for further research.

Melanin pigments are central to colors and patterns in modern vertebrate integuments, which inform upon ecological and behavioral strategies like crypsis, aposematism, and sociosexual selection. Over the last decade, melanin has emerged as a valuable tool for predicting color in exceptionally preserved fossil feathers and subsequent testing of paleobiological hypotheses in long-extinct dinosaurs and birds. Yet much remains to be learned about melanin stability, diagenetic alterations to melanin chemistry, and their implications for “paleocolor reconstruction.” Pressure–temperature maturation experiments with modern feathers offer a way to examine these topics but have mostly been conducted in closed-system capsules or open-system aluminum foil. Both methods have operational limitations and do not consider the filtering effect of porous sediment matrices on thermally labile chemical groups versus stable ones during natural fossilization. We use sediment-encased maturation to resolve this issue and demonstrate replication of organic preservation of melanin highly comparable to compression fossils. Our experiments, coupled with time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry, show predictable volatilization of N/S-bearing molecules and increased melanin cross-linking with elevated temperatures. We also suggest that eumelanin is more stable compared with pheomelanin at higher temperatures, explaining why eumelanic colors (black, dark brown, iridescent) are better preserved in fossils than pheomelanic ones (reddish brown). Furthermore, we propose that proteins preferentially undergo hydrolysis more so than forming N-heterocycles in selectively open systems analogous to natural matrices. Thus, we conclude that melanin pigments and not diagenetically altered protein remnants are the key players in promoting fossilization of soft tissues like feathers.

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: 30,000,000 people in the U.S. have hearing loss, negatively impacting quality of life and work. Understanding auditory axon guidance for spiral ganglia neurons (SGNs) will aid development of new therapies. I study role of Eph/Ephrin signaling in mediating type II SGN turning events, and how planar cell polarity (PCP) signaling modulates this process. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: This quantitative study was conducted on Efna3 and Vangl2 null mice possessing Neurog1CreERT2 and R26RtdTomato mutations. Spontaneous Cre activity within the Neurogenin 1 CreERT2 line causes recombination and expression of fluorescent Rosa26 Reporter (R26R)tdTomato in a restricted number of SGNs, including type IIs. Together these lines permit SGN sparse labeling. Bulk-labeling was used for Efna3;Vangl2 double knockout (DKO) mutants. Immunostaining and confocal imaging was used to analyze dsRed in Efna3; Vangl2 and NF-200 in DKOs to quantify type II SGN turning. In combination, 3D rendering in Imaris software was used to quantify type II SGN turning, branching and other growth and navigation characteristics. 5-6 cochleae per genotype were analyzed and compared by t-test to wildtype controls. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: EPHRIN-A3 is expressed on the membranes of outer pillar and Deiters’cells of the cochlear epithelium. Efna3 nulls showed a small rise in type II SGNs incorrectly turning toward the apex at an error frequency of 16.9% compared to controls (n=6; p=0.05). Efna3 nulls had reduced branch number/fiber compared to controls, 4.14 and 7.22, respectively (n=129; p DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results suggest that Eph/Ephrin signaling acts parallel of PCP signaling to mediate type II SGN guidance during development. The clinical implications of these findings are that therapeutics targeting EPHRIN-A3 and/or VANGL2 in this pathway could stimulate new outer hair cell innervation by type II SGNs following auditory damage.

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: The goal of this proposal is to develop a technology that combines calcium imaging via confocal microscopy, and force measurement via monolayer stress microscopy to perform simultaneous quantitative measurements of agonist-induced Ca2+ and mechanical signals in HASMCs. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: The methods by which second messenger signals and changes in mechanical forces determine specific physiological responses are complex. Recent studies point to the importance of temporal and spatial encoding in determining signal specificity. Hence, approaches that probe both chemical and mechanical signals are needed. We combine hyperspectral imaging for second messenger signal measurements, monolayer stress microscopy for mechanical force measurements, and S8 analysis software for quantifying localized signals. Imaging was performed using an excitation-scanning hyperspectral microscope. Hyperspectral images were unmixed to identify signals from fluorescent labels and microparticles. Images were analyzed to quantify localized force dynamics through monolayer stress microscopy. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Results indicate that localized and transient cellular signals can be quantified and mapped within cell populations. Importantly, these results establish a method for simultaneous interrogation of cellular signals and mechanical forces that may play synergistic roles in regulating downstream cellular physiology in confluent monolayers. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: We will measure the distribution of chemical and mechanical signals within cells, providing insight into the dynamics of cell signaling. Studies will have implication in the understanding of infections, drug delivery in which non-uniform distributions of drugs are a certainty, and in understanding coordinated responses in cellular systems.

We suggest that as people move to construe robots as social agents, interact with them, and treat them as capable of social ties, they might develop (close) relationships with them. We then ask what kind of relationships can people form with bots, what functions can bots fulfill, and what are the societal and moral implications of such relationships.

An emergent volume electron microscopy technique called cryogenic serial plasma focused ion beam milling scanning electron microscopy (pFIB/SEM) can decipher complex biological structures by building a three-dimensional picture of biological samples at mesoscale resolution. This is achieved by collecting consecutive SEM images after successive rounds of FIB milling that expose a new surface after each milling step. Due to instrumental limitations, some image processing is necessary before 3D visualization and analysis of the data is possible. SEM images are affected by noise, drift, and charging effects, that can make precise 3D reconstruction of biological features difficult. This article presents Okapi-EM, an open-source napari plugin developed to process and analyze cryogenic serial pFIB/SEM images. Okapi-EM enables automated image registration of slices, evaluation of image quality metrics specific to pFIB-SEM imaging, and mitigation of charging artifacts. Implementation of Okapi-EM within the napari framework ensures that the tools are both user- and developer-friendly, through provision of a graphical user interface and access to Python programming.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic highlighted the lack of agreement regarding the definition of aerosol-generating procedures and potential risk to healthcare personnel. We convened a group of Massachusetts healthcare epidemiologists to develop consensus through expert opinion in an area where broader guidance was lacking at the time.

Often to the detriment of human decision making, people are prone to an impact bias when making affective forecasts, overestimating the emotional consequences of future events. The cognitive processes underlying the impact bias, and methods for correcting it, have been debated and warrant further exploration. In the present investigation, we examined both individual differences and contextual variables associated with cognitive processing in affective forecasting for an election. Results showed that the perceived importance of the event and working memory capacity were both associated with an increased impact bias for some participants, whereas retrieval interference had no relationship with bias. Additionally, an experimental manipulation effectively reduced biased forecasts, particularly among participants who were most distracted thinking about peripheral life events. These findings have theoretical implications for understanding the impact bias, highlight the importance of individual differences in affective forecasting, and have ramifications for future decision making research. The possible functional role of the impact bias is discussed within the context of evolutionary psychology.

Poultry manure (PM) has been shown to boost crop productivity. However, little is known about its favorable interactions with wood biochar (B) on sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) growth and yield, and soil qualities. Hence, a 2-year field trial was conducted in the southwest Nigeria at two locations (Owo – site A and Obasooto – site B) to co-apply PM and wood B as soil amendments to boost sweet potato productivity and soil quality. The experiment consisted of a 3 × 4 factorial layout with three replications. PM and B significantly reduced soil bulk density and improved porosity and moisture content with their rate of application when compared to the control. As PM and B applications increased from 0 to 10.0 t ha−1 and 0 to 30.0 t ha−1, respectively, soil chemical properties and sweet potato growth and tuber yield increased. Co-application of 10.0 t ha−1 PM and 30.0 t ha−1 B increased tuber yield by 220% compared to treatments without PM or B. Significant synergistic interactions between PM and B were observed for all parameters. In comparison with other treatments, co-applying PM and B to sweet potato soils is a viable sustainable option for increasing sweet potato productivity and soil sustainability.