Objectives/Goals: Neuromodulation strategies like transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) can target specific neural circuits underlying particular psychiatric symptoms, potentially 1) enhancing understanding of mechanisms of illness and recovery and 2) acting as novel therapeutics. These feasibility studies lay foundation for a study of major depression. Methods/Study Population: Four healthy volunteers completed structural and functional MRI (fMRI). fMRI included a trait-adjective task, a negative self-referential processing task known to activate VMPFC, which is known to be abnormal in major depression. During the task, participants respond on a task pad whether they feel that each of a series of displayed adjectives (positive, negative, or neutral) applies to them. Three participants then participated in a simulated image-guided TMS session using their MRI data to target their VMPFC. Three-dimensional tracking of the participant’s head and the TMS coil was used to position the coil for peak stimulation of the targeted brain region. Results/Anticipated Results: Our team collected quality neural and behavioral data on the fMRI task; participants reported a tolerable experience. Simulated neuronavigated TMS showed feasibility and tolerability of positioning the device to stimulate VMPFC. The fMRI task activated the VMPFC as predicted. The MRI and TMS protocols were replicable and tolerable. These procedures can now be used experimentally by our team with confidence to test our hypothesis that targeting the VMPFC within the brain’s default-mode network may normalize aberrant VMPFC activity seen in major depression, thereby improving excessive negative self-referential processing. Discussion/Significance of Impact: This project lays essential groundwork for my K12 project, “Targeting Negative-Self Referential Processing in Depression with TMS,” a longitudinal neuroimaging and behavioral study using these methods in the study population of people with major depression.

High prevalence of long COVID symptoms has emerged as a significant public health concern. This study investigated the associations between three doses of COVID-19 vaccines and the presence of any and ≥3 types of long COVID symptoms among people with a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Hong Kong, China. This is a secondary analysis of a cross-sectional online survey among Hong Kong adult residents conducted between June and August 2022. This analysis was based on a sub-sample of 1,542 participants with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection during the fifth wave of COVID-19 outbreak in Hong Kong (December 2021 to April 2022). Among the participants, 40.9% and 16.1% self-reported having any and ≥3 types of long COVID symptoms, respectively. After adjusting for significant variables related to sociodemographic characteristics, health conditions and lifestyles, and SARS-CoV-2 infection, receiving at least three doses of COVID-19 vaccines was associated with lower odds of reporting any long COVID symptoms comparing to receiving two doses (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 0.69, 95% CI: 0.54, 0.87, P = .002). Three doses of inactivated and mRNA vaccines had similar protective effects against long COVID symptoms. It is important to strengthen the coverage of COVID-19 vaccination booster doses, even in the post-pandemic era.

The present study aimed to assess the longitudinal associations of coffee and tea consumption with metabolic syndrome and its component conditions in a group of Australian older adults who participated in the Blue Mountains Eye Study (n 2554, mean age: 64 years, 43 % female). Participants’ coffee and tea intake were measured using a validated food frequency questionnaire. Hazard ratios (HRs) over a 10-year period were estimated using Cox hazard regression models adjusting for lifestyle factors. Results showed that coffee consumption was not associated with the incidence of metabolic syndrome, high fasting glucose, high triglycerides, central obesity, high blood pressure and low HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C). Tea consumption was not associated with incidence of metabolic syndrome and the component conditions except for the risk of having low HDL-C, in which a nominally inverse association was observed (multivariate-adjusted HR at 2–3 cups/d: 0⋅48, 95 % CI 0⋅26, 0⋅87, P = 0⋅016; 4 cups/d or more: 0⋅50, 95 % CI 0⋅27, 0⋅93, P = 0⋅029). After stratifying for fruit consumption (Pinteraction between tea and fruit = 0⋅007), consuming four cups of tea per day was nominally associated with lower incidence of metabolic syndrome among those with high fruit consumption (multivariable-adjusted HR: 0⋅44, 95 % CI 0⋅20, 0⋅93, P = 0⋅033). Our results did not support a significant association between tea and coffee consumption and metabolic syndrome. Tea consumption may be associated with a lower risk of having low HDL-C, while high tea and fruit consumption together may be associated with a lower risk of developing metabolic syndrome.

South-east Asia's diverse coastal wetlands, which span natural mudflats and mangroves to man-made salt pans, offer critical habitat for many migratory waterbird species in the East Asian–Australasian Flyway. Species dependent on these wetlands include nearly the entire population of the Critically Endangered spoon-billed sandpiper Calidris pygmaea and the Endangered spotted greenshank Tringa guttifer, and significant populations of several other globally threatened and declining species. Presently, more than 50 coastal Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) in the region (7.4% of all South-east Asian IBAs) support at least one threatened migratory species. However, recent studies continue to reveal major knowledge gaps on the distribution of migratory waterbirds and important wetland sites along South-east Asia's vast coastline, including undiscovered and potential IBAs. Alongside this, there are critical gaps in the representation of coastal wetlands across the protected area networks of many countries in this region (e.g. Viet Nam, Indonesia, Malaysia), hindering effective conservation. Although a better understanding of the value of coastal wetlands to people and their importance to migratory species is necessary, governments and other stakeholders need to do more to strengthen the conservation of these ecosystems by improving protected area coverage, habitat restoration, and coastal governance and management. This must be underpinned by the judicious use of evidence-based approaches, including satellite-tracking of migratory birds, ecological research and ground surveys.

X/γ-rays have many potential applications in laboratory astrophysics and particle physics. Although several methods have been proposed for generating electron, positron, and X/γ-photon beams with angular momentum (AM), the generation of ultra-intense brilliant γ-rays is still challenging. Here, we present an all-optical scheme to generate a high-energy γ-photon beam with large beam angular momentum (BAM), small divergence, and high brilliance. In the first stage, a circularly polarized laser pulse with intensity of 1022 W/cm2 irradiates a micro-channel target, drags out electrons from the channel wall, and accelerates them to high energies via the longitudinal electric fields. During the process, the laser transfers its spin angular momentum (SAM) to the electrons’ orbital angular momentum (OAM). In the second stage, the drive pulse is reflected by the attached fan-foil and a vortex laser pulse is thus formed. In the third stage, the energetic electrons collide head-on with the reflected vortex pulse and transfer their AM to the γ-photons via nonlinear Compton scattering. Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show that the peak brilliance of the γ-ray beam is $\sim 1{0}^{22}$ photons·s–1·mm–2·mrad–2 per 0.1% bandwidth at 1 MeV with a peak instantaneous power of 25 TW and averaged BAM of $1{0}^6\hslash$/photon. The AM conversion efficiency from laser to the γ-photons is unprecedentedly 0.67%.

Despite significant advances in various special areas in the study of language, the question of what the basic nature of the theory of a language is remains controversial and unclear. In this paper we propose to rectify this situation and argue for a general perspective — one which only a few theorists have explicitly endorsed — by showing that it is at once theoretically illuminating and empirically plausible. This perspective consists of the following claims: (1) that the most basic theory of a language is a theory of communication viz., of understanding and production; (2) that a theory of communication in this sense presupposes a theory of thought; (3) that a grammar is most fruitfully thought of as (in a suitable sense) a component of a theory of communication; and (4) that so-called theories of meaning form a rather heterogeneous group, some of which being fragments of grammars, others being theories of thought, and still others being what are sometimes referred to as theories of reference. We shall be particularly concerned with (1) and (3) here.

The concurrent ageing of parental care-givers and people with intellectual disabilities is driving academic and social welfare concern for a post-parental care ‘crisis’. The ‘crisis’ typically pertains to a transition from primary care in the family home precipitated by the death or incapacity of older parents without a pre-planned pathway to post-parental care. This crisis is amplified in rural communities given low service engagement with families and a deficit of disability-supported accommodation and services. Academics, service providers and policy makers have responded through a problematisation of post-parental care planning. This focus continues to normalise informal care, burdens families with responsibility for planning, and diverts attention from structural deficits in the socio-political carescape. This paper attends to the Australian policy landscape in which long-term care-giving for families living with intellectual disability is enmeshed. It contends that the dyadic and didactic model of informal long-term care has profound implications for social service support and post-parental care planning. Problematisation of carers’ ‘need’ to relinquish primary care and for people with intellectual disabilities to transition to independent and supported living is necessary to unsettle the dominant policy and service discourse around the provision of services to sustain informal care-giving. Innovation is then needed to forge pathways of support for families in rural communities planning on continuing, transitioning and transforming care arrangements across the lifespan.

Forest carbon sequestration plays an important role in reducing the build-up of greenhouse gases that are known to contribute to global climate change. However, private landowners will supply less carbon sequestration than would be socially desirable if they are unable to capture the economic value of sequestration. We examine the viability of offering landowners property tax subsidies for forest carbon sequestration (referred to as a ‘tax-based subsidy approach’). Waiving property taxes on forestland provides incentives for landowners to afforest non-forested land and/or sustain forests that are at risk of deforestation. We focus on 17 Tennessee counties and one Kentucky county, constituting one of 179 Bureau of Economic Analysis areas in the United States, as a case study. Higher forestland net return from waiving property taxes increases the share of forestland in the 18 counties, which in turn increases the accumulation of carbon in the forest ecosystem, suggesting that this is a viable approach. The annualized county-level cost of supplying forest carbon sequestration using a tax-based subsidy ranges between US$15.56 and US$563.58 per carbon tonne across the 18 counties. Relevant government agencies can use these estimates to target selected counties for more cost-effective adoption of the county-level tax-based subsidy approach.

A goosegrass biotype with suspected resistance to acetyl-CoA carboxylase(ACCase) inhibitors was identified in Georgia. The objectives of thisresearch were to evaluate the resistance level of this biotype to ACCaseinhibitors, efficacy of various herbicide mechanisms of action for control,and the physiological and molecular basis of resistance. In greenhouseexperiments, the rate of diclofop-methyl that reduced dry shoot biomass 50% (SR50) from the nontreated for the resistant (R) andsusceptible (S) biotypes measured 4,100 and 221 g ai ha−1,respectively. The SR50 for sethoxydim measured 615 and 143 g ai ha−1 for the R and S biotype, respectively. The R biotype wascross resistant to clethodim, fenoxaprop, and fluazifop. The R and Sbiotypes were equally susceptible to foramsulfuron, glyphosate, monosodiummethylarsenate (MSMA), and topramezone. In laboratory experiments, the twobiotypes had similar foliar absorption of 14C-diclofop-methyl.Both biotypes metabolized 14C-diclofop-methyl to diclofop acidand a polar conjugate, but the R biotype averaged ∼2 times greatermetabolism than the S biotype. Gene sequencing revealed an Asp-2078-Glysubstitution in the ACCase of the R biotype that has previously conferredresistance to ACCase inhibitors. A second mutation was identified in the Rbiotype that yielded a Thr-1805-Ser substitution that has been previouslyreported, but is not associated with ACCase resistance in other species.Thus, the Asp-2078-Gly substitution is the basis for resistance to ACCaseinhibitors for the R biotype. This is the first report of ACCase-inhibitorresistance in goosegrass from the United States and from a turfgrasssystem.

Bermudagrass and goosegrass are problematic weeds with limited herbicidesavailable for POST control in creeping bentgrass. Metamifop effectivelycontrols these weeds with greater selectivity in cool-season grasses thanother ACCase inhibitors. The objectives of this research were to determinethe physiological basis for metamifop selectivity in turfgrasses. Ingreenhouse experiments, metamifop rate required to reduce shoot biomass 50%from the nontreated (GR50) at 4 wk after treatment was >6,400, 2,166, and 53 g ai ha−1 for creeping bentgrass, Kentuckybluegrass, and goosegrass, respectively. The GR50 forbermudagrass treated with diclofop-methyl or metamifop was 2,850 and 60 g ha−1, respectively. In laboratory experiments, peak absorptionof 14C-metamifop was reached at 48, 72, and 96 h after treatment(HAT) for goosegrass, creeping bentgrass and Kentucky bluegrass,respectively. Grasses translocated < 10% of the absorbed radioactivityout of the treated leaf at 96 HAT, but creeping bentgrass translocated threetimes more radioactivity than goosegrass and Kentucky bluegrass. Creepingbentgrass, Kentucky bluegrass, and goosegrass metabolized 16, 14, and 25% of 14C-metamifop after 96 h, respectively. Goosegrass had aroundtwo times greater levels of a metabolite at retention factor 0.45 thancreeping bentgrass and Kentucky bluegrass. The concentration of metamifoprequired to inhibit isolated ACCase enzymes 50% from the nontreated (I50) measured > 100, > 100, and 38 μM for creepingbentgrass, Kentucky bluegrass, and goosegrass, respectively. In otherexperiments, foliar absorption of 14C-metamifop in bermudagrasswas similar to 14C-diclofop-methyl. Bermudagrass metabolized 23and 60% of the absorbed 14C-diclofop-methyl to diclofop acid anda polar conjugate after 96 h, respectively, but only 14% of14C-metamifop was metabolized. Isolated ACCase was equallysusceptible to inhibition by diclofop acid and metamifop (I50 =0.7 μM), suggesting degradation rate is associated with bermudagrasstolerance levels to these herbicides. Overall, the physiological basis formetamifop selectivity in turfgrass is differential levels of target siteinhibition.

Metal oxide-based transistors can be fabricated by low-cost, large-area solution processing methods, but involve a trade-off between low processing temperature, facile charge transport and high-capacitance/low-voltage transistor gates. We achieve these simultaneously by fabricating zinc oxide and sodium-incorporated alumina (SA) thin films with temperature not exceeding 200 to 250 °C using aqueous and combustion precursors, respectively. X-ray reflectivity shows a compositionally distinct SA boundary layer forming near the substrate and that a portion of the SA is chemically removed during the subsequent semiconductor deposition. Improved etch resistance and reduced dielectric leakage was obtained when (3-glycidoxypropyl) trimethoxysilane was included in the SA precursor.