ASU Scholarship Showcase

Illicit psychostimulant addiction remains a significant problem worldwide, despite decades of research into the neural underpinnings and various treatment approaches. The purpose of this review is to provide a succinct overview of the neurocircuitry involved in drug addiction, as well as the acute and chronic effects of cocaine and amphetamines within this circuitry in humans. Investigational pharmacological treatments for illicit psychostimulant addiction are also reviewed. Our current knowledge base clearly demonstrates that illicit psychostimulants produce lasting adaptive neural and behavioral changes that contribute to the progression and maintenance of addiction. However, attempts at generating pharmacological treatments for psychostimulant addiction have historically focused on intervening at the level of the acute effects of these drugs. The lack of approved pharmacological treatments for psychostimulant addiction highlights the need for new treatment strategies, especially those that prevent or ameliorate the adaptive neural, cognitive, and behavioral changes caused by chronic use of this class of illicit drugs.

This study dealt with emotional responses elicited by certain products, which helped to understand the attributes of the product leading to emotional responses. Emotional Design is a way of design that is using emotions generated by people as reference and measurement. Making good use of emotional design could let the user discover resonance in the interaction between user and product, which could help the product to be more attractive to users. This research proposes to apply qualitative research method to uncover the secrets of emotional bonds between users and products This study also offered an useful tool to examine the strength and weakness of a certain product from perspective of emotion, and the insights could help designers to refine the product to become emotional attractive, thus create better user experience and bigger opportunity for the product on the market in the future.

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a risk factor for tobacco use and dependence. This study examines the responsiveness to nicotine of an adolescent model of ADHD, the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR). The conditioned place preference (CPP) procedure was used to assess nicotine-induced locomotion and conditioned reward in SHR and the Wistar Kyoto (WKY) control strain over a range of nicotine doses (0.0, 0.1, 0.3 and 0.6 mg/kg). Prior to conditioning, SHRs were more active and less biased toward one side of the CPP chamber than WKY rats. Following conditioning, SHRs developed CPP to the highest dose of nicotine (0.6 mg/kg), whereas WKYs did not develop CPP to any nicotine dose tested. During conditioning, SHRs displayed greater locomotor activity in the nicotine-paired compartment than in the saline-paired compartment across conditioning trials. SHRs that received nicotine (0.1, 0.3, 0.6 mg/kg) in the nicotine-paired compartment showed an increase in locomotor activity between conditioning trials. Nicotine did not significantly affect WKY locomotor activity. These findings suggest that the SHR strain is a suitable model for studying ADHD-related nicotine use and dependence, but highlights potential limitations of the WKY control strain and the CPP procedure for modeling ADHD-related nicotine reward.

The image of “Shostakovich” and the relationships surrounding it in the West during the Cold War can be viewed from several angles. Selected Cold War encounters between the United States and the Soviet Union involving Shostakovich’s music—especially the 1959 New York Philharmonic tour to the USSR—offer insight into three perspectives on Shostakovich symphonies in the Cold War: (1) the direct, (2) the implicit, and (3) the micro/intimate. This heuristic hones our understanding of the various types of relationships cultivated with music during the Cold War, while also widening the discussion of Shostakovich’s symbolic presentation during the conflict.

Positive allosteric modulators (PAMs) of α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptors are a diverse class of compounds that increase fast excitatory transmission in the brain. AMPA PAMs have been shown to facilitate long-term potentiation, strengthen communication between various cortical and subcortical regions, and some of these compounds increase the production and release of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in an activity-dependent manner. Through these mechanisms, AMPA PAMs have shown promise as broad spectrum pharmacotherapeutics in preclinical and clinical studies for various neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders. In recent years, a small collection of preclinical animal studies has also shown that AMPA PAMs may have potential as pharmacotherapeutic adjuncts to extinction-based or cue-exposure therapies for the treatment of drug addiction. The present paper will review this preclinical literature, discuss novel data collected in our laboratory, and recommend future research directions for the possible development of AMPA PAMs as anti-addiction medications.

An urban forest assessment is essential for developing a baseline from which to measure changes and trends. The most precise way to assess urban forests is to measure and record every tree on a site, but although this may work well for relatively small populations (e.g., street trees, small parks), it is prohibitively expensive for large tree populations. Thus, random sampling offers a cost-effective way to assess urban forest structure and the associated ecosystem services for large-scale assessments. The methodology applied to assess ecosystem services in this study can also be used to assess the ecosystem services provided by vacant land in other urban contexts and improve urban forest policies, planning, and the management of vacant land. The study’s findings support the inclusion of trees on vacant land and contribute to a new vision of vacant land as a valuable ecological resource by demonstrating how green infrastructure can be used to enhance ecosystem health and promote a better quality of life for city residents.

Communicating climate risks is crucial when engaging the public to support climate action planning and addressing climate justice. How does evidence-based communication influence local residents’ risk perception and potential behavior change in support of climate planning? Built upon our previous study of Climate Justice maps illustrating high scores of both social and ecological vulnerability in Michigan’s Huron River watershed, USA, a quasi-experiment was conducted to examine the effects of Climate Justice mapping intervention on residents’ perceptions and preparedness for climate change associated hazards in Michigan. Two groups were compared: residents in Climate Justice areas with high social and ecological vulnerability scores in the watershed (n=76) and residents in comparison areas in Michigan (n=69). Measurements for risk perception include perceived exposure, sensitivity, and adaptability to hazards. Results indicate that risk information has a significant effect on perceived sensitivity and level of preparedness for future climate extremes among participants living in Climate Justice areas. Findings highlight the value of integrating scientific risk assessment information in risk communication to align calculated and perceived risks. This study suggests effective risk communication can influence local support of climate action plans and implementation of strategies that address climate justice and achieve social sustainability in local communities.

The probiotic effects of Lactobacillus reuteri have been speculated to partly depend on its capacity to produce the antimicrobial substance reuterin during the reduction of glycerol in the gut. In this study, the potential of this process to protect human intestinal epithelial cells against infection with Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium was investigated. We used a three-dimensional (3-D) organotypic model of human colonic epithelium that was previously validated and applied to study interactions between S. Typhimurium and the intestinal epithelium that lead to enteric salmonellosis. Using this model system, we show that L. reuteri protects the intestinal cells against the early stages of Salmonella infection and that this effect is significantly increased when L. reuteri is stimulated to produce reuterin from glycerol. More specifically, the reuterin-containing ferment of L. reuteri caused a reduction in Salmonella adherence and invasion (1 log unit), and intracellular survival (2 log units). In contrast, the L. reuteri ferment without reuterin stimulated growth of the intracellular Salmonella population with 1 log unit. The short-term exposure to reuterin or the reuterin-containing ferment had no observed negative impact on intestinal epithelial cell health. However, long-term exposure (24 h) induced a complete loss of cell-cell contact within the epithelial aggregates and compromised cell viability. Collectively, these results shed light on a potential role for reuterin in inhibiting Salmonella-induced intestinal infections and may support the combined application of glycerol and L. reuteri. While future in vitro and in vivo studies of reuterin on intestinal health should fine-tune our understanding of the mechanistic effects, in particular in the presence of a complex gut microbiota, this the first report of a reuterin effect on the enteric infection process in any mammalian cell type.

Extra-intestinal pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC), including avian pathogenic E. coli (APEC), pose a considerable threat to both human and animal health, with illness causing substantial economic loss. APEC strain χ7122 (O78∶K80∶H9), containing three large plasmids [pChi7122-1 (IncFIB/FIIA-FIC), pChi7122-2 (IncFII), and pChi7122-3 (IncI₂)]; and a small plasmid pChi7122-4 (ColE2-like), has been used for many years as a model strain to study the molecular mechanisms of ExPEC pathogenicity and zoonotic potential. We previously sequenced and characterized the plasmid pChi7122-1 and determined its importance in systemic APEC infection; however the roles of the other pChi7122 plasmids were still ambiguous. Herein we present the sequence of the remaining pChi7122 plasmids, confirming that pChi7122-2 and pChi7122-3 encode an ABC iron transport system (eitABCD) and a putative type IV fimbriae respectively, whereas pChi7122-4 is a cryptic plasmid. New features were also identified, including a gene cluster on pChi7122-2 that is not present in other E. coli strains but is found in Salmonella serovars and is predicted to encode the sugars catabolic pathways. In vitro evaluation of the APEC χ7122 derivative strains with the three large plasmids, either individually or in combinations, provided new insights into the role of plasmids in biofilm formation, bile and acid tolerance, and the interaction of E. coli strains with 3-D cultures of intestinal epithelial cells. In this study, we show that the nature and combinations of plasmids, as well as the background of the host strains, have an effect on these phenomena. Our data reveal new insights into the role of extra-chromosomal sequences in fitness and diversity of ExPEC in their phenotypes.

The group I metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluR1a and mGluR5) are important modulators of neuronal structure and function. Although these receptors share common signaling pathways, they are capable of having distinct effects on cellular plasticity. We investigated the individual effects of mGluR1a or mGluR5 activation on dendritic spine density in medium spiny neurons in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), which has become relevant with the potential use of group I mGluR based therapeutics in the treatment of drug addiction. We found that systemic administration of mGluR subtype-specific positive allosteric modulators had opposite effects on dendritic spine densities. Specifically, mGluR5 positive modulation decreased dendritic spine densities in the NAc shell and core, but was without effect in the dorsal striatum, whereas increased spine densities in the NAc were observed with mGluR1a positive modulation. Additionally, direct activation of mGluR5 via CHPG administration into the NAc also decreased the density of dendritic spines. These data provide insight on the ability of group I mGluRs to induce structural plasticity in the NAc and demonstrate that the group I mGluRs are capable of producing not just distinct, but opposing, effects on dendritic spine density.