Titanium has a long history of clinical use, but the naturally forming oxide is not ideal for bacterial resistance. Anodization processes can modify the crystallinity, surface topography, and surface chemistry of titanium oxides. Anatase, rutile, and mixed phase oxides are known to exhibit photocatalytic activity (PCA)-driven bacterial resistance under UVA irradiation. Silver additions are reported to enhance PCA and reduce bacterial attachment. This study investigated the effects of silver-doping additions to three established anodization processes. Silver doping showed no significant influence on oxide crystallinity, surface topography, or surface wettability. Oxides from a sulfuric acid anodization process exhibited significantly enhanced PCA after silver doping, but silver-doped oxides produced from phosphoric-acid-containing electrolytes did not. Staphylococcus aureus attachment was also assessed under dark and UVA-irradiated conditions on each oxide. Each oxide exhibited a photocatalytic antimicrobial effect as indicated by significantly decreased bacterial attachment under UVA irradiation compared to dark conditions. However, only the phosphorus-doped mixed anatase and rutile phase oxide exhibited an additional significant reduction in bacteria attachment under UVA irradiation as a result of silver doping. The antimicrobial success of this oxide was attributed to the combination of the mixed phase oxide and higher silver-doping uptake levels.

The hippocampus is hyperactive in a mouse model for Rett syndrome, and such atypically heightened activity propagates to the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) through a monosynaptic projection, resulting in altered mPFC activity and social memory deficits. Here, we used fiber photometry of population Ca ²⁺ signals as surrogates of neuronal activity, and show that atypically heightened inhibition from pyramidal neuron (PYR)-targeting GABAergic parvalbumin interneurons, and impaired PYR activity in the mPFC of Rett mice during social interactions, driving their deficit in social memory.

Social memory impairments in Mecp2 knockout (KO) mice result from altered neuronal activity in the monosynaptic projection from the ventral hippocampus (vHIP) to the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). The hippocampal network is hyperactive in this model for Rett syndrome, and such atypically heightened neuronal activity propagates to the mPFC through this monosynaptic projection, resulting in altered mPFC network activity and social memory deficits. However, the underlying mechanism of cellular dysfunction within this projection between vHIP pyramidal neurons (PYR) and mPFC PYRs and parvalbumin interneurons (PV-IN) resulting in social memory impairments in Mecp2 KO mice has yet to be elucidated. We confirmed social memory (but not sociability ) deficits in Mecp2 KO mice using a new 4-chamber social memory arena, designed to minimize the impact of the tethering to optical fibers required for simultaneous in vivo fiber photometry of Ca ²⁺ -sensor signals during social interactions. mPFC PYRs of wildtype (WT) mice showed increases in Ca ²⁺ signal amplitude during explorations of a novel toy mouse and interactions with both familiar and novel mice, while PYRs of Mecp2 KO mice showed smaller Ca ²⁺ signals during interactions only with live mice. On the other hand, mPFC PV-INs of Mecp2 KO mice showed larger Ca ²⁺ signals during interactions with a familiar cage-mate compared to those signals in PYRs, a difference absent in the WT mice. These observations suggest atypically heightened inhibition and impaired excitation in the mPFC network of Mecp2 KO mice during social interactions, potentially driving their deficit in social memory.

Yttrium-90 (90Y) is typically quantified using radionuclide calibrators, which are inefficient for pure beta-particle emitters. This study evaluated an air-communicating well-type ionization chamber as an alternative. A radionuclide calibrator established the baseline, and multiple air-communicating well chambers were tested using 90Y solutions in syringe and 10R vial geometries to determine calibration coefficients. All chambers showed high response, unaffected by wall material. Ionization currents primarily resulted from beta particles rather than Bremsstrahlung. These results suggest air-communicating chambers are viable for a wide range of difficult-to-measure radionuclides.