Four agricultural workers in Washington state have tested positive for bird flu, the first human cases of H5N1 virus to be reported in the state. Washington is the sixth state to report a human infection of avian flu.

Physicists have developed a deep understanding of the fundamental laws of nature through careful observations, experiments, and precise measurements. However, what if artificial intelligence (AI) could uncover governing laws of […]

The post Archetype AI’s Newton Model Masters Physics From Raw Data appeared first on HPCwire.

Citizen mathematicians are using GPUs to find the highest prime numbers based on specific computing formulas. As it turns out, it is also a good way to stress test GPUs […]

The post GPUs Help Establish New Milestone in Mathematics appeared first on HPCwire.

The fate of fictional Montana Gov. John Dutton -- played by Kevin Costner -- has finally been disclosed in the Season 5B premiere of "Yellowstone" that aired on Paramount Sunday night.

Country music star Blake Shelton and writer-producer Taylor Sheridan are working on a new reality competition series for CBS called "The Road."

Kevin Costner says he didn't know about his "Yellowstone" character John Dutton's death until after the episode aired on Sunday.

What if solving poverty, caring for nature and fostering well-being were the ultimate goals of the economy, instead of growth for its own sake? Environmentalist and economist Gaya Herrington proposes a shift in thinking from "never enough" to "enough for each," asking us to contemplate whether the end of exponential growth on a finite planet will come by design — or disaster.

Blues need some energy, scoring; Joseph provides both, anxious to get back into lineup after missing six games with a lower-body injury

Emma Lingan and Eric Cruikshank discuss Washington Capitals center Dylan Strome, the Bruins and Red Wings coaches, Kirill Kaprizov's next contract and much more.

86 Sergei Bobrovsky, 85 Cole Perfetti, and 85 Alexandar Goergiev among new cards

The Pittsburgh Penguins traded Lars Eller to the Washington Capitals for two draft picks after a blowout loss dropped them to 6-9-2 on the season.

Washington sent a 2025 fifth-round pick and a 2027 third-round pick to Pittsburgh on Tuesday for Eller.

Washington state has a small pot of money to aid educational technology, and it is mainly allocated between two major initiatives: the nine educational technology support centers the state runs and a K-20 telecommunications network that serves K-12 schools and colleges and universities in the state.

The supreme court put an end to five years of legal wrangling that landed the state's public school system with millions more dollars from the state and teachers with a pay raise.

Gov. Gregoire, addressing state legislators, gave herself high marks for overcoming budgetary difficulties and “creating a world-class, learner-focused, seamless education system that gives our kids a chance to get a good job” since taking office in 2005.

Teachers are still on strike in three Washington school districts, and their fights with the districts are escalating.

Members of 30 different state and national advocacy groups and unions are meeting in Washington, D.C., for the Grassroots Assembly for Child Care and Early Education.

The state's highest court ruled that Washington's charter school law is mostly constitutional, and that charter schools can continue to receive public money.

Teachers in seven districts are striking for higher pay—and Seattle may be next.

The state’s supreme court ended a yearslong fight over K-12 funding earlier this summer, but in districts across the state the battles have continued and tensions remain.

We've got information and images a-plenty, if we want to look at states which might have some educational moxie. Teachers are now talking to each other across district and state boundaries, sharing information about how education policy is impacting their daily practice, where market-based reforms h

Unless students are randomly assigned to teachers, it's unfair to label teachers.

DeVos slammed for remarks on HBCU's, a new Senate measure could overturn Obama-era ESSA rules on accountability, and more.

Washington lawmakers last week reached a deal to lift the state's "levy lid," blunting tighter limits on voter-approved local taxes for schools that were set to take effect this year. Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, was expected to sign the legislation that Republicans had criticized.

This Quality Counts 2019 Highlights Report captures all the data you need to assess your state's performance on key educational outcomes.

This Quality Counts 2020 Highlights Report captures all the data you need to assess your state's performance on key educational outcomes.

Thousands of Washington’s kindergartners haven’t shown up or logged in to their public schools this year.

LSU women's basketball bucked a bit of a slow start to blowout Charleston Southern Tuesday morning.

Mitchell G. Spring
Oct 9, 2024; 44:e0602242024-e0602242024
BehavioralSystemsCognitive

Serotonin modulates diverse phenotypes and functions including depressive, aggressive, impulsive, and feeding behaviors, all of which have reward-related components. To date, research has focused on understanding these effects by measuring and manipulating dorsal raphe serotonin neurons and using single-receptor approaches. These studies have led to a better understanding of the heterogeneity of serotonin actions on behavior; however, they leave open many questions about the timing and location of serotonin's actions modulating the neural circuits that drive these behaviors. Recent advances in genetically encoded fluorescent biosensors, including the GPCR activation-based sensor for serotonin (GRAB-5-HT), enable the measurement of serotonin release in mice on a timescale compatible with a single rewarding event without corelease confounds. Given substantial evidence from slice electrophysiology experiments showing that serotonin influences neural activity of the striatal circuitry, and the known role of the dorsal medial striatal (DMS) in reward-directed behavior, we focused on understanding the parameters and timing that govern serotonin release in the DMS in the context of reward consumption, external reward value, internal state, and cued reward. Overall, we found that serotonin release is associated with each of these and encodes reward anticipation, value, approach, and consumption in the DMS.

Abnormal neuronal morphological features, such as dendrite branching, axonal branching, and spine density, are thought to contribute to the symptoms of depression and anxiety. However, the role and molecular mechanisms of aberrant neuronal morphology in the regulation of mood disorders remain poorly characterized. Here, we show that neuritin, an activity-dependent protein, regulates the axonal morphology of serotonin neurons. Male neuritin knock-out (KO) mice harbored impaired axonal branches of serotonin neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex and basolateral region of the amygdala (BLA), and male neuritin KO mice exhibited depressive and anxiety-like behaviors. We also observed that the expression of neuritin was decreased by unpredictable chronic stress in the male mouse brain and that decreased expression of neuritin was associated with reduced axonal branching of serotonin neurons in the brain and with depressive and anxiety behaviors in mice. Furthermore, the stress-mediated impairments in axonal branching and depressive behaviors were reversed by the overexpression of neuritin in the BLA. The ability of neuritin to increase axonal branching in serotonin neurons involves fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling, and neuritin contributes to FGF-2-mediated axonal branching regulation in vitro. Finally, the oral administration of an FGF inhibitor reduced the axonal branching of serotonin neurons in the brain and caused depressive and anxiety behaviors in male mice. Our results support the involvement of neuritin in models of stress-induced depression and suggest that neuronal morphological plasticity may play a role in controlling animal behavior.

Harmonics are an integral part of music, speech, and vocalizations of animals. Since the rest of the auditory environment is primarily made up of nonharmonic sounds, the auditory system needs to perceptually separate the above two kinds of sounds. In mice, harmonics, generally with two-tone components (two-tone harmonic complexes, TTHCs), form an important component of vocal communication. Communication by pups during isolation from the mother and by adult males during courtship elicits typical behaviors in female mice—dams and adult courting females, respectively. Our study shows that the processing of TTHC is specialized in mice providing neural basis for perceptual differences between tones and TTHCs and also nonharmonic sounds. Investigation of responses in the primary auditory cortex (Au1) from in vivo extracellular recordings and two-photon Ca²⁺ imaging of excitatory and inhibitory neurons to TTHCs exhibit enhancement, suppression, or no-effect with respect to tones. Irrespective of neuron type, harmonic enhancement is maximized, and suppression is minimized when the fundamental frequencies (F₀) match the neuron's best fundamental frequency (BF₀). Sex-specific processing of TTHC is evident from differences in the distributions of neurons’ best frequency (BF) and best fundamental frequency (BF₀) in single units, differences in harmonic suppressed cases re-BF₀, independent of neuron types, and from pairwise noise correlations among excitatory and parvalbumin inhibitory interneurons. Furthermore, TTHCs elicit a higher response compared with two-tone nonharmonics in females, but not in males. Thus, our study shows specialized neural processing of TTHCs over tones and nonharmonics, highlighting local network specialization among different neuronal types.

Sometimes, in fact, nature is stranger than fiction

Through painstaking work, photographer Drew Gardner transformed Elizabeth Jenkins-Sahlin into her ancestor, a famous women’s rights activist. (Credit: Drew Gardner)

See the process involved when a massive specimen arrives at the Smithsonian

Selected by Mary Ellen Mark for our special issue, this up-and-coming photographer discusses his work

The "Manned Orbiting Laboratory," or "MOL," was built to capture high-resolution images of Soviet targets on the ground. It was so advanced, it could pick up objects on earth as small as a baseball

In March 1895, Boston and New York City began an epic and highly competitive race to become the first American city with a working subway system.

At age 23, the former chairman of SNCC stepped up to the podium to deliver a powerful speech to thousands on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Prepare to be amazed.

An oral history of the March on Washington: http://j.mp/1feuQK3 John Lewis, Eleanor Holmes Norton and others relive the pivotal moment of the Civil Rights Movement.

Take a walk through jazz history with pianist John Eaton as he recollects his career of the past five decades (Meredith Bragg)

While President Kennedy may be one of the best known gravesites in Arlington, there are many other notable Americans buried in these sacred grounds (Ryan Reed and Molly Roberts). Read more at http://smithsonian.com/arlington