We examined the association between prenatal exposure to cigarettes and adrenocortical responses to stress in 7-month old infants. Cortisol levels were assessed twice prior to and twice following affect-eliciting procedures in 111 (59 exposed and 52 nonexposed) infants. Cortisol reactivity was defined as the difference between the peak poststressor cortical level and the pretask cortisol level. Higher values indicated higher cortisol reactivity. Exposed infants had higher peak cortisol reactivity than non exposed infants. There were no differences in pretask cortisol levels. Maternal hostility mediated the association between cigarette exposure and peak cortisol reactivity. Furthermore, infant gender moderated this association such that exposed boys had significantly higher peak cortisol reactivity than nonexposed infants or exposed girls. These findings provide additional evidence that prenatal cigarette exposure is associated with dysregulation during infancy and that early adverse, non-social experiences may have relatively long-lasting effects on cortisol reactivity in infants.

Removing CO from hydrogen streams is an important industrial process. The catalytic preferential oxidation of CO (PrOx) is a promising method for CO removal, leaving the hydrogen concentration unchanged. Here, the effect of size and support on the gold-catalyzed PrOx reaction using size-controlled Au nanocrystals (NCs) is investigated. For all supports, Au NC sizes of 2-5 nm show the highest rates, whereas for larger sizes rates drop. Ceria-supported Au shows by far the best performance. By analyzing the dependency of the reaction rate on the NC diameter, the most active centers for CO oxidation on Au/CeO 2 are Au 1 corner atoms at the interface with the support, resulting in 2.1 nm Au NCs supported on ceria reaching full O 2 conversion and CO selectivity of about 50%. Therefore, it is suggested that increasing the fraction of Au-ceria interface sites would lead to the best performing materials for this reaction.

Psychoactive substance use to cope with the stressors of vision loss is well documented, 1 and visual impairment is associated with risk of developing substance use disorder (SUD). 2 Given increases in substance use among aging populations and expected increases among older adults living with visual impairment, 3 assessing substance use among older adults with visual impairment is becoming increasingly important. Visual impairment can exacerbate psychological challenges, including isolation, a risk factor for SUD among older adults. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of substance use among middle-aged and older adults with visual impairment in the US.

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