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Modeling maize aflatoxins and fumonisins in a Tanzanian smallholder system: Accounting for diverse risk factors improves mycotoxin models
Human exposure to mycotoxins is common and often severe in underregulated maize-based food systems. This study explored how monitoring of these systems could help to identify when and where outbreaks occur and inform potential mitigation efforts. Within a maize smallholder system in Kongwa District, Tanzania, we performed two food surveys of mycotoxin contamination at local grain mills, documenting high levels of aflatoxins and fumonisins in maize destined for human consumption. A farmer questionnaire documented diverse pre-harvest and post-harvest practices among smallholder farmers. We modeled maize aflatoxins and fumonisins as a function of diverse indicators of mycotoxin risk based on survey data, high-resolution geospatial environmental data (normalized difference vegetation index and soil quality), and proximal near-infrared spectroscopy. Interestingly, mixed linear models revealed that all data types explained some portion of variance in aflatoxin and fumonisin concentrations. Including all covariates, 2015 models explained 27.6% and 20.6% of variation in aflatoxin and fumonisin, and 2019 models explained 39.4% and 40.0% of variation in aflatoxin and fumonisin. This study demonstrates the value of using low-cost risk factors to model mycotoxins and provides a framework for designing and implementing mycotoxin monitoring within smallholder settings.
Staudinger Reaction-Responsive Coacervates for Cytosolic Antibody Delivery and TRIM21-Mediated Protein Degradation
Physicians’ experiences with pharmacists as new members of the interprofessional emergency department team. A qualitative study
Pharmacists in emergency departments (EDs) can alleviate physicians’ workload by handling medication-related tasks and offer valuable contributions in interprofessional teams. We aimed to explore physicians’ experiences working with pharmacists in EDs, and their perspectives on future permanent collaboration. We conducted semi-structured interviews with twenty physicians from two EDs and analyzed the data using thematic analysis. Four main themes emerged, comprising twelve subthemes that highlighted both challenges and motivations. Theme 1: time addressed physicians’ time constraints, and the potential for time reallocation with assistance from pharmacists. Theme 2: various roles of pharmacists focused on the diverse roles of pharmacists who supported patient care and junior physicians, but faced challenges like availability and space constraints. Theme 3: teamwork concerned how pharmacists were trusted, brought valuable insights, and enhanced patient safety, yet there were ambiguous views on responsibility and cultural differences. Theme 4: future perspectives focused on how physicians favored a permanent inclusion of pharmacists in the ED, suggesting that they could independently conduct MedRec. Our findings suggest that pharmacists should be permanently integrated in ED teams. However, there is a need to address challenges related to space and legal regulations to enhance interprofessional collaboration.
Key Interaction Changes Determine the Activation Process of Human Parathyroid Hormone Type 1 Receptor
Moderate-intensity interval exercise exacerbates cardiac lipotoxicity in high-fat, high-calories diet-fed mice
Challenges and opportunities for high-quality battery production at scale
Abstract As the world electrifies, global battery production is expected to surge. However, batteries are both difficult to produce at the gigawatt-hour scale and sensitive to minor manufacturing variation. As a result, the battery industry has already experienced both highly-visible safety incidents and under-the-radar reliability issues—a trend that will only worsen if left unaddressed. Here we highlight both the challenges and opportunities to enable battery quality at scale. We first describe the interplay between various battery failure modes and their numerous root causes. We then discuss how to manage and improve battery quality during production. We hope our perspective brings greater visibility to the battery quality challenge to enable safe global electrification.
Impact of age-related changes in buccal epithelial cells on pediatric epigenetic biomarker research
Neuronal dynamics of cerebellum and medial prefrontal cortex in adaptive motor timing
Abstract Precise temporal control of sensorimotor coordination and adaptation is a fundamental basis of animal behavior. How different brain regions are involved in regulating the flexible temporal adaptation remains elusive. Here, we investigated the neuronal dynamics of the cerebellar interposed nucleus (IpN) and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) neurons during temporal adaptation between delay eyeblink conditioning (DEC) and trace eyeblink conditioning (TEC). When mice were trained for either DEC or TEC and subsequently subjected to a new paradigm, their conditioned responses (CRs) adapted virtually instantaneously. Changes in the activity of the IpN neurons related to CR timing were prominent during DEC-to-TEC adaptation, but less so during TEC-to-DEC adaptation. In contrast, mPFC neurons could rapidly alter their modulation patterns during both adaptation paradigms. Accordingly, silencing the mPFC completely blocked the adaptation of CR timing. These results illustrate how cerebral and cerebellar mechanisms may play different roles during adaptive control of associative motor timing.
Proteomic signature of HIV-associated subclinical left atrial remodeling and incident heart failure
Integration of clinical, pathological, radiological, and transcriptomic data improves prediction for first-line immunotherapy outcome in metastatic non-small cell lung cancer
Abstract Immunotherapy is improving the survival of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), yet reliable biomarkers are needed to identify responders prospectively and optimize patient care. In this study, we explore the benefits of multimodal approaches to predict immunotherapy outcome using multiple machine learning algorithms and integration strategies. We analyze baseline multimodal data from a cohort of 317 metastatic NSCLC patients treated with first-line immunotherapy, including positron emission tomography images, digitized pathological slides, bulk transcriptomic profiles, and clinical information. Testing multiple integration strategies, most of them yield multimodal models surpassing both the best unimodal models and established univariate biomarkers, such as PD-L1 expression. Additionally, several multimodal combinations demonstrate improved patient risk stratification compared to models built with routine clinical features only. Our study thus provides evidence of the superiority of multimodal over unimodal approaches, advocating for the collection of large multimodal NSCLC datasets to develop and validate robust and powerful immunotherapy biomarkers.
Sugar conditioning combined with nectar nonsugar compounds enhances honey bee pollen foraging in a nectarless diocious crop
Assessment and application of tropical cyclone clustering in the South China Sea
Comparative study of conventional and process intensification by reactive distillation designs for glycerol carbonate production from glycerol and diethyl carbonate
Human parietal epithelial cells as Trojan horses in albumin overload
Experimental investigation of gas seepage characteristics in coal seams under gas-water-stress function
A hyperspectral stealth material design method based on the composition and mixing spectral feature of desert soil
Tracking hydrothermal infiltration within light oil reservoirs using organic geochemical proxies in the Shunbei area of Tarim Basin in China
Abstract Deep oil reservoirs are becoming increasingly significant fields of hydrocarbon exploration in recent decades. Hydrothermal fluid flow is deemed as a potentially crucial factor affecting the occurrence of deep oil reservoirs, such as enhancing porosity/permeability of reservoirs, accelerating oil generation and thermal cracking, and modifying organic properties of crude oils. Understanding the interplay between hydrothermal fluids and crude oils would provide useful constraints for reconstructing hydrocarbon accumulation processes and predicting the distribution patterns of crude oils. Voluminous crude oils have been discovered in the deeply buried Ordovician carbonate reservoirs within the Shunbei area of the northern Tarim Basin. Previous studies revealed that the Early Permian Tarim Large Igneous Province (LIP) has affected the Shunbei area, whereas it is still debated whether the LIP-related hydrothermal infiltration affected hydrocarbons within the Ordovician reservoirs. To resolve this puzzle, this study was designed to unravel the potential thermal impact of hydrothermal infiltration on hydrocarbons according to molecular and stable carbon isotopic compositions of oils and associated natural gases, reflectance analysis of solid bitumen, and fluid inclusion thermometry. The studied crude oils are characterized by uniform organic indicators of paraffin, terpanes, steranes, and light hydrocarbons, implying that crude oils are derived from the same source rock. Genetic binary diagrams, such as dibenzothiophene/phenanthrene (DBT/P) vs. Pr/Ph (pristane/phytane), Pr/n-C17 alkane vs. Ph/n-C18 alkane, C31R/C30hopane vs. C26/C25tricyclic terpane (TT), and C24/C23 TT vs. C22/C21 TT, indicate that marine shales deposited in a reducing-weakly oxidized environment are major source rocks. Natural gases are associated with oil reservoirs and are mainly generated via the decomposition of kerogen and crude oil. Solid bitumen with abnormally high reflectance values (2.17–2.20%) occurred in the studied area, suggesting their formation temperatures were 252–254 °C. The abnormally high temperatures may be caused by hydrothermal infiltration related to the Tarim LIP. Hydrothermal infiltration is supported by the presence of high contents of CO2 (30–48%) with enriched δ13C ratios (between − 2.5‰ and − 2.3‰), enriched n-alkane δ13C ratios, and incongruent temperatures estimated by multiple indicators, such as light hydrocarbon compositions, homogenization temperatures of fluid inclusions, and bitumen reflectance. Outcomes of this study support the interpretation that hydrothermal infiltration indeed occurred and may have facilitated hydrocarbon generation in the Shunbei area, and possibly elsewhere in the cratonic regions of the northern Tarim Basin.