Saharan Dust and Childhood Respiratory Symptoms in Benin.

Mineral dust is one of the largest natural constituents of coarse particulate matter (PM). Most of these dust emissions originate from northern Africa, and several hundred tera-grams of dust are emitted annually from this region. Previous evidence has linked dust PM to adverse respiratory outcomes in children.

Stone Morphology Distinguishes Two Pathways of Idiopathic Calcium Oxalate Stone Pathogenesis.

About 1 in 11 Americans will experience a kidney stone, but underlying causes remain obscure. The objective of the present study was to separate idiopathic calcium oxalate stone formers by whether or not they showed positive evidence of forming a stone on Randall's plaque (RP). In patients undergoing either percutaneous or ureteroscopic procedures for kidney stone removal, all stone material was extracted and analyzed using micro-CT imaging to identify those attached to RP.

Skeletal muscle metabolic responses to physical activity are muscle type specific in a rat model of chronic kidney disease.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) leads to musculoskeletal impairments that are impacted by muscle metabolism. We tested the hypothesis that 10-weeks of voluntary wheel running can improve skeletal muscle mitochondria activity and function in a rat model of CKD. Groups included (n = 12-14/group): (1) normal littermates (NL); (2) CKD, and; (3) CKD-10 weeks of voluntary wheel running (CKD-W).

Anthropogenic Decline of African Dust: Insights From the Holocene Records and Beyond.

African dust exhibits strong variability on a range of time scales. Here we show that the interhemispheric contrast in Atlantic SST (ICAS) drives African dust variability at decadal to millennial timescales, and the strong anthropogenic increase of the ICAS in the future will decrease African dust loading to a level never seen during the Holocene. We provide a physical framework to understand the relationship between the ICAS and African dust activity: positive ICAS anomalies push the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) northward and decrease surface wind speed over African dust source regions, which reduces dust emission and transport.

Multimodal imaging reveals a unique autofluorescence signature of Randall's plaque.

Kidney stones frequently develop as an overgrowth on Randall's plaque (RP) which is formed in the papillary interstitium. The organic composition of RP is distinct from stone matrix in that RP contains fibrillar collagen; RP in tissue has also been shown to have two proteins that are also found in stones, but otherwise the molecular constituents of RP are unstudied. We hypothesized that RP contains unique organic molecules that can be differentiated from the stone overgrowth by fluorescence.