The Effects of Plant-Microbe-Environment Interactions on Mineral Weathering Patterns in a Granular Basalt.

The importance of biota to soil formation and landscape development is widely recognized. As biotic complexity increases during early succession via colonization by soil microbes followed by vascular plants, effects of biota on mineral weathering and soil formation become more complex. Knowledge of the interactions among groups of organisms and environmental conditions will enable us to better understand landscape evolution.

Weight Velocity in Addition to Latest Weight Does Not Improve the Identification of Wasting or the Prediction of Stunting and Mortality: A Longitudinal Analysis Using Data from Malawi, South Africa, and Pakistan.

Background: In low/middle-income countries, most nutritional assessments use the latest weights, without reference to growth trajectory.

Objectives: This study explores whether velocity, in addition to the latest weight, improves the prediction of wasting, stunting, or mortality in the first 2 years of life.

Methods: We analyzed a combined data set with weight and height data collected monthly in the first year of 3447 children from Pakistan, Malawi, and South Africa, with height and survival recorded till 24 m.

Life-saving effect of pulmonary surfactant in premature babies.

The discovery and replacement of lung surfactant have helped increase survival rates for neonatal respiratory distress syndrome in extremely premature infants.

Genomic characterization of recovered from dairy facilities in British Columbia, Canada from 2007 to 2017.

is a foodborne pathogen of concern in dairy processing facilities, with the potential to cause human illness and trigger regulatory actions if found in the product. Monitoring for spp. through environmental sampling is recommended to prevent establishment of these microorganisms in dairy processing environments, thereby reducing the risk of product contamination.

Assessing variability in marine traffic exposure between baleen whale species off the Galician Coast, Spain.

Increases in marine traffic represent a growing issue for marine wildlife, posing threats through the impacts of ship strikes and noise pollution. Baleen whales are especially vulnerable to these impacts, yet regional and species-specific information on exposure to such threats is lacking. This study uses AIS and observational data to provide the first assessment of baleen whale exposure to vessel traffic on the NW coast of Spain.

Effect of Smartphone App-Based Education on Clinician Prescribing Habits in a Learning Health Care System: A Randomized Cluster Crossover Trial.

Importance: Effective methods for engaging clinicians in continuing education for learning-based practice improvement remain unknown.

Objective: To determine whether a smartphone-based app using spaced education with retrieval practice is an effective method to increase evidence-based practice.

Design, Setting, And Participants: A prospective, unblinded, single-center, crossover randomized clinical trial was conducted at a single academic medical center from January 6 to April 24, 2020.

Probing antimicrobial resistance and sanitizer tolerance themes and their implications for the food industry through the Listeria monocytogenes lens.

The development of antibiotic resistance is a serious public health crisis, reducing our ability to effectively combat infectious bacterial diseases. The parallel study of reduced susceptibility to sanitizers is growing, particularly for environmental foodborne pathogens, such as Listeria monocytogenes. As regulations demand a seek-and-destroy approach for L.

Adaptation to a Commercial Quaternary Ammonium Compound Sanitizer Leads to Cross-Resistance to Select Antibiotics in Isolated From Fresh Produce Environments.

The effective elimination of through cleaning and sanitation is of great importance to the food processing industry. Specifically in fresh produce operations, the lack of a kill step requires effective cleaning and sanitation to mitigate the risk of cross-contamination from the environment. As facilities rely on sanitizers to control , reports of the development of tolerance to sanitizers and other antimicrobials through cross-resistance is of particular concern.

An evaluation of a combined psychological and parenting intervention for HIV-positive women depressed in the perinatal period, to enhance child development and reduce maternal depression: study protocol for the Insika Yomama cluster randomised controlled trial.

Background: The combination of poverty, HIV and depression in the perinatal period represents a major public health challenge in many Southern African countries. In some areas, up to a third of HIV-positive women experience perinatal depression. Perinatal depression is associated with negative effects on parenting and key domains of child development including cognitive, behavioural and growth, especially in socio-economically disadvantaged communities.

Perioperative Pain Management for Surgical Patients with Opioid Use Disorder: A Program Development Initiative.

Purpose: Over the last decade an increased number of individuals have been diagnosed with Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) and state-level regulatory pressure has mounted to develop the capability to provide opioid-free anesthesia (OFA) on clinical indication or at patient request.

Design: A program initiative for OUD patients who require OFA was developed and implemented in two phases.

Method: Phase I assessed the needs and knowledge of licensed nurse anesthetists in the state of Florida.

Application of Whole Genome Sequencing to Understand Diversity and Presence of Genes Associated with Sanitizer Tolerance in from Produce Handling Sources.

Recent listeriosis outbreaks linked to fresh produce suggest the need to better understand and mitigate contamination in packing and processing environments. Using whole genome sequencing (WGS) and phenotype screening assays for sanitizer tolerance, we characterized 48   isolates previously recovered from environmental samples in five produce handling facilities. Within the studied population there were 10 sequence types (STs) and 16 cgMLST types (CTs).

Low serum 1,25(OH)2D3 in end-stage renal disease: is reduced 1α-hydroxylase the only problem?

Low serum 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25(OH)2D) in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is considered a consequence of elevated fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23) and concomitant reduced activity of renal 1α-hydroxylase (CYP27B1). Current ESRD treatment strategies to increase serum calcium and suppress secondary hyperparathyroidism involve supplementation with vitamin D analogues that circumvent 1α-hydroxylase. This overlooks the potential importance of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) deficiency as a contributor to low serum 1,25(OH)2D.

Severe Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Is Characterized by Increased Neutrophil Elastase and Relative Elafin Deficiency.

Background: Preclinical evidence implicates neutrophil elastase (NE) in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) pathogenesis, and the NE inhibitor elafin is under early therapeutic investigation.

Research Question: Are circulating NE and elafin levels abnormal in PAH and are they associated with clinical severity?

Study Design And Methods: In an observational Stanford University PAH cohort (n = 249), plasma NE and elafin levels were measured in comparison with those of healthy control participants (n = 106). NE and elafin measurements were then related to PAH clinical features and relevant ancillary biomarkers.

Adaptive Radiation Therapy for Intact Thymoma: An Illustrative Report.

Background/aim: Adaptive radiation therapy (ART) is a technique capable of reducing radiation dose to normal tissue without compromising local control. For potentially resectable thymoma, induction therapy is standard of care. Because large disease volume is common in this context, ART has been suggested to reduce toxicity from induction chemoradiation.

Multi-sensor integration for an assessment of underwater radiated noise from common vessels in San Francisco Bay.

There is growing evidence that smaller vessels not required to broadcast data via the Automatic Identification System (AIS) contribute significant noise to urbanized coastal areas. The Marine Monitor (M2), a vessel tracking system that integrates AIS data with data collected via marine radar and high-definition camera, was employed to track all vessel types (regardless of AIS data availability) in a region of San Francisco Bay (SFB) where high-speed ferry, recreational, and commercial shipping traffic are common. Using a co-located hydrophone, source levels (SL) associated with 565 unique vessel passages were calculated and resultant cumulative daily sound exposure levels across the study area were modeled.

Impaired arterial vitamin D signaling occurs in the development of vascular calcification.

Conflicting data exists as to whether vitamin D receptor agonists (VDRa) are protective of arterial calcification. Confounding this, is the inherent physiological differences between human and animal experimental models and our current fragmented understanding of arterial vitamin D metabolism, their alterations in disease states and responses to VDRa's. Herein, the study aims to address these problems by leveraging frontiers in human arterial organ culture models.

Kras mutation rate precisely orchestrates ductal derived pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia and pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the third leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States. Despite the high prevalence of Kras mutations in pancreatic cancer patients, murine models expressing the oncogenic mutant Kras (Kras) in mature pancreatic cells develop PDAC at a low frequency. Independent of cell of origin, a second genetic hit (loss of tumor suppressor TP53 or PTEN) is important for development of PDAC in mice.