Acetaminophen causes neurodevelopmental injury in susceptible babies and children: no valid rationale for controversy.

Despite the worldwide acceptance of acetaminophen (APAP) as a necessary medicine in pediatrics, evidence that early exposure to APAP causes neurodevelopmental injury in susceptible babies and children has been mounting for over a decade. The evidence is diverse and includes extensive work with laboratory animals, otherwise unexplained associations, factors associated with APAP metabolism, and limited studies in humans. Although the evidence has reached an overwhelming level and was recently reviewed in detail, controversy persists.

A gap in nitrous oxide emission reporting complicates long-term climate mitigation.

Nitrous oxide (NO) is an important greenhouse gas (GHG) that also contributes to depletion of ozone in the stratosphere. Agricultural soils account for about 60% of anthropogenic NO emissions. Most national GHG reporting to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change assumes nitrogen (N) additions drive emissions during the growing season, but soil freezing and thawing during spring is also an important driver in cold climates.

Nitrification and denitrification in the Community Land Model compared with observations at Hubbard Brook Forest.

Models of terrestrial system dynamics often include nitrogen (N) cycles to better represent N limitations on terrestrial carbon (C) uptake, but simulating the fate of N in ecosystems has proven challenging. Here, key soil N fluxes and flux ratios from the Community Land Model version 5.0 (CLM5.

Nitrification, denitrification, and competition for soil N: Evaluation of two Earth System Models against observations.

Earth System Models (ESMs) have implemented nitrogen (N) cycles to account for N limitation on terrestrial carbon uptake. However, representing inputs, losses, and recycling of N in ESMs is challenging. Here, we use global rates and ratios of key soil N fluxes, including nitrification, denitrification, mineralization, leaching, immobilization, and plant uptake (both NH and NO ), from the literature to evaluate the N cycles in the land model components of two ESMs.

Century-long changes and drivers of soil nitrous oxide (N O) emissions across the contiguous United States.

The atmospheric concentration of nitrous oxide (N O) has increased by 23% since the pre-industrial era, which substantially destructed the stratospheric ozone layer and changed the global climate. However, it remains uncertain about the reasons behind the increase and the spatiotemporal patterns of soil N O emissions, a primary biogenic source. Here, we used an integrative land ecosystem model, Dynamic Land Ecosystem Model (DLEM), to quantify direct (i.

Autism Tsunami: the Impact of Rising Prevalence on the Societal Cost of Autism in the United States.

The cost of ASD in the U.S. is estimated using a forecast model that for the first time accounts for the true historical increase in ASD.

California Autism Prevalence by County and Race/Ethnicity: Declining Trends Among Wealthy Whites.

County-level ASD prevalence was estimated using an age-resolved snapshot from the California Department of Developmental Services (DDS) for birth years 1993-2013. ASD prevalence increased among all children across birth years 1993-2000 but plateaued or declined thereafter among whites from wealthy counties. In contrast, ASD rates increased continuously across 1993-2013 among whites from lower income counties and Hispanics from all counties.

Race/Ethnicity-Resolved Time Trends in United States ASD Prevalence Estimates from IDEA and ADDM.

Race-specific time trends in Autism Spectrum Disorder prevalence are tracked among 3-5 year-olds and 8 year-olds identified by the U.S. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network, respectively.

California Autism Prevalence Trends from 1931 to 2014 and Comparison to National ASD Data from IDEA and ADDM.

Time trends in U.S. autism prevalence from three ongoing datasets [Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, and California Department of Developmental Services (CDDS)] are calculated using two different methods: (1) constant-age tracking of 8 year-olds and (2) age-resolved snapshots.

Diagnostic Substitution for Intellectual Disability: A Flawed Explanation for the Rise in Autism.

Time trends in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disability (ID) prevalence from the United States Individuals with Disabilities Education Act data were computed from 2000 to 2011 for each state and each age from 6 to 17. These trends did not support the hypothesis that diagnostic substitution for ID can explain the ASD rise over recent decades, although the hypothesis appeared more plausible when the data were aggregated across all states and ages. Nationwide ID prevalence declined steeply over the last two decades, but the decline was driven mainly by ~15 states accounting for only one-fourth of the U.

The role of oxidative stress, inflammation and acetaminophen exposure from birth to early childhood in the induction of autism.

The wide range of factors associated with the induction of autism is invariably linked with either inflammation or oxidative stress, and sometimes both. The use of acetaminophen in babies and young children may be much more strongly associated with autism than its use during pregnancy, perhaps because of well-known deficiencies in the metabolic breakdown of pharmaceuticals during early development. Thus, one explanation for the increased prevalence of autism is that increased exposure to acetaminophen, exacerbated by inflammation and oxidative stress, is neurotoxic in babies and small children.

Effects of sea ice cover on satellite-detected primary production in the Arctic Ocean.

The influence of decreasing Arctic sea ice on net primary production (NPP) in the Arctic Ocean has been considered in multiple publications but is not well constrained owing to the potentially large errors in satellite algorithms. In particular, the Arctic Ocean is rich in coloured dissolved organic matter (CDOM) that interferes in the detection of chlorophyll a concentration of the standard algorithm, which is the primary input to NPP models. We used the quasi-analytic algorithm (Lee et al 2002 Appl.

A model for the induction of autism in the ecosystem of the human body: the anatomy of a modern pandemic?

Background: The field of autism research is currently divided based on a fundamental question regarding the nature of autism: Some are convinced that autism is a pandemic of modern culture, with environmental factors at the roots. Others are convinced that the disease is not pandemic in nature, but rather that it has been with humanity for millennia, with its biological and neurological underpinnings just now being understood.

Objective: In this review, two lines of reasoning are examined which suggest that autism is indeed a pandemic of modern culture.

A comparison of temporal trends in United States autism prevalence to trends in suspected environmental factors.

Background: The prevalence of diagnosed autism has increased rapidly over the last several decades among U.S. children.