Publications by authors named "Furlong M"

Article Synopsis
  • High-Risk Areas
  • : Mothers living in rural areas, tribal lands, or near the U.S.-Mexico border are at an elevated risk for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), particularly influenced by their neighbourhood's socioeconomic status (SES).
  • Study Analysis
  • : This study used Arizona birth records from 2014 to 2020 to analyze over 481,000 births, finding that neighbourhood deprivation significantly correlates with increased GDM risk, especially among Native American and Hispanic/Latina mothers.
  • Key Findings
  • : The research revealed that mothers in the most deprived neighbourhoods had a 21% higher risk of developing GDM compared to those in less deprived areas, highlighting the impact of socioeconomic
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Article Synopsis
  • - The use of larvicides for mosquito control in Australia, specifically Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis (Bti) and methoprene, raises concerns about potential risks to native stingless bees and pollinators amid growing conservation efforts and hobbyist beekeeping.
  • - Despite possible risks, the study finds that larvicides are likely low-risk due to low application rates, poor long-term environmental presence, and the episodic nature of mosquito control measures.
  • - The authors recommend expanding regulatory testing to include stingless bees and other non-target insects, as current assessments mainly use honey bees, to better understand the impacts of these pesticides on native pollinators.
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Associations of pesticide exposures during preconception with stillbirth have not been well explored. We linked Arizona pesticide use records with birth certificates from 2006 to 2020 and estimated associations of living within 500 m of any pyrethroid, organophosphate (OP), or carbamate pesticide applications during a 90-day preconception window or the first trimester, with stillbirth. We considered a binary measure of exposure (any exposure), as well as log-pounds and log-acres applied within 500 m, in a negative control exposure framework with log-binomial regression.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to see if giving individual budgets for employment-related purchases would enhance job success and financial stability for supported employment recipients.
  • Participants were divided into two groups: one received only job support services, while the other received job support plus a $950 flexible fund for a year to help them meet employment goals.
  • Findings indicated that while job placement rates were similar, those with the flexible fund had better job tenure, more employment days, higher earnings, and improved financial well-being compared to the control group, suggesting that flexible funds can enhance employment outcomes.
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In Australia, Soldier flies ( spp.) are economically significant pests of sugarcane that currently lack a viable management strategy. Despite various research efforts, the mechanisms underlying the damage caused by soldier fly larvae remain poorly understood.

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Background: Parental mental illness (PMI) is common and places children at high risk of developing psychological disorders. (FT) is a well-known, whole-family, 7-session intervention designed to reduce the risk of transgenerational psychopathology. However, very few larger-scale evaluations of FT (across only a limited number of settings) have been conducted to date while there have been no cost analyses.

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Helicoverpa armigera Hübner (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae; Hübner) is the major insect pest of pigeon pea [Cajanus cajan; Fabales: Fabaceae; (L.) Millspaugh] worldwide. Research to develop pest management strategies for H.

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Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) are observable clinical skills and/or procedures that have been introduced into medical education at the student and resident levels in most specialties to determine readiness to advance into residency or independent practice, respectively. This publication describes the process and outcomes of a pilot study looking at the feasibility of using two anatomic pathology and two clinical pathology EPAs in pathology residency in 6 pathology residency programs that volunteered for the study. Faculty development on EPAs and their assessment was provided to pilot program faculty, and EPA assessment tools were developed and used by the pilot programs.

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Despite substantial research examining caterpillar-plant interactions, changes in the feeding behaviour of lepidopteran larvae as they develop are poorly understood. In this study, we investigated ontogenetic changes in the behaviour of larvae feeding on reproductive structures of pigeonpea (). Specifically, we examined the preference for and avoidance of pigeonpea flowers and pods of first, second, third, and fourth instar larvae.

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Infectious disease modelling has been prominent throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, helping to understand the virus' transmission dynamics and inform response policies. Given their potential importance and translational impact, we evaluated the computational reproducibility of infectious disease modelling articles from the COVID era. We found that four out of 100 randomly sampled studies released between January 2020 and August 2022 could be completely computationally reproduced using the resources provided (e.

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While pesticide vapor and particles from agricultural spray drift have been reported to pose a risk to public health, limited baseline ambient measurements exist to warrant an accurate assessment of their impacts at community-to-county-wide scale. Here, we present an initial modeling investigation of the transport and deposition of applied pesticides in an agricultural county in Arizona (Yuma County), to provide initial estimates on the corresponding enhancements in ambient levels of these spray drifts downwind of application sites. With a 50 × 50 km domain, we use the dispersion model CALPUFF with meteorology from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) to investigate the spatiotemporal distribution of pesticide abundance due to spray drift from a representative sample of nine application sites.

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Article Synopsis
  • Firefighters are exposed to PFAS, and this study compared PFAS serum levels in current and new recruits to track changes over time.
  • 99 incumbent firefighters and 55 recruits were tested for PFAS levels in 2015-2016, with follow-ups for recruits after 20-37 months, using various analytical methods.
  • Results showed that incumbents had lower PFAS levels than recruits, and most PFAS levels decreased in male recruits over time, with no connection found between firefighting exposure and PFAS levels.
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Firefighters have elevated rates of urinary tract cancers and other adverse health outcomes, which may be attributable to environmental occupational exposures. Untargeted metabolomics was applied to characterize this suite of environmental exposures and biological changes in response to occupational firefighting. 200 urine samples from 100 firefighters collected at baseline and two to four hours post-fire were analyzed using untargeted liquid-chromatography and high-resolution mass spectrometry.

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Epigenetic changes may be biomarkers of health. Epigenetic age acceleration (EAA), the discrepancy between epigenetic age measured via epigenetic clocks and chronological age, is associated with morbidity and mortality. However, the intersection of epigenetic clocks with microRNAs (miRNAs) and corresponding miRNA-based health implications have not been evaluated.

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Islands offer exclusive prisms for an experimental investigation of biodiversity x ecosystem function interplay. Given that species in upper trophic layers, e.g.

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Unpublished data and unused samples are common byproducts of research activity, but little is known about the scope and economic impact of their disuse. To fill this knowledge gap, we collected self-reported anonymous survey responses from 301 academic and government scientists from randomly selected institutions. Respondents estimated that they published ∼60% of their data and 95% had unpublished data.

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Topical applications of insecticides β-cyfluthrin, imidacloprid, and spinosad in combination with Beauveria bassiana (topical and contact filter paper application) induced synergistic interactions in lesser mealworm larvae, increasing mortality and in some cases numbers of larval cadavers exhibiting conidiogenesis. Reduced concentrations (LC, LC, LC) of the insecticides induced sublethal effects in lesser mealworm larvae, inhibiting development (mass, head-capsule width, moulting) after eight days' exposure and movement behaviour (area explored and distance travelled) after 3 h' exposure. The most potent synergist was ß-cyfluthrin, it strongly inhibited larval development and movement while significantly increasing mortality and conidiogenesis in B.

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Parkinson's disease (PD) is a complex neurodegenerative disease with etiology rooted in genetic vulnerability and environmental factors. Here we combine quantitative epidemiologic study of pesticide exposures and PD with toxicity screening in dopaminergic neurons derived from PD patient induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to identify Parkinson's-relevant pesticides. Agricultural records enable investigation of 288 specific pesticides and PD risk in a comprehensive, pesticide-wide association study.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the effects of agricultural worker households on fetal growth outcomes using Arizona birth certificate data from 2006 to 2013, analyzing a total of 623,185 live births.
  • Results indicate that newborns of agricultural workers are at a higher risk for several conditions, including macrosomia, being large for gestational age, postterm birth, and low 5-minute APGAR scores, while they show lower risks for low birth weight and preterm birth.
  • The findings suggest that having a parent working in agriculture is associated with increased likelihood of fetal overgrowth and poorer immediate health outcomes for newborns.
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Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is an arboviral, encephalitogenic, zoonotic flavivirus characterized by its complex epidemiology whose transmission cycle involves reservoir and amplifying hosts, competent vector species and optimal environmental conditions. Although typically endemic in Asia and parts of the Pacific Islands, unprecedented outbreaks in both humans and domestic pigs in southeastern Australia emphasize the virus' expanding geographical range. To estimate areas at highest risk of JEV transmission in Australia, ecological niche models of vectors and waterbirds, a sample of piggery coordinates and feral pig population density models were combined using mathematical and geospatial mapping techniques.

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Objective: The aim of the study is to examine associations between years of firefighting service and eight chronological age-adjusted measures of blood leukocyte epigenetic age acceleration: Horvath, Hannum, SkinBloodClock, Intrinsic, Extrinsic, PhenoAge, GrimAge, and DNAm telomere length.

Methods: The study used a repeated measures analysis of data from 379 incumbent firefighters from eight career departments and 100 recruit firefighters from two of the departments, across the United States.

Results: Incumbent firefighters had on average greater epigenetic age acceleration compared with recruit firefighters, potentially due to the cumulative effect of occupational exposures.

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Landscape-scale factors known to influence in-field abundance of pest herbivores and their natural enemies, but little is known about effects that operate through the shorter-range influences exerted by habitats immediately adjacent to crop fields.This study first compared the abundance of brassica insect pests and their natural enemy arthropods in 24 spatially independent brassica vegetable fields across southern Australia. An 'edge effect' index was used to compare the abundance of each taxon in the field center with abundance in areas of the crop adjacent to differing habitats.

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Although influenza A virus is endemic in wild waterfowl, domestic poultry, swine, humans, bats, cetaceans, dogs, and horses, there is a paucity of data on the potential role of camels in zoonotic transmission of the virus. To estimate the seroprevalence of the influenza A virus in camel populations, four local government areas of Nigeria that share an international border with the Niger Republic were selected. Blood samples from 184 one-hump camels (dromedaries) were collected and tested for influenza IgG antigen by ELISA.

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