Expanding PFAS Identification with Transformation Product Libraries: Nontargeted Analysis Reveals Biotransformation Products in Mice.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are widely used persistent synthetic chemicals that have been linked to adverse health effects. While the behavior of PFAS has been evaluated in the environment, our understanding of reaction products in mammalian systems is limited. This study identified biological PFAS transformation products and generated mass spectral libraries to facilitate an automated search and identification.

(ragweed) pollen - A growing aeroallergen of concern in South Africa.

Background: Ragweed is an invasive, highly allergenic weed predicted to expand its habitat with warming global temperatures. Several species have been identified in South Africa for well over a century; however, its presence remained undetected by allergists and aerobiologists until the development of an extensive aerospora monitoring system across South African urban areas since 2019. This paper presents the inventory of preliminary investigation of the airborne pollen and the taxonomic identification of ragweed species.

Enhanced glucose processing in gestational diabetes diagnosis: Effects on health equity and clinical outcomes.

Objectives: Gestational diabetes is diagnosed using an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), which has limited accuracy, reproducibility and practicality. We assessed the effect of enhanced pre-analytical glucose processing upon glucose concentrations, gestational diabetes diagnosis, health equity and pregnancy outcomes, and if HbA1c was a suitable alternative.

Methods: We recruited pregnant women with ≥1 risk factor to a prospective observational cohort study of pregnancy hyperglycaemia, endocrine causes, lipids, insulin and autoimmunity (OPHELIA), from nine UK centres.

Children's arithmetic strategy use trajectories: Exploring the roles of executive functions and sociodemographic characteristics.

Although young children often use counting to solve arithmetic problems, over time they move toward more efficient strategies such as direct retrieval and decomposition. Strategy selection has longitudinal associations with children's math achievement. Existing research indicates that children's executive functions (EFs) support inhibiting unnecessary strategies and adaptively switching between strategies.

The aortic root, do we see the 'hole' picture?

The aortic root is the segment of the aorta between the left ventricular outflow tract and the sinotubular junction of the ascending aorta, and, on one level, is merely a tube, with a valve at its base, dynamic structures below it, and notable for having the life-limiting coronary arteries originate within its sinuses. However, we propose that the perception of the aortic root has been historically grossly over-simplified by virtue of a bias towards its internal aspect, in terms of coronary ostia and subvalvar relationships through the fibrous skeleton and in so-doing a myocardial component on the external aspect has all but been ignored. This myocardial mass, a component of the left ventricular free wall, is sometimes termed the 'left ostial process' but appears to be rarely, if ever, considered by anatomists, cardiologists, and surgeons alike.