Variation and assembly mechanisms of skin and cave environmental fungal communities during hibernation periods.

Animal skin acts as the barrier against invasion by pathogens and microbial colonizers. Environmental microbiota plays a significant role in shaping these microbial communities, which, in turn, have profound implications for host health. Previous research has focused on characterizing microorganisms on bats' skin and in their roosting environments, particularly bacterial communities.

The importance of peripheral populations in the face of novel environmental change.

Anthropogenically driven environmental change has imposed substantial threats on biodiversity, including the emergence of infectious diseases that have resulted in declines of wildlife globally. In response to pathogen invasion, maintaining diversity within host populations across heterogenous environments is essential to facilitating species persistence. White-nose syndrome is an emerging fungal pathogen that has caused mass mortalities of hibernating bats across North America.

"If they take it without knowing, they will default…": perceptions of targeted information transfer to promote adherence to intermittent preventive treatment with dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine for the prevention of malaria in pregnancy in western Kenya.

Background: Increasing resistance to sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) threatens the effectiveness of intermittent preventive treatment (IPTp) to prevent malaria in pregnancy. Dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DP) is the most promising candidate to emerge from clinical trials, but requires a multi-day regimen. Despite being a single-dose regimen, coverage of IPTp-SP remains low, fuelling concerns about adherence to multi-day drug options.

Mechanistic Studies and Identification of Catalyst Deactivation Pathways for Pyridine(diimine) Iron Catalyzed C(sp)-H Borylation.

The synthesis and application of aryl-substituted pyridine(diimine) iron complexes (PDI)FeCH to the catalytic borylation of heteroarenes under thermal conditions is described. Improvements in catalyst design and performance were guided by precatalyst activation studies, where investigations into stoichiometric reactivities of iron borohydride (4- Bu- PDI)Fe(HBPin) and iron furyl (4- Bu- PDI)Fe(2-methylfuryl) complexes revealed facile C(sp)-H activation and a slower and potentially turnover-limiting C(sp)-B formation step. Formation of the flyover dimer, [(4- Bu- PDI)Fe] was identified as a catalyst deactivation pathway and formally iron(0) complexes were found to be inactive for borylation.