Maternal concentrations of perfluoroalkyl sulfonates and alterations in white matter microstructure in the developing brains of young children.

Background: Maternal exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) has been linked to child neurodevelopmental difficulties. Neuroimaging research has linked these neurodevelopmental difficulties to white matter microstructure alterations, but the effects of PFAS on children's white matter microstructure remains unclear. We investigated associations between maternal blood concentrations of six common perfluoroalkyl sulfonates and white matter alterations in young children using longitudinal neuroimaging data.

Uncovering language deficits in focal epilepsy: Beyond the limits of noun naming and verbal fluency.

Background: A range of language impairments have been reported in people with epilepsy both pre- and post-surgically, however language is not routinely comprehensively assessed in epilepsy clinics. When language is assessed, this is typically as part of a broader neuropsychological battery of assessment, often limited to tests of noun naming and/or verbal fluency, despite evidence to suggest these tests are not sufficiently sensitive to detect the often-subtle deficits present in chronic focal epilepsy. Many areas of language function, including the production of connected speech, have also not been adequately explored in this population, and research relating to subjective report of language and communication difficulties is limited.

Bioinformatic Workflows for Deriving Transcriptomic Points of Departure: Current status, Data Gaps, and Research Priorities.

There is a pressing need to increase the efficiency and reliability of toxicological safety assessment for protecting human health and the environment. While conventional toxicology tests rely on measuring apical changes in vertebrate models, there is increasing interest in the use of molecular information from animal and in vitro studies to inform safety assessment. One promising and pragmatic application of molecular information involves the derivation of transcriptomic points of departure (tPODs).

High-resolution ion mobility based on traveling wave structures for lossless ion manipulation resolves hidden lipid features.

High-resolution ion mobility (resolving power > 200) coupled with mass spectrometry (MS) is a powerful analytical tool for resolving isobars and isomers in complex samples. High-resolution ion mobility is capable of discerning additional structurally distinct features, which are not observed with conventional resolving power ion mobility (IM, resolving power ~ 50) techniques such as traveling wave IM and drift tube ion mobility (DTIM). DTIM in particular is considered to be the "gold standard" IM technique since collision cross section (CCS) values are directly obtained through a first-principles relationship, whereas traveling wave IM techniques require an additional calibration strategy to determine accurate CCS values.

Maternal exposure to bisphenols, phthalates, perfluoroalkyl acids, and trace elements and their associations with gestational diabetes mellitus in the APrON cohort.

The increasing global prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) has been hypothesized to be associated with maternal exposure to environmental chemicals. Here, among 420 women participating in the Alberta Pregnancy Outcomes and Nutrition (APrON) cohort study, we examined associations between GDM and second trimester blood or urine concentrations of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs): bisphenol-A (BPA), bisphenol-S (BPS), twelve phthalate metabolites, eight perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs), and eleven trace elements. Fifteen (3.

Associations between the chemical exposome and pregnancy induced hypertension.

Exposure to environmental chemicals has been linked to an increased risk of pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH). This prospective cohort study examined the associations between PIH and maternal chemical exposure to four classes of chemicals (i.e.

Maternal co-exposure to mercury and perfluoroalkyl acid isomers and their associations with child neurodevelopment in a Canadian birth cohort.

Background: Perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) within the broader class of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are present in human serum as isomer mixtures, but epidemiological studies have yet to address isomer-specific associations with child development and behavior.

Objectives: To examine associations between prenatal exposure to 25 PFAAs, including perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) isomers, and child neurodevelopment among 490 mother-child pairs in a prospective Canadian birth cohort, the Alberta Pregnancy Outcomes and Nutrition (APrON) study. To consider the influence of a classic neurotoxicant, total mercury (THg), based on its likelihood of co-exposure with PFAAs from common dietary sources.

Boarding versus day-students: A mixed-methods analysis of sleep and its relationship with psychological distress.

Background: Boarding students face unique challenges when entering school, including: adapting to a novel environment, where they are separated from family, friends and culture, for up to 40 weeks per year. A particular challenge is sleep. A further challenge is coping with the demands of boarding with its potential impact on psychological well-being.

From vision toward best practices: Evaluating transcriptomic points of departure for application in risk assessment using a uniform workflow.

The growing number of chemicals in the current consumer and industrial markets presents a major challenge for regulatory programs faced with the need to assess the potential risks they pose to human and ecological health. The increasing demand for hazard and risk assessment of chemicals currently exceeds the capacity to produce the toxicity data necessary for regulatory decision making, and the applied data is commonly generated using traditional approaches with animal models that have limited context in terms of human relevance. This scenario provides the opportunity to implement novel, more efficient strategies for risk assessment purposes.

The Healthy Democracy Kit: design, implementation, uptake, and impact of a novel voter registration toolkit for healthcare settings.

Background: Access to voting is increasingly recognized as a social determinant of health. Health equity could be improved if healthcare workers (HCWs) routinely assessed the voter registration status of patients during clinical encounters and helped direct them towards appropriate resources. However, little consensus exists on how to achieve these tasks efficiently and effectively in healthcare settings.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in mixtures show additive effects on transcriptomic points of departure in human liver spheroids.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a wide range of chemicals that are used in a variety of consumer and industrial products leading to direct human exposure. Many PFAS are chemically nonreactive and persistent in the environment, resulting in additional exposure from water, soil, and dietary intake. While some PFAS have documented negative health effects, data on simultaneous exposures to multiple PFAS (PFAS mixtures) are inadequate for making informed decisions for risk assessment.

In vitro transcriptomic analyses reveal pathway perturbations, estrogenic activities, and potencies of data-poor BPA alternative chemicals.

Since initial regulatory action in 2010 in Canada, bisphenol A (BPA) has been progressively replaced by structurally related alternative chemicals. Unfortunately, many of these chemicals are data-poor, limiting toxicological risk assessment. We used high-throughput transcriptomics to evaluate potential hazards and compare potencies of BPA and 15 BPA alternative chemicals in cultured breast cancer cells.

Adolescent sleep, distress, and technology use: weekday versus weekend.

Background: In adolescents, technology use at bedtime is linked to disrupted sleep and psychological distress. Adolescents are known to sleep later on weekends compared to weekdays but whether this leads to greater technology use, and, hence, additional psychological distress is not known. At greater risk maybe adolescents with a late compared to early chronotype, that is a preference for late versus early sleep onset and offset times.

A Transformative Vision for an Omics-Based Regulatory Chemical Testing Paradigm.

Use of molecular data in human and ecological health risk assessments of industrial chemicals and agrochemicals has been anticipated by the scientific community for many years; however, these data are rarely used for risk assessment. Here, a logic framework is proposed to explore the feasibility and future development of transcriptomic methods to refine and replace the current apical endpoint-based regulatory toxicity testing paradigm. Four foundational principles are outlined and discussed that would need to be accepted by stakeholders prior to this transformative vision being realized.

Why and How Civic Health Should Be Incorporated Into Medical Education.

Civic health refers to the ability of a community to organize and collectively address problems that affect the well-being of its members through democratic participation. Civic health should be an integral part of the medical school curriculum because improving a community's civic health shifts the distribution of power toward patients, better enabling them to address social determinants of health that are affecting their well-being. This article details how to effectively integrate civic health curriculum into already-existing medical education frameworks, outlines how these interventions will improve both patient care and the student experience, and addresses barriers that might restrict the implementation.

Thermally Induced Optical Reflection of Sound (THORS) in Ambient Air: Characterization and Temporal Dynamics.

Thermally induced optical reflection of sound (THORS) provides a means to manipulate sound waves without the need for traditional acoustically engineered structures. By photothermally exciting a medium, with infrared light, a barrier can be formed due to abrupt changes in compressibility of the excited medium. Discovery and initial characterization of the THORS phenomenon utilized air saturated with ethanol vapor as the absorbing medium and a CO laser, operating at 9.

Collision Cross-Section Calibration Strategy for Lipid Measurements in SLIM-Based High-Resolution Ion Mobility.

Structures for lossless ion manipulation-based high-resolution ion mobility (HRIM) interfaced with mass spectrometry has emerged as a powerful tool for the separation and analysis of many isomeric systems. IM-derived collision cross section (CCS) is increasingly used as a molecular descriptor for structural analysis and feature annotation, but there are few studies on the calibration of CCS from HRIM measurements. Here, we examine the accuracy, reproducibility, and practical applicability of CCS calibration strategies for a broad range of lipid subclasses and develop a straightforward and generalizable framework for obtaining high-resolution CCS values.

A Mixed-Methods Study of Creative Problem Solving and Psychosocial Safety Climate: Preparing Engineers for the Future of Work.

The future of work is forcing the world to adjust to a new paradigm of working. New skills will be required to create and adopt new technology and working methods. Additionally, cognitive skills, particularly , will be highly sought after.

Improving Between-Group Effect Size for Multi-Site Functional Connectivity Data via Site-Wise De-Meaning.

Multi-site functional MRI (fMRI) databases are becoming increasingly prevalent in the study of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders. However, multi-site databases are known to introduce site effects that may confound neurobiological and measures such as functional connectivity (FC). Although studies have been conducted to mitigate site effects, these methods often result in reduced effect size in FC comparisons between controls and patients.

Potency Ranking of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances Using High-Throughput Transcriptomic Analysis of Human Liver Spheroids.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are some of the most prominent organic contaminants in human blood. Although the toxicological implications of human exposure to perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) are well established, data on lesser-understood PFAS are limited. New approach methodologies (NAMs) that apply bioinformatic tools to high-throughput data are being increasingly considered to inform risk assessment for data-poor chemicals.

Medical Student Assessment of Pediatric Patient Pain as a Function of Perceived Child Gender.

This survey study investigates whether the perceived gender of a child is associated with how medical students assess a pediatric patient’s pain displayed and pain experienced.

Subtyping Autism Spectrum Disorder Via Joint Modeling of Clinical and Connectomic Profiles.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a highly heterogeneous developmental disorder with diverse clinical manifestations. Neuroimaging studies have explored functional connectivity (FC) of ASD through resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging studies; however, the findings have remained inconsistent, thus reflecting the possibility of multiple subtypes. Identification of the relationship between clinical symptoms and FC measures may help clarify the inconsistencies in earlier findings and advance our understanding of ASD subtypes.

High-Throughput Transcriptomic Analysis of Human Primary Hepatocyte Spheroids Exposed to Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances as a Platform for Relative Potency Characterization.

Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are widely found in the environment because of their extensive use and persistence. Although several PFAS are well studied, most lack toxicity data to inform human health hazard and risk assessment. This study focused on 4 model PFAS: perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA; 8 carbon), perfluorobutane sulfonate (PFBS; 4 carbon), perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS; 8 carbon), and perfluorodecane sulfonate (PFDS; 10 carbon).

Neurodevelopmental and Metabolomic Responses from Prenatal Coexposure to Perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) and Methylmercury (MeHg) in Sprague-Dawley Rats.

Methylmercury (MeHg) and perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) are major contaminants of human blood that are both common in dietary fish, thereby raising questions about their combined impact on human development. Here, pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats ingested a daily dose, from gestational day 1 through to weaning, of either 1 mg/kg bw PFOS (PFOS-only), 1 mg/kg MeHg (MeHg-only), a mixture of 0.1 mg/kg PFOS and 1 mg/kg MeHg (Low-Mix), or of 1 mg/kg of PFOS and 1 mg/kg MeHg (High-Mix).

Longitudinal analysis reveals early-pregnancy associations between perfluoroalkyl sulfonates and thyroid hormone status in a Canadian prospective birth cohort.

Serum perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) have been linked to disruption of maternal thyroid hormone homeostasis, but results have varied between studies which we hypothesized was due to timing of the thyroid hormone measurements, variability in PFAA isomer patterns, or presence of other stressors. In a longitudinal study design, we investigated the time-dependency of associations between PFAA isomers and thyroid hormones during pregnancy and post-partum while considering thyroid peroxidase antibody (TPOAb) status and mercury (Hg) co-exposure. In participants of a prospective Canadian birth cohort (n = 494), free thyroxine (FT4), free triiodothyronine (FT3), thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and TPOAb were quantified in maternal plasma collected in each trimester and 3-months postpartum, and 25 PFAAs (15 linear and 10 branched) and Hg were quantified in samples collected during the second trimester.