Assessing levels in surface soils of informal settlements using boot sock and standard grab methods.

Rapid urbanization leads to the growth of informal settlements, where inadequate sanitation infrastructure is common, thus promoting environmental contamination and risk of gastrointestinal infection. Soil contamination contributes to the transmission of enteropathogens, but traditional sampling approaches may poorly indicate public health risks due to limited spatial representation. This study compares traditional grab sampling of soil with a boot sock method, a composite technique designed to better reflect human-pathogen interactions.

The role of F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography-derived parameters as prognostic factors in patients undergoing resection for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

Background: The aim of this study is to investigate the role of maximum standardized uptake and tumor-to-liver ratio derived from preoperative F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

Methods: Patients who underwent pancreatic resection from January 2015 to December 2022 were reviewed. Patients were grouped based on disease-free survival of 1 year, disease-free survival of 6 months, overall survival of 1 year, and resectability.

Distinct roles for precession, obliquity, and eccentricity in Pleistocene 100-kyr glacial cycles.

Identifying the specific roles of precession, obliquity, and eccentricity in glacial-interglacial transitions is hindered by imprecise age control. We circumvent this problem by focusing on the morphology of deglaciation and inception, which we show depends strongly on the relative phasing of precession versus obliquity. We demonstrate that although both parameters are important, precession has more influence on deglacial onset, whereas obliquity is more important for the attainment of peak interglacial conditions and glacial inception.

Selpercatinib in Fusion-Positive Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Final Safety and Efficacy, Including Overall Survival, From the LIBRETTO-001 Phase I/II Trial.

LIBRETTO-001 (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03157128) is a registrational phase I/II, single-arm, open-label trial of selpercatinib in RET-dependent cancers. With 19 months of additional follow-up, we report the final efficacy and safety results of selpercatinib in patients with fusion-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who had previously received platinum-based chemotherapy (N = 247) or were treatment-naïve (N = 69).