Search

Previous studies have linked environmental exposures with anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), a marker of ovarian reserve. However, associations with multiple environment factors has to our knowledge not been addressed.We included a total of 2,447 premenopausal women in the Nurses' Health Study II (NHSII) who provided blood samples during 1996-1999. We selected environmental exposures linked previously with reproductive outcomes that had measurement data available in NHSII, including greenness, particulate matter, noise, outdoor light at night, ultraviolet radiation, and six hazardous air pollutants (1,3-butadiene, benzene, diesel particulate matter, formaldehyde, methylene chloride, and tetrachloroethylene). For these, we calculated cumulative averages from enrollment (1989) to blood draw and estimated associations with AMH in adjusted single-exposure models, principal component analysis (PCA), and hierarchical Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR).Single-exposure models showed negative associations of AMH with benzene (percentage reduction in AMH per interquartile range [IQR] increase = 5.5%, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.0, 9.8) and formaldehyde (6.1%, 95% CI = 1.6, 10). PCA identified four major exposure patterns but only one with high exposure to air pollutants and light at night was associated with lower AMH. Hierarchical BKMR pointed to benzene, formaldehyde, and greenness and suggested an inverse joint association with AMH (percentage reduction comparing all exposures at the 75th percentile to median = 8.2%, 95% CI = 0.7, 15.1). Observed associations were mainly among women above age 40.We found exposure to benzene and formaldehyde to be consistently associated with lower AMH levels. The associations among older women are consistent with the hypothesis that environmental exposures accelerate reproductive aging.

The electrode performance of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) strongly depends on their microstructural characteristics, such as the porosity, percolated paths of ionically and electronically conductive phases and in particular, the grain size. Deploying alternative manufacturing techniques, such as magnetron sputtering, that deposits nanostructured materials results in finer particle sizes and thus, increases the quantity of triple-phase boundaries in the anode functional layer (AFL) for SOFCs. Nanostructured NiO-YSZ thin films have been previously produced by reactive pulsed DC magnetron co-sputtering of metallic targets of zirconium-yttrium and nickel, defining the optimal deposition parameters to create state-of-the-art AFLs. Based on recent studies 1–3, the future of oxide-based anode materials for SOFCs will greatly focus on advancing the electrocatalyst through alternative non-precious metal doping and increasing the cell performance by tailoring the microstructure of the AFL. Therefore, in this study, vanadium oxides were doped into SOFC anodes using different concentrations to study their influence on the structural and morphological properties of magnetron-sputtered AFLs.

Background: The Rhode Island State Legislature passed the Uniform Controlled Substances Act in 2016 to limit opioid prescriptions. We aimed to objectively evaluate its effect on opioid prescribing for hand surgery patients and also identify risk factors for prolonged opioid use. Methods: A 6-month period (January-June 2016) prior to passage of the law was compared with a period following its implementation (July-December 2017). Thumb carpometacarpal arthroplasty and distal radius fracture fixation were classified as “major surgery” and carpal tunnel and trigger finger release as “minor surgery.” Prescription Drug Monitoring Database was used to review controlled substances filled during the study periods. Results: A total of 1380 patients met our inclusion criteria, with 644 prelaw and 736 postlaw patients. Patients undergoing “major surgery” saw a significant decrease in the number of pills issued in the first postoperative prescription (41.1 vs 21.0) and a corresponding decrease in morphine milligram equivalents (MMEs) (318.6 vs 159.2 MMEs) after implementation. A 30% decrease in MMEs was also seen in those undergoing “major surgery” in the first 30 days postoperatively (544.7 vs 381.7 MMEs). Risk factors for prolonged opioid use included male sex and preoperative opioid use. Conclusions: In Rhode Island, opioid-limiting legislation resulted in a significant decrease in the number of pills and MMEs of the initial prescription and a 30% decrease in total MMEs in the 30-day postoperative period after “major hand surgery.” Additional research is needed to explore the association between legislation and clinical outcomes.

Objective Posttraumatic growth (PTG) has been documented in the aftermath of a range of traumatic events, including bereavement, physical assault, and rape. However, only a handful of studies have examined whether levels of total PTG, as well as the 5 domains of PTG (Appreciation of Life, New Possibilities, Relating to Others, Personal Strength, and Spiritual Change), vary by the type of potentially traumatic event. The current study examined variation in total PTG and PTG domains, as well as posttraumatic stress (PTS), by event type using data from a large epidemiological study. Method Participants were from a substudy of the Nurses' Health Study 2, an epidemiologic study of female nurses in the United States (N = 1,574). Results Controlling for demographic covariates, we found that rape was consistently associated with lower PTG, both total PTG and all five PTG domains, relative to other event types. Other findings were limited to specific PTG domains; for example, intimate partner violence (IPV) was associated with higher Personal Strength and New Possibilities. In contrast, rape and IPV were associated with higher PTS, and the serious illness or injury of someone close with lower PTS, relative to other event types. Conclusion These results add to the growing literature exploring variation in PTG by event type and suggest that different events could yield markedly different patterns of PTG domains and PTS. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Emotions have undergone unusual stages all through the pandemic situation creating a trauma in the minds of learners that extirpate the growth of a learner. The main objective of the work is to identify the face emotions of learners in the learning environment that helps to estimate the attention of learners during lectures in the learning environment. The identification of facial emotions is performed using naïve bayes algorithm. Based on the emotional records, the academic achievement is analyzed with random forest algorithm. The findings of the research are that the attention of the learners in the learning environment with positive emotions produces good academic results.

The growing world population accompanied by urbanisation and improved economies has resulted in an increased demand for diets rich in animal proteins. The rearing of livestock by existing practices is also becoming increasingly difficult due to changing environmental conditions. The use of black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) grown on organic side streams (bioproducts) as feed for animals presents a sustainable alternative to conventional feed ingredients. The nutritional and compositional profile of BSFL reared on organic side streams and their potential to be used as animal feed has been extensively explored. However, little information is available on the chemical safety of BSFL reared on organic side streams. This review addresses the chemical safety hazards of BSFL reared on substrates spiked with different chemical contaminants, including heavy metals, mycotoxins, pesticides, and pharmaceuticals. BSFL were observed to excrete mycotoxins and were able to reduce the concentration of pesticides and pharmaceutical compounds in the substrate. Certain heavy metals were found to be accumulated in BSFL when grown on spiked substrate. Initial studies have also indicated that the growth parameters and composition of BSFL are not altered by the presence of microplastics and organic pollutants in the substrate. Information about these feed-safety issues will assist in developing regulatory frameworks and appropriate processing methods to mitigate these hazards, thereby providing a framework of risks for the commercialisation of BSFL destined for animal feed.

The nature of the area of mathematical competitions as a design science is considered, historical roots of mathematical problem-solving competitions are traced, the complementary aspects of mathematics as theory building and as problem solving are touched upon in relation to the practice of competitions. Two historical figures, Euler and Erdős, emerge, and the appropriateness of many of Euler’s mathematical ventures are seen as role models for competition mathematics as first put into practice in mathematical competitions towards the end of the nineteenth century. Distinctions and definitions are made, a venture into identifying competition syllabi and the principal types of reasoning employed in solving competition problems is explored, and a description of the many different types of competitions is considered. Interaction between the field of mathematics itself and problem-solving competitions is briefly explored, as are the possibilities that open when competitions and their access to huge amounts of data, both national and international, are taken into account in research belonging to mathematics education. Finally, the range of topics addressed in this special issue of ZDM is covered, along with some possible conclusions relating to the components of the overview.

Background: There is a wealth of evidence to suggest that the Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD, or similar Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder, EUPD) construct is harmful. We provide a commentary on the ideas expressed in the May Debate issue, highlighting both concerns and alternatives. Method: We bring together lived experience, clinical, and research expertise. This commentary was written collaboratively drawing on all these sources of evidence. Results: We outline evidence that the BPD construct is invalid, harmful, not necessary for effective treatment and a potential block to the development and evaluation of alternatives. Conclusions: We ask readers to consider these concerns, perspectives, and ideas.

Hillslope similarity is an active topic in hydrology because of its importance in improving our understanding of hydrologic processes and enabling comparisons and paired studies. In this study, we propose a holistic bottom-up hillslope clustering based on a region's integrative hydrodynamic response quantified by the seasonal changes in groundwater levels ΔP. The main advantage of the ΔP clustering is its ability to capture recharge and discharge processes. We test the performance of the ΔP clustering by comparing it to seven other common hillslope clustering approaches. These include clustering approaches based on the aridity index, topographic wetness index, elevation, land cover, and machine-learning that jointly integrate multiple data. We assess the ability of these clustering approaches to identify and categorize hillslopes with similar static characteristics, hydroclimate, land surface processes, and subsurface dynamics in a mountainous watershed – the East River – located in the headwaters of the Upper Colorado River Basin. The ΔP clustering performs very well in identifying hillslopes with six out of the nine characteristics studied. The variability among clusters as quantified by the coefficient of variation (0.2) is less in the ΔP and the machine learning approaches than in the others (> 0.3 for TWI, elevation, and land cover). We further demonstrate the robustness of the ΔP clustering by testing its ability to predict hillslope responses to wet and dry hydrologic conditions, of which it performs well when based on average conditions.

Svalbard is a High Arctic Archipelago at 74–81°N and 15–35 °E under the sovereignty of Norway. All settlements in Svalbard, including the capital of Longyearbyen (population 2400), currently have isolated energy systems with coal or diesel as the main energy source. Geothermal energy is considered as a possible alternative for electricity production, as a heat source in district heating systems or harnessed for heating and cooling using geothermal heat pump installations. In this contribution we present the until now fragmented data sets relevant to characterize and assess the geothermal potential of Svalbard. Data sets include petroleum and deep research boreholes drilled onshore Svalbard, 14 of which have recorded subsurface temperature data at depths below 200 m. Geothermal gradients on Spitsbergen vary from 24 °C/km in the west to 55 °C/km in the south-east, with an average of 33 °C/km. Four deep research boreholes were fully cored and analyzed for thermal conductivity. These analyses were complemented by thermal conductivity calculated from wireline logs in selected boreholes and four measurements on outcrop samples. 1D heat flow modelling on five boreholes calibrated with the measured thermal conductivities offers insights into heat transfer through the heterogeneous sedimentary succession. Offshore petroleum boreholes in the south-western Barents Sea and marine heat flow stations around Svalbard provide a regional framework for discussing spatial variation in heat flow onshore Svalbard, with emphasis on the effects of erosion and deposition on the thermal regime. We conclude that Svalbard's geology is well suited for geothermal exploration and potential production, though challenges related to permafrost, the presence of natural gas, heterogeneous reservoir quality and strongly lateral varying heat flow need to be adequately addressed prior to geothermal energy production. Specifically for Longyearbyen, high geothermal gradients of 40–43 °C/km in the nearest borehole (DH4) suggest promising sub-surface thermal conditions for further exploration of deep geothermal potential near the settlement.

Background Widespread COVID-19 vaccine uptake can facilitate epidemic control. A February 2021 study in Uganda suggested that public vaccine uptake would follow uptake among leaders. In May 2021, Baylor Uganda led community dialogue meetings with district leaders from Western Uganda to promote vaccine uptake. We assessed the effect of these meetings on the leaders’ COVID-19 risk perception, vaccine concerns, perception of vaccine benefits and access, and willingness to receive COVID-19 vaccine. Methods All departmental district leaders in the 17 districts in Western Uganda, were invited to the meetings, which lasted approximately four hours. Printed reference materials about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines were provided to attendees at the start of the meetings. The same topics were discussed in all meetings. Before and after the meetings, leaders completed self-administered questionnaires with questions on a five-point Likert Scale about risk perception, vaccine concerns, perceived vaccine benefits, vaccine access, and willingness to receive the vaccine. We analyzed the findings using Wilcoxon’s signed-rank test. Results Among 268 attendees, 164 (61%) completed the pre- and post-meeting questionnaires, 56 (21%) declined to complete the questionnaires due to time constraints and 48 (18%) were already vaccinated. Among the 164, the median COVID-19 risk perception scores changed from 3 (neutral) pre-meeting to 5 (strong agreement with being at high risk) post-meeting (p p p p p Conclusion COVID-19 dialogue meetings led to district leaders’ increased risk perception, reduced concerns, and improvement in perceived vaccine benefits, vaccine access, and willingness to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. These could potentially influence public vaccine uptake if leaders are vaccinated publicly as a result. Broader use of such meetings with leaders could increase vaccine uptake among themselves and the community.

Objective Evidence suggests that greater social integration is related to lower mortality rates. However, studies among African-Americans are limited. We examined whether higher social integration was associated with lower mortality in 5306 African-Americans from the Jackson Heart Study, who completed the Berkman-Syme Social Network Index in 2000–2004 and were followed until 2018. Methods We estimated hazard ratios (HR) of mortality by categories of the Social Network Index (i.e., high social isolation, moderate social isolation [reference group], moderate social integration, high social integration) using Cox proportional hazard models. Covariates included baseline sociodemographics, depressive symptoms, health conditions, and health behaviors. Results Compared with moderate isolation, moderate integration was associated with an 11% lower mortality rate (HR = 0.89, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.77, 1.03), and high integration was associated with a 25% lower mortality rate (HR = 0.75, 95% CI 0.64, 0.87), controlling for sociodemographics and depressive symptoms; compared with moderate isolation, high isolation was related to a 34% higher mortality rate (HR = 1.34, 95% CI 1.00, 1.79). Further adjustment of potential mediators (health conditions and health behaviors) only slightly attenuated HRs (e.g., HRmoderate integration = 0.90, 95% CI 0.78, 1.05; HRhigh integration = 0.77, 95% CI 0.66, 0.89). Conclusion Social integration may be a psychosocial health asset with future work needed to identify biobehavioral processes underlying observed associations with mortality among African-Americans.

Adverse neighborhood social and natural (greenspace) environments may contribute to prostate cancer (CaP) etiology, but mechanisms are unclear. We examined associations between neighborhood environment and prostate intratumoral inflammation in 967 men diagnosed with CaP with available tissue from 1986-2009 in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Exposures were linked to work or residential addresses in 1988. We estimated indices of neighborhood socioeconomic status (nSES) and segregation (Index of Concentration at Extremes (ICE)) using Census tract-level data. Surrounding greenness was estimated using seasonal averaged Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Surgical tissue underwent pathological review for acute and chronic inflammation, corpora amylacea, and focal atrophic lesions. Adjusted odds ratios (aOR) for inflammation (ordinal) and focal atrophy (binary) were estimated using logistic regression. No associations were observed for acute or chronic inflammation. Each IQR increase in NDVI within 1230m (aOR: 0.74, 95% CI: 0.59, 0.93), ICE-income (aOR: 0.79, 95% CI: 0.61, 1.04) and ICE-race/income (aOR: 0.79, 95% CI: 0.63, 0.99) was associated with lower postatrophic hyperplasia. IQR increases in nSES (aOR: 0.76, 95% CI: 0.57, 1.02) and ICE-race/income (aOR: 0.73, 95% CI: 0.54, 0.99) were associated with lower tumor corpora amylacea. Histopathological inflammatory features of prostate tumors may be influenced by neighborhood

The increasing availability of long-term observational data can lead to the development of innovative modelling approaches to determine landslide triggering conditions at regional scale, opening new avenues for landslide prediction and early warning. This research blends the strengths of existing approaches with the capabilities of generalized additive mixed models (GAMMs) to develop an interpretable approach that identifies seasonally dynamic precipitation conditions for shallow landslides. The model builds upon a 21-year record of landslides in South Tyrol (Italy) and separates precipitation that induced landslides from precipitation that did not. The model accounts for effects acting at four temporal scales: short-term “triggering” precipitation, medium-term “preparatory” precipitation, seasonal effects and across-year data variability. It provides relative landslide probability scores that were used to establish seasonally dynamic thresholds with optimal performance in terms of hit and false alarm rates, as well as additional thresholds related to user-defined performance scores. The GAMM shows a high predictive performance and indicates that more precipitation is required to induce a landslide in summer than in winter/spring, which can presumably be attributed mainly to vegetation and temperature effects. The discussion illustrates why the quality of input data, study design and model transparency are crucial for landslide prediction using advanced data-driven techniques.

Study Objective To examine the association between light at night (LAN) and multiple sleep health dimensions Methods Among 47 765 Sister Study participants, indoor LAN (TV on in the room, light(s) on in room, light from outside the room, nightlight, no light) and sleep dimensions were self-reported at baseline (2003–2009). We used Poisson regression with robust variance to estimate adjusted prevalence ratios (PR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the cross-sectional associations between LAN and short sleep duration ( Results Compared to sleeping with no light in the bedroom, sleeping with a TV on was associated with a higher prevalence of most dimensions of poor sleep (e.g. short sleep duration: PR = 1.38, 95% CI: 1.32 to 1.45; inconsistent sleep/wake time: PR = 1.55, 95% CI: 1.44 to 1.66; sleep debt: PR = 1.36, 95% CI: 1.29 to 1.44; poor sleep score: PR = 1.58, 95% CI: 1.48-1.68). PARs tended to be higher for non-Hispanic black women compared to non-Hispanic white women. Conclusions Sleeping with a TV on was associated with poor sleep health among US women, and non-Hispanic black women may be disproportionately burdened.

Supplementary Figure 1. Hierachical clustering of the 2D gel images of the 101 soft tissue sarcomas. 1065 proteins were matched over 101 tumors run in duplicate with a constant pool reference. 981 spots were found to be statistically valid with the following criteria: Anova p=01, fold change >1.5, FDR 1% and were used for the clustering. Supplementary Figure 2. Apoptosis and survival: Granzyme A signalling pathway (from MetaCore) with expression changes as thermometers. Supplementary Figure 3. Cytoskeleton remodelling pathway (from MetaCore) with expression changes as thermometers. Supplementary Figure 4. Telomere regulation and cellular immortalization (from MetaCore) with expression changes as thermometers. Supplementary Figure 5. Experimental design. The scheme shows the experimental flow used in the experiments described in the manuscript.

This issue of ATR considers numerous instances in which economic historians and historians of capitalism have turned to architecture as evidence of the workings of economic and financial systems. This collective position paper stems from the attempt to engage more directly with these disciplines; an attempt that was first manifested in the symposium “Built Orders of Finance, Risk and Racial Capitalism,” held online in early 2022. How are built orders shaped by processes of financialization, actuarial calculations of risk and the conditions of racial capitalism? How do built orders mobilize specific economic regimes? What kinds of evidence can be enlisted to discern the constitutive relationships established and maintained between architecture and regimes of finance? What scales are implied in these relationships? What is involved in their historicization? This article invites future conversations between the fields of scholarship it canvases to more comprehensively apprehend the terms, conditions, and histories of financialized space.

Circadian disruption may play a role in carcinogenesis. Recent research suggests that light at night (LAN), a circadian disruptor, may be a risk factor for cancer. Moreover, LAN has been linked to obesity and diabetes, two risk factors for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Here we examine the relationship between LAN and PDAC in an epidemiologic study of 464,371 participants from the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study. LAN was estimated from satellite imagery at baseline (1996), and incident primary PDAC cases were ascertained from state cancer registries. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate HRs and two-sided 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association between quintiles of LAN and PDAC in the overall population stratified by sex. Over up to 16.2 years of follow-up, a total of 2,502 incident PDAC were identified in the cohort. Higher estimated LAN exposure was associated with an elevated PDAC risk. Compared with those living in areas in the lowest LAN quintile, those in areas in the highest quintile had a 27% increase PDAC risk [HR (95% CI), 1.24 (1.03–1.49)], with similar risk for men [1.21 (0.96–1.53)] and women [1.28 (0.94–1.75)]. In addition, stronger associations were observed in normal and overweight groups compared with the obese group (Pinteraction = 0.03). Our results support the hypothesis that LAN and circadian disruption may be risk factors for PDAC.Significance:Our study suggests that higher LAN is a risk factor for pancreatic cancer, contributing to the growing literature that demonstrates the potentially adverse health effects of light pollution.

Background: Physical inactivity is a risk factor for cancer that may be influenced by environmental factors. Indeed, dense and well-connected built environments and environments with natural vegetation may create opportunities for higher routine physical activity. However, studies have focused primarily on residential environments to define exposure and self-reported methods to estimate physical activity. This study explores the momentary association between minute-level global positioning systems (GPS)-based greenness exposure and time-matched objectively measured physical activity.Methods: Adult women were recruited from sites across the United States. Participants wore a GPS device and accelerometer on the hip for 7 days to assess location and physical activity at minute-level epochs. GPS records were linked to 250 m resolution satellite-based vegetation data and Census Block Group-level U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Smart Location Database walkability data. Minute-level generalized additive mixed models were conducted to test for associations between GPS measures and accelerometer count data, accounting for repeated measures within participant and allowing for deviations from linearity using splines.Results: Among 360 adult women (mean age of 55.3 ± 10.2 years), we observed positive nonlinear relationships between physical activity and both greenness and walkability. In exploratory analyses, the relationships between environmental factors and physical activity were strongest among those who were white, had higher incomes, and who were middle-aged.Conclusions: Our results indicate that higher levels of physical activity occurred in areas with higher greenness and higher walkability.Impact: Findings suggest that planning and design policies should focus on these environments to optimize opportunities for physical activity. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 26(4); 525–32. ©2017 AACR.See all the articles in this CEBP Focus section, “Geospatial Approaches to Cancer Control and Population Sciences.”

Supplemental Figure 1. GPS and Physical Activity Data Overlaid on a. Greenness and b. Neighborhood Walkability. Supplemental Figure 2. Nonlinear Relationship between Activity and a. Greenness and b. Neighborhood Walkability in Dataset Excluding Outliers (>3 Standard Deviations from Mean Accelerometer Counts). Supplemental Figure 3. Greenness and Physical Activity Stratified by Race. Supplemental Figure 4. Greenness and Physical Activity Stratified by Educational Attainment. Supplemental Figure 5. Greenness and Physical Activity Stratified by Employment Status. Supplemental Figure 6. Greenness and Physical Activity Stratified by Annual Household Income. Supplemental Figure 7. Greenness and Physical Activity Stratified by Sampling. Season Supplemental Figure 8. Greenness and Physical Activity Stratified by Weekday / Weekend. Supplemental Figure 9. Walkability Index and Physical Activity Stratified by Race. Supplemental Figure 10. Walkability Index and Physical Activity Stratified by Educational Attainment. Supplemental Figure 11. Walkability Index and Physical Activity Stratified by Employment Status. Supplemental Figure 12. Walkability Index and Physical Activity Stratified by Annual Household Income. Supplemental Figure 13. Walkability Index and Physical Activity Stratified by Sampling Season. Supplemental Figure 14. Walkability Index and Physical Activity Stratified by Weekday / Weekend.

Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) outlet glaciers are currently losing mass leading to sea level rise. Reconstructions of past outlet glaciers through the Holocene help us better understand how they respond to climate change. Kiattuut Sermiat, a south Greenland outlet glacier near Narsarsuaq, is known to have experienced an anomalously small Little Ice Age advance compared with a larger Holocene advance that culminated at ~1600 cal yr BP. We report sedimentary records from two lakes at slightly different elevations in an upland valley adjacent to Kiattuut Sermiat, which reveal when the outlet glacier was significantly larger than its Little Ice Age size and constrain the associated outlet glacier surface elevation. We use bulk sediment geochemistry, magnetic susceptibility, color, texture, and the presence of aquatic plant macrofossils to distinguish between till, glaciolacustrine sediments, and organic lake sediments. Our 14C results above basal till recording regional deglaciation skew slightly old due to a hard water effect but are generally consistent with regional deglaciation occurring ~11,000 cal yr BP. Neoglacial advance of Kiattuut Sermiat is recorded by deposition of glaciolacustrine sediments in the lower-elevation lake, which was subsumed by an ice-dammed lake that formed along the glacier’s margin just after ~3900 cal yr BP. This timing is consistent with several other glacial records in Greenland showing Neoglacial cooling driving advance between ~4500–3000 cal yr BP. Given that glaciolacustrine sediments were deposited only in the lower-elevation lake, combined with glacial geomorphological evidence in the valley containing these lakes, we estimate the former ice margin’s elevation to have been ~670 m, compared with ~420 m today. The ice-dammed lake persisted until glacier retreat at ~1600 cal yr BP. That retreat timing contrasts with overall evidence for cooling and glacier advance in the region at that time, so we infer that retreat may have resulted from reduced precipitation amounts and/or local glaciological complexity. High sensitivity to precipitation changes could also explain the limited Little Ice Age advance of Kiattuut Sermiat compared to other Greenland glaciers.

Environmental exposures have been linked to COVID-19 severity. Previous studies examined very few environmental factors, and often only separately without considering the totality of the environment, or the exposome. In addition, existing risk prediction models of severe COVID-19 predominantly rely on demographic and clinical factors. To address these gaps, we conducted a spatial and contextual exposome-wide association study (ExWAS) and developed polyexposomic scores (PES) of COVID-19 hospitalization leveraging rich information from individuals’ spatial and contextual exposome. Individual-level electronic health records of 50 368 patients aged 18 years and older with a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR/Antigen lab test or a COVID-19 diagnosis between March 2020 and October 2021 were obtained from the OneFlorida+ Clinical Research Network. A total of 194 spatial and contextual exposome factors from 10 data sources were spatiotemporally linked to each patient based on geocoded residential histories. We used a standard two-phase procedure in the ExWAS and developed and validated PES using gradient boosting decision trees models. Four exposome measures significantly associated with COVID-19 hospitalization were identified, including 2-chloroacetophenone, low food access, neighborhood deprivation, and reduced access to fitness centers. The initial prediction model in all patients without considering exposome factors had a testing-area under the curve (AUC) of 0.778. Incorporation of exposome data increased the testing-AUC to 0.787. Similar findings were observed in subgroup analyses focusing on populations without comorbidities and aged 18–24 years old. This spatial and contextual exposome study of COVID-19 hospitalization confirmed previously reported risk factor but also generated novel predictors that warrant more focused evaluation.

Background: Emerging evidence has suggested lifestyle and behavioral factors such as physical activity, diet, and sleep may be associated with cardiometabolic health outcomes in US adults. However, these studies typically have limited temporal or spatial coverage. The current study aimed to fill in this gap by applying smartphone-based digital phenotyping to collect dynamic, high temporal resolution measures of lifestyle and behavioral factors. Methods: Participants (N = 2,127 as of Sep 7 th , 2022) of the Beiwe Smartphone Sub-study of Nurses’ Health Study 3 (NHS3) and Growing Up Today Study (GUTS) completed microsurveys delivered by the Beiwe smartphone application for a year each. Starting July 2021, a microsurvey was delivered every 10 days, covering one of the 12 different topics, including emotions, stress, physical activity, green space, pets, diet, sleep, and sitting. These questionnaires aimed to measure various aspects of participants’ key health behaviors, to combine with objectively assessed high-resolution GPS and accelerometer data that participants provided during the same period. Results: Between July 28 th , 2021, and Sep 7 th , 2022, 2,127 participants completed 22,039 microsurveys delivered by the Beiwe application. The mean follow-up for participants was 116 days (SD=124, range=221). During this period, each participant on average submitted 10 microsurveys (SD=10, range=39). The topic completed most consistently (N=1,955 responses) was pets (the first microsurvey), and 43.3% of responses from participants reported a park visit in the past week. Additionally, 71.2% of responses from participants reported they spent at least a few minutes walking for exercise in the past week. Furthermore, during the same period, participants on average provided 177 days (SD=123, range=218) of GPS data and 181 days (SD=181, range=224) of accelerometer data. Conclusions: In this study, the smartphone-based digital phenotyping technology was implemented to collect intensive longitudinal data on lifestyle and behavioral factors in two well-established prospective cohorts. The efforts so far have resulted in a rich dataset on health behaviors, which can be linked to locations and future cardiometabolic health outcomes.

White mugwort (Artemisia lactiflora Wall.), a traditional Chinese medicine, has been widely consumed in different forms for health care purposes. In this study, the in vitro digestion model of INFOGEST was used to investigate the bioaccessibility, stability, and antioxidant activity of polyphenols from two different forms of white mugwort, including dried powder (P 50, 100, and 150 mg/mL) and fresh extract (FE 5, 15, and 30 mg/mL). During digestion, the bioaccessibility of TPC and antioxidant activity were influenced by the form and ingested concentration of white mugwort. The highest bioaccessibility of the total phenolic content (TPC) and relative antioxidant activity were found at the lowest P and FE concentrations, as calculated relative to the TPC and antioxidant activity of P-MetOH and FE-MetOH based on the dry weight of the sample. Post-digestion, in comparison to P, FE had higher bioaccessibility (FE = 287.7% and P = 130.7%), relative DPPH radical scavenging activity (FE = 104.2% and P = 47.3%), and relative FRAP (FE = 673.5% and P = 66.5%). Nine compounds, 3-caffeoylquinic acid, 5-caffeoylquinic acid, 3,5-di-caffeoylquinic acid, sinapolymalate, isovitexin, kaempferol, morin, rutin, and quercetin, identified in both samples were modified during digestion, yet still provided strong antioxidant activity. These findings suggest that white mugwort extract possesses a higher polyphenol bioaccessibility, showing great potential as a functional ingredient.

Extracting quasi-normal modes from compact binary mergers to perform black hole spectroscopy is one of the fundamental pillars in current and future strong-gravity tests. Among the most remarkable findings of recent works is that including a large number of overtones not only reduces the mismatch of the fitted ringdown but also allows one to extract black hole parameters from a ringdown analysis that goes well within the non-linear merger part. At the same time, it is well understood that several details of the ringdown analysis have important consequences for the question of whether overtones are present or not, and subsequently, to what extent one can claim to perform black hole spectroscopy. To clarify and tackle some aspects of overtone fitting, we revisit the clearer problem of wave propagation in the scalar Regge-Wheeler and P\"oschl-Teller potentials. This set-up, which is to some extent qualitatively very similar to the non-linear merger-ringdown regime, indicates that using even an approximate model for the overtones yields an improved extraction of the black hole mass at early ringdown times. We find that the relevant parameter is the number of included modes rather than using the correct model for the overtones themselves. This further adds evidence to the proposal that large overtone numbers may instead remove non-quasi-normal mode contributions that are relevant at early times of a ringdown, but do not necessarily correspond to the physical excitation of modes of the system., Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures

IntroductionBreeding for tick resistance is a sustainable alternative to control cattle ticks due to widespread resistance to acaricidal drugs and the lack of a protective vaccine. The most accurate method used to characterise the phenotype for tick resistance in field studies is the standard tick count, but this is labour-intensive and can be hazardous to the operator. Efficient genetic selection requires reliable phenotyping or biomarker(s) for accurately identifying tick-resistant cattle. Although breed-specific genes associated with tick resistance have been identified, the mechanisms behind tick resistance have not yet been fully characterised.MethodsThis study applied quantitative proteomics to examine the differential abundance of serum and skin proteins using samples from naïve tick-resistant and -susceptible Brangus cattle at two-time points following tick exposure. The proteins were digested into peptides, followed by identification and quantification using sequential window acquisition of all theoretical fragment ion mass spectrometry.ResultsResistant naïve cattle had a suite of proteins associated with immune response, blood coagulation and wound healing that were significantly (adjusted P < 10- 5) more abundant compared with susceptible naïve cattle. These proteins included complement factors (C3, C4, C4a), alpha-1-acid glycoprotein (AGP), beta-2-glycoprotein-1, keratins (KRT1 & KRT3) and fibrinogens (alpha & beta). The mass spectrometry findings were validated by identifying differences in the relative abundance of selected serum proteins with ELISA. The proteins showing a significantly different abundance in resistant cattle following early and prolonged tick exposures (compared to resistant naïve) were associated with immune response, blood coagulation, homeostasis, and wound healing. In contrast, susceptible cattle developed some of these responses only after prolonged tick exposure.DiscussionResistant cattle were able to transmigrate immune-response related proteins towards the tick bite sites, which may prevent tick feeding. Significantly differentially abundant proteins identified in this research in resistant naïve cattle may provide a rapid and efficient protective response to tick infestation. Physical barrier (skin integrity and wound healing) mechanisms and systemic immune responses were key contributors to resistance. Immune response-related proteins such as C4, C4a, AGP and CGN1 (naïve samples), CD14, GC and AGP (post-infestation) should be further investigated as potential biomarkers for tick resistance.

UNLABELLED: Green spaces may be protective against COVID-19 incidence. They may provide outdoor, ventilated, settings for physical and social activities and therefore decrease transmission risk. We examined the association between neighborhood greenness and COVID-19-like illness incidence using individual-level data. METHODS: The study population includes participants enrolled in the COVID Symptom Study smartphone application in the United Kingdom and the United States (March-November 2020). All participants were encouraged to report their current health condition and suspected risk factors for COVID-19. We used a validated symptom-based classifier that predicts COVID-19-like illness. We estimated the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), for each participant's reported neighborhood of residence for each month, using images from Landsat 8 (30 m2). We used time-varying Cox proportional hazards models stratified by age, country, and calendar month at study entry and adjusted for the individual- and neighborhood-level risk factors. RESULTS: We observed 143,340 cases of predicted COVID-19-like illness among 2,794,029 participants. Neighborhood NDVI was associated with a decreased risk of predicted COVID-19-like illness incidence in the fully adjusted model (hazard ratio = 0.965, 95% confidence interval = 0.960, 0.970, per 0.1 NDVI increase). Stratified analyses showed protective associations among U.K. participants but not among U.S. participants. Associations were slightly stronger for White individuals, for individuals living in rural neighborhoods, and for individuals living in high-income neighborhoods compared to individuals living in low-income neighborhoods. CONCLUSIONS: Higher levels of greenness may reduce the risk of predicted COVID-19-like illness incidence, but these associations were not observed in all populations.

Haematobia irritans exigua, commonly known as buffalo fly, is the major hematophagous ectoparasite of north Australian cattle herds. Lesions associated with buffalo fly infestation are generally alopecic, hyperkeratotic, or scab encrusted wounds with variable hemorrhagic ulceration. Buffalo flies can transmit a filarial nematode, Stephanofilaria sp., which has been implicated in the pathogenesis of buffalo fly lesions, but Stephanofilaria infection has not been detected in all lesions suggesting that other causal factors may be involved. This study characterized the pathology of buffalo fly lesions to identify the role of Stephanofilaria in lesion development, as well as to identify other potential agents. Lesion biopsies were collected from north and south Queensland and tested for the presence of Stephanofilaria by qPCR. Each lesion was scored grossly (0–4) for hemorrhage, ulceration, exudation, and alopecia. Lesions were also scored microscopically (0–4) for epidermal and dermal damage and inflammatory characters. Stephanofilaria infection was detected in 31% of lesion biopsies. Grossly, Stephanofilaria-infected lesions had significantly larger lesion area and higher scores for alopecia and hyperkeratosis than lesions where no nematodes were found (P < 0.05). Histologically, epidermal, dermal, and adnexal damage was significantly higher in Stephanofilaria infected lesions than lesions without nematodes. Eosinophils, macrophages, and lymphocytes were significantly more abundant in Stephanofilaria positive lesions as compared to negative lesions. This study also noted bacterial infection with colonies of coccoid bacteria, observed in skin sections from 19 lesions. Grossly, lesions with bacterial infection had significantly higher ulceration scores compared to Stephanofilaria positive lesions, and histologically epidermal disruption was significantly greater in bacteria-infected lesions. We found no evidence of bacteria or Stephanofilaria infection in 49% of the lesions assessed and tissue damage patterns and eosinophilic inflammation suggested hypersensitivity to buffalo fly feeding as a possible cause of these lesions. These findings suggest that although the presence of Stephanofilaria infection may increase the severity of lesion pathology, it is not essential for lesion development. These outcomes also suggest a potential role of bacteria and hypersensitivity in pathogenesis of some lesion. A better understanding of buffalo fly lesion etiology will contribute to the optimal treatment and control programmes.

A broad investigation of the unsteady flow phenomena which occur in an axial flow compressor is presented. It is based on an analysis of hot wire measurements of the time variation in velocity at fixed points in the flow through a single stage machine with three blade rows. The study has been confined mainly to the \potential flow\" unsteadiness due to the rotor movement and the effect of wakes from one blade row interacting with downstream rows. A general experimental investigation of the compressor blade wakes is included. The results are compared with velocity distributions calculated from existing potential flow models of the flow through a cascade and a new model lased on the approximations of thin aerofoil theory is developed by the author. Consideration is given to the development of a model of a blade wake and the author's potential flow model is extended to include a wake and boundary. layer thickness effect. Also included is an account of a brief experimental investigation of the noise generated by the compressor due to blade row interaction effects."

Additional file 1: Table 1: SPIRT Checklist.

Numerical-relativity surrogate models for both black-hole merger waveforms and remnants have emerged as important tools in gravitational-wave astronomy. While producing very accurate predictions, their applicability is limited to the region of the parameter space where numerical-relativity simulations are available and computationally feasible. Notably, this excludes extreme mass ratios. We present a machine-learning approach to extend the validity of existing and future numerical-relativity surrogate models toward the test-particle limit, targeting in particular the mass and spin of post-merger black-hole remnants. Our model is trained on both numerical-relativity simulations at comparable masses and analytical predictions at extreme mass ratios. We extend the gaussian-process-regression model NRSur7dq4Remnant, validate its performance via cross validation, and test its accuracy against additional numerical-relativity runs. Our fit, which we dub NRSur7dq4EmriRemnant, reaches an accuracy that is comparable to or higher than that of existing remnant models while providing robust predictions for arbitrary mass ratios., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures. Model publicly available at https://pypi.org/project/surfinBH

Adaptable, low-cost, coils designed by carefully selecting the arrangements and geometries of simple primitive units are used to generate magnetic fields for diverse applications. These extend from magnetic resonance and fundamental physics experiments to active shielding of quantum devices including magnetometers, interferometers, clocks, and computers. However, finding optimal arrangements and geometries of multiple primitive structures is time-intensive and it is challenging to account for additional constraints, e.g. optical access, during the design process. Here, we demonstrate a general method to find these optimal arrangements. We encode specific symmetries into sets of loops, saddles, and cylindrical ellipses and then solve exactly for the magnetic field harmonics generated by each set. By combining these analytic solutions using computer algebra, we can use numerical techniques to efficiently map the landscape of parameters and geometries which the coils must satisfy. Sets of solutions may be found which generate desired target fields accurately while accounting for complexity and size restrictions. We demonstrate this approach by employing simple configurations of loops, saddles, and cylindrical ellipses to design target linear field gradients and compare their performance with designs obtained using conventional methods. A case study is presented where three optimized arrangements of loops, designed to generate a uniform axial field, a linear axial field gradient, and a quadratic axial field gradient, respectively, are hand-wound around a low-cost, 3D-printed coil former. These coils are used to null the background in a typical laboratory environment, reducing the magnitude of the axial field along the central half of the former's axis from $\left(7.8\pm0.3\right)$ $\mu$T (mean $\pm$ st. dev.) to $\left(0.11\pm0.04\right)$ $\mu$T., Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures, 2 tables

The Science theme, the 'Nature of Matter', is important in Science education. This dissertation .examines student recognition of some of the more important concept definitions associated with this theme. In July 1981 a questionnaire consisting of two science tests relating to the 'Nature of Matter' was given to 1132 students: from both Primary and High Schools. The student sample came from a relatively restricted geographical area on the North West Coast of Tasmania. The High School students ( Grades 7 to 10 ) attended two different schools, while all Primary School students ( Grades 5 and 6 ) attended feeder Primary Schools of the two High Schools. The theme, the 'Nature of Matter', had been formally introduced to High School students but not to the Primary School students. The first of the two tests attempted to determine the extent to which students recognized concept words associated with the theme the 'Nature of Matter'. Recognition, in terms of correct responses to individual concept definitions and to total scores on the test, showed an increase with increasing grade. On entering High School an 'average' student from the student sample would correctly recognize the meaning of about half of thee concept words examined in the test. It has also been showed that increased recognition is associated with high IQ estimate and good science ability. Neither gender difference nor socioeconomic status appear to be associated with any change in the recognition of the concept definitions examined. The second test examined the preferred thinking style used by students in arriving at the correct response to the individual items in the first test. While there was only 'one correct response to each item in the first test, all responses to each item in the second test were correct. In the latter test students were asked to indicate which of the responses they preferred. These responses were categorized as being one of : (1) 'Membership' (M) where responses were considered as being elements of a set of like objects. For example, Tasmania is an island. Steam is a gas. (2) 'Partial Association' (P) where responses are considered as relating to a 'property' of the concept word. For example, An island is surrounded by water. A liquid is usually runny and flows easily. (3) 'Generalisation' (G) where responses are general in nature. For example, a gas describes a state of matter. An area is an amount of surface. Each item in the second test contained four responses ‚ÄövÑvÆ one M, one G .and two P. An analysis of preferred thinking styles on individual items considered only responses where there was also a correct response to the corresponding item in the first test. This analysis indicated that with increasing grade there was a decline in the selection of Membership as a preferred thinking style and a corresponding increase in the selection of Generalisation. Preference for Partial Association remained constant over the whole grade range. The same factors which promoted increased recognition in the first test, namely high IQ Estimate and good science ability, were also responsible for an increase in the selection of Generalisation as a preferred thinking style. Preferred thinking style did not appear to be influenced by either gender difference or socioeconomic status. None of the factors examined appear to influence the selection of Partial Association as a preferred thinking style. The correct responses to the concept words examined in the first test were defined in terms of either Partial Association or Generalisation. It was found that the most preferred thinking style used by students in responding to the corresponding item in. the second test was closely allied to the way in which the actual definition was worded. For instance, where the definition was given in terms of a Generalisation then the most preferred thinking style on that definition was also Generalisation. An analysis of recognition scores of individual concept definitions of the first test showed that these scores increased after that concept definition had been formally introduced as part of the Science Education programme. However the results of the second test showed that the teaching of a given concept definition associated with the theme, the 'Nature of Matter', appeared to have little influence on preferential thinking style.