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The ongoing international negotiations on a global plastics treaty will have pivotal implications for future efforts to transform the plastic economy. This is essential since the current use of plastic in the economy impacts the environment beyond the planetary carrying capacity. To ensure that the forthcoming Treaty can provide the foundation for this transition, the best available science must be made available in the negotiations, but with no formal scientific mechanism to inform the negotiations process, this is not ensured. The Scientists' Coalition for an Effective Plastic Treaty serves as an example of how the global scientific community has self-organized and come together to address this task, working with five different categories of science-policy communication. The Scientists' Coalition's work is made transparent here with the hope that it can inspire organization of scientific input into other future policy areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of corticosterone (CORT), the main glucocorticoid in reptiles, via blood or faeces provides an index of hormone concentrations over a relatively short time period. Unlike these conventional matrices, snake shed skin is supposed to incorporate circulating CORT over the period of skin growth, thus reflecting long-term retrospective levels of the hormone. The present study aimed to assess the feasibility to extract CORT from shed skin of Komodo dragon and biochemically validate the quantification of the hormone by enzyme immunoassay (EIA). Additionally, possible sources of variation in shed skin CORT that could reflect biological variation were examined (sex, age, body region and season of ecdysis). Results of the biochemical validation showed that CORT can be reliably measured in shed skin of Komodo dragon by EIA through the presented methodology. Males presented statistically higher levels of CORT than females, and when accounting for males' seasonal differences, concentrations decreased significantly from spring to summer. Juveniles showed higher CORT values than adults, however, results should be interpreted with caution since the model revealed that date of ecdysis was significantly influencing CORT levels. Besides that, concentrations of CORT were not influenced by body region. Overall, the present study demonstrates a potential biological source of variation in shed skin CORT concentrations due to sex, age and season of skin ecdysis. Combined with other indicators, detection of CORT concentrations in shed skin could allow a systematic control of Komodo dragon's physiology, offering a useful tool for zoo management and providing key data for the species conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concentrations of different steroid hormones have been used in cows as a measure of adrenal or gonadal activity and, thus, as indicators of stress or reproductive state. Detecting cortisol and progesterone in cow hair provides a long-term integrative value of retrospective adrenal or gonadal/placental activity, respectively. Current techniques for steroid detection require a hormone-extraction procedure that involves time, several types of equipment, management of reagents, and some assay procedures (which can also be time-consuming and can destroy the samples). In contrast, near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) is a multi-component predictor technique, characterized as rapid, nondestructive for the sample, and reagent-free. However, as a predictor technique, NIRS needs to be calibrated and validated for each matrix, hormone, and species. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the predictive value of the NIRS technique for hair cortisol and progesterone quantification in cows by using specific enzyme immunoassay as a reference method. Hair samples from 52 adult Friesian lactating cows from a commercial dairy farm were used. Reflectance spectra of hair samples were determined with a NIR reflectance spectrophotometer before and after trimming them. Although similar results were obtained, a slightly better relationship between the reference data and NIRS predicted values was found using trimmed samples. Near infrared reflectance spectroscopy demonstrated its ability to predict cortisol and progesterone concentrations with certain accuracy (R²=0.90 for cortisol and R²=0.87 for progesterone). Although NIRS is far from being a complete alternative to current methodologies, the proposed equations can offer screening capability. Considering the advantages of both fields, our results open the possibility for future work on the combination of hair steroid measurement and NIRS methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To develop and validate an instrument to measure health-related quality of life (HRQOL) specific to patients with allergic rhinitis (AR) and primarily for use in Spanish and Spanish-speaking populations., Methods: An initial item pool was generated from literature review, focus groups with AR patients, and consultations with clinical experts. Item reduction was performed using clinimetric and psychometric approaches after administration of the item pool to 400 AR patients. The resulting instrument's internal consistency, test-retest (2-4 weeks) reliability, known groups and convergent validity, and sensitivity to change were tested in a longitudinal, observational, multicenter study in 210 AR patients who also completed the Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire (RQLQ)., Results: The new questionnaire took a mean (SD) of 7.1 (5.4) minutes to answer. Floor and ceiling effects were less than 15% on all dimensions. Cronbach's alpha values and intraclass correlation coefficient values for six of the sevendimensions and the overall score exceeded 0.70. Statistically significant differences (P < 0.01) were observed on all ESPRINT-28 dimensions and the overall score between patients with mild (mean overall score 1.97, SD 0.99), moderate (mean overall score 2.78, SD 0.88), and severe AR (mean overall score 3.89, SD 0.87). Patients with persistent AR had worse scores (P < 0.05) on all dimensions than patients with intermittent AR. Correlations between the ESPRINT-28 and the RQLQ were generally as expected. Effect sizes for score changes between the two study visits ranged from 0.96 to 1.76 for individual dimensions and the overall score., Conclusions: This new, Spanish-developed instrument to measure HRQOL in AR patients has shown good reliability, validity, and sensitivity to change. It has also proved easy to use and administer.