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In agricultural and waste management systems, dairy manure wastewater is often recycled for irrigation. However, a key challenge lies in handling suspended solids (SS) and effectively dewatering sludge. To address this, an innovative polycationic soybean protein-based flocculant (SPI+) was developed and applied to enhance flocculation and sludge dewatering efficiency. The polycationic protein chains of SPI+ were synthesized by grafting 2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl trimethylammonium chloride (META) monomers onto soybean protein isolate (SPI) chains using an energy-efficient thiol-ene photografting method. This approach achieved a grafting ratio of 85%, endowing the SPI+ with a stable and strong positive zeta-potential (+30 mV) across a range of pH conditions. The SPI + exhibited exceptional flocculation performance, achieving a 96% flocculation efficiency, reducing sludge filtration resistance by 55%, and lowering filter cake moisture content by 10%. The SPI + flocculation and dewatering performance is comparable with synthetic-based commercial flocculant. This remarkable performance of SPI+ is attributed to its ability to effectively neutralize charges, form robust inter-particle bridges, and interact strongly with extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), particularly their protein components, within the sludge matrix. These properties significantly enhance both sludge aggregation and dewaterability. The underlying mechanisms of flocculation and dewatering were further elucidated using confocal imaging, surface morphology analysis of flocs, and quantification of EPS protein and polysaccharide content, providing valuable insights into its functional efficacy., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Background: Prenatally transmitted viruses can cause severe damage to the developing brain. There is unexplained variability in prenatal brain injury and postnatal neurodevelopmental outcomes, suggesting disease modifiers. Of note, prenatal Zika infection can cause a spectrum of neurodevelopmental disorders, including congenital Zika syndrome. Currently, there is no preventative treatment or cure. The Prenatal Infection and Neurodevelopmental Genetics (PING) Consortium aims to identify modulators of brain injury and adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes for Zika and other prenatal viral infections., Methods: The Consortium pools information from eight multi-site studies conducted at 23 research centers in six countries to build a growing clinical and genomic repository, which is being mined for modifiers of virally induced brain injury. Partners include Children's National Hospital (USA), Instituto Nacional de Salud (Colombia), the Natural History of Zika Virus Infection in Gestation program (Brazil), Zika Instituto Fernandes Figueira (Brazil), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health., Results: We have enrolled 4102 mothers and 3877 infants with 3063 biological samples and clinical data covering over 80 phenotypic fields and 5000 variables. Thus far, we have performed whole exome sequencing on 1226 participants., Conclusion: Here, we present the Consortium's formation and overarching study design., Impact: The PING Consortium brings together investigators and institutions to determine the causes of virally induced brain injury and neurological deficits. The clinical and genomic repository, with data from over 8000 patients, will serve as a foundation for a variety of basic and clinical studies., Competing Interests: Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethics approval and consent statement: Samples and associated data collected through the Prenatal Infection and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Consortium were IRB approved by participating institutions and by Children’s National Hospital (IRB reference number 8259). Any changes to the protocol or materials are submitted for approval by the IRB/CEP before being implemented, through amendments to the project. The research team notifies the IRB/CEP of deviations from the protocol or any adverse events that might be related to the present study. Brazilian studies were also approved by CONEP (approval numbers of the original related projects: CAAEs: 61936216.9.0000.5404; 56673616.3.2002.5440; 61936216.9.0000.5404). The researchers ensured that this study was conducted in full compliance with the principles set out in the Belmont Report: Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects in Research by the US National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects in Biomedical and Behavioral Research (18 April 1979) and encoded in 45 CFR Section 46 or the ICH E6; 62 Federal Regulations 25691 (1997). The Investigators’ institution must maintain an up-to-date, federal-level policy (FWA) issued by the Office of Human Protection in Research for US government-funded research. Both multi-center and site-specific IRB approvals were obtained in one of in two ways. A majority of the studies obtained informed consent for genetic testing prospectively. In some cases, informed consent was obtained retrospectively., (© 2025. The Author(s).)

We present data on life history parameters from a long-term study of vervet monkeys in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Estimates are presented of age at first conception for females and age at natal dispersal for males, along with the probability of survival to adulthood for infants born during the study, female reproductive life-span, reproductive output (including lifetime reproductive success for a subset of females), and inter-birth interval (IBI) duration. We also assess the effect of maternal age and infant survival on length of IBI. We then go on to compare life history parameters for our population with those from two East African populations in Kenya (Amboseli and Laikipia). We find there is broad consensus across the three populations, although mean infant survival was considerably lower for the two East African sites. Such comparisons must be made cautiously, however, as local ecology across the duration of the studies obviously has an impact on the estimates obtained. With this caveat in place, we consider that the concordance between values is sufficient to enable the values reported here to be used in comparative studies of primate life history, although data from habitats with higher rainfall and lower levels of seasonality are needed, and the results presented here should not be seen as canonical., (© 2023 The Authors. American Journal of Primatology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)