Search Results (18)

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being and doing have fostered physical, social, and emotional wellbeing for millenia, forming a foundation of strength and resilience. However, colonisation, systemic violence and discrimination—including the forced removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, which continues today—have disrupted this foundation, leading to compounding cycles of intergenerational and complex trauma. The enduring impact of intergenerational and complex trauma is exemplified in increasing proportions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children being removed from their families and involved in the child protection and youth justice system—which represents a national crisis. Despite this crisis, the national response remains insufficient. To address these urgent issues, over 200 predominantly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stakeholders, participated in Gathering the Seeds Symposium, the inaugural meeting for the Replanting the Birthing Trees project held in Perth in April 2023. This meeting marked the beginning of a public dialogue aimed at Closing the Gap by advancing community-led strategies to break cycles of trauma and foster cycles of nurturing, recovery, and wellbeing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents and children across the first 2000 days. We outline critical shortcomings in the current child protection and youth justice systems, and the urgent need for child wellbeing reform. Importantly we highlight recommendations made in submissions in 2023 to two key Australian inquiries—the National Early Years Strategy and the Human Rights Commission inquiry into out of home care and youth justice systems. We argue that structural reforms and culturally safe and skillful care for parents experiencing trauma and violence is a serious gap, and a national priority. The first 2000 days represents a critical window of opportunity to transform cycles of trauma into cycles of healing. It is time to ‘replant the birthing trees’ and ensure that all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander babies and families can have the best possible start to life through comprehensive models of care grounded in recognition of the right to self-determination and culture. Full article

Mercury (Hg) is a naturally occurring element, but atmospheric Hg has increased due to human activities since the industrial revolution. When deposited in aquatic environments, atmospheric Hg can be converted to methyl mercury (MeHg), which bioaccumulates in ecosystems and can cause neurologic and endocrine disruption in high quantities. While higher atmospheric Hg levels do not always translate to higher contamination in wildlife, museum specimens over the past 2 centuries have documented an increase in species that feed at higher trophic levels. Increased exposure to pollutants presents an additional threat to fish and wildlife populations already facing habitat loss or degradation due to global change. Additionally, Hg cycling and bioaccumulation are primarily driven by geophysical, ecological, and biogeochemical processes in the environment, all of which may be modulated by climate change. In this review, we begin by describing where, when, and how the Hg cycle may be altered by climate change and how this may impact wildlife exposure to MeHg. Next, we summarize the already observed physiological effects of increased MeHg exposure to wildlife and identify future climate change vulnerabilities. We illustrate the implications for wildlife managers through a case study and conclude by suggesting key areas for management action to mitigate harmful effects and conserve wildlife and habitats amid global change. Full article

Background: Adult Changes in Thought (ACT), a prospective cohort study, enrolls older adult members of Kaiser Permanente Washington. We describe an ambitious project to abstract medical records facilitating epidemiological investigation. Methods: Abstracted data include medications; laboratory results; women’s health; blood pressure; physical injuries; cardiovascular, neurological, psychiatric and other medical conditions. Results: Of 1419 of 5763 participants with completed abstractions, 1387 (97.7%) were deceased; 602 (42.4%) were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias; 985 (69.4%) had a brain autopsy. Each participant had an average of 34.3 (SD = 13.4) years of data abstracted. Over 64% had pharmacy data preceding 1977; 87.5% had laboratory data preceding 1988. Stroke, anxiety, depression and confusion during hospitalization were common among participants diagnosed with dementia. Conclusions: Medical records are transformed into data for analyses with outcomes derived from other ACT data. We provide detailed, unparalleled longitudinal clinical data to support a variety of epidemiological research on clinical-pathological correlations. Full article

The Module-0 Demonstrator is a single-phase 600 kg liquid argon time projection chamber operated as a prototype for the DUNE liquid argon near detector. Based on the ArgonCube design concept, Module-0 features a novel 80k-channel pixelated charge readout and advanced high-coverage photon detection system. In this paper, we present an analysis of an eight-day data set consisting of 25 million cosmic ray events collected in the spring of 2021. We use this sample to demonstrate the imaging performance of the charge and light readout systems as well as the signal correlations between the two. We also report argon purity and detector uniformity measurements and provide comparisons to detector simulations. Full article

Sustainable nitrogen (N) fertilizer management practices in the Midwest U.S. strive to optimize crop production while minimizing N gas emission losses and nitrate-N (NO₃-N) losses in subsurface drainage water. A replicated site in upstate Missouri from 2018 to 2020 investigated the influence of different N fertilizer management practices on nutrient concentrations in drainage water, nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions, and ammonia (NH₃) volatilization losses in a corn (Zea mays, 2018, 2020)–soybean (Glyince max, 2019) rotation. Four N treatments applied to corn included fall anhydrous ammonia with nitrapyrin (fall AA + NI), spring anhydrous ammonia (spring AA), top dressed SuperU and ESN as a 25:75% granular blend (TD urea), and non-treated control (NTC). All treatments were applied to subsurface-drained (SD) and non-drained (ND) replicated plots, except TD urea, which was only applied with SD. Across the years, NO₃-N concentration in subsurface drainage water was similar for fall AA + NI and spring AA treatments. The NO₃-N concentration in subsurface drainage water was statistically (p < 0.0001) lower with TD urea (9.1 mg L⁻¹) and NTC (8.9 mg L⁻¹) compared to fall AA + NI (14.6 mg L⁻¹) and spring AA (13.8 mg L⁻¹) in corn growing years. During corn years (2018 and 2020), cumulative N₂O emissions were significantly (p < 0.05) higher with spring AA compared to other fertilizer treatments with SD and ND. Reduced corn growth and plant N uptake in 2018 caused greater N₂O loss with TD urea and spring AA compared to the NTC and fall AA + NI in 2019. Cumulative NH₃ volatilization was ranked as TD urea > spring AA > fall AA + NI. Due to seasonal variability in soil moisture and temperature, gas losses were higher in 2018 compared to 2020. There were no environmental benefits to applying AA in the spring compared to AA + NI in the fall on claypan soils. Fall AA with a nitrification inhibitor is a viable alternative to spring AA, which maintains flexible N application timings for farmers. Full article

Recent developments in molecular networking have expanded our ability to characterize the metabolome of diverse samples that contain a significant proportion of ion features with no mass spectral match to known compounds. Manual and tool-assisted natural annotation propagation is readily used to classify molecular networks; however, currently no annotation propagation tools leverage consensus confidence strategies enabled by hierarchical chemical ontologies or enable the use of new in silico tools without significant modification. Herein we present ConCISE (Consensus Classifications of In Silico Elucidations) which is the first tool to fuse molecular networking, spectral library matching and in silico class predictions to establish accurate putative classifications for entire subnetworks. By limiting annotation propagation to only structural classes which are identical for the majority of ion features within a subnetwork, ConCISE maintains a true positive rate greater than 95% across all levels of the ChemOnt hierarchical ontology used by the ClassyFire annotation software (superclass, class, subclass). The ConCISE framework expanded the proportion of reliable and consistent ion feature annotation up to 76%, allowing for improved assessment of the chemo-diversity of dissolved organic matter pools from three complex marine metabolomics datasets comprising dominant reef primary producers, five species of the diatom genus Pseudo-nitzchia, and stromatolite sediment samples. Full article

Introduction: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multisystem autoimmune disease that is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. SLE disproportionately affects women and minorities. Childhood-onset SLE (cSLE) in particular tends to be more aggressive than adult-onset SLE. Despite substantial improvements in the treatment of cSLE, there is significant variability in treatment responses and long-term outcomes. Furthermore, there is a paucity of studies involving cSLE, and in particular, cSLE among different age groups. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that an early-onset cSLE cohort would demonstrate unique characteristics with distinctive clinical and laboratory features at disease onset. We specifically investigated whether clinical, epidemiological, or serological factors are differentially associated with early- and late-onset cSLE. This could have direct impact on clinical management with the goal of improving outcomes and quality of life for children with SLE. Methods: Our study was conducted at a large tertiary center. We included 213 subjects seen at our pediatric rheumatology clinic aged 4–17 years. Epidemiologic, clinical phenotype, disease severity, serology, treatment, and outcome data were compared between subjects with cSLE onset prior to 10 years of age (early-onset disease, n = 43) and those with cSLE onset greater than 10 years of age (peri-adolescent disease, n = 170). We compared clinical features between early- and peri-adolescent onset cSLE in order to investigate the association between age at disease onset of cSLE and clinical disease expression and outcomes. Results: Of the 213 subjects with cSLE in our study, 43 subjects had early-onset disease (age 2 to ≤9 years) and 170 patients had peri-adolescent onset disease. We found that early-onset cSLE was associated with a higher prevalence of positive anti-dsDNA antibody at cSLE diagnosis, higher anti-dsDNA antibody titer at cSLE diagnosis, rash, and azathioprine use (p < 0.001, p = 0.004, p = 0.011, and p = 0.008, respectively). In contrast, we found that peri-adolescent onset cSLE (≥10 years of age) was associated with worse disease activity (SLEDAI range 0–24) (p < 0.001), higher SLICC at diagnosis (p < 0.001), as well as a higher rate of mycophenolate mofetil and hydroxychloroquine use (p = 0.003 and p < 0.001, respectively). There were no significant differences in the prevalence of neuropsychiatric symptoms or the development of Class IV/Class V lupus nephritis between the early-onset and peri-adolescent groups. Full article

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is an international, world-class experiment aimed at exploring fundamental questions about the universe that are at the forefront of astrophysics and particle physics research. DUNE will study questions pertaining to the preponderance of matter over antimatter in the early universe, the dynamics of supernovae, the subtleties of neutrino interaction physics, and a number of beyond the Standard Model topics accessible in a powerful neutrino beam. A critical component of the DUNE physics program involves the study of changes in a powerful beam of neutrinos, i.e., neutrino oscillations, as the neutrinos propagate a long distance. The experiment consists of a near detector, sited close to the source of the beam, and a far detector, sited along the beam at a large distance. This document, the DUNE Near Detector Conceptual Design Report (CDR), describes the design of the DUNE near detector and the science program that drives the design and technology choices. The goals and requirements underlying the design, along with projected performance are given. It serves as a starting point for a more detailed design that will be described in future documents. Full article

Best management practices (BMPs) are site-specific and their implementation, long-term management, and maintenance are important for successful reduction of phosphorus (P) loss into headwater streams. This paper reviews published research on managing P loss from agricultural cropping systems in the Midwestern United States and classified the available research based on BMPs and their efficacy in reducing P loss. This review paper also identifies the areas where additional research could provide insight for managing P losses. Our literature review shows that cover crops, reduced tillage, saturated buffers, and constructed wetlands are the most evaluated areas of current research. However, additional research is necessary on the site-specific area to measure the effectiveness of BMPs in managing P loss. The BMPs that serve as a sink of P need further evaluation in long-term field-scale trials. Studies evaluating adsorption and desorption mechanisms of P in surface and subsurface soils with materials or amendments that bind P in the soil are needed. The time required and pathways, where the flush of available P is lost or fixed in the soil matrix, need further investigation. Measured P loss from BMPs like bioreactors and saturated buffers supplemented with P adsorption materials or filters need to be simulated with models for their prediction and validation. Field evaluations of P index and critical source area concepts should be investigated for identifying problematic areas in the watersheds. Identification of overlapping areas of high P source and transport can help in strategic planning and layout, thereby resulting in reducing the cost of implementing BMPs at field and watershed scales. Full article

Excessive rainfall occurring in the early spring season in the Midwestern United States result in waterlogged soils contributing to corn production losses. The objective of our study is to evaluate the impact of soil waterlogging [non-waterlogged or waterlogged for 7 days when corn was at V3 growth stage (corn plant having three fully developed leaves with collar visible)], different pre-plant nitrogen (N) fertilizer sources and post-waterlogging rescue N fertilizer on grain and silage yield of two commercially available corn hybrids with different flood tolerance. Pre-plant N fertilizer was applied at 168 kg N ha⁻¹. Nitrogen sources were a non-treated control (CO), polymer coated urea (PCU), urea (NCU), and urea plus Instinct (NCU + NI). A post-waterlogging rescue N fertilizer was applied at V7 as 0 or 83 kg N ha⁻¹ of urea plus N-(n-butyl) thiophosphoric triamide (NBPT) (NCU + UI). Waterlogging decreased grain and silage yields in different years; however, significant interactions were observed among treatments. Rescue N applications increased grain yields by 6–46% in non-waterlogged treatments, but not in waterlogged treatments. The PCU and NCU + NI increased grain yields compared to the CO. Pre-plant N sources showed no significant differences in grain yield, probably due to existing environmental conditions or incorporation of fertilizer. The N source, application method, and timing for post-waterlogging rescue N application and flood-tolerant corn hybrids needs further investigation in poorly-drained claypan soils prone to waterlogging under a changing climate. Full article

Objectives: Primary Sjögren syndrome (SS) is diagnosed based on the American European Consensus Group (AECG) criteria, but lacks specificity, not only in the involvement of salivary glands, but also in extra-glandular involvement. Whole-body somatostatin receptor scintigraphy with ^99mTc-HYNIC-TOC scintigraphy could overcome these limitations. The aims of this study were to evaluate salivary gland uptake of ^99mTc-HYNIC-TOC in untreated patients with de-novo diagnosis of SS as compared to control subjects and as compared to conventional sialoscintigraphy with ^99mTcO₄⁻. We also aimed to evaluate the involvement of joints. Methods: ^99mTc-HYNIC-TOC was used with SS patients and uptake in joints and salivary glands was analyzed semi-quantitatively. Patients also underwent ^99mTcO₄ sialoscintigraphy. The control group that we analyzed consisted of 30 patients with neuroendocrine tumors. Results: Fifty-two females and 10 males fully met the AECG criteria for SS, and were included. A target background ratio (TBR) >1.18 in submandibular glands correctly classified 93% of the patients with SS in comparison to 27% for ^99mTcO₄ sialoscintigraphy. The area under the curve (ROC) analysis for TBR in submandibular glands was 0.95. In joints there was a huge variety in uptake. The median TBR was significantly higher in salivary glands in patients with SS compared to controls. Conclusions: ^99mTc-HYNIC-TOC scintigraphy identified active inflammatory processes not only in the salivary glands, but, unexpectedly, also in many joints in patients with primary SS, contrary to popular belief. This technique provides an objective parameter to evaluate the inflammation burden in salivary glands and joints and could be used to evaluate response to treatment. Full article

Nitrogen dynamics and water quality benefits deriving from the use of cover crops (CCs) are mostly incurred from plot-scale studies without incorporating large-scale variability that is induced by landscape positions. Our understanding of how topography affects the N response in CC systems is limited. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effects of topography (shoulder, backslope, and footslope) and CCs (cereal rye, Secale cereale L. and hairy vetch, Vicia villosa L.) on nitrogen (N) uptake, soil inorganic N content (nitrate-N, NO₃-N and total N, TN), and N leaching in watersheds that were planted with or without CCs. The crop rotation in CC watersheds was corn (Zea mays L.)-cereal rye-soybean (Glycine max L.)-hairy vetch whereas control watersheds had corn-no CC-soybean-no CC rotation. Data from the watersheds was collected for three cash crop seasons and three CC seasons from 2015 to 2018. Nitrogen uptake of hairy vetch in CC watersheds was 110.9, 85.02, and 44.89 kg ha⁻¹ higher at the shoulder, backslope, and footslope positions, when compared to shoulder, backslope, and footslope positions of no CC watersheds. About 12 to 69% reduction in soil solution NO₃-N and TN was observed with cereal rye CC when compared to no CCs watersheds. However, reductions in soil solution N concentrations were only seen at the footslope position where the hairy vetch reduced NO₃-N and TN concentrations by 7.71 and 8.14 mg L⁻¹ in CC watersheds compared to no CC watersheds. During the corn and soybean growing seasons, similar reductions in soil solution N concentration were only seen at the footslope position in the CC watersheds. The excessive N at footslope positions of CC watersheds may have been fixed in CC biomass, immobilized, or lost through denitrification stimulated by higher water availability at the footslope position. The results of this research can help farmers and stakeholders to make decisions that are site-specific and topographically driven for the management of CCs in row-cropped systems. Full article

Identification of corn hybrids that can withstand wet soil conditions is one approach to prevent crop production losses from abiotic stress caused by excessive soil moisture during early spring season in the midwestern United States. A greenhouse pot experiment was conducted in 2013 to screen and identify corn hybrids tolerant or susceptible to soil waterlogging at the V2 growth stage. The main plots included waterlogging durations: no waterlogging; 14-day waterlogging and then allowing recovery from waterlogging stress for 7 days; and 21-day waterlogging. Subplots included eight commercial corn hybrids. The shoot and root biomass, plant height, stomatal conductance, and chlorophyll meter readings were decreased due to waterlogging for 14 days and 21 days. Hybrid #2 appeared to be more tolerant to waterlogging as evidenced by greater growth and higher stomatal conductance and chlorophyll meter readings on newer leaves under waterlogged conditions. Hybrid #5 and Hybrid #8 were more susceptible to waterlogging than other hybrids. Large variability occurred among corn hybrids in response to soil waterlogging durations. Beneficial effects of improved soil conditions after excess water removal from 14-day waterlogged pots were not seen in this experiment, probably due to the short recovery time period between the excess water removal and experiment termination. Full article

Synchrony between soil mineral nitrogen (N) supply and crop N demand is important for optimal plant growth. Excessively wet conditions expose poorly drained soils to an increased potential of N loss and reduced N use efficiency. A two-year experiment with wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) was initiated in 2014 and concluded in 2016 in northeastern Missouri in the United States (USA). The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the effects of nitrapyrin and pronitridine nitrification inhibitors (NI) applied as an early or late-split application timing (40:60%) of 79 kg N ha⁻¹ or 112 kg N ha⁻¹ on winter wheat soil and plant N status, as well as grain yield. Both NIs had no effect (p = 0.3917) on yield, while there was an interaction between year and the urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) rate on grain yield. Yields were similar (3550 kg ha⁻¹ to 3686 kg ha⁻¹) in 2015 between UAN application rates. UAN at 112 kg N ha⁻¹ resulted in a 551 kg ha⁻¹ greater yield than UAN at 79 kg N ha⁻¹ in 2016. Nitrapyrin and pronitridine did not significantly affect soil ammonium or nitrate–N concentrations at depths of 0–15 cm and 16–30 cm compared to the absence of NI over the period of three months after application. Nitrapyrin with UAN at 112 kg N ha⁻¹ had the highest grain test weight. Further testing of these NIs in combination with UAN for winter wheat production is needed under different climatic and environmental conditions to develop comprehensive management recommendations. Full article

Agricultural soils utilized for corn (Zea mays L.) and soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr.) production in the Midwestern U.S. are often managed to have adequate surface soil pH for crop growth, but the presence of acidic subsoils may limit crop production. Subsoil acidity may inhibit root growth, leading to decreased drought tolerance and grain yields. Application of aglime can increase soil pH, improve soil structure, and provide calcium and magnesium to the soil, but surface amendments that often occur in no-till systems rarely affect the subsoil, resulting in potential chemical and physical barriers to root growth. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of surface and a new deep vertical lime placement practice, at three application rates, on corn and soybean plant growth and yields in a conservation tillage system. Field trials were conducted from 2012 to 2016 in Northeast Missouri on a poorly-drained claypan soil with treatments of lime (0, 3.4, and 6.7 Mg ha⁻¹) broadcast on the soil surface or applied as a deep vertical band to a depth of 51 cm. When precipitation was below average, compared to control plots, deep vertical placed lime at 6.7 Mg ha⁻¹ significantly raised corn yields by 1.3 Mg ha⁻¹ four years after treatment. In years with adequate precipitation, no significant increases in corn yield were observed with deep lime placement treatments compared to the control. Lime treatments had a greater effect on corn yield than soybean. Deep vertical placement of lime resulted in no significant increase in soybean yield compared to the controls for all trials. Longer observation time may be needed to fully evaluate the effects of these lime placement treatments. Full article