Search Results (3,651)

Food contamination has emerged as a significant global health concern, posing substantial challenges to the food industry. Bacteria are the primary cause of foodborne diseases. Consequently, it is crucial to develop accurate and efficient sensing platforms to detect foodborne bacteria in food products. Among various detection methods, biosensors have emerged as a promising solution due to their portability, affordability, simplicity, selectivity, sensitivity, and rapidity. Electrospun nanofibers have gained increasing popularity in enhancing biosensor performance. These nanofibers possess a distinctive three-dimensional structure, providing a large surface area and ease of preparation. This review provides an overview of the electrospinning technique, nanofibers and nanofiber-based biosensors. It also explores their mechanisms and applications in the detection of foodborne bacteria such as Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes (L. monocytogenes), Escherichia coli (E. coli), Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Pseudomonas putida (P. putida). Full article

A cross-disciplinary rapid scoping review was carried out, generally following the PRISMA-SCR protocol to examine historical racial and caste-based discrimination as structural determinants of health disparities in the 21st century. We selected 48 peer-reviewed full-text articles available from the University of Memphis Libraries database search, focusing on three selected case-study countries: the United States (US), Canada, and Nepal. The authors read each article, extracted highlights, and tabulated the thematic contents on structural health disparities attributed to racism or casteism. The results link historical racism/casteism to health disparities occurring in Black and African American, Native American, and other ethnic groups in the US; in Indigenous peoples and other visible minorities in Canada; and in the Dalits of Nepal, a population racialized by caste, grounded on at least four foundational theories explaining structural determinants of health disparities. The evidence from the literature indicates that genetic variations and biological differences (e.g., disease prevalence) occur within and between races/castes for various reasons (e.g., random gene mutations, geographic isolation, and endogamy). However, historical races/castes as socio-cultural constructs have no inherently exclusive basis of biological differences. Disregarding genetic discrimination based on pseudo-scientific theories, genetic testing is a valuable scientific means to achieve the better health of the populations. Epigenetic changes (e.g., weathering—the early aging of racialized women) due to the DNA methylation of genes among racialized populations are markers of intergenerational trauma due to racial/caste discrimination. Likewise, chronic stresses resulting from intergenerational racial/caste discrimination cause an “allostatic load”, characterized by an imbalance of neuronal and hormonal dysfunction, leading to occurrences of chronic diseases (e.g., hypertension, diabetes, and mental health) at disproportionate rates among racialized populations. Major areas identified for reparative policy changes and interventions for eliminating the health impacts of racism/casteism include areas of issues on health disparity research, organizational structures, programs and processes, racial justice in population health, cultural trauma, equitable healthcare system, and genetic discrimination. Full article

Oxy-fuel combustion technology replaces air with a mixture of pure O₂ and recycled flue gas for coal combustion, which leads to difficulties in the waste heat recovery of flue gas in the boiler tail of coal-fired power plants. This paper proposes a new integration scheme for waste heat recovery of flue gas in coal-fired power plants with oxy-fuel combustion CO₂ capture. By introducing an oxygen preheater, a recycled flue gas preheater, and a low-pressure economizer, the waste heat of flue gas is fully recovered to preheat oxygen, recycled flue gas, and feed water, respectively. The proposed scheme simultaneously ensures the safe operation of the recycled fan and improves the thermal performance of the coal-fired power plants. Compared to the air combustion configuration, the boiler’s efficiency and gross power efficiency in the oxy-fuel combustion configuration are increased by 0.42% and 1.29%, respectively. Due to power consumption for the added equipment, the net power efficiency is reduced by 10.41%. A techno-economic analysis shows that the cost of electricity for oxy-fuel combustion in coal-fired power plants has increased from USD 46.45/MWh to USD 80.18/MWh, and the cost of the CO₂ avoided reaches USD 43.24/t CO₂. Full article

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus) is a globally significant field crop, and disease resistance is crucial for ensuring yield stability and crop quality. Verticillium dahliae is a notorious soilborne pathogen that causes Verticillium Wilt (VW) and threatens sunflower production worldwide. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive assessment of sunflower resistance to V. dahliae across 231 sunflower cultivar lines, from the Sunflower Association Mapping (SAM) population. We employed EMMAX and ridge regression best linear unbiased prediction (rrBLUP) and identified 148 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and 23 putative genes associated with V. dahliae resistance, including receptor like kinases, cell wall modification, transcriptional regulation, plant stress signalling and defense regulation genes. Our enrichment and quantitative real-time PCR validation results highlight the importance of membrane vesicle trafficking in the sunflower immune system for efficient signaling and defense upon activation by V. dahliae. This study also reveals the polygenic architecture of V. dahliae resistance in sunflowers and provides insights for breeding sunflower cultivars resistant to VW. This research contributes to ongoing efforts to enhance crop resilience and reduce yield losses due to VW, ultimately benefiting sunflower growers and the agricultural sector. Full article

Here, we investigate the use of rolling-windowed L-moments (RWLMs) and L-moment ratio diagrams (LMRDs) combined with a Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) machine learning algorithm to model non-stationary low-flow hydrological extremes with the potential to simultaneously understand time-variant shape, scale, location, and probability distribution (PD) shifts under climate change. By employing LMRDs, we analyse changes in PDs and their parameters over time, identifying key environmental predictors such as lagged precipitation for September 5-day low-flows. Our findings indicate a significant relationship between total August precipitation L-moment ratios (LMRs) and September 5-day low-flow LMRs (${\tau }_2$-Precipitation and ${\tau }_2$-Discharge: R² = 0.675, p-values < 0.001; ${\tau }_3$-Precipitation and ${\tau }_3$-Discharge: R² = 0.925, p-value for slope < 0.001, intercept not significant with p = 0.451, assuming $\alpha$ = 0.05 and a 31-year RWLM), which we later refine and use for prediction within our MLR algorithm. The methodology, applied to the Goat River near Creston, British Columbia, aids in understanding the implications of climate change on water resources, particularly for the yaqan nuʔkiy First Nation. We find that future low-flows under climate change will be outside the Natural Range of Variability (NROV) simulated from historical records (assuming a constant PD). This study provides insights that may help in adaptive water management strategies necessary to help preserve Indigenous cultural rights and practices and to help sustain fish and fish habitat into the future. Full article

In Canada, vaccine safety studies are often conducted at the provincial/territorial level where the primary data on vaccination reside. Combining health services data from multiple jurisdictions using a pooled data analytic approach would reduce the amount of time needed to detect vaccine safety signals. To determine the difference in the time it would take to identify safety signals using different proportions of the Canadian population, we conducted power and sample size calculations for a hypothetical self-controlled case series-based surveillance analysis. We used scenarios modeled after the real-world examples of myocarditis and vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT) following COVID-19 vaccination as our base cases. Our calculations demonstrated that in the case of a myocarditis-type event, a pooled analysis would reduce the time needed to detect a safety signal by over 60% compared to using Ontario data alone. In the case of a VITT-type event, a pooled analysis could detect a safety signal 49 days sooner than using Ontario data alone, potentially averting as many as 30 events. Our analysis demonstrates that there is substantial value in using pan-Canadian health services data to evaluate the safety of vaccines. Efforts should be made to develop a pan-Canadian vaccine data source to allow for an earlier evaluation of suspected adverse events following immunization. Full article

Introduction: Colorectal cancer liver metastasis (CRCLM) remains a lethal diagnosis, with an overall 5-year survival rate of 5–10%. Two distinct histopathological growth patterns (HGPs) of CRCLM are known to have significantly differing rates of patient survival and response to treatment. We set out to review the results of 275 patients who underwent liver resection for CRCLM at the McGill University Health Center (MUHC) and analyze their clinical outcome, mutational burden, and pattern of cancer progression in light of their HGPs, and to consider their potential effect on surgical decision making. Methods: We performed a retrospective multivariate analysis on clinical data from patients with CRCLM (n = 275) who underwent liver resection at the McGill University Health Center (MUHC). All tumors were scored using international consensus guidelines by pathologists trained in HGP scoring. Results: A total of 109 patients (42.2%) were classified as desmoplastic and angiogenic, whereas 149 patients (57.7%) were non-desmoplastic and vessel co-opting. The 5-year survival rates for angiogenic patients compared with vessel co-opting patients were 47.1% and 13%, respectively (p < 0.0001). Multivariate analysis showed patients with vessel co-opting CRCLM had a higher incidence of extrahepatic metastatic disease (p = 0.0215) compared with angiogenic CRCLM. Additionally, KRAS mutation status was a marker of increased likelihood of disease recurrence (p = 0.0434), as was increased number of liver tumors (p = 0.0071) and multiple sites of extrahepatic metastatic disease (p < 0.0001). Conclusions: Multivariate analysis identified key clinical prognostic and molecular features correlating with the two HGPs. Determining liver tumor HGPs is essential for patient prognostication and treatment optimization. Full article

The data from thirty-one climate stations in the Canadian Prairie provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba are analyzed using a number of day-to-day thermal variability metrics. These are used to classify each climate station location using a decision tree developed previously. This is the first application of the decision tree to identify stations as having rural, urban, peri-urban, marine, island, airport, or mountain climates. Of the thirty-one, eighteen were identified as peri-urban, with fourteen of these being airports; six were identified as marine or island; four were identified as rural; one as urban was identified; and two were identified as mountain. The two climate stations at Churchill, Manitoba, located near the shores of Hudson Bay, were initially identified as peri-urban. This was re-assessed after adjusting the number of “winter” months used in the metric for identifying marine and island climates (which, for all other analyses, excluded only December, January, and February). For Churchill, to match the sea ice season, the months of November, March, April, and May were also excluded. Then, a strong marine signal was found for both stations. There is a potential to use these thermal metrics to create a sea ice climatology in Hudson Bay, particularly for pre-satellite reconnaissance (1971). Lake Louise and Banff, Alberta, are the first mountain stations to be identified as such outside of British Columbia. Five airport/non-airport pairs are examined to explore the difference between an airport site and a local site uninfluenced by the airport. In two cases, the expected outcome was not realized through the decision tree analysis. Both Jasper and Edmonton Stony Plain were classified as peri-urban. These two locations illustrated the influence of proximity to large highways. In both cases the expected outcome was replaced by peri-urban, reflective of the localized impact of the major highway. This was illustrated in both cases using a time series of the peri-urban metric before and after major highway development, which had statistically significant differences. This speaks to the importance of setting climate stations appropriately away from confounding influences. It also suggests additional metrics to assess the environmental consistency of climate time series. Full article

Enteroviruses are a genus of small RNA viruses that are responsible for approximately one billion global infections annually. These infections range in severity from the common cold and flu-like symptoms to more severe diseases, such as viral myocarditis, pancreatitis, and neurological disorders, that continue to pose a global health challenge with limited therapeutic strategies currently available. In the current study, we sought to understand the interaction between coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3), which is a model enterovirus, and macrophage cells, as there is limited understanding of how this virus interacts with macrophage innate immune cells. Our study demonstrated that CVB3 can robustly activate macrophages without apparent viral replication in these cells. We also showed that myeloid cells lacked the viral entry receptor coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor (CAR). However, the expression of exogenous CAR in RAW264.7 macrophages was unable to overcome the viral replication deficit. Interestingly, the CAR expression was associated with altered inflammatory responses during prolonged infection. Additionally, we identified the autophagy protein LC3 as a novel stimulus for macrophage activation. These findings provide new insights into the mechanisms of CVB3-induced macrophage activation and its implications for viral pathogenesis. Full article

Cervical cancer is highly preventable through vaccination, early detection, and treatment, yet is the fourth most common cancer globally. HPV testing is superior to cytology for the detection of cervical pre-cancer, and jurisdictions around the world are implementing HPV primary screening, which offers the opportunity for self-screening, an important self-care intervention. Digital health solutions are also increasingly important components of self-care. In this study, we assessed the acceptability and completion of self-screening for cervical cancer offered through a digital platform within a low screening uptake region of British Columbia. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the acceptability of self-screening for cervical cancer offered through a digital platform as measured by return rates of self-screening kits. Patients due or overdue for cervix screening were invited to participate. Eligible participants registered online to receive a self-screening kit, which included a device for vaginal self-screening, instructions, and a return envelope, sent to their home. After self-screening using the vaginal device, HPV testing was conducted. HPV-negative participants were returned to routine screening, and HPV-positive participants were recommended for cytology or colposcopy. Attendance rates at follow-up were evaluated. Participants were invited to complete an acceptability survey. From April 2019 to December 2023, 283 participants were sent kits, with 207 kits returned for a completion rate of 73%. Of valid samples (n = 202), 15 were HPV positive, and 93% attended follow-up care. Most respondents found the CervixCheck website easy to use, informative, and secure and were satisfied with receiving their results online. CervixCheck had a high completion rate among participants who were sent a self-screening kit. High compliance with recommended follow-up and high acceptability of self-screening for cervical cancer was observed. Most participants indicated they would self-screen again in the future. Innovative approaches to cervical screening, including self-screening and the use of digital health interventions, are ways to enhance equity and improve uptake of cervical screening. Full article

This study explores the potential of biochar derived from microwave-assisted catalytic pyrolysis of solid digestate as an additive to enhance the stability and performance of the anaerobic digestion process. The focus was placed on the effects of biochar dosage, pyrolysis temperature, and pyrolysis catalyst on methane production. Biochemical methane potential (BMP) tests using synthetic food waste as the substrate revealed a dosage-dependent relationship with specific methane yield (SMY). At a low biochar dosage of 0.1 g/g total solids (TS), improvement in methane (CH₄) production was marginal, whereas a high dosage of 0.6 g/g TS increased CH₄ content by at least 10% and improved yield by 35–52%. ANOVA analysis indicated that biochar dosage level significantly influenced CH₄ yield, while pyrolysis temperature (400 °C vs. 500 °C) and catalyst (20 wt% K₃PO₄ vs. 10 wt% K₃PO₄/10 wt% clinoptilolite) did not lead to significant differences in CH₄ yield between the treatments. Correlation analysis results suggested that biochar’s most impactful properties on methane yield would be dosage-adjusted specific surface area (or total surface area per unit volume of substrate) and aromaticity index. The findings underscore the potential of solid-digestate-derived biochar as a beneficial additive for anaerobic digestion and hence the sustainability of food waste management system. Full article

In this study, we describe a deep learning (DL)-based workflow for the three-dimensional (3D) geophysical inversion of magnetotelluric (MT) data. We derived a mathematical connection between a 3D resistivity model and the surface-observed electric/magnetic field response by using a fully connected neural network framework (U-Net). Limited by computer hardware functionality, the resistivity models were generated by using a random walk technique to enlarge the generalization coverage of the neural network model, and 15,000 paired datasets were utilized to train and validate it. Grid search was used to select the optimal configuration parameters. With the optimal model framework from the parameter tuning phase, the metrics showed stable convergence during model training/validation. In the test period, the trained model was applied to predict the resistivity distribution by using both the simulated synthetic and the real MT data from the Mount Meager area, British Columbia. The reliability of the model prediction was verified with noised input data from the synthetic model. The calculated results can be used to reconstruct the position and shape trends of bodies with anomalous resistivity, which verifies the stability and performance of the DL-based 3D inversion algorithm and showcases its potential practical applications. Full article

Polar auxin transport (PAT) is a known component controlling leaf complexity and venation patterns in some model plant species. Evidence indicates that PAT generates auxin converge points (CPs) that in turn lead to local leaf formation and internally into major vein formation. However, the role of PAT in more diverse leaf arrangements and vein patterns is largely unknown. We used the pharmacological inhibition of PAT in developing pinnate tomato, trifoliate clover, palmate lupin, and bipinnate carrot leaves and observed dosage-dependent reduction to simple leaves in these eudicots. Leaf venation patterns changed from craspedodromous (clover, carrot), semi-craspedodromous (tomato), and brochidodromous (lupin) to more parallel patterning with PAT inhibition. The visualization of auxin responses in transgenic tomato plants showed that discrete and separate CPs in control plants were replaced by diffuse convergence areas near the margin. These effects indicate that PAT plays a universal role in the formation of different leaf and vein patterns in eudicot species via a mechanism that depends on the generation as well as the separation of auxin CPs. Computer simulations indicate that variations in PAT can alter the number of CPs, corresponding leaf lobe formation, and the position of major leaf veins along the leaf margin in support of experimental results. Full article

Background: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a leading ocular imaging modality, known for delivering high-resolution volumetric morphological images. However, conventional OCT systems are limited by their narrow field-of-view (FOV) and their reliance on scattering contrast, lacking molecular specificity. Methods: To address these limitations, we developed a custom-built 105^∘ ultra-widefield polarization-diversity OCT (UWF PD-OCT) system for assessing various retinal and choroidal conditions, which is particularly advantageous for visualizing peripheral retinal abnormalities. Patients with peripheral lesions or pigmentary changes were imaged using the UWF PD-OCT to evaluate the system’s diagnostic capabilities. Comparisons were made with conventional swept-source OCT and other standard clinical imaging modalities to highlight the benefits of depolarization contrast for identifying pathological changes. Results: The molecular-specific contrast offered by UWF PD-OCT enhanced the detection of disease-specific features, particularly in the peripheral retina, by capturing melanin distribution and pigmentary changes in a single shot. This detailed visualization allows clinicians to monitor disease progression with greater precision, offering more accurate insights into retinal and choroidal pathologies. Conclusions: Integrating UWF PD-OCT into clinical practice represents a major advancement in ocular imaging, enabling comprehensive views of retinal pathologies that are difficult to capture with current modalities. This technology holds great potential to transform the diagnosis and management of retinal and choroidal diseases by providing unique insights into peripheral retinal abnormalities and melanin-specific changes, critical for early detection and timely intervention. Full article

Background/Objectives: We examined the feasibility, acceptability, and potential mental health impact of a digital peer support intervention involving videoconferencing and text-based support for parents of school-aged children living with T1D and analyzed posts exchanged by parents on a texting platform. Methods: Eighteen parents were recruited for Huddle4Parents, a 4-month digital intervention that involved four synchronous group-based Zoom sessions coupled with an asynchronous 24/7 peer support texting room. Primary outcomes were feasibility (i.e., ability to recruit n = 20 parents and retain at least 75%) and acceptability (i.e., satisfaction ratings of “good” to “very good”). Baseline and 4-month assessments also measured diabetes distress, quality of life, and perceived support. A content analysis of text exchanges was also performed. Results: All 15 parents who completed the intervention attended at least one Huddle and posted at least one message on the 24/7 peer support room. The retention rate was 83%, with 100% indicating that they would “definitely” or “probably yes” recommend both platforms to other parents. They also rated the topics, facilitator, and overall Huddles as “good” to “excellent.” No changes were observed for psychosocial endpoints. Of the 1084 texts posted, core support themes included the following: (1) dealing with technology and devices; (2) seeking and providing emotional support; (3) managing T1D in the school setting; and (4) exchanging tips and strategies. Conclusions: Huddle4Parents, a digital T1D caregiver intervention offering synchronous and asynchronous support, is feasible based on recruitment, participation, and attrition rates and acceptable as demonstrated by engagement and satisfaction ratings for the Huddles and 24/7 peer support room. Full article