Clinical research professionals (CRPs) are integral to the academic medical center workforce, research operations, and daily clinical research tasks; however, due to inconsistent training, there is a shortage of qualified CRPs. The Joint Task Force for Clinical Trial Competency created a competency framework for CRPs, which has demonstrated positive results from various institutions, but training programs have been limited in standardization, replicability, and dissemination. To improve this, we designed the University of Texas Southwestern (UTSW) Medical Center Clinical Research Foundations (CRF) training program, which is a competency-based online self-paced CRP training curriculum hosted via the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) portal. We examined feasibility, acceptability, and uptake of the UTSW CRF training on an institutional scale and were pleased to find this curriculum is not only feasible but has high levels of acceptability. Furthermore, faculty, clinicians, and trainees voluntarily completed this training program indicating utility across diverse groups. The UTSW CRF combines the existing CITI training modules with UTSW-created material, providing an optimal balance between generalized clinical research education and institutionally tailored content. We believe the UTSW CRF curriculum could serve as a plug-and-play foundational model for other research centers to tailor according to their audience and institutional needs.

Due to the importance of clay minerals in metal sorption, many studies have attempted to derive mechanistic models that describe adsorption processes. These models often include several different types of adsorption sites, including permanent charge sites and silanol and aluminol functional groups on the edges of clay minerals. To provide a basis for development of adsorption models it is critical that molecular-level studies be done to characterize sorption processes. In this study we conducted X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopic experiments on copper (II) sorbed on smectite clays using suspension pH and ionic strength as variables. At low ionic strength, results suggest that Cu is sorbing in the interlayers and maintains its hydration sphere. At high ionic strength, Cu atoms are excluded from the interlayer and sorb primarily on the silanol and aluminol functional groups of the montmorillonite or beidellite structures. Interpretation of the XAFS and EPR spectroscopy results provides evidence that multinuclear complexes are forming. Fitting of extended X-ray absorption fine structure spectra revealed that the Cu-Cu atoms in the multinuclear complexes are 2.65 Å apart, and have coordination numbers near one. This structural information suggests that small Cu dimers are sorbing on the surface. These complexes are consistent with observed sorption on mica and amorphous silicon dioxide, yet are inconsistent with previous spectroscopic results for Cu sorption on montmorillonite. The results reported in this paper provide mechanistic data that will be valuable for modeling surface interactions of Cu with clay minerals, and predicting the geochemical cycling of Cu in the environment.

Outer main-belt asteroids are predominantly of the C-type (carbonaceous), suggesting that they are likely parent bodies of carbonaceous chondrites. Abundant phyllosilicates in some classes of carbonaceous chondrites have chemical compositions, mineral associations, and textures that preserve direct evidence of the processes by which carbonaceous chondrites and their parent asteroids originated and evolved to their present state. Serpentine is the dominant hydroxyl-bearing mineral in the most abundant (CM) group of carbonaceous chondrites. Serpentine may have formed as a direct nebular condensate during cooling of the solar nebula, or by aqueous alteration of anhydrous Mg,Fe-silicate precursors. Such alteration of anhydrous precursors may have occurred in the solar nebula prior to assembly of the meteorites’ parent bodies or on the parent bodies. The relative proportions of Fe and Mg in fine-grained CM2 serpentines have been used to compare the degree of aqueous alteration of different CM2 chondrites with one another. The Mg content of serpentine increases with increasing overall degree of aqueous alteration, so CM2 chondrites with Mg-rich serpentines experienced a more advanced degree of aqueous alteration than CM2 chondrites with Fe-rich serpentines. Attempts to quantify aqueous alteration of CM chondrites by interpreting electron microprobe analyses in terms of charge-balance and site-occupancy constraints from serpentine stoichiometry have met with mixed success. Despite its imperfections, one widely used alteration index based on serpentine stoichiometry is strongly correlated with the elapsed time since the fall and recovery of witnessed CM chondrite falls. Additionally, volatile organic contaminants introduced during sample processing in the laboratory are associated with serpentine and other matrix phyllosilicates. Together, these post-recovery changes in scientifically important sample attributes imply that oxidation-reduction and other types of weathering and contamination affect these meteorites even during curatorial storage and laboratory processing. The same phyllosilicates that make their carbonaceous-chondritic host rocks scientifically important research targets also render those same rocks extraordinarily vulnerable to terrestrial contamination of some of their most scientifically important attributes. This has possible implications for reconstructing pre-terrestrial (parent body) aqueous alteration phenomena from carbonaceous chondritic meteorites and eventually from samples returned by future missions to asteroids with spectral reflectance properties similar to carbonaceous chondrites.

A dense Ecklonia radiata (Laminariales) kelp forest extending at least 35 km has been found between 45 and 60 m depth range within the mesophotic zone inside the iSimangaliso marine-protected area (MPA) at the iSimangaliso Wetland park World Heritage Site on the east coast of South Africa. This is the first visual confirmation of the occurrence of E. radiata beds in subtropical South Africa, in an area situated between the tropical and subtropical bioregions, in an area that spans the Natal and Delagoa bioregions of the south-western Indian Ocean, more than 350 km north of its previously documented South African range. The kelp was found to be present across the length of the MPA, but dense beds were present only in the southern Natal bioregion, with sparse occurrences observed elsewhere on soft-coral and sponge-dominated reefs in the upper mesophotic zone. The footage was collected in November 2020, May 2021 and November 2022 during remotely operated vehicle and drop camera surveys of the mesophotic zone inside the MPA. This discovery adds to the body of knowledge on the global distribution of Laminariales populations in deep tropical and subtropical settings and the diversity of habitats within South Africa's largest coastal MPA.

Although offspring of women exposed to childhood trauma exhibit elevated rates of psychopathology, many children demonstrate resilience to these intergenerational impacts. Among the variety of factors that likely contribute to resilience, epigenetic processes have been suggested to play an important role. The current study used a prospective design to test the novel hypothesis that offspring epigenetic aging – a measure of methylation differences that are associated with infant health outcomes – moderates the relationship between maternal exposure to childhood adversity and offspring symptomatology. Maternal childhood adversity was self-reported during pregnancy via the ACEs survey and the CTQ, which assessed total childhood trauma as well as maltreatment subtypes (i.e., emotional, physical, and sexual abuse). Offspring blood samples were collected at or shortly after birth and assayed on a DNA methylation microarray, and offspring symptomatology was assessed with the CBCL/1.5–5 when offspring were 2–4 years old. Results indicated that maternal childhood trauma, particularly sexual abuse, was predictive of offspring symptoms (ps = 0.003–0.03). However, the associations between maternal sexual abuse and offspring symptomatology were significantly attenuated in offspring with accelerated epigenetic aging. These findings further our understanding of how epigenetic processes may contribute to and attenuate the intergenerational link between stress and psychopathology.

Tree-ring series offer considerable potential for the development of environment-sensitive proxy records. However, with traditional increment cores, only small amounts of wood are often available from annual tree-ring sequences. For this reason, it is important to understand the reliability (and reproducibility) of radiocarbon measurements obtained from small-sized samples. Here we report the F14C results from the Chronos 14Carbon-Cycle Facility of modern tropical Australian tree samples over a range of four graphite target sizes from the same rings. Our study shows that similar precision can be obtained from full-sized, half-sized, as well as small-sized graphite targets using standard pretreatment and analysis procedures. However, with a decline in sample size, there was an increase seen in the associated variance of the ages and the smallest target weights started showing a systematic bias. Wiggle-matching accuracy tests, comparing the Southern Hemisphere post-bomb atmospheric calibration curve to the different sample weight sequences, were all significant except for the 200 μgC graphite targets. Our results indicate that samples smaller than 350 μgC have limited accuracy and precision. Overall, reliable measurements of F14C sequences from tree-ring records across a range of sample sizes, with best results found using graphitized samples >350 μgC.

Sea-level science has seen many recent developments in observations and modelling of the different contributions and the total mean sea-level change. In this overview, we discuss (1) the evolution of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projections, (2) how the projections compare to observations and (3) the outlook for further improving projections. We start by discussing how the model projections of 21st century sea-level change have changed from the IPCC AR5 report (2013) to SROCC (2019) and AR6 (2021), highlighting similarities and differences in the methodologies and comparing the global mean and regional projections. This shows that there is good agreement in the median values, but also highlights some differences. In addition, we discuss how the different reports included high-end projections. We then show how the AR5 projections (from 2007 onwards) compare against the observations and find that they are highly consistent with each other. Finally, we discuss how to further improve sea-level projections using high-resolution ocean modelling and recent vertical land motion estimates.

We examined markers of completeness in healthcare-associated infection (HAI) data reported by California hospitals to the National Healthcare Safety Network for each half of 2020 compared with 2019. There were indications of decreased data completeness for both halves of 2020. California 2020 HAI data should be interpreted with caution.