Wild Mexican sunflower [Tithonia tubaeformis (Jacq.) Cass.] is one of the most important annual weeds for sugarcane (Saccharum spp. hybrid) and, to a lesser extent, for soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] and bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) in the northwest of Argentina and some other countries. Currently, its management relies on chemical methods, and no information is available to develop alternative management methods. In the current study, we conducted laboratory germination assays in the presence of different conditions of light, temperature, and phytohormone (gibberellins and abscisic acid) concentrations, as well as fluridone, trinexapac-ethyl (TE), methyl viologen (MV), dry afterripening (DAR), cold stratification, and pericarp scarification. Likewise, a field experiment was carried out to assess the impact of various sugarcane crop residue amounts on seedling emergence. Darkness and constant temperatures (e.g., 20 C) reduced the germination of fresh seeds. The addition of TE, a gibberellic acid inhibitor, and abscisic acid reduced germination. In contrast, the addition of MV increased germination. Pericarp scarification and embryo excision stimulated germination, suggesting that the pericarp acts as a barrier to prevent germination. DAR did not promote germination. On the other hand, cold stratification enabled dormancy release, which in turn promoted germination when the stratified achenes germinated in light and at alternating temperatures of 20/30 C. Field experiments showed that increasing amounts of sugarcane crop residue were useful to reduce weed seedling emergence and biomass, probably by limiting the triggering effect of light and temperature alternation on seedling emergence. These findings provide information about the endogenous control of germination, which can be useful for developing a rational integrated management system for T. tubaeformis.

A routine chemical procedure was developed at the Ede Hertelendi Laboratory of Environmental Studies (HEKAL), in Debrecen which can measure the dissolved organic radiocarbon content of groundwater as well as the inorganic and total fraction. The typical background of this non-purgeable dissolved organic radiocarbon preparation is 0.73 ± 0.14 percent modern carbon (pMC), using a carbon contamination correction on fossil dissolved material (potassium hydrogen phthalate) samples.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping the world as we know it, impacting all aspects of modern society, basically due to the advances in computer power, data availability and AI algorithms. The dairy sector is also on the move, from the exponential growth in AI research, to ready to use AI-based products, this new evolution to Dairy 4.0 represents a potential ‘game-changer’ for the dairy sector, to confront challenges regarding sustainability, welfare, and profitability. This research reflection explores the possible impact of AI, discusses the main drivers in the field and describes its origins, challenges, and opportunities. Further, we present a multidimensional vision considering factors that are not commonly considered in dairy research, such as geopolitical aspects and legal regulations that can have an impact on the application of AI in the dairy sector. This is just the beginning of the third tide of AI, and a future is still ahead. For now, the current advances in AI at on-farm level seem limited and based on the revised data, we believe that AI can be a ‘game-changer’ only if it is integrated with other components of Dairy 4.0 (such as robotics) and is fully adopted by dairy farmers.

Vesicular and groundmass phyllosilicates in a hydrothermally altered basalt from the Point Sal ophiolite, California, have been studied using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Pore-filling phyllosilicates are texturally characterized as having coherent, relatively thick and defect-free crystals of chlorite (14 Å) with occasional 24-Å periodicities. Groundmass phyllosilicates are texturally characterized as 1) randomly oriented crystals up to 200 Å in width and 2) larger, more coherent crystals up to 1000 Å in width. Small crystallites contain predominantly 14-Å layers with some 24-Å units. Large crystals show randomly interlayered chlorite/smectite (C/S), with approximately 50% chlorite on average. Adjacent smectite-like layers are not uncommon in the groundmass phyllosilicates. Electron microprobe analyses show that Fe/Mg ratios of both groundmass and vesicular phyllosilicates are fairly constant.

Termination of brucite-like interlayers has been identified in some of the TEM images. The transformation mechanisms represented by these layer terminations are 1) growth of a brucite-like interlayer within smectite interlayer regions and 2) the dissolution and reprecipitation of elements to form chlorite layers. Both mechanisms require an increase in volume as smectite transforms to chlorite.

The data, combined with that from previously published reports, suggest that randomly interlayered C/S is a metastable phase formed in microenvironments with low water/rock ratios. Chlorite forms in microenvironments in the same sample dominated by higher water/rock ratios. The relatively constant number of Mg's in the structure (Mg#) of both structures indicates that in both microenvironments the bulk rock composition has influence over the composition of phyllosilicates.

Foodborne infections with antimicrobial-resistant Campylobacter spp. remain an important public health concern. Publicly available data collected by the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System for Enteric Bacteria related to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Campylobacter spp. isolated from broiler chickens and turkeys at the slaughterhouse level across the United States between 2013 and 2021 were analysed. A total of 1,899 chicken-origin (1,031 Campylobacter coli (C. coli) and 868 Campylobacter jejuni (C. jejuni)) and 798 turkey-origin (673 C. coli and 123 C. jejuni) isolates were assessed. Chicken isolates exhibited high resistance to tetracycline (43.65%), moderate resistance to ciprofloxacin (19.5%), and low resistance to clindamycin (4.32%) and azithromycin (3.84%). Turkey isolates exhibited very high resistance to tetracycline (69%) and high resistance to ciprofloxacin (39%). The probability of resistance to all tested antimicrobials, except for tetracycline, significantly decreased during the latter part of the study period. Turkey-origin Campylobacter isolates had higher odds of resistance to all antimicrobials than isolates from chickens. Compared to C. jejuni isolates, C. coli isolates had higher odds of resistance to all antimicrobials, except for ciprofloxacin. The study findings emphasize the need for poultry-type-specific strategies to address differences in AMR among Campylobacter isolates.

Local governments have been increasingly active in immigration policy by cooperating with federal immigration enforcement or creating local offices of immigrant affairs (OIA) charged with integrating immigrants. How do these policies shape perceptions of locales following these policy routes? Using a set of pre-registered survey experiments, we find that compared to local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, creating an OIA produces more favorable public attitudes, with minimal differences when undocumented immigrants also receive access to services. Democrats, especially white Democrats, have the most favorable views of cities with an OIA. While Republicans prefer cooperation with ICE, their attitudes toward cities with OIAs remain positive. Our findings suggest that despite partisan polarizing immigration policy debates, establishing OIAs does not attract the negative political attention common in an era of hyperpolarization. OIAs could be a rare immigration policy that may be effective and supported.

Exposure to industrial pollutants is a potential risk factor not fully explored in ASD with regression (ASD+R). We studied geographical collocation patterns of industrial air chemical emissions and the location of homes of children with ASD+R at different exposure times, compared with ASD cases without regression (ASD−R). Fifteen of 111 emitted chemicals collocated with ASD+R, and 65 with ASD−R. ASD+R collocated more strongly with different neurotoxicants/immunotoxicants a year before diagnosis, whereas ASD−R were moderately collocated with chemicals across all exposure periods. This preliminary exploratory analysis of differences in exposure patterns raises a question regarding potential pathophysiological differences between the conditions.

Women with a history of preeclampsia (PE) have a greater risk of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). In turn, pregnancy at high altitude is a risk factor for PE. However, whether women who develop PE during highland pregnancy are at risk of PAH before and after birth has not been investigated. We tested the hypothesis that during highland pregnancy, women who develop PE are at greater risk of PAH compared to women undergoing healthy highland pregnancies. The study was on 140 women in La Paz, Bolivia (3640m). Women undergoing healthy highland pregnancy were controls (C, n = 70; 29 ± 3.3 years old, mean±SD). Women diagnosed with PE were the experimental group (PE, n = 70, 31 ± 2 years old). Conventional (B- and M-mode, PW Doppler) and modern (pulsed wave tissue Doppler imaging) ultrasound were applied for cardiovascular íííassessment. Spirometry determined maternal lung function. Assessments occurred at 35 ± 4 weeks of pregnancy and 6 ± 0.3 weeks after birth. Relative to highland controls, highland PE women had enlarged right ventricular (RV) and right atrial chamber sizes, greater pulmonary artery dimensions and increased estimated RV contractility, pulmonary artery pressure and pulmonary vascular resistance. Highland PE women had lower values for peripheral oxygen saturation, forced expiratory flow and the bronchial permeability index. Differences remained 6 weeks after birth. Therefore, women who develop PE at high altitude are at greater risk of PAH before and long after birth. Hence, women with a history of PE at high altitude have an increased cardiovascular risk that transcends the systemic circulation to include the pulmonary vascular bed.

A fundamental question for theories of massive star formation is whether OB stars can form in isolation. We assess the contribution of any in-situ OB star formation by using 210 field OB stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) from the Runaways and Isolated O-Type Star Spectroscopic Survey of the SMC (RIOTS4). We search for tiny, sparse clusters around our target OB stars using cluster-finding algorithms. Employing statistical tests, we compare these observations with random-field data sets. We find that ∼5% of our target fields do show evidence of higher central stellar densities, implying the presence of small clusters. This frequency of small clusters is low and within errors, it is also consistent with the field OB population being composed entirely of runaway and walkaway stars. Assuming this small cluster fraction is real, it implies that some OB stars may form in highly isolated conditions. The low frequency could be caused by these clusters evaporating on a short timescale. However, another interpretation is that the low fraction of small clusters is observed because these form rarely, or not at all, implying a higher cluster lower-mass limit and generally consistent with a relationship between maximum stellar mass (mmax) and the cluster mass (Mcl).

Maternal nutrition is critical in mammalian development, influencing the epigenetic reprogramming of gametes, embryos, and fetal programming. We evaluated the effects of different levels of sulfur (S) and cobalt (Co) in the maternal diet throughout the pre- and periconceptional periods on the biochemical and reproductive parameters of the donors and the DNA methylome of the progeny in Bos indicus cattle. The low-S/Co group differed from the control with respect to homocysteine, folic acid, B12, insulin growth factor 1, and glucose. The oocyte yield was lower in heifers from the low S/Co group than that in the control heifers. Embryos from the low-S/Co group exhibited 2320 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) across the genome compared with the control embryos. We also characterized candidate DMRs linked to the DNMT1 and DNMT3B genes in the blood and sperm cells of the adult progeny. A DMR located in DNMT1 that was identified in embryos remained differentially methylated in the sperm of the progeny from the low-S/Co group. Therefore, we associated changes in specific compounds in the maternal diet with DNA methylation modifications in the progeny. Our results help to elucidate the impact of maternal nutrition on epigenetic reprogramming in livestock, opening new avenues of research to study the effect of disturbed epigenetic patterns in early life on health and fertility in adulthood. Considering that cattle are physiologically similar to humans with respect to gestational length, our study may serve as a model for studies related to the developmental origin of health and disease in humans.

ABSTRACT IMPACT: This work investigates C. difficile strains in soil as a potential exposure for gut colonization and community-acquired infection of C. difficile. OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Identifying environmental sources of C. difficile can inform how non-hospital reservoirs can potentially contribute to C. difficile exposure and subsequent gastrointestinal colonization. The objective of the study was to identify C. difficile and toxin genes across various soil sources. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: This was a cross-sectional study utilizing soil samples obtained throughout Texas, USA. All samples were collected between August and November of 2019 and 2020. Samples were taken from human and animal high contact areas, such as recreational parks. Samples were stored at -80oC until processing. DNA extractions were performed using the DNeasy Powersoil Pro Kit (Qiagen) per manufacturer’s instructions. Real-time PCR was also performed on extracted DNA using the Microbial DNA qPCR Multi-Assay Kit for Clostridium difficile Pathogenicity (Qiagen) for the identification of C. difficile, toxin A (TcdA), and toxin B (TcdB) genes. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: A total of 137 soil samples including dry dirt, sand, and wet soil near water sources were collected and processed for the presence of C. difficile. These included samples from parks and trails (42.3%), water sources (36.5%), and other public spaces (21.2%). C. difficile was identified in 59 (43.1%) soil samples: 6 (4.4%) with Toxin A and 2 (1.5%) with toxin B production. C. difficile was most prevalent among samples taken from parks and trails (50.0%), followed by other public spaces (48.3%), and water sources (32.0%). The median (IQR) Cq value for the C. difficile gene was 39.24 (33.45-40.47) among samples that tested positive. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF FINDINGS: We identified a high prevalence of Clostridioides difficile in soil samples, though toxin gene detection prevalence was low. Future studies will analyze other sources, including water and varying surface samples to obtain a comprehensive view of C. difficile in the environment.

Gravitational waves from coalescing neutron stars encode information about nuclear matter at extreme densities, inaccessible by laboratory experiments. The late inspiral is influenced by the presence of tides, which depend on the neutron star equation of state. Neutron star mergers are expected to often produce rapidly rotating remnant neutron stars that emit gravitational waves. These will provide clues to the extremely hot post-merger environment. This signature of nuclear matter in gravitational waves contains most information in the 2–4 kHz frequency band, which is outside of the most sensitive band of current detectors. We present the design concept and science case for a Neutron Star Extreme Matter Observatory (NEMO): a gravitational-wave interferometer optimised to study nuclear physics with merging neutron stars. The concept uses high-circulating laser power, quantum squeezing, and a detector topology specifically designed to achieve the high-frequency sensitivity necessary to probe nuclear matter using gravitational waves. Above 1 kHz, the proposed strain sensitivity is comparable to full third-generation detectors at a fraction of the cost. Such sensitivity changes expected event rates for detection of post-merger remnants from approximately one per few decades with two A+ detectors to a few per year and potentially allow for the first gravitational-wave observations of supernovae, isolated neutron stars, and other exotica.