Pre-pregnancy obesity (ppOB) is linked to pregnancy complications and abnormal fetal growth through placental mechanisms, and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) may play an epigenetic role in these processes. We investigated overall and sex-specific associations of pre-pregnancy body mass index (ppBMI), ppOB, and birthweight with placental lncRNA transcripts in two birth cohorts. Study participants were mother-child dyads recruited to the CANDLE (Memphis, TN)(n = 725) and GAPPS (Seattle and Yakima, WA)(n = 159) cohorts. Maternal ppBMI was assessed at enrollment using interviewer-administered questionnaires. LncRNAs (1,077 and 1,033 for CANDLE and GAPPS, respectively) were sequenced from placental samples collected at birth. Placental lncRNA was regressed on ppBMI, ppOB (ppBMI ≥30kg/m2), or continuous birthweight in cohort-specific weighted linear models controlling for a priori-specified confounders and experimental variables. Potential effect modification by infant-sex was examined in sex-stratified analyses and models including BMI-infant-sex interaction terms. No lncRNA transcripts were significantly associated with ppBMI, ppOB, or birthweight in primary models. Among male infants in CANDLE, expression of three lncRNA transcripts (ERVH48-1, AC139099.1, CEBPA-DT) was associated with ppBMI and one transcript (AC104083.1) with birthweight. In GAPPS, ppBMI was associated with two lncRNA transcripts (AP000879.1 and AL365203.2) among males, and birthweight was associated with 17 lncRNA transcripts (including LINC02709, KANSL1-AS1, DANCR, EPB41L4A-AS1, and GABPB1-AS1) among females. No BMI-infant-sex interactions were observed. Though many of these potential associations are for uncharacterized transcripts, several identified lncRNAs (e.g., ERVH48-1 and CEBPA-DT) have been linked to pathways controlling cancer or placental growth, trophoblast differentiation, and gene expression. These associations warrant validation in future studies.

A growing number of Australians are experiencing challenges accessing and affording healthy food due to climate-related disasters, global supply chain disruptions, and rapid inflation that is affecting the cost of healthy food(1). There is limited understanding of how participation community-based food cooperatives can address these challenges and improve food security and dietary intake. This study investigated the motivations for joining and impact of participation in a community-based food cooperative called Box Divvy on self-reported food security status and intake of fruits and vegetables among a sample of Australian adults. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among Box Divvy members, that measured sociodemographic characteristics, motivations for joining, self-reported fruit and vegetable intake (serves/week), and food insecurity status (USDA 6-item short form(2)) before and while using Box Divvy. Participants were classified as being food secure, or experiencing marginal, moderate, or severe food insecurity. Logistic regression assessed demographic predictors and self-reported change in food security status, and ANOVA examined changes in dietary intake before joining and while using Box Divvy. Of participants (n = 2764, 37% aged 35–44 years, 83% European ethnicity, 92% New South Wales residents), most joined Box Divvy to support local farmers (87.3%), and save money on healthy foods (70.6%). Around half of respondents (50.8%) reported experiencing food insecurity before joining Box Divvy (24.5% marginal, 18.4% moderate, 7.9% severe food insecurity). Univariate logistic regression identified age, household structure, and income as significant predictors of food insecurity (p < 0.001). Participants experiencing food insecurity reported significantly lower consumption of fruits and vegetables prior to joining Box Divvy compared to those who were food secure (p < 0.001). While using Box Divvy, 28.2% of participants reported experiencing food insecurity (16.6% marginal, 9.6% moderate, 2.1% severe food insecurity). The odds of food insecurity while using Box Divvy were 62% lower than before joining (OR: 0.38; 95% CI 0.34–0.43; p < 0.001). On average, participants reported their fruit intake increased by 2.5 ± 5.6 serves/week (p < 0.001), and vegetable intake increased by 3.3 ± 5.7 serves/week (p < 0.001). The mean increase was significantly greater among moderately food insecure (fruit mean difference 3.2 ± 6.5 serves/week; vegetable mean difference 3.9 ± 6.9 serves/week) and severely food insecure groups (fruit mean difference 4.4 ± 6.9 serves/week; vegetable mean difference 5.5 ± 7.7 serves/week; p < 0.001). Participation in Box Divvy significantly improved self-reported food security status and fruit and vegetable intake among a large sample of Australian adults. Notably, fruit and vegetable intake significantly increased among those experiencing moderate and severe food insecurity. This underscores the potential of community-based food cooperatives to improve food security and promote healthier eating habits among Australian adults, especially households experiencing food insecurity.

This work provides an optimisation mechanism to ensure the compatibility of non-planar stellarator coils with ReBCO (rare-earth barium copper oxide) high-temperature superconducting (HTS) tape. ReBCO coils enable higher field strengths and/or operating temperatures for the magnet systems of future fusion reactors, but they are sensitive to mechanical strain due to their brittle, ceramic functional layer. To ensure that non-planar coils can be wound without damage, we have introduced into the stellarator optimisation framework SIMSOPT a penalty on the binormal curvature and torsion of the tape. This metric can be used to optimise the tape winding orientation along a given coil filament or the coil filament itself can also be free to vary as part of the strain optimisation. We demonstrate the strain optimisation in three examples. For the EPOS (electrons and positrons in an optimised stellarator) design, we combined the strain penalty with an objective for quasisymmetry into a single-stage optimisation; this enables us to find a configuration with excellent quasisymmetry at the smallest possible size compatible with the use of ReBCO tape. For CSX (Columbia stellarator experiment), in addition to HTS strain, we added a penalty to prevent full turn tape rotation, so as to ease the coil winding process. For a coil at reactor scale, we found a considerable variation of the binormal and torsional strain over the cross-section of the large winding pack (54 cm x 54 cm); by exploiting the overall orientation of the winding pack as a degree of freedom, we were able to reduce strains below limits for all of the ReBCO stacks in the pack.

Microbial mineral weathering has been predominantly investigated at shallow depths in humid and tropical environments. Much less is understood about its role in the deeper subsurface of arid and semi-arid environments where microbial weathering is limited by the availability of water and energy sources for microbial metabolism. However, the deep subsurface in these climate zones may host a microbial community that thrives on weathering of iron (Fe)-bearing minerals that serve as electron donors or acceptors.

To investigate the role of microorganisms in weathering of Fe-bearing minerals in a dry climate, we recovered a >80 m deep weathering profile in a semi-arid region of the Chilean Coastal Cordillera. The bedrock is rich in Fe-bearing minerals (hornblende, biotite, chlorite, magnetite and hematite) but lacks detectable organic carbon. We evaluated the bioavailability of Fe(III)-bearing minerals that may serve as an electron acceptor for Fe(III)-reducing microorganisms. Using geochemical, mineralogical and cultivation-based methods, we found enhanced Fe bioavailability and more in vitro microbial Fe(III) reduction at increased depth. We obtained an Fe(III)-reducing enrichment culture from the deepest weathered rock found at 77 m depth. This enrichment culture is capable of reducing ferrihydrite (up to 0.6 mM d–1) using lactate or dihydrogen as an electron donor and grows at circumneutral pH. The main organism in the enrichment culture is the spore-forming Desulfotomaculum ruminis (abundance of 98.5%) as revealed by 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing.

Our findings provide evidence for a microbial contribution to the weathering of Fe-bearing minerals in semi-arid environments. While microorganisms are probably not contributing to the weathering of Fe(II)-bearing silicate minerals, they are most likely of importance regarding reductive dissolution of secondary weathering products. The Fe(III) reduction quantified in this weathering profile by the in situ microbial community suggests that microorganisms are active weathering agents in semi-arid climates.

Objectives/Goals: This study’s objective was to explore how a personal cancer diagnosis impacts the social connectedness (i.e., quality, structure, and functions of social relationships) of adolescent/young adult cancer survivors (AYACS, patients diagnosed with cancer between 15 and 39 years old), to inform intervention development fostering social health. Methods/Study Population: In this qualitative study (part of larger study assessing AYACS’ psychosocial challenges), participants were 15–25 years old at the time of cancer diagnosis and within 6 years of cancer diagnosis. Participants (and consenting parents of participants 18 years old and older) had to have fluency in written and spoken English and access to a computer or smartphone. Qualitative interviewers utilized an interview guide to conduct individual participant interviews. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis was used to analyze data using a phenomenological approach to explore how a personal cancer diagnosis impacted social connectedness. Qualitative data related to social connectedness (corresponding to code “Relationships and Support”) are presented. Results/Anticipated Results: Three themes emerged through thematic analysis: (1) AYACS experience substantial heterogeneity related to social support needs; (2) AYACS leverage multiple relationships and resources when seeking support after a personal cancer diagnosis; (3) AYACS’ individual experiences were unique in that some noted positive changes, whereas others noted negative changes in relationships within social networks, specifically with peers. Discussion/Significance of Impact: AYACS experience various social support needs, and leverage multiple relationships when seeking social support. These translational findings create a foundation to develop AYACS social programming, foster peer relationships, and incorporate social science methods to aid intervention development to strengthen AYACS’ social connectedness.

This paper presents detailed analyses of the Reynolds stresses and their budgets in temporally evolving stratified wakes using direct numerical simulation. Ensemble averaging is employed to mitigate statistical errors in the data, and the results are presented as functions of both the transverse and vertical coordinates – at time instants across the near-wake, non-equilibrium, and quasi-two-dimensional regimes for wakes in weakly and strongly stratified environments. Key findings include the identification of dominant terms in the Reynolds stress transport equations and their spatial structures, the generation and destruction processes of the Reynolds stresses, and the energy transfer between the Reynolds stress and the mean flow. The study also clarifies the effects of the Reynolds number and the Froude number. Additionally, we assess the validity of the eddy-viscosity type models and some existing closures for the Reynolds stress model, highlighting the limitations of isotropy and return-to-isotropy hypotheses in stratified flows.

Recent observations have shown a fast decrease in thickness and area of Pyrenean glaciers in some cases leading to a stagnation of ice flow. However, their transition to a new paraglacial stage is not well understood. Through the combination of uncrewed aerial vehicles imagery, airborne LiDAR, ground-penetrating radar and ground temperature observations, we characterized the recent evolution of Infiernos Glacier. In 2021, this glacier had small sectors thicker than 25 m, but most of area did not exceed 10 m. The thickness losses from 2011 to 2023 reached 9 m in average, of which 5 m occurring during the period 2020–23. This trend demonstrates the significant ice melt under current climatic conditions. In the last years, the glacier has also shown a remarkable increase of debris cover extent. In these areas, the ice loss was reduced by half when compared to the thickness decrease in the entire glacier. Sub-freezing ground temperatures evidence the highly probable presence of permafrost or buried ice in the surroundings of the glacier. The clear signs of ice stagnation and the magnitude of area and thickness decrease support the main hypothesis of this work: After 2023, the Infiernos Glacier can no longer be considered a glacier and has become an ice patch.

We provide a fundamentally new perspective on subcritical turbulence in plasmas, based on coherent structures, which are obtained and characterised via direct numerical solution. The domains where these coherent states exist appear to be closely connected to the those where related turbulent states can exist, so there may be a deep connection between the stability of these coherent structures and the domain where sustained turbulence is possible. In contrast to previous descriptions of turbulence in terms of a stochastic collection of linear waves, we present a fundamentally nonlinear representation based on more general classes of translating oscillatory nonlinear solutions. In turbulent tokamak plasmas, the transport can often be completely suppressed by introducing a background shear flow, whose amplitude is an important control parameter. As this parameter is decreased below a critical value, radially localised structures appear, becoming larger and more complex, in both gyrokinetic simulations and a simpler fluid model of the plasma. For the fluid model, we directly solve for a particular class of nonlinear solutions, relative periodic orbits, and determine their stability, thus explaining why these isolated structures appear in initial-value simulations. The increase of complexity as the flow shear is reduced is explained by a series of Hopf bifurcations of these nonlinear solutions, which we quantify via stability analysis. In gyrokinetic simulations, we are able to indirectly determine the underlying relative periodic orbits by imposing symmetry conditions on the simulations.

Here we evaluate the skin coefficient of friction for steady turbulent radial wall jets across smooth and rough surfaces. Although the Colebrook equation has been used successfully for many decades to evaluate friction factors for flows through smooth and rough pipes, how roughness affects the skin friction coefficient for steady turbulent radial wall jets remains unclear. Here we explore a Colebrook-type equation for skin friction coefficients associated with single-phase turbulent radial wall jets arising from orthogonally impinging circular jets. The fully iterative solution, based on well-established concepts of turbulent wall-bounded flow, is presented along with a power-law approximation and a non-iterative approximation for the friction coefficient derived therefrom. We find the skin coefficient of friction defined on the peak radial velocity to be a function of position over rough but not smooth surfaces in contrast to pipe friction factors that remain independent of axial position. These results follow expected trends, explain prior heterogeneity in power-law expressions for the skin friction coefficient and have significant implications for the industrial use of jets in mixing vessels.