Balancing pest control and pollination is a dual challenge for pollinator-dependent crops and the producers that grow them. For organic cucurbit production, organic compliant insecticides underperform at suppressing pests and can have nontarget impacts on pollinators. One promising alternative is pest-protective row covers, which successfully exclude insect pests from damaging cucurbit crops. However, they also exclude pollinators. In this study across two years, four row cover pollination management strategies were compared for their efficacy for acorn squash (Cucurbita pepo L.). Row covers were installed at crop transplant and four treatments were initiated: on–off (row cover removed at flowering), on–off–on (row cover removed at flowering and reinstalled post-flowering), open ends (row cover tunnel ends opened at flowering and reclosed post-flowering), and full season (row cover installed through whole season, commercial bumble bee colonies installed at flowering). During the pre-flowering net stage (when row covers were installed), all treatments had low pest abundance and were not statistically different. In the post-flowering net stage, the full season and open ends treatments had statistically lower cucumber beetle pest abundance relative to the on–off–on treatment. The number of seeds per squash fruit weight, an indicator of pollination success, was statistically lower in the full season treatment relative to the on–off–on treatment in 2021, which may be explained by the statistically lower bee activity in the full season treatment relative to the on–off and on–off–on treatments. Squash seeds were not counted in 2020. The open ends treatment had statistically higher marketable yield than the full season and on–off–on treatments in 2020; in 2021, there was no difference in marketable yield across treatments. For the open ends treatment, increased distance from the opened tunnel ends significantly decreased the pest abundance, while it significantly increased marketable yield. However, there was no relationship between pollinator activity and distance to the tunnel opening. This two-year study suggests the open ends strategy had the most consistently high yields, while it reduced pollination management effort and eliminated the costs of commercial bee colonies compared to other treatments. Only minor pressure from insect-vectored diseases was observed during the study, thus, the advantages of each pollination strategy should be considered in relation to varying pest, pollinator, and disease conditions.

The fetus and neonate are especially vulnerable to toxic effects of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), that have been shown to perturb behavioral and neuropsychological development. This study aimed to examine the long-term effects of developmental exposure to PCBs. Doses selected were environmentally relevant to those found in epidemiological studies, on the central nervous system (CNS) of adult rat offspring. Pregnant Sprague Dawley rats were fed cookies that contained a mixture of fourteen PCBs or vehicle (corn oil) daily. PCB doses were 0.011 mg/kg maternal body weight/day (“low”) or 1.10 mg/kg maternal body weight/day (“high”), for 42 days throughout gestation and lactation. Adult offspring were euthanized on postnatal day 450. A battery of immunohistochemical markers of brain structure and function were selected to assess possible effects of developmental PCB exposure. Using a 3×2 factorial design (treatment and sex), two-way analysis of variance revealed significant effects of treatment through the CNS, with no main effect of sex or interaction effects. In comparison with controls, both low and high dose developmental PCB exposure significantly (p < 0.05) increased inhibitory enzyme glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD67) immunoreactivity in the cerebellar vermis, and decreased lipofuscin autofluorescence in the locus coeruleus (LC). Low dose developmental PCB exposure significantly decreased the perimeter of endothelial cells in the periaqueductal gray, ventral orbitofrontal cortex; and decreased lipofuscin in the dorsal striatum, compared to controls. Findings support the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease concept, which broadly posits that early-life perturbations may influence health trajectories over the lifespan.

Several studies have been published studying association between parental low birth weight (BW) and neonatal outcomes of their children. To date no systematic review and meta-analysis (SRM) has been published to quantify the impact of maternal and paternal BW on outcomes in the next generation. The aim of this SRM was to analyse the association between parental BW and anthropometric and metabolic outcomes in their children.

Electronic databases were searched for studies documenting BW of parents and children with neonatal outcomes. Primary outcome was to evaluate impact of parental BW on occurrence of LBW in children. Secondary outcomes were to assess impact of parental BW on occurrence of macrosomia, small for gestational age (SGA), preterm labour/delivery, and burden of non-communicable disease in later life.

We screened 54,961 articles, data from 14 studies (320,515 parent–child pairs), which fulfilled all criteria, were analysed. Maternal LBW was associated with higher chances of neonatal LBW [odds ratio (OR)1.95 (95% CI:1.56–2.46); P < 0.01; I2 = 91%], neonatal SGA [OR 2.29(95% CI:1.72–3.05); P < 0.01; I2 = 37%], lower chances of neonatal macrosomia [OR 0.50 (95% CI:0.39–0.65); P < 0.01; I2 = 35%] and had no impact on preterm labour/delivery [OR1.20(95% CI:0.67–2.16); P = 0.53; I2 = 88%]. Maternal macrosomia was associated with higher neonatal macrosomia [OR 2.66 (95% CI:2.44–3.16); P < 0.01; I2 = 48%], lower SGA [OR 0.40(95% CI:0.29–0.53); P < 0.01; I2 = 0%] and preterm labour/delivery [OR 0.77 (95% CI:0.63–0.94); P < 0.01; I2 = 4%]. Paternal but not maternal LBW was predictor of metabolic syndrome and diabetes in adulthood.

Maternal LBW is an important predictor of LBW and SGA in neonates. Maternal macrosomia is an important predictor of neonatal macrosomia; is protective against SGA and preterm labour/childbirth. Neonatal size of parents is reflected in neonatal size of their children.

Preserving viable infective stages of chicken ascarids under laboratory conditions facilitates the maintenance of characterized nematode strains for research purposes. We investigated the survivability of Ascaridia galli eggs exposed to low temperatures and the cryoprotectant dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). Two egg developmental stages (unembryonated or fully embryonated) were stored at 4°C, –20°, or –80°C in sterile water or with 5% and 10% DMSO for 1, 2, 4, or 8 weeks. Egg survival was assessed by morphology following post-storage incubation in 0.1 N H2SO4 at 26°C for unembryonated eggs or with a viability dye exclusion test of hatched larvae for the embryonated eggs. The results revealed that neither DMSO nor the hardy chitinous eggshell protected eggs from freezing damage, and not a single egg survived even for 1 week of storage at –20° or –80°C. DMSO at 10% significantly reduced (P < 0.0001) overall egg survival and embryonation capacity with increasing storage time at 4°C compared to water alone. For both egg developmental stages, egg survival was maintained in 5% DMSO at a rate similar to that in water alone. Unembryonated A. galli eggs survived refrigeration better than embryonated eggs with larval viability declining linearly at almost a double rate in the latter (9.75%/week) compared to the former (5.64 %/week). We conclude that DMSO is unlikely to provide cryoprotection for A. galli eggs and also causes concentration-dependent toxicity with increasing exposure time. Furthermore, survival during refrigeration is better for unembryonated than embryonated eggs.

Here we report microfossil helminth analysis of soils/sediments from the Cloudman site, Lake Huron, Michigan, encompassing the Early Late Woodland (AD 500/600–1000) to the early Historic period. Results reveal eggs of the dog nematode Toxocara canis (a first for North America), the human nematode Ascaris lumbricoides, and a species of taeniid cestode, intestinal parasites that could have affected the health of people and their domesticated dogs. The eggs suggest that the presence of dogs at the site remained relatively stable over the c. 1000-year span of this period. The results offer a new line of evidence for possible dog presence and domestication in North America.

Sustainable management of watersheds to secure freshwater resources and maintain ecological stability relies on adopting land-use strategies supporting diverse ecosystem services through natural processes. This necessitates systematic evaluation of prospective land-use practices and their associated costs and benefits. We conducted a comprehensive economic evaluation of pro-watershed land-use options, focusing on a well-recognized agroforestry system with alternative organic cultivation in the Navnera watershed in Rajasthan, India. We adopted the ‘total economic valuation’ framework, using the revealed preference approach for monetary evaluation and modelling indirect benefits primarily through Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST). Our findings indicate that the total economic value of ecosystem services in this watershed has the potential to increase by 4.6% with the adoption of agroforestry and only by 1.3% under organic farming compared to current land-use practices. While agroforestry might reduce farmland revenue and water yield, it compensates for these with other important environmental benefits such as water purification, sediment reduction, nutrient retention and carbon sequestration. This local-scale appraisal of ecosystem services helps policymakers understand the cost–benefit dynamics of watershed land-use changes, which is vital for developing effective management strategies through the involvement of local communities.

Exposure to certain parasites can occur when hosts encounter clumps of infective larvae during ingestion. Compared to more typical transmission pathways involving the cumulative penetration or ingestion of single larvae, clumped transmission can be expected to lead to complex and variable epidemiological patterns of infection within exposed hosts. We explored this idea in a spatiotemporal survey of wood ants (Formica spp.) infected with metacercariae of the host-manipulating trematode, Dicrocoelium dendriticum. Ant second intermediate hosts are exposed to clumps of cercariae during ingestion of ‘slimeballs’ that are released onto pasture by land snail first intermediate hosts. In a total sample of >650 ants collected during the host-manipulation phase when ants were attached to plants, metacercariae prevalence was 97% and mean intensity was 27 ± 25 (range in intensity = 1–168; variance:mean ratio = 23.1). None of the observed variation in mean metacercariae intensity could be attributed to year (2021, 2022), month (May to August), or nest. Although the recruitment of metacercariae into ants occurred within a narrow window of transmission each summer, the mixed-age structure of our ant samples likely limited our ability to detect seasonal patterns of mean intensity. The absence of significant spatiotemporal patterns in metacercariae intensity in samples of ants likely also reflects infrequent and variable rates of encounter with cercariae-containing slimeballs by individual ants.

Mastitis, an inflammation of the mammary gland, is a disease of significant clinical and economic importance. In recent years, advances in omics technologies have provided powerful tools to unravel the complex biological mechanisms underlying mastitis. These approaches encompass diverse fields such as genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, metagenomics, metabolomics, epigenomics, lipidomics, glycomics, pharmacogenomics, foodomics, interactomics and exposomics. However, despite the rapid growth of omics research, the thematic structure of this literature has not been systematically examined. In this study, latent dirichlet allocation (LDA) was employed to perform topic modelling on publications related to omics and mastitis retrieved from Scopus and Web of Science. The LDA analysis revealed ten distinct topics, labelled according to the most frequent terms within each cluster: ‘proteomics’, ‘pathogen genomics’, ‘differential expression’, ‘metabolism’, ‘genetic selection’, ‘disease economy’, ‘molecular diagnostics’, ‘microbiome’, ‘antimicrobial resistance’ and ‘genetic variation.’ Among these, the topics of ‘genomics’, ‘differential expression’ and ‘antimicrobial resistance’ accounted for the highest number of publications, while ‘metabolism’ emerged more recently. All topics exhibited an increasing trend in publication volume over time, likely driven by the declining costs and greater accessibility of high-throughput omics technologies. This study provides a comprehensive thematic overview of omics research on mastitis, identifies key areas of emphasis and emerging directions, and highlights knowledge gaps that may inform future investigations and the development of targeted strategies for disease control and prevention.

Maintaining appetite in older adults is important for preventing malnutrition. Previous studies have shown seasonal variations in dietary intake, suggesting that appetite itself may vary with the seasons. Nevertheless, few studies have directly examined seasonal changes in appetite in older adults, particularly those living alone, who are at higher risk of malnutrition. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to identify when appetite declines throughout the year in older adults living alone and with others. Of the 60 adults aged 65 and older who participated in the study, 57 completed the longitudinal study over four seasons. Appetite for each season was assessed using the Simple Nutritional Appetite Questionnaire (SNAQ) and the visual analogue scale for hunger, satiety, and expectation of food intake. Nutritional status was assessed using the Mini Nutritional Assessment and the Food Frequency Questionnaire. The living arrangements of the participants were determined based on whether they were living alone or with others. The stratified analysis revealed seasonal changes in SNAQ scores exclusively among individuals living alone (p = 0.029, effect size = 0.280), who exhibited diminished appetite during summer compared to winter (p = 0.026, 95% CI: 0.076–1.258). No seasonal variation in appetite or nutritional status was observed in those living with others (p > 0.05). These findings highlight the importance of an approach that considers living arrangement and seasonality to ensure that older people maintain adequate appetite status throughout the year.

Procolophonidae, a clade of stem reptiles, are hypothesized to be some of the first highly specialized herbivores to evolve following the end-Permian mass extinction event. That hypothesis is largely based on qualitative observations of tooth shape, which are highly subjective and not generalizable. Quantitative studies of reptilian tooth shape have employed relatively sophisticated methods to capture tooth complexity, but these approaches often require expensive equipment and software and are time intensive. In this study, we built a predictive model based on extant lizards to quantitatively predict the diets of procolophonids using simple measures of tooth morphology. We use linear discriminant analysis (LDA) to predict dietary ecology from tooth dimensions and phylogenetic MANOVA to test for significant differences in tooth dimensions for different diet categories. We report two key findings: (1) procolophonids are largely predicted as herbivorous but occupy a different area of the LDA space from extant lizards, and (2) simple metrics return similar results as complex methods, but with less confidence. We hypothesize that Triassic flora posed different mechanical and processing challenges from modern plants, which contributed to the unique tooth morphologies of procolophonids and likely other Triassic taxa.

Diet can affect health directly or by altering the gut microbiota; thus, there are strong interrelationships between the gut immune system, gut microbiota, and diet. This study examined the effects of ingesting AIN-93M purified diet on gut immune function and gut microbiota in DO11.10 mice, in which T cell–dependent and –independent IgA can be analysed separately. Ingestion of the purified diet for 2 weeks reduced both T cell–dependent and –independent secretory IgA in the faeces compared with non-purified diet, whereas the diet did not affect T cell–dependent and –independent serum IgA. Ingestion of the purified diet had no effect on systemic immune system splenocyte responses. Ingestion of the purified diet reduced intestinal tissue expression levels of BAFF and APRIL, cytokines involved in T cell–independent IgA production, and pIgR, which transports IgA into the intestinal lumen. Co-abundance group analysis of the intestinal microbiota was conducted based on correlations between changes in the abundance of bacterial genera, and the correlations between co-abundance groups and IgA were determined. The Allobaculum-dominated co-abundance group expanded following ingestion of the purified diet, accompanied by an inverse correlation with the decrease in faecal IgA, whereas the Lactobacillus-dominated co-abundance group shrank relative to the Allobaculum-dominated co-abundance group. These results suggest that T cell–independent IgA suppresses the expansion of some intestinal bacteria and that ingestion of the purified diet induces dysbiosis via impaired IgA secretion into the intestinal lumen.

Head circumference (HC) is a low-cost proxy for early brain development, yet few studies have examined its predictive value for specific neurocognitive outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. This study investigated whether trajectories of HC growth from 1 to 24 months predict executive function and fluid cognitive skills at age 4 in a Kenyan cohort (N = 182). Using latent growth curve modeling, we found that greater HC growth was significantly associated with better EF and fluid cognitive skills, independent of initial HC and sociodemographic factors. These associations were robust across subgroups defined by prenatal exposure to HIV and atypical physical growth (i.e., extreme values for weight-for-length, underweight, or HC). Moreover, the predictive association between early HC and later neurocognition was evident within the first 15 months of life. This study highlights the value of monitoring changes in HC as one aspect of early child health and wellbeing. Infants who do not exhibit normative increases in HC in infancy may benefit from early neurocognitive assessments and/or the receipt of early intervention services.

In January 1852, as searches continued for Sir John Franklin’s missing Arctic expedition, large quantities of preserved (that is, canned) meats supplied to the Royal Navy were found putrid and caused concern that the expedition had received similar meats with fatal consequences. Whilst a Parliamentary enquiry concluded correctly that the expedition had received good-quality meats, it neglected the fact that some 5% of all canned meats were condemned on ships due to damage and corrosion. As the Franklin expedition would be no exception, the study applies recent evidence of the expedition’s victualling schedule to estimate the number of cans condemned by the time at Beechey Island when a decision would be made whether enough remained to sustain the mission. It also estimates the vitamin B1 (thiamine) content of the meat because high temperatures during canning would have degraded or destroyed that vitamin, and vitamin C, both being essential to health. Any reduction in general rations would add to the decline in the quality of the diet. The expedition’s unique circumstances of long entrapment without recourse to hunting to supplement such deficiencies, or to escape, would prove fatal regardless of the good quality of the canned provisions.

The increasing focus on longevity and cellular health has brought into the spotlight two key compounds, urolithin A (UroA) and spermidine, for their promising roles in autophagy and mitophagy. Urolithin A, a natural metabolite derived from ellagitannins, stimulates mitophagy through pathways such as PTEN induced kinase 1 (PINK1)/ Parkin RBR E3 ubiquitin protein ligase (PRKN), leading to improved mitochondrial health and enhanced muscle function. On the other hand, spermidine, a polyamine found in various food sources, induces autophagy by regulating key signaling pathways such as 5' AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and sirtuin 1, thus mitigating age-related cellular decline and promoting cardiovascular and cognitive health. While both UroA and spermidine target cellular maintenance, they affect overlapping as well as distinct signaling pathways. Thus, they do not have completely identical effects, although they overlap in many ways, and offer varying benefits in terms of metabolic function, oxidative stress reduction, and longevity. This review article aims to describe the mechanisms of action of UroA and spermidine not only on the maintenance of cellular health, which is mediated by the induction and maintenance of autophagy and mitophagy, but also on their potential clinical relevance. The analysis presented here suggests that although both compounds are safe and offer substantial health benefits and are involved in both autophagy and mitophagy, the role of UroA in mitophagy places it as a targeted intervention for mitochondrial health, whereas the broader influence of spermidine on autophagy and metabolic regulation may provide more comprehensive anti-aging effects.