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ABSTRACTThis study is an assessment of Clovis spear thrusting penetration depth and entry wound size. This work is the fifth contribution in a series of experiments aimed at shedding light on the functional performance of distinct Clovis point forms. Here, using highly controlled and standardized procedures, we had a participant who had previously trained with bayonets and hand-to-hand combat thrust seven spears, each tipped with a distinct Clovis point form, into a ballistic gel target. Our statistical analysis of the 203 thrusts revealed, among several findings, that Clovis plan-view form does influence penetration depth and entry wound size. This result is consistent with the hypothesis that the functional selection of attributes could have contributed to Clovis point form variation.

The International Society of Nephrology (ISN) region of Oceania and South East Asia (OSEA) is a mix of high- and low-income countries, with diversity in population demographics and densities. Three iterations of the ISN-Global Kidney Health Atlas (GKHA) have been conducted, aiming to deliver in-depth assessments of global kidney care across the spectrum from early detection of CKD to treatment of kidney failure. This paper reports the findings of the latest ISN-GKHA in relation to kidney-care capacity in the OSEA region. Among the 30 countries and territories in OSEA, 19 (63%) participated in the ISN-GKHA, representing over 97% of the region’s population. The overall prevalence of treated kidney failure in the OSEA region was 1203 per million population (pmp), 45% higher than the global median of 823 pmp. In contrast, kidney replacement therapy (KRT) in the OSEA region was less available than the global median (chronic hemodialysis, 89% OSEA region vs. 98% globally; peritoneal dialysis, 72% vs. 79%; kidney transplantation, 61% vs. 70%). Only 56% of countries could provide access to dialysis to at least half of people with incident kidney failure, lower than the global median of 74% of countries with available dialysis services. Inequalities in access to KRT were present across the OSEA region, with widespread availability and low out-of-pocket costs in high-income countries and limited availability, often coupled with large out-of-pocket costs, in middle- and low-income countries. Workforce limitations were observed across the OSEA region, especially in lower-middle–income countries. Extensive collaborative work within the OSEA region and globally will help close the noted gaps in kidney-care provision.

Nitrogen fertilization in agriculture has serious environmental consequences, including production of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O), pollution of groundwater with nitrate (NO3–), and river eutrophication. Nitrogen use efficiency can be increased by amending fertilizers with inhibitors to slow microbial nitrification processes, which transform ammonia to NO3–. Unfortunately, commercial inhibitors have failed to perform reliably across various agroecosystems for reasons not well understood. Using a combination of bacterial studies and soil incubations, we demonstrate here that 4-methyl-1-(prop-2-yn-1-yl)-1H-1,2,3-triazole (MPT) exhibits superior nitrification inhibitory properties. Unlike the commercial reversible inhibitors, MPT acts as a mechanistic, irreversible inhibitor of the key enzyme ammonia monooxygenase, enabling effective retention of ammonium (NH4+) and suppression of NO3–and N2O production over 21 days in several agricultural soils with pH values ranging from 4.7 to 7.5. A bacterial viability stain and a suite of freshwater and terrestrial ecotoxicity tests did not indicate any acute or chronic toxicity. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) analysis revealed an enhanced inhibitory effect of MPT on both ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and archaea. Thus, MPT outperforms currently available nitrification inhibitors and has great potential for broad application in various agricultural settings.

Vibrational sum frequency generation (VSFG), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) absorbance, and Raman scattering were used to investigate the water structure at the gypsum (CaSO4·2H2O)–air and gypsum–water interfaces under ambient thermal and atmospheric conditions. Results show that water structurally embedded in the gypsum matrix consists of two different populations. One population has decoupled −OH bonds with one bond oriented in-plane, while the second water population has a more traditional, normal mode structure with the molecular C2symmetry axis aligned along the surface normal. Based on previously reported molecular dynamics simulations, we propose that surface water molecules having the decoupled −OH bonds (population 1) result from strong hydrogen bond donation to gypsum’s sulfate oxygens, whereas water molecules in the second population sample a more symmetric environment that shifts water’s vibrational frequencies to ∼3400 cm–1. Gypsum samples in contact with bulk water show significantly diminished VSFG signals with no observable new features. This result is attributed to loss of VSFG response due to the signal transmission into the bulk water and to an absence of surface-induced structure in the adjacent aqueous phase, consistent with a mineral surface near its point of zero charge. Removal of the bulk aqueous phase results in VSFG spectra that are very similar to those measured prior to water immersion, even when the aqueous phase consisted of D2O although relative intensities of individual bands change following exposure to D2O. These results imply that some fraction of gypsum’s surface structural water remains associated with the substrate and does not readily exchange with an adjacent phase. Furthermore, these findings provide direct molecular-level insight into previous force microscopy studies that proposed the existence of tightly bound surface waters at the gypsum/aqueous interface.

AbstractFactors allowing rural, community-dwelling 80+ year-olds to thrive remain unexplored. Isolation can impact this vulnerable population. In this study, patients were prospectively surveyed for age, gender, cohabitation (self, spouse, family) and location (suburban, rural, and isolated). Mini-nutritional assessment short form (MNA-SF) and BMI were obtained. A p < 0.05 represented statistical significance. Patients (n = 167) were mostly female (120; 71.9%) with an average overweight BMI (26.5) and low-normal MNA-SF scores (11.8). Most live alone (49.7%), followed by spousal (31.7%) and family (18.6%) cohabitation. Over 80% are rural (71) or rural-isolated (67), and of these, 83% had normal nutrition. Self-habitation correlated with lower MNA-SF scores (p = 0.02). Normal BMIs correlated with family cohabitation (OR = 0.90 [CI: 0.82-0.99]) and nourished MNA-SF scores with spousal cohabitation (OR = 1.69; CI: 1.15-2.47) rather than living alone. Self-habitation increases vulnerability to obesity and malnutrition. Interventions should aim to maintain independence while improving the effects of habitation on nutrition.

Purpose: Safety planning is often recommended for stalking victims, yet there has been limited research on personal safety planning in general and specifically for stalking victims. This study has two overall objectives: (1) to examine whether frequency of safety scenario planning (thinking through various strategies in responding to threatening situations) among ex-partner stalking victims is associated with increased personal safety worry, safety efficacy, and other safety behaviors (e.g., seeking safety advice, carrying a safety device); and (2) to explore associations of frequency of safety scenario planning with partner abuse and stalking experiences, help-seeking, and mental health symptoms. Method: Women stalking victims were recruited from Prolific. Three groups were developed for comparisons including stalking victims who: (a) did not engage in safety scenario planning in the past year (n= 121); (b) engaged in one safety scenario planning activity in the past year (n= 256); and (c) engaged in 2 or more safety scenario planning activities in the past year (n= 184). Results: Bivariate results found that frequency of safety scenario planning was associated with increased personal safety worry, increased seeking and giving safety advice, and increased defensive safety behaviors. Additionally, the multivariate analysis found more frequent safety scenario planning was uniquely and significantly associated with increased personal safety worry, safety efficacy, work interference, the number of different help-seeking sources, PTSD symptoms, and sexual discomfort. Conclusions: More research is needed to provide information about best practices in safety planning to better help victims manage the short- and long-term consequences of violence exposure in their recovery journey.

Recently, 1,4-disubstituted 1,2,3-triazoles were reported by us as a new class of nitrification inhibitors, which can outperform the commercial compound 3,4-dimethylpyrazole phosphate (DMPP) in soil incubations. In this work, the mechanism of inhibition of five 1,2,3-triazoles with different substitution patterns was explored using a bacterial assay based on the measurement of nitrite (NO2–) production by pure cell cultures of Nitrosomonas europaeaand Nitrosospira multiformis. While polar functional groups, such as amines, esters, and alkoxy residues, were detrimental to inhibiting production of NO2–, triazoles carrying only aliphatic substituents showed the highest inhibition of up to 98%. The observed correlation between lipophilicity and inhibitory activity suggests that more lipophilic compounds could more easily access the membrane-bound ammonia monooxygenase (AMO), which catalyzes the first step of the nitrification process. Measurement of the Michaelis–Menten kinetics suggests that the disubstituted 1,2,3-triazoles studied in this work act as reversible, noncompetitive inhibitors. Real-time measurements of the oxygen (O2) consumption showed that the O2uptake rate by AMO follows zero-order kinetics in the presence of the triazoles, confirming the nonmechanistic mode of inhibition.

Time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy in combination with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to study the chemical interactions that occur when l-phenylalanine is introduced to solutions containing phosphatidylcholine vesicles. Studies reported in this work address open questions about l-Phe’s affinity for lipid vesicle bilayers, the effects of l-Phe partitioning on bilayer properties, l-Phe’s solvation within a lipid bilayer, and the amount of l-Phe within that local solvation environment. DSC data show that l-Phe reduces the amount of heat necessary to melt saturated phosphatidylcholine bilayers from their gel to liquid-crystalline state but does not change the transition temperature (Tgel-lc). Time-resolved emission shows only a single l-Phe lifetime at low temperatures corresponding to l-Phe remaining solvated in aqueous solution. At temperatures close to Tgel-lc, a second, shorter lifetime appears that is assigned to l-Phe already embedded within the membrane that becomes hydrated as water starts to permeate the lipid bilayer. This new lifetime is attributed to a conformationally restricted rotamer in the bilayer’s polar headgroup region and accounts for up to 30% of the emission amplitude. Results reported for dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC, 16:0) lipid vesicles prove to be general, with similar effects observed for dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC, 14:0) and distearoylphosphatidylcholine (DSPC, 18:0) vesicles. Taken together, these results create a complete and compelling picture of how l-Phe associates with model biological membranes. Furthermore, this approach to examining amino acid partitioning into membranes and the resulting solvation forces points to new strategies for studying the structure and chemistry of membrane-soluble peptides and selected membrane proteins.

Nitrification inhibitors have been coformulated with nitrogen fertilizers since the 1970s to modulate the microbiological conversion of nitrogen in agricultural soils. 3,4-Dimethyl-1H-pyrazole (DMP) and dicyandiamide (DCD) are currently the most used commercial nitrification inhibitors, but their mode of action is not well understood. This work seeks to fill this void by assessing for the first time in detail their mechanism of inhibition, efficacy, and acute toxicity with pure cell cultures of Nitrosomonas europaea. Bacterial assays based on the quantification of the nitrite (NO2–) production showed that both inhibitors reversibly target ammonia monooxygenase (AMO), which catalyzes the first step of the nitrification process. Michaelis–Menten kinetics suggest that both DMP and DCD act as uncompetitive inhibitors. Real-time measurements of the oxygen (O2) consumption confirmed the nonmechanistic mode of inhibition and showed that DMP reduced the O2uptake rate by AMO much more at considerably lower concentrations than DCD, in line with the lower inhibitory efficiency of the latter. Acute toxicity tests revealed that DCD has a 10% higher toxicity than DMP when comparing treatments at the same inhibition efficacy (i.e., DMP at 10 ppm, DCD at 100 ppm), indicating that the inhibition of the nitrification process cannot simply be achieved by increasing the inhibitor concentration. The methods presented in this study could assist the development of more reliable nitrification inhibitors in the future.

“Tapajós” narrates the field campaign of two researchers studying forest fragmentation in the Brazilian Amazon. It addresses a contemporary conflict in the region, where an Indigenous people, the Munduruku, are resisting efforts by the Brazilian State to channelize the Tapajós River and exploit its hydropower potential. Development here represents an existential threat to the Munduruku, whose homeland resides in the river valley. It also represents an ecological threat to the global community. Although the rate of deforestation dropped after the turn of the millennium, it has begun to climb again and would no doubt accelerate with development in the Tapajós watershed and the opening of Central Amazonia to colonization and resource extraction. This would push the forest past its tipping point, a magnitude of deforestation capable of compromising rainfall recycling, and thus precipitating the transformation of the Amazonian forest into a patchwork of fireadapted shrubs and grasses. “Tapajós” describes how such an ecological catastrophe would occur. It also argues that the assertion of Indigenous territorial rights is key to the conservation of Amazonian biodiversity. The account unfolds against a background of conflict between Amazonia’s Indigenous peoples and the Brazilian State. In so doing, it brings to life the realities of frontier violence involving both land conflict and the unrestrained behaviors of individuals living outside the institutional constraints of law. Such violence complicates the execution of field research in the region and contributes to its gathering ecological crisis.

The ‘musca depicta’ trope is well known to art historians, with a history going back to Pliny. It flourished in the Renaissance, but in eighteenth-century England the meaning of the trope was altered greatly when employed in popular culture, both in live theatrical presentations (by George Alexander Stevens) and in published poetry (by James Robertson, comedian of York). Originally, the trope signalled the virtuosity of the painter, who was able to fool the eye by depicting flies so real that the viewer attempted to shoo them off the picture. However, in the hands of Stevens and Robertson, that bit of theatre was turned on its head, as the supposed connoisseur engaged in a harsh criticism of a painting is startled when a fly that he thinks poorly depicted suddenly flies off the canvas, thereby rendering the connoisseur a satiric target.

•Topographic relief likely played a role in Stone Age hunting.•Hunters may have been able to hunt from on high.•We experimentally assessed the interaction of projectiles with launch height.•As launch height increased, javelin velocity and kinetic energy increased.•Atlatl dart velocity and kinetic energy did not.

Second harmonic generation (SHG) was used to measure gold’s second-order nonlinear optical response as a function of temperature and as a function of ambient atmosphere composition. Using a bespoke temperature-controlled assembly, SHG signal was measured from an Au surface between 19 and 260 °C under atmospheres containing varying amounts (0–100%) of O2with a balance of N2. SHG intensity diminished with increasing temperature, a result that is interpreted in terms of increased electron–phonon scattering at higher temperatures. Surprisingly, SHG intensity also depended on ambient atmosphere, with the SHG signal measured in air (20% O2) being ∼2 times larger than that measured in N2at room temperature. This dependence of SHG intensity on atmospheric composition disappeared at high temperatures. Systematically titrating O2into an N2feed showed that the room-temperature enhancement of SHG signal from Au saturated at ∼15% O2. Despite widespread acceptance that O2does not adsorb to a bulk Au surface, we propose that these results are consistent with a weakly physisorbed surface excess of O2at the Au–gas interface. Fitting this O2enhancement of Au’s SHG response to a Langmuir isotherm implies an adsorption energy on the order of 0.1 eV, consistent with results from previously reported DFT calculations. CO affects the SHG signal from Au in a manner similar to that of O2, implying that the SHG enhancement is due to back-bonding of Au’s conduction band electrons into vacant orbitals on either the O2or CO adsorbates.

Polyhydroxylated fullerene (PHF) surface activity and aggregation behavior at the air–water interface were examined using surface tension and resonance-enhanced second harmonic generation (SHG). Surface tension data showed that PHFs are surface active with a limiting surface excess corresponding to 130 Å2/molecule in aqueous (Millipore water) solutions. Increasing the solution-phase ionic strength (through the addition of NaCl) reduces the PHF surface excess. Conductivity measurements show that PHFs carry a single charge, presumably negative. Surface-specific SHG experiments show a small but measurable fixed wavelength, nonlinear response from solutions having surface excess coverages as low as ∼400 Å2/molecule. The SHG response of PHF solutions in the low-concentration limit shows unexpected behavior, implying that at bulk concentrations below 0.06 mg/mL, PHF monomers adsorb to the surface and interfere destructively with the intrinsic nonlinear susceptibility of the aqueous/vapor interface, leading to a ∼75% reduction in the SH signal. Above a PHF concentration of 0.0.06 mg/mL, the SH signal begins to rise in the Millipore and 50 mM NaCl solutions but remains very low in the 500 mM NaCl solutions. From this behavior, we infer that an increased nonlinear optical response is due to adsorbed aggregates.

Surface specific vibrational spectroscopy experiments together with surface tension measurements and spectroscopic ellipsometry data were used to characterize the effects of soluble carbon particulates on compressed and partially compressed lipid monolayers adsorbed to the water–air interface. The lipid monolayers consisted of 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC), and measurements were made for both tightly packed monolayers (40 Å2/molecule) and monolayers in their liquid condensed state (55 Å2/molecule). Langmuir trough data show that very small amounts of PHF (0.0075 mg/mL or 6.4 × 10–6M) decrease lipid film compressibility. This finding supports a cooperative adsorption mechanism whereby the soluble PHFs are drawn to the surface and associate with the insoluble DPPC monolayer. Excess free energies (ΔGmixE) were positive, consistent with the cooperative adsorption mechanism, and although the excess free energies are small (≤1 kJ/mol), adsorbed PHF has measurable effects on monolayer structure. Further support for the cooperative adsorption mechanism at the water–air interface comes from vibrational sum frequency generation (VSFG) experiments. Low PHF concentrations (≤0.06 mg/mL) increase DPPC acyl chain ordering in liquid condensed lipid films and decrease DPPC acyl chain ordering and film thickness in tightly packed lipid films.

Thirty to seventy percent of all venous thromboembolism (VTE) events are associated with hospitalization. The absolute and relative risks during and after hospitalization are poorly characterized.

ABSTRACTThis study is an experimental assessment of Clovis knife use. This work is the third contribution in a series of experiments aimed at shedding light on the functional performance of distinct Clovis “point” forms. Here, we used seven replica Clovis point forms, representing the average and extremes of observed Clovis form, in two cutting tasks: rope cutting and clay cutting. Statistical comparison of cutting time, our measure of cutting efficiency, indicated differences among the knife forms in both tasks. These results, especially when considered with previous penetration and durability studies, are largely consistent with the hypothesis that selection of functional attributes contributed to Clovis point variability and evolution across North America. We also show that better knives serve as poorer points, and vice versa, but better knives are more durable than poorer knives. We conclude with discussion of knife use, allometry, and knife use in other time periods.

Thirty to seventy percent of all venous thromboembolism (VTE) events are associated with hospitalization. The absolute and relative risks during and after hospitalization are poorly characterized. Quantify the absolute rate and relative risk of VTE during and up to 3 months after medical and surgical hospitalizations. We conducted an observational cohort study between 2010 and 2016 of patients cared for by the University of Vermont (UVM) Health Network's primary care population. Cox proportional hazard models with hospitalization modeled as a time‐varying covariate were used to estimate VTE risk. Over 4.3 years of follow‐up, 55 220 hospitalizations (156 per 1000 person‐years) and 713 first venous thromboembolism events (2.0 per 1000 person‐years) occurred. Among individuals not recently hospitalized, the rate of venous thromboembolism was 1.4 per 1000 person‐years and 71.8 per 1000 person‐years during hospitalization. During the first, second, and third months after discharge, the rates of venous thromboembolism were 35.1, 11.3, and 5.2 per 1000 person‐years, respectively. Relative to those not recently hospitalized, the age‐ and sex‐adjusted HRs of venous thromboembolism were 38.0 (95% CI 28.0, 51.5) during hospitalization, and 18.4 (95% CI 15.0, 22.6), 6.3 (95% CI 4.3, 9.0), and 3.0 (95% CI 1.7, 5.4) during the first, second, and third months after discharge, respectively. Stratified by medical versus surgical services the rates were similar. Hospitalization and up to 3 months after discharge were strongly associated with increased venous thromboembolism risk. These data quantify this risk for use in future studies.

Efforts to address the poor prognosis associated with esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) have been hampered by a lack of biomarkers to identify early disease and therapeutic targets. Despite extensive efforts to understand the somatic mutations associated with EAC over the past decade, a gap remains in understanding how the atlas of genomic aberrations in this cancer impacts the proteome and which somatic variants are of importance for the disease phenotype. We performed a quantitative proteomic analysis of 23 EACs and matched adjacent normal esophageal and gastric tissues. We explored the correlation of transcript and protein abundance using tissue-matched RNA-seq and proteomic data from seven patients and further integrated these data with a cohort of EAC RNA-seq data (n = 264 patients), EAC whole-genome sequencing (n = 454 patients), and external published datasets. We quantified protein expression from 5879 genes in EAC and patient-matched normal tissues. Several biomarker candidates with EAC-selective expression were identified, including the transmembrane protein GPA33. We further verified the EAC-enriched expression of GPA33 in an external cohort of 115 patients and confirm this as an attractive diagnostic and therapeutic target. To further extend the insights gained from our proteomic data, an integrated analysis of protein and RNA expression in EAC and normal tissues revealed several genes with poorly correlated protein and RNA abundance, suggesting posttranscriptional regulation of protein expression. These outlier genes, including SLC25A30, TAOK2, and AGMAT, only rarely demonstrated somatic mutation, suggesting post-transcriptional drivers for this EAC-specific phenotype. AGMAT was demonstrated to be overexpressed at the protein level in EAC compared to adjacent normal tissues with an EAC-selective, post-transcriptional mechanism of regulation of protein abundance proposed. Integrated analysis of proteome, transcriptome, and genome in EAC has revealed several genes with tumor-selective, posttranscriptional regulation of protein expression, which may be an exploitable vulnerability.

Experimental archaeology continues to mature methodologically and theoretically. Around the world, practitioners are increasingly using modern materials that would have been unavailable to prehistoric people in archaeological experiments. The use of a modern material substitute can offer several benefits to experimental method, design, control, replicability, feasibility, and cost, but it should be directly compared to its “traditional” analogue to understand similarities and differences. Here, aluminum is introduced as a substitute for chert in prehistoric ballistics research because, critically, aluminum is safe, inexpensive, easy to process, and it and chert possess densities that differ by less than 4%. The aluminum casting process for replicating stone artifacts is presented, and it is shown that the aluminum castings are essentially identical in form, flake-scar patterning, and mass to their stone counterparts. We then present a proof-of-concept ballistics experiment that demonstrates no difference between aluminum and stone points in terms of target penetration.