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Introduction: There are limited and conflicting data regarding the impact of hepatitis C in pregnancy on adverse birth outcomes. Methods: Using the Surveillance for Emerging Threats to Pregnant People and Infants Network (SET-NET), a large surveillance cohort, we describe birth outcomes among a cohort of people with HCV in pregnancy in total and by reported substance use. Results: Among 1418 infants, 89% were born to people with reported substance use during pregnancy. The proportion born preterm was 20%, 13% were small-for-gestational age and 34% of term infants required intensive care. Conclusions: Assessments of recent changes to recommendations for HCV screening in pregnancy should evaluate the impact on maternal access to care for both HCV treatment as well as comorbidities such as substance use disorder which may contribute to adverse birth outcomes. Significance: Incidence of hepatitis C in pregnancy is increasing. Prematurity, small-for-gestational age, and intensive care unit admission were common among this surveillance cohort of infants born to people with hepatitis C in pregnancy with high frequency of substance use. Assessments of recent changes to recommendations for HCV screening in pregnancy should evaluate the impact on maternal access to care for both HCV treatment as well as comorbidities such as substance use disorder which may contribute to adverse birth outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brodie is a high-yielding white-fleshed potato cultivar with resistance to both pathotypes Ro1 and Ro2 of the golden cyst nematode (Globodera rostochiensis) and partial resistance to pathotype Pa2/3 of the pale cyst nematode (G. pallida). It was selected from a cross made at Cornell University in 1998 between Cornell breeding clones NY121 and NY115 and released by the New York Agricultural Experiment Station in 2018. The tubers are oval and slightly flattened, with shallow eyes and smooth attractive skin. In addition to its suitability for tablestock, Brodie also has merit for chipping as its chip color is good, comparable in lightness to the chipping cultivar Snowden when chipped out of two to four months of 6.7 °C storage. Specific gravity of Brodie averaged 1.078 across 63 Northeastern US trials, 0.010 less than Atlantic in the same locations, while marketable yield averaged 115% of Atlantic across 70 trials in New York and Pennsylvania. For growers affected by pathotypes Ro1 and Ro2 of the golden nematode, Brodie provides a means of producing a marketable crop while simultaneously decreasing infestation levels of both Ro1 and Ro2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study that assessed the extent of soil contamination from submarine and aerial lead sheathed communications cables (LSCC) as well as potential risks to children's health. The researchers measured the amount of soil lead levels at submarine sites in Louisiana and aerial sites in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania using a Niton XL3t X-ray Fluorescence Analyzer. The results indicate that LSCC can be transported from the cables and contaminate surrounding soil and dust.

• We exposed 15 amphibian populations to 3 common insecticides. • We examined their tolerance and inducible tolerance. • We found high variation among the populations for all three insecticides. Human impacts on ecological communities are pervasive and species must either move or adapt to changing environmental conditions. For environments polluted by contaminants, researchers have found hundreds of target pest species evolving increased tolerance, but we have substantially fewer cases of evolved tolerance in non-target species. When species do evolve increased tolerance, inducible tolerance can provide immediate protection and favor the evolution of increased tolerance over generations via genetic assimilation. Using a model larval amphibian (wood frogs, Rana sylvatica), we examined the tolerance of 15 populations from western Pennsylvania and eastern New York (USA), when first exposed to no pesticide or sublethal concentrations and subsequently exposed to lethal concentrations of three common insecticides (carbaryl, chlorpyrifos, and diazinon). We found high variation in naïve tolerance among the populations for all three insecticides. We also discovered that nearly half of the populations exhibited inducible tolerance, though the degree of inducible tolerance (magnitude of tolerance plasticity; MoTP) varied. We observed a cross-tolerance pattern of the populations between chlorpyrifos and diazinon, but no pattern of similar MoTP among the pesticides. With populations combined from two regions, increased tolerance was not associated with proximity to agricultural fields, but there were correlations between proximity to agriculture and MoTP. Collectively, these results suggests that amphibian populations possess a wide range of naïve tolerance to common pesticides, with many also being able to rapidly induce increased tolerance. Future research should examine inducible tolerance in a wide variety of other taxa and contaminants to determine the ubiquity of these responses to anthropogenic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]