Reduced exposure to sweet taste has been proposed to reduce sweet food preferences and intakes, but the evidence to support these associations is limited. This randomised controlled trial investigated the effects of a whole-diet sweet taste intervention for 6 d, on subsequent pleasantness, desire for and sweet food intakes. Participants (n 104) were randomised to increase (n 40), decrease (n 43) or make no change to (n 21) their consumption of sweet-tasting foods and beverages for 6 consecutive days. Pleasantness, desire to eat, sweet taste intensity and sweet food and beverage intakes were assessed on days 0 and 7. One hundred and two (98 %) participants completed the study, and self-reported adherence with the dietary interventions was moderate to good (M = 66–72/100 mm), with instructions to decrease sweet food consumption reported as more difficult than the other diets (smallest (t(81) = 2·45, P = 0·02, Mdiff = 14/100 mm, se = 2 mm). In intention-to-treat analyses, participants in the decreased sweet food consumption group reported higher sweet taste intensity perceptions at day 7 compared with day 0 (F(2101) = 4·10, P = 0·02, Mdiff = 6/100 mm, se = 2 mm). No effects were found for pleasantness (F(2101) = 2·04, P = 0·14), desire to eat (F(2101) = 1·49, P = 0·23) or any of the measures of sweet food intake (largest F(2101) = 2·53, P = 0·09). These results were confirmed in regression analyses that took self-reported adherence to the diets into account. Our findings suggest that exposure to sweet taste does not affect pleasantness, desire for or intakes of sweet-tasting foods and beverages. Public health recommendations to limit the consumption of sweet-tasting foods and beverages to reduce sweet food preferences may require revision.

We report a case of hypoplastic left heart syndrome and with subsequent aortopathy and then found to have hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia/juvenile polyposis syndrome due to a germline SMAD4 pathologic variant. The patient’s staged palliation was complicated by the development of neoaortic aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations, and gastrointestinal bleeding thought to be secondary to Fontan circulation, but workup revealed a SMAD4 variant consistent with hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia/juvenile polyposis syndrome. This case underscores the importance of genetic modifiers in CHD, especially those with Fontan physiology.

Homeless shelter residents and staff may be at higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, SARS-CoV-2 infection estimates in this population have been reliant on cross-sectional or outbreak investigation data. We conducted routine surveillance and outbreak testing in 23 homeless shelters in King County, Washington, to estimate the occurrence of laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and risk factors during 1 January 2020–31 May 2021. Symptom surveys and nasal swabs were collected for SARS-CoV-2 testing by RT-PCR for residents aged ≥3 months and staff. We collected 12,915 specimens from 2,930 unique participants. We identified 4.74 (95% CI 4.00–5.58) SARS-CoV-2 infections per 100 individuals (residents: 4.96, 95% CI 4.12–5.91; staff: 3.86, 95% CI 2.43–5.79). Most infections were asymptomatic at the time of detection (74%) and detected during routine surveillance (73%). Outbreak testing yielded higher test positivity than routine surveillance (2.7% versus 0.9%). Among those infected, residents were less likely to report symptoms than staff. Participants who were vaccinated against seasonal influenza and were current smokers had lower odds of having an infection detected. Active surveillance that includes SARS-CoV-2 testing of all persons is essential in ascertaining the true burden of SARS-CoV-2 infections among residents and staff of congregate settings.

This work investigated the effects of repeated sweet taste exposure at breakfast on perceptions and intakes of other sweet foods, while also examining the effects due to duration of exposure (1/3 weeks), test context (breakfast/lunch) and associations between taste perceptions and intakes. Using a randomised controlled parallel-group design, participants (n 54, 18 male, mean age: 23·9 (sd 5·8) years, mean BMI: 23·6 (sd 3·5) kg/m2) were randomised to consume either a sweet breakfast (cereal with sucralose) (n 27) or an equienergetic non-sweet breakfast (plain cereal) (n 27) for 3 weeks. On days 0 (baseline), 7 and 21, pleasantness, desire to eat and sweetness were rated for other sweet and non-sweet foods and sweet food consumption was assessed in an ad libitum meal at breakfast and lunch. Using intention-to-treat analyses, no statistically significant effects of exposure were found at breakfast (largest F2,104 = 1·84, P = 0·17, ηp2 = 0·03) or lunch (largest F1,52 = 1·22, P = 0·27, ηp2 = 0·02), and using Bayesian analyses, the evidence for an absence of effect in all rating measures was strong to very strong (smallest BF01 = 297·97 (BF01error = 2·68 %)). Associations between ratings of pleasantness, desire to eat and intake were found (smallest r = 0·137, P < 0·01). Effects over time regardless of exposure were also found: sugars and percentage energy consumed from sweet foods increased throughout the study (smallest (F2,104 = 4·54, P = 0·01, ηp2 = 0·08). These findings demonstrate no effects of sweet taste exposure at breakfast for 1 or 3 weeks on pleasantness, desire for, sweetness or intakes of other sweet foods in either the same (breakfast) or in a different (lunch) meal context.

Aripiprazole lauroxil (AL) is a long-acting atypical antipsychotic approved for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults. AL has five regimen options that offer three different injection intervals using four different dosage strengths. The relationship between dosage strength (milligram injected), injection interval (time between injection visits), and expected steady-state plasma aripiprazole concentrations may not be readily apparent. This article illustrates the relationship by providing visual scenarios of steady-state plasma aripiprazole concentrations for the five AL regimens. The efficacy of AL was originally demonstrated in a pivotal study of two AL regimens (approved as 441 mg monthly and 882 mg monthly). The three additional regimens (662 mg monthly, 882 mg every 6 weeks, and 1064 mg every 2 months) were approved based on pharmacokinetic bridging studies and population pharmacokinetic models. For this paper, expected steady-state concentrations for each AL regimen were derived from the published population pharmacokinetic models and compared using median values and ranges. The five labeled AL regimens differ in dosage strength and injection interval; however, model-simulated concentrations illustrate that each regimen produces steady-state plasma aripiprazole concentrations within the upper and lower bounds associated with known efficacy for AL 441 mg and 882 mg administered monthly. This visual presentation of the relationship between dosage strength of the AL injection, the interval between successive injections, and steady-state aripiprazole plasma concentrations may demonstrate for clinicians how dosage strength and injection interval can be considered in selecting the AL regimen option that best fits the clinical circumstances of the individual patient.

The regulation of pesticides in the European Union (EU) relies on a network of hard law (legislation and implementing acts) and soft law (non-legally binding guidance documents and administrative and scientific practices). Both hard and soft laws govern how risk assessments are conducted, but a significant role is left to the latter. Europe’s pesticide regulation is one of the most stringent in the world. Its stated objectives are to ensure an independent, objective and transparent assessment of pesticides and achieve a high level of protection for health and environment. However, a growing body of evidence shows that pesticides that have passed through this process and are authorised for use may harm humans, animals and the environment. The authors of the current paper – experts in toxicology, law and policy – identified shortcomings in the authorisation process, focusing on the EU assessment of the pesticide active substance glyphosate. The shortcomings mostly consist of failures to implement the hard or soft laws. But in some instances the law itself is responsible, as some provisions can only fail to achieve its objectives. Ways to improve the system are proposed, requiring changes in hard and soft laws as well as in administrative and scientific practices.

This study investigated metabolic, endocrine, appetite and mood responses to a maximal eating occasion in fourteen men (mean: age 28 (sd 5) years, body mass 77·2 (sd 6·6) kg and BMI 24·2 (sd 2·2) kg/m2) who completed two trials in a randomised crossover design. On each occasion, participants ate a homogenous mixed-macronutrient meal (pizza). On one occasion, they ate until ‘comfortably full’ (ad libitum) and on the other, until they ‘could not eat another bite’ (maximal). Mean energy intake was double in the maximal (13 024 (95 % CI 10 964, 15 084) kJ; 3113 (95 % CI 2620, 3605) kcal) compared with the ad libitum trial (6627 (95 % CI 5708, 7547) kJ; 1584 (95 % CI 1364, 1804) kcal). Serum insulin incremental AUC (iAUC) increased approximately 1·5-fold in the maximal compared with ad libitum trial (mean: ad libitum 43·8 (95 % CI 28·3, 59·3) nmol/l × 240 min and maximal 67·7 (95 % CI 47·0, 88·5) nmol/l × 240 min, P < 0·01), but glucose iAUC did not differ between trials (ad libitum 94·3 (95 % CI 30·3, 158·2) mmol/l × 240 min and maximal 126·5 (95 % CI 76·9, 176·0) mmol/l × 240 min, P = 0·19). TAG iAUC was approximately 1·5-fold greater in the maximal v. ad libitum trial (ad libitum 98·6 (95 % CI 69·9, 127·2) mmol/l × 240 min and maximal 146·4 (95 % CI 88·6, 204·1) mmol/l × 240 min, P < 0·01). Total glucagon-like peptide-1, glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide and peptide tyrosine–tyrosine iAUC were greater in the maximal compared with ad libitum trial (P < 0·05). Total ghrelin concentrations decreased to a similar extent, but AUC was slightly lower in the maximal v. ad libitum trial (P = 0·02). There were marked differences on appetite and mood between trials, most notably maximal eating caused a prolonged increase in lethargy. Healthy men have the capacity to eat twice the energy content required to achieve comfortable fullness at a single meal. Postprandial glycaemia is well regulated following initial overeating, with elevated postprandial insulinaemia probably contributing.

A consensus workshop on low-calorie sweeteners (LCS) was held in November 2018 where seventeen experts (the panel) discussed three themes identified as key to the science and policy of LCS: (1) weight management and glucose control; (2) consumption, safety and perception; (3) nutrition policy. The aims were to identify the reliable facts on LCS, suggest research gaps and propose future actions. The panel agreed that the safety of LCS is demonstrated by a substantial body of evidence reviewed by regulatory experts and current levels of consumption, even for high users, are within agreed safety margins. However, better risk communication is needed. More emphasis is required on the role of LCS in helping individuals reduce their sugar and energy intake, which is a public health priority. Based on reviews of clinical evidence to date, the panel concluded that LCS can be beneficial for weight management when they are used to replace sugar in products consumed in the diet (without energy substitution). The available evidence suggests no grounds for concerns about adverse effects of LCS on sweet preference, appetite or glucose control; indeed, LCS may improve diabetic control and dietary compliance. Regarding effects on the human gut microbiota, data are limited and do not provide adequate evidence that LCS affect gut health at doses relevant to human use. The panel identified research priorities, including collation of the totality of evidence on LCS and body weight control, monitoring and modelling of LCS intakes, impacts on sugar reduction and diet quality and developing effective communication strategies to foster informed choice. There is also a need to reconcile policy discrepancies between organisations and reduce regulatory hurdles that impede low-energy product development and reformulation.

In this study, lithographic ceramic manufacturing was used to create solid chips out of hydroxyapatite, tricalcium phosphate, zirconia, alumina, and SiAlON ceramic. X-ray powder diffraction of each material confirmed that the chips were crystalline, with little amorphous character that could result from remaining polymeric binder, and were composed entirely out of the ceramic feedstock. Surface morphologies and roughnesses were characterized using atomic force microscopy. Human bone marrow stem cells cultured with osteogenic supplements on each material type expressed alkaline phosphatase levels, an early marker of osteogenic differentiation, on par with cells cultured on a glass control. However, cells cultured on the tricalcium phosphate-containing material expressed lower levels of ALP suggesting that osteoinduction was impaired on this material. Further analyses should be conducted with these materials to identify underlying issues of the combination of material and analysis method.

Sintered tape-cast yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) was evaluated for its elemental composition, crystal structure, and imaged with atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Human bone marrow stem cells (hBMSC) were cultured on the ceramic and differentiated into the osteoblast lineage; alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity was tracked as a differentiation marker. The YSZ was composed of purely tetragonal grains with a median equivalent circular diameter of 283 nm. Zirconium, yttrium, oxygen, and adventitious carbon was detected on the substrate with no other elements in significant quantities detected. YSZ samples had an RMS roughness value of 27 nm, elastic modulus of 206 ± 14 GPa, and hardness of 14 ± 2 GPa. hBMSC were observed to attach and proliferate on the YSZ surfaces and had significantly increased ALP versus the undifferentiated control cultured on glass. This method for producing a YSZ ceramic yields a typical material of this type and supports attachment and differentiation of hBMSC; thus, making it useful as a bone implant material.

By virtue of reducing dietary energy density, low-calorie sweeteners (LCS) can be expected to decrease overall energy intake and thereby decrease body weight. Such effects will be limited by the amount of sugar replaced by LCS, and the dynamics of appetite and weight control (e.g., acute compensatory eating, and an increase in appetite and decrease in energy expenditure accompanying weight loss). Consistent with these predictions, short-term intervention studies show incomplete compensation for the consumption of LCS v. sugar, and longer-term intervention studies (from 4 weeks to 40 months duration) show small decreases in energy intake and body weight with LCS v. sugar. Despite this evidence, there are claims that LCS undermine weight management. Three claims are that: (1) LCS disrupt the learned control of energy intake (sweet taste confusion hypothesis); (2) exposure to sweetness increases desire for sweetness (sweet tooth hypothesis); (3) consumers might consciously overcompensate for ‘calories saved’ when they know they are consuming LCS (conscious overcompensation hypothesis). None of these claims stands up to close examination. In any case, the results of the intervention studies comparing LCS v. sugar indicate that the effect of energy dilution outweighs any tendency LCS might conceivably have to increase energy intake.

The Numeniini is a tribe of 13 wader species (Scolopacidae, Charadriiformes) of which seven are Near Threatened or globally threatened, including two Critically Endangered. To help inform conservation management and policy responses, we present the results of an expert assessment of the threats that members of this taxonomic group face across migratory flyways. Most threats are increasing in intensity, particularly in non-breeding areas, where habitat loss resulting from residential and commercial development, aquaculture, mining, transport, disturbance, problematic invasive species, pollution and climate change were regarded as having the greatest detrimental impact. Fewer threats (mining, disturbance, problematic native species and climate change) were identified as widely affecting breeding areas. Numeniini populations face the greatest number of non-breeding threats in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, especially those associated with coastal reclamation; related threats were also identified across the Central and Atlantic Americas, and East Atlantic flyways. Threats on the breeding grounds were greatest in Central and Atlantic Americas, East Atlantic and West Asian flyways. Three priority actions were associated with monitoring and research: to monitor breeding population trends (which for species breeding in remote areas may best be achieved through surveys at key non-breeding sites), to deploy tracking technologies to identify migratory connectivity, and to monitor land-cover change across breeding and non-breeding areas. Two priority actions were focused on conservation and policy responses: to identify and effectively protect key non-breeding sites across all flyways (particularly in the East Asian- Australasian Flyway), and to implement successful conservation interventions at a sufficient scale across human-dominated landscapes for species’ recovery to be achieved. If implemented urgently, these measures in combination have the potential to alter the current population declines of many Numeniini species and provide a template for the conservation of other groups of threatened species.

Laboratory studies suggest that neither bubbles nor dirt particles migrate rapidly enough in glacier ice to be responsible for the alternating layers of bubbly and clear ice or dirty and clean ice which constitute foliation. We therefore suggest that these variations in bubble or dirt content are inherited from primary inhomogeneities such as may occur in sedimentary stratification in the accumulation region, in crevasse fillings, or during debris entrainment at the base of the glacier: the appearance of these inhomo-geneities is later modified by strain during flow to produce foliation. We consider six types of inhomogeneity, or components of foliation, and show that, at the very large total strains expected in glaciers, all are eventually flattened, stretched out, and rotated to form a layered structure roughly perpendicular to the direction of maximum total shortening. Most characteristics of observed foliation can be explained by this hypothesis. For example, in the marginal zones of polar ice sheets the rapid decrease in dip of foliation with depth and with distance up-glacier from the margin can he explained by a model in which the foliation is assumed to be nearly parallel to the base of the glacier some distance from the margin, and is deformed passively with the ice thereafter. However, some observations of cross-cutting foliations may require localized inhomogeneous shear parallel to the "new" foliation.

At a depth of about 75 m in the lower part of the accumulation area of the Barnes Ice Cap there is a change from fine-grained ice with a weakly-oriented c-axis fabric to coarser ice with a broad single-maximum fabric. At a depth of about 150 m the single maximum becomes elongate perpendicular to the direction of bubble elongation, and then splits into two distinct maxima making an angle of about 40–45° with respect to one another. At greater depths a third and finally a fourth maximum appear, forming the well known diamond pattern. Mean crystal size does not seem to increase in the transitions from one to two and thence to three maxima, but it may become more uniform. Crystal size does increase in the transition from three to four maxima, however. At the base of the glacier there is a 10–20 m thick layer of unusually-bubbly, fine-grained white ice with a strong single-maximum fabric.

The depths to the transitions increase up-glacier and in place of the single-maximum fabric a small-circle pattern is found. Down-glacier the depths to the transitions decrease, systematically eliminating the higher zones. Thus in the lower part of the ablation area, ice with a four-maximum fabric appears at the surface.

The independent variables governing these fabric transitions appear to be temperature T, stress τ, and cumulative strain ³oc. In a tentative stability diagram showing the fields in which given fabrics are stable in T–τ–³oc space, multiple-maximum fabrics occur at high temperatures (> —10°C) and at moderate to high stresses, weakly-oriented fabrics at low stresses or low cumulative strains, broad single-maximum fabrics at moderate stresses or moderate cumulative strains, and strong single-maximum fabrics at high stresses or large cumulative strains.

Metribuzin has a 60-d preharvest interval (PHI) in potato, which limits utility of metribuzin POST in potato. In certain years, the potato may not fully cover the area between the potato rows. This allows for late-season weed emergence and subsequent yield reduction through direct competition or harvest interference. Field experiments were conducted in 2011 at Castle Hayne, NC; Freeville, NY; Hasting, FL; and Plymouth, NC to determine the effect of a 30-d PHI on potato crop tolerance. The cultivars planted were ‘Superior' and ‘Yukon Gold' in Castle Hayne and Plymouth, ‘Castille' and Yukon Gold in Freeville, and ‘Atlantic' in Hastings. Treatments included metribuzin at 278 g ai ha−1 PRE, 30, and 60 d before harvest (DBH), and metribuzin at 556 g ha−1 at 30 and 60 DBH. Split application treatments included metribuzin at 556 g ha−1 at PRE followed by metribuzin at 556 g ha−1 30 or 60 DBH and metribuzin at 842 g ha−1 PRE followed by metribuzin at 278 g ha−1 at 30 or 60 DBH. Potato injury was ≤ 8% at all locations, and injury was transient. There were no differences observed between metribuzin rate or application date for individual potato grades or total yield. Reducing the PHI in potato to 30 d would have no effect on yield and would provide a longer period for controlling broadleaf weeds.

Although extinction risk has been found to have a consistent negative relationship with geographic range across wide temporal and taxonomic scales, the effect has been difficult to disentangle from factors such as sampling, ecological niche, or clade. In addition, studies of extinction risk have focused on benthic invertebrates with less work on planktic taxa. We employed a global set of 1114 planktic graptolite species from the Ordovician to lower Devonian to analyze the predictive power of species’ traits and abiotic factors on extinction risk, combining general linear models (GLMs), partial least-squares regression (PLSR), and permutation tests. Factors included measures of geographic range, sampling, and graptolite-specific factors such as clade, biofacies affiliation, shallow water tolerance, and age cohorts split at the base of the Katian and Rhuddanian stages.

The percent variance in durations explained varied substantially between taxon subsets from 12% to 45%. Overall commonness, the correlated effects of geographic range and sampling, was the strongest, most consistent factor (12–30% variance explained), with clade and age cohort adding up to 18% and other factors <10%. Surprisingly, geographic range alone contributed little explanatory power (<5%). It is likely that this is a consequence of a nonlinear relationship between geographic range and extinction risk, wherein the largest reductions in extinction risk are gained from moderate expansion of small geographic ranges. Thus, even large differences in range size between graptolite species did not lead to a proportionate difference in extinction risk because of the large average ranges of these species. Finally, we emphasize that the common practice of determining the geographic range of taxa from the union of all occurrences over their duration poses a substantial risk of overestimating the geographic scope of the realized ecological niche and, thus, of further conflating sampling effects on observed duration with the biological effects of range size on extinction risk.

Health nudge interventions to steer people into healthier lifestyles are increasingly applied by governments worldwide, and it is natural to look to such approaches to improve health by altering what people choose to eat. However, to produce policy recommendations that are likely to be effective, we need to be able to make valid predictions about the consequences of proposed interventions, and for this, we need a better understanding of the determinants of food choice. These determinants include dietary components (e.g. highly palatable foods and alcohol), but also diverse cultural and social pressures, cognitive-affective factors (perceived stress, health attitude, anxiety and depression), and familial, genetic and epigenetic influences on personality characteristics. In addition, our choices are influenced by an array of physiological mechanisms, including signals to the brain from the gastrointestinal tract and adipose tissue, which affect not only our hunger and satiety but also our motivation to eat particular nutrients, and the reward we experience from eating. Thus, to develop the evidence base necessary for effective policies, we need to build bridges across different levels of knowledge and understanding. This requires experimental models that can fill in the gaps in our understanding that are needed to inform policy, translational models that connect mechanistic understanding from laboratory studies to the real life human condition, and formal models that encapsulate scientific knowledge from diverse disciplines, and which embed understanding in a way that enables policy-relevant predictions to be made. Here we review recent developments in these areas.