Most countries in Africa deployed digital solutions to monitor progress in rolling out COVID-19 vaccines. A rapid assessment of existing data systems for COVID-19 vaccines in the African region was conducted between May and July 2022, in 23 countries. Data were collected through interviews with key informants, identified among senior staff within Ministries of Health, using a semi-structured electronic questionnaire. At vaccination sites, individual data were collected in paper-based registers in five countries (21.7%), in an electronic registry in two countries (8.7%), and in the remaining 16 countries (69.6%) using a combination of paper-based and electronic registries. Of the 18 countries using client-based digital registries, 11 (61%) deployed the District Health Information System 2 Tracker, and seven (39%), a locally developed platform. The mean percentage of individual data transcribed in the electronic registries was 61% ± 36% standard deviation. Unreliable Internet coverage (100% of countries), non-payment of data clerks’ incentives (89%), and lack of electronic devices (89%) were the main reasons for the suboptimal functioning of digital systems quoted by key informants. It is critical for investments made and experience acquired in deploying electronic platforms for COVID-19 vaccines to be leveraged to strengthen routine immunization data management.

The depositional history of the Bonneville Salt Flats, a perennial saline pan in Utah's Bonneville basin, has poor temporal constraints, and the climatic and geomorphic conditions that led to saline pan formation there are poorly understood. We explore the late Pleistocene to Holocene depositional record of Bonneville Salt Flats cores. Our data challenge the assumption that the saline pan formed from the desiccation of Lake Bonneville, the largest late Pleistocene lake in the Great Basin, which covered this area from 30 to 13 cal ka BP. We test two hypotheses: whether climatic transitions from (1) wet to arid or (2) arid to wet led to saline pan deposition. We describe the depositional record with radiocarbon dating, sedimentological structures, mineralogy, diatom, ostracode, and portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer measurements. Gypsum and carbonate strontium isotope ratio measurements reflect changes in water sources. Three shallow saline lake to desiccation cycles occurred from >45 and >28 cal ka BP. Deflation removed Lake Bonneville sediments between 13 and 8.3 cal ka BP. Gypsum deposition spanned 8.3 to 5.4 cal ka BP, while the oldest halite interval formed from 5.4 to 3.5 cal ka BP during a wetter period. These findings offer valuable insights for sedimentologists, archaeologists, geomorphologists, and land managers.

Adherence to a gluten-free diet (GFD) is the only available treatment for gluten-related disorders, although a GFD may also be followed for discretionary reasons. The main objectives of the present study were to (1) describe and test for differences in key nutrient intakes among Canadians who follow a GFD compared with Canadians with no dietary exclusions and (2) describe additional dietary avoidances adhered to by Canadians who avoid gluten. We conducted a secondary analysis of the cross-sectional 2015 Canadian Community Health Survey-Nutrition Survey, which included a general health survey and 24-h dietary recall (n 20 487). Participants were categorised as those who avoid dietary gluten and those who reported no avoidances. Key nutrient intakes were assessed, as a percentage of Dietary Recommended Intakes, including fibre, B vitamins, vitamin D, Ca, Fe, Na and Zn, and compared between the two groups using t tests. Canadians who avoided gluten had significantly lower intakes of folate, vitamin B12, vitamin D, Fe, Na and Ca compared with those who did not avoid any food groups. However, Canadians who reported following a GFD were significantly more likely to use vitamin or mineral supplements in the past 30 d. More than 20 % of those who avoided gluten also avoided dairy products. Findings suggest that following a GFD places Canadians at risk for nutrient inadequacies, particularly folate, Ca and vitamin D. Further research is required to further examine how multiple dietary avoidances among those who avoid gluten may contribute to dietary inadequacies.

Cerium oxide nanoparticles (CNPs) are of significant interest to the scientific community due to their widespread applications in a variety of fields. It is proposed that size-dependent variations in the extent of Ce3+ and Ce4+ oxidation states of cerium in CNPs determine the performance of CNPs in application environments. To obtain greater molecular and structural understanding of chemical state transformations previously reported for ceria of ≈3 nm nanoparticles (CNPs) in response to changing ambient conditions, micro-XRD and Raman measurements were carried out for various solution conditions. The particles were observed to undergo a reversible transformation from a defective ceria structure to a non-ceria amorphous oxyhydroxide/peroxide phase in response to the addition of 30% hydrogen peroxide. For CNPs made up of ∼8 nm crystallites, a partial transformation was observed, and no transformation was observed for CNPs made up of ∼40 nm crystallites. This observation of differences in size-dependent transition behavior may help explain the benefits of using smaller CNPs in applications requiring regenerative property.

Chemical analyses for ganomalite from Franklin, New Jersey, and Jakobsberg, Nordmark, Sweden, imply that Mn is an essential element and that the formula is Pb9Ca5MnSi9O33, with Z = 1 for the hexagonal unit cell. Preliminary crystal structure data confirm that Mn and Ca are ordered, as implied by the chemical analyses. Ganomalite is hexagonal, space group P3, with a = 9.82 and c = 10.13 Å. Occurrences of samples from both localities are described, together with analytical data for macedonite from Jakobsberg.

The Neotoma Paleoecology Database is a community-curated data resource that supports interdisciplinary global change research by enabling broad-scale studies of taxon and community diversity, distributions, and dynamics during the large environmental changes of the past. By consolidating many kinds of data into a common repository, Neotoma lowers costs of paleodata management, makes paleoecological data openly available, and offers a high-quality, curated resource. Neotoma’s distributed scientific governance model is flexible and scalable, with many open pathways for participation by new members, data contributors, stewards, and research communities. The Neotoma data model supports, or can be extended to support, any kind of paleoecological or paleoenvironmental data from sedimentary archives. Data additions to Neotoma are growing and now include >3.8 million observations, >17,000 datasets, and >9200 sites. Dataset types currently include fossil pollen, vertebrates, diatoms, ostracodes, macroinvertebrates, plant macrofossils, insects, testate amoebae, geochronological data, and the recently added organic biomarkers, stable isotopes, and specimen-level data. Multiple avenues exist to obtain Neotoma data, including the Explorer map-based interface, an application programming interface, the neotoma R package, and digital object identifiers. As the volume and variety of scientific data grow, community-curated data resources such as Neotoma have become foundational infrastructure for big data science.

The Deep Ice Sheet Coring (DISC) drill, developed by Ice Coring and Drilling Services (ICDS) under contract with the US National Science Foundation, is an electromechanical drill designed to take 122 mm diameter ice cores to depths of 4000 m. The conceptual design of the DISC drill was developed in 2002/03 based on science requirements written by K. Taylor and the United States ice-coring community and on engineering performance objectives. Detailed design of the drill began in June 2003. Special attention was paid to building safety into the design and operation of the drill system. The drill was designed and manufactured by a team of engineers and technicians from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and various subcontractors with assistance from the science community, the European ice-drilling community and polar logistical support organizations. ICDS successfully tested the drill in Greenland in 2006 and will continue its development to meet the science objectives of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide Ice Core Project.

The deep ice sheet coring (DISC) drill and replicate coring system (RCS) were designed and manufactured by Ice Coring and Drilling Services/Ice Drilling Design and Operations group of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The DISC/RCS is an electromechanical system designed to take 122 mm diameter ice cores from the main borehole and 108 mm diameter replicate ice cores to depths of 4000 m. Detailed design of the DISC drill began in 2003, and the completed drill was tested in Greenland in 2006. During five consecutive field seasons at West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide, 3405 m of ice core were drilled, setting the US deep ice drilling record. The RCS, based on the DISC drill, was developed and built in 2010/11, tested in Antarctica during the 2011/12 WAIS Divide field season and tested further in Madison, WI, during summer–fall 2012. During the 2012/13 Antarctic field season, the system produced five azimuth and depth-controlled deviations at four target depth levels. A total of 285 m of replicate ice core was recovered in the first coring of its kind. The entire main/replicate ice core, including ductile, brittle and warm ice, had excellent quality and satisfied the needs of the ice science community.

Movement of pesticides on soil thin-layer chromatographic (TLC) plates was detected by a bioassay employing a green alga, Chlorella sorokiniana Shihira and Krauss. After leaching the soil TLC plates with water, a Chlorella suspension in an enriched agar medium was aspirated onto the soil to give ca. 8 × 106 cells/cm2. Plates were incubated at 100% relative humidity at 30 C, with illumination of ca. 40 klux. Zones of pesticide movement were visible within 24 to 48 hr. Mobility in Hagerstown silty clay loam was assessed for two methylcarbamate insecticides and for nine phenylurea, 11 s-triazine, and 13 miscellaneous herbicides. Among analogous triazines, the mobility order was: -OCH3 > -Cl > -SCH3. Movement of 6,7-dihydrodipyrido[1,2-a:2′,1′-c]pyrazinediium ion (diquat) and 1,1′-dimethyl-4,4′-bipyridinium ion (paraquat), normally immobile in soils, was directly proportional to rate when applied in high doses.

Aerial applications of 20% tebuthiuron JA/-[5-(1,1- dimethylethyl) - 1, 3, 4 - thiadiazol-2 -yl] -N, N' dimethylurea pellets at 2.2 or 4.4 kg/ha in the spring to heavy brush cover in Texas Post Oak Savannah did not increase the amount of grass, compared to that of untreated pastures, until the growing season after application. By the second growing season after tebuthiuron application, however, native grass stands were composed of a higher proportion of perennial species of good-to-excellent grazing value than were stands on adjacent, untreated rangeland. Tebuthiuron at 4.4 kg/ha did not improve botanical composition of grass stands, but increased the amount of grass during the second and third growing season after application compared to those where 2.2 kg/ha were applied. Daily steer gains were increased in one experiment in the fall after application of 2.2 kg/ha of tebuthiuron in the spring, but were unchanged after two growing seasons in another. Days of available grazing were increased, however, by the second or third growing season after treatment with 2.2 kg/ha of the herbicide in both experiments.

The cross-resistance of triazine-resistant biotypes of smooth pigweed (Amaranthus hybridus L. # AMACH), common lambsquarters (Chenopodium album L. # CHEAL), common groundsel (Senecio vulgaris L. # SENVU), and the crop canola (Brassica napus L. var. Atratower) to a selection of herbicides was evaluated at both the whole plant and chloroplast level. The triazine-resistant biotypes of all four species showed a similar pattern of cross-resistance, suggesting that a similar mutation had occurred in each species. The four triazine-resistant biotypes were resistant to injury from atrazine [6-chloro-N-ethyl-N′-(1-methylethyl)-1,3,5-triazine-2,4-diamine], bromacil [5-bromo-6-methyl-3-(1-methylpropyl)-2,4-(1H,3H)pyrimidinedione], and pyrazon [5-amino-4-chloro-2-phenyl-3(2H)-pyridazinone] and were slightly resistant to buthidazole {3-[5-(1,1-dimethylethyl)-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-yl]-4-hydroxy-1-methyl-2-imidazolidinone}. The triazine-resistant biotypes were more sensitive to dinoseb [2-(1-methylpropyl)-4,6-dinitrophenol]. Triazine-resistant smooth pigweed showed resistance to cyanazine {2-[[4-chloro-6-(ethylamino)-1,3,5-triazin-2-yl] amino]-2-methylpropanenitrile} and metribuzin [4-amino-6-(1,1-dimethylethyl)-3-(methylthio)-1,2,4-triazin-5(4H)-one] with slight resistance to linuron [N′-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-N-methoxy-N-methylurea] and desmedipham {ethyl [3-[[(phenylamino)carbony] oxy] phenyl] carbamate}. There was little or no resistance to diuron [N′-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-N,N-dimethylurea], bromoxynil (3,5-dibromo-4-hydroxybenzonitrile), bentazon [3-(1-methylethyl)-(1H)-2,1,3-benzothiadiazin-4(3H)-one 2,2-dioxide], or dicamba (3,6-dichloro-2-methoxybenzoic acid). Parallel studies at the chloroplast level indicated that the degree of resistance to inhibition of photosynthetic electron transport was highly correlated with the degree of resistance to herbicidal injury. This correlation indicates that atrazine, cyanazine, metribuzin, pyrazon, bromacil, linuron, desmedipham, and buthidazole cause plant injury by inhibition of photosynthesis. This correlation also indicates that triazine resistance and cross-resistance at the whole plant level is due to decreased sensitivity at the level of photosynthetic electron transport. Cross-resistance to numerous additional herbicides was evaluated on isolated chloroplast thylakoid membranes and these results are discussed. 14C-atrazine was displaced from thylakoid membranes by several herbicides, indicating that these herbicides compete for a common binding site.

A digital radar system comprising multiple microprocessors, for use with 50 MHz radar units modified from the Scott Polar Research Institute Mark IV design, is described. The major features of the system include coherent integration of radar traces, storage of data in raw digitized form without demodulation, real-time play-back of digitized information, and high system performance resulting in good spatial sampling with integration even in airborne operations. Unfocused synthetic beam shaping also results from the integration of echoes, thus reducing clutter or incoherent scattering from the sides of the beam pattern along the profiling track.

Examples of data collected during the austral summer of 1985–86 in the Antarctic on ice stream B, in both ground and airborne programs, illustrate both the flexibility in data presentation and features present in the records.

An extensive program of seismic refraction and reflection shooting was undertaken in the vicinity of Dome C station, East Antarctica (latitude 74°39'S, longitude 124°10'E). Refraction experiments (1978–79, 1979–80) were performed at 37 different shot-point-to-center-of-spread distances along four lines of different azimuth using receiver spacings of 2 to 30 m. The principal result is an extremely well-determined velocity-depth relation for the upper few hundred meters of the ice sheet. Availability of good bore-hole control at Dome C allows us to demonstrate the validity of Kohne's (1972) density-velocity formula, which was developed for warmer ice. Also, after a careful search for azimuthal dependence of variations in the time-distance relationship along different refraction lines, deviations from transverse isotropy in the firn and upper ice are not indicated. Our reflection work (1979–80), conducted along three mutually-centered lines (10.2, 10.2, and 10.7 km in length) oriented at 60° angles to one another, used a series of 16 bore holes, each 30 m in depth, and 18 separate 24-channel recording stations. This extensive coverage combined with common reflection-point shooting geometries (to minimize topographic error) and small charge sizes (to increase resolution) yielded the highest quality set of reflection data yet obtained in East Antarctica. Significant crystalline anisotropy in the lower portion of the ice sheet is indicated. A model with 75% of the ice thickness below the firn (approximately 2 400 m) having c-axes distributed throughout a vertical cone with a semi-apex angle of 20° gives good agreement with the field observations.

The Stansbury shoreline, one of the conspicuous late Pleistocene shorelines of Lake Bonneville, consists of tufa-cemented gravel and barrier beaches within a vertical zone of about 45 m, the lower limit of which is 70 m above the modern average level of Great Salt Lake. Stratigraphic evidence at a number of localities, including new evidence from Crater Island on the west side of the Great Salt Lake Desert, shows that the Stansbury shoreline formed during the transgressive phase of late Pleistocene Lake bonneville (sometime between about 22,000 and 20,000 yr B.P.). Tufa-cemented gravel and barrier beaches were deposited in the Stansbury shorezone during one or more fluctuations in water level with a maximum total amplitude of 45 m. We refer to the fluctuations as the Stansbury oscillation. The Stansbury oscillation cannot have been caused by basin-hypsometric factors, such as stabilization of lake level at an external overflow threshold or by expansion into an interior subbasin, or by changes in drainage basin size. Therefore, changes in climate must have caused the lake level to reverse its general rise, to drop about 45 m in altitude (reducing its surface area by about 18%, 5000 km2), and later to resume its rise. If the sizes of Great Basin lakes are controlled by the mean position of storm tracks and the jetstream, which as recently postulated may be controlled by the size of the continental ice sheets, the Stansbury oscillation may have been caused by a shift in the jetstream during a major interstade of the Laurentide ice sheet.

Because there is biochemical evidence of decreased GABAergic function in Parkinson's disease, sodium valproate, an inhibitor of GA BA catabolism, was administered to eight Parkinsonian patients. Valproate treatment did not significantly alter any Parkinsonian feature, but tended to increase the dyskinesia in the “on-off” patients. The increased dyskinesias were not a result of altered peripheral metabolism of L-dopa. Despite obtaining high plasma levels of valproate, no consistent alteration of CSF GABA levels could be demonstrated. Thus, in these patients, an effect of valproate on GABA metabolism is unproven, and in turn, the role of GABA in Parkinsonism and dyskinesia uncertain.

Key determinants of monthly wholesale prices for 12 beef cuts include the quantity of the specific cut, stickiness in prices, marketing costs, quantities of pork and chicken, and seasonality. Seasonal patterns across the respective cuts are very different. Relative to the price in December, prices at the wholesale level in other months can be as much as 6 percent lower to as much as 21 percent higher.

Pharmacoepidemiology, the study of the effects of drugs in large numbers of people, is a relatively new discipline that applies the methods of epidemiology to clinical pharmacology. Premarketing clinical trials remain the only way to scientifically determine whether a drug is causally effective, yet these trials do not provide information that allows for estimates about rare, late, or off-label toxicities associated with the drug in question. Increasing concern about common and debilitating adverse effects of medications has highlighted the need for enhanced postmarketing surveillance to follow up on clinical trials. There is a further concern regarding the broader issue of the risk-benefit ratio of certain medications. Computerized databases are a good source of information on which to lay the foundations of postmarketing research. A system of cross-linked computerized medical records may better enable researchers and physicians to realistically monitor postmarketing safety and incorporate monitoring benefits. The same research could also elucidate the net public health effect of regulatory decisions. The Veterans Affairs database in the United States and PHARMO in the Netherlands may represent good models on which to base future postmarketing surveillance studies.

In this expert roundtable supplement, Brian L. Strom, MD, provides an overview of the appropriate use of large computer databases in pharmacoepidemiology studies. Philip Wang, MD, DrPH, discusses the advantages of pharmacoepidemiologic studies over clinical trials in correctly detecting drug safety issues. Francesca Cunningham, PharmD, reviews a large computer database that is currently in use within the VA healthcare system, and Ron M.C. Herings, PharmD, PhD, discusses the development of the PHARMO system in the Netherlands.