搜索结果：Attributes

BackgroundNo vaccine is currently available for syphilis. Research efforts to inform vaccine development are underway. In parallel, understanding factors that would influence willingness to receive a future vaccine can provide useful information for vaccine design and future implementation. This study explored attributes of interest in a hypothetical syphilis vaccine using focus group discussions in Lima, Peru.MethodsIn early 2025, we conducted ten virtual focus group discussions, among five population groups in Lima, Peru: health professionals, sexual/gender minorities, general population, cisgender female sex workers, and parents of minors. Semi-structured guides explored barriers and facilitators to preventive care, attitudes toward vaccines, syphilis knowledge, and desired attributes of a potential syphilis vaccine. Audio recordings were analyzed thematically.ResultsEighty-five participants took part in the discussions. Despite limited syphilis knowledge among many participants, there was interest in a hypothetical vaccine. Acceptability was shaped by three factors including, vaccine attributes, structural conditions and the healthcare provider-user relationship. In vaccine attributes, participants desired high effectiveness, safety, and a single-dose schedule, while expressing concerns about vaccine-induced persistent seropositivity related to stigma about STI prevention. Structural conditions: free vaccination, endorsement from respected health institutions, information environment and health education were viewed as essential for uptake. Third, the healthcare provider-user relationship emerged as a central mediator influencing how individuals interpreted vaccine information and navigated structural barriers.ConclusionsAcceptability of a future syphilis vaccine depends not only on its attributes, but also on structural enablers and the quality of provider-user interactions. Strengthening provider communication, addressing structural barriers, and ensuring transparent information dissemination will be essential for equitable implementation.

The present study evaluated the influence of olive paste pH adjustment during malaxation on oil yield and quality parameters of virgin olive oil obtained from Olea europaea L. cv. Gemlik. The pH of olive paste was systematically adjusted to 2.7-6.7 using citric acid and NaOH solutions during malaxation. Oil yield, free fatty acidity (FFA), peroxide value (PV), total and individual phenolic compounds, DPPH radical scavenging activity, and color attributes (L*, a*, b*) were determined. Oil yield ranged from 28.67 to 45.11%, with the highest yield observed at pH 6.7. Total phenolic content(TPC)showed a clear pH-dependent pattern, reaching 678 mg GAE kg⁻¹ at pH 2.7 and decreasing to 281 mg GAE kg⁻¹ at pH 6.7. Moderately acidic conditions (pH 4.7) promoted elevated concentrations of secoiridoid derivatives, with oleacein (257 mg kg⁻¹) and oleocanthal (159.7 mg kg⁻¹) attaining their highest levels. Phenolic alcohols exhibited compound-specific pH responses, with tyrosol and hydroxytyrosol acetate reaching maximum levels at pH 4.7, while hydroxytyrosol peaked at pH 3.7 and declined thereafter. Flavonoids, such as apigenin, reached maximum concentrations (16.5 mg kg-¹) under mildly acidic conditions (pH 3.7). 3,4-DHPEA-EA decreased progressively with increasing pH, from 226 to 103 mg kg-¹, indicating that pH influences its stability and transformation pathways during malaxation. PV values were highest at pH 3.7 (8.4 meqO2kg⁻¹ oil) and 4.7 (7.2 meqO2kg⁻¹ oil). DPPH radical scavenging activity paralleled the phenolic profile, with oils obtained at lower pH exhibiting approximately twofold greater activity than those obtained at pH 5.7 and 6.7. Several quality parameters exhibited significant quadratic responses to pH variation. Color attributes were also influenced by pH, with acidic conditions producing brighter oils with reduced yellowness. These findings indicate that controlled pH modulation during malaxation can influence phenolic composition, antioxidant capacity, and visual characteristics of virgin olive oil, providing mechanistic insight into the pH sensitivity of its extraction and compositional changes.

Liquid uranium-zirconium (U,Zr) mixtures play a crucial role in the context of nuclear accident scenarios, particularly in the early stages of Pressurized-Water Reactor accidents. In this study, we compare the thermophysical and structural predictions of two interatomic potentials for this system, namely a Modified-Embedded Atom Model (MEAM) semi-empirical interatomic potential and a Spectral Neighbor Analysis Potential (SNAP). These models are employed to investigate the relationship between the viscosity, density, and structural properties of liquid (U,Zr) mixtures, and compare their respective predictions. More specifically, the MEAM potential predicts a significant viscosity anomaly at a molar fraction of approximately 70% of Zr. A thorough structural analysis leveraging radial distribution functions and structure factors, Voronoi tessellation, average degree of five-fold local symmetry, and common neighbor analysis supports these findings and attributes them to the formation of an icosahedral short-range order. In contrast, this structural ordering is not observed with the ab initio and SNAP-based computations. We finally analyze those differences and suggest that the semi-empirical MEAM potential may overestimate ordering effects in the liquid phase. These new results can play a role in the refinement of nuclear fuel models, improving the available recommendations for in-vessel corium retention simulations aimed at mitigating severe accident scenarios.

Government digital humans represent a significant application of the combination of generative artificial intelligence and digital governance. This study aims to explore the factors influencing public acceptance of government digital humans, providing insights for enhancing their services and user experience. By integrating expectation confirmation theory (ECT) and the technology acceptance model (TAM), this study expands upon ECT by incorporating additional user perception factors. A structural equation model is employed to explain the influencing factors and their interrelationships, while a mediation effect model tests the mechanisms of these factors. The findings indicate that public expectation confirmation enhances satisfaction with government digital humans, which positively impacts acceptance intention. Perceived information quality, perceived intelligence, perceived convenience, perceived attractiveness, perceived usefulness, and artificial intelligence trust collectively mediate the relationship between public expectation confirmation, satisfaction, and acceptance intention. The findings highlight the importance of enhancing the perceived usefulness, perceived intelligence, perceived information quality, and perceived attractiveness of government digital humans. Relevant departments should focus on improving these attributes to optimize digital government services and enhance user experience and utilization rates.

Targeted silencing of cellular genes in cell lines stably expressing a secreted recombinant protein offers a flexible and convenient strategy for modulating product quality attributes. However, unlike genetic knockout of a cellular gene or the use of potent inhibitors to eliminate cellular enzyme activity, gene knockdown approaches using microRNAs (miRNA) or short hairpin RNAs (shRNA) may result in only partial reduction of enzyme activity and only partial change of the desired product quality attribute. Moreover, through saturation of the Dicer pathway, shRNA may introduce cytotoxic effects that affect product yield. In this study, we demonstrate that miRNAs are a more suitable tool than shRNAs for α1,6-fucosyltransferase (FUT8) knockdown in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, when expressed under the control of an RNA-Polymerase II promoter. In the presence of miRNAs targeted to the FUT8 mRNA, the fucosylation levels of the N-glycan linked to Asn297 (EU numbering) of a recombinant monoclonal antibody (mAb) were considerably reduced (>90% afucosylation by hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography - high‑performance liquid chromatography; no detectable fucosylated product by intact mass spectrometry), without a relevant impact on mAb expression. By comparison, overexpression of shRNAs targeted to the FUT8 mRNA resulted in higher levels of residual fucosylation of the mAb and a larger reduction in mAb titers. miRNAs overcame a limitation of the knockdown approach with shRNAs, making this approach a valuable tool for biopharmaceutical manufacturing. miRNA driven by a Pol2 promoter is a more suitable tool than shRNA for knock down of enzymes in mAb producing Chinese hamster cellsmiRNA expression cassettes allow specific knockdown without impacting the protein production machinerymiRNA based knock down approach is favorable for drug production, as it does not rely on inhibitor molecules lacking safety evaluation or pre-selection of host cells.

Soft actuators that integrate biodegradability, responsiveness to human-safe stimuli, and high actuation performance are highly desirable for next-generation biomedical devices. However, current systems fail to realize these attributes within a single platform. Here, we propose a microfibrillated cellulose (MFC)-based soft actuator incorporating a poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) network to suppress crystallinity and ionic liquid (IL) aggregation. This design enhances ionic conductivity, forms abundant ion transport channels, and reduces interfacial resistance. Operated at 1 volt, the actuator achieves a record-high energy density of 64.4 kilojoules per cubic meter and the fastest response time of 1 second among reported ionic electroactive polymers (IEAPs) under the same conditions. Such materials are biocompatible and biodegradable in various physiological environments. Device-level demonstrations show that an actuation-enabled sciatic nerve cuff enables high-fidelity signal transmission in vitro with a signal-to-noise ratio of 40 decibels and stable real-time in vivo neural recording with evoked responses of up to ~150 microvolts, supporting minimally invasive bioelectronic interfacing.

Portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) has emerged as a rapid, cost-effective tool for assessing soil fertility in precision agriculture. While the influence of soil moisture on pXRF elemental detection has been widely studied, its specific impact on nutrient prediction accuracy, particularly when combined with key soil properties, remains less well quantified. This study investigates how moisture conditions affect pXRF-based detection of soil nutrients and evaluates whether integrating soil properties enhances prediction accuracy. Using stepwise multiple linear regression (SMLR), available macronutrients and micronutrients were modeled from pXRF data under dry soil (DS), field moisture (FM), saturated paste (SP), and after the removal of excess water (AREW) from SP. At both DS and SP, pXRF yielded strong predictions for macronutrients, with R2 values ranging from 0.54 to 0.74 for K, 0.49-0.59 for Ca, and 0.60-0.69 for Mg (all p&#x2009;<&#x2009;.0001), while predictions for Cu and Zn were low to moderate. Incorporating soil pH and organic matter (OM) improved model performance, increasing R2 values by 1.1- to 6.1-fold compared to models based solely on pXRF data. These findings highlight the need for standardized sample preparation, especially regarding moisture, and demonstrate that combining pXRF with key soil attributes enhances its utility as a reliable tool for rapid nutrient assessment in diverse soil conditions.

Progress on the development of novel oleogelators that effectively combine green attributes with superior colloidal properties remains limited. Since sugar mono-esters are recognized as green amphiphiles that possess intrinsic self-assembly properties, ribose-based variants are expected to serve as highly efficient oleogelators and so addressing existing deficiencies. An homologous series of ribose fatty acid mono-esters (C8-C18) was prepared enzymatically and deployed as oleogelators in vegetable oil matrices derived from sunflower seeds, peanuts, camellias, olives and corn. The gelation mechanisms and structure-activity relationships were systematically investigated using a combination of rheological, X-ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopic techniques. Ribose mono-esters have been identified as novel oleogelators that act at concentrations as low as 2&#xa0;wt% and so significantly outperforming their mainstream counterparts. The associated colloidal characteristics can be effectively tailored by modulating the length of the fatty acid residue that shifts the dominant self-assembly force from hydrogen bonding in the shorter homologs to van der Waals interactions in the longer ones. The crystalline networks formed using longer-chain esters exhibited an approximately 30-fold increase in mechanical strength and a ca. one- to two-fold enhancement in oil-binding capacity over their shorter counterparts. However, this structural enhancement compromised deformability, leading to a ca. three-fold reduction in thixotropic recovery rates. The capacity of the mono-esters to form &#x3b2;-polymorph crystalline networks was validated across all tested oil matrices. This study details both the gelation mechanisms and structure-activity relationships, highlighting the design principles for establishing ribose esters as next-generation oleogelators.

This study investigated variations in the structure and functional properties of flaxseed globulins (FGs) extracted from different flaxseed meal sources. The results indicated that S2 exhibited superior solubility (53.53&#xa0;&#xb1;&#xa0;2.25%) and emulsifying properties (38.24&#xa0;&#xb1;&#xa0;1.32&#xa0;m2/g, 15.98&#xa0;&#xb1;&#xa0;1.02&#xa0;min). This superiority was attributed to its smallest particle size and highest absolute value of zeta potential, which facilitated protein-water interactions. Conversely, S4 demonstrated a greater oil holding capacity (18.27&#xa0;&#xb1;&#xa0;0.58&#xa0;g/g). Principal component analysis and Pearson correlation analysis confirmed the correlation between the structure and functional properties of FGs. Smaller protein particles demonstrated a less compact structure and higher fluorescence intensity. Higher &#x3b1;-helix combined with lower &#x3b2;-sheet contents contributed to the stability of emulsion interfacial film, thereby preventing emulsion aggregation. This research elucidated the influence of flaxseed meal source on the structure and functional attributes of FGs, offering valuable insights into functional properties of FGs.

Cured meats are traditional products consumed worldwide. The presence of indigenous microbiota during production can expose consumers to health risks. This study evaluated the potential of Hanseniaspora opuntiae, Meyerozyma caribbica, and Penicillium nalgiovense in inhibiting the growth of mycotoxin-producing fungi (Aspergillus westerdijkiae, Penicillium verrucosum, and Penicillium citrinum) isolated from a Brazilian dry-cured loin. Radial inhibition assays were conducted on Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) and Socol-based Agar (SBA), which simulated the initial maturation conditions of the meat product. The results showed that P. nalgiovense exhibited the highest efficacy in inhibiting the mycotoxin-producing fungi at 15&#x202f;&#xb0;C and 25&#x202f;&#xb0;C. At 15&#x202f;&#xb0;C, the growth of P. nalgiovense was favored over the toxigenic fungi. Ochratoxin A (OTA) was quantified using high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (HPLC-FLD). The production of OTA varied significantly among the studied fungi, with concentrations ranging from 10.42&#x202f;&#x3bc;g/kg to 1054,87&#x202f;&#x3bc;g/kg in PDA and from 5,18&#x202f;&#x3bc;g/kg to 142,22&#x202f;&#x3bc;g/kg in SBA, indicating that the composition of the medium influenced mycotoxin production. The findings highlight the potential of P. nalgiovense as biocontrol, especially at 15 &#xb0;C. Future research should address the effects of P. nalgiovense application and reduced maturation temperatures on the sensory attributes of Brazilian dry-cured loin.

Soil enzyme activity is a key determinant of crop productivity, as it regulates nutrient cycling, organic matter decomposition, and nitrogen transformation. The existing Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) approaches for soil fertility assessment often underutilize biochemical indicators owing to noise, missing data, and complex feature interactions. These models treat Feature Selection (FS) and Hyperparameter Tuning (HPT) as separate process. This limits the overall model performance. Conventional Sand Cat Swarm Optimization (SCO) method suffers from rigid exploration-exploitation transitions and premature convergence. To overcome these limitations, an Improved Sand Cat Swarm Optimization (Improved SCSO) based framework is implemented in this work. The proposed work sequentially performs FS and HPT within a unified optimization process and includes a stochastic escape-from-worst update mechanism. Cosine-modulated search behavior is incorporated in the model to enhance exploration. Exploitation and convergence stability are improved by Time-adaptive best-solution inheritance strategy. Enzyme-related soil attributes were explicitly incorporated into the optimization process, enabling the selection of biologically meaningful features. A correlation-based filtering step was applied to remove redundant features and improve the prediction consistency. The optimized feature subset was evaluated using multiple ML, DL and Hybrid models have also been assessed to understand the predictive performance of proposed framework. The model was evaluated using stratified k-fold cross-validation with Accuracy, Precision, Recall, and F1-score. The experimental results show that the proposed framework consistently outperforms traditional SCO-based methods. Gradient Boost (GB) achieved the highest accuracy of 98.48%, followed by hybrid models such as Decision Tree (DT)&#x2009;+&#x2009;Random Forest (RF) (98.38%) and GB&#x2009;+&#x2009;RF (98.28%) respectively. In addition, a dynamic crop mapping strategy was developed to estimate crop suitability based on predicted fertility levels and enzyme activity, thereby improving its practical application. Overall, the proposed framework improves prediction accuracy and interpretability, providing an effective solution for soil fertility assessment and data-driven crop recommendation.

Normal heart contraction requires synchronized calcium ion (Ca2+) release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), traditionally attributed to ryanodine receptor 2 (RyR2). Here, we identify vacuole membrane protein 1 (VMP1) as a previously unrecognized SR Ca2+ release channel essential for postnatal cardiac function. VMP1 expression is up-regulated in cardiomyocytes after birth, and its genetic deletion causes severe arrhythmias, dilated cardiomyopathy, and sudden cardiac death. Mechanistically, VMP1 loss results in increased SR Ca2+ content and aberrant cardiac action potentials. Single-channel electrophysiology reveals that VMP1 forms a Ca2+-regulated Ca2+ channel, which senses luminal Ca2+ via aspartic acid 272. Notably, VMP1 expression is elevated in human heart failure, suggesting a pathophysiological role. These findings establish VMP1 as a critical component of the cardiac Ca2+ release machinery and uncover its involvement in heart failure.

Objectives were to evaluate the effects of replacing sulfate (STM) with hydroxychloride (HTM) sources of Cu, Mn, and Zn on health, reproduction, and survival in dairy cows. One-hundred and 41 Holstein cows were stratified by parity group prepartum as nulliparous or parous cows and, within parity, nulliparous cows were blocked by genomic breeding value for ECM yield and parous cows by recently completed lactation 305-d ECM. Within block, cows were assigned to STM or HTM, and prepartum diets contained (mean &#xb1; SD) 15 &#xb1; 1, 58 &#xb1; 2, and 66 &#xb1; 3 mg/kg of diet DM as Cu, Mn, and Zn, respectively, whereas postpartum diets contained 19 &#xb1; 3, 65 &#xb1; 15, and 77 &#xb1; 11 mg/kg diet DM as Cu, Mn, and Zn, respectively. Treatments were fed from 246 d of gestation to 105 DIM. Concentrations of nonesterified fatty acids (NEFA), BHB, haptoglobin, and ceruloplasmin were measured in plasma and those of total Ca (tCa) were measured in serum. Diseases were diagnosed in the first 105 d postpartum and survival was evaluated until 305 DIM. The estrous cycle of cows was synchronized and artificial insemination (AI) was performed on d 87 postpartum. On d 19 after AI, serum was analyzed for progesterone and blood mononuclear cells and cervical cells were analyzed for mRNA for interferon-stimulated genes (ISG). Treatment did not affect the concentrations of NEFA, BHB, tCa, and progesterone in blood. Feeding HTM reduced the concentrations of haptoglobin in the first 19 d postpartum (40.0 &#xb1; 9.1 vs. 25.7 &#xb1; 5.0 &#xb5;g/mL) and that of ceruloplasmin only on d 6 postpartum (0.64 &#xb1; 0.03 vs. 0.58 &#xb1; 0.03 mg/mL). Feeding HTM reduced the risk of retained placenta (11.5 &#xb1; 6.3 vs. 3.8 &#xb1; 2.3%) and tended to reduce the risks of clinical (16.4 &#xb1; 9.7 vs. 4.0 &#xb1; 2.9%) and subclinical endometritis (29.8 &#xb1; 9.2 vs. 16.4 &#xb1; 5.7%). Cows fed HTM tended to have reduced rate (adjusted hazard ratio = 0.58; 95% CI = 0.33-1.04) and reduced risk of morbidity (51.7 &#xb1; 9.1 vs. 32.7 &#xb1; 7.1%) during first 105 d postpartum compared with feeding STM. Feeding HTM increased the relative expression of ISG by 1.7 to 2.0-fold in blood mononuclear cells on d 19 after AI in pregnant cows compared with STM; however, treatment did not affect the expression of ISG on cervical cells. Rate of pregnancy did not differ between treatments, but HTM tended to increase the proportion of pregnant cows by 305-d postpartum (68.8 &#xb1; 5.7 vs. 82.8 &#xb1; 4.7%) partially attributed to the reduced proportion of cows designated as do not inseminate (25.6 &#xb1; 5.3 vs. 9.8 &#xb1; 3.6%). Also, HTM reduced the rate (adjusted hazard ratio = 0.44; 95% CI = 0.20-0.96) and risk of leaving the herd by 305-d postpartum from 26.5 &#xb1; 9.6 in STM to 11.9 &#xb1; 5.0%. Replacing sulfate sources of Cu, Mn, and Zn with hydroxychloride sources of same trace minerals benefited early lactation health of cows in early postpartum which carried out to benefit reproduction and survival.

The chemical composition of membrane lipids differs between eukarya, bacteria and archaea. The central dogma posits that the stereochemistry of phospholipids in bacteria is distinct from archaea. Bacterial phospholipids consist of fatty acid lipid tails esterified to the sn-glycerol 3-phosphate lipid backbone (G3P), whereas archaeal phospholipids comprise isoprenoid lipid tails ether-linked to the stereochemical different sn-glycerol 1-phosphate (G1P). This segregation, the "lipid divide", is however not as strict as previously thought. Recent reports demonstrate that both glycerol-phosphate backbones are present in phospholipids from various Gram-positive bacteria. To test if the stereochemical variability can be attributed to conventional lipid biosynthesis, we characterize the stereospecificity of the relevant glycerol-phosphate acyltransferases PlsY and PlsB, as well as the lysophosphatidic acid acyltransferase PlsC, catalyzing the key steps in phospholipid biosynthesis yielding phosphatidic acid, both in the Gram-positive B. subtilis and the Gram-negative E. coli. While PlsB is strictly stereospecific for glycerol 3-phosphate, PlsY and PlsC can utilize both stereo-forms of the glycerol-phosphate. Hence, the variability in lipid backbone stereochemistry is an intrinsic part of bacterial phospholipid biogenesis, questioning the supposedly strict stereochemical segregation of bacteria and archaea after the lipid divide.

We demonstrate that concurrent use of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) enhances the dispersion and processability of electrode slurries, and elucidate the underlying mechanisms via detailed rheological and microstructural analyses. Sedimentation tests and optical microscopy revealed that slurries containing both dispersants exhibited more uniform dispersion and greater stability than those prepared from CMC or CNFs alone. Dynamic rheological analyses, based on the sequence of physical processes (SPP) framework applied to large-amplitude oscillatory shear (LAOS), demonstrated that combined use of CMC and CNFs effectively suppressed shear-induced aggregation and the resultant stiffening, thereby improving coating processability. Notably, this synergistic effect exhibited a pronounced dependence on the mixing sequence: pre-mixing of CMC with graphite afforded more effective dispersion and stabilization than when CNFs were first mixed with graphite. Based on this sequential dependence and rheological analyses of the dispersant mixture, the improvements in dispersion and stability are attributed to the synergistic effects of steric and electrostatic repulsion from CMC adsorbed onto graphite surfaces, and the stabilization afforded by the CNF-rich matrix. The combined formulation also ensured robust coating and drying performance, minimizing edge defects and enabling homogeneous distribution of the styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) binder, thereby preventing binder migration.

High-quality total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) data are essential for wastewater management and aquatic ecosystem protection, yet routine determinations rely on labor- and reagent-intensive wet chemistry. Ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy offers a rapid, low-consumable alternative, but TN/TP quantification in heterogeneous wastewater remains challenging because they are composite indices with weak, dispersed spectral features and strong matrix effects. Here we introduce a task-specific machine learning framework for TN/TP measurement via UV-Vis. TN is modeled with eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGB) on pretreated spectra to capture nonlinearities with built-in regularization; TP, whose spectral cues are weaker and more dispersed, is addressed by a 1D-CNN-XGB hybrid pipeline, where the CNN distills shift-tolerant local motifs and reduces collinearity before nonlinear regression by XGB. The proposed method achieves R2&#xa0;=&#xa0;0.9691 (RPD&#xa0;=&#xa0;5.94) for TN and R2&#xa0;=&#xa0;0.8738 (RPD&#xa0;=&#xa0;3.43) for TP. Wavelength-resolved attributions with latent back-projection reveal distinct spectral drivers: TN is dominated by compact deep-UV motifs with a secondary UV band and minor near-UV features consistent with matrix/background variability, whereas TP follows a distributed, shape-based multi-band UV rule captured by the CNN. This framework outlines an effective and interpretable UV-Vis approach for TN/TP measurement in wastewater and may enable rapid, in-situ, low-consumable monitoring workflow towards field deployment.

Passive samplers, for instance Chemcatcher, Microporous Polyethylene Tube passive samplers (MPTs) and Diffusive Gradients in Thin Films (DGT), are widely used for monitoring time-weighted average concentrations (CTWA) of contaminants in waters. This study presents ChemTRAP, a novel passive sampler using two macroporous filters (MFs) as both sorbent support and diffusion matrix for analyte uptake. This design enables analyte recovery by solid-phase extraction (SPE), thereby reducing per-unit costs and simplifying workflows. Six organic analytes and six heavy metals were used to evaluate ChemTRAPs embedded with Hydrophilic-Lipophilic Balanced resin or Chelex100 resin. The ChemTRAP, as an SPE device, achieved a mean recovery of 94.3% for all 12 analytes in both simulated and Lake Nanhu water. The performance of Chelex100 resin remained stable over 10 reuse cycles. In a preliminary field test, ChemTRAPs showed an average sampling rate of 2.4&#x202f;mL/d, comparable to MPTs and DGTs. The average recovery of 12 analytes was 73.4% (95% Confidence Interval: 54-92%), indicating that ChemTRAP-derived CTWA are representative of ambient concentrations, despite a slight negative bias likely attributable to biofouling. While further field validation is necessary, investigation of analyte diffusion in MFs is also desirable to develop a predictive RS model comparable to that established for DGTs.

Acute vestibular syndrome (AVS) causes sudden and continuous vertigo, dizziness, and postural instability and is a common reason for emergency department visits, most commonly due to vestibular neuritis and, in rare cases, stroke. Vestibular rehabilitation (VR) is an evidence-based exercise therapy that facilitates vestibular compensation and is effective in chronic vestibular disorders. However, evidence for VR in acute vertigo remains limited and, despite guideline support, it remains underused in practice. Internet-based VR has demonstrated benefit in chronic dizziness but has not been evaluated in acute vertigo. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of an internet-based VR tool compared with standard care (written instructions) in reducing vestibular symptoms after acute onset vertigo. A multicentre, randomised, evaluator-blinded superiority trial was conducted across nine hospitals in Sweden. Adults with ongoing AVS were recruited within 1-7 days after symptom onset and randomised (1:1) to six weeks of internet-based VR with personalised, progressively adjusted home exercises or to written instructions for home-based VR exercises. The primary outcome was the between-group difference in vestibular symptoms at six weeks measured using the Vertigo Symptom Scale Short Form (VSS-SF; range 0-60), with a difference of &#x2265;3 points prespecified as clinically significant. Secondary outcomes included dizziness-related disability, walking speed, and balance. Of 184 randomised participants, 183 were included in the analyses (94 online VR; 89 written instructions; median age 56 years). In the intention-to-treat analysis, both groups improved at six weeks, with no significant between-group difference (adjusted mean difference -2.0 points, 95% CI -4.9 to 0.9; p&#x2009;=&#x2009;0.18). Per-protocol analyses were consistent (-1.7 points, 95% CI -4.7 to 1.3; p&#x2009;=&#x2009;0.27). Over 12 weeks, both groups showed reduced vestibular symptoms and improved disability, balance, and walking speed, without significant between-group differences. No serious adverse events were attributed to the interventions, and compliance was high in both groups. Internet-based VR was not superior to written instructions in reducing vestibular symptoms six weeks after acute onset vertigo. Both groups demonstrated improvement from baseline, with no statistically significant between-group differences. These findings suggest that ensuring access to vestibular rehabilitation exercises may be more important than the specific mode of delivery after acute onset vertigo, and internet-based tools represent viable alternatives for patients who prefer or may benefit from a digital format. Clinicaltrials.gov NCT05056324. https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05056324. Registered on September 24, 2021.