Early childhood caries (ECC) remains a major public health concern in India, with feeding-at-sleep behaviors recognized as important behavioral risk factors. The feeding at sleep time (FeAST) scale was developed to quantify such behaviors, but its applicability across diverse Indian sociocultural settings remains uncertain. To evaluate the external validity of the FeAST scale in identifying ECC risk among 12-36-month-old toddlers in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, and to examine the association between socioeconomic status and ECC. A hospital-based cross-sectional study conducted in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Bhubaneswar, Eastern India. A total of 387 toddlers aged 12-36 months and their caregivers were recruited. Feeding behaviors were assessed using the original FeAST questionnaire, generating scores for combined breastfeeding (CBR), combined bottle-feeding (CBO), and other feeding constructs (OFC). ECC status was determined through oral examination. SES was classified using the updated B. G. Prasad Scale (2025). Receiver operating characteristic analysis with a minimal cutoff score was used to determine diagnostic accuracy. Chi-square test assessed associations between ECC and SES. Statistical significance was set at P < 0.05. ECC prevalence was 32.9%. CBR (AUC = 0.446) and CBO (AUC = 0.481) demonstrated poor discriminatory ability, while OFC showed modest performance (AUC = 0.577). No significant association was found between ECC and SES ( P = 0.511). The FeAST scale demonstrated limited diagnostic validity in this Eastern Indian cohort, indicating the need for regional recalibration incorporating contextual feeding and oral hygiene behaviors.
Using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and FEAST microbial source tracking, this study characterized the bacterial communities in tissues (roots, stems, leaves, seeds) and associated soils (rhizosphere and bulk soil) of Vernonia anthelmintica, an important Uyghur medicinal plant endemic to arid southern Xinjiang. We found significantly higher bacterial diversity in soil than in plant tissues, with Pseudomonadota-dominated plant-associated communities and Actinobacteria co-dominating in soils. Bacterial community structures varied across plant compartments, with soil communities exhibiting greater stability and broader niche breadth. Critically, FEAST source tracking revealed that rhizosphere soil contributed 23.8%, 13.4%, 17.9%, and 10.8% of the bacterial communities in roots, stems, leaves, and seeds, respectively, identifying soil as the primary source of endophytic bacteria. These findings highlight the pivotal role of arid-region soil microbial diversity in shaping the unique endophytic microbiome of V. anthelmintica, providing a scientific basis for conserving soil microbial health to support its standardized cultivation and sustainable utilization in Uyghur medicine.
Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are biodegradable biobased polymers with the potential to replace conventional plastics. To reduce production costs while contributing to wastewater treatment, mixed microbial cultures (MMCs) have been proposed as a sustainable platform for PHA production. This process comprises three stages: (1) acidogenic fermentation of wastewater streams to generate volatile fatty acids (VFAs), (2) selection and enrichment of MMCs under feast-famine conditions, and (3) PHA accumulation using the selected biomass. The aim of this study was to evaluate the selection and enrichment of MMCs for PHA production within a circular economy framework. VFAs obtained by sludge acidogenic fermentation were used as the carbon source, and two operational factors organic load (500-1500 mg COD L-1) and cycle length (3 or 6 days) were tested in a 3 × 2 factorial design. The condition of 500 mg COD L-1 with a 3-day cycle achieved the highest performance, with statistically significant effects (p < 0.05) for both main factors and their interaction. Pilot-scale validation in a 16-L working volume reactor confirmed these results, yielding 83.3 mg PHA L-1 (reported as PHB-equivalents following acid hydrolysis to crotonic acid and HPLC quantification) and a yield of 0.28 g COD g COD-1 ( Y P H A / V F A , expressed as COD-based PHA produced per COD of VFA consumed). Molecular analysis revealed species classically associated with PHA dynamics (Paracoccus sp., Alcaligenes sp.) and the presence of Diaphorobacter limosus, suggesting complementary roles under selective pressure. These findings highlight wastewater valorization into bioplastics as a viable route within the circular economy framework.
Greater body weight and body mass index (BMI) are associated with worse clinical outcomes in knee osteoarthritis, but these anthropometric measures do not assess fat mass. We evaluated sex-specific relationships between total and visceral adiposity and clinical outcomes in knee osteoarthritis. Baseline data from all 144 participants with knee osteoarthritis (age 65±8 years, BMI 30.3±6.2 kg/m2, 64% female) enrolled in the FEAST randomised controlled trial were analysed. Adiposity measures (total fat mass, percent fat mass, visceral fat mass, percent visceral fat mass) were assessed using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Clinical outcomes included knee symptoms (five subscales of Knee Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS)), health-related quality-of-life (QoL) (EQ-5D) and functional performance (40 m walk). Linear regression models with a sex*adiposity interaction term evaluated associations between adiposity measures and clinical outcomes. Significant sex*adiposity interactions were observed for KOOS-QoL and 40 m walk, with higher percent body fat and percent visceral fat, respectively, associated with worse outcomes in females but not males (e.g. for KOOS-QoL 1-unit increase in percent body fat in females -1.2 (95%CI -1.8 to -0.6); males 0.1 (95%CI -0.9-1.1). While no significant interaction effect was observed for other comparisons, in females greater total and visceral fat mass were largely associated with worse clinical outcomes, which was generally not the case in males. Adiposity was associated with poorer outcomes, with significant sex-specific effects observed for knee-related QoL and functional performance for females but not males. While most outcomes did not demonstrate significant sex-interactions, effect estimates were typically larger and more consistent in females.
Microbial populations exhibit a broad spectrum of nutrient utilization strategies, ranging from those utilizing diverse nutrients, called "generalists," to those highly adapted to specific nutrients, called "specialists." Identifying the conditions for the diversification of nutrient utilization strategies is one of the central questions in ecology. Previous theoretical studies have shown that trade-offs among different resource utilization functions in which cells cannot utilize broad types of substrates at nearly optimal efficiency are crucial for the emergence of diverse strategies. Additionally, in natural settings, nutrient availability often fluctuates over time, imposing another trade-off on the cells; cells that grow rapidly under nutrient-rich conditions tend to have a higher death rate under nutrient-poor conditions, leading to a growth-death trade-off. This additional trade-off can contribute to the emergence of diverse strategies. Here, we introduce a mathematical model that simultaneously incorporates the resource-use trade-off and the growth-death trade-off. Nutrient supply was modeled as discrete stochastic events, mimicking temporal changes in nutrient availability. We show that the phenotype with a higher ratio of growth rate to death rate dominates the population; that is, the strength of the growth-death trade-off plays a crucial role in the emergence of distinct strategies. We also found that a sparse and uncertain nutrient supply favors specialists, increasing their temporally averaged abundance. Our findings highlight the crucial role of temporal environmental variation and the resulting growth-death trade-off in driving diversification of microbial nutrient utilization strategies.
AbstractAccording to optimal foraging theory, mesopredators should forage in areas where their prey is abundant while avoiding high predation risk. Here, we investigate how environmental factors influence mesopredators' abilities to minimize spatiotemporal overlap with predators while increasing spatiotemporal overlap with prey. We paired 30 western diamond-backed rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox) 3D printed replicas with game cameras in West Texas for 2 years to quantify several spatiotemporal factors affecting prey availability and predation risk. Concurrently, 25 C. atrox were radiotracked at the same site to gather activity and microhabitat selection data regarding free-ranging individuals. Random forest algorithms were trained using data obtained from the game camera and applied to predict the probability of predation and the probability of prey encounter for each radiotracking event. Time of day, month, vegetation structure, and concealment percentage all had a significant association with the probability of predation and the probability of prey encounter. Our results suggest that rattlesnakes choose to be active when and where the probability of prey encounter was significantly higher than the probability of predator encounter, thus following optimal foraging theory. Our results demonstrate that mesopredators increase chances of prey capture while reducing predator detection in natural settings.
Can Catholics ethically use GLP-1 agonists to pursue the goal of weight loss? I argue that the goal of maintaining a healthy weight should serve the further ends of caring for the good gift of one's own body and pursuing the virtuous beatitude which befits the human person. Drawing from Thomas Aquinas, I argue that temperance is an integral part of human flourishing. I apply the work of other Catholic ethicists on analogous behavior-modifying drugs to consider whether GLP-1 agonists facilitate or thwart the development of temperance. I conclude that the drug may contribute to insensibility (the opposite of temperance) and undermine the moral agent's development of a Eucharistic disposition toward the gift of food. Finally, I argue that GLP-1 agonists must not be regarded as a fix-all solution when the greatest share of America's obesity crisis is borne by the poor and marginalized. Rather, Catholics must recognize and reform underlying unjust socioeconomic structures, such as food deserts, and the American culture of food consumerism, which make it more difficult for disadvantaged communities to exercise responsible stewardship of their bodies.
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Cancer metastasis remains the leading cause of cancer-related mortality. However, conventional ablation therapies such as photothermal/photodynamic therapy (PTT/PDT) may paradoxically exacerbate metastatic spread by inducing vascular disruption, fibrinolytic activation, and leakage of inflammatory chemokines. To address this challenge, we developed a novel "LOCK" therapy (Light-triggered Occlusion Combined with Key antifibrinolytics), which combines PTT/PDT with the antifibrinolytic agent tranexamic acid (TXA) to stabilize tumor-associated microthrombi and achieve sustained vascular occlusion. This strategy not only enhances primary tumor eradication but also suppresses systemic dissemination by entrapping tumor cells and inflammatory mediators within the tumor microenvironment. More importantly, this approach significantly improved the intratumoral retention of chemotherapeutic agents while reducing their redistribution. Furthermore, we engineered a biomimetic near-infrared (NIR)-activated nanoplatform, IR780/TXA TRN@PM, co-loaded with IR780 and TXA and coated with platelet membrane (PM) for targeted delivery to tumor and hemorrhage sites. In murine models of breast cancer and melanoma, the LOCK strategy significantly inhibited primary tumor growth and metastasis, enhanced intratumoral retention of chemotherapeutic agents such as doxorubicin, and reshaped the immunosuppressive microenvironment. These findings support the translational potential of a mechanism-based combination strategy that converts a pathological response into a therapeutic advantage, providing a broadly applicable approach to overcome the limitations of conventional ablation therapies.
A 22-month-old previously healthy girl presented with profound microcytic anemia and severe thrombocytopenia due to iron deficiency. Following transfusions and iron supplementation, her platelet count rose dramatically, peaking at 3.5 million/µL before gradually normalizing over several months. This case highlights the rare presentation of iron deficiency with severe thrombocytopenia, which can mimic bone marrow disorders. It also illustrates the phenomenon of rebound thrombocytosis after iron repletion, emphasizing the need for close platelet monitoring to mitigate potential thrombotic risk.
Scavenging by seabirds at marine mammal carcasses on the open sea is a poorly documented phenomenon, especially among the smaller species of procellariiformes. During a pelagic survey in the Galápagos, I recorded at least fifty Elliot's storm-petrels (Oceanites gracilis) foraging at a large piece of drifting blubber. Individuals pattered at the sea surface to pick up oil droplets, a foraging mode consistent with storm-petrel ecology yet rarely documented in the context of mammal carcasses. Reports in other species emphasize consumption of blubber or tissue, but this observation suggests that small-bodied seabirds may instead exploit the more metabolically efficient liquid fraction. This observation raises questions regarding the nutritional role played by opportunistic scavenging in storm-petrels and the possible sensory cues facilitating such aggregations. Furthermore, it exemplifies the importance of natural history observations in documenting infrequent but ecologically significant interactions.
Computational simulation and data augmentation of spatial transcriptomics (ST) are essential for quantitative benchmarking, reproducibility, and methodological innovation. Yet current models often lack flexibility in controlling spatial and transcriptional heterogeneity, fail to capture higher-order gene dependencies, and rarely extend to three-dimensional or alignment-aware contexts. Here we present FEAST, a computational infrastructure that models ST data within a parameter cloud - a latent manifold encoding gene-level mean, variance, and sparsity. By sampling and perturbing this manifold, FEAST generates high-fidelity synthetic slices with tunable spatial and transcriptional variation, enabling systematic evaluation of clustering, deconvolution, and spatial alignment algorithms. Beyond two dimensions, FEAST performs 3D parameter-cloud interpolation guided by optimal transport and benchmark alignment, reconstructing continuous tissue architectures while preserving molecular coherence. Together, these capabilities establish FEAST as a foundational platform for standardized benchmarking, data augmentation, and 3D reconstruction in spatial transcriptomics. The source code and tutorials for FEAST are publicly available at https://github.com/maiziezhoulab/FEAST, and can be installed via Pypi at https://pypi.org/project/FEAST-py/.
Federated Ecosystems for Analytics and Standardized Technologies (FEAST) is a modular, cloud-based platform developed through the ARPA-H Biomedical Data Fabric initiative to enable secure, federated analysis of real-world biomedical data. To guide and iteratively refine its modular design, the FEAST team conducted a cross-institutional survey to systematically identify and prioritize research needs related to authorized-access data across diverse biomedical domains. This study presents a structured synthesis of submitted use cases to uncover infrastructure gaps, data integration challenges, and translational opportunities. The results from the survey inform both front-end user-facing functionality and backend data requirements, shaping how the interface supports user interactions, data types, and compliance with security and interoperability standards. A structured survey form was distributed to researchers affiliated with participating institutions, including DNA-HIVE, The George Washington University (GW-FEAST), Weill Cornell Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Georgetown University, European Bioinformatics Institute, and Kaiser Permanente. Respondents completed standardized fields describing the data types of interest, project goals, analytic methods, and perceived technical barriers. The collected responses were curated and analyzed to identify common needs related to privacy, interoperability, scalability, and workflow reproducibility. The survey compiled 61 use cases spanning genomics, imaging, clinical phenotyping, EHR-driven analytics, and precision medicine. Common themes included the need for multi-modal data integration, HL7 FHIR-based secure access, federated model training without PII retention, and containerized microservices for scalable deployment. Convergent needs across institutions emphasized consistent demand for FAIR-compliant infrastructure and readiness for real-world data analytics. The FEAST Use Cases survey provides a cross-sectional view of biomedical informatics priorities grounded in real-world data needs. The findings offer a strategic blueprint for developing federated, privacy-preserving infrastructure to support secure, collaborative, and scalable biomedical research.
Temporally structured environments are ubiquitous in nature, but time-dependent fitness effects are difficult to measure and thus understudied. To resolve temporal fitness structure at genome scale, we developed a Bayesian multilevel framework for longitudinal randomly barcoded transposon sequencing (RB-TnSeq) that stabilizes noisy mutant abundance trajectories into time-resolved selection-rate estimates with interpretable uncertainty. Applying this approach to a feast-famine starvation regime in Escherichia coli, we uncovered distinct fitness trajectories underpinned by shared molecular strategies across growth-curve phase, consistent with shifting constraints and antagonistic pleiotropy. Fitness during initial growth strongly constrained cumulative success, such that later advantages under stress could not rescue mutants that were initially deleterious. We then compressed these dynamics with a one-dimensional Fisher's geometric "seascape" model that orders mutants along a latent axis aligning with generalist-specialist and growth-survival trade-offs, providing a compact quantitative description of genome-wide constraints in a fluctuating environment. Finally, our longitudinal estimates and inferred seascape are predictive of both the identity and timing of mutational targets in an extended evolution experiment under similar repeated feast-famine conditions, linking short-term competitive fitness effects, with their related trade-offs and constraints, to long-term adaptive outcomes.
Of the three dietary macronutrients, protein plays an especially pivotal role in physiological functions. Nevertheless, the behavioural control of protein intake is poorly understood. In this study, we used Feeding Experimentation Devices (FED3s) to examine the structure of ingestive behaviour in mice given access to diets varying in protein content. Adult C57BL/6NRj mice were contact-housed in pairs in custom-made cages with perforated dividers, each having access to an individual FED3 unit. Mice were given ad libitum access to either 20 mg control, non-restricted (NR) pellets (20% casein) or 20 mg protein-restricted (PR) pellets (5% casein) from FED3s on free-feeding mode. Each pellet retrieval event was timestamped ∼24 h/day. All mice experienced both diets for 7 days with order of diet presentation counterbalanced (i.e., NR→PR and PR→NR). Analysis of dynamics of pellet intake per day revealed that mice that were initially protein-restricted first showed a decrease in pellet intake before increasing on later days and exhibiting a persistent high level of intake once non-restricted diet was available. The group that was initially non-restricted exhibited a blunted response to the same diet manipulation. In addition, we clustered pellet retrieval data into discrete clusters of feeding events and used a mathematical approach to determine the boundary of meals (2-5 pellets), separated from "snacks" (1 pellet) and "feasts" (>5 pellets). We identified alterations in meal patterning in response to diet manipulation with protein restriction increasing "snacking" and leading to increased meal number, and reduced meal size. Moreover, restored access to NR diet, elicited "feasting". These effects depended on the sequence of diets the mice experienced, such that the effects were stronger in initially protein restricted mice compared to those initially non-restricted. In summary, our findings show that manipulation of dietary protein levels affects meal patterning in adult mice.
This study focused on the links between soil physicochemical properties and the gut microbiota of goitered gazelles (Gazella subgutturosa) in the hyper-arid Qaidam Basin. By integrating 16S rRNA gene sequencing, soil physicochemical analysis (11 soil indicators), and microbial source tracking (FEAST) on samples of feces (n = 58), soil (n = 35), and water (n = 35) collected from six typical regions. We systematically revealed the mechanisms by which soil properties influence the gut microbiome of wildlife in an arid desert ecosystem based on source tracking and Multiple Regression on distance Matrices (MRM) analysis. The results showed that soil total phosphorus (TP) was significantly positively correlated with the α-diversity of gut microbiota (coefficient = 0.4/0.23/0.332; p < 0.05), while soil organic carbon (SOC) was significantly negatively correlated (coefficient = -0.44/-0.436; p < 0.05), indicating that soil nutrients indirectly predict host microbial diversity by regulating vegetation productivity and forage quality. β-diversity analysis further demonstrated that spatial heterogeneity in soil pH (coefficient = 0.3083; p < 0.05) and TP (coefficient = 0.227; p < 0.05) significantly drove the structural differentiation of gut microbial communities. Source-tracking results based on FEAST revealed significant regional differences in the proportional contribution of environmental microorganisms to the gut microbiota, with individuals in resource-poor habitats (ALK region) exhibiting higher input from soil microbes (8.0672% ± 6.9291%; p < 0.05). In conclusion, this study clarifies the ecological mechanism by which soil physicochemical properties regulate the diversity and composition of herbivore gut microbiota through a "soil-plant-food-gut microbiota" cascading pathway, providing important empirical evidence for understanding animal-microbe-environment interactions and adaptive evolution in extreme environments.
Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are prevalent in livestock environments due to antimicrobial use, yet their airborne dispersal into human-occupied indoor spaces remains poorly characterized. We investigated whether airborne ARGs disperse from livestock stables into farmers' homes and surrounding outdoor environments. Electrostatic dust collectors were deployed in paired pig and cow stables and their associated homes in Jutland, Denmark, to collect settled airborne dust. Pooled samples were analyzed using shotgun metagenomic sequencing. ARG dispersal patterns were assessed using FEAST source tracking and ecological similarity metrics, including shared ARG ratios and Jaccard indices. Pig production systems exhibited higher antibiotic use and stronger resistome continuity with farmers' homes than cow systems, reflected by greater FEAST contributions (P = 0.029) and Jaccard similarity (P = 0.029). Beta-diversity analysis supported higher compositional similarity between pig stables and homes (PERMANOVA R2 = 0.23, p = 0.052), whereas cow environments showed greater divergence (R2 = 0.41, P = 0.035). Across environments, tetracycline, macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin B, and aminoglycoside resistance genes dominated, consistent with livestock-specific antibiotic use patterns. Supplementary indoor-outdoor comparisons across cow, pig, and chicken stables (from an independent 2024 sampling campaign not directly comparable to the 2008 EDC-based survey) revealed contrasting dispersal dynamics, with higher bacterial species spillover from cow stables but stronger ARG overlap from pig stables. Collectively, these findings are consistent with airborne ARG connectivity across occupational and environmental interfaces and support consideration of air as a potential pathway in One Health AMR surveillance.
Intracellularly stored carbon (ISC) plays a central role in enabling carbon-efficient nitrogen removal, yet its contributions to full denitrification (FdN) and partial denitrification (PdN) remain incompletely understood. This review synthesizes current knowledge of ISC anabolism and catabolism across phosphate-accumulating organisms (PAOs), glycogen-accumulating organisms (GAOs), PHA-storing organism (PSOs), glycogen-storing organism (GSOs), and oleaginous microorganisms under feast-famine, nutrient limitation, and variable redox regimes. Major ISC storage and utilization pathways are discussed alongside two conceptual models of ISC metabolism (sequential storage-growth versus parallel storage-growth) in the context of mainstream biological nutrient removal. Subsequently, the influence of wastewater characteristics, reactor configuration, feast-famine structure, dissolved oxygen control, sludge age, biomass concentration, and ISC composition on ISC-driven denitrification is analyzed. For ISC-FdN, evidence from bench- to full-scale shows that post-anoxic ISC utilization can achieve low effluent nitrogen while greatly reducing external carbon dosing and mixed-liquor recirculation. For ISC-PdN, slow ISC depolymerization, nitrate residuals, and nitrite sinks via anammox are highlighted as key kinetic drivers of denitritation suppression and/or nitrite detouring to shortcut N removal pathway, linked to the activity of taxa including Candidatus Competibacter, Candidatus Accumulibacter, and Thauera. Finally, the integration potential of ISC-driven PdN with mainstream deammonification and sludge densification is evaluated, and priority research needs are identified.