GC Systems (United States)

Dynamic controlled atmosphere (DCA) storage offers potential economic advantage for organic apple storage, but quantifying these benefits requires accounting for packout uncertainty, seasonal price dynamics, environmental, and location-specific heterogeneity. We developed an integrated empirical simulation that links multiyear storage trials with Monte Carlo revenue modeling to quantify DCA performance relative to controlled atmosphere and regular atmosphere storage. Storage experiments evaluated quality retention or packouts across storage durations and were represented by beta-distributions. A three-stage least squares model identified seasonal price patterns and key determinants of organic apple prices, producing monthly price predictions. Predicted prices were combined with simulated packouts to estimate by cultivar, storage length, and orchard the probability that DCA is revenue superior. Economic outcomes were cultivar, year, and site specific. For organic ‘Gala’ ( Malus domestica ), the probability that DCA dominates increased from 37.6% in Spring 2022 to 91.8% in Summer 2024, with median revenue advantages for DCA reaching $170,488 per storage room at peak. For ‘Honeycrisp’, orchard-level heterogeneity was pronounced. Orchard 1 achieved 100% DCA dominance in Spring 2024, whereas ‘Honeycrisp’ orchard 2 showed variable performance (high of 77.0% to 78.6% in Summer 2022 and Summer 2023). Weather-sensitivity analysis indicated location-specific responses. Elevated harvest temperatures slightly reduced DCA dominance for ‘Gala’ but sharply reduced it for ‘Honeycrisp’ (−26.1 percentage points on average). These findings indicate that DCA adoption should be tailored to cultivar, storage duration, and local environmental conditions. The framework provides probabilistic decision support for adoption and timing of DCA in organic apple supply chains by integrating storage performance, price seasonality, and packout uncertainty.

Medical monitors (MMs) play a critical and often underrecognized role in ensuring patient safety, regulatory compliance, and scientific integrity during clinical trials. Particularly in early-stage pharma, biotechnology, and medical device development, the MM serves as an independent safeguard against bias and unanticipated risks. This editorial outlines the rationale, responsibilities, and operational value of the MM role, emphasizing its function in document review, real-time safety oversight, and regulatory alignment. Through illustrative case studies and current best practices, we argue that the independence and objectivity of the MM is a strategic business necessity, not merely a regulatory checkbox.

Abstract Introduction: In this work, we employ pack years (PYs) to characterize the relationship between smoking exposure and clinical and genomic features in a diverse clinical genomic cohort of lung (NSCLC) and bladder cancer (BLCA) patients. Methods: Clinical annotations including sex, age and stage at diagnosis were extracted from electronic health records (EHR) for 6, 441 NSCLC and BLCA patients who underwent clinical genomic sequencing at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center after 2014. PYs were extracted from EHR using regular expressions and manually curated. To account for the non-parameteric distribution of PYs we split PYs into four groups: 0(0), 1(0-20), 2(20-40), and 3 (>40). Age at diagnosis was split into 4 groups: Under 45, 46-65, 66-80, and Over 81. Categorical variables such as age, sex, and stage were evaluated by wilcoxon rank-sum test. While continuous variables such as tumor mutational burden (TMB) and fraction genome altered (FGA) were tested by linear regression controlling for age, sex, and stage. Overall survival (OS) was measured from time of sequencing to last follow up and evaluated with a Cox proportional hazards model (CoxPH). Genetic ancestry was determined from MSK-IMPACT sequencing data using reference populations from the 1000 Genomes project, including European (EUR), African (AFR), East Asian (EAS). Ancestry was assigned based on proportion greater than 80%. Results: Our cohort consisted of 4, 953 NSCLC and 1, 488 BLCA patients including 3, 975 former/current smokers and 2, 466 never smokers. There was a significant difference among age and PYs in groups 46-65 and 66-80 in NSCLC (Mdn=1.5 v 20;p <0.0001) and BLCA (Mdn=0 vs 6;p <0.0001). Male patients also tended to have a higher PYs in comparison to female patients in NSCLC (Mdn=9 vs 23;p<0.0001) and BLCA (Mdn=0 vs 6; p<0.05). We did not observe a significant association between FGA and PYs in NSCLC or BLCA patients. However, we did notice a positive relationship between PYs and TMB in NSCLC patients (LR:1.77; CI[1.62-1.92] ; p<0.0001). We also evaluated the relationship between ancestry and PYs where patients with EUR ancestry had a higher PYs than patients with AFR in NSCLC (Mdn=20 vs 3; p<0.0001). Interestingly, we identified a novel genomic association between PYs and STAG2 in BLCA (OR:1.21, CI[1.08-1.36], p=0.001). STAG2 which could be a potential therapeutic target. Lastly, we performed a CoxPH to investigate the relationship between smoking exposure and OS. PYs were associated with an incremental decrease in OS among NSCLC patients where those in PYs group 3 had the highest risk (HR:1.50; CI:[1.34-1.66, ];p<0.0001) and outperform TMB (HR:1.17; CI:[1.06-1.28]; p=0.0012). PYs also predicted OS in BLCA (HR:1.90; CI:[1.49-2.42]; p<0.0001). Conclusion: By utilizing PYs we were able to identify clinical and novel genomic associations such as STAG2 in BLCA and lower OS in NSCLC. PYs can serve as an alternate clinical variable to smoking history alone. Citation Format: Tejiri E. Agbamu, Kelly Pekala, Xinran Bi, Xuechun Bai, David Ma, Nicholas Pickersgill, Michele Waters, Jian Carrot-Zhang. Clinical and genomic utility of smoking pack years in a real world cohort [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2025; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2025 Apr 25-30; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2025;85(8_Suppl_1):Abstract nr 3383.

Racially and ethnically diverse populations are disproportionately burdened with and more likely to die from cancer than White populations but remain persistently underrepresented in cancer clinical trials. Thus, the safety and efficacy assessments of novel therapies may not apply to all populations, and guidelines are developed using trials that inadequately reflect our population. This study aims to explore healthcare experiences, cancer clinical trial perceptions, and solutions for bridging gaps in cancer clinical trials among communities of color. We held a series of five focus groups with 23 survivors and caregivers of color. These sessions explored perspectives around cancer care and research, clinical trials recruitment and messaging, and priorities around addressing the current insufficiency in representation in cancer research. Our focus group data was analyzed using an inductive thematic approach. Four themes were present including (1) high motivation to participate in cancer trials and desire for better outreach and education within communities of color; (2) examples of just care as a model for improving access to clinical trials; (3) manifestations of power and inequity in healthcare inhibiting opportunities for clinical trial participation; and (4) the need for trust-building at the healthcare, community, and interpersonal levels. Our findings demonstrate that people of color strongly desire clinical trial options and discussions during cancer care, and trust-building is foundational to opening pathways to research participation. We offer concrete steps for increasing racial justice in cancer clinical trials that serve as a point of reflection and guidance for healthcare professionals, researchers, and clinical trials teams.

Histories are important, and as such this article begins with a look into how the ClimeTime network, a Washington State science education network, came to learn from (and with) Indigenous partners to design climate education that honors Native climate expertise. The article focuses first on grandmother and mother networks, listening sessions, local histories, and the relational commitments that ground this work. Then, to show how this work spread across the network and is unfolding, we offer one long case study of what is happening at the Tribal School Chief Leschi, followed by several shorter examples to create a more complete image of how non-tribal classrooms and teachers are also being guided to take up this work. Together the examples offer a much-needed vision of how to design climate learning that honors the different types of Indigenous Knowledge and practices our youth and world need.

About 3 billion new tires are produced each year and about 800 million tires become waste annually. Global dependence upon tires produced from natural rubber and petroleum-based compounds represents a persistent and complex environmental problem with only partial and often-times, ineffective solutions. Tire emissions may be in the form of whole tires, tire particles, and chemical compounds, each of which is transported through various atmospheric, terrestrial, and aquatic routes in the natural and built environments. Production and use of tires generates multiple heavy metals, plastics, PAH's, and other compounds that can be toxic alone or as chemical cocktails. Used tires require storage space, are energy intensive to recycle, and generally have few post-wear uses that are not also potential sources of pollutants (e.g., crumb rubber, pavements, burning). Tire particles emitted during use are a major component of microplastics in urban runoff and a source of unique and highly potent toxic substances. Thus, tires represent a ubiquitous and complex pollutant that requires a comprehensive examination to develop effective management and remediation. We approach the issue of tire pollution holistically by examining the life cycle of tires across production, emissions, recycling, and disposal. In this paper, we synthesize recent research and data about the environmental and human health risks associated with the production, use, and disposal of tires and discuss gaps in our knowledge about fate and transport, as well as the toxicology of tire particles and chemical leachates. We examine potential management and remediation approaches for addressing exposure risks across the life cycle of tires. We consider tires as pollutants across three levels: tires in their whole state, as particulates, and as a mixture of chemical cocktails. Finally, we discuss information gaps in our understanding of tires as a pollutant and outline key questions to improve our knowledge and ability to manage and remediate tire pollution.

Agriculture and the entire food production system play a critical role in sustaining the human species. However, as we strive to secure our means of subsistence, our extensive use of land and water has led to the depletion of the environment and biodiversity. This raises the pressing question of whether we can sufficiently produce food to support a growing population while simultaneously mitigating the inevitable environmental impacts. This article presents a comprehensive review of the significant effects of agriculture on the environment including contributions to greenhouse emissions, land use and land-use change, and forests, impact on biodiversity, impact on water quality and quantity, and the impact of pesticide use. The article also offers a list of approaches used to measure and evaluate the impact of agriculture. The primary aim of this article is to comprehensively review the latest insights in the field and to stimulate further research in this area.

Since the decline of the COVID-19 pandemic, immigration as a whole has been on the rise especially to the United States. The newly released census report for the years 2021-22 has reported an increase of over 1 million legal immigrants to the U.S. substantially comprised of Telugu speaking individuals. This research uses 8 native Telugu speaking adults and 8 native English-speaking adults to identify, analyze, and understand the existence of word stress variation between the pronunciation of the English language between the two groups. The results indicate that there indeed exists a significant difference in the position of word stress in the Telugu speakers’ pronunciations with word stress predominantly applied to the last or second-to-last/penultimate syllable. The main cause for this shift in position was due to L1 interference from the mother tongue. These results have a plethora of implications for future research on sentences with and without punctuation marks, other major English stress rules, and different parts of speech that are commonly used in everyday language.