Scientific Systems (United States)

During the 2023 and 2024 nesting seasons, we observed a pair of Falco peregrinus (Peregrine Falcon) in Woburn, Middlesex County, MA, preying upon and eating an unusual number of terrestrial mammals. These included 3 Rattus norvegicus (Brown Rat), 4 juvenile Sylvilagus floridanus (Eastern Cottontail), with a failed attempt to capture another, and a Blarina brevicauda (Northern Short-tailed Shrew). Since Peregrine Falcons are considered avian prey specialists, they are not usually thought to be in jeopardy of exposure to anticoagulant rat poisons. However, these falcons were observed eating at least 3 Brown Rats captured within 30 m of observed active rat-poison bait boxes, and nesting in the same Corvus corax (Common Raven) nest in which an adult raven was observed dead on eggs in 2016, consistent with a Massachusetts case of confirmed Haliaeetus leucocephalus (Bald Eagle) mortality from anticoagulant rat poison. As of September 2025, both adult falcons are still alive, but are at continued risk because the toxins used in anticoagulant rat poisons are cumulative.

Abstract Next-generation sequencing (NGS) is routinely used for detection and determination of genetic mutations. While formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) samples have been a blessing for ensuring tumor tissue integrity, library construction for NGS using FFPE samples has been extremely challenging. Need for extraction of high quality and amplifiable DNA and RNA can make the workflow significantly more complex and challenging. The recent years have been witnessing a growing interest in precision medicine, and in monitoring biological systems via a multiomics approach. While such approaches can offer a holistic perspective of a system, they can be challenging owing to their inherent complexities, sample limitations, and lack of appropriate sample preparation methods. In addition to genomic data, proteomic data from FFPE samples are also gaining importance as more biomarkers are being discovered and optimized for detection and monitoring of diseases and their progression under specific therapy. Discovery and characterization to monitoring and quantification of proteins from FFPE samples can be complex – when it comes to ensuring extraction, purification, and digestion of proteins in high quality and quantity. Adaptive Focused Acoustics® (AFA®) Technology is an advanced acoustic technology that employs highly controlled bursts of focused high-frequency acoustic energy to efficiently and reproducibly proess samples in a temperature-controlled and non-contact environment This study presents an optimal use of AFA based workflows along with kits and methods for extraction, isolation, purification of TNA (DNA and RNA) from one 10 μm FFPE scroll. In addition, proteins can be extracted, purified (using a protein aggregation capture protocol), and digested in an expedited process in the same plate, also from one 10 μm FFPE scroll. The results not only show high yield, purity, and amplifiability for TNA but also reproducible and high yield of proteins and peptides – thereby offering every researcher achieve high quality, reliable, and reproducible data. Citation Format: Debadeep Bhattacharyya. Total Nucleic Acid to Proteins from FFPE: Confident Data with Comprehensive Sample Prep Workflows [abstract]. In: Proceedings of Frontiers in Cancer Science 2024; 2024 Nov 13-15; Singapore. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2025;85(15_Suppl):Abstract nr P65.

CD276/B7-H3 represents a promising target for cancer therapy based on widespread overexpression in both cancer cells and tumor-associated stroma. In previous preclinical studies, CD276 antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) exploiting a talirine-type pyrrolobenzodiazepine (PBD) payload showed potent activity against various solid tumors but with a narrow therapeutic index and dosing regimen higher than that tolerated in clinical trials using other antibody-talirine conjugates. Here, we describe the development of a modified talirine PBD-based fully human CD276 ADC, called m276-SL-PBD, that is cross-species (human/mouse) reactive and can eradicate large 500-1,000-mm3 triple-negative breast cancer xenografts at doses 10- to 40-fold lower than the maximum tolerated dose. By combining CD276 targeting with judicious genetic and chemical ADC engineering, improved ADC purification, and payload sensitivity screening, these studies demonstrate that the therapeutic index of ADCs can be substantially increased, providing an advanced ADC development platform for potent and selective targeting of multiple solid tumor types.

Thallium is a heavy metal that is known to induce a broad spectrum of adverse health effects in humans including alopecia, neurotoxicity, and mortality following high dose acute poisoning events. Widespread human exposure to thallium may occur via consumption of contaminated drinking water; limited toxicity data are available to evaluate the corresponding public health risk. To address this data gap, the Division of Translational Toxicology conducted short-term toxicity studies of a monovalent thallium salt, thallium (I) sulfate. Thallium (I) sulfate was administered via dosed drinking water to time-mated Sprague Dawley (Hsd:Sprague Dawley® SD®) rats (F0 dams) and their offspring (F1) from gestation day (GD) 6 until up to postnatal day (PND) 28 at concentrations of 0, 3.13, 6.25, 12.5, 25, or 50 mg/L, and adult male and female B6C3F1/N mice for up to 2 weeks at concentrations of 0, 6.25, 12.5, 25, 50, or 100 mg/L. Rat dams in the 50 mg/L exposure group were removed during gestation, and dams and offspring in the 25 mg/L exposure group were removed on or before PND 0 due to overt toxicity. Exposure to thallium (I) sulfate at concentrations ≤ 12.5 mg/L did not impact F0 dam body weights, maintenance of pregnancy, littering parameters, or F1 survival (PND 4–28). However, in F1 pups, exposure to 12.5 mg/L thallium (I) sulfate resulted in decreased body weight gains relative to control rats and onset of whole-body alopecia. Measurement of thallium concentrations in dam plasma, amniotic fluid, fetuses (GD 18), and pup plasma (PND 4) indicated marked maternal transfer of thallium to offspring during gestation and lactation. Mice exposed to 100 mg/L thallium (I) sulfate were removed early due to overt toxicity, and mice exposed to ≥ 25 mg/L exhibited exposure concentration-related decreases in body weight. Lowest-observed-effect levels of 12.5 mg/L (rats) and 25 mg/L (mice) were determined based on the increased incidence of clinical signs of alopecia in F1 rat pups and significantly decreased body weights for both rats and mice.

BackgroundMobile applications (apps) present a new opportunity to study menstrual cycles and time to pregnancy. Understanding the characteristics of cycle tracking app users is important to evaluate the feasibility of recruiting participants for preconception research.MethodsUsers of a cycle tracking smartphone app, Ovia Fertility, aged 18 or older in the U.S. were randomly invited via email to complete a “fertility research” questionnaire that included demographic and reproductive characteristics. Among those attempting pregnancy without medical assistance, attempt duration, factors influencing pregnancy planning, health history and behaviors while attempting to conceive were queried. Respondents could choose to enter a raffle for a $50 gift card.ResultsInitially, 639 people responded to the demographics portion of the survey representing 49 states and Washington DC. Of these, 344 (54%) were trying to conceive and of those, 297 (86%) were not using medical treatments. Of those not trying to conceive, 12% reported that they planned to start in the next 3 months. Most participants were ages 26–35 (63%), of White race (70%), reported non-Hispanic ethnicity (87%), had at least a bachelor's degree (56%) and an income between $50,000 and $200,000 (58%). One-third were of recommended BMI (35%), 24% overweight, and 41% obese. Most participants reported no fertility-related health conditions (58%). Forty-eight participants (17%) had been trying to conceive for 1 month or less, 88 (31%) had been trying for 2 months or less, and 122 (43%) for 3 months or less. Interruptions in pregnancy attempts were common, 31% reported periods without intercourse. Of those attempting pregnancy, 47% of partners completed their own questionnaire.ConclusionThis first-of its-kind analysis describes users of a cycle-tracking smartphone app who could be eligible for recruitment to a prospective time-to-pregnancy study. Survey respondents were diverse with respect to geographic location, BMI, and income. However, special recruitment efforts will be needed to recruit participants and partners who identify as other than non-Hispanic White. Participants with fertility-related conditions are not overly represented among app users who are trying to conceive. Targeting and pre-enrolling app users who are planning to begin a pregnancy attempt in the next 3 months may be an advantage of app-based recruitment.

End-users of Command and Control (C2) systems can struggle to effectively determine which Course of Action (CoA) should be chosen out of many complex options. A novel top-K recommender system has been developed to provide C2 end-users with comprehensive CoA recommendations through four critical measures named for explanation purposes only: Optimality, Diversity, Feedback, and Preference. The Optimality measure introduces a novel “Pareto-mesh” technique for quantitative CoA metrics, which offers robust and computationally efficient comparisons of Pareto-front percent coverages among ranking options. The Diversity measure also introduces a novel linchpin-based qualitative/quantitative technique that considers qualitative data’s Hamming distances, quantitative data’s Euclidean distances, and optimizes diversity of top-K CoA’s based a chosen top linchpin CoA using Maximin optimization. The Feedback measure is based on implicit user choices, peripheral simulation results, and real-world scenario results, with benchmarks of state-of-the-art collaborative filtering methods SVD, BiVAE, and NCF for this domain. The Preference measure is based on explicit user preference input of quantitative data, and ranks CoA’s based on a simple weighted sum against quantitative CoA metrics. Representative data related to C2 end-users, request attributes, and CoA’s is randomly generated to perform evaluations of each recommender system measure. Hyper-parameters used to calculate each measure are also globally tuned by means of a Genetic Algorithm multi-objective optimization technique, relying on a per-measure, inversion-minimizing optimization function. The designed recommender system’s hyper-parameter training time is on the order of hours and the system inference time is on the order of milliseconds.

ABSTRACTBackground & AimsFatty liver disease is a growing public health burden with serious consequences. We estimated prepandemic prevalence of fatty liver disease determined by transient elastography assessed hepatic steatosis and fibrosis, and examined associations with lifestyle and other factors in a United States population sample.MethodsLiver stiffness and controlled attenuation parameter (CAP) were assessed on 7,923 non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, non-Hispanic Asian, and Hispanic men and women aged 20 years and over in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2017-March 2020 prepandemic data.ResultsThe prevalence of fatty liver disease estimated by CAP >300 dB/m was 28.8% and of fibrosis (liver stiffness >8 kPa) was 10.4%. Only 7.2% of participants with fatty liver disease and 10.9% with fibrosis reported being told by a health care provider that they had liver disease. In addition to known risk factors such as metabolic factors and ALT, persons with fatty liver disease were less likely to meet physical activity guidelines, more likely to be sedentary for 12 or more hours a day, and reported a less healthy diet. Persons with fibrosis were less likely to have a college degree and reported a less healthy diet.ConclusionIn the U.S. population, most persons with fatty liver disease are unaware of their condition. Although physical activity and dietary modifications might reduce the fatty liver disease burden, the COVID pandemic has been less favorable for lifestyle changes. There is an urgent need for fatty liver disease management in high-risk individuals using transient elastography or other noninvasive methods to intervene in disease progression.

View Video Presentation: https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2021-1759.vid Under a recent DARPA project, SSCI performed initial design and testing of an innovative tightly-coupled vison and GNC system for follower vehicles to achieve safe approach and station-keeping with the lead vehicle within some range tolerance and inside a 60 degree cone, under leader maneuvers and vehicle capability constraints. The resulting system is referred to as the SPRINT (Station-keeping using Perception and Relative Image-based Navigation and Tracking), and is a fully autonomous system whose role is to safely and efficiently transition the follower vehicles from some known initial position to station-keeping, and to maintain the desired separation under lead vehicle maneuvers using vision only. The project specifically focuses on trade studies for performance analysis of the integrated system under different vision system properties and constraints, leader and follower vehicle capabilities, and characteristics of the proposed GNC algorithms under lead vehicle maneuvering. The trade studies included the effect of time delay, effect of target maneuvers, and the effect of camera parameters. Under the project, we have developed system architecture, requirements and metrics; vision-based algorithms for position and pose estimation; and guidance and control algorithms for safe approach and station keeping with the maneuvering leader. We also performed simulation analysis and testing at SSCI, demonstrating system-level feasibility of SPRINT to achieve project objectives. These accomplishments are described in the paper.

Housing environments can directly and indirectly affect sleep, and blacks are more likely than whites to live in suboptimal housing conditions, which may independently contribute to sleep disparities. However, few large-scale epidemiological studies consider the potential influence of housing type on sleep health. Using data from the 2004–2015 National Health Interview Survey, we investigated overall and Black-White differences in the association between housing type (house/apartment versus mobile home/trailer) and sleep duration as well as sleep difficulties among 226,208 adults in the U.S. Poisson regression with robust variance was used to estimate sex-specific prevalence ratios (PR) for sleep categories, first comparing houses/apartments to mobile homes/trailers and then blacks to whites within housing types. All models were adjusted for age, educational attainment, income, occupational class, self-reported general health status, and region of residence. Compared to participants living in houses/apartments, the prevalence of short sleep was higher for men (PR = 1.05 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.02–1.08)) and women (PR = 1.07 (95% CI: 1.04–1.09)) in mobile homes/trailers. Black men (PR = 1.26 (95% CI: 1.21–1.30)) and women (PR = 1.24 (95% CI: 1.20–1.27)) in a house/apartment were more likely to be short sleepers than their white counterparts. There was generally no significant difference in sleep characteristics (except long sleep) between black and white men in mobile homes/trailers after adjustments, and black men in houses/apartments as well as black women in both housing types were less likely to report sleep difficulties although being more likely to report short sleep. Overall, individuals in mobile homes/trailers, which may represent suboptimal housing, had worse sleep than those in houses/apartments; and racial differences in the quality of houses and apartments are likely to greatly vary in ways that still contribute to sleep disparities. Race–sex group differences in sleep duration among residents in a house/apartment and even a lack of racial difference among individuals living in mobile homes/trailers support the need for more research on residential environments and eventually multi-level interventions designed to reduce sleep disparities.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in the United States is the most common among Asians followed by non-Hispanic blacks. However, there have been few studies that describe HBV infection and immunity by racial group. Our study aimed to assess racial/ethnic disparities in the prevalence and awareness of HBV infection and immunity using nationally representative data. In the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2011-2014, 14722 persons had HBV serology testing. We estimated the prevalence of HBV infection, past exposure, and immunity by selected characteristics and calculated adjusted odds ratios using survey-weighted generalized logistic regression. Awareness of infection and vaccination history was also investigated. The overall prevalence of chronic HBV infection, past exposure and vaccine-induced immunity was 0.34% [95%CI 0.24-0.43], 4.30% [95%CI 3.80-4.81], and 24.4% [95%CI 23.4-25.4], respectively. The prevalence of chronic infection was 2.74% [95% CI 1.72-3.76] in Asians, 0.64% [95% CI 0.35-0.92] in non-Hispanic blacks, and 0.15% [95% CI 0.06-0.24] in non-Asian, non-blacks. Only 26.2% of those with chronic infection were aware of their infection. The prevalence of the past exposure was 21.5% [95%CI 19.3-23.7] in Asians, 8.92% [95%CI 7.84-9.99] in non-Hispanic blacks, 2.05% [95%CI 1.49-2.63] in non-Hispanic whites and 4.47% [95%CI 3.25-5.70] in Hispanics. Prevalence of vaccine-induced immunity by each race was 34.1% [95%CI: 32.0-36.2] in Asians, 25.5% [95%CI: 24.0-27.0] in non-Hispanic blacks, 24.0% [95%CI: 22.6-25.4] in non-Hispanic whites and 22.2% [95%CI: 21.3-23.3] in Hispanics. There are considerable racial/ethnic disparities in HBV infection, exposure and immunity. More active and sophisticated healthcare policies on HBV management may be warranted.