Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that enters the marine system in large quantities at seafloor methane seeps. At a newly discovered seep site off the coast of Point Dume, CA, ~ meter-scale carbonate chimneys host microbial communities that exhibit the highest methane-oxidizing potential recorded to date. Here, we provide a detailed assessment of chimney geobiology through correlative mineralogical, geochemical, and microbiological studies of seven chimney samples in order to clarify the longevity and heterogeneity of these highly productive systems. U-Th dating indicated that a methane-driven carbonate precipitating system at Point Dume has existed for ~20 Kyr, while millimeter-scale variations in carbon and calcium isotopic values, elemental abundances, and carbonate polymorphs revealed changes in carbon source, precipitation rates, and diagenetic processes throughout the chimneys\' lifespan. Microbial community analyses revealed diverse modern communities with prominent anaerobic methanotrophs, sulfate-reducing bacteria, and Anaerolineaceae; communities were more similar within a given chimney wall transect than in similar horizons of distinct structures. The chimneys represent long-lived repositories of methane-oxidizing communities and provide a window into how carbon can be transformed, sequestered, and altered over millennia at the Point Dume methane seep.

States in the U.S. are newly implementing universal school meal (USM) policies, yet little is known about the facilitators of their success and the challenges they confront. This study evaluated the challenges and facilitators faced by school food authorities (SFAs) implementing California\'s universal school meal (USM) policy during its inaugural year (2022-2023) using an online survey. In March 2023, 430 SFAs reported many benefits, including increased meal participation (64.2% of SFAs) and revenues (65.7%), reduced meal debt (41.8%) and stigma (30.9%), and improved meal quality (44.3%) and staff salaries (36.9%). Reported challenges include product/ingredient availability (80.9%), staffing shortages (77.0%), vendor/distributor logistics issues (75.9%), and administrative burden (74.9%). Top facilitators included state funding (78.2%) and increased federal reimbursement (77.2%). SFAs with fewer students eligible for free or reduced-price meals (as opposed to SFAs with more) reported greater increases in meal participation and reductions in stigma but also more administrative burdens. Larger SFAs reported greater increases in revenues, staff salaries, and improvements in meal quality than smaller SFAs but also more challenges. Overall, California\'s USM policy has enhanced student access to healthy meals while mitigating social and financial barriers. Understanding California\'s experience can inform other jurisdictions considering or implementing similar policies.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the first year of COVID-19 pandemic on maternal and neonatal outcomes at a large military treatment facility in Southern California.
METHODS: A retrospective review of maternal and neonatal medical records was conducted between January 1, 2019, and December 31, 2020. Outcomes measured included stillbirth rate, neonatal intensive care unit admission, neonatal death, cesarean birth, and postpartum hemorrhage.
RESULTS: A total of 4,425 records were analyzed. Rates of stillbirth between the years did not vary. The neonatal death rate decreased more than 50% in 2020 (p = .149). Cesarean births rose by 2.7% in 2020 (p = .046). Rates of postpartum hemorrhage did not vary between years.
CONCLUSIONS: The impact of COVID-19 on maternal and neonatal outcomes at a military treatment facility in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic provides guidance for optimizing perinatal health care. Vertical transmission of COVID-19 is low and routine testing of asymptomatic neonates of positive mothers may not be necessary. COVID-19 infections should not be an indication for cesarean birth and are not associated with neonatal deaths or NICU admission.

BACKGROUND: While it is well recognised that aging is a heterogeneous process, our understanding of the determinants of biological aging and its heterogeneity remains unclear. The San Diego Nathan Shock Center (SD-NSC) Clinical Cohort aims to establish a resource of biospecimens and extensive donor clinical data such as physical, cognitive and sensory function to support other studies that aim to explore the heterogeneity of normal human aging and its biological underpinnings.
METHODS: The SD-NSC Clinical Cohort is composed of 80 individuals across the adult human lifespan. Strict inclusion and exclusion criteria are implemented to minimise extrinsic factors that may impede the study of normal aging. Across three visits, participants undergo extensive phenotyping for collection of physical performance, body composition, cognitive function, sensory ability, mental health and haematological data. During these visits, we also collected biospecimens including plasma, platelets, peripheral blood mononuclear cells and fibroblasts for banking and future studies on aging.
BACKGROUND: Ethics approval from the UC San Diego School of Medicine Institutional Review Board (IRB #201 141 SHOCK Center Clinical Cohort, PI: Molina) was obtained on 11 November 2020. Written informed consent is obtained from all participants after objectives and procedures of the study have been fully explained. Congruent with the goal of establishing a core resource, biological samples and clinical data are made available to the research community through the SD-NSC.

UNASSIGNED: Transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) communities experience disproportionate levels of violence, yet due to limitations in measuring TGD identity, few state-representative estimates are available.
UNASSIGNED: To assess gender identity differences in experiences of violence among adults.
UNASSIGNED: Cross-sectional data from the 2023 California Violence Experiences (CalVEX) survey, weighted to provide state-representative estimates, was used to assess associations between gender identity and past-year experiences of violence among adults 18 years and older. Data were analyzed from June to December 2023.
UNASSIGNED: Gender identity (cisgender women, cisgender men, transgender women, transgender men, and nonbinary individuals).
UNASSIGNED: Experience of physical violence (including physical abuse and threat or use of a weapon), sexual violence (verbal sexual harassment, homophobic or transphobic slurs, cyber and physically aggressive sexual harassment, and forced sex), and intimate partner violence (IPV; emotional, physical, or sexual violence) using age-adjusted logistic regression.
UNASSIGNED: In total 3560 individuals (weighted cumulative response rate, 5%) completed the 2023 CalVEX survey, with 1978 cisgender women, 1431 cisgender men, 35 transgender women, 52 transgender men, and 64 nonbinary respondents (mean [SD] age, 47.1 [17.5] years; 635 [17%] were Asian, 839 [37%] were Hispanic, and 1159 [37%] were White). Past-year physical violence was reported by 22 transgender men (43%), 9 transgender women (24%), and 9 nonbinary respondents (14%). Past-year sexual violence was reported by 23 transgender men (42%), 11 transgender women (14%), and 31 nonbinary respondents (56%). Compared with cisgender women, transgender women and transgender men had greater risk of past-year physical violence (any form) (transgender women adjusted incidence rate ratio [AIRR], 6.7; 95% CI, 2.5-18.2; transgender men AIRR, 9.7; 95% CI, 5.3-17.7), as well as past-year IPV (any form) (transgender women AIRR, 3.2; 95% CI, 1.3-8.0; transgender men AIRR, 6.7; 95% CI, 4.0-11.3). Relative to cisgender women, transgender men (AIRR, 3.0; 95% CI, 1.7-5.1) and nonbinary respondents (AIRR, 3.3; 95% CI, 2.1-5.2) had greater risk of past-year sexual violence (any form).
UNASSIGNED: In this survey study of adults in California, results showed that TGD individuals, especially transgender men, are at higher risk of experiencing all forms of violence relative to cisgender women. Results highlight the need for gender-affirming violence prevention and intervention services as well as policies that protect TGD individuals from discriminatory violence.

BACKGROUND: Cannabis exposures reported to the California Poison Control System increased following the initiation of recreational cannabis sales on 1 January 2018 (i.e., \"commercialization\"). We evaluated whether local cannabis control policies adopted by 2021 were associated with shifts in harmful cannabis exposures.
METHODS: Using cannabis control policies collected for all 539 California cities and counties in 2020-2021, we applied a differences-in-differences design with negative binomial regression to test the association of policies with harmful cannabis exposures reported to California Poison Control System (2011-2020), before and after commercialization. We considered three policy categories: bans on storefront recreational retail cannabis businesses, overall restrictiveness, and specific recommended provisions (restricting product types or potency, packaging and labeling restrictions, and server training requirements).
RESULTS: Localities that ultimately banned storefront recreational retail cannabis businesses had fewer harmful cannabis exposures for children aged <13 years (rate ratio = 0.82; 95% confidence interval = 0.65, 1.02), but not for people aged >13 years (rate ratio = 0.97; 95% confidence interval = 0.85, 1.11). Of 167 localities ultimately permitting recreational cannabis sales, overall restrictiveness was not associated with harmful cannabis exposures among children aged <13 years, but for people aged >13 years, a 1-standard deviation increase in ultimate restrictiveness was associated with fewer harmful cannabis exposures (rate ratio = 0.93; 95% confidence interval = 0.86, 1.01). For recommended provisions, estimates were generally too imprecise to detect associations with harmful cannabis exposures.
CONCLUSIONS: Bans on storefront retail and other restrictive approaches to regulating recreational cannabis may be associated with fewer harmful cannabis exposures for some age groups following statewide commercialization.

BACKGROUND: Pathogenic Leptospira species are globally important zoonotic pathogens capable of infecting a wide range of host species. In marine mammals, reports of Leptospira have predominantly been in pinnipeds, with isolated reports of infections in cetaceans.
METHODS: On 28 June 2021, a 150.5 cm long female, short-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus delphis delphis) stranded alive on the coast of southern California and subsequently died. Gross necropsy revealed multifocal cortical pallor within the reniculi of the kidney, and lymphoplasmacytic tubulointerstitial nephritis was observed histologically. Immunohistochemistry confirmed Leptospira infection, and PCR followed by lfb1 gene amplicon sequencing suggested that the infecting organism was L.kirschneri. Leptospira DNA capture and enrichment allowed for whole-genome sequencing to be conducted. Phylogenetic analyses confirmed the causative agent was a previously undescribed, divergent lineage of L.kirschneri.
CONCLUSIONS: We report the first detection of pathogenic Leptospira in a short-beaked common dolphin, and the first detection in any cetacean in the northeastern Pacific Ocean. Renal lesions were consistent with leptospirosis in other host species, including marine mammals, and were the most significant lesions detected overall, suggesting leptospirosis as the likely cause of death. We identified the cause of the infection as L.kirschneri, a species detected only once before in a marine mammal - a northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris) of the northeastern Pacific. These findings raise questions about the mechanism of transmission, given the obligate marine lifestyle of cetaceans (in contrast to pinnipeds, which spend time on land) and the commonly accepted view that Leptospira are quickly killed by salt water. They also raise important questions regarding the source of infection, and whether it arose from transmission among marine mammals or from terrestrial-to-marine spillover. Moving forward, surveillance and sampling must be expanded to better understand the extent to which Leptospira infections occur in the marine ecosystem and possible epidemiological linkages between and among marine and terrestrial host species. Generating Leptospira genomes from different host species will yield crucial information about possible transmission links, and our study highlights the power of new techniques such as DNA enrichment to illuminate the complex ecology of this important zoonotic pathogen.

Cabernet Sauvignon from the California Paso Robles AVA was processed with a contrasting array of cap management frequencies, consisting of punch-down (PD) frequencies (0, 1, 2, and 3 PD/day) over two vintages, one of which the fruit was harvested at two contrasting maturity levels. Wines followed with up to 3 years of bottle aging for basic and phenolic chemistry, and the wines of the second harvest of 2020 were submitted to sensory analysis. There were almost non-existent effects due to the frequency of punch downs on parameters such as ethanol, pH, titratable acidity, lactic acid, and glucose + fructose. In 2019, the chromatic differences between different PD regimes were subtle, and minor effects of the punch-down frequency were observed for tannins and total phenolics. During the early stages of alcoholic fermentation, higher levels of all anthocyanin classes were observed in 1 PD wines and the lowest levels in 0 PD wines. The anthocyanin content of the wines of the first harvest (unripe) was 27% higher than that of the wines of the second harvest (ripe), but these differences disappeared after 3 years of bottle aging irrespective of the vintage and harvest date. Acylated anthocyanins were preferentially lost during aging, especially in 2019 wines and, to a lesser extent, in 2020 wines. In 2020, the polymeric pigment content of the wines of the second harvest was higher than in the wines of the first harvest, with 3 PD wines showing higher polymeric pigments and yellow hues than 0 and 2 PD wines after 3 years of bottle aging. Sensory analysis of the second harvest of the 2020 wines showed that the wines of all four PD regimes were perceived as drying, signifying they were perceived as equally astringent, which is consistent with comparable tannin levels on said wines. The perception of bitterness increased with the frequency of punch downs; thus, 3 PD wines showed the highest bitterness perception. It was concluded that in sufficiently warm fermentations and small volumes, phenolic extraction occurs regardless of fruit maturity and under conditions of minimum mixing.

Stebbins hypothesized that selfing lineages are evolutionary dead ends because they lack adaptive potential. While selfing populations often possess limited nucleotide variability compared with closely related outcrossers, reductions in the genetic variability of quantitative characters remain unclear, especially for key traits determining selfing rates. Yellow monkeyflower (Mimulus guttatus) populations generally outcross and maintain extensive quantitative genetic variation in floral traits. Here, we study the Joy Road population (Bodega Bay, CA, USA) of M. guttatus, where individuals exhibit stigma-anther distances (SAD) typical of primarily selfing monkeyflowers. We show that this population is closely related to nearby conspecifics on the Pacific Coast with a modest 33% reduction in genome-wide variation compared with a more highly outcrossing population. A five-generation artificial selection experiment challenged the hypothesis that the Joy Road population harbours comparatively low evolutionary potential in stigma-anther distance, a critical determinant of selfing rate in Mimulus. Artificial selection generated a weak phenotypic response, with low realized heritabilities (0.020-0.028) falling 84% below those measured for floral characters in more highly outcrossing M. guttatus. These results demonstrate substantial declines in evolutionary potential with a transition toward selfing. Whether these findings explain infrequent reversals to outcrossing or general limits on adaptation in selfers requires further investigation.

The substantial threat of concurrent air pollutants to public health is increasingly severe under climate change. To identify the common drivers and extent of spatiotemporal similarity of PM2.5 and ozone (O3), this paper proposed a log Gaussian-Gumbel Bayesian hierarchical model allowing for sharing a stochastic partial differential equation and autoregressive model of order one (SPDE-AR(1)) spatiotemporal interaction structure. The proposed model, implemented by the approach of integrated nested Laplace approximation (INLA), outperforms in terms of estimation accuracy and prediction capacity for its increased parsimony and reduced uncertainty, especially for the shared O3 sub-model. Besides the consistently significant influence of temperature (positive), extreme drought (positive), fire burnt area (positive), gross domestic product (GDP) per capita (positive), and wind speed (negative) on both PM2.5 and O3, surface pressure and precipitation demonstrate positive associations with PM2.5 and O3, respectively. While population density relates to neither. In addition, our results demonstrate similar spatiotemporal interactions between PM2.5 and O3, indicating that the spatial and temporal variations of these pollutants show relatively considerable consistency in California. Finally, with the aid of the excursion function, we see that the areas around the intersection of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties are likely to exceed the unhealthy O3 level for USG simultaneously with other areas throughout the year. Our findings provide new insights for regional and seasonal strategies in the co-control of PM2.5 and O3. Our methodology is expected to be utilized when interest lies in multiple interrelated processes in the fields of environment and epidemiology.