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Extensive selection for yield and disease resistance during tomato crop improvement has led to flavor loss in modern commercial tomatoes in comparison with heirloom varieties. To investigate the chemical and genetic architecture of tomato flavor through both domestication and improvement, we analyzed flavor-related chemicals across 558 globally collected accessions comprising wild relatives, semidomesticated and domesticated populations, including uncharacterized Latin American accessions. Key flavor volatiles exhibit major differences across accessions. A genome-wide association study was used to detect associations between genetic loci and flavor-related chemical contents, including sugars, acids, and volatiles. Multiple genetic loci linked to known genes encoding flavor metabolism enzymes, as well as many new loci, were identified. Among the newly identified loci, a gene encoding a previously uncharacterized lipase (Sl-LIP100) was experimentally proven to have an important role in synthesis of lipid-derived flavor volatiles. This enzyme is responsible for synthesis of several important five- and six-carbon flavor volatiles. In sum, this study provides chemical and genetic insights into the evolution of tomato flavor during domestication and subsequent improvement, identifying the complexity of genetic control of fruit flavor chemicals as well as a number of new alleles that can be used to improve the contents of flavor-linked chemicals. 

Abstract Mosquito-borne diseases are a major public health issue. The USA has experienced mosquito-borne disease outbreaks, including West Nile virus, Zika, dengue, and malaria, highlighting widespread risk across the country. In the USA, exposure to mosquito vectors primarily occurs outdoors. Individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness are particularly vulnerable to mosquito-borne diseases due to their increased exposure to mosquito vectors, limited access to healthcare, and high prevalence of underlying conditions. This review aims to examine the literature on mosquito-borne disease infections among individuals experiencing homelessness in the USA between 1999 and 2024. Our search strategy used Boolean methods on PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science to select relevant publications. Two queries were used: the first query focused on individuals experiencing homelessness and mosquito-borne diseases, and the second one focused on epidemiological analyses of mosquito-borne disease outbreaks in the USA. Only studies reporting at least one infection among individuals experiencing homelessness were included. Our search resulted in the identification of 347 studies. After screening them, eight were ultimately included in this review. Half of the studies identified West Nile virus among individuals experiencing homelessness, and the other half reported cases of malaria. These studies show that individuals who spend more time outdoors, including individuals experiencing homelessness, may be at a greater risk of MBDs compared to the general population. However, the full extent of mosquito-borne disease exposure among individuals experiencing homelessness remains unclear. With climate change and globalization, there is a consensus in the literature showing an increasing risk of mosquito-borne disease transmission in the next decades, and we have already started to witness this increasing trend. Moreover, the USA is experiencing a steep increase in the overall nationwide homeless population. Therefore, we argue that developing policies aimed at providing homeless populations with housing during mosquito-borne disease outbreaks could be instrumental in protecting this segment of the population and promoting health equity. 

The advancement of driving automation systems is transforming surface transportation. Understanding how drivers develop trust in these systems is crucial for their effective implementation. This study investigated the influence of drivers’ initial expectations and the consistency in system errors on trust in a Level-3 automated driving system (ADS). Participants read descriptions that characterized system capabilities to be either high or low, following which their initial levels of expectation were assessed. Error patterns (no, consistent, inconsistent errors) were manipulated across three simulated drives. Subjective trust ratings after each drive and reaction time to takeover requests (TORs) were measured. Results showed that initial expectations did not significantly impact overall trust or TOR performance; instead, trust was adjusted based on the system’s actual performance. These suggested a greater influence of direct experience over drivers’ preconceived expectations. The perceived predictability of the system partially mediated the effect of error consistency on trust, with inconsistent errors worsening TOR performance. The study highlighted the need for predictable ADS designs and driver-system interactions to enhance trust and road safety. 

The phase transitions of a series of Co-doped Heusler alloys, Ni2Mn1−xCoxGa (0⩽x⩽0.2), were investigated experimentally using the magnetization measurements, x-ray diffraction, and calorimetric measurements up to their respective melting points. With increasing Co concentration, the structural transition temperatures, Curie temperatures, and melting points, were observed to increase, while the order–disorder transition temperatures decreased. Temperature-dependent x-ray diffraction experiments revealed two different crystal structures in the low-temperature martensite phase for different Co concentrations. However, above their respective structural transitions, both low-temperature crystal structures transformed into the L21 cubic structure. These findings enabled the construction of a complete magnetic and structural phase diagram for Ni2Mn1−xCoxGa, spanning from cryogenic temperatures to the melting points. The temperature-dependent XRD results revealed the abrupt changes in interatomic Mn–Mn distances, which validates the crucial role of Mn–Mn interatomic distance and the effect of the magnetic coupling competition in the structural stability between the martensite phase and austenite phase. 

The Kondo lattice is one of the classic examples of strongly correlated electronic systems. We conduct a controlled study of the Kondo lattice in one dimension, highlighting the role of excitations created by the composite fermion operator. Using time-dependent matrix product state methods, we compute various correlation functions and contrast them with both large-N mean-field theory and the strong-coupling expansion. We show that the composite fermion operator creates long-lived, charge-e and spin-1/2 excitations, which cover the low-lying single-particle excitation spectrum of the system. Furthermore, spin excitations can be thought to be composed of such fractionalized quasiparticles with a residual interaction which tend to disappear at weak Kondo coupling. Published by the American Physical Society2024