Fate and Transport of Prions in Simulated Landfill
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), a fatal and transmissible prion disease, affects various cervid species such as white-tailed deer, mule deer, elk, moose, and reindeer. The disease, characterized by neurodegeneration and progressive fatality, has seen a significant geographic expansion across North America, impacting 31 U.S. states and four Canadian provinces. This spread poses severe ecological, economic, and social consequences, including population declines in deer species and substantial financial losses in agriculture, hunting, and tourism industries. To control the spread of CWD, several methods have been employed, including culling infected herds and conducting thorough postmortem examinations to identify and manage prion-contaminated carcasses. One of the potential disposal methods for these carcasses is landfilling, which, while cost-effective, raises concerns about the behavior of prions within landfill environments. Understanding prion behavior in such conditions is crucial for developing effective waste management strategies to mitigate the potential risks of environmental contamination and prion spread. With the aim of understanding prion behavior in landfill environments, the study was conducted in two stages. The first stage investigated the degradation and inactivation of prions in landfill leachate at different temperatures (22°C and 55°C) over various time periods using the Real-Time Quaking-Induced Conversion (RT-QuIC) assay. The results revealed that HY TME prions maintained their infectivity regardless of the conditions, while CWD prions showed a significant increase in infectivity after 180 days at 22°C. The second stage involved monitoring the mobility of PrPSc, the disease-associated form of prions, in lab-scale landfill reactors over a period of five to six months. The study utilized RT-QuIC, Protein Misfolding Cyclic Amplification (PMCA), and Western blot assays to detect prions in leachate samples and swabbed surfaces within the reactors. PrPSc was detected in leachate from certain reactors, indicating prion migration through the landfill leachate. Additionally, swab tests confirmed the accumulation of PrPSc on the inner surfaces of the reactors and leachate reservoirs. These findings underscore the resilience and mobility of prions in landfill environments, posing significant challenges for waste management practices. The study highlights the necessity for further research into effective prion inactivation techniques and the development of improved landfill management strategies to mitigate the risk of environmental contamination and prion spread. Advisor: Shannon L. Bartelt-Hunt
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".