Rationale Fatal opioid overdoses involving synthetic opioids have increased >10-fold over the past 8 years. Fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid acting at the mu-opioid receptor (MOR), has largely replaced heroin as the predominant illicit opioid available. Various analogs have been synthesized from the fentanyl scaffold, including 2-furanylfentanyl, one of the most trafficked analogs from 2019 to 2024. Despite its prevalence,...

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are essential tools for protecting marine ecosystems; yet, their effectiveness varies across regions. In the Caribbean, home to some of the world’s most degraded reefs, evaluating MPA performance requires consistent ecological data and information on management practices. To address this, we conducted standardised reef fish surveys of small (< 20 cm) and large (≥ 20 cm) fish across 83 sites in ten...

Polygenic scores (PGS) have been developed for a wide variety of traits, such as cancer, risk tolerance, obesity, asthma, educational attainment, and cardiovascular disease. Prior research shows that the public tends to view the use of genetic information for medical traits more favorably than for social or other non-medical traits, and legal and policy discourse regularly treats medical and social traits as distinct categorie...

Benzodiazepines are often used with other drugs like opioids, potentially leading to severe intoxications. Bretazenil, an imidazo-tetrahydropyrrolo-1,4-benzodiazepine, developed in the 1980s but never marketed as a medicine, has recently appeared on the illicit drug market. Given its high potency, short elimination half-life, and potential for rapid metabolism, it is essential to identify markers for bretazenil consumption for...