gshc2020.com

The cyclospora parasite causes cyclosporiasis and leads to explosive diarrhoea. There are multiple outbreaks in the US, likely from different sources.

Since mid-May, the number of cases tracked by the CDC has increased to more than 11,000 across 41 states.

Michigan has been the hardest hit state, with health officials there saying on Friday that the number infected has increased to more than 8,100.

Residents stricken by the parasite told the BBC it was "the most painful thing I've ever been through in my life".

In its update on Friday, the CDC warned people not to eat recalled iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms that sourced from central Mexico.

Taylor Farms, a major US food supplier, voluntarily recalled all of its iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico on 17 July. The company said it did so "out of an abundance of caution".

Investigators from the Food and Drug Administration announced over the weekend that iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms had tested positive for cyclospora but later retracted that statement saying it was a false positive.

Health experts that spoke to the BBC said it is often difficult to track the origins of cyclospora, the parasite that when consumed causes the intestinal illness cyclosporiasis.

Part of the challenge, experts said, is that symptoms might not appear until weeks after the parasite has been ingested, making it difficult for investigators to trace what someone has eaten and find a common link.

The investigation of the multistate outbreak tied to iceberg lettuce is expected to be slow-going, Wade Syers, a food safety and security expert at Michigan State University, told the BBC.

"For Cyclospora, it's not unusual for the picture to become clearer a couple of months after the first illnesses occur," he said in an email on Friday.

"Because these investigations are unfortunately more likely to be marathon investigations rather than a quick sprint." %!s()

Across the country, behavioral health providers are navigating an environment defined by rising demand for services, increasing reimbursement scrutiny, workforce challenges, and evolving payer requirements. While many organizations have successfully expanded their clinical offerings, maintaining financial stability during periods of growth has become increasingly difficult.

Harborstone Point Advisors is responding to those challenges by delivering integrated Revenue Cycle Management consulting, financial advisory services, strategic planning support, and operational guidance specifically designed for treatment providers. The firm's approach focuses on helping organizations improve visibility into financial performance while creating scalable systems that support growth without sacrificing operational discipline.

The announcement marks another step in Harborstone Point Advisors' continued investment in the behavioral health industry, an area where financial performance and clinical success are closely connected.

Expanding Support for Behavioral Health and Addiction Treatment Providers

Behavioral health organizations operate in a unique financial environment. Unlike many industries that receive payment at the time services are delivered, treatment providers often rely on complex reimbursement systems involving commercial insurance carriers, government programs, managed care organizations, and third-party administrators.

As a result, providers frequently encounter delays between service delivery and payment collection. At the same time, organizations must continue managing payroll, facility expenses, staffing costs, marketing investments, and technology expenditures.

These challenges become even more significant as organizations grow.

Treatment centers expanding into new markets or adding additional levels of care often discover that the financial systems supporting their operations have not evolved at the same pace as their clinical services. Harborstone Point Advisors works with leadership teams to address these issues before they become obstacles to growth.

The firm helps organizations improve financial visibility, strengthen reporting structures, develop forecasting capabilities, and create systems that provide leadership with actionable information for decision-making.

Revenue Cycle Management Becomes a Strategic Priority

A major component of Harborstone Point Advisors' expanded service offering centers on Revenue Cycle Management.

Revenue Cycle Management encompasses every step of the reimbursement process, from insurance verification and authorization through claim submission, payment collection, denial management, and reimbursement analysis. While many providers recognize its importance, Revenue Cycle Management often receives attention only after financial challenges begin to emerge.

Harborstone Point Advisors believes that effective Revenue Cycle Management should serve as a core business function rather than a reactive administrative process.

The firm works with treatment providers to evaluate existing revenue cycle operations and identify opportunities for improvement. This includes reviewing reimbursement workflows, analyzing denial trends, evaluating collection timelines, assessing payer performance, and identifying sources of revenue leakage.

By improving Revenue Cycle Management performance, organizations can strengthen cash flow, reduce claim denials, accelerate collections, and improve overall financial stability.

Many treatment centers discover that even small improvements in reimbursement processes can create meaningful financial benefits over time. Greater efficiency within the revenue cycle often translates into improved profitability and stronger organizational performance.

Strengthening Financial Infrastructure for Growth

Growth requires more than strong demand and effective clinical programs. Sustainable growth requires financial infrastructure capable of supporting increasing operational complexity.

Harborstone Point Advisors helps organizations build that infrastructure.

The firm's advisory services include financial reporting enhancement, budgeting support, forecasting development, management dashboard creation, key performance indicator tracking, and operational performance analysis.

These systems provide leadership teams with a clearer understanding of how the organization is performing and where opportunities for improvement may exist.

Many treatment providers rely heavily on historical financial reports that offer limited insight into current operational performance. Harborstone helps organizations develop reporting tools that support forward-looking decision-making.

The firm believes that organizations with strong financial infrastructure are better positioned to respond to changing market conditions, evaluate growth opportunities, and manage operational challenges.

As treatment centers continue expanding, financial visibility becomes increasingly important. Reliable data allows leadership teams to make decisions with confidence and allocate resources more effectively.

Helping Providers Improve Cash Flow Management

Cash flow remains one of the most common challenges facing behavioral health providers today.

Even organizations experiencing strong patient demand can face financial pressure when reimbursement cycles become unpredictable. Delayed payments, increased denial rates, and administrative bottlenecks can all contribute to cash flow disruptions.

Harborstone Point Advisors works with treatment providers to improve cash flow management by connecting Revenue Cycle Management performance with broader financial planning initiatives.

The firm helps organizations identify reimbursement trends, evaluate collection performance, forecast cash needs, and monitor operational spending patterns.

Improved visibility into cash flow allows organizations to plan more effectively and reduce uncertainty. It also provides leadership teams with greater flexibility when making staffing, expansion, and investment decisions.

According to Harborstone Point Advisors, organizations that proactively manage cash flow are often better positioned to navigate periods of market volatility while maintaining operational stability.

Supporting Multi-Site Expansion and Sustainable Growth

As behavioral health demand continues to grow nationwide, many treatment organizations are pursuing expansion opportunities through new facilities, additional service lines, strategic partnerships, and geographic growth initiatives.

While expansion can create significant opportunities, it also introduces additional operational and financial complexity.

Harborstone Point Advisors assists organizations in evaluating growth readiness before major expansion initiatives begin. The firm's advisory process includes reviewing financial performance, reimbursement metrics, operational efficiency, staffing models, and capital requirements.

By understanding the financial implications of growth decisions, organizations can pursue expansion strategies that align with long-term objectives rather than short-term market opportunities.

The firm also works with multi-location providers seeking greater consistency across reporting systems, reimbursement processes, and financial management practices.

As organizations scale, maintaining visibility across locations becomes increasingly important. Harborstone helps create systems that allow leadership teams to monitor performance across the entire organization while maintaining accountability at the facility level.

Preparing Organizations for Future Opportunities

Access to capital remains an important consideration for many behavioral health providers.

Whether pursuing acquisitions, facility expansions, technology investments, or strategic partnerships, organizations often need to demonstrate financial discipline and operational consistency before securing outside capital.

Harborstone Point Advisors helps treatment providers prepare for these opportunities by strengthening reporting quality, improving forecasting capabilities, organizing financial information, and enhancing operational visibility.

The firm also helps organizations understand the relationship between Revenue Cycle Management performance and capital readiness. Investors and lenders increasingly evaluate reimbursement stability, collection performance, and financial reporting quality when assessing potential opportunities.

Organizations that can demonstrate consistent operational performance and strong Revenue Cycle Management processes often approach financing discussions from a stronger position.

Continuing Investment in the Behavioral Health Sector

The expansion of Harborstone Point Advisors' Revenue Cycle Management and financial advisory services reflects the firm's long-term commitment to the behavioral health industry.

The company continues to invest in specialized resources, industry knowledge, and advisory capabilities designed specifically for treatment providers and recovery organizations.

Future areas of focus include Revenue Cycle Management optimization, reimbursement performance improvement, financial infrastructure development, operational strategy, cash flow enhancement, capital readiness planning, and sustainable growth initiatives.

Harborstone Point Advisors believes that treatment providers deserve advisory partners who understand both the operational realities and financial challenges of the behavioral health industry.

By helping organizations improve Revenue Cycle Management performance, strengthen financial systems, and create scalable growth strategies, the firm aims to support treatment centers as they continue expanding access to care across the country.

About Harborstone Point Advisors

Harborstone Point Advisors provides integrated financial advisory, Revenue Cycle Management consulting, accounting, tax, valuation, and strategic planning services to privately held businesses and behavioral health organizations. The firm works with founder-led companies, treatment providers, and growth-oriented organizations seeking stronger financial infrastructure, improved reimbursement performance, enhanced operational visibility, and long-term strategic guidance.

Contact Information:

Website: https://www.harborstonept.com/
Location: Sanibel, FL
[email protected]

SOURCE: Harborstone Point Advisors

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

Markets Insider and Business Insider Editorial Teams were not involved in the creation of this post. %!s()

Every year during the fishing season, families and fishers head out on the water to catch them. This obviously affects their numbers, but it may also be changing them at a much deeper level.

Hidden cost of the catch

A new study published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B found that this intense harvesting is having a hidden, powerful effect on the molecular biology of these fish.

While many previous studies have looked at how fishing alters a fish's DNA, few have studied epigenetic changes. These are chemical tags that act like switches to turn genes on and off without altering the core DNA sequence.

In this study, a team of researchers caught 120 pearly razorfish across three regions in the Balearic Islands. Each site had a heavily fished area and a protected marine reserve, which allowed them to make clear comparisons. In the lab, they analyzed small fin samples to scan for genetic differences and epigenetic marks.

The paper reports that the fish inside the marine reserves were larger and older than those from the exploited populations.

When the scientists looked closely at the fish's core DNA, they found no evidence that heavily fished and protected populations had become genetically different, despite finding that genetic diversity was lower in the fished populations.

Epigenetic changes

However, at the epigenetic level, they found clear signatures of an epigenetic tag called DNA methylation. This occurs when a tiny methyl chemical group is added to a DNA strand and can influence how active a gene is.

The study authors discovered 291 specific DNA sites where these chemical tags differed between the fished and protected areas. "This represents one of the first lines of evidence demonstrating that fisheries can potentially shape epigenetic variation," they wrote in their paper.

The study team found a strong association rather than definitive proof that fishing itself is the direct cause of the DNA methylation changes. They wrote that there could be other possible causes, such as differences in fish crowding, the presence of natural predators, varying food supplies or disrupted social groups within the fished areas.

"Despite this, DNA methylation patterns still differed consistently between protection levels, indicating that observed differences in DNA methylation cannot be explained by demographic structure alone."

While the exact downstream effects of these molecular changes are still unknown, the researchers argue that because protected areas managed to preserve a much higher level of genetic diversity, they act as vital safe zones for the species.

Written for you by our author Paul Arnold, edited by Lisa Lock, and fact-checked and reviewed by Robert Egan—this article is the result of careful human work. We rely on readers like you to keep independent science journalism alive. If this reporting matters to you, please consider a donation (especially monthly). You'll get an ad-free account as a thank-you.

Publication details

Margarida Barcelo-Serra et al, Fishing pressure induces changes in DNA methylation in genetically homogeneous marine metapopulations, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2026). DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2025.0031

Who's behind this story?

Paul Arnold

BSc Biology from University of London. BBC documentary producer with world travel experience. Freelances from southern Spain. Full profile →

Lisa Lock

BA art history, MA material culture. Former museum editor, paramedic, and transplant coordinator. Editing for Science X since 2021. Full profile →

Robert Egan

Bachelor's in mathematical biology, Master's in creative writing. Well-traveled with unique perspectives on science and language. Full profile →

© 2026 Science X Network

Citation: How fishing may be changing one fish species at the molecular level (2026, July 24) retrieved 24 July 2026 from https://phys.org/news/2026-07-fishing-fish-species-molecular.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only. %!s()

Sure, there are a few wild moments (No Natalie! Don’t have sex with your maybe-sister in prison in order to steal her hidden cell phone!), but “The Scar” is otherwise a featherweight filler episode premiering right when the series needs to be firing on all cylinders.

When we last saw Anna, she was driving like a bat out of hell away from Savannah to find Max’s sister Crystal in North Carolina. When she arrives at the Cape Fear River, there’s no sign of Crystal, so Anna heads over to Max’s father’s house. Once there, she confronts Max’s father and stepmother (who seems to be so far gone that she’s given a doll - who she believes is her daughter Crystal - to nurse).

Later, Anna gets drunk at a local bar (it seems she’s fully off the wagon now) and passes out. She comes to the next morning on Crystal’s houseboat where, over breakfast beers, the two women have a long conversation about Max (this episode fails the Bechdel Test spectacularly).

Crystal reveals that she took all of the many, many photos of Max as evidence of his misdeeds and to prevent him from “coming after” her. She reveals that Amy - the woman who killed herself in the season premiere at Max’s behest - had her life together before Max showed up, which leads Crystal and Anna to take a short trip over to Amy’s trailer.

Back in Savannah, Tom, Natalie, and Zack are still in various states of incarceration. Natalie gets hassled by a fellow inmate before Nevaeh comes to her rescue with a nicely-timed chair to the aggressor's head.

Meanwhile, Max pays Tom a visit and warns about a “gift” he’ll receive in his cell later. All the while, Zack is practically nowhere to be found. The show’s underuse of Joe Anders in the back half of the season is immensely frustrating given the actor’s wonderful turn in earlier episodes. Apart from a brief phone conversation with Tom, Zack (and Anders) barely has any screentime this episode yet again, which robs the show of one of its best characters.

At the jail where Natalie is being held, the episode reaches a low point. In a phone call, Nevaeh (who somehow has a hidden cell phone) has an unconscionably clumsy conversation with Max that quickly resolves many of the season’s major mysteries and answers multiple long-simmering questions with unprompted exposition and absolutely no build-up. During the conversation we find out definitively: A) Max has been manipulating Nevaeh; B) she’s been his direct accomplice the whole time; and C) part of Max’s endgame is to have Nevaeh kill Natalie so that Anna “can feel the pain” of losing a child like Max did.

Soon after, Natalie, who suspects something is awry, attacks Nevaeh and then immediately starts making out with her. After the two have sex (somehow without any of the prison guards noticing), Nevaeh continues the parade of exposition by confirming to Natalie that Max told her to break into the Bowdens’ house, spike their tea with acid, seduce Zack, and make him bite off his own toe.

And thus, many of the most provocative threads of the entire show are quickly resolved. It’s a shame that the resolution of these storylines wasn’t handled with the same care with which they had been built to this point.

Back in North Carolina, Crystal and Anna break into Amy’s trailer, where Anna finds a picture of a boy with a scar running down his entire side. When Anna asks Crystal about the photo, she storms out. Anna, deducing that the boy is Crystal’s son, catches up with her and gets Crystal to admit that she gave the boy away because “she was a mess.”

In Savannah, Max pays Noa a visit and tries to threaten her into revealing Anna’s location. For a moment, you’re pretty sure Noa’s going to bite it, but Max abruptly leaves after seeming to have somehow snagged whatever information he needed without murdering Noa.

Across town in grown-up prison, Tom receives his mysterious gift from Max - a package containing a cell phone and a noose. Max later calls Tom and tries to convince him to hang himself, just like Tom’s brother hanged himself decades prior. Distraught, Tom calls Anna to say he loves her.

Afterward Tom receives an “official” prison-to-prison phone call (boy, is this guy on the phone a lot for an inmate) where Zack’s doctor reveals that Zack has escaped from the psychiatric hospital. Back at Natalie’s jail, Noa arrives to bail out Natalie, who’s stolen Nevaeh’s secret phone. It looks like Daddy’s little henchman has finally been neutralized.

On the houseboat, Anna searches for a recording of conversations between Amy and Max. When Crystal tries to lock her below deck, Anna pulls a gun on her and goads Crystal into confessing that it was in fact she, and not Max, who killed Max’s wife and son. It’s another major revelation that falls completely flat due to absolutely no build-up or tension.

Anna then calls Max and tells her that she knows about Crystal, and how she suspects that the boy with the scar was in fact fathered by Max. Soon, Max’s creepy father and the weird kid who tried to kiss Natalie in a previous episode arrive and disarm Anna. Anna soon realizes that the kid, named Luke, is the boy with the scar from the photo and incites a family argument on the boat deck. In the commotion, Anna jumps overboard and begins to swim away just as Max arrives.

All of this builds to what one would assume would be a tense final showdown between Max and Anna and a resolution to their melodramatic feud. It should be a moment of anticipation, but instead lands with an absolute thud.

There are still glimpses of hallmarks that have made Cape Fear such a wild, rich roller coaster throughout the entire season. The cinematography and scenery are breathtaking. Many of the actors are still turning in first-rate performances. But “The Scar” is barely half an episode of storytelling, with major moments that feel rushed and long-awaited explanations that are oversimplified.

Episode 9 of Cape Fear could have been a huge episode for the show, setting the stage for a climactic confrontation between the show’s leads in a fight to the death for the ages. Instead, we’re left with a muddled, watered-down episode that hopefully is an aberration before next week’s finale.

Verdict

Although many of the hallmarks that have made Cape Fear a wild, entertaining roller coaster of a show are still present, Episode 9 of the Apple TV series suffers from bland storytelling and rushed resolutions to many of the show’s central questions.

As the title of the show suggests, Blade Runner 2099 is set 50 years after the events of the Ryan Gosling movie, Blade Runner 2049. We return to Los Angeles with the replicants having won out over the humans in an uprising, leaving the replicants in charge and the humans second class citizens.

Cora, played by Euphoria star Hunter Schafer, is a human fugitive who pretends to be a Blade Runner, having run from them all her life. Cora is forced to join forces with Michelle Yeoh’s Olwen, a Replicant Blade Runner days from dying, as the pair hunt a runaway replicant who is hiding a truth that could collapse the city.

Welcome to a future we no longer control. Blade Runner 2099, a new series, premieres November 25 on Prime Video. pic.twitter.com/80nQGY8sFQ

— Prime Video (@PrimeVideo) July 24, 2026

The trailer is dripping with the cyberpunk aesthetic established by Ridley Scott’s influential dystopian future-noir thriller, complete with video ads on skyscrapers and flying cars. Indeed, Scott is an executive producer on the show, working with showrunner Silka Luisa to nail the feel of the series.

To that end, Blade Runner 2099 has a much sunnier look than the dark and rainy 1982 original, or Denis Villeneuve’s cold and snowy 2049, although the trailer does briefly show the city at night and in the rain, the neon-drenched skyline scarred by spinners in flight.

Setting the scene, Schafer's Cora says in the trailer: "We already fought a war. We lost. Replicants, they keep taking it all away. But how much longer until we have nothing? Until we are nothing."

Dimitri Abold (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes) and Lewis Gribben (Somewhere Boy) are series regulars alongside the aforementioned Michelle Yeoh and Hunter Schafer. Katelyn Rose Downey (The Nun II), Daniel Rigby (Renegade Nell), Johnny Harris ("A Gentleman in Moscow”), Amy Lennox (Only Child), Sheila Atim (The Woman King), Matthew Needham (House of the Dragon), Tom Burke (Furiosa) and Maurizio Lombardi (Ripley) are recurring guest stars.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected]. %!s()