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Bartonella quintana is a louse-borne intracellular bacterium that remains a neglected cause of bacteremia, bacillary angiomatosis, and infective endocarditis among individuals experiencing poverty. In October 2023, Health Canada notified Canadian organ transplantation programs of an outbreak of donor-derived B quintana infection. From March to August 2023, 5 cases of donor-derived B quintana disease were acquired in Alberta, Canada, from 3 deceased donors who had experienced homelessness. Similar cases recently occurred in the United States. In this article, we discuss strategies to screen organ donors and monitor transplant recipients for B quintana infection using epidemiologic risk factors, physical examination signs, and laboratory diagnostic tests. We review the limitations of existing diagnostic tests for B quintana and describe how these problems may be magnified in the organ transplantation context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

3D trench silicon pixel sensors, recently developed by the TimeSPOT collaboration, have shown excellent performance in terms of spatial resolution, timing precision and detection efficiency. The combination of these three features make them one of the best candidate for inner tracking detectors operating in high luminosity hadron colliders experiments. This article presents systematic characterisations of these devices made with minimum ionising particles on irradiated sensors with neutrons up to 2.5 · 1016 1 MeV neq cm-2. The results show that 3D trench pixels have extremely high resistance to radiation. The measured time resolution and the detection efficiency of irradiated sensors match those of non-irradiated ones if a slightly higher bias voltage, few tens of Volts, is applied to the pixels. As of today, 3D trench pixels are the only sensors capable of achieving 10 ps time resolution after being irradiated at extremely high fluences, extending by far the capabilities of future tracking systems of HEP experiments operating under extreme conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs capable of regulating gene expression post-transcriptionally. MiRNAs are recognized as key regulators of diverse biological and developmental processes. During the pregnancy-puerperal cycle, numerous changes occur in the female body for the formation, growth, and development of the baby. After birth, there is a critical period in child development, as rapid gains in the physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional domains constitute the "building blocks" of children's later growth. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the association between maternal expression of hsa-miR-423-5p during the first and second trimesters of pregnancy and neurocognitive development at 90 days of life in infants. Methods: This is a longitudinal study included in a population-based cohort study, carried out in a city in southern Brazil. The Bayley III was used to assess the babies' cognitive development. Blood samples from mothers were obtained for RNA extraction from serum and analysis of miRNA expression by qRT-PCR. Results: In total, 87 dyads (mother-baby) were included. The average gestational age was 15.86 weeks (SD ± 5.55). An association of maternal miRNA with infant cognitive development was found; as maternal miR-423-5p increases, infants' cognitive development increases by 2.40 (95% CI 0.37; 4.43, p = 0.021) points at 3 months of age. Conclusion: In this context, it is suggested to use this miRNA as a biomarker of child neurocognitive development detectable in the prenatal period, thus allowing the planning of early interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of macroinvertebrates using computer vision is in its infancy and still faces multiple challenges including destructive sampling, low signal-to-noise ratios, and the complexity to choose a model algorithm among multiple existing ones. In order to deal with those challenges, we propose here a new framework, dubbed 'MacroNet,' for the monitoring, i.e., detection and identification at the morphospecies level, of live aquatic macroinvertebrates. This framework is based on an enhanced RetinaNet model. Pre-processing steps are suggested to enhance the characterization propriety of the original algorithm. The images are split into fixed-size tiles to better detect and identify small macroinvertebrates. The tiles are then fed as an input to the model, and the resulting bounding box is assembled. We have optimized the anchor boxes generation process for high detection performance using the k-medoid algorithm. In order to enhance the localization accuracy of the original RetinaNet model, the complete intersection over union loss has been integrated as a regression loss to replace the standard loss (a smooth l1 norm). Experimental results show that MacroNet outperforms the original RetinaNet model on our database and can achieve on average 74.93% average precision (AP), depending on the taxon identity. In our database, taxa were identified at various taxonomic levels, from species to order. Overall, the proposed framework offers promising results for the non-lethal and cost-efficient monitoring of live freshwater macroinvertebrates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the association between history of academic failure (HAF) and self‐reported depression, anxiety, and stress among undergraduate dental students. Methods: This study involved 244 dental students from one university. An online questionnaire collected information on the following variables: socioeconomic status, behavior, use of licit/illicit drugs, and the choice of dentistry as an undergraduate field of study. The 21‐item Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS‐21) was applied. HAF in at least one subject during a participant's undergraduate tenure was defined as the main outcome. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed using Poisson regression with robust variance. In addition, a subgroup analysis was performed for the variable "dentistry as the first choice for undergraduate studies." Results: The prevalence of HAF was 25.00% (n = 61). Among those students, the mean number of academic failures was 5.41 ± 6.38 (range: 1–33). Higher rates of HAF were observed among older and non‐white dental students. Moreover, those who self‐reported at least severe depression presented a 79% higher HAF prevalence ratio (PR) (95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 1.15–2.80). Similar findings were detected among those who reported (PR: 1.79; 95% CI: 1.06–4.46) or did not report (PR: 2.21; 95% CI: 1.10–4.46) interest in dentistry as a first undergraduate option. Conversely, among women and students who did not choose dentistry as their first option, HAF was significantly lower (PR: 0.41; 95% CI: 0.21–0.80). Conclusion: Higher HAF rates are observed in students who are older, non‐white, and self‐report at least severe depression. However, dentistry as a first option for undergraduate studies was not associated with HAF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, deep convolutional networks have made great progress on the task of super-resolution, i.e., reconstructing images with finer spatial resolution. However, although the reconstructions are visually impressive, they may lack physical consistency. This aspect is sought in remote sensing, where the resolution of satellite imagery (e.g., Sentinel-2) may be too coarse to characterize the physical structure and dynamics of certain landscapes. Through the study of flooding dynamics in wet grasslands, we propose a super-resolution approach that allows deriving fine resolution patterns that are visually realistic and physically exploitable. This approach is based on an architecture, Fusion-UNet, allowing the fusion of multispectral data with a digital terrain model (DTM) associated with a loss function combining content, structure, and segmentation losses. Our results show that this model can precisely predict water levels (WLs) while restituting the fine structure of the landscape. This approach allows to refine the production of hydrological and ecological indicators to define the state of the ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "Reply to Beechar et al. 'Donor-Derived Infections: A Journey From Evidence to Policy'" published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases discusses the occurrence of donor-derived Bartonella quintana infection in solid organ transplants. The authors emphasize the importance of evaluating the consequences of screening high-risk donors and recipients for this infection, proposing a system to screen and monitor individuals at elevated risk. They highlight the limitations of diagnostic tests for B. quintana and suggest a multipronged approach to address these challenges. The article also discusses cases of donor-derived B. quintana infection in Alberta, Canada, and the US, underscoring the need for early identification of at-risk individuals to prevent severe manifestations of the disease. [Extracted from the article]

Hydrogen (H2) is an environmentally-safe power source and its demands is continuously growing worldwide. The most important approach for its generation is water–gas shift (WGS) reaction through various catalysts. This work investigates feasibility of neural network method named Multilayer Perceptron Neural Network (MLP-NN) to estimate CO conversion in WGS reactions based on different active phase compositions and various supports. The approach considers the intrinsic parameters of the catalyst to estimate reaction performance. This research investigates the most influential variables by conducting a sensitivity analysis study on the predictions of the implemented method. The results of the modeling study revealed that the MLP-NN method can accurately approximate the experimental CO conversion values. The sensitivity analysis study revealed temperature and H2 feed concentration are the most crucial parameters on the reaction performance. The reliability of neural network methods is proved such as the MLP-NN to accurately estimate the CO conversion values in WGS reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water pollution damages the aquatic environment due to the presence of organic contaminants, which in turn is distressing to the ecosystem. Photocatalytic activity is a greener and promising method to degrade these organic contaminants. In this research, we present the degradation of diverse water pollutants through zinc/iron oxide nanoparticles serving as photocatalysts. The photocatalyst was studied for its efficiency to photodegrade congo red, brilliant green and para nitro phenol. Moreover, it also presented an antibacterial activity against the bacterium E. coli. Photocatalyst was characterized via X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. Tauc plot was used to measure the optical band gap (1.84 eV). The effect of various parameters such as catalyst dose, contact time, dye dose/concentration and pH were also investigated to determine the optimum point of maximum degradation through response surface methodology. A face-centered composite design was used, and a quadratic model was followed by congo red, brilliant green dyes and para nitrophenol. The maximum photodegradation efficiencies were 99%, 94.3%, and 78.5% for congo red, brilliant green and phenol, respectively. Quantum yield for congo red, brilliant green and para-nitrophenol were 9.62 × 10−8, 1.17 × 10−7 and 4.11 × 10−7 molecules/photons, while the reaction rates were 27.1 µmolg−1h−1, 29.61 µmolg−1h−1 and 231 µmolg−1h−1, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hysterectomy, the most common gynecological operation, requires surgeons to counsel women about their operative risks. We aimed to develop and validate multivariable logistic regression models to predict major complications of laparoscopic or abdominal hysterectomy for benign conditions.Methods: We obtained routinely collected health administrative data from the English National Health Service (NHS) from 2011 to 2018. We defined major complications based on core outcomes for postoperative complications including ureteric, gastrointestinal and vascular injury, and wound complications. We specified 11 predictors a priori. We used internal-external cross-validation to evaluate discrimination and calibration across 7 NHS regions in the development cohort. We validated the final models using data from an additional NHS region.Results: We found that major complications occurred in 4.4% (3037/68 599) of laparoscopic and 4.9% (6201/125 971) of abdominal hysterectomies. Our models showed consistent discrimination in the development cohort (laparoscopic, C-statistic 0.61, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.60 to 0.62; abdominal, C-statistic 0.67, 95% CI 0.64 to 0.70) and similar or better discrimination in the validation cohort (laparoscopic, C-statistic 0.67, 95% CI 0.65 to 0.69; abdominal, C-statistic 0.67, 95% CI 0.65 to 0.69). Adhesions were most predictive of complications in both models (laparoscopic, odds ratio [OR] 1.92, 95% CI 1.73 to 2.13; abdominal, OR 2.46, 95% CI 2.27 to 2.66). Other factors predictive of complications included adenomyosis in the laparoscopic model, and Asian ethnicity and diabetes in the abdominal model. Protective factors included age and diagnoses of menstrual disorders or benign adnexal mass in both models and diagnosis of fibroids in the abdominal model.Interpretation: Personalized risk estimates from these models, which showed moderate discrimination, can inform clinical decision-making for people with benign conditions who may require hysterectomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transient current technique (TCT) is widely used in the field of silicon particle detector development. So far, only laser wavelengths with a photon energy larger than or similar to the silicon bandgap (single photon absorption) were used. Recently, measurements using two-photon absorption (TPA) for silicon detector testing have been carried out for the first time. Excess carriers are only created at the focal point of the laser beam and thus resolution in all three spatial directions could be achieved. The resolution perpendicular to the incident laser beam could be increased roughly by a factor of 10. First measurements using this new method were performed at the Singular Laser Facility of Universidad del País Vasco (UPV)/Euskal Herriko Unibertzitatea (EHU). Following the initial success of the method, a compact TPA-TCT setup is under development. A first description of the setup and laser system is presented in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the many social and political advances lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) individuals have achieved, youth within these populations continue to be at elevated risk for suicide. Because adolescents spend most of their day in academic settings, school district staff have ample opportunity to identify and assess suicide risk in LGBTQ students and facilitate their access to supportive resources. The Connect Center is a centralized student support center in the Sacramento City Unified School District in Northern California. Staff working at this clinic utilize a multitiered approach to address the risk factors and mental health disparities that exist for LGBTQ students. This article will present the Connect Center Approach, a model of service delivery informed by Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory. This model incorporates macro-, mezzo-, and micro-level interventions and emphasizes alignment between state laws and school district policies to protect LGBTQ students and increase academic success among this vulnerable population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mononuclear single-molecule magnet (SMM) [Dy(tta)3(L)]·C6H14 (1) (where tta = 2-thenoyltrifluoroacetonate and L = 4,5-bis(propylthio)-tetrathiafulvalene-2-(2-pyridyl)benzimidazolemethyl- 2-pyridine) was studied by spectro-electrochemistry. The resulting electronic spectra of the three oxidation states 1, 1+·, and 12+ were rationalized by time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) calculations starting from the DFT optimized structures. The modulation of the magnetic anisotropy of the DyIII center upon oxidation was also inspected at the Complete Active Space Self-Consistent Field (CASSCF) level of calculation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new family of three DyIII mononuclear complexes and one DyIII chain system based on the same ligand [1,3‐di(pyridin‐4‐yl)propane‐1,3‐dione] has been isolated as single crystals. By varying the synthesis conditions, it has been possible to finely control the number of ligands coordinated to the central lanthanide atom (from 1 to 3) and then the total charge of the complex unit (from +2 to neutral), as well as the local geometry around the DyIII ion (from D4d to D2d). The magnetic properties of the four complexes have been studied and rationalized by ab initio calculations to illustrate the correlation between the metal‐ion environment, due to the number of coordinated ligands, and their SMM behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A millimeter-wave subharmonic-mixer topology based on a few-layer graphene component has been designed, manufactured, and experimentally characterized. The circuit has been conceived to perform the up/downconversion of a signal in the WR-3 band, between 220–330 GHz, using a high-order harmonic component of the input signal in the WR-28 band, between 26.5–40 GHz, as a local oscillator. The manufactured prototype has been characterized in both upconversion and downconversion, for the subharmonic orders between 5–14, obtaining a peak conversion gain value over -\65 dB. The theoretically predicted capability of graphene to produce high-order intermodulation products at millimeter-wave frequencies, with a slowly decaying amplitude pattern, has been experimentally verified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate with Raman spectroscopy how gold nanostructures of different shape, size and geometry locally modify a graphene cover layer through strain. The resulting phonon softening translates into frequency downshifts of up to 85 cm-1 for the 2D-mode of graphene. With spatially resolved and excitation dependent Raman measurements we demonstrate that the downshifted Raman peaks exclusively arise from strained graphene subject to plasmonic enhancement by the nanostructures. The signals arise from an area well below the size of the laser spot. They serve as a local probe for the interaction between graphene and intense light fields. (© 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which examines the reasons of individuals not to disclose depression to their primary care physician. The study conducted a follow-up telephone survey which asked about reasons for nondisclosure of depressive symptoms in 1,054 adults in California. Results reveal that concern that physician would recommend antidepressants is the most frequent reason for not disclosing depression in which an intervention should be developed to encourage patient to disclose symptoms.

The validity of the Stokes-Millikan equation is examined in light of mass and mobility measurements of clusters of the ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methyl-imidazolium tetrafluoroborate (EMI-BF4) in ambient air. The mobility diameter dZ based on the measured mobility and the Stokes-Millikan law is compared with the volume diameter dv, which generalizes the mass diameter for binary substances such as salts. dv is based on the sum of anion and cation volumes in the cluster corrected for the void fraction of the bulk ionic liquid. For dv > 1.5 nm, dZ is within 1.4% of dv + 0.3 nm. For smaller clusters 3.84 and 14.3% deviations are observed at dv = 1.21 nm and 0.68 nm, respectively. These differences are smaller than expected due to a cancellation of competing effects. The increasing difference seen for dv < 1.5 nm is due primarily to the interaction between the cluster and the dipole it induces in the gas molecules. Other potential sources of disagreement are non-globular cluster geometries, and departures of the cluster void fraction from the bulk value. These two effects are examined via molecular dynamics simulations, which confirm that the volume diameter concept is accurate for EMI-BF4 nanodrops with dv as small as 1.6 nm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interspecies signalling through the action of diffusible signal molecules can influence the behaviour of organisms growing in polymicrobial communities. Stenotrophomonas maltophilia and Pseudomonas aeruginosa occur ubiquitously in the environment and can be found together in diverse niches including the rhizosphere of plants and the cystic fibrosis lung. In mixed species biofilms, S. maltophilia substantially influenced the architecture of P. aeruginosa structures, which developed as extended filaments. This effect depended upon the synthesis of the diffusible signal factor (DSF) by S. maltophilia and could be mimicked by the addition of synthetic DSF. This response of P. aeruginosa to DSF required PA1396, a sensor kinase with an input domain of related amino acid sequence to the sensory input domain of RpfC, which is responsible for DSF perception in xanthomonads. Mutation of PA1396 or addition of DSF to P. aeruginosa led to increased levels of a number of proteins with roles in bacterial stress tolerance, including those implicated in resistance to cationic antimicrobial peptides. This effect was associated with increased tolerance to polymyxins. Homologues of PA1396 occur in a number of phytopathogenic and plant-associated pseudomonads, suggesting that modulation of bacterial behaviour through DSF-mediated interspecies signalling with xanthomonads is a phenomenon that occurs widely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study on novel semitransparent optical position sensors developed for the alignment monitoring systems of tracking detectors. Information on crystalline silicon strip sensors; Composition of amorphous silicon strip sensors; Application of the study.

A 72-year-old woman presented with generalized urticaria after receiving an injection of aztreonam. After successive in vitro and in vitro studies, allergy to aztreonam with a good tolerance of the other β-lactams was diagnosed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Chronic Complex Patients have been a priority for National Health Systems recently. A care program for Complex Chronic Patients with Mental Health Disorders (CCPMHD) was developed in MutuaTerrassa in 2013. The goal of this program was to take care of patients with specific diagnosis and a particular social and clinical setting, giving them an integrated, coordinated, proactive, efficient and adapted attention. Goals: Assess the impact of this care program for CCP- MHD in preventing unplanned hospital admissions. Description: In 2013 a care program for the CCP-MH was designed and carried out a year later throughout the territory depending on the Community Hospital. The goal was to treat patients with at least one of the following criteria of complexity: a) 2 or more hospital admissions in the last year b) Individual Support Program discharge (ISP) c) one clinical criteria of poor prognosis according to the medical team (poor compliance of medication, absenteeism from scheduled appointments, insufficient family support or being under multiple medications). The multidisciplinary team chooses the patients, defines their Individualized Therapeutic Plan (ITP) and labels their medical record to be seen by all professionals. A nurse case manager follows up all patients and is in charge of coordinating their multidisciplinary attention with defined care routes and performing patients and family visits follow-ups, home visits and multiple phone calls to patients. Results: In June 2014, the CCP-MHD program was launched. 45 patients have been included so far: 20 male and 25 female, mean age 44.7 and 48.5 respectively. Patients were classified according to their diagnosis: schizophrenic disorders (n = 29), borderline personality (n = 7), bipolar (n = 7), schizotypal (n = 1) and recurrent depressive (n = 1). Poor compliment of treatment was the first cause to be included (n=18), poor family support (n=11), emergency hospital admissions in the last months (n=8, mean: 2.6), absenteeism to scheduled appointments (n=5) and clinical instability after hospital discharge (n=3). From June 2014 to December 2015, 14 out of 45 patients were discharged from the program; mean time of assistance was 301 days. Among the causes of discharge are clinical improvement (n=7), being accepted in a different care unit (n=5), prison admission (n=1) and death (n=1). Eight patients were included for having 2 or more emergency admissions, with a total of 21 hospital admissions. Four of they were discharged after 211 days and there were only 2 admissions during follow-up. Ten patients who had had 1 emergency admission along the previous year, with a total of 10 hospital admissions, presented 2 re-admissions and 27 patients admitted in the program for other reasons had no urgent hospital admission during follow-up. Conclusion and impact: The care program for Complex Chronic Patients with Mental Health Disorders in this Community Hospital has fostered better control and management of the most fragile patients. This program has reduced significantly the number of readmissions. The nurse case manager has optimized the resources and the possibilities of each patient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Implementation of the new directional stimulation technique of subthalamic nucleus with segmented leads guided by local field potential recordings in order to personalize DBS parameters, optimize therapeutic window and minimizing side effects. Methods: Since March 2016 to January 2017, 8 patients have been implanted with 15 directional Vercise Cartesia leads (Boston SC). Mean age of patients were 57 years (38-70 years). Postoperatively CT scan and skull x-rays were performed to asses lead placement. Local field potentials of all contacts from each lead in bipolar montage were recorded 5 days after surgery to analyze beta band peaks and its correlation to therapeutic window effect for rigidity. Results: No postoperative complications after directional leads implantation have been observed in any patient. After analyzing data from local field potentials, contacts with higher beta peak amplitude have been selected to start stimulation parameters of the subthalamic nucleus with good clinical response, obtaining after 3 months on chronic stimulation, 75.5% improvement in UPDRS-III score and 85.5% reduction of dopaminergic medication. Directional deep brain stimulation guided by local field potentials in Parkinson Desease increased stimulation thresholds for side effects as compared to spherical stimulation. Statistically significant correlation (r= -0.31) between beta band peak amplitude and final score for rigidity was found. Conclusion: Deep brain stimulation of subthalamic nucleus with directional leads is safe and efficient. Local field potentials and beta oscillations could optimize settings parameters and alleviating programming burden as it seems to predict the optimal directional contact for improving rigidity and other motor symptoms. In advance, these neurophysiological parameters may be taken into consideration to personalize directional stimulation and can be time saving tools for programming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of high-pressure treatment on the 3 main folate species present in orange juice was assessed under conditions similar to those used in high-pressure pasteurization and sterilization using freshly squeezed orange juice and different model orange juices. The latter were used also to determine the influence of matrix components, pH, and excess ascorbic acid. Excess ascorbate strongly protected folates against pressure and heat. Pressurization at 600 MPa and 80°C affected model juice folates synergistically, and pressure increased the formation of 5,10-methenylfolate. In fresh orange juice, components other than ascorbate additionally stabilized folates, thus pressure preservation and pressure sterilization appeared very feasible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]