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Abstract Living in isolation is associated with a lack of stimulating experiences, which negatively impacts quality of life and increases risk of advancing cognitive decline for older adults. We examined how engaging in unique events would enhance memory and improve well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, a period characterized by social isolation and monotonous daily experiences lacking diversity. Over 8-weeks during lockdowns, 18 healthy older adults used a smartphone-based application called “HippoCamera”, capturing a total of 670 unique and routine events with short audio-video cues that were later replayed to prompt memory. As expected, unique events were recalled in greater episodic detail relative to routine events. Importantly, unique events were related to increased positive affect, decreased boredom, and the perception of time moving faster. These findings highlight the benefit of unique experiences for both memory and well-being, as well as suggest future interventions to benefit older adults who tend to experience higher levels of social isolation.

Introduction Fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) is a prevalent and frequently debilitating response to a cancer diagnosis, affecting a substantial proportion of cancer survivors. Approximately 30% of local Hong Kong Chinese cancer survivors in a recent survey reportedly experienced persistent high FCR over the first-year post-surgery. This was associated with lower levels of psychological well-being and quality of life. A manualised intervention (ConquerFear) developed primarily based on the Self-Regulatory Executive Function Model and the Rational Frame Theory, has been found to reduce FCR effectively among Caucasian cancer survivors. The intervention now has been adapted to a Chinese context; ConquerFear-HK. The primary aim of this study is to evaluate its efficacy vs a standard-survivorship-care control (BasicCancerCare) in FCR improvement in a randomised control trial (RCT).Methods and analysis In this RCT, using the sealed envelope method, 174 eligible Chinese cancer survivors will be randomised to either the ConquerFear-HK or BasicCancerCare intervention. Both interventions include six sessions over 10 weeks, which will be delivered via face to face or online by trained therapists. The ConquerFear-HK intervention incorporates value classification, metacognitive therapy, attentional training, detached mindfulness and psychoeducation; BasicCancerCare includes relaxation training, dietary and physical activity consultations. Participants will be assessed at prior randomisation (baseline; T0), immediately postintervention (T1), 3 months (T2) and 6 months postintervention (T3) on the measures of FCR (Fear of Cancer Recurrence Inventory) as a primary outcome; metacognition (30-item Metacognitions Quesionnaire) and cognitive attentional syndrome (Cognitive-attentional Syndrome Questionnaire) as process outcomes; psychological distress (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), cancer-related distress (Chinese Impact of Events Scale), quality of life (European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Core Questionnaire) and treatment satisfaction are secondary outcomes.Ethics and dissemination Ethics approval has been obtained from HKU/HA HKW Institutional Review Board (ref: UW19-183). The patients/participants provide their written informed consent to participate in this study. The study results will be disseminated through international peer-review publications and conference presentations.Trial registration number NCT04568226.

Initial cases of coronavirus disease in Hong Kong were imported from mainland China. A dramatic increase in case numbers was seen in February 2020. Most case-patients had no recent travel history, suggesting the presence of transmission chains in the local community. We collected demographic, clinical, and epidemiologic data from 50 patients, who accounted for 53.8% of total reported case-patients as of February 28, 2020. We performed whole-genome sequencing to determine phylogenetic relationship and transmission dynamics of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infections. By using phylogenetic analysis, we attributed the community outbreak to 2 lineages; 1 harbored a common mutation, Orf3a-G251V, and accounted for 88.0% of the cases in our study. The estimated time to the most recent common ancestor of local coronavirus disease outbreak was December 24, 2019, with an evolutionary rate of 3.04 × 10−3 substitutions/site/year. The reproduction number was 1.84, indicating ongoing community spread.

Invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) is the most severe clinical presentation of infection by Streptococcus pneumoniae. Peru since 2008 includes pneumococcal vaccine in the national immunization schedule. We report a case of a 10 year old girl who goes by emergency showing meningeal signs; in addition, abdominal pain, infiltrated right basal hilum on chest radiography, presence of peritoneal fluid and peritoneal adenopathy in diagnostic imaging support. It is isolated in blood and CSF cultures Streptococcus pneumoniae serotype 11A, no vaccine-strain, being sensitive to ceftriaxone and vancomycin. We recommend the need to know more about the presence of not vaccine pneumococcal serotypes in the clinical and epidemiological context and its pathogenic role in Peruvian population.

Objetives: To describe the clinical and epidemiological characteristics, evolution and to identify mortality factors associated in patients with SNP. Material and methods: Descriptive study of a serie of cases of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of a General Hospital. Medical records of patients which received medical attention and who meet the selection criteria were reviewed.Results: Forty-one clinical records were evaluated. The average age was 69 old, predominantly male (68,3%). SNP was the reason of admission in 60.9% and 95.1% required mechanical ventilation. Hospital stay prior to diagnosis was 10 days, 65% of patients had some risk factor for multi resistence organisms, CPIS of entry was 9.3, cultures were positive in 39% of the cases and of these, 48.8% received proper antibiotic according to culture results. The days of stay in ICU were 20.6 days and 20 of the 41 medical records were for death patients. The clinical and epidemiological characteristics were similar between death and alive patients. An analysis of factors that could be associated with mortality SNP was made and it was found that for an age ≥ 70 years, the presence of any risk factor for multidrug resistence organism and control CPIS ≥ 6 were associated with higher mortality; while acquisition of the ICU was associated to lower mortality.Conclusions: The clinical, epidemiological characteristics and evolution of patients with SNP in our ICU were similar to those describe in the literature. Three factors associated with mortality in the ICU were identified.

Dengue viruses are major contributors to illness and death globally. Here we analyze the extrinsic and intrinsic incubation periods (EIP and IIP), in the mosquito and human, respectively. We identified 146 EIP observations from 8 studies and 204 IIP observations from 35 studies. These data were fitted with censored Bayesian time-to-event models. The best-fitting temperature-dependent EIP model estimated that 95% of EIPs are between 5 and 33 days at 25°C, and 2 and 15 days at 30°C, with means of 15 and 6.5 days, respectively. The mean IIP estimate was 5.9 days, with 95% expected between days 3 and 10. Differences between serotypes were not identified for either incubation period. These incubation period models should be useful in clinical diagnosis, outbreak investigation, prevention and control efforts, and mathematical modeling of dengue virus transmission.