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During the COVID-19 pandemic, wastewater surveillance was leveraged as a powerful tool for monitoring community-scale health. Further, the well-known persistence of some pharmaceuticals through wastewater treatment plants spurred concerns that increased usage of pharmaceuticals during the pandemic would increase the concentrations in wastewater treatment plant effluent. We collected weekly influent and effluent samples from May 2020 through May 2021 from two wastewater treatment plants in central Pennsylvania, the Penn State Water Reclamation Facility and the University Area Joint Authority, that provide effluent for beneficial reuse, including for irrigation. Samples were analyzed for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (influent only), two over-the-counter medicines (acetaminophen and naproxen), five antibiotics (ampicillin, doxycycline, ofloxacin, sulfamethoxazole, and trimethoprim), two therapeutic agents (remdesivir and dexamethasone), and hydroxychloroquine. Although there were no correlations between pharmaceutical and virus concentration, remdesivir detection occurred when the number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 increased, and dexamethasone detection co-occurred with the presence of patients with COVID-19 on ventilators. Additionally, Penn State decision-making regarding instruction modes explained the temporal variation of influent pharmaceutical concentrations, with detection occurring primarily when students were on campus. Risk quotients calculated for pharmaceuticals with known effective and lethal concentrations at which 50% of a population is affected for fish, daphnia, and algae were generally low in the effluent; however, some acute risks from sulfamethoxazole were high when students returned to campus. Remdesivir and dexamethasone persisted through the wastewater treatment plants, thereby introducing novel pharmaceuticals directly to soils and surface water. These results highlight connections between human health and water quality and further demonstrate the broad utility of wastewater surveillance.

The action to reduce anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions is severely constrained by the difficulty of locating sources and quantifying their emission rates. Methane emissions by the energy sector are of particular concern. We report results achieved with a new area monitoring approach using laser dispersion spectroscopy to measure path-averaged concentrations along multiple beams. The method is generally applicable to greenhouse gases, but this work is focused on methane. Nineteen calibrated methane releases in four distinct configurations, including three separate blind trials, were made within a flat test area of 175 m by 175 m. Using a Gaussian plume gas dispersion model, driven by wind velocity data, we calculate the data anticipated for hundreds of automatically proposed candidate source configurations. The Markov-chain Monte Carlo analysis finds source locations and emission rates whose calculated path-averaged concentrations are consistent with those measured and associated uncertainties. This approach found the correct number of sources and located them to be within9 m in more than 75% of the cases. The relative accuracy of the mass emission rate results was highly correlated to the localization accuracy and better than 30% in 70% of the cases. The discrepancies for mass emission rates were2 kg/h for 95% of the cases.

A 70-year-old retired male plumber was admitted with reduced consciousness following a recent onset of confusion and headache. He developed encephalopathy, seizures and myoclonus. He died despite treatment 10 weeks later. This article reports the clinicopathological conference presented at the Edinburgh Clinical Neurology Course 2021.

It is known that the water entry of a body with a recessed, cupped nose can suppress the splash and air cavity typically observed for solid body entry (Mathai, Govardhan & Arakeri, Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 106, 2015, 064101). However, the interplay between the captive gas in the cup, the cavity and the splash is quite subtle and has not been thoroughly explored. Here we study the cavity and splash dynamics associated with the vertical water entry of cups and find a variety of regimes over a range of Weber numbers ( $We_D$ ) and dimensionless cup depths. Our parameter space spans a transition between slow-developing cavities with long closure times (low $We_D$ ) to fast-sealing cavities (high $We_D$ ). An important dynamic event is the evacuation of trapped gas from within the cup, which drives the ensuing cavity and splash behaviour. Through modelling, we predict the conditions for which the evacuating gas inflates a cavity that opens to the atmosphere versus inflating a submerged cavity that suppresses air entrainment from above the surface. We also compare our cup water entry findings to the impact phenomena observed for flat disks, which entrap gas on the front surface similar to cups. In doing so, we reveal the sensitivity of disk splash and cavity behaviour to impact angle, and show that disks share a common regime with cups, in which a thin splash quickly seals on the body. We deduce the mechanisms by which increasing cup depth delays the cavity seal time in this regime. These findings reveal that cups may in fact promote or suppress cavity growth, depending on the cup depth and impact conditions.

The climate of the past two thousand years (2k) provides context for current and future changes, and as such is vital for developing our understanding of the modern climate system. Building on previous phases of the PAGES 2k network, Phase 4 of the PAGES 2k Network paves the way for a new level of understanding of the global water cycle, including enhanced science-policy integration. Previous PAGES 2k network phases emphasised temperature reconstructions, fundamentally improving our understanding of global climate changes over the Common Era. These reconstructions received widespread recognition and were featured in the Summary for Policymakers of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report. Integration of this data with state-of-the-art Earth systems models, proxy system models and data assimilation yielded a more comprehensive understanding of the associated physical drivers and climate dynamics. Phase 4 challenges our community to turn its focus towards hydroclimate. Our aim is to reconstruct hydroclimatic variability over the Common Era, from local to global spatial scales, at sub-annual to multi-centennial time scales, developing a process-level understanding of past hydroclimate events and variability. Our multi-faceted approach includes (1) developing new hydroclimate syntheses that are well-suited for data-model comparisons, (2) improving the interoperability and scope of existing data and model products, and (3) facilitating the translation of our science into evidence-based policy outcomes. In this presentation, we report on our activities and progress to date, particularly highlighting the early stages of our data synthesis efforts.

BackgroundPick’s disease (PiD) is a rare and predominantly sporadic form of frontotemporal dementia that is classified as a primary tauopathy. PiD is pathologically defined by argyrophilic inclusion Pick bodies and ballooned neurons in the frontal and temporal brain lobes. PiD is characterised by the presence of Pick bodies which are formed from aggregated, hyperphosphorylated, 3-repeat tau proteins, encoded by theMAPTgene. TheMAPTH2 haplotype has consistently been associated with a decreased disease risk of the 4-repeat tauopathies of progressive supranuclear palsy and corticobasal degeneration, however its role in susceptibility to PiD is unclear. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the association betweenMAPTH2 and risk of PiD.MethodsWe established the Pick’s disease International Consortium (PIC) and collected 338 (60.7% male) pathologically confirmed PiD brains from 39 sites worldwide. 1,312 neurologically healthy clinical controls were recruited from Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, FL (N=881) or Rochester, MN (N=431). For the primary analysis, subjects were directly genotyped forMAPTH1-H2 haplotype-defining variant rs8070723. In secondary analysis, we genotyped and constructed the six-variantMAPTH1 subhaplotypes (rs1467967, rs242557, rs3785883, rs2471738, rs8070723, and rs7521).FindingsOur primary analysis found that theMAPTH2 haplotype was associated with increased risk of PiD (OR: 1.35, 95% CI: 1.12-1.64 P=0.002). In secondary analysis involving H1 subhaplotypes, a protective association with PiD was observed for the H1f haplotype (0.0% vs. 1.2%, P=0.049), with a similar trend noted for H1b (OR: 0.76, 95% CI: 0.58-1.00, P=0.051). The 4-repeat tauopathy risk haplotypeMAPTH1c was not associated with PiD susceptibility (OR: 0.93, 95% CI: 0.70-1.25, P=0.65).InterpretationThe PIC represents the first opportunity to perform relatively large-scale studies to enhance our understanding of the pathobiology of PiD. This study demonstrates that in contrast to its protective role in 4R tauopathies, theMAPTH2 haplotype is associated with an increased risk of PiD. This finding is critical in directing isoform-related therapeutics for tauopathies.FundingSee funding section

This paper analyses a live project collaboration between the Birmingham School of Architecture & Design and CoLab Dudley, a social innovation lab based on Dudley High Street. The project developed students’ sustainability competencies while contributing to social, environmental, and economic progression and regeneration of local communities, and explored regenerative futures for Dudley High Street 2030 through engaging students, academics, collaborators, and a wider network of local people in a two-way collaborative learning process.Using Tilbury and Mulà’s five principles of Education for Sustainable Development as a model, the collaboration was analysed to tease out how the work might impact the education of future practitioners. The research identifies a positive impact of real-life collaboration for students, academics, and collaborators in nurturing the conditions for radicality and reveals the conditions necessary for successful partnerships to develop. In going beyond technological solutions, the research reveals the potential of engaging students with real-world communities, participation, and future thinking to create radical practitioners ready to rise to the sustainability challenge

This case study details several concrete approaches to integrating the use of student-loaned iPads in the teaching of mathematics in Higher Education. Although there is a scarcity of rigorous studies into the efficacy of tablet devices for improved educational outcomes, previous case studies have argued that tablet devices, if used, should be integrated into the whole learning experience. The mathematics teaching team at Middlesex University have developed an inclusive digital pedagogy over the last five years that enabled us to effectively respond to the remote teaching imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic by loaning iPads to all students on specialist mathematics programmes. As we begin the return to campus, we continue to integrate these devices into our teaching to address the observed “digital divide” in Generation-Z students which is characterised not by access to smart devices but by the digital skills to use them as effective learning tools. This is particularly relevant at Middlesex University which is disproportionately affected by digital poverty amongst its student population. We discuss the use of virtual whiteboard apps, the necessity of handwritten mathematics, the rich integration of multimedia content, persistent collaborative “problem solving spaces”, and how a common hardware platform allows for varied and equitable inclusive assessment. We also report the results of students’ surveys of iPad use during the remote-only 2020-21 academic year.

One approach to control dengue virus transmission is the symbiont Wolbachia, which limits viral infection in mosquitoes. Despite plans for its widespread use in Aedes aegypti, Wolbachia's mode of action remains poorly understood. Many studies suggest that the mechanism is likely multifaceted, involving aspects of immunity, cellular stress and nutritional competition. A previous study from our group used artificial selection to identify a new mosquito candidate gene related to viral blocking; alpha-mannosidase-2a (alpha-Mann-2a) with a predicted role in protein glycosylation. Protein glycosylation pathways tend to be involved in complex host-viral interactions; however, the function of alpha-mannosidases has not been described in mosquito-virus interactions. We examined alpha-Mann-2a expression in response to virus and Wolbachia infections and whether reduced gene expression, caused by RNA interference, affected viral loads. We show that dengue virus (DENV) infection affects the expression of alpha-Mann-2a in a tissue- and time-dependent manner, whereas Wolbachia infection had no effect. In the midgut, DENV prevalence increased following knockdown of alpha-Mann-2a expression in Wolbachia-free mosquitoes, suggesting that alpha-Mann-2a interferes with infection. Expression knockdown had the same effect on the togavirus chikungunya virus, indicating that alpha-Mann-2a may have broad antivirus effects in the midgut. Interestingly, we were unable to knockdown the expression in Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes. We also provide evidence that alpha-Mann-2a may affect the transcriptional level of another gene predicted to be involved in viral blocking and cell adhesion; cadherin87a. These data support the hypothesis that glycosylation and adhesion pathways may broadly be involved in viral infection in Ae. aegypti.

Introduction: Prevalence rates of cardiometabolic disease are rising, placing a significant burden on healthcare sectors, with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and type 2 diabetes contributing the most burden and being overweight the most contributing risk factor. With an ageing population, unfavourable risk factor trends and the challenges associated with CVD, we aimed to analyse a group of middle-class Australian adults for patterns in body composition, fitness and function. Methods: Data collected from adults attending a health clinic in eastern Sydney were analysed. Data were self-reported to or measured by an allied health clinician during initial consultations. Conditions reported included those contributing to the Australian disease burden in adults 45 years and over in 2018. Cardiometabolic multimorbidity was defined as the presence of two or more conditions simultaneously. Simple linear and stepwise regressions were used to assess potential relationships. Results: Data from 533 people (mean age 66.6±12.1 yrs; 67% female) were analysed. In total, 418 had a biological cardiometabolic risk factor or diagnosed CVD, of which 85.2% satisfied the criteria for cardiometabolic multimorbidity (73% female; 62% male), with most reporting 2-3 conditions. The most reported was coronary heart disease (64.4%), followed by hypertension (34.6%), type 2 diabetes (12.9%), cerebrovascular (5.1%), chronic kidney (1%) and peripheral artery (1%) disease. There was no relationship between the number of conditions and key outcomes, except for balance (r=0.12; p=0.03). There was a significant relationship between age and greater systolic blood pressure (SBP) (r=0.26; p Conclusion: Three in 4 Australian adults in this cohort had cardiometabolic multimorbidity, with a greater prevalence in females. Cardiometabolic multimorbidity was unrelated to key body composition parameters or fitness test performance. However, those that were older had a higher waist measurement and poorer lower body strength and performance in the 6-minute walk. Those with higher SBP also had a higher waist and lower body strength. With these fitness measures strongly related to cardiovascular mortality, more older adults need to participate in evidence-based healthy lifestyle education programs to help improve overall body composition, fitness and function, thereby reducing CVD.

Quantification of land surface-atmosphere fluxes of carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes and their trends and uncertainties is essential for monitoring progress of the EU27+UK bloc as it strives to meet ambitious targets determined by both international agreements and internal regulation. This study provides a consolidated synthesis of fossil sources (CO2 fossil) and natural sources and sinks over land (CO2 land) using bottom-up (BU) and top-down (TD) approaches for the European Union and United Kingdom (EU27+UK), updating earlier syntheses (Petrescu et al., 2020, 2021b). Given the wide scope of the work and the variety of approaches involved, this study aims to answer essential questions identified in the previous syntheses and understand the differences between datasets, particularly for poorly characterized fluxes from managed ecosystems. The work integrates updated emission inventory data, process-based model results, data-driven sectoral model results, and inverse modeling estimates, extending the previous period 1990–2018 to the year 2020 to the extent possible. BU and TD products are compared with European National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (NGHGIs) reported by Parties including the year 2019 under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The uncertainties of the EU27+UK NGHGI were evaluated using the standard deviation reported by the EU Member States following the guidelines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and harmonized by gap-filling procedures. Variation in estimates produced with other methods, such as atmospheric inversion models (TD) or spatially disaggregated inventory datasets (BU), originate from within-model uncertainty related to parameterization as well as structural differences between models. By comparing NGHGIs with other approaches, key sources of differences between estimates arise primarily in activities. System boundaries and emission categories create differences in CO2 fossil datasets, while different land use definitions for reporting emissions from Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) activities result in differences for CO2 land. The latter has important consequences for atmospheric inversions, leading to inversions reporting stronger sinks in vegetation and soils than are reported by the NGHGI. For CO2 fossil emissions, after harmonizing estimates based on common activities and selecting the most recent year available for all datasets, the UNFCCC NGHGI for the EU27+UK accounts for 3392 ± 49 Tg CO2 yr-1 (926 ± 13 Tg C yr-1), while eight other BU sources report a mean value of 3340 [3238,3401] [25th,75th percentile] Tg CO2 yr-1 (948 [937,961] Tg C yr-1). The sole top-down inversion of fossil emissions currently available accounts for 3800 Tg CO2 yr-1 (1038 Tg C yr-1), a value close to that of the NGHGI, but for which uncertainty estimates are not yet available. For the net CO2 land fluxes, during the most recent five-year period including the NGHGI estimates, the NGHGI accounted for -91 ± 32 Tg C yr-1 while six other BU approaches reported a mean sink of -62 [-117,-49] Tg C yr-1 and a 15-member ensemble of dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs) reported -69 [-152,-5] Tg C yr-1. The five-year mean of three TD regional ensembles combined with one non-ensemble inversion of -73 Tg C yr-1 has a slightly smaller spread (0th–100th percentile of [-135,45] Tg C yr-1), and was calculated after removing land-atmosphere CO2 fluxes caused by lateral transport of carbon (crops, wood trade and inland waters) resulting in increased agreement with the the NGHGI and bottom-up approaches. Results at the sub-sector level (Forestland, Cropland, Grassland) show generally good agreement between the NGHGI and sub-sector-specific models, but results for a DGVM are mixed. Overall, for both CO2 fossil and net CO2 land fluxes, we find current independent approaches are consistent with the NGHGI at the scale of the EU27+UK. We conclude that CO2 emissions from fossil sources have decreased over the past 30 years in the EU27+UK, while large uncertainties on net uptake of CO2 by the land surface prevent trend identification. In addition, a gap on the order of 1000 Tg C yr-1 between CO2 fossil emissions and net CO2 uptake by the land exists regardless of the type of approach (NGHGI, TD, BU), falling well outside all available estimates of uncertainties. However, uncertainties in top-down approaches to estimate CO2 fossil emissions remain uncharacterized and are likely substantial. The data used to plot the figures are available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7365863.

Thousands of babies are given toys for their zeroth birthday … But what happens if that baby is admitted to neonatal intensive care? In a global first, we describe the population of toys found in incubators on neonatal intensive care unit.

Domestic and family violence (DFV) is a pervasive social problem that social workers often encounter in practice. Responses to DFV require specialist and non-specialist services. Research suggests that first contact social workers can experience a lack of confidence, both in engaging with men who use violence and working with women and children who disclose experiencing violence. This article reports on the findings of an Australian survey (N = 100) that sought to identify the knowledge and practice skills that social workers draw on when they are the first responders to DFV. The survey invited qualified social worker participants from all sectors across Australia through the national online bulletins of the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) and Child Family Community Australia (CFCA). Whilst 28% of the respondents demonstrated working in specialist DFV and child protection sectors, 72% worked in other sectors. The research found that most participants recognised signs of DFV, but responses were mainly focused on referring women victims to practical or accommodation support, and children to psychological support. Responding to perpetrators was rarely mentioned. Equipping non-specialist DFV practitioners with knowledge and skills to respond safely can create an opportunity for engagement, earlier intervention, and increased interagency collaboration with specialist services. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

A working knowledge of statistical tests, their application, and interpretation is vital to evidence-based practice. A purposive sample of Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) projects listed in ProQuest (N = 667) were assessed for general use of statistics and data on the most frequently used statistical tests were compiled. Results enumerated the top 10 tests used with the top 3 methods reliant on basic and descriptive statistics. Application to practice and contributions to the evidence-base from DNP Projects are discussed. Potential statistical and methods issues are presented, along with some possible remedies. To improve project outcomes and professional practice, scoping of DNP statistical education is needed.

Concern that children are not engaging in enough physical activity (PA) to bring about health benefits is a crisis globally. This paper aims to examine primary school-based PA initiatives from with...

The synthesis and characterization of two homoleptic Zn(II)- and Mg(II)-complexes based on a simple tridentate {NNO} ligand are reported. The production of biocompatible atactic poly(lactic acid) (PLA) under industrially relevant melt conditions is demonstrated, noting high activity for Zn(1) 2at room temperature in CH 2Cl 2(TOF = 184 h -1). Mg(1) 2and Zn(1) 2were shown to facilitate rapid PLA methanolysis into methyl lactate (Me-LA) under mild conditions, achieving up to 85% Me-LA yield within 30 min at 50 °C in THF. Further kinetic analysis found Mg(1) 2and Zn(1) 2to exhibitk appvalues of 0.23 ± 0.0076 and 0.15 ± 0.0029 min -1, respectively {8 wt % cat. loading}, among the highest reported thus far. Zn(1) 2retained excellent activity for both poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) and poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) degradations, demonstrating catalyst versatility. Various upcycling strategies (e.g., methanolysis, glycolysis, and aminolysis) were employed to achieve a broad substrate scope, which included bis(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (BHET), high value terephthalamides, and methyl 6-hydroxyhexanoate. Optimal glycolysis conditions using Zn(1) 2enabled 64% BHET yield within 1 h at 180 °C, a rare example of PET glycolysis mediated by a discrete homogeneous metal-based catalyst. The application of such catalysts for PET aminolysis and PCL methanolysis has been reported for the first time.

COVID-19 vaccination is being rapidly rolled out in the US and many other countries, and it is crucial to provide fast and accurate assessment of vaccination coverage and vaccination gaps to make strategic adjustments promoting vaccine coverage. We reported the effective use of real-time geospatial analysis to identify barriers and gaps in COVID-19 vaccination in a minority population living in South Texas on the US-Mexico Border, to inform vaccination campaign strategies. We developed 4 rank-based approaches to evaluate the vaccination gap at the census tract level, which considered both population vulnerability and vaccination priority and eligibility. We identified areas with the highest vaccination gaps using different assessment approaches. Real-time geospatial analysis to identify vaccination gaps is critical to rapidly increase vaccination uptake, and to reach herd immunity in the vulnerable and the vaccine hesitant groups. Our results assisted the City of Brownsville Public Health Department in adjusting real-time targeting of vaccination, gathering coverage assessment, and deploying services to areas identified as high vaccination gap. The analyses and responses can be adopted in other locations.

Objectives In 2019–2020, four national recommendations were published in the United Kingdom to encourage use of low carbon inhalers. This study aimed to investigate whether these were associated with a change in primary care dispensing in England and to explore associations between geographical variation and clinical commissioning group (CCG) characteristics. Design Ecological study using aggregated publicly available data. Setting All CCGs in England (March 2016 to February 2021). Participants not applicable Main outcome measures Percentage of low carbon inhalers dispensed. Results The percentage of low carbon inhalers dispensed was 26.3% in 2020–2021 (of 8.8 million inhalers). This decreased over the study period for short-acting beta-agonist (SABA), inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) and ICS+long-acting beta-agonist (LABA) inhalers. The same trend was seen for LABA and ICS+LABA+long-acting muscarinic antagonist inhalers from 2019. The SABA and ICS classes were less often dispensed as low carbon inhalers (⁓6% versus 35–45%). Interrupted time series analyses found slight increases in low carbon inhaler percentage in the SABA, LABA and ICS classes after April 2019, which were soon erased by the long-term trend. There was also geographical variation, with the north-west, Birmingham and London consistently dispensing more low carbon inhalers. The presence of advice on climate change in CCG formularies/guidelines, the prevalence of asthma and population age profile were associated with significant variation in low carbon inhaler percentage for some classes. Conclusions The percentage of low carbon inhalers dispensed in England remains low and continues to decrease. Greater use of low carbon inhalers is achievable, but is more likely with locally implemented initiatives.

Investigative interviews (e.g., interrogations) are a critical component of criminal, military, and civil investigations. However, how levels of alertness (vs. sleepiness) of the interviewer impact outcomes of actual interviews is unknown. To this end, the current study tracked daily fluctuations in alertness among professional criminal investigators to predict their daily experiences with actual field interviews. Fifty law-enforcement investigators wore a sleep-activity tracker for two weeks while keeping a daily-diary of investigative interviews conducted in the field. For each interview, the investigators indicated how well they established rapport with the subject, how much resistance they encountered, how well they maintained their own focus and composure, and the overall utility of intelligence obtained. Daily alertness was biomathematically modeled from actigraphic sleep duration and continuity estimates and used to predict interview characteristics. Investigators consistently reported more difficulties maintaining their focus and composure as well as encountering more subject resistance during interviews on days with lower alertness. Better interview outcomes were also reported on days with subjectively better sleep, while findings were generally robust to inclusion of covariates. The findings implicate adequate sleep as a modifiable fitness factor for collectors of human intelligence.

Research must be well designed, properly conducted and clearly and transparently reported. Our independent medical research institute wanted a simple, generic tool to assess the quality of the research conducted by its researchers, with the goal of identifying areas that could be improved through targeted educational activities. Unfortunately, none was available, thus we devised our own. Here, we report development of the Quality Output Checklist and Content Assessment (QuOCCA), and its application to publications from our institute’s scientists. Following consensus meetings and external review by statistical and methodological experts, 11 items were selected for the final version of the QuOCCA: research transparency (items 1–3), research design and analysis (items 4–6) and research reporting practices (items 7–11). Five pairs of raters assessed all 231 articles published in 2017 and 221 in 2018 by researchers at our institute. Overall, the results were similar between years and revealed limited engagement with several recommended practices highlighted in the QuOCCA. These results will be useful to guide educational initiatives and their effectiveness. The QuOCCA is brief and focuses on broadly applicable and relevant concepts to open, high-quality, reproducible and well-reported science. Thus, the QuOCCA could be used by other biomedical institutions and individual researchers to evaluate research publications, assess changes in research practice over time and guide the discussion about high-quality, open science. Given its generic nature, the QuOCCA may also be useful in other research disciplines.

Precise control of cell division is essential for proper patterning and growth during the development of multicellular organisms. Coordination of formative (asymmetric) divisions that generate new tissue patterns with proliferative (symmetric) divisions that promote growth is poorly understood. Here, we employed quantitative 4D light sheet and confocal microscopy to probe in vivo the dynamics of two transcription factors, SHORTROOT (SHR) and SCARECROW (SCR), which are required for asymmetric division in the stem cell niche of Arabidopsis roots [1,2]. Long-term (up to 48 hours), frequent (every 15 minutes) imaging of the two regulators in tandem in single cells, in conjunction with a SHR induction system, enabled us to challenge an existing bistable model[3] of the SHR/SCR gene regulatory network. By directly controlling SHR and SCR expression dynamics, we were able to identify key features that are essential for rescue of asymmetric division in shr mutants. We show that instead of high stable levels of nuclear SHR and SCR, only low transient levels of expression are required. Nuclear SHR kinetics do not follow predictions of the bistable model, and the regulatory relationship between SHR and SCR can be modeled by monostable alternatives. Furthermore, expression of these two regulators early in the cell cycle determines the orientation of the division plane, resulting in either formative or proliferative cell division. Our findings provide evidence for an uncharacterized mechanism by which developmental regulators directly coordinate patterning and growth.

Acute limb ischemia (ALI) presents with significant pain that is often refractory to opioid pain management or is present in patients with relative contraindications to opioids. Here we present a case of ALI successfully managed with regional anesthesia using sciatic and saphenous nerve blocks. To our knowledge, this is the first case report of regional anesthesia for ALI performed in the Emergency Department (ED) by Emergency Medicine physicians.

Excess nitrogen is a pollutant and global problem that harms ecosystems and can severely affect human health. Pollutant nitrogen is becoming more widespread and intensifying in the tropics. There is thus a requirement to develop nitrogen biomonitoring for spatial mapping and trend analysis of tropical biodiversity and ecosystems. In temperate and boreal zones, multiple bioindicators for nitrogen pollution have been developed, with lichen epiphytes among the most sensitive and widely applied. However, the state of our current knowledge on bioindicators is geographically biased, with extensive research effort focused on bioindicators in the temperate and boreal zones. The development of lichen bioindicators in the tropics is further weakened by incomplete taxonomic and ecological knowledge. In this study we performed a literature review and meta-analysis, attempting to identify characteristics of lichens that offer transferability of bioindication into tropical regions. This transferability must overcome the different species pools between source information – drawing on extensive research effort in the temperate and boreal zone – and tropical ecosystems. Focussing on ammonia concentration as the nitrogen pollutant, we identify a set of morphological traits and taxonomic relationships that cause lichen epiphytes to be more sensitive, or more resistant to this excess nitrogen. We perform an independent test of our bioindicator scheme and offer recommendations for its application and future research in the tropics.

Background: data on vaccine immunogenicity against SARS-CoV-2 are needed for the 40 million people globally living with HIV who might have less functional immunity and more associated comorbidities than the general population. We aimed to explore safety and immunogenicity of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AZD1222) vaccine in people with HIV. Methods: in this single-arm open-label vaccination substudy within the protocol of the larger phase 2/3 trial COV002, adults aged 18–55 years with HIV were enrolled at two HIV clinics in London, UK. Eligible participants were required to be on antiretroviral therapy (ART), with undetectable plasma HIV viral loads (0·05 for all analyses). Interpretation: in this study of people with HIV, ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 was safe and immunogenic, supporting vaccination for those well controlled on ART. Funding: UK Research and Innovation, National Institutes for Health Research (NIHR), Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, Thames Valley and South Midland's NIHR Clinical Research Network, and AstraZeneca.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated networking within and across schools in an unprecedented way. It has demanded new forms of leadership and leadership practices that are network based and techn...

Background: Serology assays have the potential to support RT-PCR in the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection. We studied three commercially available immunoassays for their diagnostic accuracy from blood specimens collected from 93 patients. Methods: Blood samples from patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection were analysed using three different Immunoassays (Roche total antibody assay, Abbott IgG assay and Euroimmun IgG assay). Sensitivity, specificity, precision and time of seroconversion were evaluated. Results: The sensitivity of Roche, Abbott and Euroimmun assays was 38.7%, 35.5% and 25.0% respectively for specimens collected