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Background:The scale of the 2022 global mpox (formerly known as monkeypox) outbreak has been unprecedented. In less than 6 months, non-endemic countries have reported more than 67 000 cases of a disease that had previously been rare outside of Africa. Mortality has been reported as rare but hospital admission has been relatively common. We aimed to describe the clinical and laboratory characteristics and outcomes of individuals admitted to hospital with mpox and associated complications, including tecovirimat recipients. Methods:In this cohort study, we undertook retrospective review of electronic clinical records and pathology data for all individuals admitted between May 6, and Aug 3, 2022, to 16 hospitals from the Specialist and High Consequence Infectious Diseases Network for Monkeypox. The hospitals were located in ten cities in England and Northern Ireland. Inclusion criteria were clinical signs consistent with mpox and MPXV DNA detected from at least one clinical sample by PCR testing. Patients admitted solely for isolation purposes were excluded from the study. Key outcomes included admission indication, complications (including pain, secondary infection, and mortality) and use of antibiotic and anti-viral treatments. Routine biochemistry, haematology, microbiology, and virology data were also collected. Outcomes were assessed in all patients with available data. Findings:156 individuals were admitted to hospital with complicated mpox during the study period. 153 (98%) were male and three (2%) were female, with a median age of 35 years (IQR 30–44). Gender data were collected from electronic patient records, which encompassed full formal review of clincian notes. The prespecified options for data collection for gender were male, female, trans, non-binary, or unknown. 105 (71%) of 148 participants with available ethnicity data were of White ethnicity and 47 (30%) of 155 were living with HIV with a median CD4 count of 510 cells per mm3(IQR 349–828). Rectal or perianal pain (including proctitis) was the most common indication for hospital admission (44 [28%] of 156). Severe pain was reported in 89 (57%) of 156, and secondary bacterial infection in 82 (58%) of 142 individuals with available data. Median admission duration was 5 days (IQR 2–9). Ten individuals required surgery and two cases of encephalitis were reported. 38 (24%) of the 156 individuals received tecovirimat with early cessation in four cases (two owing to hepatic transaminitis, one to rapid treatment response, and one to patient choice). No deaths occurred during the study period. Interpretation:Although life-threatening mpox appears rare in hospitalised populations during the current outbreak, severe mpox and associated complications can occur in immunocompetent individuals. Analgesia and management of superimposed bacterial infection are priorities for patients admitted to hospital.

In nations with large Indigenous populations like Guatemala and Ecuador, overlapping narratives of nationalism, public health, and race signal the complexity of modernizing health care. Various variables—race, gender, class, geography, the role of the state, divisions within the ruling class—impinged on people’s health care decisions. To analyze how racial thought and public health influenced each other during Guatemala’s predominantly dictatorial rule and Ecuador’s authoritarian but more participatory government at a time when the most significant international public health organization—the Rockefeller Foundation (RF)—sought to improve public health in both countries, I combine transnational and comparative historical analyses of the first half of the twentieth century. Triangulating Guatemalan, Ecuadorian, and RF archives and focusing on the primacy of Indigenous voices reveals an interactive matrix of different types of racism in Guatemala, Ecuador, and RF that shaped indígenas’ (Indigenous people’s) engagement with, exclusion from, or rejection of public health initiatives and scientific medicine. The politics of indigeneity was as consequential for public health as scientific developments. Many state agents and RF representatives used public health contexts to mobilize social constructions of race and ethnicity that advanced their agendas and marginalized indígenas. In turn, indígenas often determined the extent to which authorities’ aspirations matched their accomplishments.

To investigate whether training load monitoring data could be used to predict injuries in elite Australian football players, data were collected from elite athletes over 3 seasons at an Australian football club. Loads were quantified using GPS devices, accelerometers and player perceived exertion ratings. Absolute and relative training load metrics were calculated for each player each day (rolling average, exponentially weighted moving average, acute:chronic workload ratio, monotony and strain). Injury prediction models (regularised logistic regression, generalised estimating equations, random forests and support vector machines) were built for non-contact, non-contact time-loss and hamstring specific injuries using the first two seasons of data. Injury predictions were generated for the third season and evaluated using the area under the receiver operator characteristic (AUC). Predictive performance was only marginally better than chance for models of non-contact and non-contact time-loss injuries (AUC$, Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures

Aims: (1) To investigate whether a daily acute:chronic workload ratio informs injury risk in Australian football players; (2) to identify which combination of workload variable, acute and chronic time window best explains injury likelihood. Methods: Workload and injury data were collected from 53 athletes over 2 seasons in a professional Australian football club. Acute:chronic workload ratios were calculated daily for each athlete, and modelled against non-contact injury likelihood using a quadratic relationship. 6 workload variables, 8 acute time windows (2-9 days) and 7 chronic time windows (14-35 days) were considered (336 combinations). Each parameter combination was compared for injury likelihood fit (using R 2). Results: The ratio of moderate speed running workload (18-24 km/h) in the previous 3 days (acute time window) compared with the previous 21 days (chronic time window) best explained the injury likelihood in matches (R 2 =0.79) and in the immediate 2 or 5 days following matches (R 2 =0.76-0.82). The 3:21 acute:chronic workload ratio discriminated between high-risk and low-risk athletes (relative risk=1.98-2.43). Using the previous 6 days to calculate the acute workload time window yielded similar results. The choice of acute time window significantly influenced model performance and appeared to reflect the competition and training schedule. Conclusions: Daily workload ratios can inform injury risk in Australian football. Clinicians and conditioning coaches should consider the sport-specific schedule of competition and training when choosing acute and chronic time windows. For Australian football, the ratio of moderate speed running in a 3-day or 6-day acute time window and a 21-day chronic time window best explained injury risk.

The ability of machine learning techniques to predict athlete ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) was investigated in professional Australian football players. RPE is commonly used to quantifying internal training loads and manage injury risk in team sports. Data from global positioning systems, heart-rate monitors, accelerometers and wellness questionnaires were recorded for each training session (n=3398) from 45 professional Australian football players across a full season. A variety of modelling approaches were considered to investigate the ability of objective data to predict RPE. Models were compared using nested cross validation and root mean square error (RMSE) on RPE predictions. A random forest model using player normalised running and heart rate variables provided the most accurate predictions (RMSE ± SD = 0.96 ± 0.08 au). A simplification of the model using only total distance, distance covered at speeds between 18-24 km·h−1, and the product of total distance and mean speed provided similarly accurate predictions (RMSE ± SD = 1.09 ± 0.05 au), suggesting that running distances and speeds are the strongest predictors of RPE in Australian football players. The ability of non-linear machine learning models to accurately predict athlete RPE has applications in live player monitoring and training load planning.

This study identified and profiled the types of player actions of Australian football players executed during high acceleration and/or deceleration efforts and identified how the duration exceeding the acceleration or deceleration threshold influenced the identified executed player actions. The commencing speed of the acceleration and deceleration efforts were also assessed. Acceleration and deceleration efforts of 22 Australian football players monitored with a 10-Hz GNSS device across two matches were analysed. Synchronised video footage of the matches was used to identify the player actions executed during acceleration and deceleration efforts. Linear mixed models were conducted to examine the relationship between commencing speed, player action, and duration exceeding the effort threshold. 'Linear movement' and 'jump' were the most frequently executed player actions for high accelerations and 'stop' and 'being tackled' for high decelerations. Significant differences were observed in commencing speed between player actions for the high deceleration efforts. Furthermore, it was found that a higher commencing speed was associated with an increased duration exceeding the deceleration threshold. These findings will help practitioners and researchers with selecting minimum-duration criteria for acceleration and deceleration efforts and provide an understanding of the types of player actions executed during these efforts.

Throughout tropical urban Latin America, yellow fever wreaked havoc. Located at sea level, Guayaquil (Ecuador) and Puerto Barrios (Guatemala) were particularly susceptible to yellow fever; yet, Ecuadorians and Guatemalans enjoyed significant success in early twentieth-century campaigns against yellow fever. Reflecting international efforts that informed, collaborated with, and at times underwrote Latin American public health campaigns, the Rockefeller Foundation (RF) sent representatives to Guatemala and Ecuador in the mid-1910s to eradicate yellow fever. While those interventions enjoyed immediate success, the long-term effects were more ambiguous. By collaborating with RF, Ecuador had all but eradicated yellow fever by 1919. In Guatemala, however, a few months after RF declared Guatemala free of yellow fever, influenza struck, likely originating from US military camps in Guatemala that RF sought to shield from yellow fever. Analysis of early twentieth-century yellow fever epidemics and campaigns to arrest them sheds light on COVID-19 pandemic challenges. Even as knowledge of disease etiology was evolving in Ecuador and Guatemala, most leaders accepted or at least did not publicly reject scientific medicine. In contrast, beginning with the most powerful politicians and filtering down throughout federal, state, and municipal authorities, many US leaders rejected science crucial to the campaigns against COVID-19. Similarly, in a pattern that resonates with US residents rejecting precautionary measures against COVID-19 such as wearing masks and maintaining social distance, compliance with anti-yellow fever campaigns was not always forthcoming.

In the late 1920s, Guatemala embarked on environmental drainage projects aimed at eradicating mosquito breeding grounds. Designed to improve people’s lives, these efforts sometimes inadvert...

Purpose: Dozens of variables can be derived from the countermovement jump (CMJ). However, this does not guarantee an increase in useful information because many of the variables are highly correlated. Furthermore, practitioners should seek to find the simplest solution to performance testing and reporting challenges. The purpose of this investigation was to show how to apply dimensionality reduction to CMJ data with a view to offer practitioners solutions to aid applications in high-performance settings. Methods: The data were collected from 3 cohorts using 3 different devices. Dimensionality reduction was undertaken on the extracted variables by way of principal component analysis and maximum likelihood factor analysis. Results: Over 90% of the variance in each CMJ data set could be explained in 3 or 4 principal components. Similarly, 2 to 3 factors could successfully explain the CMJ. Conclusions: The application of dimensional reduction through principal component analysis and factor analysis allowed for the identification of key variables that strongly contributed to distinct aspects of jump performance. Practitioners and scientists can consider the information derived from these procedures in several ways to streamline the transfer of CMJ test information.

In this paper, a novel terahertz (THz) spectroscopy technique and a new graphene-based sensor is proposed. The proposed sensor consists of a graphene-based metasurface (MS) that operates in reflection mode over a broad range of frequency band (0.2 – 6 THz) and can detect relative permittivity of up to 4 with a resolution of 0.1 and a thickness ranging from 5 $\mu \text{m}$ to 600 $\mu \text{m}$ with a resolution of 0.5 $\mu \text{m}$ . To the best of author’s knowledge, such a THz sensor with such capabilities has not been reported yet. Additionally, an equivalent circuit of the novel unit cell is derived and compared with two conventional grooved structures to showcase the superiority of the proposed unit cell. The proposed spectroscopy technique utilizes some unique spectral features of a broadband reflection wave including Accumulated Spectral power (ASP) and Averaged Group Delay (AGD), which are independent to resonance frequencies and can operate over a broad range of spectrum. ASP and AGD can be combined to analyse the magnitude and phase of the reflection diagram as a coherent technique for sensing purposes. This enables the capability to distinguish between different analytes with high precision which, to the best of author’s knowledge, has been accomplished for the first time.

This study quantifies the maximum number of impacts and peak running demands during 1– to 10– minute rolling window periods in elite rugby union matches using a multi-team dataset (n = 2232 player-games). Maximum values for impacts (impacts·min−1) and running (m·min−1) were calculated for 161 athletes from four teams across the 2018 and 2019 Super Rugby seasons. The effect of window duration and playing position on peak impact and running demands were estimated using linear mixed effect models and prediction intervals. The peak impact and running demands for a 1-min period were 4.5 – 5.5 impacts·min−1 and 150 – 180 m·min−1, depending on playing position. While small variations in mean impact and running movements could be observed by position, the large prediction interval and individual player variation meant that there was no practically meaningful difference by position. As such, when prescribing training drills to replicate the peak demands in rugby union, impact and running movements of players can be similar, regardless of position. Using a prediction interval allows us to identify the range where the demands in a future game may fall, and are beneficial to use when also trying to prepare players for the demands of rugby union.

Two-dimensional (2D) Ruddlesden-Popper perovskites (RPPs) of the form PEA2Pb1-xSnxI4 can be used as the tunable active layer in photovoltaics, as the passivating layer for 3D perovskite photovoltaics or in light emitting diodes. Here, we show a nonlinear band gap behavior with Sn content in mixed phase 2D RPPs. Density functional theory calculations (with and without spin-orbit coupling) are employed to study the effects of the short-range ordering of Pb and Sn in PEA2Pb1-xSnxI4 compositions with x = 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1. Analysis of the partial density of states shows that the energy mismatch of the Pb 6s and Sn 5s states in the valence band maximum determines the nonlinearity of the band gap, leading to a bowing parameter of 0.35-0.38 eV. This research provides a critical insight for the design of future metal alloy 2D perovskite materials. The positions of the tunable energy band discontinuity may point to intraband transitions of interest to device engineers.

Ruddlesden–Popper phase (RPP) perovskites of the form A1n−1A22BnX3n+1 show great promise in stable photovoltaic (PV) devices or as light emitting diodes (LEDs). In particular, n = 1, monolayer RPPs of the form A2BX4 have also shown great progress as the passivating layer for 3D perovskite PVs. We study the electronic behaviour of mixed B site A2Pb1−xSnxI4 where A = PEA or MA to investigate if the size of the A site cation indirectly affects the nonlinear band gap dependence of a 2D monolayer RPP layer. Both perovskites show a nonlinear behaviour primarily due to the relative energy difference between the Sn 5s–I 5p antibonding states and the Pb 6s–I 5p antibonding states, though the extent of the nonlinearity is reduced relative to 3D bulk perovskites due to the reduced dimensionality of these 2D structures. We also discuss the influence on band gap nonlinearity due to the structural distortions induced by the differences between the A site cation. This research presents a strategy to the design of mixed solid state 2D perovskites by tuning the structural parameters as well as metal and halide composition.

Carbon-based materials exhibit distinct structures and dimensionality which allow modification of their electrical properties and enable them to be integrated in various commercial systems. One of the interesting characteristics of carbon-based materials is efficient electron field emission (FE), which makes them good candidates for displays, in electron microscopy, lithography, sensing, micro- and nanoelectronics, X-ray sources and medical applications. While nano carbon materials have been extensively studied for FE applications, their usefulness, electron emission concerns, and fundamental mechanisms for FE technologies are buried in the reported literature, and cross comparison of all nano carbon materials together is rarely explored. Here we present a comprehensive overview of fundamental and FE properties of all carbon-based materials including diamond, nanocrystalline diamond, graphite, carbon nanotubes, carbon nanofibers, carbon nanowires, carbon nanorods, graphene, and amorphous and nanostructured carbon. Some of these carbon materials, such as amorphous and nanostructured carbon, possess the added benefit of room temperature production over large areas on a variety of substrates. We have compiled an up to date summary which critically discusses the material factors, and the factors that control electron emission of these materials. We also propose unique ideas to further improve electron emission for the design of energy efficient carbon-based cold cathode materials for next generation large area electronic devices.

Tredrea, MSJ, Middleton, KJ, Bourne, MN, Carey, DL, Scanlan, AT, and Dascombe, BJ. Title: Load centralization does not affect the kinetic and kinematic output of countermovement jumps. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000–000, 2020—This study aimed to compare the kinetics, kinematics, and performance of countermovement jumps (CMJs) when completed with 2 different loading conditions (centralized or peripheral) across increasing loads. Seventeen subjects (12 men and 5 women) randomly completed 2 series of CMJs with increasing loads separated by a 30-minute rest period between conditions. Subjects were loaded with either a weighted vest (centralized) or straight barbell (peripheral). A randomized, counterbalanced crossover design was used with incremental loads of 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50% of body mass added to the vest or barbell. Measures of peak force, acceleration, velocity, and power were calculated across each subphase of the CMJs. No significant differences were observed in kinetic or kinematic variables between loading conditions. Within each condition there were significant reductions (p < 0.05) in peak concentric velocity and acceleration, as well as significant increases (p < 0.05) in peak force when the external load increased. Furthermore, braking and propulsive phase duration significantly increased (p < 0.05) and jump height significantly decreased (p < 0.05) as the external load increased. Countermovement jump performance was similar in both central and peripheral loading, whereas increasing load significantly affected jump height, force, velocity, and acceleration variables irrespective of load position. The training stimulus from an external load placed centrally or peripherally is similar regardless of where it is positioned; however, from a practical perspective, a weighted vest may provide a more mobile and safer alternative than a barbell.

Erbium implanted silicon as a quantum technology platform has both telecommunications and integrated circuit processing compatibility. In Si implanted with Er to a concentration of 3x10^17 cm^3 and O to a concentration of 10^20 cm^3, the electron spin coherence time, T2, and the spin-lattice relaxation time, T1, were measured to be 7.5 ls and ~1 ms, respectively, at 5 K. The spin echo decay profile displayed strong modulation, which was consistent with the super-hyperfine interaction between Er3{\th} and a spin bath of 29Si nuclei. The calculated spectral diffusion time was similar to the measured T2, which indicated that T2 was limited by spectral diffusion due to T1-induced flips of neighboring Er3{\th} spins. The origin of the echo is an Er center surrounded by six O atoms with monoclinic C1h site symmetry., Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2006.00225

High-speed running (HSR) loads have been linked with non-contact injury risks in team-sports. This study investigated whether player-specific speed zones, reflecting individual fitness characteristics, impact the associations between non-contact injury and acute and chronic HSR loads. Semi-professional soccer players from two clubs (n = 47) were tracked over two seasons using 10 Hz GPS (5552 observations). HSR distances were calculated arbitrarily (≥5.5 m·s-1), and in an individualised fashion based on the final speed of the 30-15 intermittent fitness test. Cumulative running loads were represented by exponentially weighted moving averages with 7-(acute) and 28-day (chronic) decay parameters. Physiotherapists collected non-contact, lower-limb, time-loss injury data (n = 101). Injury models using session type (training vs matches), coach, as well as arbitrary or individualised running loads were constructed via mixed-effect logistic regression. Session type had the largest effect on injury (training vs match OR = 0.28; 95%CI:0.17-0.44). Variations in individualised or arbitrary acute and chronic HSR loads within the mid-range of the observed data had negligible effects on predicted injury risk. However, the uncertainty of estimated effects at extreme values of acute and chronic HSR loads prevented any conclusive findings. Therefore, the efficacy of using customised speed thresholds in quantifying load for injury risk mitigation purposes remains unclear.