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Sleep-wake disturbances frequently present in Veterans with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). These TBI-related sleep impairments confer significant burden and commonly exacerbate other functional impairments. Therapies to improve sleep following mTBI are limited and studies in Veterans are even more scarce. In our previous pilot work, morning bright light therapy (MBLT) was found to be a feasible behavioral sleep intervention in Veterans with a history of mTBI; however, this was single-arm, open-label, and non-randomized, and therefore was not intended to establish efficacy. The present study, LION (light vs ion therapy) extends this preliminary work as a fully powered, sham-controlled, participant-masked randomized controlled trial (NCT03968874), implemented as fully remote within the VA (target n = 120 complete). Randomization at 2:1 allocation ratio to: 1) active: MBLT (n = 80), and 2) sham: deactivated negative ion generator (n = 40); each with identical engagement parameters (60-min duration; within 2-hrs of waking; daily over 28-day duration). Participant masking via deception balanced expectancy assumptions across arms. Outcome measures were assessed following a 14-day baseline (pre-intervention), following 28-days of device engagement (post-intervention), and 28-days after the post-intervention assessment (follow-up). Primary outcomes were sleep measures, including continuous wrist-based actigraphy, self-report, and daily sleep dairy entries. Secondary/exploratory outcomes included cognition, mood, quality of life, circadian rhythm via dim light melatonin onset, and biofluid-based biomarkers. Participant drop out occurred in 85%, collectively establishing feasibility and acceptability for MBLT in Veterans with mTBI.

Understanding optical and radiative properties of aerosols and clouds is critical to reducing uncertainties in climate models. For over 10 years, the Observatory of Atmospheric Physics in Reunion (OPAR; 21.079° S, 55.383° E) has been operating three active lidar instruments, named lidar 1200 (Li1200), stratospheric ozone lidar (LiO3S), and tropospheric ozone lidar (LiO3T), providing time series of vertical profiles from 3 to 45 km of the aerosol extinction and backscatter coefficients at 355 and 532 nm as well as the linear depolarization ratio at 532 nm. This work provides a full technical description of the three systems, the details about the methods chosen for the signal preprocessing and processing, and an uncertainty analysis. About 1737 nighttime averaged profiles were manually screened to provide cloud-free and artifact-free profiles. Data processing consisted of Klett inversion to retrieve aerosol optical products from preprocessed files. The measurement frequency was lower during the wet season and the holiday periods. There is a good correlation between the Li1200 and LiO3S instruments in terms of stratospheric aerosol optical depth (AOD) at 355 nm (0.001–0.107; R=0.92±0.01) and with LiO3T in terms of Ångström exponent 355/532 (0.079–1.288; R=0.90±0.13). The lowest values of the averaged uncertainty in the aerosol backscatter coefficient for the three time series are 64.4 ± 31.6 % for LiO3S, 50.3 ± 29.0 % for Li1200, and 69.1 ± 42.7 % for LiO3T. These relative uncertainties are high for the three instruments because of the very low values of extinction and backscatter coefficients for background aerosols above Maïdo observatory. Uncertainty increases due to the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) decrease above 25 km for LIO3S and Li1200 and above 20 km for LiO3T. The lidar ratio (LR) is responsible for an uncertainty increase below 18 km (10 km) for LiO3S and Li1200 (LiO3T). LiO3S is the most stable instrument at 355 nm due to fewer technical modifications and fewer misalignments. Li1200 is a valuable addition meant to fill in the gaps in the LiO3S time series at 355 nm or for specific case studies about the middle and low troposphere. Data described in this work are available at https://doi.org/10.26171/rwcm-q370 (Gantois et al., 2024).

In academic contexts, failure, as compared to success, is likely to threaten self-esteem and thus, to increase the risk of psychological disengagement from one's studies. The goal of the present research is to examine whether belief in school meritocracy (BSM) increases (vs. decreases) the effect of academic performance on self-esteem and psychological disengagement. In two pre-registered studies, university students reported their BSM. Their self-esteem and psychological disengagement were assessed following a manipulated (Study 1, N = 465) or actual (Study 2, N = 375) academic performance. Results indicated that, in both studies, BSM was positively related to performance self-esteem and negatively related to psychological disengagement. However, BSM also increased the effect of performance (manipulated or actual) on psychological disengagement. Indeed, failure led to more disengagement than success, but more so at a high level of BSM than at a lower level of BSM. The double-edge effects of belief in meritocracy are discussed.

BackgroundTransplant recipients face increased cancer mortality due to immunosuppressive treatments. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) have improved survival rates, but data on the use of these agents in transplant recipients is scarce. ICI may trigger allograft rejection, but the absolute risk of AR between the different ICI classes remains to be defined.MethodsVigiBase® (WHO’s pharmacovigilance database) was queried for reports of AR involving CTLA4, PD1, or PDL1 inhibitors. Disproportionality analysis compares the proportion of reports with a specific adverse drug reaction (ADR) and a given drug to the proportion of reports with the same ADR and other drugs. A lower 95% confidence interval for the Information Component (IC) >0 suggests a signal. The comparative Reporting Odds Ratios (ROR) for AR, between PD1 and PDL1 inhibitors, was calculated.ResultsWe gathered 159 AR involving an ICI, especially nivolumab (73, 45.9%), mostly affecting kidneys (87, 54.7%). Median time to onset: 28 days. Fatal outcome: 36 reports (22.6%). ICI were significantly associated with AR: IC=1.7 [1.4;1.9]. Specifically, PD1 inhibitors yielded an IC of 2.0 [1.7;2.2] (152 reports observed compared to 38 expected). By contrast, the IC of PDL1 inhibitors was negative: -2.6 [-6.4;-1.0] (1 observed, 9 expected). The comparative ROR of PD1 compared to PDL1 inhibitors was 33.7 [4.7;240.9] (p=0.0005).ConclusionsWe confirm the association between ICI treatment and AR. Notably, PDL1 inhibitors showed surprisingly low AR reports compared to CTLA4 and PD1 inhibitors. Further prospective studies are warranted to confirm whether PDL1 inhibitors indeed reduce AR risk compared to other ICI.

Sleep-wake disturbances frequently present in Veterans with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). These TBI-related sleep impairments confer significant burden and commonly exacerbate other functional impairments. Therapies to improve sleep following mTBI are limited and studies in Veterans are even more scarce. In our previous pilot work, morning bright light therapy (MBLT) was found to be a feasible behavioral sleep intervention in Veterans with a history of mTBI; however, this was single-arm, open-label, and non-randomized, and therefore was not intended to establish efficacy. The present study, LION (light vs ion therapy) extends this preliminary work as a fully powered, sham-controlled, participant-masked randomized controlled trial (NCT03968874), implemented as fully remote within the VA (target n = 120 complete). Randomization at 2:1 allocation ratio to: 1) active: MBLT (n = 80), and 2) sham: deactivated negative ion generator (n = 40); each with identical engagement parameters (60-min duration; within 2-hrs of waking; daily over 28-day duration). Participant masking via deception balanced expectancy assumptions across arms. Outcome measures were assessed following a 14-day baseline (pre-intervention), following 28-days of device engagement (post-intervention), and 28-days after the post-intervention assessment (follow-up). Primary outcomes were sleep measures, including continuous wrist-based actigraphy, self-report, and daily sleep dairy entries. Secondary/exploratory outcomes included cognition, mood, quality of life, circadian rhythm via dim light melatonin onset, and biofluid-based biomarkers. Participant drop out occurred in 85%, collectively establishing feasibility and acceptability for MBLT in Veterans with mTBI.

The pathogen Xylella fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa has circulated through California's vineyards since its introduction from Central America in the 1800s. This pathogen is responsible for a bacterial disease called Pierce's disease (PD) of grapevine. With no known cure, PD has had devastating effects on some vineyards. Important factors that impact disease severity and persistence include: the presence of insect vectors, grapevine cultivar, management, ecology, and winter temperatures. Removal of infected vines is critical for reducing pathogen spread but relies on accurate and rapid pathogen detection. In this study, we foster a greater understanding of disease symptom emergence by way of a 3-year field inoculation project in Napa Valley. Although PD emergence and symptom progression have been studied in greenhouse and experimental plots, there is a large knowledge gap in quantifying disease progression under commercial conditions. After inoculating 80 mature Vitis vinifera vines in April 2017, we measured bacterial populations and six symptom types at four locations within each plant throughout the subsequent three growing seasons. The main foci of the project were understanding X. fastidiosa movement through the plants, infection, overwinter curing, and symptom development. We observed greater winter recovery than expected, and shriveled grape clusters proved to be a more reliable early indication of infection than other more commonly used symptoms. Although there were differences among wine grape cultivars, this work suggests that disease progression in the field may not fit the paradigm of predominant leaf scorch and low recovery rates as neatly as has been previously believed.

We assess the temperature stability requirements of unseeded Nd:YAG lasers in lidar systems for atmospheric temperature profiling through the rotational Raman technique. Taking as a reference a system using a seeded laser assumed to emit pulses of negligible spectral width and free of wavelength drifts, we estimate first the effect of the pulse spectral widening of the unseeded laser on the output of the interference filters, and then we derive the limits of the allowable wavelength drift for a given bias in the temperature measurement that would add to the noise-induced uncertainty. Finally, using spectroscopic data, we relate the allowable wavelength drift to allowable temperature variations in the YAG rod. We find that, in order to keep the bias affecting atmospheric temperature measurements smaller than 1 K, the Nd:YAG rod temperature should also be kept within a variation range of 1 K.

This article is devoted to the presentation of the MAP-IO observation program. This program, launched in early 2021, has enabled the observation of nearly 700 d of measurements over the Indian and Southern Ocean with the equipment of 17 meteorological and oceanographic scientific instruments on board the ship Marion Dufresne. Several observational techniques have been developed to respond to the difficulties of observations on board the ship, in particular for passive remote sensing data, as well as for quasi-autonomous data acquisition and transfer. The first measurements made it possible to draw up unprecedented climatological data of the Southern Ocean regarding the size distribution and optical thickness of aerosols, the concentration of trace gases and greenhouse gases, UV, and integrated water vapor. High-resolution observations of phytoplankton in surface waters have also shown a great variability in latitude in terms of abundance and community structure (diversity). The operational success of this program and these unique scientific results together establish a proof of concept and underline the need to transform this program into a permanent observatory. The multi-year rotations over the Indian Ocean will enable us to assess the trends and seasonal variability of phytoplankton, greenhouse gases, ozone, and marine aerosols in a sensitive and poorly documented climatic region. Without being exhaustive, MAP-IO should make it possible to better understand and assess the biological carbon pump, to study the variability of gases and aerosols in a region that is remote in relation to the main anthropogenic sources, and to monitor the transport of stratospheric ozone by the Brewer–Dobson circulation. The meteorological MAP-IO data set is publicly available at https://www.aeris-data.fr/catalogue-map-io/ (last access: 26 August 2024) (atmospheric data) and at https://doi.org/10.17882/89505 (Thyssen et al., 2022a) (phytoplankton data).

During the 2020 austral summer, the pristine atmosphere of the southwest Indian Ocean (SWIO) basin experienced significant perturbations. This study examines the variability of aerosols and carbon monoxide (CO) over this remote oceanic region and investigates the underlying processes in the upper troposphere–lower stratosphere (UT-LS). Aerosol profiles in January and February 2020 revealed a multi-layer structure in the tropical UT-LS. Numerical models – the FLEXible PARTicle dispersion model (FLEXPART) and the Modèle Isentropique de transport Mésoéchelle de l'Ozone Stratosphérique par Advection (MIMOSA) – indicated that the lower-stratospheric aerosol content was influenced by the intense and persistent stratospheric aerosol layer generated during the 2019–2020 extreme Australian bushfire events. A portion of this layer was transported eastward by prevailing easterly winds, leading to increased aerosol extinction profiles over Réunion on 27 and 28 January. Analysis of advected potential vorticity revealed isentropic transport of air masses containing Australian biomass burning aerosols from extratropical latitudes to Réunion at the 400 K isentropic level on 28 January. Interestingly, we found that biomass burning (BB) activity in eastern Africa, though weak during this season, significantly influenced (contributed up to 90 % of) the vertical distribution of CO and aerosols in the upper troposphere over the SWIO basin. Ground-based observations at Réunion confirmed the simultaneous presence of African and Australian aerosol layers. This study provides the first evidence of African BB emissions impacting the CO and aerosol distribution in the upper troposphere over the SWIO basin during the convective season.

This study focused on the TALK Debrief Experience in the prehospital personnel (n = 1521) of a western Spanish healthcare region during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The study aimed to apply the TALK clinical debriefing intervention to out-of-hospital clinical staff during pandemics; identify their emotions, thoughts, coping strategies, and solution proposals; determine their demands for improving well-being and coping ability; and disseminate valuable knowledge for addressing trauma in similar situations. The study employed a qualitative methodology within a participatory action research (PAR) framework, conducting group discussions (n = 375) and employing the TALK clinical debriefing method as the guiding framework for the sessions. The discussion group meetings were facilitated by psychologists (n = 67) who had received training in this intervention technique. Various emotions were identified during the sessions, including fear of contagion, lack of control and security, work-related stress, and ethical dilemmas. Proposed solutions and coping strategies addressed increased security measures, promotion of social distancing, stress and anxiety management, and clarity in procedures and provision of protective equipment. The study also highlighted additional demands such as the need for clear information, psychological support, and changes in work practices like reducing strenuous shifts. In conclusion, despite study limitations, such as the lack of long-term follow-up, it emphasized the importance of comprehensively addressing well-being and working conditions during health crises.

Background: We investigated the link between the endorsement of self-enhancement values (e.g., ambition, influence, authority and social power) and school achievement (i.e., grades). Aim: Adopting an intersectional framework, we argued that the link may be qualified by both students' gender and their parents' education level. We hypothesized that depending on students' different experiences in the school system as a function of their gender and their parents' level of educational attainment, the endorsement of self-enhancement values might be either beneficial or detrimental to their academic achievement. Samples: We conducted two studies: a pilot study (N = 191) and a preregistered main study (N = 652). Method: High-school students reported their endorsement of self-enhancement values, their gender and their parents' education level. The school administration provided students' grade average. Results and Conclusions: In the pilot study, we found an interaction effect between the endorsement of self-enhancement values, gender and parental level of education on grades: For male students, the endorsement of self-enhancement values was associated with lower grades when their parents had a lower education level, but there was no such association for male students whose parents had a higher education level. No such effect was found for female students. With an improved methodology, the main study found an interaction effect between the endorsement of self-enhancement values and gender on grades. Independent of parental education level, the endorsement of self-enhancement values had a positive effect on grades among male students. No effect of self-enhancement values on grades was found among female students.

Low-temperature plasma (LTP) is being advanced as an alternative radiation source that offers unique chemical properties demonstrated in a variety of reactive plasma species, in which electrons are the primary species derived upon plasma irradiation. We employed a simple and reliable protocol based on two-electron reduction of nitrate into nitrite ions coupled with fluorometric detection to quantify the uptakes of solvated electrons in irradiated solutions under two distinct plasma conditions of our LTP source. In addition, we explored the influence of other plasma species and the solution pH on the uptake rates. Under such conditions, the estimated uptake of solvated electrons was below 0.1 mM, suggesting that this value represents the minimum concentration of plasma electrons transferred to the solution. Quantifying plasma electrons accurately is particularly important for LTP applications that involve biological molecules, as they are susceptible to damage by low-energy electrons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]