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Ternary nitrides are rapidly emerging as promising compounds for optoelectronic and energy conversion applications, yet comparatively little of this vast composition space has been explored. Furthermore, the crystal structures of these compounds can exhibit a significant amount of disorder, the consequences of which are not yet well understood. Here, the deposition of bixbyite‐type ZrTaN3 thin films is demonstrated by reactive magnetron co‐sputtering and observed semiconducting character, with a strong optical absorption onset at 1.8 eV and significant photoactivity, with prospective application as functional photoanodes. It is found that Wyckoff‐site occupancy of cations is a critical factor in determining these beneficial optoelectronic properties. First‐principles calculations show that cation disorder leads to minor deviations in the total energy but modulates the bandgap by 0.5 eV, changing orbital hybridization of valence and conduction band states. In addition to demonstrating that ZrTaN3 is a promising visible light‐absorbing semiconductor and active photoanode material, the findings provide important insights regarding the role of cation ordering on the electronic structure of ternary semiconductors. In particular, it is shown that not only cation order, but also the cationic Wyckoff site occupancy has a substantial impact on key optoelectronic properties, which can guide future design and synthesis of advanced semiconductors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rising Lyme borreliosis incidence rates, potential for severe outcomes, and limitations in accurate and timely diagnosis for treatment initiation suggest the need for a preventive vaccine; however, no vaccine is currently available for human use. We performed two studies in adults to optimise the dose level and vaccination schedule for VLA15, an investigational Lyme borreliosis vaccine targeting outer surface protein A (OspA) serotypes 1–6, which are associated with the most common pathogenic Borrelia species in Europe and North America. Both randomised, observer-blind, placebo-controlled, multicentre phase 2 studies included participants aged 18–65 years without recent history of Lyme borreliosis or tick bites. Study one was conducted at nine clinical research and study centre sites in the USA (n=6), Germany (n=2), and Belgium (n=1); study two was conducted at five of the study one US sites. Based on a randomisation list created by an unmasked statistician for each study, participants were randomly assigned via an electronic case report form randomisation module to receive 90 μg (study one only), 135 μg, or 180 μg VLA15 or placebo by intramuscular injection at months 0, 1, and 2 (study one) or 0, 2, and 6 (study two). Study one began with a run-in phase to confirm safety, after which the Data Safety Monitoring Board recommended the removal of the 90 μg group and continuation of the study. In the study one run-in phase, randomisation was stratified by study site, whereas in the study one main phase and in study two, randomisation was stratified by study site, age group, and baseline B burgdorferi (sensu lato) serostatus. All individuals were masked, other than staff involved in randomisation, vaccine preparation or administration, or safety data monitoring. The primary endpoint for both studies was OspA-specific IgG geometric mean titres (GMTs) at 1 month after the third vaccination and was evaluated in the per-protocol population. Safety endpoints were evaluated in the safety population: all participants who received at least one vaccination. Both studies are registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (study one NCT03769194 and study two NCT03970733) and are completed. For study one, 573 participants were screened and randomly assigned to treatment groups between Dec 21, 2018, and Sept, 26, 2019. For study two, 248 participants were screened and randomly assigned between June 26 and Sept 3, 2019. In study one, 29 participants were assigned to receive 90 μg VLA15, 215 to 135 μg, 205 to 180 μg, and 124 to placebo. In study two, 97 participants were assigned to receive 135 μg VLA15, 100 to 180 μg, and 51 to placebo. At 1 month after the third vaccination (ie, month 3), OspA-specific IgG GMTs in study one ranged from 74·3 (serotype 1; 95% CI 46·4–119·0) to 267·4 units per mL (serotype 3; 194·8–367·1) for 90 μg VLA15, 101·9 (serotype 1; 87·1–119·4) to 283·2 units per mL (serotype 3; 248·2–323·1) for 135 μg, and 115·8 (serotype 1; 98·8–135·7) to 308·6 units per mL (serotype 3; 266·8–356·8) for 180 μg. In study two, ranges at 1 month after the third vaccination (ie, month 7) were 278·5 (serotype 1; 214·9–361·0) to 545·2 units per mL (serotype 2; 431·8–688·4) for 135 μg VLA15 and 274·7 (serotype 1; 209·4–360·4) to 596·8 units per mL (serotype 3; 471·9–754·8) for 180 μg. Relative to placebo, the VLA15 groups had more frequent reports of solicited local adverse events (study one: 94%, 95% CI 91–96 vs 26%, 19–34; study two: 96%, 93–98 vs 35%, 24–49 after any vaccination) and solicited systemic adverse events (study one: 69%, 65–73 vs 43%, 34–52; study two: 74%, 67–80 vs 51%, 38–64); most were mild or moderate. In study one, unsolicited adverse events were reported by 52% (48–57) of participants in the VLA15 groups and 52% (43–60) of those in the placebo groups; for study two these were 65% (58–71) and 69% (55–80), respectively. Percentages of participants reporting serious unsolicited adverse events (study one: 2%, 1–4; study two: 4%, 2–7) and adverse events of special interest (study one: 1%, 0–2; study two: 1%, 0–3) were low across all groups. A single severe, possibly related unsolicited adverse event was reported (worsening of pre-existing ventricular extrasystoles, which resolved after change of relevant concomitant medication); no related serious adverse events or deaths were reported. VLA15 was safe, well tolerated, and elicited robust antibody responses to all six OspA serotypes. These findings support further clinical development of VLA15 using the 180 μg dose and 0-2-6-month schedule, which was associated with the greatest immune responses. Valneva. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engaging with the public is increasingly seen as an important role of scientists. Despite that, few opportunities exist for undergraduate students to receive training in engaging with the public about science. Thus, little is known about the impact of such training on students. The goal of the current study was to investigate the impact of public engagement training on participants in a summer program for undergraduates that provides training in both research and engagement activities. The results of our interviews suggest that providing opportunities for undergraduates to engage with the public (1) has many personal, academic, and career benefits for students; (2) increases participants' interest in public engagement; and (3) may contribute to helping students develop and maintain an identity as scientists. Importantly, students from minoritized racial groups may be even more impacted by this experience. These data suggest that early experiences with public engagement may not only be an important way to increase the number of publicly engaged scientists but may also broaden participation in science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While Ta3N5 shows excellent potential as a semiconductor photoanode for solar water splitting, its performance is hindered by poor charge carrier transport and trapping due to native defects that introduce electronic states deep within its bandgap. Here, it is demonstrated that controlled Ti doping of Ta3N5 can dramatically reduce the concentration of deep‐level defects and enhance its photoelectrochemical performance, yielding a sevenfold increase in photocurrent density and a 300 mV cathodic shift in photocurrent onset potential compared to undoped material. Comprehensive characterization reveals that Ti4+ ions substitute Ta5+ lattice sites, thereby introducing compensating acceptor states, reducing the concentrations of deleterious nitrogen vacancies and reducing Ta3+ states, and thereby suppressing trapping and recombination. Owing to the similar ionic radii of Ti4+ and Ta5+, substitutional doping does not introduce lattice strain or significantly affect the underlying electronic structure of the host semiconductor. Furthermore, Ti can be incorporated without increasing the oxygen donor content, thereby enabling the electrical conductivity to be tuned by over seven orders of magnitude. Thus, Ti doping of Ta3N5 provides a powerful basis for precisely engineering its optoelectronic characteristics and to substantially improve its functional characteristics as an advanced photoelectrode for solar fuels applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has shown that both adults and children organize familiar activity into discrete units with consistent boundaries, despite the dynamic, continuous nature of everyday experiences. However, less is known about how observers segment unfamiliar event sequences. In the current study, we took advantage of the novelty that is inherent in modern dance. Modern dance features natural human motion but does not contain canonical goals—therefore, observers cannot recruit prior goal‐related knowledge to segment it. Our main aims were to identify whether observers segment modern dance into the steps intended by the dancers, and what types of cues contribute to segmentation under these circumstances. Experiment 1 used a classic event segmentation task and found that adults were able to consistently identify only a few of the dancers' intended steps. Experiment 2 tested adults in an offline labeling task. Results showed that steps which could more easily be labeled offline in Experiment 2 were more likely to be segmented online in Experiment 1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the long tradition of using the scientific method to study language, there is a widespread, if largely anecdotally based, feeling among language scientists that the general public does not perceive language to be a classic object of scientific study. The goal of the current study was to investigate this notion. We report the results of three experiments conducted in informal science learning environments that: (i) confirm the public thinks of science and language as fundamentally different objects, and (ii) show there are some areas of language science that are more readily accepted as science than others. Our results also suggest that high-impact demonstrations of core linguistic phenomena may be used to encourage people to recognize that language can be, and often is, an object of scientific study. Although the public has an incomplete understanding of the study of language, we argue that the strong humanistic approach with which the public associates the study of language can be seen as an opportunity to broaden participation in science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adults with no knowledge of sign languages can perceive distinctive markers that signal event boundedness (telicity), suggesting that telicity is a cognitively natural semantic feature that can be marked iconically (Strickland et al., 2015). This study asks if non-signing children (5-year-olds) can also link telicity to iconic markers in sign. Experiment 1 attempted three close replications of Strickland et al. (2015) and found only limited success. However, Experiment 2 showed that children can both perceive the relevant visual feature and can succeed at linking the visual property to telicity semantics when allowed to filter their answer through their own linguistic choices. Children's performance demonstrates the cognitive naturalness and early availability of the semantics of telicity, supporting the idea that telicity helps guide the language acquisition process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Male partner awareness and acceptance of microbicide and family planning product use has been shown to increase women's own acceptance and adherence of a product. However, little is known about preferences regarding potential Multipurpose Prevention Technology (MPT) product delivery forms. As part of the TRIO study, men's reactions to their female partner's TRIO product use and comparisons of men's and women's views of TRIO product attributes and use acceptability were explored to better understand product preferences. Methods: Women in TRIO used three placebo products that represented potential MPTs: daily oral tablets, monthly vaginal rings, and monthly dual injections. Male partners (N = 39) and women (N = 88) completed in-depth interviews on their own and their partner's experiences with these products. Qualitative coding and analyses followed a conceptual model of HIV prevention product acceptability, and here, we explored themes of disclosure, trust and infidelity as they informed barriers and facilitators to product use. Results: Men expressed a desire to know of their partner's product use decisions and be informed and educated on the products to better support their partners, in some cases, expressing a high level of concern regarding maximizing the ease of product adherence for their partner. They also wanted to understand the effects of products on sexual encounters with their partner, but in some cases, wanted more knowledge in order to control their partner's product use decisions. Similarly to women, men found long-acting, discreet products that have little to no effect on sexual encounters or libido the most acceptable for their female partners' use. Product use was most acceptable to men if they were informed of use without inadvertent discovery. Conclusions: Men's product attribute preferences often aligned with women's opinions of the same products. To support women's correct use of MPTs, further research is needed to determine the best strategy for achieving male partner acceptance and support of product use, particularly for less familiar delivery forms, such as the vaginal ring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the resonances and permeabilities between the archives of two Haitian broadcast institutions. The first is Radio Haïti-Inter, the country's most prominent independent radio station, based in Port-au-Prince, whose archives are now held at Duke University's Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. The second is Lè Ayisyèn , a New York-based leftist Haitian diaspora radio program broadcast out of Columbia University between 1969 and 2002, the archive of which remains partially processed. In addition to its own original programs, Lè Ayisyèn held onto tapes of Radyo Ayiti nan Nouyòk , a program that Radio Haïti's Jean Dominique and Anthony Pascal (Konpè Filo) anchored during their exile in the early 1980s. The authors' collaborative work to process these two collections and bring them into dialogue with one another fills in some gaps in Radio Haïti's archival record; provides a glimpse of the political, cultural, and social shifts of New York's Haitian community; and shows the transnational nature of political resistance and broadcast. We argue for the importance of rasanblaj–collaboration, compiling, and reassembling–in archival work and in the preservation of memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In patients with pulmonary embolism (PE), there is a growing interest in quantifying the pulmonary vascular obtruction index (PVOI), which may be an independent risk factor for PE recurrence. Perfusion SPECT/CT is a very attractive tool to provide an accurate quantification of the PVOI. However, there is currently no reliable method to automatically delineate and quantify it. The aim of this phantom study was to assess and compare 3 segmentation methods for PVOI quantification with perfusion SPECT/CT imaging. Methods: Three hundred ninety-six SPECT/CT scans, with various PE scenarios (n = 44), anterior to posterior perfusion gradients (n = 3), and lung volumes (n = 3) were simulated using Simind software. Three segmentation methods were assesssed: (1) using an intensity threshold expressed as a percentage of the maximal voxel value (MaxTh), (2) using a Z-score threshold (ZTh) after building a Z-score parametric lung map, and (3) using a relative difference threshold (RelDiffTh) after building a relative difference parametric map. Ninety randomly selected simulations were used to define the optimal threshold, and 306 simulations were used for the complete analysis. Spacial correlation between PE volumes from the phantom data and the delineated PE volumes was assessed by computing DICEPE indices. Bland-Altman statistics were used to calculate agreement for PVOI between the phantom data and the segmentation methods. Results: Mean DICEPE index was higher with the RelDiffTh method (0.85 ± 0.08), as compared with the MaxTh method (0.78 ± 0.16) and the ZTh method (0.67 ± 0.15). Using the RelDiffTh method, mean DICEPE index remained high (> 0.81) regardless of the perfusion gradient and the lung volumes. Using the RelDiffTh method, mean relative difference in PVOI was − 12%, and the limits of agreement were − 40% to 16%. Values were 3% (− 75% to 81%) for MaxTh method and 0% (− 120% to 120%) for ZTh method. Graphycal analysis of the Bland-Altman graph for the RelDiffTh method showed very close estimation of the PVOI for small and medium PE, and a trend toward an underestimation of large PE. Conclusion: In this phantom study, a delineation method based on a relative difference parametric map provided a good estimation of the PVOI, regardless of the extent of PE, the intensity of the anterior to posterior gradient, and the whole lung volumes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Person-centered care (PCC) is the standard for the delivery of long-term services and supports (LTSS). In this article, we summarize the state of the science on meaningful outcomes and workforce development and discuss what is needed to ensure that person-centered LTSS becomes a universal reality. These 2 themes are intimately related: the dementia care workforce's capacity cannot be improved until care processes and outcomes that are significant to PCC are explicated. The LTSS workforce needs training in PCC as well as pragmatic measures to assess the quality of the care they provide. We conclude with several recommendations for future policy and practice-oriented workforce research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Data on ocular syphilis (OS) and its clinical presentation are currently insufficient. This study aimed to investigate the characteristics of a cohort with a high OS incidence at a university hospital in Germany, focusing on the clinical presentation of OS.Methods: This single-center cohort study retrospectively analyzed data on 90 patients with 109 episodes of syphilis between 2008 and 2018. Cases of OS were identified and additionally reevaluated through a study-specific secondary assessment by an ophthalmologist specializing in uveitis.Results: Twenty-three patients (26%) were diagnosed with OS, 16 (70%) of whom were with binocular involvement. Uveitis, especially that of the posterior segment, showed a high prevalence. Lumbar puncture was performed in 20 OS patients (87%), of whom 17 (85% of those with lumbar puncture/74% in total) met the 2018 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria for likely neurosyphilis. Five (22%) of 23 patients had HIV infection, of whom 2 did not receive antiretroviral therapy. The preferred syphilis treatment regimens were benzylpenicillin and ceftriaxone, which yielded favorable serological, clinical, and ophthalmological outcomes.Conclusions: A high incidence of OS was identified, and physicians should be aware of uveitis as a manifestation of syphilis. Most patients presented with uveitis and syphilis in an early or late latent stage and showed central nervous system involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives Medical providers are significant drivers of care in post-acute long-term care (PALTC) settings, yet little research has examined the medical provider workforce and its role in ensuring quality of care. Research Design and Methods This study examined the impact of nursing home medical staffing organization (NHMSO) dimensions on the quality of care in U.S. nursing homes. The principal data source was a survey specifically designed to study medical staff organization for post-acute care. Respondents were medical directors and attending physicians providing PALTC. We linked a number of medical provider and nursing home characteristics to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services Nursing Home Compare quality measures hypothesized to be sensitive to input by medical providers. Results From the sample of nursing home medical providers surveyed (n = 1,511), 560 responses were received, yielding a 37% response rate; 425 medical provider responses contained sufficient data for analysis. The results of the impact of NHMSO dimensions were mixed, with many domains not having any significance or having negative relationships between provider characteristics and quality measures. Respondents who reported having a formal process for granting privileges and nursing homes with direct employment of physicians reported significantly fewer emergency visits. Discussion and Implications Further research is needed regarding what quality measures are sensitive to both medical provider characteristics and NHMSO characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: An integrated collaborative care intervention was used to treat primary care patients with comorbid obesity and depression in a randomized clinical trial. To increase wider uptake and dissemination, information is needed on translational potential. Methods: The trial collected longitudinal, qualitative data at baseline, 6 months (end of intensive treatment), 12 months (end of maintenance treatment), and 24 months (end of follow-up). Semi-structured interviews (n = 142) were conducted with 54 out of 409 randomly selected trial participants and 37 other stakeholders, such as recruitment staff, intervention staff, and clinicians. Using a Framework Analysis approach, we examined themes across time and stakeholder groups according to the RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance) framework. Results: At baseline, participants and other stakeholders reported being skeptical of the collaborative care approach related to some RE-AIM dimensions. However, over time they indicated greater confidence regarding the potential for future public health impact. They also provided information on barriers and actionable information to enhance program reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance. Conclusions: RE-AIM provided a useful framework for understanding how to increase the impact of a collaborative and integrative approach for treating comorbid obesity and depression. It also demonstrates the utility of using the framework as a planning tool early in the evidence-generation pipeline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The present research examined lie detection abilities of a rarely investigated group, namely offenders. Results of the studies conducted thus far indicated a better performance of offenders compared to non‐offenders when discriminating between true and false messages. With two new studies, we aimed at replicating offenders' superior abilities in the context of deception detection. Results of Study 1 (N = 76 males), in contrast, revealed that offenders were significantly worse at accurately classifying true and false messages compared to non‐offenders (students). Results of Study 2 (N = 175 males) revealed that offenders' discrimination performance was not significantly different compared to non‐offenders (clinic staff). An internal meta‐analysis yielded no significant difference between offenders and non‐offenders, questioning the generalizability of previous findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the evidence that infants are sensitive to facial cues and prosody for the detection of emotion, we have contradictory evidence regarding the use of these cues by older preschool and school children when inferring both emotional and politeness stance. This study assessed preschool aged children's sensitivity to intonational and facial cues signalling a speaker's polite stance in requestive speech acts with controlled lexical and contextual materials. Thirty-six 3-year-old American English-speaking children performed a forced-choice decision task which investigated whether children at this age use pitch and/or facial cues to infer a speaker's affective stance in either audio-only, visual-only or audio-visual presentation modalities, when lexical cues are controlled for. Results showed that (a) children at three years can infer a speaker's polite stance equally well in all three conditions (audio-only, visual-only and audio-visual) and thereby (b) unlike previous research, in the present task both intonation and facial cues are equally strong cues in children's understanding of a speaker's polite stance in requestive speech acts. The authors discuss especially the implications of this early use of intonation to detect politeness, relating it to other previous research on children's ability to infer meaning from pitch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kind representations draw an important distinction between properties that are understood as existing in instances of a kind by virtue of their being the kind of thing they are and properties that are not understood in this manner. For example, the property of barking for the kind dog is understood as being had by dogs by virtue of the fact that they are dogs. These properties are said to have a principled connection to the kind. In contrast, the property of wearing a collar is not understood as existing in instances by virtue of their being dogs, despite the fact that a large percentage of dogs wear collars. Such properties are said to have a statistical connection to the kind. Two experiments tested two signatures of principled connections in 4-7 year olds and adults: (i) that principled connections license normative expectations (e.g., we judge there to be something wrong with a dog that does not bark), and (ii) that principled connections license formal explanations which explain the existence of a property by reference to the kind (e.g., that barks because it is a dog). Experiment 1 showed that both the children and adults have normative expectations for properties that have a principled connection to a kind, but not those that have a mere statistical connection to a kind. Experiment 2 showed that both children and adults are more likely to provide a formal explanation when explaining the existence of properties with a principled connection to a kind than properties with statistical connections to their kinds. Both experiments showed no effect of age (over ages 4, 7, and adulthood) on the extent to which participants differentiated principled and statistical connections. We discuss the implications of the results for theories of conceptual representation and for the structure of explanation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Huntington disease (HD) is an adult-onset neurodegenerative disorder that is caused by a trinucleotide CAG repeat expansion in the HTT gene that codes for the protein huntingtin (HTT in humans or Htt in mice). HTT is a multi-functional, ubiquitously expressed protein that is essential for embryonic survival, normal neurodevelopment, and adult brain function. The ability of wild-type HTT to protect neurons against various forms of death raises the possibility that loss of normal HTT function may worsen disease progression in HD. Huntingtin-lowering therapeutics are being evaluated in clinical trials for HD, but concerns have been raised that decreasing wild-type HTT levels may have adverse effects. Here we show that Htt levels modulate the occurrence of an idiopathic seizure disorder that spontaneously occurs in approximately 28% of FVB/N mice, which we have called FVB/N Seizure Disorder with SUDEP (FSDS). These abnormal FVB/N mice demonstrate the cardinal features of mouse models of epilepsy including spontaneous seizures, astrocytosis, neuronal hypertrophy, upregulation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and sudden seizure-related death. Interestingly, mice heterozygous for the targeted inactivation of Htt (Htt+/- mice) exhibit an increased frequency of this disorder (71% FSDS phenotype), while over-expression of either full length wild-type HTT in YAC18 mice or full length mutant HTT in YAC128 mice completely prevents it (0% FSDS phenotype). Examination of the mechanism underlying huntingtin's ability to modulate the frequency of this seizure disorder indicated that overexpression of full length HTT can promote neuronal survival following seizures. Overall, our results demonstrate a protective role for huntingtin in this form of epilepsy and provide a plausible explanation for the observation of seizures in the juvenile form of HD, Lopes-Maciel-Rodan syndrome, and Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome. Adverse effects caused by decreasing huntingtin levels have ramifications for huntingtin-lowering therapies that are being developed to treat HD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives To develop an internationally accepted research definition of physical restraint. Design Comprehensive literature search followed by a web-based, three-round, modified Delphi technique comprising reviews and feedback. Setting Clinical care settings. Participants An international group of 48 experts consisting of researchers and clinicians from 14 countries who have made sustained contribution to research and clinical application in the field of physical restraint in clinical care. Measurements Data were collected using an online survey program and one in-person meeting. Results of the online survey and the in-person meeting were used for distribution in subsequent rounds until consensus on a definition was reached. Consensus was defined as 90% of the participating experts agreeing with the proposed definition of physical restraint. Results Thirty-four different definitions were identified during the literature search and served as a starting point for the modified Delphi technique. After three rounds, 45 (95.7%) of 47 remaining experts agreed with the newly proposed definition: 'Physical restraint is defined as any action or procedure that prevents a person's free body movement to a position of choice and/or normal access to his/her body by the use of any method, attached or adjacent to a person's body that he/she cannot control or remove easily.' Conclusion A multidisciplinary, internationally representative panel of experts reached consensus on a research definition for physical restraints in older persons. This is a necessary step toward improved comparisons of the prevalence of physical restraint use across studies and countries. This definition can further guide research interventions aimed at reducing use of physical restraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a series of two experiments, we examined 5-year-old children's motivations for learning new conventional actions. Children watched two teachers open a novel container; the teachers differed in the nonfunctional, conventional actions they used in the process. In Experiment 1, one teacher spoke with a native accent and the other spoke with a nonnative accent. Children showed a preference for following the native-accented teacher, and this preference was interpreted as a motivation to match an in-group member. In Experiment 2, the speech accent of the teacher was crossed with explicit expressions of (un)certainty by the teachers. In this case, children preferred the more certain teacher, even when the certain teacher spoke with a nonnative speech accent. This preference was taken as demonstrating a utilitarian motivation that led to choosing the teacher most likely to have useful information. Taken together, these results suggest that by 5 years of age, children are motivated by both utilitarian and in-group considerations when selecting between sources of information; however, when forced to select between the two motivations, utilitarian concerns take precedent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To model the factors that are associated with the use of eye care services among the US population with and without diabetes, stratifying by age group. Design: Meta-analysis. Participants: We analyzed data from 3 datasets: the Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System combined years 2006-2009, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey combined years 2005-2008, and the National Health Interview Survey year 2008. For all 3 datasets, we analyzed data from all survey participants aged 40 years or older who participated in vision-related survey modules. Methods: We performed multivariate logistic regression analyses to assess associations between any eye care use within the previous year and 14 indicators of patient demographics and health. We estimated separate regressions for persons with and without diabetes stratified by age group. We combined estimates across datasets using a random effects model estimated using Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithms. Main Outcome Measures: Use of eye care in the previous year and personal factors associated with eye care use. Results: Annual eye care use rates ranged from 46% to 51 % in participants without diabetes and 64% to 72% in participants with diabetes. For people with and without diabetes, health insurance, an eye disease diagnosis, and higher income were associated with higher odds of eye care use. Being male was associated with lower odds of eye care use in some diabetes status and age group categories. Other variables, such as more education, being married, black race, Hispanic/Latino ethnicity, health status, heavy drinking, and limited ability to read small print, were associated with eye care use in only some diabetes status and age group categories. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that economic and ocular health factors are associated with the greatest odds of annual eye care use. Access to health insurance and income levels greater than $35 000 US dollars (value at the time of interview) are associated with eye care use independently of other demographic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose of the Study: This study examines the association between nursing home accreditation and deficiency citations. Design and Methods: Data originated from a web-based search of The Joint Commission (TJC) accreditation and On-line Survey Certification of Automated Records from 2002 to 2010. Deficiency citations were divided into 4 categories: resident behavior and facility practices, quality of life, quality of care, and the most severe citations. Data were analyzed through negative binomial regression, where the number of residents at risk for each measure was the exposure level for that measure. Results: TJC-accredited nursing homes had fewer deficiency citations in all 4 deficiency categories examined. Comparing citations in the year of accreditation with the first year after accreditation, 3 of the 4 deficiency categories were significant. In comparing deficiency citations after 8 years of accreditation, all 4 categories of deficiencies were significant. In all cases, accreditation was associated with fewer deficiency citations. Implications: Our results indicate that TJC-accredited nursing homes improve their quality immediately after accreditation and continue to maintain these improvements over the long-term. These findings support the need for further discussion and facilitation of voluntary accreditation in nursing homes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on the life and career of Czech diplomat Jan Hasištejnský z Lobkovic and his travels to different Mediterranean countries at the end of the 15th century described in his travelogue. Topics mentioned include the influence of his faith in Catholicism on his perspective of the Mediterranean world, his analyses of the political conflicts in the region, and his connection of the Czech lands with the rest of the countries.

Alcohol misuse and abuse in Assisted Living (AL) as reported by nurse aides is examined. Data came from a secondary analysis of nurse aides included in the Pennsylvania nurse aide registry. A total of 832 nurse aides had a prior place of employment in AL. Information reported from these nurse aides include the percent of residents identified as drinking alcohol, opinions of alcohol misuse and abuse, and the prevalence of alcohol misuse and abuse. Nurse aides believe a majority (69%) of AL residents drink alcohol. Of these residents, 34% are thought to drink alcohol daily. Estimated prevalence rates show that in 19% of cases nurse aides believe alcohol consumption has influenced residents’ health and 28% are suspected to make poor choices for alcohol consumption. The findings present preliminary evidence that alcohol misuse and abuse may be a problem of importance in AL. Given the potential impact of this on the health, safety, and quality of life for elders, more attention should be focused on alcohol misuse and abuse by residents living in AL. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objective: To explore the relationships between fall risk factors and care plan intervention and implementation. Design: Observational cohort study. Setting: Nursing homes in Central Ontario, Canada. Participants: Residents (n = 635) of 8 nursing homes across Ontario, Canada. Measurements: Chart reviews and observational rounds on nursing units were carried out to examine how well nursing staff (1) identified fall risk, (2) documented nursing care plan interventions, and (3) implemented nursing care plan interventions in residents who had fallen in the preceding year. Results: Of the 635 fallers, two thirds (65.9%) had a history of falls. A total of 94 fallers across the 8 facilities had no fall risk care plan included in their medical record, despite having fallen previously. Only 63.46% of nursing care plan interventions were successfully implemented. Shorter length of stay (P < .001; odds ratio [OR] 0.09; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.04–0.23), fall history (P = .002; OR 2.14; 95% CI 1.32–3.46), and those who are widowed (P = .001; OR 2.53; 95% CI 1.43–4.48) and divorced (P = .03; OR 2.16; 95% CI 1.06–4.40) predicted a higher likelihood of falls. Conclusion: This study revealed significant breakdowns in care related to the lack of documented care plan interventions for residents with a history of falls, and lack of implementation in cases where care plan interventions were made. Policies and procedures to improve the selection and implementation of care plan interventions may result in substantial improvements in nursing home safety. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper investigated children's ability to use syntactic structures to infer semantic information. The particular syntax-semantics link examined was the one between transitivity (transitive/intransitive structures) and telicity (telic/atelic perspectives; that is, boundedness). Although transitivity is an important syntactic reflex of telicity, it is neither necessary nor sufficient for predicting a telicity value; it is therefore a weak cue for telicity semantics. Nevertheless, children do make use of it. Experiment 1 used a match-to-sample task and found that 3-year-old children could use transitivity information to guide their interpretations of telicity. Experiment 2 used a preferential looking task with 2-year-old children and similarly found that these children could successfully use transitivity as a cue to telicity. Children in both experiments succeeded with both causal and directed-motion events, suggesting that telicity judgements are not tied to any one event type. These results are discussed in the context of other semantic elements that children can link to transitivity, and taken together, are argued to support a largely inferential link between transitivity and telicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For socially appropriate communication, speakers must command a variety of linguistic styles, or registers, that vary according to social context and social relationships. This study examined preschool children's ability to use a speaker's register choice to infer the identity of their addressee. Four-year-olds could draw correct inferences based on Spanish and formal speech, and had limited success with infant-directed and casual styles. Five-year-olds drew appropriate inferences with all 4 styles; moreover, these children demonstrated strong explicit understanding of register, as measured through response justifications. These results demonstrate that children can use language for social judgments that extend beyond evaluating the speaker, and can interpret social implications of language even when not directly engaged in the particular social interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective fall-risk communication both among staff and between staff and family members is vital for ensuring the safety of residents in long-term care (LTC) settings. This study uses focus group methodology to investigate how information about falls is identified, communicated, and responded to by licensed staff (registered nurses/registered practical nurses) and unlicensed staff (personal support workers) in four LTC facilities. The authors report on the major themes that emerged throughout the focus groups relating to falls management and report on similarities and differences in the communication processes between the two sampled groups. Results highlight communication of the resident's fall risk, reporting procedures to staff and family members, care plan communication and adherence information, a falls quality improvement knowledge deficit, and barriers to falls quality improvement. Recommendations toward improved communication networks among diverse LTC staff to enhance fall-reduction efforts in LTC settings are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contractures represent a common but preventable source of excess disability among nursing home residents. They result in many negative consequences such as pain, increased fall risk and decreased functional ability. Studies of prevalence vary in the definition of contracture and thus the exact enumeration, but consistently report the commonality in the nursing home setting. In this population, the clinician should focus on tertiary prevention and/or treatment. Methods such as those consistent with restorative care nursing have shown improvement in function and are a reasonable recommendation as a preventive measure for contractures. Assessment, prevention, and treatment approaches are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Children's early production typically favors prototypical groupings of temporal-aspectual features; children prefer to say telic, perfective, past combinations (e.g., broke) and atelic, imperfective present combinations (e.g., riding). The current experiments examine the extent to which adults also favor these prototypical groups in a comprehension task (Experiment 1) and a sentence comparison task (Experiment 2). The results show that, like children, adults find prototypical combinations easier to understand, particularly in low-information contexts. Moreover, adults judge prototypical combinations as better sentences than nonprototypical sentences. The results are argued to support continuity in aspectual representations. The differences between children and adults is linked to the proposed origin of the prototypes themselves, namely, information processing demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Three studies using the intermodal preferential looking paradigm examined onset of productive comprehension of tense/aspect morphology in English. When can toddlers understand these forms with novel verbs and novel events? The first study used familiar verbs and showed that 26–36-month olds correctly matched a past/perfective form (-ed or irregular past) to a completed version of an event and a present/imperfective (is V-ing) to the ongoing version of the same event. The second study used novel verbs and events and found that 33-month olds failed to use tense/aspect morphology to choose between completed and ongoing versions of the same event. The third study also used novel verbs and events but simplified the processing demands of the task in several ways (using initial priming of the events and classes of meaning, using different events within test pairs). This study found that 30-month olds successfully used tense/aspect morphology to choose between ongoing and completed novel events. The results demonstrate that children have productive command of tense/aspect morphology by 30 months and have therefore begun the process of creating an abstract grammar containing this element. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Purpose: To describe perceptions of workplace safety culture among nurses employed in long-term care (LTC) settings. Design: A cross-sectional survey. Respondents were licensed nurses ( N=550) with membership in gerontological nursing professional organizations in the United States ( n=296), Canada ( n=251), and other ( n=3). Methods: An anonymous, self-administered, mail-in questionnaire, which included the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture as well as questions about individual and institutional characteristics. The survey included key aspects of safety culture, such as work setting, supervisor support, communication about errors, and frequency of events reported. Findings: Nurse-managers reported significantly more positive safety culture perceptions compared with licensed staff nurses. Additionally, licensed nurses employed in government-run facilities had significantly less positive safety culture perceptions compared with those working in nonprofit organizations. Conclusions: Interventions designed to improve safety culture in LTC settings should be focused on the concerns of licensed staff nurses and the improvement of communication between these nurses and their managers. Clinical Relevance: Enhancing safety culture in long-term care settings may facilitate improvements in resident safety. Assessment of workplace safety culture is the first step in identifying barriers that nurses face to provide safe resident care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do infants represent objects, actions, and relations in events? In this review, we discuss an approach to studying this question that begins with linguistic theory—specifically, semantic structures in language. On the basis of recent research exploring infant cognition and prominent linguistic analyses, we examine whether infants' representations of motion events are articulated in terms of the components proposed by Talmy (1985 ; e.g., path, manner) and whether infants' event representations are defined in terms of broad semantic roles (agent, patient, source, goal) as proposed by Jackendoff (1990) and Dowty (1991) . We show how recent findings in infant cognition are consistent with the idea that the infant's representation of events is a close reflection of the linguistic categories. We especially highlight research that is explicitly guided by linguistic categories likely to have correlates in nonlinguistic cognition to illustrate the usefulness of using language to pose questions about early conceptual representations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We investigated children’s understanding of directed motion events using an imitation choice paradigm. A total of 34 children (mean age 33 months) watched a model act out an event containing a manner of motion (hopping or sliding), a motion path (up or down a ramp), and a goal (in or on a bowl). On the children’s apparatus, the locations of the goal objects were different from the model so that the children needed to choose whether to imitate the path or the goal of the model’s event. Children’s choice of which component to imitate, therefore, reflects how they prioritize these event components. Most children showed no bias to imitate the goal of the event and, instead, preferred to imitate the model’s path at the expense of the model’s goal. However, children who spontaneously played with the goal objects during a free play session showed a diminished path preference, choosing to imitate path and goal components equally often. We suggest that children’s prioritization of information within an event depends on how that information is structured within the event itself. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) dynamics in streams is important, yet few studies focus on DOC dynamics in Midwestern streams during storms. In this study, stream DOC dynamics during storms in two Midwestern watersheds with contrasting land uses, the change in character of stream DOC during storms, and the usability of DOC as a hydrologic tracer in artificially drained landscapes of the Midwest are investigated. Major cation/DOC concentrations, and DOC specific UV absorbance (SUVA) and fluorescence index (FI) were monitored at 2–4 h intervals during three spring storms. Although DOC is less aromatic in the mixed land use watershed than in the agricultural watershed, land use has little impact on stream DOC concentration during storms. For both watersheds, DOC concentration follows discharge, and SUVA and FI values indicate an increase in stream DOC aromaticity and lignin content during storms. The comparison of DOC/major cation flushing dynamics indicates that DOC is mainly exported via overland flow/macropore flow. In both watersheds, the increase in DOC concentration in the streams during storms corresponds to a shift in the source of DOC from DOC originating from mineral soil layers of the soil profile at baseflow, to DOC originating from surficial soil layers richer in aromatic substances and lignin during storms. Results also suggest that DOC, SUVA and FI could be used as hydrologic tracers in artificially drained landscapes of the Midwest. These results underscore the importance of sampling streams for DOC during high flow periods in order to understand the fate of DOC in streams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: What does mass–count syntax contribute to the interpretation of noun phrases (NPs), and how much of NP meaning is contributed by lexical items alone? Many have argued that count syntax specifies reference to countable individuals (e.g., cats) while mass syntax specifies reference to unindividuated entities (e.g., water). We evaluated this claim using the quantity judgment method, and tested the interpretation of words used in mass and count syntax that described either protracted, “durative” events (e.g., mass: some dancing; count: a dance), or instantaneous, “punctual” events (e.g., mass: some jumping; count: a jump). For durative words, participants judged, for example, that six brief dances are more dances but less dancing than two long dances, thus showing a significant difference in their interpretation of the count and mass usages. However, for punctual words, participants judged, for example, that six small jumps are both more jumps and more jumping than two long jumps, resulting in no difference due to mass–count syntax. Further, when asked which dimensions are important for comparing quantities of durative and punctual events, participants ranked number as first in importance for durative and punctual words presented in count syntax, but also for punctual words presented in mass syntax. These results indicate that names for punctual events individuate when used in either mass or count syntax, and thus provide evidence against the idea that mass syntax forces an unindividuated construal. They also indicate that event punctuality as encoded by verbs is importantly linked to the individuation of NPs, and may access a common underlying ontology of individuals. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Seat height that is too high (> 120% of lower leg length [LLL]) or too low (< 80% of LLL) can impede safe transfer and result in falls. This study examines the difference between LLL of frail nursing home residents and the height of their toilets and beds in the lowest position, compares the patient or environmental characteristics of those able to transfer from the bed or toilet to those who cannot, and determines the relationship of patient or environmental characteristics to bed-related falls. A retrospective observational design using secondary data from 263 nursing home residents finds that bed height of three fourths of participants was greater than 140% of LLL, whereas toilet height of more than half was 100% to 120% of LLL. Increased fall risk is associated with increased age, shorter length of stay, normal lower extremity range of motion, less cognitive impairment, more behavioral symptoms, and no complaints of pain during exam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVES: To examine the effect of an advanced practice nurse (APN) intervention on restrictive side rail usage in four nursing homes and with a sample of 251 residents. A secondary question explored the association between restrictive side rail reduction and bed-related falls. DESIGN: Pre- and posttest design. SETTING: Four urban nursing homes. PARTICIPANTS: All nursing home residents present in the nursing home at three time points (n=710, 719, and 707) and a subset of residents (n=251) with restrictive side rail use at baseline. INTERVENTION: APN consultation with individual residents and facility-wide education and consultation. MEASUREMENTS: Direct observation of side rail status, resident and nurse interview for functional status, mobility, cognition, behavioral symptoms, medical record review for demographics and treatment information, and incident reports for fall data. RESULTS: At the institutional level, one of the four nursing homes significantly reduced restrictive side rail use ( P=.01). At the individual participant level, 51.4% (n=130) reduced restrictive side rail use. For the group that reduced restrictive side rails, there was a significantly ( P<.001) reduced fall rate (−0.053; 95% confidence interval (CI)=−0.083 to −0.024), whereas the group that continued restrictive side rail did not demonstrate a significantly ( P=.17) reduced fall rate (−0.013; 95% CI=−0.056–0.030). CONCLUSION: An APN consultation model can safely reduce side rail use. Restrictive side rail reduction does not lead to an increase in bed-related falls. Although side rails serve many purposes, routine use of these devices to restrict voluntary movement and prevent falls is not supported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigates choline transport processes and regulation of choline transporter-like protein-1 (CTL1) in human THP-1 monocytic cells and phorbol myristate β-acetate (PMA)-differentiated macrophages. Choline uptake is saturable and therefore protein-mediated in both cell types, but its transport characteristics change soon after treatments with PMA. The maximal rate of choline uptake intrinsic to monocytic cells is greatly diminished in differentiated macrophages as demonstrated by alterations in Vmax values from 1,973 ± 118 to 380 ± 18 nmol·mg-1·min-1, when the binding affinity did not change significantly (Km, values 56 ± 8 and 53 ± 6 µM, respectively). Treatments with hemicholinim-3 effectively inhibit most of the choline uptake, establishing that a choline-specific transport protein rather than a general transporter is responsible for the observed kinetic parameters. mRNA screening for the expression of various transporters reveals that CTL1 is the most plausible candidate that possesses the described kinetic and inhibitory properties. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting analyses at various times after PMA treatments further demonstrate that the disappearance of CTL1 protein from the cell surface follows the same trend as the reduction in choline uptake. Importantly, the loss of functional CTL1 from the cell surface occurs without significant changes in total CTL1 protein or its mRNA level indicating that an impaired CTL1 trafficking is the key contributing factor to the reduced choline uptake, subsequent to the PMA-induced THP-1 differentiation to macrophages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Data from incident-reporting systems have been used successfully in disciplines other than health care to improve safely. This study tested the effect of a falls menu-driven incident-reporting system (MDIRS) on quality-improvement efforts in nursing homes. Design and Methods: Following instrument development and testing, the intervention occurred over a 4-month period in three intervention nursing homes using the MDIRS matched with three homes using their existing narrative incident report to document falls. Data on fall incidents were collected from facility incident reports, and comparisons in incident-report documentation were made between the intervention and control groups. The minutes from quality-improvement meetings were examined to see how incident-report data were used for fall- prevention strategies. Results: Almost one third of nursing home residents among the six facilities fell during the 4-month study period. Intervention nursing homes had significantly better documentation of fall characteristics on the incident reports than did the control nursing homes. Although only one nursing home fully implemented the MDIRS intervention, all three facilities identified strengths of the system. Implications: The MDIRS can have a significant impact in improving how nursing staff assess residents following a fall incident. Traditional narrative methods of documenting adverse incidents are time consuming and may not yield sufficient and accurate data. This model has the potential to enhance quality-improvement efforts and augment the current system of adverse incident reporting in nursing homes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This experiment investigated 12-month-old infants' ability to link an event's beginning to its probable ending. Following Csibra, Biro, Koos, and Gergely (2003), infants were habituated to a simple chasing event involving animated balls, and at test saw 2 possible endings: either 1 ball caught the other or failed to do so. Two controls were added to the previous work. First, the total amount of motion was controlled in the test endings; second, the endings were paired with a nonchasing beginning to ensure that behavior at test reflected representation of the event beginning itself. The results replicated Csibra et al.'s finding that infants look longer at the noncatching ending following the chasing beginning; moreover, infants showed no preference for either ending following the no-chasing beginning. This study supports the claim that infants can calculate the rational ending of a goal-directed motion event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a mouse gene and cDNA encoding for a novel skeletal muscle-specific choline transporter-like protein 1 (mCTL1) were identified and mCTL1 mRNA and protein expression characterized. The mCTL1 cDNA is 2888-bp long; consisting of a 653-amino-acid open-reading frame, 8–11 putative transmembrane domains, three N-glycosylation sites and seven protein kinase C phosphorylation sites. The mCTL1 gene is localized to chromosome 4B2, at 182 kb in length, and encoded by 17 exons. Although the mCTL1 mRNA was expressed in several mouse tissues such as muscle, brain, heart and testis, the protein analyses of multiple tissues and membrane vesicles reveal that mCTL1 is exclusively expressed in skeletal muscle. Expression of His-tagged mCTL1 in Cos-7 cells produces an increase in saturable choline uptake that is sensitive to a Na+-ion gradient, ethanolamine and the Ca2+-channel blocker verapamil, and insensitive to low concentrations of hemicholinium-3. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study investigates children''s ability to use language to guide their choice of individuation criterion in the domains of objects and events. Previous work (Shipley, E. F., & Shepperson, B. (1990). Countable entities: developmental changes. Cognition, 34, 109–136.) has shown that children have a strong bias to use a spatio-temporal individuation strategy when counting objects and that children will ignore a conflicting linguistic description in favor of this spatio-temporal bias. Experiment 1 asked children (3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds) and adults to count objects and events under different linguistic descriptions. In the object task, subjects counted pictures of familiar objects split into multiple pieces (as in Shipley, E. F., & Shepperson, B. (1990). Countable entities: developmental changes. Cognition, 34, 109–136.) and described either using an appropriate kind label (e.g. “car”) or the general term “thing”. In the event task, subjects watched short animated movies consisting of a goal-oriented event achieved via multiple, temporally separated steps. The events were described either with an appropriate telic predicate targeting the goal (e.g. “paint a flower”) or with an atelic predicate targeting the steps in the process (e.g. “paint”) and the subjects'' task was to count the events. Relative to adults, children preferred a spatio-temporal counting strategy in both tasks; there was no difference among the three groups of children. However, children were able to significantly change their counting strategy to follow the linguistic description in the event but not the object task. Experiment 2 extended the object task to include counting of other types of non-spatio-temporal units such as sub-parts of objects and collections. Results showed that children could use the linguistic descriptions to guide their counting strategy for these new items, though they continued to show a bias for a spatio-temporal individuation strategy with the collections. We suggest potential cognitive origins for the spatio-temporal individuation bias and how it interacts with children''s developing linguistic knowledge. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Studies of COMT Val 158 Met suggest that the neural circuitry subserving inhibitory control may be modulated by this functional polymorphism altering cortical dopamine availability, thus giving rise to heritable differences in behaviors. Using an anatomically-constrained magnetoencephalography method and stratifying the sample by COMT genotype, from a larger sample of 153 subjects, we examined the spatial and temporal dynamics of beta oscillations during motor execution and inhibition in 21 healthy Met158/Met158 (high dopamine) or 21 Val158/Val158 (low dopamine) genotype individuals during a Go/NoGo paradigm. While task performance was unaffected, Met158 homozygotes demonstrated an overall increase in beta power across regions essential for inhibitory control during early motor preparation (∼100 ms latency), suggestive of a global motor "pause" on behavior. This increase was especially evident on Go trials with slow response speed and was absent during inhibition failures. Such a pause could underlie the tendency of Met158 allele carriers to be more cautious and inhibited. In contrast, Val158 homozygotes exhibited a beta drop during early motor preparation, indicative of high response readiness. This decrease was associated with measures of behavioral disinhibition and consistent with greater extraversion and impulsivity observed in Val homozygotes. These results provide mechanistic insight into genetically-determined interindividual differences of inhibitory control with higher cortical dopamine associated with momentary response hesitation, and lower dopamine leading to motor impulsivity. • MEG-measured beta oscillations can track heritable differences in motor inhibition. • Frontal beta power is modulated by COMT Val158Met-determined dopamine availability. • Early beta increase in Met/Met (high dopamine) suggests cautious responding. • Lower beta power in Val/Val (low dopamine) homozygotes shows motor readiness. • Temporal insights into beta oscillations reveal underpinnings of motor impulsivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incidence rates of Lyme borreliosis, a tickborne disease attributed to infection by Borrelia species, are increasing, and limitations to existing treatments potentiate the possibility of severe outcomes. Nevertheless, there are no licensed vaccines for Lyme borreliosis prevention in humans. This study investigated the immunogenicity and safety of a booster dose of VLA15, an investigational outer surface protein A (OspA)-based Lyme borreliosis vaccine that has previously shown safety and immunogenicity when administered as a primary vaccination series, following a primary VLA15 vaccination series. We report the results of the booster phase of a randomised, observer-blinded, placebo-controlled, multicentre, phase 2 study that enrolled healthy adults aged 18–65 years from five US clinical study centres to receive 135 μg or 180 μg VLA15 or placebo at months 0, 2, and 6 in the main study phase. Participants who received 180 μg VLA15 in the main study phase and did not have relevant protocol deviations were eligible for the booster phase (months 18–30). Participants were randomly reassigned (2:1) to receive an intramuscular injection of a VLA15 booster or placebo 1 year after the completion of primary vaccination (month 18) via a randomisation list generated by an unmasked statistician with a block size of six. Individuals involved in data safety monitoring, rerandomisation, vaccine handling, and vaccine accountability were unmasked; the study sponsor and statisticians were only unmasked after analysis of data up to 1 month after booster administration. All other individuals remained masked throughout the booster phase. The outcomes for the booster phase were the immunogenicity (evaluated in the booster per-protocol population) and safety (evaluated for all participants who received the booster) of the booster dose up to month 30. The study is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03970733) and is completed. Between Feb 4 and March 23, 2021, 58 participants (28 men and 30 women) were screened, randomly assigned, and received VLA15 (n=39) or placebo (n=19). One participant in the placebo group was lost to follow-up. The IgG geometric mean titres for each OspA serotype (serotypes 1–6) in the VLA15 group peaked at 1 month after the booster dose (1277·0 U/mL [95% CI 861·8–1892·3] to 2194·5 U/mL [1566·8–3073·7] vs 23·6 U/mL [18·1–30·8] to 36·8 U/mL [26·4–51·3] in the placebo group [p<0·0001 for all serotypes]), remained elevated at month 24 (137·4 U/mL [95·8–196·9] to 265·8 U/mL [202·9–348·2] vs 22·3 U/mL [17·7–28·0] to 29·1 U/mL [20·8–40·6] in the placebo group; p<0·0001 for all serotypes), and declined by month 30 (54·1 U/mL [38·6–75·7] to 101·6 U/mL [77·6–133·1] vs 21·9 U/mL [18·0–26·6] to 24·9 U/mL [19·0–32·6] in the placebo group; p<0·0001 for all serotypes except serotype 1 [p=0·0006]). Solicited local adverse events were reported more frequently in the VLA15 group (35 [92%, 95% CI 79–97] of 38 participants) than the placebo group (six [32%, 15–54] of 19 participants; p<0·0001) after booster vaccination. There was no significant difference in the frequency of solicited systemic adverse events between groups (20 [59%, 42–74] of 34 participants in the VLA15 group vs six [38%, 18–61] of 16 participants in the placebo group). Related unsolicited adverse events (none severe) were reported by two (5%, 1–17) of 39 participants in the VLA15 group and none (0%, 0–17) of 19 participants in the placebo group. There were no severe solicited local or systemic adverse events or deaths during the study. A booster dose of VLA15 is safe and induces substantial anamnestic immune responses against all six OspA serotypes. As with previously investigated OspA-based Lyme borreliosis vaccines, waning immune responses were observed with VLA15, and annual boosters might therefore be required. Valneva. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]