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We evaluated the effectiveness and safety of direct-acting antivirals in adolescents with hepatitis C (HCV)/HIV coinfection using pooled individual patient-level data from 5 European cohorts. Of 122 participants in follow-up from November 2013 to August 2021, 19 were treated <18 years of age; of 15 with HCV RNA available at/after 12 weeks post-treatment, all had sustained virologic response with acceptable safety. This evidence addresses an important gap in knowledge of treatment outcomes in adolescents with HCV/HIV coinfection in real-life settings.

Prompt diagnosis of pediatric‐onset inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is crucial for preventing a complicated disease course; however, it is not well understood how social determinants of health might affect pediatric IBD diagnosis. This study examined differences in diagnosis age, biomarkers of disease severity, and anthropometrics with sociodemographic factors in a pediatric IBD cohort. Pediatric IBD patients (n= 114) and their parents/caregivers were enrolled from the Children's of Alabama Pediatric IBD Clinic in Birmingham, Alabama. Primary analyses examined associations of child race and ethnicity, parental income, parental education, single‐parent household status, insurance type, and distance to a tertiary pediatric gastroenterology referral center with diagnosis age. Secondary analyses examined differences in biomarker levels, height, and body mass index at the time of diagnosis. Racial and ethnic minority children were diagnosed at an older age compared to Non‐Hispanic White children (14.4 ± 0.40 vs. 11.7 ± 0.38 years; p< 0.001), and this trend was robust to adjustment with other sociodemographic variables. Parental attainment of a college education attenuated the link between minority race and ethnicity and the likelihood of older age at diagnosis, while other sociodemographic variables had no moderating effect. Racial and ethnic minority children were 5.7 times more likely to have clinically elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate at diagnosis compared to Non‐Hispanic White children (p= .024). These results suggest that child race and ethnicity may exert a primary effect on the age at diagnosis with pediatric‐onset IBD. This study highlights the need for further research on racial and ethnic disparities to promote health equity in pediatric‐onset IBD. Early diagnosis of pediatric inflammatory bowel disease is critical to reduce the risk of disease complications. Early diagnosis of pediatric inflammatory bowel disease is critical to reduce the risk of disease complications. In this inflammatory bowel disease cohort, racial and ethnic minority children were diagnosed at an older age compared to non‐Hispanic White children; however, parental attainment of a college education reduced the likelihood of older age at diagnosis for racial and ethnic minority children.Results suggest parental education and health literacy as potential avenues of intervention to promote health equity among pediatric inflammatory bowel disease patients. In this inflammatory bowel disease cohort, racial and ethnic minority children were diagnosed at an older age compared to non‐Hispanic White children; however, parental attainment of a college education reduced the likelihood of older age at diagnosis for racial and ethnic minority children. Results suggest parental education and health literacy as potential avenues of intervention to promote health equity among pediatric inflammatory bowel disease patients.

Due to a decline in diet quality during adolescence, youth are less likely to consume adequate nutrient dense foods to meet recommended requirements. Iron intake in particular is crucial for healthy physical and brain development in adolescence, but few studies have examined the role of iron intake in adolescents’ behavior problems. The current study examined the associations between iron intake and two types of behavior problems in early adolescents – aggression and rule breaking. The sample included 272 middle school students (Mage =12.08; 53% female; 47% Black, 37% White, 9% Hispanic, 6% other racial/ethnic group). Multivariate regression analyses adjusting for sociodemographic covariates revealed that higher iron intake was linked to lower aggressive behaviors (β = - .16, p < .05), but was not associated with rule breaking. These findings support the role of iron intake in healthy behavioral development in adolescence.

Tree nuts and peanuts (henceforth, nuts) are nutrient-dense foods rich in neuroprotective components; thus, their consumption could benefit cognitive health. However, evidence to date is limited and inconsistent regarding the potential benefits of nuts for cognitive function.

AbstractStigma toward women who have had an induced abortion was measured in 458 adult Mexicans and was related to the respondents’ place of residence, religiosity, beliefs about motherhood, ambivalent sexism, age, and personal acquaintance with a woman who had aborted. All participants completed a set of questionnaires that were validated in Mexico. The variables that predicted stigma were religiosity, hostile sexism, age, and beliefs about motherhood as giving meaning to life. The results of this study could facilitate designing strategies to reduce such stigma and its negative consequences on the psychological and physical health of women who have aborted.

The green synthesis of nanomaterials is nowadays gaining great attention owing to several beneficial aspects in terms of the low toxicity of reagents and by-products, low damage to the health and the environment, sustainability of energy savings and rational use of natural resources. The intrinsic complexity offered by the biological sources (plants, microorganisms, animal products) and the conditions applied in the synthetic procedures forms various nanomaterials with different sizes, morphologies and surface properties that strongly determine their functionality and applications. A deep understanding of the role of biological components, the mechanism of nanostructure formation and growth, and the effects of green synthesis conditions is of paramount importance to achieving the desired nanomaterial for the required application. In this context, this review aims to provide an overview of the structural and functional complexity of nanomaterials achieved by using green synthesis procedures, with a special focus on the role of biological sources and parameters in controlling the complexity and benefit of nanomaterial applications.

There is a significant gap in knowledge regarding the basic ecology of many mammal species that inhabit the Neotropical region. The mountain paca (Cuniculus taczanowskii) is an elusive Neotropical rodent, catalogued as “Near Threatened” by the IUCN and whose ecology is largely unknow. To better understand its dietary ecology, we first conducted a literature review on its diet, determining it as primarily herbivorous-frugivorous. However, through a field experiment using photo-trapping in the Madrigal del Podocarpus Reserve (southern Ecuador) to identify the vertebrate scavenger assemblage, we documented for the first time, an unexpected behaviour of this species consuming a significant amount of carrion. This unexpected finding challenges previous assumptions about the mountain paca's diet and raises important questions about its ecological role and the importance of carrion in ecosystems. Our study underscores the need to further explore carrion ecology and its significance in the understudied and biodiverse tropical Andes.

We carry out a comparative institutional analysis of lithium development in neighboring Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, which together hold over 50 % of world lithium reserves. The comparison reveals that lithium institutional development is subject to long-term processes and contingent junctures within domestic political economies. The potential pivotal role of Chile's national development corporation, CORFO, illustrates the transformative significance of the slogan “institutions matter”: though rules and their enforcement are crucial, effective governance hinges primarily on fostering an institutional ecosystem conducive to mission agreement and translation. Engaging with the mission economy perspective, we argue that “good institutions” entail dynamic policy capacities that regulate and innovate economic development for the public good. Studying how, when and what types of policy capacities develop in the Lithium Triangle countries sheds light on the “institutions matter” inquiry of the political economy of development.

Mediterranean and low-fat diets are effective in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease. We did a long-term randomised trial to compare the effects of these two diets in secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease.

Community violence exposure is associated with externalizing problems in adolescents, yet little research has examined the moderating role of coping in these relationships. Eighty-four low-income, urban adolescents (Mage = 13.36, 50%male, 95%African American) participated in two waves of a longitudinal study a year and a half apart. Youth reported their community violence exposure and coping styles at Wave 1, and their delinquent behavior, physical aggression, and substance use at Waves 1 and 2. Conduct problems were assessed by parent-report at Waves 1 and 2. Results showed that avoidant coping predicted less delinquency, aggression, substance use, and conduct problems over time. Further, avoidant coping attenuated the effect of community violence on delinquency. Problem-focused and emotion-focused coping did not moderate community violence exposure effects. Findings suggest that among low-income, minority urban youth, avoidant coping may protect against the development of externalizing problems in the context of community violence exposure.

In this work, a cost-effective prototype is designed to automate the determination of the Plant Area Index (PAI) and its transmission to the cloud in high tunnel crops. In these installations, the impossibility of using satellite or aerial drones imagery constitute a limitation for the application of traditional orthogonal imagery analysis, and thus image capture routines are required to be manually assisted for scaling and perspective correction. As an alternative to this laborious procedure, the proposed solution makes use of stereo-image analysis to gather depth information to assist the calculation of PAI. To this end, an ad-hoc node has been fully designed, exploiting the computational capabilities of a single board computer and the low energy consumption of a microcontroller. The performance of the device is validated experimentally in a preliminary deployment in the gardens of Universidad Loyola Andalucía.

This paper presents results on spatio-temporal estimation of agricultural soil variables using a novel methodology, called kinky inference. The methodology is applied to the temperature and soil moisture estimation in a bell pepper (Capsicum annuum) crop in La Colmena, Paraguay. Data is collected with in-situ devices equipped with sensors and endowed with communication capabilities to send the information to the cloud. The proposed methodology is able to learn from the received data, and produces reliable estimations for any spatial and temporal locations.

Climate projections suggest a weakening or collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) under global warming, with evidence that a slowdown is already underway. This could have significant ramifications for Atlantic Ocean heat transport, Arctic sea ice extent and regional North Atlantic climate. However, the potential for far-reaching effects, such as teleconnections to adjacent basins and into the Southern Hemisphere, remains unclear. Here, using a global climate model we show that AMOC collapse can accelerate the Pacific trade winds and Walker circulation by leaving an excess of heat in the tropical South Atlantic. This tropical warming drives anomalous atmospheric convection, resulting in enhanced subsidence over the east Pacific and a strengthened Walker circulation and trade winds. Further teleconnections include weakening of the Indian and South Atlantic subtropical highs and deepening of the Amundsen Sea Low. These findings have important implications for understanding the global climate response to ongoing greenhouse gas increases.

Appropriate control of impurities from all sources is critically important during the development of a pharmaceutical product. One class of impurity that has gained considerable attention over the past few years is extractables and leachables. We report a model for assessment of the risk posed by leachable impurities for a small-molecule drug substance. The first step of this study consists of a high-level assessment of the risk posed by leachable impurities in the drug substance, by taking into account the drug product’s route of administration. In the case of parenteral route of administration, a more comprehensive process-specific second step risk assessment is typically warranted. This second step consists of risk assessment of polymer component(s) for the potential to release leachable impurities, risk scoring, and classification. For high-risk components, risk mitigation studies can be performed in step 3, such as leachable impurity removal viacomponent pre-flush with the process solvent, extractables’ studies under harsher conditions, and toxicity assessments.

The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 virus, which has led to the global coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is known to adversely affect the cardiovascular system through multiple mechanisms. In this international, multicenter study conducted by the World Alliance Societies of Echocardiography, we aim to determine the clinical and echocardiographic phenotype of acute cardiac disease in COVID-19 patients, to explore phenotypic differences in different geographic regions across the world, and to identify parameters associated with in-hospital mortality.

La publicación científica es considerada el último paso de la investigación, siendo necesario involucrar cada vez más al estudiante de medicina en este proceso. El objetivo del estudio fue determinar la accesibilidad de publicación estudiantil en revistas médicas de Latinoamérica.

Community violence exposure is associated with externalizing problems in adolescents, yet little research has examined the moderating role of coping in these relationships. Eighty-four low-income, urban adolescents (Mage?=?13.36, 50%male, 95%African American) participated in two waves of a longitudinal study a year and a half apart. Youth reported their community violence exposure and coping styles at Wave 1, and their delinquent behavior, physical aggression, and substance use at Waves 1 and 2. Conduct problems were assessed by parent-report at Waves 1 and 2. Results showed that avoidant coping predicted less delinquency, aggression, substance use, and conduct problems over time. Further, avoidant coping attenuated the effect of community violence on delinquency. Problem-focused and emotion-focused coping did not moderate community violence exposure effects. Findings suggest that among low-income, minority urban youth, avoidant coping may protect against the development of externalizing problems in the context of community violence exposure.

Nowadays, nanotechnologies are well established and the uses of a great variety of nanomaterials show exponential growth. The development of green synthesis procedures experienced a great development thanks to the contribution of researchers of diverse origins. The versatility of green chemistry allows producing a wide range of organic and inorganic nanomaterials with numerous promising applications. In all cases, it is of paramount importance to carefully characterize the resulting nanomaterials because their properties will determine their correct performance to accomplish the function to which they were synthesized or even their detrimental effects like nanotoxicological behavior. This review provides an overview of frequently employed characterization methods and their applications for green synthesized nanomaterials. However, while several different nanoscale materials and their associated green construction methodology are being developed, other important techniques would be extensively incorporated into this field soon. The aim is to encourage researchers in the field to employ a variety of these techniques for achieving an exhaustive characterization of new nanomaterials and for contributing to the development of validated green synthesis procedures.

ObjectiveAdolescence is a developmental period characterized by independent leisure activities and increased interest in intimate dating relationships. Despite focused examinations on dating violence (DV), research has not yet explored connections between leisure activities and DV.MethodsThis exploratory study uses Birmingham Youth Violence Survey (BYVS) Wave 3 data to elucidate the relationship between leisure activities and DV perpetration among urban youth aged 16–23 (N = 497, Mage= 17.64, 52% female, 81.3% Black, 18.7% White).ResultsFindings support the relationship between specific types of leisure activities and DV perpetration.ConclusionPractitioners, researchers, and policy makers with a vested interest in adolescent health should pay attention to specific leisure activities (e.g., social, sports, and media) given their associations to DV perpetration.

ObjectiveBlack youth continue to experience persistent sexual health disparities that can adversely impact their lives. There is a dearth of research examining adolescent sexual health and the role of perceived life chances and leisure activities.MethodsThis study uses data from Wave 3 of the Birmingham Youth Violence Study (BYVS) to explore these variables among urban Black youth (N= 404).ResultsKey findings support the role of certain leisure activities and improved life chances with regard to sexual risk behaviors. Greater time in social leisure activities was associated with earlier sexual initiation and more sexual partners whereas academic and media leisure activities were linked to delayed sexual initiation.ConclusionThis study underscores the importance of leisure activities in prevention and intervention approaches for urban youth.

Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) is a vasculitic disease with an infrequent involvement of the central nervous system. This can lead, in rare cases, to hypertrophic pachymeningitis (HP), which is characterized by inflammation and fibrosis that cause a thickening of dura mater. At present, it is crucial to consider GPA in the differential diagnosis of elderly patients with intracranial hypertension. The case is presented of a 60-year-old male with progressive severe headache, vomiting, and wasting syndrome. Physical examination showed pallor, weight loss, and unilateral papilloedema. A gadolinium-enhanced brain MRI scan showed sinusitis, chronic otomastoiditis, and hypertrophic pachymeningitis. Finally, a meningeal biopsy concluded a necrotising granulomatous vasculitis compatible with GPA. However, PR3- and MPO-ANCA were negative. After corticosteroid therapy was initiated, the patient had a favorable outcome during his hospital stay.