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This research presents three new species of carnivorous sponges from the family Cladorhizidae from the Great Barrier Reef, in Queensland, Australia: Abyssocladia falkor sp. nov., Abyssocladia jeanvaceleti sp. nov. and Axoniderma wanda sp. nov. They were collected by ROV during the expedition FK200802—Seamounts, Canyons & Reefs of the Coral Sea Cruise on the RV Falkor from the Schmidt Ocean Institute. In addition, the ROV collection of two complete specimens enabled the redescription of two other Australian species of carnivorous sponge (Chondrocladia (Chondrocladia) zygainadentonis Ekins et al., 2020a and Asbestopluma (Asbestopluma) maxisigma Ekins et al., 2020a), previously known from the East coast of Australia based on incomplete specimens.

Background. Cardiovascular disease is the cause of one-third of deaths worldwide because of increased risk factors, such as intake of cholesterol and saturated fat. Atherosclerosis begins in childhood; therefore, nutritional prevention should begin at an early stage. This study assessed the lipid profile, atherogenic, and castill’s risk index intake of Apis melifera-based complementary foods using an in vivo mouse model. Methods. The experiment was conducted for 28 days. A total of 75 male white albino mice were randomly assigned to five diets in triplicate. The diets were Diet 1 = casein diet; Diet 2 = (57% maize, 29% teff, 14% soybean); Diet 3 = (58% maize, 29% teff, 13% bee larvae); Diet 4 = commercial wean mix; Diet 5 = basal diet alone. Mouse blood samples were collected by cardiac puncture. The lipid profiles of TC, TG, HDL-C, and LDL-C were analysed using an automated pentra C400 made in France. Results. Biochemical (mg/dl) parameters showed that mice fed Diet 3 had high ( P ≤ 0.001), TG (167.79), HDL-C (67.18), and low LDL-C (71.73) levels. The atherogenic indices CRI-I (1.84), CRI-II (1.07), and AC (0.84) were low in Diet 3. The atherogenicity indices showed a significant positive correlation ( P ≤ 0.001) with one another as follows: CRI-I vs. CRI-II (r = 0.919), CRI-I vs. AC (r = 1), and CRI-II vs. AC (r = 0.919). Conclusion. The results of the present investigation confirm that intake of an Apis mellifera-based diet could prevent children from atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease in a mouse model.

Timely follow-up care after an abnormal cervical cancer screening test result is critical to the prevention and early diagnosis of cervical cancer. The current inadequate and inequitable delivery of these potentially life-saving services is attributed to several factors, including patient out-of-pocket costs. Waiving of consumer cost-sharing for follow-up testing (e.g., colposcopy and related cervical services) is likely to improve access and uptake, especially among underserved populations. One approach to defray the incremental costs of providing more generous coverage for follow-up testing is reducing expenditures on “low-value” cervical cancer screening services. To explore the potential fiscal implications of a policy that redirects cervical cancer screening resources from potentially low- to high-value clinical scenarios, we analyzed 2019 claims from the Virginia All-Payer Claims Database to quantify (i) total spending on low-value cervical cancer screening and (ii) out-of-pocket costs associated with colposcopy and related cervical services among commercially insured Virginians. In a cohort of 1,806,921 female patients (ages 48.1 ± 24.8 years), 295,193 claims for cervical cancer screening were reported, 100,567 (34.0%) of which were determined to be low-value ($4,394,361 total; $4,172,777 for payers and $221,584 out-of-pocket [$2/patient]). Claims for 52,369 colposcopy and related cervical services were reported ($40,994,016 total; $33,457,518 for payers and $7,536,498 out-of-pocket [$144/patient]). These findings suggest that reallocating savings incurred from unnecessary spending to fund more generous coverage of necessary follow-up care is a feasible approach to enhancing cervical cancer prevention equity and outcomes. Prevention Relevance: Out-of-pocket fees are a barrier to follow-up care after an abnormal cervical cancer screening test. Among commercially insured Virginians, out-of-pocket costs for follow-up services averaged $144/patient; 34% of cervical cancer screenings were classified as low value. Reallocating low-value cervical cancer screening expenditures to enhance coverage for follow-up care can improve screening outcomes.

In this article, we report on the synthesis of chiral bimesogens that possess silyloxy central linking groups. On first examination of the mesomorphic properties of the materials by X-ray diffraction and electrical field studies we came to the conclusion that the materials exhibit ferroelectric and antiferroelectric smectic C* phase behaviour. However, detailed investigations of the bimesogens indicated that the phases were not conventional smectics, but in addition strange phases that exhibited natural helical filaments on cooling from the isotropic liquid were formed. Indications are that these phases are possibly related to twist-bend structures or in-plane, modulated bent-core phases.

The erythema migrans (EM) rash is an important initial diagnostic sign of early Lyme disease. We tested the hypothesis that patients who noticed EM first differed from those who noticed viral-like symptoms first. “EM First” participants (167/271, 61.6%) had shorter illness duration before treatment (5.0 versus 6.2 days, P = 0.019), were more likely to have seen or removed a tick (P = 0.048) and to be non-Hispanic White (P = 0.025), and were less likely to present with disseminated lesions at the time of diagnosis (P = 0.003) than “Symptoms First” participants (104/271, 38.4%). In multivariate analyses, EM First participants had a 22% decrease in time to treatment (P = 0.012) compared with Symptoms First participants, suggesting that initial presentation affects time to treatment. In a large minority of patients, EM may not be the initial sign or symptom of early Lyme disease. There is a need for rapid diagnostics and improved physician awareness of the varied manifestations of early Lyme disease.

The United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) encourage countries to solve many social problems. One of these problems is homelessness. We rank states in the United States with respect to youth homelessness and the achievement of these goals. We use fuzzy similarity measures to determine the degree of similarity between these rankings. Given a similarity measure between two categories, we introduce a method using type-2 fuzzy sets that determines a similarity of a subcategory of one category with the other category. In particular, given a similarity measure between youth homelessness and the SDGs, we determine a similarity measure between youth vulnerable to toxic stress and the SDGs and also youth vulnerable to human trafficking and the SDGs. We also use a relatively new similarity measure, an [Formula: see text]-dimensional similarity measure.

Background: The drugs available for the treatment of Chagas disease are ineffective in its chronic phase and produce many adverse effects, making the search for new drugs an urgent medical need. Objective: This study aimed to design, synthesize, and evaluate the trypanocidal and cytotoxic profiles of new 4-nitroimidazole prototypes. Method: The new compounds were synthesized in overall yields ranging from 31-to 52% through the use of classical and reproducible methodologies. Their trypanocidal profile and cytotoxicity were assayed against trypomastigote forms of T. cruzi and mammalian macrophages, respectively. Results: The best trypanocidal activity was evidenced in compounds that present lipophilic and electronegative substituents, e.g. 4-chlorophenyl derivative (5), with an IC50 = 206.98 μM; Conclusion: The new benznidazole N-glycinyl-hydrazone analogues demonstrated a very significant reduction in the trypanocidal activity compared to benznidazole, which seems to be related to the position occupied by the nitro group in the imidazole ring.

The gas-phase reaction of isoprene with the nitrate radical (NO3) was investigated in experiments in the outdoor SAPHIR chamber under atmospherically relevant conditions specifically with respect to the chemical lifetime and fate of nitrato-organic peroxy radicals (RO2). Observations of organic products were compared to concentrations expected from different chemical mechanisms: (1) the Master Chemical Mechanism, which simplifies the NO3 isoprene chemistry by only considering one RO2 isomer; (2) the chemical mechanism derived from experiments in the Caltech chamber, which considers different RO2 isomers; and (3) the FZJ-NO3 isoprene mechanism derived from quantum chemical calculations, which in addition to the Caltech mechanism includes equilibrium reactions of RO2 isomers, unimolecular reactions of nitrate RO2 radicals and epoxidation reactions of nitrate alkoxy radicals. Measurements using mass spectrometer instruments give evidence that the new reactions pathways predicted by quantum chemical calculations play a role in the NO3 oxidation of isoprene. Hydroperoxy aldehyde (HPALD) species, which are specific to unimolecular reactions of nitrate RO2, were detected even in the presence of an OH scavenger, excluding the possibility that concurrent oxidation by hydroxyl radicals (OH) is responsible for their formation. In addition, ion signals at masses that can be attributed to epoxy compounds, which are specific to the epoxidation reaction of nitrate alkoxy radicals, were detected. Measurements of methyl vinyl ketone (MVK) and methacrolein (MACR) concentrations confirm that the decomposition of nitrate alkoxy radicals implemented in the Caltech mechanism cannot compete with the ring-closure reactions predicted by quantum chemical calculations. The validity of the FZJ-NO3 isoprene mechanism is further supported by a good agreement between measured and simulated hydroxyl radical (OH) reactivity. Nevertheless, the FZJ-NO3 isoprene mechanism needs further investigations with respect to the absolute importance of unimolecular reactions of nitrate RO2 and epoxidation reactions of nitrate alkoxy radicals. Absolute concentrations of specific organic nitrates such as nitrate hydroperoxides would be required to experimentally determine product yields and branching ratios of reactions but could not be measured in the chamber experiments due to the lack of calibration standards for these compounds. The temporal evolution of mass traces attributed to product species such as nitrate hydroperoxides, nitrate carbonyl and nitrate alcohols as well as hydroperoxy aldehydes observed by the mass spectrometer instruments demonstrates that further oxidation by the nitrate radical and ozone at atmospheric concentrations is small on the timescale of one night (12 h) for typical oxidant concentrations. However, oxidation by hydroxyl radicals present at night and potentially also produced from the decomposition of nitrate alkoxy radicals can contribute to their nocturnal chemical loss.

Pulses of infrared light (IR) provide a novel method for rapidly transferring Ca2+ from the endoplasmic reticulum to mitochondria in intact cells. In PC12 cells the resulting ETC activation was not driven by increased ATP synthase activity or NADH. IR stimulation produced a Ca2+-dependent, reversible depolarization of ΔΨm that was partially blocked by cyclosporin A, and a Ca2+-dependent increase in superoxide that did not require transition pore opening.

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have made notable social, cultural, and economic contributions to the African Diaspora, particularly since their inception in the United States. Being that HBCU athletic programs account for a small proportion of the intercollegiate athletic industry, these unique entities are often examined in the same vein as their Historically White Institution counterparts without a full account of the intergenerational adverse impacts of systemic racism. Since HBCUs are situated within the distinct context of Blackness, the researchers offer a reconceptualization through the theoretical lens of Black Critical Theory. This manuscript illuminates linkages across extant literature, while also presenting a budding theoretical framework in the study of sport, and sport organizations, that have deeply embedded relationships with communities, for example, HBCUs and the Black community, stickball and lacrosse within Indigenous communities, and the relationship between women and womens’ sports leagues. Implications of this work are centered on promoting more critical reconceptualizations of sporting spaces that reflect the full diversity of the societies in which they exist.

The World Health Organization Model List of Essential Medicines has led to at least 137 national lists. Essential medicines should be grounded in evidence-based guideline recommendations and explicit decision criteria. Essential medicines should be available, accessible, affordable, and the supporting evidence should be accompanied by a rating of the certainty one can place in it. Our objectives were to identify criteria and considerations that should be addressed in moving from a guideline recommendation regarding a medicine to the decision of whether to add, maintain, or remove a medicine from an essential medicines list. We also seek to explore opportunities to improve organizational processes to support evidence-based health decision-making more broadly.We conducted a qualitative study with semi-structured interviews of key informant stakeholders in the development and use of guidelines and essential medicine lists (EMLs). We used an interpretive descriptive analysis approach and thematic analysis of interview transcripts in NVIVO v12.We interviewed 16 key informants working at national and global levels across all WHO regions. We identified five themes: three descriptive/explanatory themes 1) EMLs and guidelines, the same, but different; 2) EMLs can drive price reductions and improve affordability and access; 3) Time lag and disconnect between guidelines and EMLs; and two prescriptive themes 4) An 'evidence pipeline' could improve coordination between guidelines and EMLs; 5) Facilitating the link between the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines (WHO EML) and national EMLs could increase alignment.We found significant overlap and opportunities for alignment between guideline and essential medicine decision processes. This finding presents opportunities for guideline and EML developers to enhance strategies for collaboration. Future research should assess and evaluate these strategies in practice to support the shared goal of guidelines and EMLs: improvements in health.

Releases of anthropogenic radionuclides from European nuclear fuel reprocessing plants enter the surface circulation of the high-latitude North Atlantic and are transported northward into the Arctic Ocean and southward from the Nordic Seas into the deep North Atlantic, thereby providing tracers of water circulation, mixing, ventilation, and deep-water formation. Early tracer studies focused on 137Cs, which revealed some of the first significant insights into the Arctic Ocean circulation, while more recent work has benefited from advances in accelerator mass spectrometry to enable the measurement of the conservative, long-lived radionuclide tracers 129I and 236U. The latest studies of these tracers, supported by simulations using the North Atlantic–Arctic Ocean–Sea Ice Model (NAOSIM) and enhanced by the use of transit time distributions to more precisely accommodate mixing, have provided a rich inventory of transport data for circulation in the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans that are of great importance to global thermohaline circulation and climate.

A self-assembled block copolymer is used to create nanoscale arrays of gold dots for selective self-assembly of DNA origami and directed placement of gold nanorods for nanoelectronics applications.

To establish disease progression rates in total lesion size (TLS), decreased autofluorescence (DAF) area, total macular volume (TMV), and mean macular sensitivity (MMS) in PRPH2-associated retinal dystrophy.Single-center, retrospective chart review.Patients with heterozygous pathogenic or likely pathogenic PRPH2 variants.Patients who underwent serial ultrawide-field (UWF) fundus autofluorescence (FAF), OCT, and Macular Integrity Assessment microperimetry with at least 1 year of follow-up were included. Linear correlation was performed in eyes of all patients to determine the rate of change over time.Outcome measures included changes in TLS, DAF area, TMV, and MMS.Twelve patients (mean age, 55) from 10 unrelated families attended 100 clinic visits, which spanned over a mean (SD) of 4.7 (2.0) years. Mean (SD) TLS and DAF radius expansion were 0.14 (0.12) and 0.10 (0.08) mm/year, respectively. Mean (SD) TMV change was -0.071 (0.040) mmSerial measurements of UWF-FAF-derived TLS and DAF showed slow expansion. Total macular volume might be a more sensitive measure than MMS in detecting disease progression.

Computational calculations predict the dichroic ratios of a range of anthraquinone and azo dyes in a nematic liquid crystal host, as observed experimentally from polarized spectra of aligned guest–host samples.

The aim of this study was to describe the effects of an intervention called "CompassionGrowth Workshops" on reported posttraumatic growth (PTG) using the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory-Expanded (PTGI-X).Few studies measure the impact of interventions, such as contemplative practices, on nurse PTG.We delivered a series of three 2-hour microretreats to nurses and advanced practice nurses and measured their impact on PTG scores. Using multivariate logistic regression, we identified cofactors predictive of 25% overall improvement on the PTGI-X.Overall PTG increased among participants, with the greatest improvement in relating to others, new possibilities, and personal strength. Posttraumatic growth improved as workshop attendance increased; nurses providing direct patient care also benefitted the most.Contemplative interventions can substantively improve PTG. This may be particularly relevant for coping with COVID pandemic stress among nurses on the frontlines and for healthcare leaders seeking to strengthen psychological support within their teams and reform the workplace environment.

Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery (RYGB) is among the most effective therapies for obesity and type 2 diabetes, and intestinal adaptation is a proposed mechanism for these effects. It was hypothesized that intestinal adaptation precedes and relates to metabolic improvement in humans after RYGB.This was a prospective, longitudinal, first-in-human study of gene expression (GE) in the "Roux limb" (RL) collected surgically/endoscopically from 19 patients with and without diabetes. GE was determined by microarray across six postoperative months, including at an early postoperative (1 month ± 15 days) time point.RL GE demonstrated tissue remodeling and metabolic reprogramming, including increased glucose and amino acid use. RL GE signatures were established early, before maximal clinical response, and persisted. Distinct GE fingerprints predicted concurrent and future improvements in HbA1c and in weight. Human RL exhibited GE changes characterized by anabolic growth and shift in metabolic substrate use. Paradoxically, anabolic growth in RL appeared to contribute to the catabolic state elicited by RYGB.These data support a role for a direct effect of intestinal energy metabolism to contribute to the beneficial clinical effects of RYGB, suggesting that related pathways might be potential targets of therapeutic interest for patients with obesity with or without type 2 diabetes.

Multiple mooring components have been developed at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) that represent significant advancements in mooring technology. The Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) Coastal Surface Moorings are a unique coalescence of these elements into a robust and capable electromechanical mooring design. This paper describes innovative design elements in three key areas that are used operationally on OOI moorings: (1) components at the interface between buoy base and mooring riser, (2) electro-mechanical mooring riser components, and (3) an integrated seafloor anchor and instrument frame. These elements work together as a system that not only provides the necessary mechanical integrity for the mooring, but also provides mounting points for instrumentation and a reliable electrical pathway from the surface to the seafloor.

10 Pág., Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) is a widespread tick-borne zoonotic virus that causes Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF). CCHF is asymptomatic in infected animals but can develop into severe illness in humans, with high case-fatality rates. Due to complex environmental and socio-economic factors, the distribution of CCHFV vectors is changing, leading to disease occurrence in previously unaffected countries. Neither an effective treatment nor a vaccine has been developed against CCHFV; thus, surveillance programs are essential to limit and control the spread of the virus. Furthermore, the WHO highlighted the need of assays that can cover a range of CCHFV antigenic targets, DIVA (differentiating infected from vaccinated animals) assays, or assays for future vaccine evaluation. Here, we developed a multiplex assay, based on a suspension microarray, able to detect specific antibodies in ruminants to three recombinantly produced CCHFV proteins: the nucleocapsid (N) protein and two glycoproteins, GN ectodomain (GNe), and GP38. This triplex assay was used to assess the antibody response in naturally infected animals. Out of the 29 positive field sera to the N protein, 40% showed antibodies against GNe or GP38, with 11 out of these 12 samples being positive to both glycoproteins. To determine the diagnostic specificity of the test, a total of 147 sera from Spanish farms free of CCHFV were included in the study. This multiplex assay could be useful to detect antibodies to different proteins of CCHFV as vaccine target candidates and to study the immune response to CCHFV in infected animals and for surveillance programs to prevent the further spread of the virus. IMPORTANCE Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) causes Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, which is one of the most important tick-borne viral diseases of humans and has recently been found in previously unaffected countries such as Spain. The disease is asymptomatic in infected animals but can develop into severe illness in humans. As neither an effective treatment nor a vaccine has been developed against CCHFV, surveillance programs are essential to limit and control the spread of the virus. In this study, a multiplex assay detecting antibodies against different CCHFV antigens in a single sample and independent of the ruminant species has been developed. This assay could be very useful in surveillance studies, to control the spread of CCHFV and prevent future outbreaks, and to better understand the immune response induced by CCHFV., We thank the EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Innovative Training Network (ITN): H2020-MSCA-ITN-2016, under grant no. 721367 (to Alexis C. R. Hoste) and the MediLabSecure Project, supported by the European Commission (DEVCO: IFS/2018/402-247) (to Igor Djadjovski and Miguel Ángel Jiménez-Clavero).

Genomic analyses have revealed heterogeneity among glial progenitor cells (GPCs), but the compartment selectivity of human GPCs (hGPCs) is unclear. Here, we asked if GPCs of human grey and white brain matter are distinct in their architecture and associated gene expression. RNA profiling of NG2-defined hGPCs derived from adult human neocortex and white matter differed in their expression of genes involved in Wnt, NOTCH, BMP and TGFβ signaling, suggesting compartment-selective biases in fate and self-renewal. White matter hGPCs over-expressed the BMP antagonists BAMBI and CHRDL1, suggesting their tonic suppression of astrocytic fate relative to cortical hGPCs, whose relative enrichment of cytoskeletal genes presaged their greater morphological complexity. In human glial chimeric mice, cortical hGPCs assumed larger and more complex morphologies than white matter hGPCs, and both were more complex than their mouse counterparts. These findings suggest that human grey and white matter GPCs comprise context-specific pools with distinct functional biases.