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Higher blood pressure levels are associated with vascular dysfunction as early as childhood. Here, we aim to compare two blood pressure devices for use in childhood populations within a school setting to screen for elevated blood pressure in children.Systolic and diastolic blood pressure, mean arteriolar pressure (MAP) as well as heart rate (HR) were measured with the validated Oscillomate 9002 and Mindray VS-900 in 82 randomly selected children between 10 and 12 years taking part in the EXAMIN YOUTH study in 2020. Measurements were performed after 5 min at rest in a sitting position in the school environment.Both devices showed strong correlations for systolic (r = 0.62, t[80] = 7, p 0.001) and diastolic blood pressure (r = 0.73, t[80] = 9.52, p 0.001), MAP (r = 0.75, t[80] = 10.22, p 0.001) and HR (r = 0.89, t[79] = 17.77, p 0.001). There was no evidence for a statistically significant difference of both devices for systolic (110 ± 9 mmHg vs. 111 ± 9 mmHg, p = 0.574), diastolic blood pressure (67 ± 9 mmHg vs. 66 ± 9 mmHg, p = 0.301) as well as MAP (81 ± 8 mmHg vs. 80 ± 8 mmHg, p = 0.400) and HR (83 ± 12 BPM vs. 83 ± 11 BPM, p = 0.994).Both devices, the older Oscillomate 9002 and the current Mindray VS-900 showed good agreement for the measurement of blood pressure in school children. It therefore appears to be feasible to measure childhood blood pressure with either device or replace one device with another in prospective long-term studies or screening programmes as long as both are validated for use in children.

Arterial hypertension is a global health burden that affects vascular structure and function. Assessment of endothelial function can improve cardiovascular (CV) risk stratification. Exercise treatment reduces over all CV risk and improves vascular health. However, it is still not clear which part of the vascular bed is most sensitive to exercise treatment in patients with CV risk. This study aimed to investigate the effects of an 8-week walking based and supervised high-intensity interval training (HIIT) on macro- and microvascular endothelial function as add-on therapy in patients with arterial hypertension.; Forty patients (mean age 58 ± 7 years) treated for arterial hypertension were randomized in the HIIT (3×/week) or control group (CG) receiving standard physical activity recommendations. Arteriolar (aFID) and venular (vFID) flicker light-induced dilatation for retinal microvascular and flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) for macrovascular endothelial function were assessed. In addition, standardized assessments of patients' characteristics were performed before and after 8 weeks.; Both groups reduced weight and body mass index but only the HIIT group reduced body fat, visceral fat, and increased peak oxygen uptake after 8 weeks. The control group reduced diastolic blood pressure. No blood pressure changes were found in the HIIT group. Arteriolar FID increased in the HIIT group independently of confounders (pre: 2.40 ± 0.98%, post: 3.19 ± 1.31%, p < 0.001) but not in the control group (pre: 3.06 ± 1.50%, post: 2.90 ± 1.46%, p = 0.280). No changes were found for FMD in either group.; Arteriolar FID was found to be a sensitive vascular biomarker to assess exercise-induced microvascular improvements even in a short time setting of an 8-week exercise therapy with HIIT. Short-term exercise training affects microvascular endothelial function but not large artery endothelial function. Thus, retinal aFID appears to be a sensitive biomarker to detect short-term exercise efficacy on a vascular level. Dynamic retinal vessel analysis as a diagnostic approach may prove to be an ideal candidate vascular biomarker to monitor treatment effects of exercise in patients with hypertension on top of standard clinical care and may support clinical decision-making in the future.

Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Foundation. Main funding source(s): Swiss National Foundation Background Prevention of cardiovascular (CV) disease should start early in life. The study aimed to investigate the association of changes in physical activity, sedentary behavior and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) with development of body mass index (BMI), blood pressure (BP) and retinal microvascular health in children over four years. Methods In 2014, 391 children aged 6-8 years were screened, and thereof 262 children were reexamined after four years following standardized protocols. Retinal arteriolar (CRAE) and venular diameters were measured by a retinal vessel analyzer. CRF was objectively assessed by a 20m shuttle run, physical activity and sedentary behavior by use of a questionnaire. Results Children who achieved higher CRF levels reduced their BMI (β [95% CI] -0.35 [-0.46 to -0.25] kg/m2 per stage, P ≤ 0.001) and thereby developed wider CRAE (β [95% CI] 0.25 [0.24 to 0.48] µm per stage, P = 0.03) at follow-up. Moreover, children with elevated or high systolic BP at baseline, but lower levels of sedentary behavior during the observation period, had wider CRAE at follow-up (β [95% CI] -0.37 [-0.66 to -0.08] µm per 10 min/d, P = 0.013). Conclusion An increase of CRF over four years was associated with a reduced BMI and consequently wider retinal arterioles at follow-up. In children with elevated or high systolic BP, a reduction of sedentary behavior by merely 10 min per day significantly improved retinal microvascular health as a primary prevention strategy to promote childhood health and combat development of manifest CV disease later in life.

OBJECTIVES The aim of the study was to assess the feasibility of a national pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) programme using smartphone-compatible data collection. METHODS This was a multicentre cohort study (NCT03893188) enrolling individuals interested in PrEP in Switzerland. All centres participate in the SwissPrEPared programme, which uses smartphone-compatible data collection. Feasibility was assessed after centres had enrolled at least one participant. Participants were HIV-negative individuals presenting for PrEP counselling. Outcomes were participation (number enrolled/number eligible), enrolment rates (number enrolled per month), retention at first follow-up (number with first follow-up/number enrolled), and uptake (proportion attending first visit as scheduled). Participant characteristics were compared between those retained after baseline assessment and those who dropped out. RESULTS Between April 2019 and January 2020, 987 individuals were assessed for eligibility, of whom 969 were enrolled (participation: 98.2%). The median enrolment rate was 86 per month [interquartile range (IQR) 52-137]. Retention at first follow-up and uptake were both 80.7% (782/969 and 532/659, respectively). At enrolment, the median age was 40 (IQR 33-47) years, 95% were men who have sex with men, 47% had a university degree, and 75.5% were already taking PrEP. Most reported multiple casual partners (89.2%), previous sexually transmitted infections (74%) and sexualized drug use (73.1%). At baseline, 25.5% tested positive for either syphilis, gonorrhoea or chlamydia. Participants who dropped out were at lower risk of HIV infection than those retained after baseline assessment. CONCLUSIONS In a national PrEP programme using smartphone-compatible data collection, participation, retention and uptake were high. Participants retained after baseline assessment were at high risk of HIV infection. Younger, less educated individuals were underrepresented in the SwissPrEPared cohort.

BACKGROUND Serological immunoassays that can identify protective immunity against SARS-CoV-2 are needed to adapt quarantine measures, assess vaccination responses, and evaluate donor plasma. To date, however, the utility of such immunoassays remains unclear. In a mixed-design evaluation study, we compared the diagnostic accuracy of serological immunoassays that are based on various SARS-CoV-2 proteins and assessed the neutralizing activity of antibodies in patient sera. METHODS Consecutive patients admitted with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection were prospectively followed alongside medical staff and biobank samples from winter 2018/2019. An in-house enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay utilizing recombinant receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein was developed and compared to three commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) targeting the nucleoprotein (N), the S1 domain of the spike protein (S1) and a lateral flow immunoassay (LFI) based on full-length spike protein. Neutralization assays with live SARS-CoV-2 were performed. RESULTS One-thousand four-hundred and seventy-seven individuals were included comprising 112 SARS-CoV-2 positives (defined as a positive real-time PCR result; prevalence 7.6%). IgG seroconversion occurred between day 0 and day 21. While the ELISAs showed sensitivities of 88.4% for RBD, 89.3% for S1, and 72.9% for N protein, the specificity was above 94% for all tests. Out of 54 SARS-CoV-2 positive individuals, 96.3% showed full neutralization of live SARS-CoV-2 at serum dilutions ≥1:16, while none of the 6 SARS-CoV-2 negative sera revealed neutralizing activity. CONCLUSIONS ELISAs targeting RBD and S1 protein of SARS-CoV-2 are promising immunoassays which shall be further evaluated in studies verifying diagnostic accuracy and protective immunity against SARS-CoV-2.

The human pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae (the pneumococcus) is rare in having a strict requirement for the amino alcohol choline, which decorates pneumococcal teichoic acids. This process relies on the lic locus, containing the lic1 and lic2 operons. These operons produce eight proteins that import and metabolize choline, generate teichoic acid precursors and decorate these with choline. Three promoters control expression of lic operons, with Plic1P1 and Plic1P2 controlling lic1 and Plic2 controlling lic2. To investigate the importance of lic regulation for pneumococci, we assayed the activity of transcriptional fusions of the three lic promoters to the luciferase reporter gene. Plic1P1 , whose activity depends on the response regulator CiaR, responded to fluctuations in extracellular choline, with activity increasing greatly upon choline depletion. We uncovered a complex regulatory mechanism controlling Plic1P1 , involving activity driven by CiaR, repression by putative repressor LicR in the presence of choline, and derepression upon choline depletion mediated by LicC, a choline metabolism enzyme. Finally, the ability to regulate Plic1P1 in response to choline was important for pneumococcal colonization. We suggest that derepression of Plic1P1 upon choline depletion maximizing choline internalization constitutes an adaptive response mechanism allowing pneumococci to optimize growth and survival in environments where choline is scarce.

Thin Yttrium Iron Garnet (YIG) is a promising material for integrated magnonics. In order to introduce YIG into nanofabrication processes it is necessary to fabricate very thin YIG films with a thickness well below 100 nm while retaining the extraordinary magnetic properties of the material, especially its long magnon lifetime and spin wave propagation length. Here, we give a brief introduction into the topic and we review and discuss the various results published over the last decade in this area. Especially for ultrathin films it turns out that pulsed layer deposition and sputtering are the most promising candidates. In addition, we discuss the application of room temperature deposition and annealing for lift-off based nanopatterning and the properties of nanostructures obtained by this method over the past years., 16 pages, 11 figures

Sibylle Puntscher, Christoph Hauser, Karin Pichler and Gottfried Tappeiner*I. INTRODUCTIONSocial capital, i.e. the ‘features of social organization such as networks, norms,and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation’(Putnam, 1995, 67),is by now a central concept in most fields of social science. The term has beendiscussed for both its theoretical foundation and its empirical operationalization.At least in economic research, however, it has become an established concept. Amultitude of studies have analyzed the effects of social capital, in particular oftrust as well as strong and weak social networks, on various economic perfor-mance indicators. Most studies conclude that general trust and weak social tiespositively affect the performance of nations (Zak and Knack, 2001, Whiteley,2000) and regions (Beugelsdijk and Van Schaik, 2005, Dincer and Uslaner,2010). Some contrary works also provide empirical evidence that social capitalcan be detrimental for a society (Dasgupta, 2005). In general, however, higherlevels of social capital are associated with economic prosperity, low crime rates,effective government and high local quality of life (Cento Bull and Jones, 2006,Besser, 2009).These beneficial effects highlight the importance of identifying the source ofsocial capital and the impact factors that affect its accumulation. In the literature,social capital is seen as being characteristic of individuals (Bourdieu, 1986) aswell as a property of social networks like firms, regions or nations (Putnam,1993, Knack and Keefer, 1997, Westlund and Nilsson, 2005). Thus, it is neces-sary to give similar consideration to individual and systemic factors as potentialdriving forces of social capital.