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Abstract Trust is known to be an important factor in vaccine decisions for parents of young children, but there has been a lack of Canadian data measuring the determinants and impact of trust. Using data from the 2017 Canadian Childhood National Immunization Coverage Survey (cNICS), this study analyzed the relationships between sources that parents trust for vaccine information and demographics, parental knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs (KAB) and vaccine decisions (refusal, delay or reluctance) in parents of 2-year-old children who had accepted at least one vaccine for their child (n = 6125). The findings show that 83% of parents trust doctors for vaccine information; 70–80% trust pharmacists, PMH, nurses and HC/PHAC; 34% trust family and 23% trust friends and CAM HCPs. However, parents found to have poor or moderate KAB were less likely to trust doctors, nurses, pharmacists, PMH and HC/PHAC. Parents were also less likely to trust the PMH or HC/PHAC if they had high school education or less or trade/college education, or were widowed, separated, or divorced. Parents who had never been reluctant to vaccinate their 2-year-old child were over 2 times more likely to trust doctors, nurses, pharmacists, PMH and HC/PHAC while parents who trusted family and friends were less likely to delay or refuse vaccines. There was also significant regional variation within Canada, with parents from Quebec most likely to trust doctors, nurses, pharmacists, friends, PMH and HC/PHAC. Parents from the Territories were less likely to trust doctors, nurses and pharmacists, but more likely to trust family. Parents were less likely to trust doctors if they were from the Prairies, and pharmacists if they were from BC, and parents from the Prairies and BC were less likely to trust HC/PHAC. Parents from Ontario were less likely to trust family or friends, but more likely to trust the PMH. Tailored vaccine campaigns are needed to account for educational, marital, and regional differences across Canada to improve vaccine uptake.

Sialic acids are found as terminal sugars on glycan structures on cellular surfaces. T cells carry these sialoglycans abundantly, and they are thought to serve multiple functions in cell adhesion, cell migration, and protection from complement attack. We studied the role of sialoglycans on T cells in a mouse model with a T cell-specific deletion of cytidine monophosphate-sialic acid synthase (CMAS), the enzyme that is crucial for the synthesis of sialoglycans. These mice showed a T-cell deficiency in peripheral lymphoid organs. Many T cells with an undeleted Cmas allele were found in the periphery, suggesting that they escaped the Cre-mediated deletion. The remaining peripheral T cells of T cell-specific Cmas KO mice had a memory-like phenotype. Additional depletion of the complement factor C3 could not rescue the phenotype, showing that the T-cell defect was not caused by a host complement activity. Cmas -deficient T cells showed a high level of activated caspase 3, indicating an ongoing apoptosis. In bone marrow chimeric cellular transfer experiments, we observed a strong competitive disadvantage of Cmas -deficient T cells compared to wild-type T cells. These results show that sialoglycans on the surface of T cells are crucial for T-cell survival and maintenance. This function has not been recognized before and is similar to the function of sialoglycans on B cells., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision., (Copyright © 2024 Schmidt, Linder, Korn, Schellenberg, Meyer, Nimmerjahn, Werner, Abeln, Gerardy-Schahn, Münster-Kühnel and Nitschke.)

Hair is an insoluble, fibrous, α-keratinous, protein composite material, providing outer coverage, e.g., for mammals. In the context of a wider study on the effects of pH on human hair properties, we investigated the time-dependence of pH-equilibration study across the acid and the basic pH-range, using appropriate pure solutions of hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide. The results show that pH-equilibration follows essentially equal 1 st -order kinetics across the pH-range. The characteristic process time does not change significantly and is in the range of 2.5-5 h. The analysis enables to determine the equilibrium uptakes of H + - and OH - -ions. These follow the expected U-shaped path across the pH-range. For both acidic and alkaline conditions, data are well described by two very similar sorption isotherms of the Freundlich-type. In consequence, partition ratios for both ions are highest near neutrality (pH 7: >6000) and drop off strongly towards low and high pHs (<50). Hair is thus a very strong 'sink' for H + and OH - . This observation fundamentally challenges traditional views of limited ion uptake, namely, in the mid-pH-range due to hindered diffusion. It also does not support considerations on special roles of certain pHs, specific groups of amino acids, or morphological components. Our analysis thus suggests that established views of the interaction of hair and pH need to be reconsidered, The Freundlich isotherm approach appears to provide a versatile tool to refine our understanding of the interactions of hair and possibly other keratinous materials (horn, nail, feathers) with acids and bases., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest FJW and GW are partners in F & GW – Consultants GbR. The company provides academic support for the hair cosmetics industry on a consultancy basis. ESzW is Head of Research & Development at Dr Kurt Wolff GmbH & Co KG. In this role he leads, e.g., hair cosmetics R&D at this company., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Objectives: The purpose was to synthesize the available literature on what factors influence vaccine hesitancy of parents of preschoolers in Canada., Methods: Databases (e.g., CINAHL, PubMed, OVID, Proquest) were searched for relevant research articles produced between January 2009 and October 2019. Articles were required to examine vaccine uptake in children aged 0-7, in the English language, and focused within a Canadian context. Articles were excluded if they focused on uptake of the influenza vaccine and if the study population was children with chronic health conditions. A total of 367 articles were reviewed and 12 met the criteria for inclusion in this review., Synthesis: This review found that between 50% and 70% of children are completely vaccinated at 2 years old, with up to 97% having received at least one vaccine, and 2-5% receiving no vaccines. This review found that trust and access to health care providers is significantly associated with vaccine uptake, likely more important than parents' vaccine knowledge, and may compensate for challenges related to socio-economic status and family dynamics., Conclusion: Vaccine programs need to be created that are accessible to all families, with an awareness of the significant impact of trust on vaccine uptake. Future research should include consistent measures of vaccine uptake, and data from First Nation communities, and should examine how increased trust between health care providers and parents of preschool children would increase vaccine uptake in Canada.