Publications by authors named "Ayala M"

Microbiology reference laboratories perform a crucial role within public health systems. This role was especially evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this Viewpoint, we emphasise the importance of microbiology reference laboratories and highlight the types of digital data and expertise they provide, which benefit national and international public health.

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Objective: To examine differences in parenting factors among caregivers with children with and without externalizing behavior problems (EBP) in a community homeless shelter sample versus a stable housing sample.

Method: Nine hundred and fourteen children (ages = 2.01-7.

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  • * Key predictors for subclinical atherosclerosis included male sex, diabetic nephropathy, high HbA1c levels, older age, long diabetes duration, and tobacco use.
  • * The presence of subclinical atherosclerosis significantly increased the risk of major cardiovascular events and overall mortality, indicating a need for improved cardiovascular risk management in these patients.
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Participatory budgeting (PB) is a democratic approach to allocating municipal spending that has been adopted in many places in recent years, including in Chicago. Current PB voting resembles a ballot where residents are asked which municipal projects, such as school improvements and road repairs, to fund with a limited budget. In this work, we ask how interactive visualization can benefit PB by conducting a design probe-based interview study (N = 13) with policy workers and academics with expertise in PB, urban planning, and civic HCI.

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  • - This study investigates the acute phase of Chagas disease in Colombia, focusing on cases from 2019 to fill a critical knowledge gap.
  • - The research aims to improve understanding of the disease dynamics during this pivotal phase, especially in relation to oral transmission.
  • - Findings will help enhance disease management strategies and public health responses to this neglected tropical disease in Colombia.
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  • Cutaneous malignant melanomas are rarely found in the eye, particularly as conjunctival malignant melanomas, which are even less common and can be difficult to diagnose, especially in their amelanotic form.
  • The article presents two cases of Swedish Caucasian women, one aged 81 and the other 50, who were diagnosed with amelanotic malignant melanoma in the conjunctiva, with varying treatment outcomes; the first underwent orbital exenteration while the second was treated with brachytherapy and local chemotherapy, preserving her eye.
  • It is crucial for healthcare providers to suspect amelanotic malignant melanoma when tumors are present in the eye or eyelids to facilitate prompt treatment and reduce the risk of metastasis.
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Purpose: Mothers experiencing homelessness undergo significant stressors in addition to parenting stress, yet the rate and treatment of postpartum depression (PPD) within this population has yet to be explored. We assessed the risk for PPD and examined the changes in PDD and parenting stress following engagement in treatment.

Methods: Participants included 182 mothers with infants 7 months of age or younger in a shelter setting.

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Peroxidases, like horseradish peroxidase (HRP), are heme metalloenzymes that are powerful biocatalysts for various oxidation reactions. By using simple grafting-from approach, ring-opening polymerization (ROP), and manganese porphyrins, star-shaped polypeptides analogues of HRP capable of catalyzing oxidation reactions with HO is successfully prepared. Like their protein model, these simplified analogues show interesting Michaelis-Menten constant (K) in the mM range for the oxidant.

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Introduction: While newer heater-cooler technologies using ethylene glycol-based (GB) solutions during cardiothoracic surgery have become commercially available, there is a paucity of clinical data describing their effectiveness during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) support. This analysis aimed to compare clinical characteristics and procedural outcomes using water-based (WB) and GB heater-cooler systems.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed on consecutive adult patients undergoing CPB from June to October 2022 comparing WB or GB groups.

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Background: Influenza vaccines are effective in decreasing hospitalizations and mortality related to influenza and its complications. However, the Vaccine Coverage Rate of influenza remains low and multifaceted efforts are required to improve it. The aim of this study was to assess the impact on influenza vaccine perception using a digital tool among outpatients and health care workers (HCWs).

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In this work, we present a comprehensive investigation of the entrapment of laccase, a biotechnologically relevant enzyme, into levan-based nanoparticles (LNPs). The entrapment of laccase was achieved concomitantly with the synthesis of LNP, catalyzed by a truncated version of a levansucrase from Leuconostoc mesenteroides. The study aimed to obtain a biocompatible nanomaterial, able to entrap functional laccase, and characterize its physicochemical, kinetic and thermal stability properties.

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Agricultural systems tend to be characterised by large diversity, therefore, solving socio-economic and environmental problems in agriculture requires targeted and contextualised policies. However, policies often fail to recognize this heterogeneity in their design or implementation. This can result in the use of sector-wide characteristics and, consequently, generic policies that are not tailored to specific farming systems.

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Background: This study aims to determine whether including genetics as a risk factor for progression will improve the accuracy of the models used in newly diagnosed exfoliation glaucoma patients.

Methods: This was a prospective cohort study. This study included only patients who were newly diagnosed with exfoliation glaucoma and received treatment upon inclusion.

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This research aimed to study the rostral part of the head of the six-banded armadillo, applying advanced imaging techniques such as CT. Furthermore, by combining the images obtained through this technique with anatomical cross-sections, an adequate description of the structures that constitute the rostral part of the head of this species is presented. This anatomical information could provide a valuable diagnostic tool for the clinical evaluation of different disorders in the six-banded armadillo's nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses.

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Scholarly research has consistently shown that teachers present negative assessments of and attitudes toward migrant students. However, previous studies have not clearly addressed the distinction between implicit and explicit prejudices, or identified their underlying sources. This study identifies the explicit and implicit prejudices held by elementary and middle school teachers regarding the learning abilities of an ethnic minority group: Haitian students within the Chilean educational system.

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Cervical epidural anesthesia (CEA) is a well-established technique and is suitable for various surgeries, including carotid, thyroid, airway, neck cancer, breast, and upper limb procedures. We report the case of an elderly woman with a recurrent neck mass secondary to metastatic papillary thyroid carcinoma causing neurovascular compression, who underwent surgery under CEA. Five milliliters of 0.

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When a context change is detected during motor learning, motor memories-internal models for executing movements within some context-may be created or existing motor memories may be activated and modified. Assigning credit to plausible causes of errors can allow for fast retrieval and activation of a motor memory, or a combination of motor memories, when the presence of such causes is detected. Features of the movement-context intrinsic to the movement dynamics, such as posture of the end effector, are often effective cues for detecting context change whereas features extrinsic to the movement dynamics, such as the colour of an object being moved, are often not.

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Searching for new and better biocatalysts is an area of study in constant development. In nature, mechanisms generally occurring in evolution, such as genetic duplication, recombination, and natural selection processes, produce various enzymes with different architectures and properties. The recombination of genes that code proteins produces multidomain chimeric enzymes that contain two or more domains that sometimes enhance their catalytic properties.

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Background: Exfoliative glaucoma (XFG) is a subtype of open-angle glaucoma characterized by distinctive extracellular fibrils and a yet unknown pathogenesis potentially involving immune-related factors. The aim of this exploratory study was to identify biomarkers for XFG using data from autoimmunity profiling performed on blood samples from a Scandinavian cohort of patients.

Methods: Autoantibody screening was analyzed against 258 different protein fragments in blood samples taken from 30 patients diagnosed with XFG and 30 healthy donors.

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Purpose: The present study aimed to identify whether former smoking was a risk factor for visual field progression in exfoliation glaucoma patients.

Methods: Prospective nonrandomised cohort study. The study included patients diagnosed with exfoliation glaucoma.

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Importance: Children with high callous-unemotional traits are more likely to develop severe and persistent conduct problems; however, the newborn neurobiology underlying early callous-unemotional traits remains unknown. Understanding the neural mechanisms that precede the development of callous-unemotional traits could help identify at-risk children and encourage development of novel treatments.

Objective: To determine whether newborn brain function is associated with early-emerging empathy, prosociality, and callous-unemotional traits.

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Serotonin [5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)] modulates ovarian function. The precursor of 5-HT, 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP), has been used to treat depression. However, the effects of 5-HTP on ovarian and reproductive physiology remain unknown.

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This study aimed to determine whether glaucoma progression was linear or not in newly diagnosed exfoliation glaucoma patients. A total of 96 patients with newly diagnosed exfoliation glaucoma were included. These patients were required to undergo at least seven visual field tests within 3 years (± 1 month), and all were treated at the time of inclusion.

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Central norepinephrine (NE) neurons, located mainly in the locus coeruleus (LC), are implicated in diverse psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases and are an emerging target for drug discovery. To facilitate their study, we developed a method to generate 40-60% human LC-NE neurons from human pluripotent stem cells. The approach depends on our identification of ACTIVIN A in regulating LC-NE transcription factors in dorsal rhombomere 1 (r1) progenitors.

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Prcis: The study identified risk factors for exfoliation glaucoma and recommended re-evaluating target intraocular pressure (IOP) after 5 visual fields to slow disease progression.

Purpose: This study aimed to establish risk factors for exfoliation glaucoma and determine the earliest time points for estimating disease progression.

Patients: A total of 96 patients with newly diagnosed exfoliation glaucoma were included.

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