Age-specific SARS-CoV-2 transmission differed from human rhinovirus in households during the early COVID-19 pandemic.

Objectives: Children are generally considered main drivers of transmission for respiratory viruses, but the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 challenged this paradigm. Human rhinovirus (RV) continued to co-circulate throughout the pandemic, allowing for direct comparison of age-specific infectivity and susceptibility within households between these viruses during a time of low SARS-CoV-2 population immunity.

Methods: Households with children were prospectively monitored for ≥23 weeks between August 2020 and July 2021.

Estimation of introduction and transmission rates of SARS-CoV-2 in a prospective household study.

Household studies provide an efficient means to study transmission of infectious diseases, enabling estimation of susceptibility and infectivity by person-type. A main inclusion criterion in such studies is usually the presence of an infected person. This precludes estimation of the hazards of pathogen introduction into the household.

Estimation of introduction and transmission rates of SARS-CoV-2 in a prospective household study.

Household studies provide an efficient means to study transmission of infectious diseases, enabling estimation of individual susceptibility and infectivity. A main inclusion criterion in such studies is often the presence of an infected person. This precludes estimation of the hazards of pathogen introduction into the household.

Measurement instruments for the core outcome set of congenital melanocytic naevi and an assessment of the measurement properties according to COSMIN: a systematic review.

Background: Congenital melanocytic naevi (CMN) can impact on patients' lives due to their appearance and the risk they carry of neurological complications or melanoma development. The development of a core outcome set (COS) will allow standardised reporting and enable comparison of outcomes. This will help to improve guidelines.

Fluctuations in Thyroid Hormone Levels During Initial Treatment for Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma are Associated with Changes in Hemostasis: A Prospective Cohort Study.

During treatment for differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC), patients go from euthyroidism to severe hypothyroidism to subclinical hyperthyroidism induced by thyroid hormone suppression therapy (THST). Severe hypothyroidism may induce a tendency toward bleeding, whereas hyperthyroidism is thrombogenic. Therefore, treatment for DTC may increase the risk of bleeding during thyroid hormone withdrawal, and thrombosis during THST.

Longitudinal Household Assessment of Respiratory Illness in Children and Parents During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Importance: In the early COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 testing was only accessible and recommended for symptomatic persons or adults. This restriction hampered assessment of the true incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children as well as detailed characterization of the SARS-CoV-2 disease spectrum and how this spectrum compared with that of other common respiratory illnesses.

Objective: To estimate the community incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and parents and to assess the symptoms and symptom severity of respiratory illness episodes involving SARS-CoV-2-positive test results relative to those with SARS-CoV-2-negative test results.

The Value of Pre-Ablative I-131 Scan for Clinical Management in Patients With Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma.

Background: A diagnostic I-131 (Dx) scan is used to detect a thyroid remnant or metastases before treatment of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) with I-131. The aim of this study is to specify in which patients with DTC a Dx scan could have an additional value, by studying the effect of the Dx scan on clinical management.

Methods: Patients with DTC, treated with I-131 after thyroidectomy were included in this retrospective cohort study.

Cardiovascular effects of overt and subclinical hyperthyroidism: focus on differentiated thyroid cancer.

Thyroid hormone stimulates cardiac inotropy and chronotropy via direct genomic and non-genomic mechanisms. Hyperthyroidism magnifies these effects, resulting in an increase in heart rate, ejection fraction and blood volume. Hyperthyroidism also affects thrombogenesis and this may be linked to a probable tendency toward thrombosis in patients with hyperthyroidism.

Plasma branched chain amino acids are lower in short-term profound hypothyroidism and increase in response to thyroid hormone supplementation.

Branched chain amino acids (BCAA) are implicated in the pathogenesis of cardiometabolic diseases conceivably by affecting insulin resistance and mitochondrial dysfunction. Circulating BCAA levels may predict (subclinical) atherosclerosis, diabetes and hypertension development but the factors involved in BCAA regulation are incompletely understood. Given the key role of thyroid hormones on many metabolic processes including protein metabolism, we aimed to determine effects of thyroid dysfunction on circulating BCAA.

HDL Cholesterol Efflux Capacity is Impaired in Severe Short-Term Hypothyroidism Despite Increased HDL Cholesterol.

Context: Severe hypothyroidism has profound effects on lipoprotein metabolism including high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol elevations but effects on HDL function metrics are unknown.

Objective: To determine the impact of severe short-term hypothyroidism on HDL particle characteristics, HDL cholesterol efflux capacity (CEC), and HDL antioxidative capacity.

Design: Observational study with variables measured during severe short-term hypothyroidism (median TSH 81 mU/L) and after 20 weeks of thyroid hormone supplementation (median TSH 0.

Insect pollination is at least as important for marketable crop yield as plant quality in a seed crop.

The sustainability of agriculture can be improved by integrating management of ecosystem services, such as insect pollination, into farming practices. However, large-scale adoption of ecosystem services-based practices in agriculture is lacking, possibly because growers undervalue the benefits of ecosystem services compared to those of conventional management practices. Here we show that, under representative real-world conditions, pollination and plant quality made similar contributions to marketable seed yield of hybrid leek (Allium porrum).

Zero-dimensional lumped approach to incorporate the dynamic part of the pressure at vessel junctions in a 1D wave propagation model.

A benchmark study by Boileau et al tested 6 commonly used numerical schemes for 1D wave propagation, for their ability to capture the main features of pressure, flow, and area waveforms in large arteries. While all numerical schemes showed good agreement in pressure and flow waveforms for smaller arterial networks, the simplified trapezium rule method proposed by Kroon et al showed an overestimation for the systolic pressure of 1% in proximal regions and an underestimation of 3% in distal regions in comparison with the 5 other schemes when using a larger arterial network, published as the ADAN56 model. The authors attributed this difference to the neglection of the dynamic part of the pressure at vessel junctions.

Risk factors for venous thromboembolism in patients treated for differentiated thyroid carcinoma.

Although cancer in general is a strong risk factor for developing venous thromboembolism (VTE), the risk factors for venous thromboembolic events in patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) have never been assessed. This is remarkable, as several parts of the treatment comprise a hypercoagulable state that could in subgroups of DTC patients lead to an increased risk of VTE. The aim of this study was to assess which risk factors could cause DTC patients to develop VTE.

Decreased kainate receptors in the hippocampus of apolipoprotein D knockout mice.

Apolipoprotein D (ApoD) has many actions critical to maintaining mammalian CNS function. It is therefore significant that levels of ApoD have been shown to be altered in the CNS of subjects with schizophrenia, suggesting a role for ApoD in the pathophysiology of the disorder. There is also a large body of evidence that cortical and hippocampal glutamatergic, serotonergic and cholinergic systems are affected by the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.

Long-term cognitive deficits accompanied by reduced neurogenesis after soman poisoning.

To date, treatment of organophosphate (OP) poisoning shows several shortcomings, and OP-victims might suffer from lasting cognitive deficits and sleep-wake disturbances. In the present study, long-term effects of soman poisoning on learning ability, memory and neurogenesis were investigated in rats, treated with the anticholinergic atropine and the oxime HI-6 for reactivation of soman-inhibited acetylcholinesterase. We also investigated whether sub-chronic treatment with the reported neurogenesis enhancer olanzapine would stimulate neurogenesis and possibly normalize the anticipated long-term deleterious effects of soman intoxication.

Charge transport in photofunctional nanoparticles self-assembled from zinc 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(perylenediimide)porphyrin building blocks.

Molecules designed to carry out photochemical energy conversion typically employ several sequential electron transfers, as do photosynthetic proteins. Yet, these molecules typically do not achieve the extensive charge transport characteristic of semiconductor devices. We have prepared a large molecule in which four perylene-3,4:9,10-tetracarboxydiimide (PDI) molecules that both collect photons and accept electrons are attached to a central zinc 5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphyrin (ZnTPP) electron donor.

The importance of local data bases in medical expert systems: TICITL.

The database of our medical expert system, TICITL, contains the records of more than 15,000 gastroenterological patients. The data was collected over fifteen years (1977-1992) during which the patients were followed for at least three months to establish a final diagnosis. Using a new set of 230 gastroenterological cases, TICITL's first diagnosis was similar to the final diagnosis in 90% of the patients.

Synaptic reorganization in the feline ventral anterior thalamic nucleus induced by lesions in the basal ganglia.

This report presents the results of quantitative analysis of synaptic coverage of the dendrites of thalamocortical projection neurons in the adult cat ventral anterior thalamic nucleus (VA) and its changes at short (4 days)- and long-term (1 year) survival times after combined unilateral kainic acid lesions in the substantia nigra pars reticularis and entopeduncular nucleus. The study showed that deafferentation induced an increase in the appositional length of the dendrites of GABAergic local circuit neurons along projection neuron dendrites, accompanied by an increase in the number of dendrodendritic synapses. Dendritic or axonic origin of other unusual presynaptic structures at 1 year postlesion could not be established with certainty.