Telehealth-facilitated palliative care enables more people to die at home: An analysis of clinical outcomes and service activity data.

Background: Telehealth-facilitated models of palliative care are a patient-focused way to deliver specialist care in or closer to home for people with a life-limiting illness. Telehealth can increase access to palliative care and support people experiencing symptoms of advanced disease in their own home, reducing the discomfort of travel. This retrospective cohort study examines the activity and outcomes of a regional telehealth-facilitated palliative care service to (i) describe which patients are most likely to use telehealth; and (ii) explore possible impacts of telehealth on patient outcomes including place of death, timely access to care, responsiveness to urgent needs and pain management.

The need for methodological pluralism in epidemiological modelling.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the best-performing modelling groups were not always the best-resourced. This paper seeks to understand and learn from notable predictions in two reports by the UK's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE). In July 2021, SAGE reported that, after the upcoming lifting of restrictions ("Freedom Day") cases would "almost certainly remain extremely high for the rest of the summer" and that hospitalisations per day would peak between 100 and 10,000.

The harms of promoting the lab leak hypothesis for SARS-CoV-2 origins without evidence.

Science is humanity's best insurance against threats from nature, but it is a fragile enterprise that must be nourished and protected. The preponderance of scientific evidence indicates a natural origin for SARS-CoV-2. Yet, the theory that SARS-CoV-2 was engineered in and escaped from a lab dominates media attention, even in the absence of strong evidence.

The epidemiology of dying within 48 hours of presentation to emergency departments: a retrospective cohort study of older people across Australia and New Zealand.

Background: Emergency department (ED) clinicians are more frequently providing care, including end-of-life care, to older people.

Objectives: To estimate the need for ED end-of-life care for people aged ≥65 years, describe characteristics of those dying within 48 hours of ED presentation and compare those dying in ED with those dying elsewhere.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study analysing data from 177 hospitals in Australia and New Zealand.

Development and implementation of the Specialist Palliative Care in Aged Care (SPACE) Project across Queensland.

There is an urgent and unmet need for specialist palliative care services in residential aged care. The Specialist Palliative Care in Aged Care (SPACE) Project aimed to improve palliative and end-of-life care for older people living in residential aged care facilities in Queensland. A representative working group developed a series of service principles around palliative care practice in aged care (comprehensive resident-focused care, streamlined service, and capacity building).

Extending the Known Region of Nonlocal Boxes that Collapse Communication Complexity.

Nonsignaling boxes (NS) are theoretical resources defined by the principle of no-faster-than-light communication. They generalize quantum correlations and some of them are known to collapse communication complexity (CC). However, this collapse is strongly believed to be unachievable in nature, so its study provides intuition on which theories are unrealistic.

Making bioinformatics training FAIR: the EMBL-EBI training portal.

EMBL-EBI provides a broad range of training in data-driven life sciences. To improve awareness and access to training course listings and to make digital learning materials findable and simple to use, the EMBL-EBI Training website, www.ebi.

Virology-the path forward.

In the United States (US), biosafety and biosecurity oversight of research on viruses is being reappraised. Safety in virology research is paramount and oversight frameworks should be reviewed periodically. Changes should be made with care, however, to avoid impeding science that is essential for rapidly reducing and responding to pandemic threats as well as addressing more common challenges caused by infectious diseases.

Drivers of soil microbial and detritivore activity across global grasslands.

Covering approximately 40% of land surfaces, grasslands provide critical ecosystem services that rely on soil organisms. However, the global determinants of soil biodiversity and functioning remain underexplored. In this study, we investigate the drivers of soil microbial and detritivore activity in grasslands across a wide range of climatic conditions on five continents.

End-of-life care: A retrospective cohort study of older people who died within 48 hours of presentation to the emergency department.

Objectives: To describe the characteristics of, and care provided to, older people who died within 48 h of ED presentation.

Methods: A descriptive retrospective cohort study of people 65 years and older presenting to two EDs in Queensland, Australia, between April 2018 and March 2019. Data from electronic medical records were collected and analysed.

Avian reovirus: a furious and fast evolving pathogen.

Avian reoviruses (ARVs) have a significant economic impact on the poultry industry, affecting commercial and backyard flocks. Spread feco-orally, or vertically, many do not cause morbidity, but pathogenic strains can contribute to several diseases, including tenosynovitis/arthritis, which is clinically the most significant. The last decade has seen a surge in cases in the US, and due to ongoing evolution, seven genotypic clusters have now been identified.

CD4TGFβ cells infiltrated the bursa of Fabricius following IBDV infection, and correlated with a delayed viral clearance, but did not correlate with disease severity, or immunosuppression.

Introduction: Infectious Bursal Disease Virus (IBDV) causes immunosuppression in chickens. While B-cell destruction is the main cause of humoral immunosuppression, bursal T cells from IBDV-infected birds have been reported to inhibit the mitogenic response of splenocytes, indicating that some T cell subsets in the infected bursa have immunomodulatory activities. CD4CD25TGFβ cells have been recently described in chickens that have immunoregulatory properties and play a role in the pathogenesis of Marek's Disease Virus.

The impact of family interventions on communication in the context of anxiety and depression in those aged 14-24 years: systematic review of randomised control trials.

Background: The ability to communicate is integral to all human relationships. Previous research has specifically highlighted communication within families as both a risk and protective factor for anxiety disorders and/or depression. Yet, there is limited understanding about whether communication is amenable to intervention in the context of adolescent psychopathology, and whether doing so improves outcomes.

Genetic diversity, recombination and cross-species transmission of a waterbird gammacoronavirus in the wild.

Viruses emerging from wildlife can cause outbreaks in humans and domesticated animals. Predicting the emergence of future pathogens and mitigating their impacts requires an understanding of what shapes virus diversity and dynamics in wildlife reservoirs. In order to better understand coronavirus ecology in wild species, we sampled birds within a coastal freshwater lagoon habitat across 5 years, focussing on a large population of mute swans () and the diverse species that they interact with.

The role of climate change and urban development on compound dry-hot extremes across US cities.

Compound dry-hot extreme (CDHE) events pose greater risks to the environment, society, and human health than their univariate counterparts. Here, we project decadal-length changes in the frequency and duration of CDHE events for major U.S.

The effect of surgical complications on long-term prognosis following oesophagectomy.

Introduction: Complications are frequent after oesophagectomy, and there is evidence these adversely impact long-term prognosis. However, the effect of multiple complications, and the absolute magnitude of effect on survival is unclear. This study aimed to examine these effects in a single high-volume UK unit.

The Formation and Function of Virus Factories.

The use of infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) reverse genetics to engineer tagged reporter viruses has revealed that the virus factories (VFs) of the family are biomolecular condensates that show properties consistent with liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS). Although the VFs are not bound by membranes, it is currently thought that viral protein 3 (VP3) initially nucleates the formation of the VF on the cytoplasmic leaflet of early endosomal membranes, and likely drives LLPS. In addition to VP3, IBDV VFs contain VP1 (the viral polymerase) and the dsRNA genome, and they are the sites of de novo viral RNA synthesis.

How Blackouts during Heat Waves Amplify Mortality and Morbidity Risk.

The recent concurrence of electrical grid failure events in time with extreme temperatures is compounding the population health risks of extreme weather episodes. Here, we combine simulated heat exposure data during historical heat wave events in three large U.S.

Pandemic response strategies and threshold phenomena.

This paper critically evaluates the Suppression Threshold Strategy (STS) for controlling Covid-19 (C-19). STS asserts a "fundamental distinction" between suppression and mitigation strategies, reflected in very different outcomes in eventual mortality depending on whether reproductive number is caused to fall below 1. We show that there is no real distinction based on any value of which falls in any case from early on in an epidemic wave.

Complexity in Epidemiology and Public Health. Addressing Complex Health Problems Through a Mix of Epidemiologic Methods and Data.

Public health and the underlying disease processes are complex, often involving the interaction of biologic, social, psychologic, economic, and other processes that may be nonlinear and adaptive and have other features of complex systems. There is therefore a need to push the boundaries of public health beyond single-factor data analysis and expand the capacity of research methodology to tackle real-world complexities. This article sets out a way to operationalize complex systems thinking in public health, with a particular focus on how epidemiologic methods and data can contribute towards this end.