Healthcare-acquired clusters of COVID-19 across multiple wards in a Scottish health board.

Background: Healthcare-acquired COVID-19 has been an additional burden on hospitals managing increasing numbers of patients with SARS-CoV-2. One acute hospital (W) among three in a Scottish healthboard experienced an unexpected surge of COVID-19 clusters.

Aim: To investigate possible causes of COVID-19 clusters at Hospital W.

Can two wrongs make a right? The buffering effect of retaliation on subordinate well-being following abusive supervision.

Subordinates who are abused by a supervisor tend to experience violated perceptions of interpersonal justice and deteriorated well-being. One way in which they may seek to cope with these consequences is by engaging in retaliatory behaviors intended to "get back" at their supervisor and even the score. Based on research suggesting that acts of retaliation can restore perceptions of justice, we propose a model whereby retaliation alleviates the effect of abusive supervision on subordinate well-being by restoring subordinates' interpersonal justice perceptions.

Aggregate and Heatmap Representations of Genome-Wide Localization Data Using VAP, a Versatile Aggregate Profiler.

In the analysis of experimental data corresponding to the signal enrichment of chromatin features such as histone modifications throughout the genome, it is often useful to represent the signal over known regions of interest, such as genes, using aggregate or individual profiles. In the present chapter, we describe and explain the best practices on how to generate such profiles as well as other usages of the versatile aggregate profiler (VAP) tool (Coulombe et al., Nucleic Acids Res 42:W485-W493, 2014), with a particular focus on the new functionalities introduced in version 1.

VAP: a versatile aggregate profiler for efficient genome-wide data representation and discovery.

The analysis of genomic data such as ChIP-Seq usually involves representing the signal intensity level over genes or other genetic features. This is often illustrated as a curve (representing the aggregate profile of a group of genes) or as a heatmap (representing individual genes). However, no specific resource dedicated to easily generating such profiles is currently available.

Surgical site infections linked to contaminated surgical instruments.

Background: This study describes an investigation into a sudden increase in surgical site infection rate following 'clean' surgery. The outbreak involved 15 orthopaedic patients following metal insertion, and five ophthalmology patients who developed endophthalmitis.

Aim: An outbreak committee was convened in order to find the cause of the sudden increase in surgical infections.

Leptospirosis in the Asia Pacific region.

Background: Leptospirosis is a worldwide zoonotic infection that has been recognized for decades, but the problem of the disease has not been fully addressed, particularly in resource-poor, developing countries, where the major burden of the disease occurs. This paper presents an overview of the current situation of leptospirosis in the region. It describes the current trends in the epidemiology of leptospirosis, the existing surveillance systems, and presents the existing prevention and control programs in the Asia Pacific region.

Home-care programmes for older adults with disabilities in Canada: how can we assess the adequacy of services provided compared with the needs of users?

The need for home care will probably continue to increase over the next decade as one response to innovative health practices designed to help people receive services at home instead of in institutions. However, there are no data for determining whether home-care programmes can meet user needs. The objectives of the present study were to describe the functional autonomy profile of the users of public home-care programmes in Québec, Canada, and to compare the level of adequacy between required and provided services in public home-care programmes for older adults with disabilities.

Benefits of nutritional supplementation in free-living, frail, undernourished elderly people: a prospective randomized community trial.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of nutritional supplementation on nutritional status, muscle strength, perceived health, and functional status in a population of community-living, frail, undernourished elderly people.

Design: A 16-week intervention study in which subjects were randomized to an experimental or a control group and visited in their home on a monthly basis. Outcome variables were measured at the start and end of the study at subjects' homes by a dietitian blinded to treatment assignment.

Nutrition risk factors for institutionalization in a free-living functionally dependent elderly population.

Risk factors for institutionalization of frail elderly have been studied but the role of nutritional status has not been addressed. A prospective cohort of 288 frail elderly (81 male; 207 female; mean age: 78.2 +/- 7.

Weight loss and mortality among free-living frail elders: a prospective study.

Background: Numerous studies of the elderly population have indicated that body weight and weight changes are related to mortality, but the one group at particularly high risk of nutritional inadequacies--frail elders receiving home help services--has not been studied.

Methods: A prospective cohort of 288 frail elders (81 men; 207 women; mean age: 78.2 +/- 7.

Ability of the Higgins Nutrition Intervention Program to improve adolescent pregnancy outcome.

Objectives: To determine the extent to which birth weight can be increased and the risk for adverse pregnancy outcome decreased when pregnant adolescents participated in the Higgins Nutrition Intervention Program; and to describe the dietary components of the program, including their variation as a function of diagnosed risk for adverse pregnancy outcome.

Design: Retrospective cohort study involving review of medical charts.

Subjects/setting: Developed as an adjunct to routine prenatal care, the Higgins Nutrition Intervention Program consists of an assessment of each pregnant adolescent's risk profile for adverse pregnancy outcomes and an individualized nutritional rehabilitation program based on that profile.

Evolution of resident oral bacterial biota in BALB/c mice during pregnancy and lactation.

To assess the influence of pregnancy and lactation on the oral microbial ecology of BALB/c mice, we followed the distribution of the predominant oral bacteria of four groups of these mice during these two periods. Compared with nonpregnant control female mice of the same age maintained under the same conditions, the distribution of the resident oral bacterial species differed significantly only during the lactation period (8-16 days after parturition). This difference could possibly be attributed to hormonal influences and/or grooming habits.

Colonization of the oral cavity of mice by an unidentified streptococcus.

While studying the oral bacterial biota of mice, we observed an unidentified streptococcus (TG) that eventually became the dominant species of the oral cavities of all other mice in our animal facility. We found that the strain is indigenous to Jackson Laboratory mice but is absent in animals from Charles River Laboratories. TG was also transmitted from artificially contaminated BALB/c mice to the oral cavities of 4 other mouse strains.

Topical application of a corticosteroid destabilizes the host-parasite relationship in an experimental model of the oral carrier state of Candida albicans.

Using an experimental model in the mouse we have shown that both local and central lines of defense, involving CD4+ T cells, participate in a dynamic interaction to maintain a long-term carrier state of Candida albicans in the oral cavity. We have tested the impact of a predisposing factor to oral candidiasis in the form of a topical application of a corticosteroid (Topsyn gel) to the oral mucosa for 75 mice twice a day for a 20-day period. Very rapidly after the treatment was initiated, i.

Differential pattern of infection and immune response during experimental oral candidiasis in BALB/c and DBA/2 (H-2d) mice.

We used an experimental model of oral candidiasis in the mouse to investigate the impact of the introduction of Candida albicans into a Candida-free system. We report that 2 strains of mice with the same major histocompatibility complex haplotype (H-2d) display different kinetics of primary oral infection after topical application of the same inoculum. The mucosal reactions in both DBA/2 and BALB/c mice involve a similar recruitment of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and of MAC-1+ cells in mucosal tissue during the infection.