A mixed method evaluation of a novel targeted health messaging intervention to promote COVID-19 protective behaviours and vaccination among Black and South Asian communities living in the UK (The COBHAM study).

Aim: To evaluate an intervention (a film and electronic leaflet) disseminated via text message by general practices to promote COVID-19 preventative behaviours in Black and South Asian communities.

Methods: We carried out a before-and-after questionnaire study of attitudes to and implementation of COVID-19 preventative behaviours and qualitative interviews about the intervention with people registered with 26 general practices in England who identified as Black or South Asian.

Results: In the 108 people who completed both questionnaires, we found no significant change in attitudes to and implementation of COVID-19 preventative behaviours, although power was too low to detect significant effects.

Capturing the Elusive Curve-Crossing in Low-Lying States of Butadiene with Dressed TDDFT.

A striking example of the need to accurately capture states of double-excitation character in molecules is seen in predicting photoinduced dynamics in small polyenes. Due to the coupling of electronic and nuclear motions, the dark 2Ag state, known to have double-excitation character, can be reached after an initial photoexcitation to the bright 1Bu state via crossings of their potential energy surfaces. However, the shapes of the surfaces are so poorly captured by most electronic structure methods, that the crossing is missed or substantially mis-located.

Imaging PD-L1 in the brain-Journey from the lab to the clinic.

Background: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICPIs) have proven to restore adaptive anti-tumor immunity in many cancers; however, no noteworthy therapeutic schedule has been established for patients with glioblastoma (GBM). High programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression is associated with immunosuppressive and aggressive phenotypes in GBM. Presently, there is no standardized protocol for assessing PD-L1 expression levels to select patients and monitor their response to ICPI therapy.

Leadership competencies for dentists: What do undergraduate students think?

Dentists face difficult situations and challenges every day, but undergraduate dental students in Pakistan are not formally taught leadership skills or assessed for these skills. This study aims to explore the perception of undergraduate dental students on various leadership competencies. A multi-institutional cross-sectional observational study was conducted on undergraduate students in five institutions by using universal sampling technique.

Reformulation of Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory for Nonperturbative Dynamics: The Rabi Oscillation Problem Resolved.

Rabi oscillations have long been thought to be out of reach in simulations using time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT), a prominent symptom of the failure of the adiabatic approximation for nonperturbative dynamics. We present a reformulation of TDDFT which requires response quantities only, thus enabling an adiabatic approximation to predict such dynamics accurately because the functional is evaluated on a density close to the ground state, instead of on the fully nonperturbative density. Our reformulation applies to any real-time dynamics, redeeming TDDFT far from equilibrium.

Exploring psychiatric patient restraints: Balancing safety, ethics, and patient rights in mental healthcare.

Restraint, often linked with limiting an individual's freedom of movement, has become a focal point of extensive discussion and evaluation within the realm of mental healthcare. Striking a delicate balance between ensuring individual safety and minimizing reliance on restraint methods poses a significant challenge. In mental health inpatient settings, the prevalent forms of restraint encompass physical, chemical, environmental, and psychological methods.

Oscillator strengths and excited-state couplings for double excitations in time-dependent density functional theory.

Although useful to extract excitation energies of states of double-excitation character in time-dependent density functional theory that are missing in the adiabatic approximation, the frequency-dependent kernel derived earlier [Maitra et al., J. Chem.

A Stumping Experience: An Autobiographical Case Report.

Stump appendicitis, while being well recognized as a delayed complication following an appendectomy, is a relatively under-reported clinical entity, with an even lesser documentation frequency in the subcontinent, from where the author hails. This article recounts his brief yet consequential journey from ill-health to recovery, all the while giving an insight into a multitude of related experiences that served as learning points for the narrator. Additionally, this account of events, having been viewed through a hybrid doctor-patient lens, aspires to be a valuable addition to medical literature.

Curing the Divergence in Time-Dependent Density Functional Quadratic Response Theory.

The adiabatic approximation in time-dependent density functional theory is known to give an incorrect pole structure in the quadratic response function, leading to unphysical divergences in excited state-to-state transition probabilities and hyperpolarizabilties. We find the form of the exact quadratic response kernel and derive a practical and accurate approximation that cures the divergence. We demonstrate our results on excited state-to-state transition probabilities of a model system and of the LiH molecule.

Outbreak of Burkholderia stabilis Infections Associated with Contaminated Nonsterile, Multiuse Ultrasound Gel - 10 States, May-September 2021.

In July 2021, the Virginia Department of Health notified CDC of a cluster of eight invasive infections with Burkholderia stabilis, a bacterium in the Burkholderia cepacia complex (BCC), among hospitalized patients at hospital A. Most patients had undergone ultrasound-guided procedures during their admission. Culture of MediChoice M500812 nonsterile ultrasound gel used in hospital A revealed contamination of unopened product with B.

An expanded arsenal of immune systems that protect bacteria from phages.

Bacterial anti-phage systems are frequently clustered in microbial genomes, forming defense islands. This property enabled the recent discovery of multiple defense systems based on their genomic co-localization with known systems, but the full arsenal of anti-phage mechanisms remains unknown. We report the discovery of 21 defense systems that protect bacteria from phages, based on computational genomic analyses and phage-infection experiments.

Spatial transcriptomics of planktonic and sessile bacterial populations at single-cell resolution.

Capturing the heterogeneous phenotypes of microbial populations at relevant spatiotemporal scales is highly challenging. Here, we present par-seqFISH (parallel sequential fluorescence in situ hybridization), a transcriptome-imaging approach that records gene expression and spatial context within microscale assemblies at a single-cell and molecule resolution. We applied this approach to the opportunistic pathogen , analyzing about 600,000 individuals across dozens of conditions in planktonic and biofilm cultures.

Modified partial penile disassembly repair for improved functional and cosmetic outcome in isolated male epispadias.

Introduction And Objective: The objective of the study was to evaluate the functional and cosmetic outcome of single-stage modified partial penile disassembly repair in isolated male epispadias.

Materials And Methods: A retrospective analysis of 15 cases of primary epispadias repair, from June 2015 to December 2018, was performed. Patients were classified by the type of epispadias, urinary incontinence, chordee, and rotation.

The role of orotic acid measurement in routine newborn screening for urea cycle disorders.

Urea cycle disorders (UCDs), including OTC deficiency (OTCD), are life-threatening diseases with a broad clinical spectrum. Early diagnosis and initiation of treatment based on a newborn screening (NBS) test for OTCD with high specificity and sensitivity may contribute to reduction of the significant complications and high mortality. The efficacy of incorporating orotic acid determination into routine NBS was evaluated.

Global landscape of phenazine biosynthesis and biodegradation reveals species-specific colonization patterns in agricultural soils and crop microbiomes.

Phenazines are natural bacterial antibiotics that can protect crops from disease. However, for most crops it is unknown which producers and specific phenazines are ecologically relevant, and whether phenazine biodegradation can counter their effects. To better understand their ecology, we developed and environmentally-validated a quantitative metagenomic approach to mine for phenazine biosynthesis and biodegradation genes, applying it to >800 soil and plant-associated shotgun-metagenomes.

A 5' UTR-Derived sRNA Regulates RhlR-Dependent Quorum Sensing in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

-Acyl homoserine lactone (AHL) quorum sensing (QS) controls expression of over 200 genes in . There are two AHL regulatory systems: the LasR-LasI circuit and the RhlR-RhlI system. We mapped transcription termination sites affected by AHL QS in , and in doing so we identified AHL-regulated small RNAs (sRNAs).

HflXr, a homolog of a ribosome-splitting factor, mediates antibiotic resistance.

To overcome the action of antibiotics, bacteria have evolved a variety of different strategies, such as drug modification, target mutation, and efflux pumps. Recently, we performed a genome-wide analysis of gene expression after growth in the presence of antibiotics, identifying genes that are up-regulated upon antibiotic treatment. One of them, , is a homolog of , which encodes a heat shock protein that rescues stalled ribosomes by separating their two subunits.

Bacterial Noncoding RNAs Excised from within Protein-Coding Transcripts.

Prokaryotic genomes encode a plethora of small noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) that fine-tune the expression of specific genes. The vast majority of known bacterial ncRNAs are encoded from within intergenic regions, where their expression is controlled by promoter and terminator elements, similarly to protein-coding genes. In addition, recent studies have shown that functional ncRNAs can also be derived from gene 3' untranslated regions (3'UTRs) via an alternative biogenesis pathway, in which the ncRNA segment is separated from the mRNA via RNase cleavage.

Successful Brincidofovir Treatment of Metagenomics-detected Adenovirus Infection in a Severely Ill Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription-1-deficient Patient.

A signal transducer and activator of transcription-1-deficient patient presented with prolonged fever, cachexia, anemia, hypoalbuminemia and finally relapsing debilitating mycobacterial osteomyelitis while receiving a previously effective antimycobacterial treatment. Progression despite rigorous workup and multiple antibiotics prompted shotgun metagenomics revealing adenovirus in liver samples. Brincidofovir led to a complete, sustained clinical recovery, including osteomyelitis, probably attributed to reversal of adenovirus-induced immune dysregulation.

High-resolution RNA 3'-ends mapping of bacterial Rho-dependent transcripts.

Transcription termination in bacteria can occur either via Rho-dependent or independent (intrinsic) mechanisms. Intrinsic terminators are composed of a stem-loop RNA structure followed by a uridine stretch and are known to terminate in a precise manner. In contrast, Rho-dependent terminators have more loosely defined characteristics and are thought to terminate in a diffuse manner.

Extensive reshaping of bacterial operons by programmed mRNA decay.

Bacterial operons synchronize the expression of multiple genes by placing them under the control of a shared promoter. It was previously shown that polycistronic transcripts can undergo differential RNA decay, leaving some genes within the polycistron more stable than others, but the extent of regulation by differential mRNA decay or its evolutionary conservation remains unknown. Here, we find that a substantial fraction of E.

Atherogenicity of amino acids in the lipid-laden macrophage model system in vitro and in atherosclerotic mice: a key role for triglyceride metabolism.

Atherosclerosis-related research has focused mainly on the effects of lipids on macrophage foam cell formation and atherogenesis, whereas the role of amino acids (AAs) was understudied. The current study aimed to identify anti- or pro-atherogenic AA in the macrophage model system and to elucidate the underlying metabolic and molecular mechanisms. J774A.