Structural violence as a driver of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and low vaccine uptake among people experiencing homelessness in Toronto, Canada: A qualitative study.

Background: People experiencing homelessness are at increased risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 and of severe complications of COVID-19. Vaccination is promoted as a key strategy to protect against severe illness from SARS-CoV-2 infection, but rates of vaccination among people experiencing homelessness are lower than the general population. Studies suggest lower uptake is a result of vaccine hesitancy, but few theoretically engage with the structural drivers of vaccine hesitancy.

Development and Assessment of an AI-based Machine Learning Model for Predicting Urinary Continence and Erectile Function Recovery after Robotic-Assisted Radical Prostatectomy: Insights from a Prostate Cancer Referral Center.

Introduction: Prostate cancer remains a significant health concern, with radical prostatectomy being a common treatment approach. However, predicting postoperative functional outcomes, particularly urinary continence and erectile function, poses challenges. Emerging artificial intelligence (AI) technologies offer promise in predictive modeling.

Characterising the inconsistency between perceived and actual sleep and its impact upon cognition and mood.

Sleep profoundly influences human behaviour across cognition, affect, and daily experience. This study evaluated how subjective reports and objective measures of sleep capture the interaction between sleep quality and quantity on cognition and affect. We collected subjective sleep reports using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and objective seven-day actigraphy recordings from 83 participants.

The public health burden of parent-reported food allergy-related missed school days among US children.

Background: Food allergy (FA) is a common chronic condition among U.S. children.

Which Components of the Haemodynamic Response to Active Stand Predict Cardiovascular Disease and Mortality? Data From The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing.

Background: An integrated haemodynamic response during standing may serve as an integrative marker of neuro-cardiovascular function. Individual components of both heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) responses to active stand (AS) have been linked with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality. We assessed longitudinal associations between entire HR/BP response curves during AS, incident CVD and mortality over 12 years.

Extensive pipeline location data resource: Integrating reported incidents, past environmental loadings, and potential geohazards for integrity evaluations in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

The U.S. Gulf of Mexico contains a complex network of existing, decommissioned, and abandoned oil and gas pipelines, which are susceptible to a number of stressors in the natural-engineered offshore system including corrosion, environmental hazards, and human error.

Compositional profiling of the rhizosphere microbiome of Canada thistle reveals consistent patterns across the United States northern Great Plains.

Canada thistle is a pervasive perennial weed, causing challenges to agricultural and natural ecosystems globally. Although research has focused on the phenology, genetics, and control of Canada thistle, little is known about the rhizosphere microbiome and the role plant-microbe interactions play in invasion success. This study investigated the rhizosphere microbiome of Canada thistle across diverse climates, soils, and crops in the U.

The modelling of flower colour: spectral purity or colour contrast as biologically relevant descriptors of flower colour signals for bees depending upon the perceptual task.

Flower colour is an important mediator of plant-pollinator interactions. While the reflectance of light from the flower surface and background are governed by physical properties, the perceptual interpretation of such information is generated by complex multilayered visual processing. Should quantitative modelling of flower signals strive for repeatable consistency enabled by parameter simplification, or should modelling reflect the dynamic way in which bees are known to process signals? We discuss why colour is an interpretation of spectral information by the brain of an animal.

Discrete Relationships between Spatiotemporal Gait Characteristics and Domain-Specific Neuropsychological Performance in Midlife.

Midlife risk factors such as type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) confer a significantly increased risk of cognitive impairment in later life with executive function, memory, and attention domains often affected first. Spatiotemporal gait characteristics are emerging as important integrative biomarkers of neurocognitive function and of later dementia risk. We examined 24 spatiotemporal gait parameters across five domains of gait previously linked to cognitive function on usual-pace, maximal-pace, and cognitive dual-task gait conditions in 102 middle-aged adults with (57.

The environment to the rescue: can physics help predict predator-prey interactions?

Understanding the factors that determine the occurrence and strength of ecological interactions under specific abiotic and biotic conditions is fundamental since many aspects of ecological community stability and ecosystem functioning depend on patterns of interactions among species. Current approaches to mapping food webs are mostly based on traits, expert knowledge, experiments, and/or statistical inference. However, they do not offer clear mechanisms explaining how trophic interactions are affected by the interplay between organism characteristics and aspects of the physical environment, such as temperature, light intensity or viscosity.

A longitudinal study of breastfeeding relationships at home during the COVID-19 pandemic: A grounded theory method.

Aims: To describe the process of breastfeeding relationships among stay-at-home mother and infant dyads at 1, 3, 5 and 6 months.

Design: A longitudinal qualitative online survey design was used.

Methods: Data were obtained at 1, 3, 5 and 6 months from 26 breastfeeding mothers who stayed home with their infants and directly breastfed at least once a day for the first 6 months between June 2022 and August 2023.

Sudden gains in routine clinical care: application of a permutation test for trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy.

Sudden gains, defined as large and stable improvements of psychopathological symptoms, are a ubiquitous phenomenon in psychotherapy. They have been shown to occur across several clinical contexts and to be associated with better short-term and long-term treatment outcome. However, the approach of sudden gains has been criticized for its tautological character: sudden gains are included in the computation of treatment outcomes, ultimately resulting in a circular conclusion.

The Impact of Type 2 Diabetes on Peripheral and Cerebral Hemodynamic Responses to Active Stand.

Background: Although type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is an established risk factor for cognitive impairment, the underlying mechanisms remain poorly explored. One potential mechanism may be through effects of T2DM on cerebral perfusion. The current study hypothesized that T2DM is associated with altered peripheral and central hemodynamic responses to orthostasis, which may in turn be associated with cognitive impairment in T2DM.

Shortcomings of services for persons with severe and persistent mental health challenges: a qualitative study of service users and family carers.

Introduction: The opinions of service users and carers are crucial to identifying ways to innovate and implement system change. This study aims to explore the views and experiences of service users and carerson the services they have used for their mental health challenges and their suggestions for service reform.

Methods: Twenty participants (15 carers and 5 service users) were interviewed for the study.

Flower colour and size-signals vary with altitude and resulting climate on the tropical-subtropical islands of Taiwan.

The diversity of flower colours in nature provides quantifiable evidence for how visitations by colour sensing insect pollinators can drive the evolution of angiosperm visual signalling. Recent research shows that both biotic and abiotic factors may influence flower signalling, and that harsher climate conditions may also promote salient signalling to entice scarcer pollinators to visit. In parallel, a more sophisticated appreciation of the visual task foragers face reveals that bees have a complex visual system that uses achromatic vision when moving fast, whilst colour vision requires slower, more careful inspection of targets.

New horizons in the diagnosis and management of Alzheimer's Disease in older adults.

Alzheimer's Disease (ad) is the most common cause of dementia, and in addition to cognitive decline, it directly contributes to physical frailty, falls, incontinence, institutionalisation and polypharmacy in older adults. Increasing availability of clinically validated biomarkers including cerebrospinal fluid and positron emission tomography to assess both amyloid and tau pathology has led to a reconceptualisation of ad as a clinical-biological diagnosis, rather than one based purely on clinical phenotype. However, co-pathology is frequent in older adults which influence the accuracy of biomarker interpretation.

Quantity misperception by hymenopteran insects observing the solitaire illusion.

Visual illusions are errors in signal perception and inform us about the visual and cognitive processes of different animals. Invertebrates are relatively less studied for their illusionary perception, despite the insight that comparative data provides on the evolution of common perceptual mechanisms. The Solitaire Illusion is a numerosity illusion where a viewer typically misperceives the relative quantities of two items of different colors consisting of identical quantity, with more centrally clustered items appearing more numerous.