Spotted fever group rickettsiae in black rats, pets, and humans in Zungarococha community, A rural area in the surroundings of Iquitos, Peru.

Rickettsiae are a family of ectoparasite-borne bacteria that can produce high morbidity and mortality among humans. There are scarce data on rickettsial ecology in rural areas of the Peruvian Amazon basin, where seroprevalence has not been determined, and the identities of animals acting as reservoirs of these bacteria are not known. We conducted a cross-sectional study in Zungarococha (between 2019 and 2021), a rural community located approximately 20 km away from Iquitos city.

Androgen receptor drives polyamine synthesis creating a vulnerability for prostate cancer.

Supraphysiological androgen (SPA) treatment can paradoxically restrict growth of castration-resistant prostate cancer with high androgen receptor (AR) activity, which is the basis for use of Bipolar Androgen Therapy (BAT) for patients with this disease. While androgens are widely appreciated to enhance anabolic metabolism, how SPA-mediated metabolic changes alter prostate cancer progression and therapy response is unknown. Here, we report that SPA markedly increased intracellular and secreted polyamines in prostate cancer models.

HIF-2α drives T2 cells.

Inhibiting HIF-2α impairs the development and function of asthma-promoting helper T cells in mice.

On the Broader Significance of Maternal Sensitivity: Mothers' Early and Later Sensitive Parenting Matter to Children's Language, Executive Function, Academics, and Self-Reliance.

Researchers have demonstrated the important contribution of mothers' sensitive parenting to children's developing cognition over the first 5 years of life, yet studies examining sensitivity beyond the early years, controlling for earlier effects, are limited. In this exploratory study, we examined the developmental pathways through which mothers' early and later sensitive parenting transacted with children's language, executive function, academics, and self-reliance to predict child outcomes from infancy to adolescence. To a national longitudinal dataset (n = 1364; 52% male; 80% white), we applied random intercept cross-lagged panel modeling to examine between-person and within-person associations for maternal sensitivity and child outcomes.

Biofortification: Future Challenges for a Newly Emerging Technology to Improve Nutrition Security Sustainably.

Biofortification was coined as a term to define a plant breeding strategy to increase the micronutrient content of staple food crops to reduce the burden of micronutrient deficiencies in low- and middle-income countries. In 2003, the HarvestPlus program, based in the centers comprising the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, was initiated to implement the biofortification strategy. This article discusses what has been achieved, what has been learned, and the key challenges to embed biofortification in food systems and to expand its impact.

Emergency clinician perceptions of end-of-life care in Irish emergency departments: a cross-sectional survey.

Background: Patients with end-of-life care (EoLC) needs present to the emergency departments (ED) frequently and at times, it can be difficult to provide a high standard of care. Within the Irish setting, there is limited literature on the provision of EoLC in EDs and this study, therefore, aimed to evaluate the perceptions of emergency medicine (EM) clinicians regarding the provision of EoLC in EDs in Ireland.

Methods: The End-of-Life Care in Emergency Department Study was a cross-sectional electronic survey study of EM doctors working across 23 of the 29 EDs in the Ireland.

Real-World Safety and Effectiveness of Dimethyl Fumarate in Patients with MS: Results from the ESTEEM Phase 4 and PROCLAIM Phase 3 Studies with a Focus on Older Patients.

Introduction: Real-world studies in the USA report that 41-56% of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) are ≥ 50 years old, yet data on their response to disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) is limited. Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) is an oral DMT approved for treating relapsing MS. This analysis evaluated the safety, efficacy, and immunophenotype changes of DMF in patients ≥ 50 years compared with patients < 50 years.

A qualitative study exploring the clinical phenomenology and impact of hypersexuality in patients with Parkinson's Disease.

Hypersexuality (HS) is a complex yet underreported phenomenon in Parkinson's disease (PD), profoundly impacting patients' lives. This study aims to systematically investigate the clinical phenomenology and manifestations of HS using qualitative methodologies. This phenomenological qualitative research study employed semi-structured interviews to examine hypersexuality and its impact among nine English-speaking individuals with PD.

Perturbative analysis of the coherent state transformation in ab initio cavity quantum electrodynamics.

Experimental demonstrations of modified chemical structure and reactivity under strong light-matter coupling have spurred theoretical and computational efforts to uncover underlying mechanisms. Ab initio cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) combines quantum chemistry with cavity QED to investigate these phenomena in detail. Unitary transformations of ab initio cavity QED Hamiltonians have been used to make them more computationally tractable.

Cholesterol sensing goes vegetarian.

The cholesterol-sensing protein LYCHOS is a hybrid of a GPCR and a plantlike transport protein.

Comparing parameterized and self-consistent approaches to ab initio cavity quantum electrodynamics for electronic strong coupling.

Molecules under strong or ultra-strong light-matter coupling present an intriguing route to modify chemical structure, properties, and reactivity. A rigorous theoretical treatment of such systems requires handling matter and photon degrees of freedom on an equal quantum mechanical footing. In the regime of molecular electronic strong or ultra-strong coupling to one or a few molecules, it is desirable to treat the molecular electronic degrees of freedom using the tools of ab initio quantum chemistry, yielding an approach referred to as ab initio cavity quantum electrodynamics (ai-QED), where the photon degrees of freedom are treated at the level of cavity QED.

Polaritonic Chemistry Using the Density Matrix Renormalization Group Method.

The emerging field of polaritonic chemistry explores the behavior of molecules under strong coupling with cavity modes. Despite recent developments in polaritonic methods for simulating polaritonic chemistry under electronic strong coupling, their capabilities are limited, especially in cases where the molecule also features strong electronic correlation. To bridge this gap, we have developed a novel method for cavity QED calculations utilizing the Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG) algorithm in conjunction with the Pauli-Fierz Hamiltonian.

Adaptive coping, emotions, and antiretroviral therapy adherence among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (gbMSM) with HIV.

This study evaluated the hypothesis that positive emotions attenuate associations between negative emotions with adaptive coping and adherence, as well as explored evidence of the hypothesis of an indirect effect association between adaptive coping and adherence via positive emotions. The sample was 202 gbMSM with HIV who use substances (mean age [standard deviation] = 47.15 [12.

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever in Children along the US‒Mexico Border, 2017-2023.

Rocky mountain spotted fever (RMSF) causes significant illness and death in children. Although historically rare in California, USA, RMSF is endemic in areas of northern Mexico that border California. We describe 7 children with RMSF who were hospitalized at a tertiary pediatric referral center in California during 2017-2023.

Making MAVS better.

Promoting palmitoylation of the adaptor protein MAVS enhances the antiviral immune response.

Perceptions Matter! Active Physical Recreation Participation of Children with High and Low Actual and Perceived Physical Competence.

Emerging evidence suggests that the accuracy of a child's perceived physical competence (PPC) impacts participation in physical activity. We examined differences in active physical recreation (APR) participation based on clusters of high and low motor competence and perceptions from grades 3-5. Participants were a longitudinal sample ( = 155; 85 girls) of grade three, four, and five children.

Facets of mindfulness are associated with inflammation biomarkers in a sample of sexual minority men with HIV.

Sexual minority men (SMM) are disproportionately impacted by HIV and thus, HIV related-health complications. HIV has been linked to earlier onset of multi-morbid chronic diseases and declines in physical and cognitive functioning attributable to chronic HIV immune activation and resulting inflammation. Inflammation has been targeted with mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs); however, hypothesized negative associations between mindfulness and inflammation need to be confirmed in SMM with HIV.

A Virtual In Vivo Dissection and Analysis of Socioaffective Symptoms Related to Cerebellum-Midbrain Reward Circuitry in Humans.

Emerging research in nonhuman animals implicates cerebellar projections to the ventral tegmental area (VTA) in appetitive behaviors, but these circuits have not been characterized in humans. Here, we mapped cerebello-VTA white matter connectivity in a cohort of men and women using probabilistic tractography on diffusion imaging data from the Human Connectome Project. We uncovered the topographical organization of these connections by separately tracking from parcels of cerebellar lobule VI, crus I/II, vermis, paravermis, and cerebrocerebellum.

Partnering with Students to Develop a Capstone for a Graduate Health Informatics Program.

Objective:  This study aimed to assess the desirability, feasibility, and sustainability of integrating a project-based capstone course with the course-based curriculum of an interdisciplinary MSc Health Informatics program guided by a student-partnered steering committee and student-centered approach.

Methods:  We conducted an online cross-sectional survey ( = 87) and three semistructured focus groups ( = 18) of health informatics students and alumni. Survey data were analyzed descriptively.