Rapid, early, and potent Spike-directed IgG, IgM, and IgA distinguish asymptomatic from mildly symptomatic COVID-19 in Uganda, with IgG persisting for 28 months.

Introduction: Understanding how spike (S)-, nucleoprotein (N)-, and RBD-directed antibody responses evolved in mild and asymptomatic COVID-19 in Africa and their interactions with SARS-CoV-2 might inform development of targeted treatments and vaccines.

Methods: Here, we used a validated indirect in-house ELISA to characterise development and persistence of S- and N-directed IgG, IgM, and IgA antibody responses for 2430 SARS-CoV-2 rt-PCR-diagnosed Ugandan specimens from 320 mild and asymptomatic COVID-19 cases, 50 uninfected contacts, and 54 uninfected non-contacts collected weekly for one month, then monthly for 28 months.

Results: During acute infection, asymptomatic patients mounted a faster and more robust spike-directed IgG, IgM, and IgA response than those with mild symptoms (Wilcoxon rank test, p-values 0.

Optimisation and Validation of a conventional ELISA and cut-offs for detecting and quantifying anti-SARS-CoV-2 Spike, RBD, and Nucleoprotein IgG, IgM, and IgA antibodies in Uganda.

There is an urgent need for better immunoassays to measure antibody responses as part of immune-surveillance activities and to profile immunological responses to emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. We optimised and validated an in-house conventional ELISA to identify and quantify SARS-CoV-2 spike- (S-), receptor binding domain- (RBD-), and nucleoprotein- (N-) directed IgG, IgM, and IgA binding antibodies in the Ugandan population and similar settings. Pre- and post-pandemic specimens were used to compare the utility of mean ± 2SD, mean ± 3SD, 4-fold above blanks, bootstrapping, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses in determining optimal cut-off optical densities at 450 nm (OD) for discriminating between antibody positives and negatives.

Molecular origins of mutational spectra produced by the environmental carcinogen -nitrosodimethylamine and S1 chemotherapeutic agents.

DNA-methylating environmental carcinogens such as -nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) and certain alkylators used in chemotherapy form -methylguanine (m6G) as a functionally critical intermediate. NDMA is a multi-organ carcinogen found in contaminated water, polluted air, preserved foods, tobacco products, and many pharmaceuticals. Only ten weeks after exposure to NDMA, neonatally-treated mice experienced elevated mutation frequencies in liver, lung and kidney of ∼35-fold, 4-fold and 2-fold, respectively.

Motility of Different Gastric spp.

spp., including the well-known human gastric pathogen , can cause gastric diseases in humans and other mammals. They are Gram-negative bacteria that colonize the gastric epithelium and use their multiple flagella to move across the protective gastric mucus layer.

Mapping the Immune Cell Microenvironment with Spatial Profiling in Muscle Tissue Injected with the Venom of .

Pathological and inflammatory events in muscle after the injection of snake venoms vary in different regions of the affected tissue and at different time intervals. In order to study such heterogeneity in the immune cell microenvironment, a murine model of muscle necrosis based on the injection of the venom of was used. Histological and immunohistochemical methods were utilized to identify areas in muscle tissue with a different extent of muscle cell damage, based on the presence of hypercontracted muscle cells, a landmark of necrosis, and on the immunostaining for desmin.

Application of Point-of-care Ultrasound for Screening Climbers at High Altitude for Pulmonary B-lines.

Introduction: High-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) occurs as a result of rapid ascent to altitude faster than the acclimatization processes of the body. Symptoms can begin at an elevation of 2,500 meters above sea level. Our objective in this study was to determine the prevalence and trend of developing B-lines at 2,745 meters above sea level among healthy visitors over four consecutive days.

Ketosynthase mutants enable short-chain fatty acid biosynthesis in E. coli.

Cells build fatty acids in tightly regulated assembly lines, or fatty acid synthases (FASs), in which β-ketoacyl-acyl carrier protein (ACP) synthases (KSs) catalyze sequential carbon-carbon bond forming reactions that generate acyl-ACPs of varying lengths-precursors for a diverse set of lipids and oleochemicals. To date, most efforts to control fatty acid synthesis in engineered microbes have focused on modifying termination enzymes such as acyl-ACP thioesterases, which release free fatty acids from acyl-ACPs. Changes to the substrate specificity of KSs provide an alternative-and, perhaps, more generalizable-approach that focuses on controlling the acyl-ACPs available for downstream products.

A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Nonambulatory Bariatric Patient With Bilateral Knee Osteoarthritis.

Obesity and lower-extremity arthritis are challenging problems to address as they are often mutually exacerbating. Due to the known perioperative risk of morbid obesity, the modality and timing of weight loss prior to arthroplasty is debated. We present a case of a 55-year-old nonambulatory female patient with an initial body mass index of 80.

Megakaryocytes respond during sepsis and display innate immune cell behaviors.

Megakaryocytes (MKs) are precursors to platelets, the second most abundant cells in the peripheral circulation. However, while platelets are known to participate in immune responses and play significant functions during infections, the role of MKs within the immune system remains largely unexplored. Histological studies of sepsis patients identified increased nucleated CD61 cells (MKs) in the lungs, and CD61 staining (likely platelets within microthrombi) in the kidneys, which correlated with the development of organ dysfunction.

Data registration for multi-method qualification of additive manufactured components.

This work refines surface registration methods for metrological datasets to improve the multi-method qualification accuracy of additively manufactured (AM) lattices. Datasets acquired from X-ray computed tomography and a coordinate measurement machine of an AM lattice were aligned using derived geometry datum features based on a theoretical supplemental surface definition, which has been established in recent draft standards, but has had limited examination using complex AM structures. A refined sampling registration approach for lattice geometry based on spatially-dependent subsampling is derived and shown to statistically decrease variation between measurement sources.

Shotgun Metagenomics of Gastric Biopsies Reveals Compositional and Functional Microbiome Shifts in High- and Low-Gastric-Cancer-Risk Populations from Colombia, South America.

Along with infection, the gastric microbiota is hypothesized to modulate stomach cancer risk in susceptible individuals. Whole metagenomic shotgun sequencing (WMS) is a sequencing approach to characterize the microbiome with advantages over traditional culture and 16S rRNA sequencing including identification of bacterial and non-bacterial taxa, species/strain resolution, and functional characterization of the microbiota. In this study, we used WMS to survey the microbiome in extracted DNA from antral gastric biopsy samples from Colombian patients residing in the high-risk gastric cancer town Túquerres ( = 10, -positive = 7) and low-risk town of Tumaco ( = 10, -positive = 6).

A protocol for a cluster randomized trial of care delivery models to improve the quality of smoking cessation and shared decision making for lung cancer screening.

Background: Patients eligible for lung cancer screening (LCS) are those at high risk of lung cancer due to their smoking histories and age. While screening for LCS is effective in lowering lung cancer mortality, primary care providers are challenged to meet beneficiary eligibility for LCS from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, including a patient counseling and shared decision-making (SDM) visit with the use of patient decision aid(s) prior to screening.

Methods: We will use an effectiveness-implementation type I hybrid design to: 1) identify effective, scalable smoking cessation counseling and SDM interventions that are consistent with recommendations, can be delivered on the same platform, and are implemented in real-world clinical settings; 2) examine barriers and facilitators of implementing the two approaches to delivering smoking cessation and SDM for LCS; and 3) determine the economic implications of implementation by assessing the healthcare resources required to increase smoking cessation for the two approaches by delivering smoking cessation within the context of LCS.

The IL-10 receptor inhibits cell extrinsic signals necessary for STAT1-dependent macrophage accumulation during colitis.

The loss of IL-10R function leads to severe early onset colitis and, in murine models, is associated with the accumulation of immature inflammatory colonic macrophages. We have shown that IL-10R-deficient colonic macrophages exhibit increased STAT1-dependent gene expression, suggesting that IL-10R-mediated inhibition of STAT1 signaling in newly recruited colonic macrophages might interfere with the development of an inflammatory phenotype. Indeed, STAT1 mice exhibit defects in colonic macrophage accumulation after Helicobacter hepaticus infection and IL-10R blockade, and this was phenocopied in mice lacking IFNγR, an inducer of STAT1 activation.

Proteomic Analysis of Mucosal and Systemic Responses to SARS-CoV-2 Antigen.

The mucosal environment of the upper respiratory tract is the first barrier of protection against SARS-CoV-2 transmission. However, the mucosal factors involved in viral transmission and potentially modulating the capacity to prevent such transmission have not fully been identified. In this pilot proteomics study, we compared mucosal and systemic compartments in a South African cohort of vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals undergoing maxillofacial surgery with previous history of COVID-19 or not.

Outcomes of Treatment for Infective Endocarditis Following Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve Replacement.

Background: Recipients of transcatheter pulmonary valve replacement (TPVR) have shown increased risk of infective endocarditis (IE). Little is known about the outcomes of different management strategies, particularly surgery, for IE after TPVR.

Methods: We queried the Pediatric Health Information System database for cases of IE after TPVR performed from 2010-2020.

Sleep Patterns Fluctuate Following Training and Games across the Season in a Semi-Professional, Female Basketball Team.

Quantifying athlete sleep patterns may inform development of optimal training schedules and sleep strategies, considering the competitive challenges faced across the season. Therefore, this study comprehensively quantified the sleep patterns of a female basketball team and examined variations in sleep between nights. Seven semi-professional, female basketball players had their sleep monitored using wrist-worn activity monitors and perceptual ratings during a 13-week in-season.

Exploring the Efficacy of an Online Training Programme to Introduce Mental Health Recovery to Carers.

Family carers often support people with mental ill-health, however, there is a dearth of research on the importance of recovery to mental health carers. This article describes the delivery and qualitative evaluation of an online training programme on recovery to a group of eleven carers. The participants considered their understanding of the meaning of recovery, differentiating between its personal and clinical nature.

Spectrophotometric Analysis and Optimization of 2D Gold Nanosheet Formation.

Free-standing, 2D gold nanosheets (AuNS) offer broad potential applications from computing to biosensing and healthcare. Such applications, however, require improved control of material growth. We recently reported the synthesis of AuNS only ∼0.

Cervical cancer during the covid pandemic: Are patients presenting with more advanced or larger tumours?

Objectives: Concerns were raised by clinicians at the Oxford Gynaecological Cancer MDT that there was an increasing number of women presenting with large cervical tumours requiring chemo-radiotherapy, possibly due to delays associated with the COVID pandemic. This audit was undertaken to assess whether this was a real event.

Study Design: This retrospective cohort study collated the data from the central pathology service covering Oxfordshire, in the Oxford Gynaecological cancer centre.

The impact on central line-associated bloodstream infection rates following the introduction of a closed system transfer device in oncology wards.

Prevention of hazardous drug exposure is essential in averting unnecessary health risks to health care workers (HCW). To address the risk to HCWs when handling hazardous drugs, engineering controls can be utilized to reduce the exposure. A closed system transfer device (CSTD) was introduced for hazardous drugs administration in 6 oncology wards; this new CSTD was associated with a significant increase in CLABSI rates.

Medical student interest and participation in research at one rural clinical school: Insights from the last six years.

Introduction: Limited evidence is currently available relating to research acitivity of medical students training in regional or rural areas.

Objective: To describe medical student interest and participation in research at The University of Queensland Rural Clinical School (UQRCS).

Design: Annual student expression of interest surveys were collated with records of student research participation maintained at UQRCS from 2017-2022.

"Work WITH us": a Delphi study about improving eating disorder treatment for autistic women with anorexia nervosa.

Background: There is an increased prevalence of anorexia nervosa (AN) in autistic women and this group has poorer treatment outcomes compared to non-autistic women with AN. However, there is little research into improving eating disorder treatment for autistic women. This study investigated how best to support autistic women with AN within eating disorder services.

Tissue-specific abundance of interferon-gamma drives regulatory T cells to restrain DC1-mediated priming of cytotoxic T cells against lung cancer.

Local environmental factors influence CD8 T cell priming in lymph nodes (LNs). Here, we sought to understand how factors unique to the tumor-draining mediastinal LN (mLN) impact CD8 T cell responses toward lung cancer. Type 1 conventional dendritic cells (DC1s) showed a mLN-specific failure to induce robust cytotoxic T cells responses.