Understanding barriers and facilitators to non-pharmaceutical chronic pain research engagement among people living with chronic pain in the UK: a two-phase mixed-methods approach.

Objectives: Chronic pain treatment engagement is dominated by pharmaceutical methods, while previous research has assessed barriers to uptake of non-pharmaceutical treatments, there has not been research one step earlier in the treatment development pipeline; assessing barriers to take part in research that develops non-pharmaceutical chronic pain treatment methods.

Design: A two-phase approach was used to assess barriers and facilitators to research participation for people living with chronic pain. Online focus groups were run in phase 1, generating qualitative data, while phase 2 used the themes identified within phase 1 to assess agreement and disagreement.

Binocular integration of chromatic and luminance signals.

Much progress has been made in understanding how the brain combines signals from the two eyes. However, most of this work has involved achromatic (black and white) stimuli, and it is not clear if the same processes apply in color-sensitive pathways. In our first experiment, we measured contrast discrimination ("dipper") functions for four key ocular configurations (monocular, binocular, half-binocular, and dichoptic), for achromatic, isoluminant L-M and isoluminant S-(L+M) sine-wave grating stimuli (L: long-, M: medium-, S: short-wavelength).

Risk factors for tick attachment in companion animals in Great Britain: a spatiotemporal analysis covering 2014-2021.

Background: Ticks are an important driver of veterinary health care, causing irritation and sometimes infection to their hosts. We explored epidemiological and geo-referenced data from > 7 million electronic health records (EHRs) from cats and dogs collected by the Small Animal Veterinary Surveillance Network (SAVSNET) in Great Britain (GB) between 2014 and 2021 to assess the factors affecting tick attachment in an individual and at a spatiotemporal level.

Methods: EHRs in which ticks were mentioned were identified by text mining; domain experts confirmed those with ticks on the animal.

Multisensory processing and proprioceptive plasticity during resizing illusions.

Bodily resizing illusions typically use visual and/or tactile inputs to produce a vivid experience of one's body changing size. Naturalistic auditory input (an input that reflects the natural sounds of a stimulus) has been used to increase illusory experience during the rubber hand illusion, whilst non-naturalistic auditory input can influence estimations of finger length. We aimed to use a non-naturalistic auditory input during a hand-based resizing illusion using augmented reality, to assess whether the addition of an auditory input would increase both subjective illusion strength and measures of performance-based tasks.

Ecotype Analysis in Cattle from Great Britain.

() is the aetiological agent of tick-borne fever in cattle and sheep, and granulocytic anaplasmosis in human and dogs. Livestock, companion animal and human infections with have been reported globally. Across England and Wales, two isolates (called ecotypes) have been reported in ticks.

Impact of the new membrane-targeting lipoglycopeptide antibiotic MCC5145 on the treatment of bacteremic pneumococcal pneumonia in mice.

Bacteremic pneumonia is one of the most severe forms of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) and with particularly high case-fatality rates among the elderly and individuals with comorbidities, exacerbated by rising antibiotic resistance and time to initiation of therapy. Here, we examined the efficacy of the preclinical "vancapticin" glycopeptide MCC5145 against fulminant infection by serotype 2 strain D39 in a bioluminescent, neutropenic mouse model of bacteremic pneumonia. MCC5145 is a semisynthetic vancomycin derivative chemically modified at the -terminus with a membrane-targeting motif designed to preferentially bind the anionic bacterial surface.

VectorNet: collaborative mapping of arthropod disease vectors in Europe and surrounding areas since 2010.

BackgroundArthropod vectors such as ticks, mosquitoes, sandflies and biting midges are of public and veterinary health significance because of the pathogens they can transmit. Understanding their distributions is a key means of assessing risk. VectorNet maps their distribution in the EU and surrounding areas.

Distinct neural signatures of multimodal resizing illusions.

Illusory body resizing typically uses multisensory integration to change the perceived size of a body part. Previous studies associate these multisensory body illusions with frontal theta oscillations and parietal gamma oscillations for dis-integration and integration of multisensory signals, respectively. However, recent studies also support illusory changes of embodiment from unimodal visual stimuli.

Ixodes ricinus density, Borrelia prevalence and the density of infected nymphs along an urban-rural gradient in southern England.

Ticks are found across a range of habitats, with woodland being particularly important for high densities and prevalence of Borrelia infection. Assessments of risk in urban woodland can be difficult if there are low densities and small sample sizes for Borrelia prevalence estimates. This study targeted six urban woodlands with established tick populations, as well as six woodlands in peri-urban zones and six woodlands in rural zones in and around the cities of Bath and Southampton, in the South of England.

Impact of green space connectivity on urban tick presence, density and Borrelia infected ticks in different habitats and seasons in three cities in southern England.

Understanding the effects of local habitat and wider landscape connectivity factors on tick presence, nymph density and Borrelia species (spp.) prevalence in the tick population is important for identifying the public health risk from Lyme borreliosis. This multi-city study collected data in three southern England cities (Bath, Bristol, and Southampton) during spring, summer, and autumn in 2017.

Mapping and monitoring tick (Acari, Ixodida) distribution, seasonality, and host associations in the United Kingdom between 2017 and 2020.

Tick-borne disease risk is intrinsically linked to the distribution of tick vector species. To assess risk and anticipate disease emergence, an understanding of tick distribution, host associations, and seasonality is needed. This can be achieved, to some extent, using passive surveillance supported by engagement with the public, animal health, and public health experts.

Possible expansion of Ixodes ricinus in the United Kingdom identified through the Tick Surveillance Scheme between 2013 and 2020.

The tick Ixodes ricinus (Ixodida: Ixodidae, Linnaeus) is the main vector of several pathogens including Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. (agent of Lyme borreliosis) and tick-borne encephalitis virus.

A lipoglycopeptide antibiotic for Gram-positive biofilm-related infections.

Drug-resistant Gram-positive bacterial infections are still a substantial burden on the public health system, with two bacteria ( and ) accounting for over 1.5 million drug-resistant infections in the United States alone in 2017. In 2019, 250,000 deaths were attributed to these pathogens globally.

One Health Approach to Tick and Tick-Borne Disease Surveillance in the United Kingdom.

Where ticks are found, tick-borne diseases can present a threat to human and animal health. The aetiology of many of these important diseases, including Lyme disease, bovine babesiosis, tick-borne fever and louping ill, have been known for decades whilst others have only recently been documented in the United Kingdom (UK). Further threats such as the importation of exotic ticks through human activity or bird migration, combined with changes to either the habitat or climate could increase the risk of tick-borne disease persistence and transmission.

Spatial and temporal heterogeneity of the density of Borrelia burgdorferi-infected Ixodes ricinus ticks across a landscape: A 5-year study in southern England.

The density of Borrelia burgdorferi-infected Ixodes ricinus nymphs (DIN) was investigated during 2013-2017 across a Lyme disease-endemic landscape in southern England. The density of nymphs (DON), nymph infection prevalence (NIP), and DIN varied across five different natural habitats, with the highest DIN in woodland edge and high biodiversity woodlands. DIN was significantly lower in scrub grassland compared to the woodland edge, with low DON and no evidence of infection in ticks in non-scrub grassland.

Questing Ixodes ricinus ticks and Borrelia spp. in urban green space across Europe: A review.

For more than three decades, it has been recognized that Ixodes ricinus ticks occur in urban green space in Europe and that they harbour multiple pathogens linked to both human and animal diseases. Urban green space use for health and well-being, climate mitigation or biodiversity goals is promoted, often without consideration for the potential impact on tick encounters or tick-borne disease outcomes. This review synthesizes the results of over 100 publications on questing I.

Detection of Borrelia and Babesia species in Haemaphysalis punctata ticks sampled in Southern England.

The distribution and population size of the red sheep tick (Haemaphysalis punctata) are increasing in Northern Europe, and in the United Kingdom reports of human biting by this species have increased in recent years. To assess the risk of tick-borne disease (TBD) transmission to humans and livestock by H. punctata, ticks sampled from sites in Southern England were screened using PCR for either Borrelia species or piroplasms over a three year period, 2018-2020.

Inhibition of the master regulator of Listeria monocytogenes virulence enables bacterial clearance from spacious replication vacuoles in infected macrophages.

A hallmark of Listeria (L.) monocytogenes pathogenesis is bacterial escape from maturing entry vacuoles, which is required for rapid bacterial replication in the host cell cytoplasm and cell-to-cell spread. The bacterial transcriptional activator PrfA controls expression of key virulence factors that enable exploitation of this intracellular niche.

Urban woodland habitat is important for tick presence and density in a city in England.

Urban green spaces provide an opportunity for contact between members of the public and ticks infected with pathogens. Understanding tick distribution within these areas and the drivers for increased tick density or Borrelia infection are important from a risk management perspective. This study aimed to generate data on tick presence, nymph density and Borrelia infection across a range of urban green space habitats, in order to identify those that may potentially present a higher risk of Lyme borreliosis to members of the public.

The Genetic Diversity of Rickettsiella Symbionts in Ixodes ricinus Throughout Europe.

Rickettsiella species are bacterial symbionts that are present in a great variety of arthropod species, including ixodid ticks. However, little is known about their genetic diversity and distribution in Ixodes ricinus, as well as their relationship with other tick-associated bacteria. In this study, we investigated the occurrence and the genetic diversity of Rickettsiella spp.

Targeted Protein Degradation: The New Frontier of Antimicrobial Discovery?

Targeted protein degradation aims to hijack endogenous protein quality control systems to achieve direct knockdown of protein targets. This exciting technology utilizes event-based pharmacology to produce therapeutic outcomes, a feature that distinguishes it from classical occupancy-based inhibitor agents. Early degrader candidates display resilience to mutations while possessing potent nanomolar activity and high target specificity.