Providing personalised care for people with tuberculosis: an evaluation of enhanced case management in a UK TB Network 2013 to 2021.

Objectives: Evaluating the outcomes of enhanced case management (ECM) for patients with tuberculosis (TB) in the North Central London TB Service (NCLTBS).

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: The NCLTBS provides care for persons diagnosed with TB across north and central London.

Pathogen priming alters host transmission potential and predictors of transmissibility in a wild songbird species.

Pathogen reinfections occur widely, but the extent to which reinfected hosts contribute to ongoing transmission is often unknown despite its implications for host-pathogen dynamics. House finches () acquire partial protection from initial exposure to the bacterial pathogen (MG), with hosts readily reinfected with homologous or heterologous strains on short timescales. However, the extent to which reinfected hosts contribute to MG transmission has not been tested.

Contributors to Organ Damage in Childhood Lupus: Corticosteroid Use and Disease Activity.

Background: Awareness of paediatric-specific predictors of damage in Childhood-lupus is needed to inform mitigation measures.

Objectives: To ascertain how clinical and demographic variables correlate with damage accrual and identify predictors of damage.

Methods: Analysis included UK JSLE Cohort Study participants.

Prior exposure to pathogens augments host heterogeneity in susceptibility and has key epidemiological consequences.

Pathogen epidemics are key threats to human and wildlife health. Across systems, host protection from pathogens following initial exposure is often incomplete, resulting in recurrent epidemics through partially-immune hosts. Variation in population-level protection has important consequences for epidemic dynamics, but how acquired protection influences inter-individual heterogeneity in susceptibility and its epidemiological consequences remains understudied.

Prior exposure to pathogens augments host heterogeneity in susceptibility and has key epidemiological consequences.

Pathogen epidemics are key threats to human and wildlife health. Across systems, host protection from pathogens following initial exposure is often incomplete, resulting in recurrent epidemics through partially-immune hosts. Variation in population-level protection has important consequences for epidemic dynamics, but how acquired protection influences inter-individual heterogeneity in susceptibility and its epidemiological consequences remains understudied.

Varying conjunctival immune response adaptations of house finch populations to a rapidly evolving bacterial pathogen.

Pathogen adaptations during host-pathogen co-evolution can cause the host balance between immunity and immunopathology to rapidly shift. However, little is known in natural disease systems about the immunological pathways optimised through the trade-off between immunity and self-damage. The evolutionary interaction between the conjunctival bacterial infection (MG) and its avian host, the house finch (), can provide insights into such adaptations in immune regulation.

Control device for improving swirl flame stabilization.

Aiming to improve the stabilization of unstable swirling turbulent premixed flames, an actively controlled swirler and electrical hardware and control software are developed, implemented, and tested in the present study. Stereoscopic particle image velocimetry is performed to calculate the swirl number and study the flame stabilization. A mixture of methane and air with a mean bulk flow velocity of 5.

Second-trimester Abortion.

In 2019, the US Centers for Disease Control reported that 7% of abortions were performed after 13 weeks of pregnancy, a small proportion of all terminations. However, the need for second-trimester abortions will increase commensurate with restrictions to access nationwide. Second-trimester abortions are performed with medications or through a procedure.

Let's stick together: Infection enhances preferences for social grouping in a songbird species.

Acute infections can alter foraging and movement behaviors relevant to sociality and pathogen spread. However, few studies have directly examined how acute infections caused by directly transmitted pathogens influence host social preferences. While infected hosts often express sickness behaviors (e.

Assessing the Response of Biomarkers to Anti-Inflammatory Medications in PIMS-TS by Longitudinal Multilevel Modeling: Real-World Data from a UK Tertiary Center.

Pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome temporarily associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection (PIMS-TS) is an acute complication of previous SARS-CoV-2 exposure. The relationship between inflammatory markers and anti-inflammatory medication in PIMS-TS is unknown. We retrospectively investigated the relationship between demographics, biomarkers, treatment, and length of stay (LOS) in this novel disease.

Rapid adaptation to a novel pathogen through disease tolerance in a wild songbird.

Animal hosts can adapt to emerging infectious disease through both disease resistance, which decreases pathogen numbers, and disease tolerance, which limits damage during infection without limiting pathogen replication. Both resistance and tolerance mechanisms can drive pathogen transmission dynamics. However, it is not well understood how quickly host tolerance evolves in response to novel pathogens or what physiological mechanisms underlie this defense.

EFFECTS OF MYCOPLASMA GALLISEPTICUM INFECTION ON PREENING BEHAVIORS AND FEATHER QUALITY IN HOUSE FINCHES (HAEMORHOUS MEXICANUS).

Infections can have far-reaching sublethal effects on wildlife, including reduced maintenance of external structures. For many wildlife taxa, daily maintenance of external structures (termed preening in birds) is critical to fitness, but few studies have examined how infections alter such maintenance. Mycoplasma gallisepticum is a common pathogen in free-living House Finches (Haemorhous mexicanus), where it causes mycoplasmal conjunctivitis.

Machine learning derived echocardiographic image quality in patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction: insights on the echo views of greatest image quality.

We sought to determine the cardiac ultrasound view of greatest quality using a machine learning (ML) approach on a cohort of transthoracic echocardiograms (TTE) with abnormal left ventricular (LV) systolic function. We utilize an ML model to determine the TTE view of highest quality when scanned by sonographers. A random sample of TTEs with reported LV dysfunction from 09/25/2017-01/15/2019 were downloaded from the regional database.

High virulence is associated with pathogen spreadability in a songbird-bacterial system.

How directly transmitted pathogens benefit from harming hosts is key to understanding virulence evolution. It is recognized that pathogens benefit from high within-host loads, often associated with virulence. However, high virulence may also directly augment spread of a given amount of pathogen, here termed 'spreadability'.

Demonstration of High-Throughput Building Block and Composition Analysis of Metal-Organic Frameworks.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are composed of inorganic metal-containing nodes and organic linker groups and are promising porous materials for a wide range of applications. More than 90 000 different MOFs have been synthesized with different inorganic nodes, organic linkers, and node-linker connectivity patterns. While databases have been created to catalog this enormous number of structures, they generally do not provide functionality to easily search, sort, and understand MOFs based on composition and building blocks.

Psychological/social factors associated with transfer readiness in young people with juvenile idiopathic arthritis.

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationships between psychological/social factors and transfer readiness from paediatric to adult rheumatology services in pre- and post-transfer young people (YP) with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). Participants completed questionnaires measuring a broad range of psychological/social factors (generalised anxiety, pain-specific anxiety, pain-related thoughts, depression, prosocial behaviours, problem behaviours, arthritis-related quality of life (QoL), social support, family functioning) and transfer readiness (transfer-related knowledge and skills, health-related self-efficacy). JIA disease activity was measured on the same day as the questionnaires.

Infectious disease and cognition in wild populations.

Infectious disease is linked to impaired cognition across a breadth of host taxa and cognitive abilities, potentially contributing to variation in cognitive performance within and among populations. Impaired cognitive performance can stem from direct damage by the parasite, the host immune response, or lost opportunities for learning. Moreover, cognitive impairment could be compounded by factors that simultaneously increase infection risk and impair cognition directly, such as stress and malnutrition.

Dual-Energy, Dual-Exposure PA and Lateral Chest Radiograph: Not Your Father's Chest X-Ray.

In the last two decades, our military and federal health care facilities have transitioned from traditional X-rays exposing film screen systems, developed much like photographic film, to an entirely digital detection system that affords computer processing of images and digital image and report distribution. While health care providers are well aware of the practicality of these advancements, they may not be aware of the improved diagnostic capabilities afforded by these new methods. In this report, we outline how application of physical principles of X-rays, with digital detectors and computer data manipulation, can present images demonstrating chest and heart diseases that were previously not readily visible by traditional film screen systems.

Antibiotic perturbation of gut bacteria does not significantly alter host responses to ocular disease in a songbird species.

Bacterial communities in and on wild hosts are increasingly appreciated for their importance in host health. Through both direct and indirect interactions, bacteria lining vertebrate gut mucosa provide hosts protection against infectious pathogens, sometimes even in distal body regions through immune regulation. In house finches (), the bacterial pathogen (MG) causes conjunctivitis, with ocular inflammation mediated by pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines and infection triggering MG-specific antibodies.

Panel sequencing links rare, likely damaging gene variants with distinct clinical phenotypes and outcomes in juvenile-onset SLE.

Objectives: Juvenile-onset systemic lupus erythematosus (jSLE) affects 15-20% of lupus patients. Clinical heterogeneity between racial groups, age groups and individual patients suggests variable pathophysiology. This study aimed to identify highly penetrant damaging mutations in genes associated with SLE/SLE-like disease in a large national cohort (UK JSLE Cohort Study) and compare demographic, clinical and laboratory features in patient sub-cohorts with 'genetic' SLE vs remaining SLE patients.

Protection Generated by Prior Exposure to Pathogens Depends on both Priming and Challenge Dose.

Free-living hosts encounter pathogens at a wide range of frequencies and concentrations, including low doses that are largely aclinical, creating a varied landscape of exposure history and reinfection likelihood. While several studies show that higher priming doses result in stronger immunological protection against reinfection, it remains unknown how the reinfection challenge dose and priming dose interact to determine the likelihood and severity of reinfection. We manipulated both priming and challenge doses of Mycoplasma gallisepticum, which causes mycoplasmal conjunctivitis, in captive house finches (Haemorhous mexicanus), to assess reinfection probability and severity.

Collective Perceptions of Aging and Older Persons Held by Students From Eight Healthcare Professions.

In order to increase the number of students entering the geriatric workforce, an understanding of factors influencing career preference and what may prevent students from pursuing geriatric careers is necessary. Using a convergent parallel mixed methods approach, the aim of this study was to provide insight for geriatric educators regarding the collective perceptions of aging and older persons held by 864 students from eight healthcare professions. Quantitative questions assessed students' attitudes (Geriatric Attitudes Scale).