Microbial pollution of recreational waters leads to millions of skin, respiratory, and gastrointestinal illnesses globally. Fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) are monitored to assess recreational waters but may not reflect the presence of Staphylococcus aureus, a global leader in bacterial fatalities. Since many community-acquired S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To investigate whether intensified cooperation between general practitioner (GP), care manager and rehabilitation coordinator (RC) for patients sick-listed for stress-related mental disorder, combined with a person-centred dialogue meeting with employer, could reduce sick-leave days compared with usual care manager contact.
Design: Pragmatic cluster-randomised controlled trial, randomisation at primary care centre (PCC) level.
Setting: PCCs in Region Västra Götaland, Sweden, with care manager organisation.
Objectives: To study whether early and enhanced cooperation within the primary care centres (PCC) combined with workplace cooperation via a person-centred employer dialogue meeting can reduce days on sick leave compared with usual care manager contact for patients on sick leave because of common mental disorders (CMD). Secondary aim: to study lapse of CMD symptoms, perceived Work Ability Index (WAI) and quality of life (QoL) during 12 months.
Design: Pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial, randomisation at PCC level.
Sewage pollution from on-site sewage disposal systems and injection wells is impacting coral reefs worldwide. Our study documented the presence and impact of sewage on South Kohala's coral reefs, on Hawai'i Island, through benthic water quality and macroalgal sampling (fecal indicator bacteria, nutrients, δN macroalgal tissue), NO stable isotope mixing models, water motion measurements, and coral reef surveys. Sewage pollution was moderate on the offshore reef from benthic seeps, and water motion mixed and diluted it across the benthos.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDynamic mode decomposition (DMD) is a leading tool for equation-free analysis of high-dimensional dynamical systems from observations. In this work, we focus on a combination of DMD and delay-coordinates embedding, which is termed delay-coordinates DMD and is based on augmenting observations from current and past time steps, accommodating the analysis of a broad family of observations. An important utility of DMD is the compact and reduced-order spectral representation of observations in terms of the DMD eigenvalues and modes, where the temporal information is separated from the spatial information.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFResistive switching (RS) of Transition Metal Oxides (TMOs) has become not only an attractive choice for the development of next generation non-volatile memory, but also as a suitable family of materials capable of supporting high-frequency and high-speed switching needed for the next generation wireless communication technologies, such as 6G. The exact mechanism of RS is not yet clearly understood; however, it is widely accepted to be related to the formation and rupture of sub-stoichiometric conductive filaments (Magnéli phases) of the respective oxides upon activation. Here, we examine the switching behaviour of amorphous TiO and NiO both under the DC regime and in the high frequency mode.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The aim was to determine symptom patterns of depression, anxiety and stress-related mental disorders in newly sick listed due to common mental disorders in Swedish primary care patients and to examine associations with sick leave diagnosis, also in relation to socioeconomic, work-related and demographic factors.
Design: Cross-sectional study.
Setting: Primary care in western Sweden.
Objective: To evaluate the effects of adding individually tailored interventions to a standard treatment in patients with stress-related exhaustion disorder, with regard to sick-leave days and symptoms of burnout. The study design was a 2-armed randomized controlled intervention, with follow-up after 15 months. Data were obtained from patients referred to the Institute of Stress Medicine, and were collected between 2011 and 2014 in western Sweden.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStaphylococcus aureus, methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), and fecal indicator bacteria (FIB; Enterococcus spp., Clostridium perfringens) concentrations increase in Hawaiian streams and estuaries following storms and pose a health threat to recreational water users.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNutrient sources to coastal waters with coral reefs are not well-characterized. This study documented spatial distributions of nutrients within coastal waters along two developments with coral reefs, and identified nutrient sources through nutrient mixing plots, δN measurements in macroalgal tissue, and NO stable isotope mixing models. Nutrients decreased from fresh groundwaters to offshore waters, with some surface waters higher in concentrations than benthic ones.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFare human facultative pathogenic bacteria and can be found as contaminants in the environment. The aim of our study was to determine whether methicillin-resistant (MRSA) and methicillin-susceptible (MSSA) isolated from coastal beach and river waters, anchialine pools, sand, and wastewater on the island of Hawai'i, Hawai'i, are a potential health risk. Samples were collected from three regions on Hawai'i Island from July to December 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and were characterized using whole-genome sequencing (WGS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has created hitherto unknown challenges for healthcare systems and patient care. This study aimed to analyze its influence on patient care and healthcare management in oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMFS) in Germany.
Materials And Methods: A nationwide survey of the German Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery was performed.
Background: Many patients with stress-related exhaustion seem to struggle with long-term recovery. The primary aim of this study was to explore residual symptoms and perceived recovery in patients previously treated for stress-related exhaustion, 7 years after seeking care.
Methods: A total of 217 former patients (74% women) previously treated for exhaustion disorder were asked to participate in follow-ups 2, 3, 5, and 7 years post treatment.
Objective: Our aim was to explore how the care managers put the complex care manager task into practice and how they perceived their task, which was to facilitate effective, person-centred treatment for stress-related disorder concordant with evidence-based guidelines in primary care.
Design: This was a qualitative study using examination reports from the course for care managers. Systematic text condensation according to Malterud was used for the analysis.
While sewage pollution is contributing to the global decline of coral reefs, its offshore extent and direct reef impacts from water column mixing and benthic seeps are poorly documented. We addressed this knowledge gap on a Hawaiian coral reef using sewage indicator and benthic cover measurements, macroalgal bioassays, and a pollution scoring tool. Fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) and nutrient concentrations were spatially variable in surface and benthic waters, with shoreline values being highest.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSewage pollution is contributing to the global decline of coral reefs. Identifying locations where it is entering waters near reefs is therefore a management priority. Our study documented shoreline sewage pollution hotspots in a coastal community with a fringing coral reef (Puakō, Hawai'i) using dye tracer studies, sewage indicator measurements, and a pollution scoring tool.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDeclining natural resources have led to a cultural renaissance across the Pacific that seeks to revive customary ridge-to-reef management approaches to protect freshwater and restore abundant coral reef fisheries. Effective ridge-to-reef management requires improved understanding of land-sea linkages and decision-support tools to simultaneously evaluate the effects of terrestrial and marine drivers on coral reefs, mediated by anthropogenic activities. Although a few applications have linked the effects of land cover to coral reefs, these are too coarse in resolution to inform watershed-scale management for Pacific Islands.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this paper, we present long term observations of atmospheric aerosols and nitrogen dioxide (NO) in Hong Kong using a Multi-AXis Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) instrument. Ground based MAX-DOAS measurements were performed over 5years from December 2010 to November 2015. Vertical distribution profiles of aerosols and NO were derived from MAX-DOAS O and NO observations by applying the optimal estimation method.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEur J Trauma Emerg Surg
August 2018
Purpose: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are primarily stromal cells present in bone marrow and other tissues that are crucial for tissue regeneration and can be mobilized into peripheral blood after different types of organ damage. However, little is known about MSC appearance in blood in the setting of polytrauma.
Methods: We conducted a monocentered and longitudinal observational clinical study in 11 polytraumatized patients with an injury severity score (ISS) ≥ 24 to determine the numbers of MSCs in peripheral blood.
Activation and regulation of the cascade systems of the blood (the complement system, the coagulation/contact activation/kallikrein system, and the fibrinolytic system) occurs via activation of zymogen molecules to specific active proteolytic enzymes. Despite the fact that the generated proteases are all present together in the blood, under physiological conditions, the activity of the generated proteases is controlled by endogenous protease inhibitors. Consequently, there is remarkable little crosstalk between the different systems in the fluid phase.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: A cochlear implant (CI) is an electronic prosthesis that can partially restore speech perception capabilities. Optimum information transfer from the cochlea to the central auditory system requires a proper functioning auditory nerve (AN) that is electrically stimulated by the device. In deafness, the lack of neurotrophic support, normally provided by the sensory cells of the inner ear, however, leads to gradual degeneration of auditory neurons with undesirable consequences for CI performance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFScand J Immunol
September 2017
The complement and neutrophil defence systems, as major components of innate immunity, are activated during inflammation and infection. For neutrophil migration to the inflamed region, we hypothesized that the complement activation product C5a induces significant changes in cellular morphology before chemotaxis. Exposure of human neutrophils to C5a dose- and time-dependently resulted in a rapid C5a receptor-1 (C5aR1)-dependent shape change, indicated by enhanced flow cytometric forward-scatter area values.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHemorrhagic shock (HS) after tissue trauma increases the complication and mortality rate of polytrauma (PT) patients. Although several murine trauma models have been introduced, there is a lack of knowledge about the exact impact of an additional HS. We hypothesized that HS significantly contributes to organ injury, which can be reliably monitored by detection of specific organ damage markers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDuring sepsis, excessive activation of the complement system with generation of the anaphylatoxin C5a results in profound disturbances in crucial neutrophil functions. Moreover, because neutrophil activity is highly dependent on intracellular pH (pH), we propose a direct mechanistic link between complement activation and neutrophil pH In this article, we demonstrate that in vitro exposure of human neutrophils to C5a significantly increased pH by selective activation of the sodium/hydrogen exchanger. Upstream signaling of C5a-mediated intracellular alkalinization was dependent on C5aR1, intracellular calcium, protein kinase C, and calmodulin, and downstream signaling regulated the release of antibacterial myeloperoxidase and lactoferrin.
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