Hospital antimicrobial stewardship funding and resourcing impact on broad-spectrum antibiotic use: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) aim to mitigate antimicrobial resistance (AMR) by optimizing antibiotic use including reducing unnecessary broad-spectrum therapy. This study evaluates the impact of ASP funding and resources on the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics in Ontario hospitals.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of antimicrobial use (AMU) across 63 Ontario hospitals from April 2020 to March 2023.

Long-term Risk of Infection Among Patients Colonized With Antimicrobial-Resistant Pathogens: A Population-wide Cohort Study.

Background: Antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) pathogens represent an ongoing global health burden. Colonization is often a prerequisite for infection, but the risk of infection after AMR colonization is not well understood. Using population-level health administrative data, we sought to investigate the risk of infection with the same AMR organism after detection of colonization.

Leveraging local public health to advance antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) implementation and mitigate antimicrobial resistance (AMR): a scoping review.

Objective: To explore the role of local public health organisations in antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance.

Methods: A scoping review was conducted. Peer-reviewed and grey literature from countries within the organisation for economic co-operation and development was searched between 1999 and 2023 using the concepts of local public health, AMR and AMS.

Prevalence and Predictors of Concomitant Bacterial Infections in Patients With Respiratory Viruses in Ontario: A Cohort Study.

Background: To investigate the prevalence of concomitant bacterial infection across common viral infections.

Methods: This population-based cohort study included patients infected with influenza A and B (FLUA, FLUB) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in Ontario between 2017 and 2019 and patients with SARS-CoV-2 between 2020 and 2021. Specific bacteria present in concomitant infections were identified.

Wildfire Smoke Exposure During Pregnancy: Consensus-Building to Co-Create a Community-Engaged Study.

Relative to other Oregon counties, Klamath County experiences worse air quality due to wildfire smoke, as well as elevated rates of infant mortality and low birthweight. Klamath County Public Health (KCPH) raised concerns that wildfire smoke is a contributor to poor infant health. Thus, we built a multidisciplinary team and designed a community-engaged research (CEnR) project to capture community and individual-level exposure to wildfire smoke contaminants, alongside perinatal health outcomes.

Postsynaptic dopamine D receptors selectively modulate μ-opioid receptor-expressing GABAergic inputs onto CA1 pyramidal cells in the rat ventral hippocampus.

Although the actions of dopamine throughout the brain are clearly linked to motivation and cognition, the specific role(s) of dopamine in the CA1 subfield of the ventral hippocampus (vH) is unresolved. Prior preclinical studies suggest that dopamine D receptors (DRs) expressed on CA1 pyramidal cells exhibit a unique capacity to modulate mechanisms of long-term synaptic plasticity, but less is known about how interneuronal inputs modulate these cells. We hypothesized that inputs from μ-opioid receptor (MOR)-expressing inhibitory interneurons selectively modulate the activity of postsynaptic DRs expressed on CA1 principal cells to shape neurotransmission in the rat vH.

ASMI: An automated, low-cost indenter for soft matter.

The automated soft matter indenter (ASMI) is a platform for rapidly performing mechanical characterization of samples with elastic moduli in the range 7 kPa to 67 MPa with a sample acquisition time between 1 and 10 min. It is a low-cost system based upon open-source software, a modified mill, and an educational force sensor with a total bill of materials <$500. This system tests batches of up to 96 samples based on a standard well-plate sample holder without requiring any human intervention.

Environmental sustainability of food production and consumption in the Nordic and Baltic region - a scoping review for Nordic Nutrition Recommendations 2023.

This scoping review examines environmental impacts related to food production and consumption in Nordic and Baltic countries. The overarching advice to all Nordic and Baltic countries, in line with the current body of scientific literature, is to shift to a more plant-based dietary pattern and avoid food waste. Taking into account current consumption patterns, there is a high potential and necessity to shift food consumption across the countries to minimise its environmental impact.

Quality of life and unmet needs of late-stage and metastatic colorectal cancer survivors: An integrative review.

Problem Identification: The purpose of this review was to identify and synthesize the published literature on Quality of Life (QoL) and unmet needs of late-stage (American Joint Committee on Cancer [AJCC] III) and metastatic (AJCC IV) CRC survivors.

Literature Search: Databases searched included PubMed, CINAHL, and Embase from 2010 to 2023. Articles were included if they focused on self-reported CRC experiences of late-stage and metastatic survivors, identifying 512 articles, of which five met the inclusion criteria.

Burden of infant group B disease and impact of maternal screening and antibiotic prophylaxis in Ontario, Canada: a population-based cohort study.

Background: Group B (GBS) significantly contributes to neonatal sepsis and meningitis, with varying disease rates reported globally and limited population-based data. We estimated infant GBS disease burden in Ontario, Canada and assessed the association of maternal GBS screening (35-37 weeks' gestation) and intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis (IAP) provision with infant disease rates.

Methods: Our population-based cohort study included pregnant individuals and their offspring from April 2012 to March 2018, utilising the provincial birth registry linked to health administrative data.

Rapid Hippocampal Synaptic Potentiation Induced by Ketamine Metabolite ( , )-Hydroxynorketamine Persistently Primes Synaptic Plasticity.

The pharmacologically active ( , )-ketamine (ketamine) metabolite ( , )-hydroxynorketamine (HNK) maintains ketamine's preclinical antidepressant profile without adverse effects. While hypotheses have been proposed to explain how ketamine and its metabolites initiate their antidepressant-relevant effects, it remains unclear how sustained therapeutic actions arise following drug elimination. To distinguish the physiological mechanisms involved in the rapid from sustained actions of HNK, we utilized extracellular electrophysiology combined with pharmacology to develop an hippocampal slice incubation model that exhibited pharmacological fidelity to the 1) rapid synaptic potentiation induced by HNK at the Schaffer collateral-CA1 (SC-CA1) synapse during bath-application to slices collected from mice, and 2) maintenance of metaplastic (priming) activity that lowered the threshold for methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) activation-dependent long-term potentiation (LTP) hours after dosing.

Electrodeposition of Polymer Networks as Conformal and Uniform Ultrathin Coatings.

Natural systems, synthetic materials, and devices almost always feature interphases that control the flow of mass and energy or stabilize interfaces between incompatible materials. With technologies transitioning to non-planar and 3D mesoscale architectures, novel deposition methods for realizing ultrathin coatings and interphases are required. Polymer networks are of particular interest for their tunable chemical and physical properties combined with their structural integrity.

Long-term morbidity and mortality of patients who survived past 30 days from bloodstream infection: A population-based retrospective cohort study.

Background: For bloodstream infections (BSI), treatment and research have focused on short term mortality. The objective of this study was to describe the 1-year mortality and morbidity in survivors of bloodstream infection when compared to patients with negative blood cultures.

Methods: We conducted a population-based retrospective cohort study using Ontario administrative databases.

Foams with 3D Spatially Programmed Mechanics Enabled by Autonomous Active Learning on Viscous Thread Printing.

Foams are versatile by nature and ubiquitous in a wide range of applications, including padding, insulation, and acoustic dampening. Previous work established that foams 3D printed via Viscous Thread Printing (VTP) can in principle combine the flexibility of 3D printing with the mechanical properties of conventional foams. However, the generality of prior work is limited due to the lack of predictable process-property relationships.

BioSense: An automated sensing node for organismal and environmental biology.

Automated remote sensing has revolutionized the fields of wildlife ecology and environmental science. Yet, a cost-effective and flexible approach for large scale monitoring has not been fully developed, resulting in a limited collection of high-resolution data. Here, we describe BioSense, a low-cost and fully programmable automated sensing platform for applications in bioacoustics and environmental studies.

PANDA: a self-driving lab for studying electrodeposited polymer films.

We introduce the polymer analysis and discovery array (PANDA), an automated system for high-throughput electrodeposition and functional characterization of polymer films. The PANDA is a custom, modular, and low-cost system based on a CNC gantry that we have modified to include a syringe pump, potentiostat, and camera with a telecentric lens. This system can perform fluid handling, electrochemistry, and transmission optical measurements on samples in custom 96-well plates that feature transparent and conducting bottoms.

The Orphan G Protein-Coupled Receptor GPR52 is a Novel Regulator of Breast Cancer Multicellular Organization.

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are the largest class of membrane-bound receptors and transmit critical signals from the extracellular to the intracellular spaces. Transcriptomic data of resected breast tumors shows that low mRNA expression of the orphan GPCR GPR52 correlates with reduced overall survival in breast cancer patients, leading to the hypothesis that loss of GPR52 supports breast cancer progression. CRISPR-Cas9 was used to knockout GPR52 in human triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cell lines MDA-MB-468 and MDA-MB-231, and in the non-cancerous breast epithelial cell line, MCF10A.