Relative effectiveness of the second booster COVID-19 vaccines against laboratory confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in healthcare workers: VEBIS HCW VE cohort study (1 October 2022-2 May 2023).

Introduction: Repeated COVID-19 booster vaccination was recommended in healthcare workers (HCWs) to maintain protection. We measured the relative vaccine effectiveness (rVE) of the second booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine compared to the first booster, against laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in HCWs.

Methods: In a prospective cohort study among HCWs from 12 European hospitals, we collected nasopharyngeal or saliva samples at enrolment and during weekly/fortnightly follow-up between October 2022 and May 2023.

High and low current perceived stress associated with enhanced emotional mnemonic discrimination.

Stress can have profound impacts on memory. However, the directionality of stress effects on memory varies widely across studies, some showing enhancement while others showing impairment. This variability has been attributed to the Yerkes-Dodson Law, which proposes a U-shaped pattern such that too little or too much stress may be associated with cognitive dysfunction.

Advocating for Paid Maternity Leave and Workplace Lactation Policy Reform and Implementation: Lessons Learned From Indonesia, Nigeria, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Maternity protection policies are designed to preserve the health of working women and their infants, support optimal infant and young child nutrition through breastfeeding and prevent workplace discrimination against women. The aim of this study was to identify how advocates may be able to effectively advance maternal leave and workplace lactation policies, two key maternity protection policies, and does so through an exploration of advocacy efforts in Indonesia, Nigeria, the Philippines and Vietnam. A desk review of programme and policy documents and 20 key informant interviews with diverse stakeholders explored advocacy efforts in each of the four countries.

Improved precision, sensitivity, and adaptability of Ordered Two-Template Relay cDNA library preparation for RNA sequencing.

Sequencing RNAs that are biologically processed or degraded to less than ~100 nucleotides typically involves multi-step, low-yield protocols with bias and information loss inherent to ligation and/or polynucleotide tailing. We recently introduced Ordered Two-Template Relay (OTTR), a method that captures obligatorily end-to-end sequences of input molecules and, in the same reverse transcription step, also appends 5' and 3' sequencing adapters of choice. OTTR has been thoroughly benchmarked for optimal production of microRNA, tRNA and tRNA fragments, and ribosome-protected mRNA footprint libraries.