The discovery of natural slab photonic crystals in diatoms has sparked questions regarding their prevalence and functional role in nature. These advanced nanomaterials open so-called photonic stopbands in two dimensions, enabling precise light manipulation essential in technologies like quantum computing and photonics. However, the natural role of these advanced properties remains a mystery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBrain Behav Immun Health
March 2025
•We explored the neurophysiology underlying painful bladder sensations during UTI.•UTI induces significant bladder afferent hypersensitivity during distension.•Low-threshold afferents elicit exaggerated responses at normal bladder pressures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFResearch into how existentially aware nurses and nursing interventions have highlighted the benefits to patients and patient outcomes. Less is known about how existentially based training affects nurses themselves. This project sought to understand if and how a training programme developed to improve nurses' knowledge of existential theory would affect their well-being.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGroup B (GBS) is a major cause of fetal and neonatal mortality worldwide. Many of the adverse effects of invasive GBS are associated with inflammation; therefore, understanding bacterial factors that promote inflammation is of critical importance. Membrane vesicles (MVs), which are produced by many bacteria, may modulate host inflammatory responses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCalcium Homeostasis in the human body is regulated by hormones, including parathyroid hormone and vitamin D3. Dysfunction in the form of hypoparathyroidism causes hypocalcaemia. In patients treated for primary hypoparathyroidism with activated vitamin D replacement, iatrogenic hypercalcaemia can occur.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Newborns with critical congenital heart disease (CCHD) require specialized delivery room management, but varying experience and knowledge can reduce confidence and impact care.
Methods: A pre-delivery, structured huddle checklist was introduced, addressing team roles, expected physiology, and management plans. PDSA cycles incorporated guidelines and simulation-based education to improve confidence in specialized resuscitation strategies.
Background: Teaching dermatology is challenging because of its' highly visible and tactile nature. While images improve visual memory and are valuable teaching aids, even high-quality photographs have limitations in what they can convey.
Aim: Our aim is to validate the use of silicone-based 3D skin models as simulation-based educational tools by assessing their impact on recognition of various skin conditions among nursing students.
Third-generation cephalosporins such as ceftiofur are critically important antibiotics because human pathogens with resistance to these drugs contribute to high mortality rates. These antibiotics are also frequently given to dairy cattle for treating infections, emphasizing the critical role they play in both human and veterinary medicine. To investigate the effect of intramuscular ceftiofur treatment on the concentration of resistant bacteria in the gut, we focused on cows with metritis, a common bacterial infection that frequently requires antibiotic intervention.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe gut microbiota in cattle is essential for protein, energy, and vitamin production and hence, microbiota perturbations can affect cattle performance. This study evaluated the effect of intramammary (IMM) ceftiofur treatment and lactation stage on the functional gut microbiome and metabolome. Forty dairy cows were enrolled at dry-off.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhile enteric pathogens have been widely studied for their roles in causing foodborne infection, their impacts on the gut microbial community have yet to be fully characterized. Previous work has identified notable changes in the gut microbiome related to pathogen invasion, both taxonomically and genetically. Characterization of the metabolic landscape during and after enteric infection, however, has not been explored.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCariogenic microorganisms are crucial pathogens contributing to the development of early childhood caries. Snacks provide fermentable carbohydrates, altering oral pH levels and potentially affecting microorganism colonization. However, the relationship between snack intake and cariogenic microorganisms like and in young children is still unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Hippo pathway is an important regulator of organ growth and cell fate. The major mechanism by which Hippo is known to control transcription is by dictating the nucleo-cytoplasmic shuttling rate of Yorkie, a transcription co-activator, which promotes transcription with the DNA binding protein Scalloped. The nuclear biophysical behavior of Yorkie and Scalloped, and whether this is regulated by the Hippo pathway, remains unexplored.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWelcome Family is a universal, short-term nurse home visiting program designed to promote optimal maternal and infant physical and mental well-being and provide an entry point into the early childhood system of care to all families with newborns up to 8 weeks old living in defined communities in Massachusetts. The present study examines whether: 1) Welcome Family meets its goal of successfully connecting families to two early childhood programs-evidence-based home visiting (EBHV) and early intervention (EI)-relative to families with similar background experiences who do not participate in Welcome Family, and 2) whether these impacts are conditional on families' race and ethnicity and their primary language-two characteristics that are related to structural racism and health inequities. The study used coarsened exact matching (CEM) based on birth certificate data to match Welcome Family participants who enrolled during 2013-2017 to mothers and their infants living in the home visiting catchment areas who did not receive home visiting during the study period.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThrough vaginal colonization, GBS causes severe pregnancy outcomes including neonatal sepsis and meningitis. Although intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis (IAP) has reduced early-onset disease rates, persistent GBS colonization has been observed in patients following prophylaxis. To determine whether IAP selects for genomic signatures that enhance GBS survival and persistence in the vaginal tract, whole-genome sequencing was performed on 97 isolates from 58 patients before (prenatal) and after (postpartum) IAP/childbirth.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is being rapidly adopted into many different branches of medicine. Although research has started to highlight the impact of AI on health care, the focus on patient perspectives of AI is scarce. This scoping review aimed to explore the literature on adult patients' perspectives on the use of an array of AI technologies in the health care setting for design and deployment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCyanobacterial harmful algal proliferations (cyanoHAPs) are increasingly associated with dog and livestock deaths when benthic mats break free of their substrate and float to the surface. Fatalities have been linked to neurotoxicosis from anatoxins, potent alkaloids produced by certain genera of filamentous cyanobacteria. After numerous reports of dog illnesses and deaths at a popular recreation site on Lady Bird Lake, Austin, Texas in late summer 2019, water and floating mat samples were collected from several sites along the reservoir.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: This study aimed to identify social, psychological, and contextual factors that influenced attendance at routine oral health visits in a cohort of 189 preschool children who were followed over a 2-year period.
Methods: Generalized estimating equation was used to examine the association between clinic attendance and the predictors. ORs and 95% CIs were reported in the multiple logistic regression models.