Exploring the influence of urban art interventions on attraction and wellbeing: an empirical field experiment.

While cities are attractive places, brimming with opportunities and possibilities for their inhabitants, they have also been found to have negative consequences, especially on physical and mental health. In a world of ever-growing urban populations, it is important to understand how to make cities healthier and more pleasant places to live. In the present study, we investigated the impact of art as an urban intervention and compared it to the well-known effects of greenery (i.

Navigating cross-reactivity and host species effects in a serological assay: A case study of the microscopic agglutination test for Leptospira serology.

Background: Serology (the detection of antibodies formed by the host against an infecting pathogen) is frequently used to assess current infections and past exposure to specific pathogens. However, the presence of cross-reactivity among host antibodies in serological data makes it challenging to interpret the patterns and draw reliable conclusions about the infecting pathogen or strain.

Methodology/principal Findings: In our study, we use microscopic agglutination test (MAT) serological data from three host species [California sea lion (Zalophus californianus), island fox (Urocyon littoralis), and island spotted skunk (Spilogale gracilis)] with confirmed infections to assess differences in cross-reactivity by host species and diagnostic laboratory.

Detection of Leptospira kirschneri in a short-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus delphis delphis) stranded off the coast of southern California, USA.

Background: Pathogenic Leptospira species are globally important zoonotic pathogens capable of infecting a wide range of host species. In marine mammals, reports of Leptospira have predominantly been in pinnipeds, with isolated reports of infections in cetaceans.

Case Presentation: On 28 June 2021, a 150.

Vector-Borne Disease in Wild Mammals Impacted by Urban Expansion and Climate Change.

Ecologies of zoonotic vector-borne diseases may shift with climate and land use change. As many urban-adapted mammals can host ectoparasites and pathogens of human and animal health concern, our goal was to compare patterns of arthropod-borne disease among medium-sized mammals across gradients of rural to urban landscapes in multiple regions of California. DNA of Anaplasma phagocytophilum was found in 1-5% of raccoons, coyotes, and San Joaquin kit foxes; Borrelia burgdorferi in one coyote, rickettsiae in two desert kit foxes, and Yersinia pestis in two coyotes.

Standards and Ethics Issues in the Determination of Death: A Position Paper From the American College of Physicians.

The determination of a patient's death is of considerable medical and ethical significance. Death is a biological concept with social implications. Acting with honesty, transparency, respect, and integrity is critical to trust in the patient-physician relationship, and the profession, in life and in death.

Pathogenic Leptospira are widespread in the urban wildlife of southern California.

Leptospirosis, the most widespread zoonotic disease in the world, is broadly understudied in multi-host wildlife systems. Knowledge gaps regarding Leptospira circulation in wildlife, particularly in densely populated areas, contribute to frequent misdiagnoses in humans and domestic animals. We assessed Leptospira prevalence levels and risk factors in five target wildlife species across the greater Los Angeles region: striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis), raccoons (Procyon lotor), coyotes (Canis latrans), Virginia opossums (Didelphis virginiana), and fox squirrels (Sciurus niger).

Surgeon Perspectives on Daily Presentation of Ethical Dilemmas: A Qualitative Study.

Background: Surgeons encounter and navigate a unique set of ethical dilemmas. The American College of Surgeons (ACS) previously identified 6 core ethical issues central to the practice of surgery, but there have been no reports of the true range and complexity of ethical dilemmas encountered by surgeons in their daily practice. Qualitative research is well positioned to address this question.

Institutional analysis of actors involved in the governance of innovative contracts for agri-environmental and climate schemes.

In this study, we used institutional analysis to investigate the design of innovative contracts for agri-environmental and climate schemes. The aim of such contracts is to better incentivize farmers for the provision of environmental public goods in comparison to current 'mainstream' contracts. For the analysis, we differentiated four contract types: result-based, collective, land tenure, and value chain contracts.

Metadata to describe the dataset on involved actors and their roles in the governance of innovative contracts for agri-environmental and climate schemes.

Agri-environmental and climate schemes are an important policy instrument in the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union to maintain biodiversity and safeguard ecosystem services provision for human wellbeing. In the presented dataset, we analyzed 19 innovative contracts for agri-environmental and climate schemes from six European countries, representing examples of four different contract types: result-based, collective, land tenure, and value chain contracts. Our analytical approach comprised three steps: In the first step, we used a method mix combining literature review, web search, and expert consultation to identify potential case examples for the innovative contracts.

Chemotherapy-induced polyneuropathy in cancer care-the patient perspective.

Purpose: Chemotherapy-related polyneuropathy (CIPN) is a very common, often dose-limiting side effect that affects the patients' quality of life. Treatment usually consists of a combination of medicinal, medical, and individualized treatment approaches, although the effectiveness of these therapies is insufficient for many patients. The aim of this article is to review and evaluate the impact of CIPN on patients' daily lives and possible effective treatment approaches.

A Standardized Approach to Treatment Over Objection in Patients Lacking Decision-Making Capacity Secondary to Neurologic Disease.

Neurologic diseases, ranging from Alzheimer dementia to mass lesions in the frontal lobe, may impair decision making. When patients with neurologic disease lack decision-making capacity, but refuse treatment, should they be treated over their objection? To address this type of ethical dilemma in medical illness, Rubin and Prager developed a standardized 7-question approach: (1) How imminent is harm without intervention? (2) What is the likely severity of harm without intervention? (3) What are the risks of intervention? (4) What are the logistics of treating over objection? (5) What is the efficacy of the proposed intervention? (6) What is the likely emotional effect of a coerced intervention? (7) What is the patient's reason for refusal? We describe the application of the standardized Rubin/Prager approach as a checklist to the case of a 50-year-old woman with a large frontal lobe meningioma, who lacked capacity as a result of the meningioma, but refused surgery. This approach may be applied to similar ethical dilemmas of treatment over objection in patients lacking capacity as a result of neurologic disease.

Safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of the oligomer modulator anle138b with exposure levels sufficient for therapeutic efficacy in a murine Parkinson model: A randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 1a trial.

Background: Synucleinopathies such as Parkinson ́s disease (PD), Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) are characterized by deposition of misfolded and aggregated α-synuclein. Small aggregates (oligomers) of α-synuclein have been shown to be the most relevant neurotoxic species and are targeted by anle138b, an orally bioavailable small molecule compound which shows strong disease-modifying effects in animal models of synucleinopathies.

Methods: Anle138b was studied in a single-centre, double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled single ascending dose (SAD) and multiple ascending dose (MAD) study in healthy subjects.

In COVID-19 Patients Who Suffer In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest, Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Outcomes May Be Impacted by Arrest Etiology and Local Pandemic Conditions.

Objectives: The utility and risks to providers of performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation after in-hospital cardiac arrest in COVID-19 patients have been questioned. Additionally, there are discrepancies in reported COVID-19 in-hospital cardiac arrest survival rates. We describe outcomes after cardiopulmonary resuscitation for in-hospital cardiac arrest in two COVID-19 patient cohorts.

Participatory research in times of COVID-19 and beyond: Adjusting your methodological toolkits.

Solving grand environmental societal challenges calls for transdisciplinary and participatory methods in social-ecological research. These methods enable co-designing the research, co-producing the results, and co-creating the impacts together with concerned stakeholders. COVID-19 has had serious impacts on the choice of research methods, but reflections on recent experiences of "moving online" are still rare.

Building community resilience in a context of climate change: The role of social capital.

Social capital is considered important for resilience across social levels, including communities, yet insights are scattered across disciplines. This meta-synthesis of 187 studies examines conceptual and empirical understandings of how social capital relates to resilience, identifying implications for community resilience and climate change practice. Different conceptualisations are highlighted, yet also limited focus on underlying dimensions of social capital and proactive types of resilience for engaging with the complex climate change challenge.

Ethical Framework to Guide Decisions of Treatment Over Objection.

Background: Whether to proceed with a medical intervention over the objection of a patient who lacks capacity is a common problem facing practitioners. Despite this, there is a notable gap in the literature describing how to proceed in such situations in an ethically rigorous and consistent fashion. We elaborate on the practical application of the 2018 Rubin and Prager 7-question algorithm for ethics consultations about treatment over objection and we describe the impact of each of the 7 questions.

Electrocerebral Signature of Cardiac Death.

Background: Electroencephalography (EEG) findings following cardiovascular collapse in death are uncertain. We aimed to characterize EEG changes immediately preceding and following cardiac death.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed EEGs of patients who died from cardiac arrest while undergoing standard EEG monitoring in an intensive care unit.

CLASSIFICATION AND REGRESSION TREE ANALYSIS FOR PREDICTING PROGNOSIS IN WILDLIFE REHABILITATION: A CASE STUDY OF LEPTOSPIROSIS IN CALIFORNIA SEA LIONS ().

The spirochete bacterium serovar Pomona is enzootic to California sea lions (CSL; ) and causes periodic epizootics. Leptospirosis in CSL is associated with a high fatality rate in rehabilitation. Evidence-based tools for estimating prognosis and guiding early euthanasia of animals with a low probability of survival are critical to reducing the severity and duration of animal suffering.

Ophthalmology and Ethics in the COVID-19 Era.

Purpose: The novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), has disrupted the practice of ophthalmology and threatens to forever alter how we care for our patients. Physicians across the country encounter unique clinical dilemmas daily. This paper presents a curated set of ethical dilemmas facing ophthalmologists both during and following the pandemic.

Quantifying antibody kinetics and RNA detection during early-phase SARS-CoV-2 infection by time since symptom onset.

Understanding and mitigating SARS-CoV-2 transmission hinges on antibody and viral RNA data that inform exposure and shedding, but extensive variation in assays, study group demographics and laboratory protocols across published studies confounds inference of true biological patterns. Our meta-analysis leverages 3214 datapoints from 516 individuals in 21 studies to reveal that seroconversion of both IgG and IgM occurs around 12 days post-symptom onset (range 1-40), with extensive individual variation that is not significantly associated with disease severity. IgG and IgM detection probabilities increase from roughly 10% at symptom onset to 98-100% by day 22, after which IgM wanes while IgG remains reliably detectable.