Benchmarking quantum versions of the kNN algorithm with a metric based on amplitude-encoded features.

This work introduces a quantum subroutine for computing the distance between two patterns and integrates it into two quantum versions of the kNN classifier algorithm: one proposed by Schuld et al. and the other proposed by Quezada et al. Notably, our proposed subroutine is tailored to be memory-efficient, requiring fewer qubits for data encoding, while maintaining the overall complexity for both QkNN versions.

Impact of the 'Health on Wheels' (HoW) strategy on COVID-19 vaccination coverage in hard-to-reach communities in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, 2022.

Background: In April 2022, after a year of COVID-19 vaccination, there were large differences in coverage between urban and rural areas in Guatemala. To address barriers in rural communities, the "Health on Wheels" (HoW) strategy was implemented. The strategy deployed mobile brigades with a dedicated team of health workers and a culturally sensitive health promotion plan in selected communities in 15 districts in Alta Verapaz, a health area with low COVID-19 vaccination uptake and a high-level of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.

Early impact of COVID-19 vaccination on older populations in four countries of the Americas, 2021.

Objective: To estimate the early impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination on cases in older populations in four countries (Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, and the United States of America), and on deaths in Chile and Guatemala.

Methods: Data were obtained from national databases of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths and vaccinations between 1 July 2020 and 31 August 2021. In each country, pre- and post-vaccination incidence ratios were calculated for COVID-19 cases and deaths in prioritized groups (50-59, 60-69, and ≥70 years) compared with those in the reference group (<50 years).

Early transcriptional and epigenetic divergence of CD8+ T cells responding to acute versus chronic infection.

During a microbial infection, responding CD8+ T cells give rise to effector cells that provide acute host defense and memory cells that provide sustained protection. An alternative outcome is exhaustion, a state of T cell dysfunction that occurs in the context of chronic infections and cancer. Although it is evident that exhausted CD8+ T (TEX) cells are phenotypically and molecularly distinct from effector and memory CD8+ T cells, the factors regulating the earliest events in the differentiation process of TEX cells remain incompletely understood.

Indigenous use of fire in the paramo ecosystem of southern Ecuador: a case study using remote sensing methods and ancestral knowledge of the Kichwa Saraguro people.

Background: The Indigenous Kichwa Saraguro people of southern Ecuador have long relied on traditional burning to manage their environment. However, their traditional use of fire in one of the most important ecosystems in southern Ecuador, the herbaceous paramo, is not well known. This lack of knowledge does not allow for the improvement of local regulations related to integrated fire management, which is a shortcoming compared to other regulations applied in South America.

Quantum Information Entropy of Hyperbolic Potentials in Fractional Schrödinger Equation.

In this work we have studied the Shannon information entropy for two hyperbolic single-well potentials in the fractional Schrödinger equation (the fractional derivative number (0 View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Identification of β-Lactams Active against by a Consortium of Pharmaceutical Companies and Academic Institutions.

Rising antimicrobial resistance challenges our ability to combat bacterial infections. The problem is acute for tuberculosis (TB), the leading cause of death from infection before COVID-19. Here, we developed a framework for multiple pharmaceutical companies to share proprietary information and compounds with multiple laboratories in the academic and government sectors for a broad examination of the ability of β-lactams to kill (Mtb).

[The impact of climate change on health].

Climate changes evidenced by an increase in our planet's mean temperature, changes in rainfall, increased sea level and extreme weather conditions, favor air and soil contamination, ocean acidification, droughts, floods, heat waves and forest fires, which affect the health and wellbeing of exposed populations. These changes will exert negative effects on respiratory and cardiovascular systems, nutritional status, burden of infectious diseases, especially vector-borne infections, and human mental health. Moreover, environmental damages, such as loss of biodiversity, ecological collapse and deterioration of socioeconomic factors such as agricultural and fishery production, and the loss of habitable land, will impulse massive migrations.

Heterogeneity and clonal relationships of adaptive immune cells in ulcerative colitis revealed by single-cell analyses.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) encompasses a spectrum of gastrointestinal disorders driven by dysregulated immune responses against gut microbiota. We integrated single-cell RNA and antigen receptor sequencing to elucidate key components, cellular states, and clonal relationships of the peripheral and gastrointestinal mucosal immune systems in health and ulcerative colitis (UC). UC was associated with an increase in IgG1 plasma cells in colonic tissue, increased colonic regulatory T cells characterized by elevated expression of the transcription factor ZEB2, and an enrichment of a γδ T cell subset in the peripheral blood.

Heterogenous Populations of Tissue-Resident CD8 T Cells Are Generated in Response to Infection and Malignancy.

Tissue-resident memory CD8 T cells (Trm) provide host protection through continuous surveillance of non-lymphoid tissues. Using single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) and genetic reporter mice, we identified discrete lineages of intestinal antigen-specific CD8 T cells, including a Blimp1Id3 tissue-resident effector cell population most prominent in the early phase of acute viral and bacterial infections and a molecularly distinct Blimp1Id3 tissue-resident memory population that subsequently accumulated at later infection time points. These Trm populations exhibited distinct cytokine production, secondary memory potential, and transcriptional programs including differential roles for transcriptional regulators Blimp1, T-bet, Id2, and Id3 in supporting and maintaining intestinal Trm.

Early precursors and molecular determinants of tissue-resident memory CD8 T lymphocytes revealed by single-cell RNA sequencing.

During an immune response to microbial infection, CD8 T cells give rise to distinct classes of cellular progeny that coordinately mediate clearance of the pathogen and provide long-lasting protection against reinfection, including a subset of noncirculating tissue-resident memory (T) cells that mediate potent protection within nonlymphoid tissues. Here, we used single-cell RNA sequencing to examine the gene expression patterns of individual CD8 T cells in the spleen and small intestine intraepithelial lymphocyte (siIEL) compartment throughout the course of their differentiation in response to viral infection. These analyses revealed previously unknown transcriptional heterogeneity within the siIEL CD8 T cell population at several stages of differentiation, representing functionally distinct T cell subsets and a subset of T cell precursors within the tissue early in infection.

An Iterative Process for Training Design and Implementation Increased Health Workers' Knowledge for Taking Nutrition Behavior Change to Scale.

Background: The shortage of skilled, motivated, and well-supported health workers is a major barrier to scaling up nutrition interventions and services.

Objective: The objective of this study is to describe the process for developing and implementing a training of health personnel for the delivery of the Integrated Strategy for Attention to Nutrition (EsIAN), an evidence-based strategy for promoting infant and young child feeding through primary health care in Mexico. The specific objective is to provide a case study and highlight challenges, as well as elements to successfully mitigate these, and discuss potential applications of findings beyond the Mexican context.

Exercise regulates lipid droplet dynamics in normal and fatty liver.

Lipids droplets (LD) are dynamics organelles that accumulate neutral lipids during nutrient surplus. LD alternates between periods of growth and consumption through regulated processes including as de novo lipogenesis, lipolysis and lipophagy. The liver is a central tissue in the regulation of lipid metabolism.

Associations between microaggression and adjustment outcomes: A meta-analytic and narrative review.

Microaggression has been considered a form of stressor that negatively affects people with marginalized statuses. Research shows variability in how microaggression is measured, and the extent to which it is associated with adjustment outcomes. A new cube model was proposed to conceptualize microaggression across social groups, interpersonal and group-level interactions, and categories of incidents.

Entropy of Entanglement between Quantum Phases of a Three-Level Matter-Radiation Interaction Model.

We show that the entropy of entanglement is sensitive to the coherent quantum phase transition between normal and super-radiant regions of a system of a finite number of three-level atoms interacting in a dipolar approximation with a one-mode electromagnetic field. The atoms are treated as semi-distinguishable using different cooperation numbers and representations of SU(3), variables which are relevant to the sensitivity of the entropy with the transition. The results are computed for all three possible configurations ( Ξ , Λ and ) of the three-level atoms.

Explanatory Model of Resilience in Pediatric Burn Survivors.

Identifying factors of adjustment in pediatric burn patients may facilitate appropriate mental health interventions postinjury. The aim of this is study was to explore the roles of both the patient's and caregivers' resilience and posttraumatic stress in pediatric burn survivor adjustment. For the purposes of the study, "51 patient-parent/guardian" dyads participated.

[Hyper IgE syndrome: three case reports].

Introduction: Autosomal dominant Hyper IgE syndrome (HIES-AD) is a primary immunodeficiency associated with connective tissue, skeletal, vascular and brain disorders. The pathogenesis of immune deficiency lies in an alteration of Th17 cells which explains the special susceptibility of these patients to S. aureus and Candida infections.

Social, economic, and psychological impacts of MDR-TB treatment in Tijuana, Mexico: a patient's perspective.

Setting: The State of Baja California, Mexico, had the highest prevalence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in Mexico in 2009.

Objective: To understand the socio-economic burden of MDR-TB disease and its treatment on patients in Tijuana and Mexicali, Mexico.

Design: From July to November 2009, qualitative interviews were conducted with 12 patients enrolled in a US-Mexico binational MDR-TB treatment program, Puentes de Esperanza (Bridges of Hope), which was designed to support MDR-TB patients.

Effect of short-term upper-body resistance training on muscular strength, bone metabolic markers, and BMD in premenopausal women.

Unlabelled: To examine the effect of a 10-week upper-body resistance training program on bone turnover markers and site-specific bone mineral density (BMD) in the wrist and distal half of the ulna and radius in untrained and healthy young premenopausal women.

Methods: Twenty-two subjects (aged 22.1 ± 1.

Schistosome serine protease inhibitors: parasite defense or homeostasis?

Serpins are a structurally conserved family of macromolecular inhibitors found in numerous biological systems. The completion and annotation of the genomes of Schistosoma mansoni and Schistosoma japonicum has enabled the identification by phylogenetic analysis of two major serpin clades. S.

Length-based encoding of binary data in DNA.

We developed a system to encode digital information in DNA polymers based on the partial restriction digest (PRD). Our encoding method relies on the length of the fragments obtained by the PRD rather than the actual content of the nucleotide sequence, thus eliminating the need for expensive sequencing machinery. In this letter, we report on the encoding of 12 bits of data in a DNA fragment of 110 nucleotides and the process of recovering the data.

Therapeutic effects of the anti-tumor necrosis factor monoclonal antibody, infliximab, in four children with refractory juvenile idiopathic arthritis.

Objective: To report the results of treatment with infliximab in patients with refractory juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA).

Patients And Methods: A prospective study of four children with refractory JIA was carried out. Infliximab (100 mg) was administered in weeks 0, 2 and 6.