Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) workers are exposed to bioaerosols containing bacteria, fungi, and endotoxin, potentially posing health risks to workers. This study quantified personal exposure levels to airborne bacteria and fungi, endotoxin, and dust among 44 workers during two seasons at four WWTPs. Associations between the exposure measurements and serum levels of biomarkers CRP, SAA, and CC16 were also assessed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurrently, there are limited therapeutic options for patients with non-active secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. Therefore, real-world studies have investigated differences between patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, non-active secondary progressive multiple sclerosis and active secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. Here, we explore patterns and predictors of transitioning between these phenotypes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPeople with intellectual disabilities (IDs) face health issues and barriers to physical activity. Health promotion programmes targeting this group are often short-term. Few programmes have been designed for people with IDs who live in supported housing staffed by social care workers (SCWs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Moyamoya disease (MMD) is a rare cerebrovascular disorder marked by internal carotid artery narrowing, collateral neovascularization, and symptomatic cerebral ischemia. Select patients can benefit from direct bypass (superficial temporal artery [STA]-proximal middle [MCA] bypass) by restoring blood flow to hypoperfused territories. Symptomatic contralateral stroke (CS) following STA-MCA bypass is a devastating, poorly understood complication.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Anatomic factors that predict outcomes following basal ganglia intracranial hemorrhage (bgICH) evacuation are poorly understood. Given the compact neuroanatomic organization of the basal ganglia, we hypothesized that bgICH spatial representation could predict postoperative functional outcomes.
Methods: Patients undergoing minimally invasive surgical bgICH evacuation between 2013 and 2024 at one center were retrospectively reviewed.
Objectives: This study aims to investigate (1) the microbial community composition by work characteristics and (2) the association between microbial genera level and inflammatory markers among recycling workers.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, inhalable dust was collected with personal samplers from 49 production (86 samples) and 10 administrative workers (15 samples). Four groups of micro-organisms were identified down to species-level (aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, and fungi grown at 25°C and 37°C).
In lowlanders, high altitude (HA) acclimatization induces hemoconcentration by reducing plasma volume (PV) and increasing total hemoglobin mass (Hb). Conversely, Tibetan highlanders living at HA are reported to have a similar hemoglobin concentration ([Hb]) as lowlanders near sea level, and we investigated whether this reflects alterations in the PV or the Hb response to HA. Baseline assessment of PV and Hb was performed by carbon monoxide rebreathing at low altitudes (∼1,400 m) in Sherpas (an ethnic group of Tibetans living in Nepal) and native lowlanders.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-duration events detected from beyond the Milky Way. FRB emission characteristics favour highly magnetized neutron stars, or magnetars, as the sources, as evidenced by FRB-like bursts from a galactic magnetar, and the star-forming nature of FRB host galaxies. However, the processes that produce FRB sources remain unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe thermal conductivity of glasses is well-known to be significantly harder to theoretically describe compared to crystalline materials. Because of this fact, the fundamental understanding of thermal conductivity in glasses remain extremely poor when moving beyond the case of simple glasses, e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCongestive heart failure (CHF) and opioid use disorder (OUD) commonly coexist and are major contributors to high healthcare utilization in the United States. Medication assisted treatment (MAT; e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnn Work Expo Health
November 2024
Recycling demands are increasing and new biowaste plants are established. The aim of this study is to obtain knowledge about occupational hygiene in biowaste pretreatment plants. At 6 plants, bioaerosol exposure, hand hygiene, and bioaerosol concentrations in work areas were investigated repeatedly.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAPOE-ɛ4 is a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD). AD is associated with reduced cerebral blood flow (CBF) and with microvascular changes that limit the transport of oxygen from blood into brain tissue: reduced microvascular cerebral blood volume and high relative transit time heterogeneity (RTH). Healthy APOE-ɛ4 carriers reveal brain regions with CBF compared with carriers of the common ɛ3 allele.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study aimed to assess the role of tourism in the spread of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) using Malaysian epidemiological data on HIV and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) incidence from 1986 to 2004. A population-level mathematical model was developed with the following compartments: the population susceptible to HIV infection, the clinically confirmed HIV-positive population, the population diagnosed with AIDS, and the tourist population. Additionally, newborns infected with HIV were considered.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common arrhythmia associated with reduced quality of life that can lead to serious complications such as stroke and heart failure. Ablation is a safe and effective treatment for AF but is not offered equally to all patients. The aim of this study is to identify demographic groups more or less likely to undergo AF ablation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Disturbances in microvascular flow dynamics are hypothesized to precede the symptomatic phase of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, evidence in presymptomatic AD remains elusive, underscoring the need for therapies targeting these early vascular changes.
Methods: We employed a multimodal approach, combining in vivo optical imaging, molecular techniques, and ex vivo MRI, to investigate early capillary dysfunction in Tg-SwDI mice without memory impairment.
Healthcare professionals experiencing barriers in the delivery of care are often unaware of factors within complex institutions that create and perpetuate those problems. Institutional ethnography in healthcare is a research methodology that starts from the perspective of a problem that clinicians or people receiving care experience and seeks to identify how those negative experiences are coordinated by institutional structures. This paper describes and advocates for the use of institutional ethnography as a powerful tool to investigate problems experienced by individuals or groups in the complex systems of healthcare design and delivery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackyard chickens usually have open housing and scavenge for food, facilitating contact with infective forms of parasites present in the environment and increasing the risk of parasitic infections. Coccidiosis and ascaridiosis are two internal parasites in scavenging chickens that cause production losses to farmers. Prevalence data of these two diseases are scarce in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) but necessary to assess the burden of disease in backyard chickens.
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