Strategies to Increase Response Rate and Reduce Nonresponse Bias in Population Health Research: Analysis of a Series of Randomized Controlled Experiments during a Large COVID-19 Study.

Background: High response rates are needed in population-based studies, as nonresponse reduces effective sample size and bias affects accuracy and decreases the generalizability of the study findings.

Objective: We tested different strategies to improve response rate and reduce nonresponse bias in a national population-based COVID-19 surveillance program in England, United Kingdom.

Methods: Over 19 rounds, a random sample of individuals aged 5 years and older from the general population in England were invited by mail to complete a web-based questionnaire and return a swab for SARS-CoV-2 testing.

The Center for Health Outcomes in Medicine Scholarship and Service (HOMES): Fostering and Supporting Physician-Initiated Research.

ProblemThe U.S. physician scholar workforce, currently comprising less than 1.

A Functional Response in Resource Selection Links Multiscale Responses of a Large Carnivore to Human Mortality Risk.

Theory suggests that animals make hierarchical, multiscale resource selection decisions to address the hierarchy of factors limiting their fitness. Ecologists have developed tools to link population-level resource selection across scales; yet, theoretical expectations about the relationship between coarse- and fine-scale selection decisions at the individual level remain elusive despite their importance to fitness. With GPS-telemetry data collected across California, USA, we evaluated resource selection of mountain lions (Puma concolor; n = 244) relative to spatial variation in human-caused mortality risk.

Intrinsic and environmental drivers of pairwise cohesion in wild Canis social groups.

Animals within social groups respond to costs and benefits of sociality by adjusting the proportion of time they spend in close proximity to other individuals in the group (cohesion). Variation in cohesion between individuals, in turn, shapes important group-level processes such as subgroup formation and fission-fusion dynamics. Although critical to animal sociality, a comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing cohesion remains a gap in our knowledge of cooperative behavior in animals.

: Appeals and Lessons Four Years On.

Animal law has the potential to initiate improvements for animal wellbeing. However, this largely depends on how effectively the law bridges the legal chasm between animal welfare and animal suffering, a chasm the authors refer to as the welfare gap. When the law does not adequately address this gap, where regulation subordinates animal interests to human interests, it results in weak animal protection that does little more than regulate to a standard that avoids a life not worth living.

The reliability and concurrent validity of goniometric and visual estimation in participants with unilateral shoulder pain.

Introduction: The Constant-Murley Score (CMS) uses universal goniometry (UG), and the Shoulder Functional Reach Score (SFRS) uses visual estimation (VE). The CMS has validity challenges, and the SFRS has been critiqued for using VE. This study sought to determine the reliability and concurrent validity of VE when compared to the UG for shoulder flexion and abduction.

Reconstructed influenza A/H3N2 infection histories reveal variation in incidence and antibody dynamics over the life course.

Humans experience many influenza infections over their lives, resulting in complex and varied immunological histories. Although experimental and quantitative analyses have improved our understanding of the immunological processes defining an individual's antibody repertoire, how these within-host processes are linked to population-level influenza epidemiology in humans remains unclear. Here, we used a multilevel mathematical model to jointly infer antibody dynamics and individual-level lifetime influenza A/H3N2 infection histories for 1,130 individuals in Guangzhou, China, using 67,683 haemagglutination inhibition (HI) assay measurements against 20 A/H3N2 strains from repeat serum samples collected between 2009 and 2015.

A chromosome-level genome assembly of the mountain lion, Puma concolor.

Mountain lions, Puma concolor, are widespread and adaptable carnivores. However, due to their large home ranges and long distance dispersals, they are strongly impacted by habitat fragmentation, which results in small and isolated populations. Genomic analyses play an important role in understanding and predicting the impacts of increased isolation of populations, such as decreased genetic diversity and increased levels of inbreeding.

A Process Evaluation Approach to Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infection Reduction in a Neonatal Population.

Objective: To reduce the rate of central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) in the M Health Fairview Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) from 2.15 infections per 1,000 central line days to less than one per 1,000 line days using process evaluation.

Methods: An interdisciplinary team used process mapping and Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) to identify root causes and improvement opportunities in central line maintenance.

PET Imaging with [F]ROStrace Detects Oxidative Stress and Predicts Parkinson's Disease Progression in Mice.

Although the precise molecular mechanisms responsible for neuronal death and motor dysfunction in late-onset Parkinson's disease (PD) are unknown, evidence suggests that mitochondrial dysfunction and neuroinflammation occur early, leading to a collective increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and oxidative stress. However, the lack of methods for tracking oxidative stress in the living brain has precluded its use as a potential biomarker. The goal of the current study is to address this need through the evaluation of the first superoxide (O)-sensitive radioactive tracer, [F]ROStrace, in a model of late-onset PD.

Utilizing large language models in infectious disease transmission modelling for public health preparedness.

Introduction: OpenAI's ChatGPT, a Large Language Model (LLM), is a powerful tool across domains, designed for text and code generation, fostering collaboration, especially in public health. Investigating the role of this advanced LLM chatbot in assisting public health practitioners in shaping disease transmission models to inform infection control strategies, marks a new era in infectious disease epidemiology research. This study used a case study to illustrate how ChatGPT collaborates with a public health practitioner in co-designing a mathematical transmission model.

Understanding the disconnect between lifestyle advice and patient engagement: a discourse analysis of how expert knowledge is constructed by patients with CHD.

Objective: Adherence to healthy lifestyle advice is effective in prevention of non-communicable diseases like coronary heart disease (CHD). Yet patient disengagement is the norm. We take a novel discursive approach to explore patients' negotiation of lifestyle advice and behaviour change.

Infectious disease surveillance needs for the United States: lessons from Covid-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to upgrade systems for infectious disease surveillance and forecasting and modeling of the spread of infection, both of which inform evidence-based public health guidance and policies. Here, we discuss requirements for an effective surveillance system to support decision making during a pandemic, drawing on the lessons of COVID-19 in the U.S.

Combining models to generate consensus medium-term projections of hospital admissions, occupancy and deaths relating to COVID-19 in England.

Mathematical modelling has played an important role in offering informed advice during the COVID-19 pandemic. In England, a cross government and academia collaboration generated medium-term projections (MTPs) of possible epidemic trajectories over the future 4-6 weeks from a collection of epidemiological models. In this article, we outline this collaborative modelling approach and evaluate the accuracy of the combined and individual model projections against the data over the period November 2021-December 2022 when various Omicron subvariants were spreading across England.

Assessing the accuracy of substance use disorder treatment search tools: A cross-sectional analysis of national and state-level directories.

Background: Addressing the critical public health crisis of substance use disorder (SUD), this study evaluates the accuracy of SUD treatment search tools, such as FindTreatment.gov, to connect patients with appropriate care.

Methods: To ensure geographic diversity, we randomly selected one state from four distinct US regions (Arizona, Florida, Massachusetts, Ohio) and then randomly selected counties of varying sizes (one large, two medium, three small) within each state using a random number generator.

Quality of hospital labour and delivery care: A multilevel analysis in Southern Nations and Nationalities People's Region of Ethiopia.

Background: Ethiopia has one of the highest maternal mortality ratios in Africa. Few have examined the quality of labour and delivery (L&D) care in the country. This study evaluated the quality of routine L&D care and identified patient-level and hospital-level factors associated with the quality of care in a subset of government hospitals.

Phosphorylation of mammalian cytosolic and mitochondrial malate dehydrogenase: insights into regulation.

Malate dehydrogenase (MDH) is a key enzyme in mammalian metabolic pathways in cytosolic and mitochondrial compartments. Regulation of MDH through phosphorylation remains an underexplored area. In this review we consolidate evidence supporting the potential role of phosphorylation in modulating the function of mammalian MDH.