Investigations on the Health Status and Infection Risk of Harbour Seals () from Waters of the Lower Saxon Wadden Sea, Germany.

Harbour seals () are the most common pinniped species in the Wadden Sea of Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg and Lower Saxony, Germany. Their numbers have recovered after significant depletion due to viral outbreaks and effects of anthropogenic activities like pollution and habitat disturbance. Within the Wadden Sea National Park of Lower Saxony the harbour seal is protected.

COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness Studies against Symptomatic and Severe Outcomes during the Omicron Period in Four Countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.

Vaccine effectiveness (VE) studies provide real-world evidence to monitor vaccine performance and inform policy. The WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean supported a regional study to assess the VE of COVID-19 vaccines against different clinical outcomes in four countries between June 2021 and August 2023. Health worker cohort studies were conducted in 2707 health workers in Egypt and Pakistan, of whom 171 experienced symptomatic laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Epidemiological modeling of SARS-CoV-2 in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) reveals conditions for introduction and widespread transmission.

Emerging infectious diseases with zoonotic potential often have complex socioecological dynamics and limited ecological data, requiring integration of epidemiological modeling with surveillance. Although our understanding of SARS-CoV-2 has advanced considerably since its detection in late 2019, the factors influencing its introduction and transmission in wildlife hosts, particularly white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), remain poorly understood. We use a Susceptible-Infected-Recovered-Susceptible epidemiological model to investigate the spillover risk and transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 in wild and captive white-tailed deer populations across various simulated scenarios.

Mitochondrial dysfunction and metabolic reprogramming induce macrophage pro-inflammatory phenotype switch and atherosclerosis progression in aging.

Introduction: Aging increases the risk of atherosclerotic vascular disease and its complications. Macrophages are pivotal in the pathogenesis of vascular aging, driving inflammation and atherosclerosis progression. NOX4 (NADPH oxidase 4) expression increases with age, correlating with mitochondrial dysfunction, inflammation, and atherosclerosis.

Advancing Primary Care Access: Exploring the Impact of the Virtual Waiting Room on the Quadruple Aim.

Background: Community health centers grapple with high no-show rates, posing challenges to patient access and primary care provider (PCP) utilization.

Aim: To address these challenges, we implemented a virtual waiting room (VWR) program in April 2023 to enhance patient access and boost PCP utilization.

Setting: Academic community health center in a small urban city in Massachusetts.

Scenario design for infectious disease projections: Integrating concepts from decision analysis and experimental design.

Across many fields, scenario modeling has become an important tool for exploring long-term projections and how they might depend on potential interventions and critical uncertainties, with relevance to both decision makers and scientists. In the past decade, and especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, the field of epidemiology has seen substantial growth in the use of scenario projections. Multiple scenarios are often projected at the same time, allowing important comparisons that can guide the choice of intervention, the prioritization of research topics, or public communication.

Reframing wildlife disease management problems with decision analysis.

Contemporary wildlife disease management is complex because managers need to respond to a wide range of stakeholders, multiple uncertainties, and difficult trade-offs that characterize the interconnected challenges of today. Despite general acknowledgment of these complexities, managing wildlife disease tends to be framed as a scientific problem, in which the major challenge is lack of knowledge. The complex and multifactorial process of decision-making is collapsed into a scientific endeavor to reduce uncertainty.

When do we need multiple infectious disease models? Agreement between projection rank and magnitude in a multi-model setting.

Mathematical models are useful for public health planning and response to infectious disease threats. However, different models can provide differing results, which can hamper decision making if not synthesized appropriately. To address this challenge, multi-model hubs convene independent modeling groups to generate ensembles, known to provide more accurate predictions of future outcomes.

Ensemble: Scenarios ensembling for communication and performance analysis.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, scenario modeling played a crucial role in shaping the decision-making process of public health policies. Unlike forecasts, scenario projections rely on specific assumptions about the future that consider different plausible states-of-the-world that may or may not be realized and that depend on policy interventions, unpredictable changes in the epidemic outlook, etc. As a consequence, long-term scenario projections require different evaluation criteria than the ones used for traditional short-term epidemic forecasts.

Detection of Coxiella burnetii in the mammary gland of a dairy goat.

The zoonotic bacterium Coxiella (C.) burnetii can be excreted by infected goats through birth products and milk. The detection of C.

The US COVID-19 and Influenza Scenario Modeling Hubs: Delivering long-term projections to guide policy.

Between December 2020 and April 2023, the COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub (SMH) generated operational multi-month projections of COVID-19 burden in the US to guide pandemic planning and decision-making in the context of high uncertainty. This effort was born out of an attempt to coordinate, synthesize and effectively use the unprecedented amount of predictive modeling that emerged throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Here we describe the history of this massive collective research effort, the process of convening and maintaining an open modeling hub active over multiple years, and attempt to provide a blueprint for future efforts.

Comparing the quality of ChatGPT- and physician-generated responses to patients' dermatology questions in the electronic medical record.

Background: ChatGPT is a free artificial intelligence (AI)-based natural language processing tool that generates complex responses to inputs from users.

Objectives: To determine whether ChatGPT is able to generate high-quality responses to patient-submitted questions in the patient portal.

Methods: Patient-submitted questions and the corresponding responses from their dermatology physician were extracted from the electronic medical record for analysis.

Heterogeneous encoding of temporal stimuli in the cerebellar cortex.

Local feedforward and recurrent connectivity are rife in the frontal areas of the cerebral cortex, which gives rise to rich heterogeneous dynamics observed in such areas. Recently, similar local connectivity motifs have been discovered among Purkinje and molecular layer interneurons of the cerebellar cortex, however, task-related activity in these neurons has often been associated with relatively simple facilitation and suppression dynamics. Here, we show that the rodent cerebellar cortex supports heterogeneity in task-related neuronal activity at a scale similar to the cerebral cortex.

Neurotropic Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A(H5N1) Virus in Red Foxes, Northern Germany.

In a 1-year survey of wild terrestrial predators in northern Germany, we found that 5 of 110 foxes were infected with contemporary avian influenza A(H5N1) viruses, forming a temporal cluster during January‒March 2023. Encephalitis and strong cerebral virus replication but only sporadic mammalian-adaptive viral polymerase basic 2 protein E627K mutations were seen.

Evaluation of the US COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub for informing pandemic response under uncertainty.

Our ability to forecast epidemics far into the future is constrained by the many complexities of disease systems. Realistic longer-term projections may, however, be possible under well-defined scenarios that specify the future state of critical epidemic drivers. Since December 2020, the U.

Nonlinear Terahertz Polarizability of Electrons Solvated in a Polar Liquid.

The nonlinear polaronic response of electrons solvated in liquid 2-propanol is studied by two-dimensional terahertz spectroscopy. Solvated electrons with a concentration of c_{e}≈800  μM are generated by femtosecond photoionization of alcohol molecules. Electron relaxation to a localized ground state impulsively excites coherent polaron oscillations with a frequency of 3.

NADPH Oxidases and Oxidative Stress in the Pathogenesis of Atrial Fibrillation.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common type of cardiac arrhythmia and its prevalence increases with age. The irregular and rapid contraction of the atria can lead to ineffective blood pumping, local blood stasis, blood clots, ischemic stroke, and heart failure. NADPH oxidases (NOX) and mitochondria are the main sources of reactive oxygen species in the heart, and dysregulated activation of NOX and mitochondrial dysfunction are associated with AF pathogenesis.

Scenario Design for Infectious Disease Projections: Integrating Concepts from Decision Analysis and Experimental Design.

Across many fields, scenario modeling has become an important tool for exploring long-term projections and how they might depend on potential interventions and critical uncertainties, with relevance to both decision makers and scientists. In the past decade, and especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, the field of epidemiology has seen substantial growth in the use of scenario projections. Multiple scenarios are often projected at the same time, allowing important comparisons that can guide the choice of intervention, the prioritization of research topics, or public communication.