A Digital Self-Administered Check-Up Assessment and Evaluation of Risk Communication in Older People.

Background: Digital health tools can significantly contribute to the continuum of care and support for persons with their self-management role. Despite the increasing adoption of digital health tools, little is known about the uptake and comfort of use among older persons.

Methods: A mixed methods design was used to assess the feasibility and utility of the check-up (CU), a self-administered digital health assessment for older persons.

Gonorrhea and early syphilis treatment practices among community healthcare providers in Baltimore City, Maryland.

Substantial gaps in reporting gonorrhea treatment and prompt ES treatment were observed. Practice-level interventions to facilitate reporting gonorrhea treatment and provide prompt ES treatment are needed.

Identifying high-risk central lines in critically ill children: A novel nurse-driven screening and mitigation intervention to reduce CLABSI.

Background: Despite strong adherence to central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) infection prevention bundles, the CLABSI rate in our academic pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and pediatric cardiac intensive unit (PCICU) remained high.

Methods: We developed a novel screening tool that stratified patients' risk for CLABSI and considered risk mitigation strategies.

Results: Of 1,583 screenings, 30% were classified as high-risk, 27% as moderate-risk, and 43% as low-risk.

Inequalities in Transitions to Home Care: A Longitudinal Analysis of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging.

Objectives: To investigate inequalities in transitions to home care across a broad set of demographic and socioeconomic factors in Canadian middle-aged and older adults.

Design: Longitudinal, retrospective cohort study.

Setting And Participants: A total of 51,338 community-dwelling adults aged 45+ years, using national data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging across 3 timepoints from 2011 to 2021.

TNBC-DX genomic test in early-stage triple-negative breast cancer treated with neoadjuvant taxane-based therapy.

Background: Identification of biomarkers to optimize treatment strategies for early-stage triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is crucial. This study presents the development and validation of TNBC-DX, a novel test aimed at predicting both short- and long-term outcomes in early-stage TNBC. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between TNBC-DX and efficacy outcomes [pathologic complete response (pCR), distant disease-free survival (DDFS) or event-free survival (EFS), and overall survival (OS)] in the validation cohorts.

Syphilis Positivity Among Men Who Have Sex With Men With Direct, Indirect, and No Linkage to Female Sex Partners: Exploring the Potential for Sex Network Bridging in Baltimore City, MD.

Background: Syphilis epidemics among women and men who have sex with men (MSM) may be connected, but these connections are poorly understood. Using egocentric network data from a US urban MSM cohort, we examined sociodemographics, behaviors, and syphilis positivity among MSM with (1) direct (MSM who report sex with women, MSMW); (2) indirect (MSM who only report male partners, some of whom are MSMW, MSMO/W); and (3) no (MSM who only report male partners and whose partners only have sex with men, MSMO/O) connection to women.

Methods: Sexually active MSM aged 18 to 45 years were administered behavioral and network interviews (recall period: 3 months) and syphilis/HIV testing.

Characteristics of the Basel Postpartum Hypertension Cohort (Basel-PPHT Cohort): An Interim Analysis.

Postpartum hypertension (PPHT) is hypertension that persists or develops after delivery and is a frequent cause of readmission, affecting 10% of pregnancies. This interim analysis aims to describe the cohort and to determine the feasibility and acceptance of a home-based telemonitoring management strategy (HBTMS) in PPHT patients. Enrollment at the University Hospital Basel began during the 2020 SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Relationships between body condition score, body weight and body measurements in alpacas.

Background: The nutritional status in alpacas is often masked by their dense fibre coat. Its assessment is commonly approached by different body condition scores (BCS) that rely on manual palpation of defined anatomical regions. However, BCS is an important diagnostic tool to aid recognition of diseased South American camelids (SACs) and low BCS has been associated with conditions like anaemia and neutrophilia.

Glutamine promotes human CD8 T cells and counteracts imiquimod-induced T cell hyporesponsiveness.

T cells protect tissues from cancer. Although investigations in mice showed that amino acids (AA) critically regulate T cell immunity, this remains poorly understood in humans. Here, we describe the AA composition of interstitial fluids in keratinocyte-derived skin cancers (KDSCs) and study the effect of AA on T cells using models of primary human cells and tissues.

Postoperative Pain Following Eye Enucleation: A Prospective Observational Study.

Enucleation of an eye is the most invasive procedure in ophthalmologic surgery. It can be the result of various diseases (malignant/chronic/trauma/infection) and is nevertheless relatively rare, but leads to the loss of a strongly innervated neuronal organ. This study systematically evaluates postoperative pain levels following enucleation of the eye globe.

[Workplace-associated fever].

Febrile conditions often have an infectious etiology. However, there are also fevers associated with occupational exposures. A detailed occupational history can hold the key to the diagnosis.

Safety and efficacy of once-daily dexfadrostat phosphate in patients with primary aldosteronism: a randomised, parallel group, multicentre, phase 2 trial.

Background: Primary aldosteronism (PA) is caused by autonomous aldosterone overproduction and characterised by uncontrolled hypertension. There are currently no treatments that target aldosterone synthesis. We evaluated the safety and efficacy of a novel aldosterone synthase inhibitor, dexfadrostat phosphate, in patients with PA.

Should We Be Testing for Mycoplasma genitalium on Initial Presentation? Trends in Persistent/Recurrent Urethritis Among Men Presenting for Care in STD Clinics, 2015-2019, STD Surveillance Network.

Background: Mycoplasma genitalium is a major contributor to persistent/recurrent urethritis cases. However, there are limited published studies on recent trends of persistent/recurrent urethritis.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted of men presenting with symptomatic urethritis in 16 sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinics from 2015 to 2019.

Leveraging low-cost sensors to predict nitrogen dioxide for epidemiologic exposure assessment.

Background: Statistical models of air pollution enable intra-urban characterization of pollutant concentrations, benefiting exposure assessment for environmental epidemiology. The new generation of low-cost sensors facilitate the deployment of dense monitoring networks and can potentially be used to improve intra-urban models of air pollution.

Objective: Develop and evaluate a spatiotemporal model for nitrogen dioxide (NO) in the Puget Sound region of WA, USA for the Adult Changes in Thought Air Pollution (ACT-AP) study and assess the contribution of low-cost sensor data to the model's performance through cross-validation.

Evaluation of the analgesic efficacy of grapiprant compared with robenacoxib in cats undergoing elective ovariohysterectomy in a prospective, randomized, masked, non-inferiority clinical trial.

Objectives: The main objective of this study was to compare the postoperative analgesic effects of grapiprant with those of robenacoxib in cats undergoing ovariohysterectomy (OVH).

Methods: In total, 37 female cats (age range 4 months-10 years, weighing ⩾2.5 kg) were enrolled in a prospective, randomized, masked, non-inferiority (NI) clinical trial.

The EPA Ecosystem Services Tool Selection Portal.

The dynamics of an environmental decision-making context can be complicated. The use of decision support tools can help better facilitate restoring and maintaining ecosystems that provide environmental benefits (ecosystem services) to people. Although an ecosystem services assessment tool is designed for specific purposes, having access to a comprehensive suite of tools offers the user additional insight and resources to help in decision making.

Whole-genome sequencing of tetraploid potato varieties reveals different strategies for drought tolerance.

Climate changes leading to increasingly longer seasonal drought periods in large parts of the world increase the necessity for breeding drought-tolerant crops. Cultivated potato (Solanum tuberosum), the third most important vegetable crop worldwide, is regarded as drought-sensitive due to its shallow root architecture. Two German tetraploid potato cultivars differing in drought tolerance and their F1-progeny were evaluated under various drought scenarios.

longhorn beetle coloration is due to disordered diamond-like packed spheres.

While artificial photonic materials are typically highly ordered, photonic structures in many species of birds and insects do not possess a long-range order. Studying their order-disorder interplay sheds light on the origin of the photonic band gap. Here, we investigated the scale morphology of the longhorn beetle.

Association of Nirmatrelvir/Ritonavir Treatment and COVID-19-Neutralizing Antibody Titers in a Longitudinal Health Care Worker Cohort.

Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (NMV/r) is used for the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection. However, rebound COVID-19 infections can occur after taking NMV/r. We examined neutralizing antibodies to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 spike protein before and after infection in people who did and did not take NMV/r to determine if NMV/r impedes the humoral immune response.

Electricity consumption of anesthesia workstations and potential emission savings by avoiding standby.

Background: Anesthesiology has a relevant carbon footprint, mainly due to volatile anesthetics (scope 1 emissions). Additionally, energy used in the operating theater (scope 2 emissions) contributes to anesthesia-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Objectives: Optimizing the electricity use of medical devices might reduce both GHG emissions and costs might hold potential to reduce anaesthesia-related GHG-emissions and costs.

Syphilis Diagnosis After a Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, or HIV Diagnosis Among Reproductive-Aged Women in Baltimore, MD.

Background: Syphilis incidence is increasing among reproductive-aged women, and previous sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are a risk factor for subsequent STIs. This study aimed to determine syphilis incidence after a chlamydia, gonorrhea, or HIV diagnosis, and identify characteristics associated with higher syphilis incidence rates among reproductive-aged women in 1 mid-Atlantic city.

Methods: A retrospective cohort of 85,113 chlamydia, gonorrhea, and HIV diagnoses occurring between 2009 and 2021 and among women aged 13 to 50 years was constructed using public health surveillance data.

Ability of a 24-h ambulatory cuffless blood pressure monitoring device to track blood pressure changes in clinical practice.

Objective: There is an increasing number of cuffless blood pressure (BP) measurement (BPM) devices. Despite promising results when comparing single measurements, the ability of these devices to track changes in BP levels over 24 h related to an initial calibration BP (CalibBP) is unknown. Our aim was to analyse this ability in a cuffless device using pulse transit time.

The Agreement Between Diagnoses as Stated by Patients and Those Contained in Routine Health Insurance Data—Results of a Data Linkage Study.

Background: The frequency of medical diagnoses is a figure of central importance in epidemiology and health services research. Prevalence estimates vary depending on the underlying data. For a better understanding of such discrepancies, we compared patients' diagnoses as reported by themselves in response to our questioning with their diagnoses as stated in the routine data of their health insurance carrier.

Evaluating low-cost monitoring designs for PM exposure assessment with a spatiotemporal modeling approach.

Determining the most feasible and cost-effective approaches to improving PM exposure assessment with low-cost monitors (LCMs) can considerably enhance the quality of its epidemiological inferences. We investigated features of fixed-site LCM designs that most impact PM exposure estimates to be used in long-term epidemiological inference for the Adult Changes in Thought Air Pollution (ACT-AP) study. We used ACT-AP collected and calibrated LCM PM measurements at the two-week level from April 2017 to September 2020 (N of monitors [measurements] = 82 [502]).