Non-detection of emerging and re-emerging pathogens in wastewater surveillance to confirm absence of transmission risk: A case study of polio in New York.

Infectious disease surveillance systems, including wastewater surveillance, can alert communities to the threat of emerging pathogens. We need methods to infer understanding of transmission dynamics from non-detection. We estimate a sensitivity of detection of poliovirus in wastewater to inform the sensitivity of wastewater surveillance for poliovirus using both a clinical epidemiology and fecal shedding approach.

Brief Risk Communication for Emergency Department Patients With Sustained Asymptomatic Hypertension.

Introduction: Sustained asymptomatic hypertension in ED patients is a powerful predictor of chronic uncontrolled hypertension. In this study, we assess the feasibility of using a storyboard video and communicating real-time cardiovascular imaging results on blood pressure control and primary care engagement.

Methods: This was a prospective observational exploratory sub-study.

Toward an integrated multi-gigahertz ionizing particle diagnostic.

Needs arising at both current and future accelerator facilities call for the development of radiation-hardened position-sensing diagnostics that can operate with multi-GHz repetition rates. Such instruments are likely to also have applications in the diagnosis of rapid plasma behavior. Building on the recent work of our Advanced Accelerator Diagnostics Collaboration, we are exploring the development of integrated multi-GHz ionizing particle detection systems based on chemical-vapor deposition diamond sensors, with the initial goal of producing a quadrant detector that can determine the intensity and centroid position of a particle beam at a repetition rate between 5 and 10 GHz.

Measuring concordance and discordance between selected individual characteristics and corresponding neighborhood-level social determinants of health.

Background: Individuals reside within communities influenced by various social determinants impacting health, which may harmonize or conflict at individual and neighborhood levels. While some experience concordant circumstances, discordance is prevalent, yet poorly understood due to the lack of a universally accepted method for quantifying it. This paper proposes a methodology to address this gap.

Error traps in Pediatric Patient Blood Management in the Perioperative Period.

Patient blood management is a patient-centered evidence-based approach to improve patient outcomes by harnessing the patient's own hematopoietic system to optimize blood health while promoting patient safety and empowerment. Perioperative patient blood management is a standard of care in adult medicine, yet it is not commonly accepted in pediatrics. Raising awareness may be the first step in improving perioperative care for the anemic and/or bleeding child.

The Influence of Social Determinants on Cancer Screening in a Medicaid Sample.

Introduction: Little attention has been paid to the influence of individually measured social determinants of health on cancer screening tests in the Medicaid population.

Methods: Analysis was conducted on 2015-2020 claims data from a subgroup of Medicaid enrollees from the District of Columbia Medicaid Cohort Study (N=8,943) who were eligible for colorectal (n=2,131), breast (n=1,156), and cervical cancer (n= 5,068) screening. Participants were grouped into four distinct social determinants of health groups on the basis of their responses to social determinants of health questionnaire.

Coupling freedom from disease principles and early warning from wastewater surveillance to improve health security.

Infectious disease surveillance is vitally important to maintaining health security, but these efforts are challenged by the pace at which new pathogens emerge. Wastewater surveillance can rapidly obtain population-level estimates of disease transmission, and we leverage freedom from disease principles to make use of nondetection of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater to estimate the probability that a community is free from SARS-CoV-2 transmission. From wastewater surveillance of 24 treatment plants across upstate New York from May through December of 2020, trends in the intensity of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater correlate with trends in COVID-19 incidence and test positivity ( > 0.

Interlaboratory performance and quantitative PCR data acceptance metrics for NIST SRM® 2917.

Surface water quality quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) technologies are expanding from a subject of research to routine environmental and public health laboratory testing. Readily available, reliable reference material is needed to interpret qPCR measurements, particularly across laboratories. Standard Reference Material® 2917 (NIST SRM® 2917) is a DNA plasmid construct that functions with multiple water quality qPCR assays allowing for estimation of total fecal pollution and identification of key fecal sources.

Social Determinants of Health Influence Future Health Care Costs in the Medicaid Cohort of the District of Columbia Study.

Unlabelled: Policy Points Social determinants of health are an important predictor of future health care costs. Medicaid must partner with other sectors to address the underlying causes of its beneficiaries' poor health and high health care spending.

Context: Social determinants of health are an important predictor of future health care costs but little is known about their impact on Medicaid spending.

Immediate extubation following pediatric liver transplantation.

Background: Immediate extubation (IE) following pediatric liver transplantation is being increasingly performed. The aim of this study was to characterize the rate of IE at our institution and identify recipient factors predictive of IE.

Methods: All pediatric liver transplants performed at our institution between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2020 were reviewed.

Use of diamond sensors for a high-flux, high-rate X-ray pass-through diagnostic.

X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) deliver pulses of coherent X-rays on the femtosecond time scale, with potentially high repetition rates. While XFELs provide high peak intensities, both the intensity and the centroid of the beam fluctuate strongly on a pulse-to-pulse basis, motivating high-rate beam diagnostics that operate over a large dynamic range. The fast drift velocity, low X-ray absorption and high radiation tolerance properties of chemical vapour deposition diamonds make these crystals a promising candidate material for developing a fast (multi-GHz) pass-through diagnostic for the next generation of XFELs.

Anesthetic Management and Outcomes of Patients With Epidermolysis Bullosa: Experience at a Tertiary Referral Center.

Background: Epidermolysis bullosa (EB) is a group of rare epithelial disorders caused by abnormal or absent structural proteins at the epidermal-dermal junction. As a result, patients experience blisters and wounds from mild shearing forces. Some forms of EB are complicated by resultant scarring and contractures.

Integrative Survey of 68 Non-overlapping Upstate New York Watersheds Reveals Stream Features Associated With Aquatic Fecal Contamination.

Aquatic fecal contamination poses human health risks by introducing pathogens in water that may be used for recreation, consumption, or agriculture. Identifying fecal contaminant sources, as well as the factors that affect their transport, storage, and decay, is essential for protecting human health. However, identifying these factors is often difficult when using fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) because FIB levels in surface water are often the product of multiple contaminant sources.

Dialogic science-policy networks for water security governance in the arid Americas.

Addressing wicked problems challenging water security requires participation from multiple stakeholders, often with conflicting visions, complicating the attainment of water-security goals and heightening the need for integrative and effective science-policy interfaces. Sustained multi-stakeholder dialogues within science-policy networks can improve adaptive governance and water system resilience. This paper describes what we define as "dialogic science-policy networks," or interactions -- both in structural and procedural terms -- between scientists and policy-makers that are: 1) interdisciplinary, 2) international (here, inter-American), 3) cross-sectoral, 4) open, 5) continual and iterative in the long-term, and 6) flexible.

Co-quantification of crAssphage increases confidence in wastewater-based epidemiology for SARS-CoV-2 in low prevalence areas.

Wastewater surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 RNA is increasingly being incorporated into public health efforts to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to obtain the maximum benefit from these efforts, approaches to wastewater monitoring need to be rapid, sensitive, and relatable to relevant epidemiological parameters. In this study, we present an ultracentrifugation-based method for the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 wastewater RNA and use crAssphage, a bacteriophage specific to the human gut, to help account for RNA loss during transit in the wastewater system and sample processing.

Assessment of the Effects of Double-Stranded RNAs Corresponding to Multiple Vitellogenesis-Inhibiting Hormone Subtype I Peptides in Subadult Female Whiteleg Shrimp, .

Vitellogenesis-inhibiting hormone (VIH) negatively regulates reproduction in shrimp and other decapod crustaceans. In order to assess the effects of transcriptional silencing by multiple VIH subtype I sinus gland peptides (SGPs) on ovarian maturation in female whiteleg shrimp, , we synthesized five dsRNAs targeting , -, -, -, and - and injected them into subadults. The following treatments were employed: sgpG-dsRNA (targeting ), sgpC-dsRNA (targeting ), and mixed-dsRNA (targeting , , and ).

The Influence of Social Determinants of Health on Emergency Departments Visits in a Medicaid Sample.

Study Objective: We evaluate the relationship between social determinants of health and emergency department (ED) visits in the Medicaid Cohort of the District of Columbia.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort analysis of 8,943 adult Medicaid beneficiaries who completed a social determinants of health survey at study enrollment. We merged the social determinants of health data with participants' Medicaid claims data for up to 24 months before enrollment.

The Impact of Social Determinants of Health on Medication Adherence: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Background: Medication adherence (MA) is critical to successful chronic disease management. It is not clear how social determinants of health (SDH) impact MA. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to summarize the evidence on the relationship between SDH and MA.

Latent Class Analysis to Represent Social Determinant of Health Risk Groups in the Medicaid Cohort of the District of Columbia.

Objective: To develop distinct social risk profiles based on social determinants of health (SDH) information and to determine whether these social risk groups varied in terms of health, health care utilization, and costs.

Methods: We prospectively enrolled 8943 beneficiaries insured by the District of Columbia Medicaid program between September 2017 and December 2018. Participants completed a SDH survey and we obtained their Medicaid claims data for a 2-year period before study enrollment.

Insights on Molecular Mechanisms of Ovarian Development in Decapod Crustacea: Focus on Vitellogenesis-Stimulating Factors and Pathways.

Vitellogenesis in crustaceans is an energy-consuming process. Though the underlying mechanisms of ovarian maturation in decapod Crustacea are still unclear, evidence indicates the process to be regulated by antagonistically-acting inhibitory and stimulating factors specifically originating from X-organ/sinus gland (XO/SG) complex. Among the reported neuromediators, neuropeptides belonging to the crustacean hyperglycemic hormone (CHH)-family have been studied extensively.