27,531 results match your criteria: "Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute[Affiliation]"

Background: Murine pneumonia models play a fundamental role in the preclinical development of novel compounds seeking an indication for the treatment of pneumonia. It is vital that plasma exposures in these models are not used as a surrogate for exposure in pulmonary epithelial lining fluid (ELF). Herein, human-simulated regimens (HSRs) in both plasma and ELF of meropenem, cefiderocol and tobramycin are described in the standardized COMBINE murine neutropenic pneumonia model.

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There is a high incidence of neural tube defects (NTDs) in Ethiopia and folate insufficiency, a primary risk factor for NTDs, is common among Ethiopian women of reproductive age (WRA). Folic acid fortification of salt has been proposed as a strategy to control these problems. In preparation for an intervention trial to assess the nutritional effects of folic acid-fortified salt, we measured discretionary salt intakes among nonpregnant WRA using observed weighed food records, and we assessed household salt disappearance rates.

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Unraveling the impact of drought on waterbird community assembly and conservation strategies.

J Environ Manage

January 2025

College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, PR China; Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control (Hunan University), Ministry of Education, Changsha, 410082, PR China.

Drought-induced changes in lakes and wetlands, crucial habitats for migratory waterbirds, can greatly affect their foraging and habitat utilization. These changes lead to a decline in waterbird species richness and may cause shifts in community assembly from phylogenetic and functional trait perspectives. However, a gap remains between ecological mechanistic research about these changes and conservation applications.

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This study examined relations between caregiver feeding behaviours, child dietary diversity and anthropometry at 24 months of age in rural Bangladesh. Twenty-four hours dietary recall, weight and length data were collected on 4733 children. Factor analysis was applied to an 11-item caregiver feeding behaviours scale administered at 24 months, revealing two constructs: responsive/involved (five items) and forceful (six items); each dichotomised to reflect low and high use.

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Background: Understanding people's interest in using modern contraception is critical to ensuring programs align with people's preferences and needs. Current measures of demand for contraception are misinterpreted. More direct measures of intention to use (ITU) contraception do exist but remain underexplored.

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Social identity biases, particularly the tendency to favor one's own group (ingroup solidarity) and derogate other groups (outgroup hostility), are deeply rooted in human psychology and social behavior. However, it is unknown if such biases are also present in artificial intelligence systems. Here we show that large language models (LLMs) exhibit patterns of social identity bias, similarly to humans.

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Refining polyploid breeding in sweet potato through allele dosage enhancement.

Nat Plants

January 2025

Crops Research Institute, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement of Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, China.

Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on how allele dosage affects variations in traits of hexaploid sweet potato, based on deep sequencing of 294 accessions, creating a genome-wide variation map.* -
  • Genome-wide association studies revealed quantitative trait loci that link allele dosage to 23 agronomic traits, highlighting how sweet potato breeding has selectively increased these alleles to improve crop performance.* -
  • The research uncovers the evolutionary trend in the Mesoamerican gene pool towards higher dosage of beneficial alleles, with evidence from transgenic validation and identification of sequence variations influencing traits like tuber weight and flesh color.*
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Background: Current proposals for assisted dying in the UK are based on embedding it within a medical, healthcare model. This model is revealing challenges in safeguarding, monitoring and the impact on healthcare.

Objective: To explore if a different model is a safer, pragmatic and realistic alternative.

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Support for Foods Allowed Under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Am J Prev Med

December 2024

Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland; Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD.

Introduction: Millions of U.S. families rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to afford food.

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Article Synopsis
  • The World Health Assembly set six global nutrition targets (GNTs) in 2012 to improve maternal and child health, but there has been no comprehensive report detailing progress from 2012 to 2021.
  • A study evaluated the prevalence and impact of these nutrition targets across 204 countries using data from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 and projected future trends up to 2050.
  • By 2021, only a few countries met some GNTs; most showed increased child overweight and notable decreases in female anaemia, highlighting a connection between societal development status and nutritional challenges.
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Background: Egg-based inactivated quadrivalent seasonal influenza vaccine (eIIV4), cell culture-based inactivated quadrivalent seasonal influenza vaccine (ccIIV4), and recombinant haemagglutinin (HA)-based quadrivalent seasonal influenza vaccine (RIV4) have been licensed for use in the USA. In this study, we used antigen-specific serum proteomics analysis to assess how the molecular composition and qualities of the serological antibody repertoires differ after seasonal influenza immunisation by each of the three vaccines and how different vaccination platforms affect the HA binding affinity and breadth of the serum antibodies that comprise the polyclonal response.

Methods: In this comparative, prospective, observational cohort study, we included female US health-care personnel (mean age 47·6 years [SD 8]) who received a single dose of RIV4, eIIV4, or ccIIV4 during the 2018-19 influenza season at Baylor Scott & White Health (Temple, TX, USA).

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Using knowledge translation to support the use of evaluation findings: A case study of the linda mama free maternity program in Kenya.

PLOS Glob Public Health

December 2024

Health Economics Research Unit (HERU), KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Nairobi, Kenya.

Using program evaluation findings is crucial in improving health programs and realising the program's benefits. In this article, we report on how a knowledge translation (KT) approach supported the use of evaluation findings to improve the Linda Mama free maternity program in Kenya. We used a case study design employing qualitative approaches to describe our KT strategy and its impact on evaluation use.

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COVID-19 remains a global public health issue and an improved understanding of vaccine performance in immunocompromised individuals, including people living with HIV (PLWH), is needed. Initial data from the present study's pre-crossover/booster phase were previously reported. This phase 2a/b clinical trial in South Africa (2019nCoV-501/NCT04533399) revisits 1:1 randomly assigned HIV-negative adults (18-84 years) and medically stable PLWH (18-64 years) who previously received two NVX-CoV2373 doses (5 μg recombinant Spike protein with 50 μg Matrix-M™ adjuvant) or placebo.

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Importance: Care in a pediatric (vs adult) trauma center improves outcomes for injured children aged 0 to 12 years, but whether pediatric care benefits injured adolescents is unclear.

Objective: To evaluate the association of pediatric vs adult trauma center care with mortality among severely injured adolescents.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This retrospective cohort study was conducted between April 1, 2012, and March 31, 2020, among adolescents aged 12 to 16 years who were admitted to level I or level II adult trauma centers or a level I pediatric trauma center in British Columbia, Canada.

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Background: Published reports demonstrate that the use of Castor stent-graft is a promising treatment of aortic pathologies with the need to land in zone 2. However, there is a lack of publications on the medium-term results of Castor in the European population. This research evaluates the mid-term results of the Castor stent-graft in several Polish centers for the treatment of aortic pathologies and enriches the current knowledge of Castor stent-grafts.

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Purpose Of Review: Women in Africa bear the burden of the HIV epidemic, which has been associated with the high prevalence of bacterial vaginosis (BV) in the region. However, little progress has been made in finding an effective cure for BV. Drawing on advances in microbiome-directed therapies for gastrointestinal disorders, similar live-biotherapeutic based approaches for BV treatment are being evaluated.

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The population responds to environmental variability largely determined by the dynamic interactions between fitness components within- and among-individual variation in the expression of the environmentally sensitive phenotype. The study was conducted on daily and seasonal changes in the expression of steroidogenic gene markers and corresponding seasonal changes in the physiological characters in adult male tree sparrows. Two experiments were performed.

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Antibiotic-perturbed microbiota and the role of probiotics.

Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol

December 2024

International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics, Consulting Scientific Advisor, Centennial, CO, USA.

Article Synopsis
  • * Clinical studies show probiotics might help reduce side effects like diarrhea from Clostridioides difficile, yet there's no direct evidence connecting these outcomes to microbiota protection.
  • * The review discusses the complexities of studying microbiota restoration, including the challenges of defining a "normal" microbiota, varying measurement methods, and individual differences, while suggesting future research directions.
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one of the most aggressive pectinolytic phytopathogens, causes blackleg disease in potatoes, resulting in significant economic losses and adversely impacting one of the world's most important food crops. The diagnostics methods are critical in monitoring the latent infection for international trade of potato seed tubers and in implementation of control strategies. Our study employed a whole-genome comparative approach, identifying unique target gene loci (LysR and TetR family of transcriptional regulators gene regions) and designing loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) and a multi-gene-based multiplex TaqMan qPCR assays for specific detection and differentiation of .

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Maternity protection policies are designed to preserve the health of working women and their infants, support optimal infant and young child nutrition through breastfeeding and prevent workplace discrimination against women. The aim of this study was to identify how advocates may be able to effectively advance maternal leave and workplace lactation policies, two key maternity protection policies, and does so through an exploration of advocacy efforts in Indonesia, Nigeria, the Philippines and Vietnam. A desk review of programme and policy documents and 20 key informant interviews with diverse stakeholders explored advocacy efforts in each of the four countries.

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Vaccine stock-outs: A preventable health facility obstacle contributing to missed vaccinations in South African children.

Vaccine

January 2025

Department of Public Health Pharmacy and Management, School of Pharmacy, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, Pretoria, South Africa; South African Vaccination and Immunisation Centre, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, Pretoria, South Africa.. Electronic address:

In 2019 the National Department of Health (NDoH) conducted a national immunisation coverage survey of caregivers of children aged 24-35 months in all 52 districts of South Africa, and reported a national fully immunised under one year-old coverage of 83.9 %, and 76.8 % coverage for all vaccines scheduled up to 18 months of age.

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