Long-Term Care Home Size Association with COVID-19 Infection and Mortality in Catalonia in March and April 2020.

We aim to assess how COVID-19 infection and mortality varied according to facility size in 965 long-term care homes (LTCHs) in Catalonia during March and April 2020. We measured LTCH size by the number of authorised beds. Outcomes were COVID-19 infection (at least one COVID-19 case in an LTCH) and COVID-19 mortality.

Collagen as a Biomaterial for Skin and Corneal Wound Healing.

The cornea and the skin are two organs that form the outer barrier of the human body. When either is injured (e.g.

"Descriptive Risk-Averse Bayesian Decision-Making," a Model for Complex Biological Motion Perception in the Human Dorsal Pathway.

Biological motion perception is integral not only to survival but also to the social life of human beings. Identifying the underlying mechanisms and their associated neurobiological substrates has been a matter of investigation and debate for some time. Although, in general, it is believed that the integration of local motion and dynamic form cues in the brain empowers the visual system to perceive/recognize biological motion stimuli, some recent studies have indicated the importance of dynamic form cues in such a process.

Patients' and family caregivers' experiences and perceptions about factors hampering or facilitating patient empowerment for self-management of hypertension and diabetes in Cameroon.

Background: Noncommunicable diseases like hypertension and diabetes require long-term management, and are financially draining for patients and their families bearing the treatment costs, especially in settings where the inadequacy or non-existence of the health insurance system prevails. Patient empowerment-focused interventions have been shown to improve adherence to therapeutic regimens and decrease unnecessary health care utilization and costs. This study aims to examine enabling and impeding factors to the development of patient empowerment in a resource-limited setting like Cameroon.

Healthcare providers' and policymakers' experiences and perspectives on barriers and facilitators to chronic disease self-management for people living with hypertension and diabetes in Cameroon.

Background: Hypertension and diabetes are chronic noncommunicable diseases ranked among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in resource-limited settings. Interventions based on patient empowerment (PE) have been shown to be effective in the management of these diseases by improving a variety of important health outcomes. This study aims to examine from the healthcare providers' and policymakers' experiences and perspectives, the facilitators and barriers in the management of hypertension and diabetes for patient empowerment to achieve better health outcomes in the context of the healthcare system in Cameroon.

Polypharmacy and risk of mortality among patients with heart failure following hospitalization: a nested case-control study.

Heart failure (HF) is associated with morbidity, rehospitalization and polypharmacy. The incidence rate of mortality in HF patients with polypharmacy is poorly studied. We examine the association of polypharmacy with mortality risk in incident hospitalized HF patients with a primary diagnosis after discharge from the hospital using Quebec administrative databases, Canada from 1999 to 2015.

Concept of power absorbed and lost per electron in surface-wave plasma columns and its contribution to the advanced understanding and modeling of microwave discharges.

Microwave (MW) sustained discharges have distinct advantages over other existing types of discharges in terms of the specific understanding they can provide regarding discharge phenomena and mechanisms. First, only electrons can pick up energy from the discharge E-field since ions cannot respond to rapid oscillations above ≈100 MHz. A second remarkable feature of MW discharges is that their plasma sheath is stationary, unlike in radiofrequency (rf) discharges.

The relationship between zooplankton vertical distribution and the concentration of aqueous Hg in boreal lakes: A comparative field study.

The production of the highly toxic monomethylmercury (MeHg) is heterogenous throughout the water column. Multiple factors have been identified to significantly affect this process, such as an extended anoxic water layer and a deep-water phytoplankton maximum. However, the role of water column heterogeneity on mercury (Hg) cycling is still poorly known, especially concerning the role of zooplankton grazers.

Plant species contribution to bioretention performance under a temperate climate.

Bioretention systems are green infrastructures increasingly used to manage urban stormwater runoff. Plants are an essential component of bioretention, improving water quality and reducing runoff volume and peak flows. However, there is little evidence on how this contribution varies between species, especially in temperate climates with seasonal variations and plant dormancy.

CAXII Is a Surrogate Marker for Luminal Breast Tumors Regulated by ER and GATA3.

Estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) expression in ~2/3 breast tumors selects patients for hormonal therapies. Tumors negative for ERα but positive for the progesterone receptor (PR, encoded by ) have also been candidates for ER-targeting therapies, as PR expression may reflect undetected ER activity. Conversely, PR status in ER tumors predicts a worse therapeutic response.

D-amphetamine maintenance therapy reduces cocaine use in female rats.

Rationale: D-amphetamine maintenance therapy is a promising strategy to reduce drug use in cocaine use disorder (addiction). In both male rats and human cocaine users, d-amphetamine treatment reduces cocaine-taking and -seeking. However, this has not been examined systematically in female animals, even though cocaine addiction afflicts both sexes, and the sexes can differ in their response to cocaine.

Interpreting biomonitoring data: Introducing the international human biomonitoring (i-HBM) working group's health-based guidance value (HB2GV) dashboard.

Human biomonitoring (HBM) data measured in specific contexts or populations provide information for comparing population exposures. There are numerous health-based biomonitoring guidance values, but to locate these values, interested parties need to seek them out individually from publications, governmental reports, websites and other sources. Until now, there has been no central, international repository for this information.

Impact of Stagnation on the Diversity of Cyanobacteria in Drinking Water Treatment Plant Sludge.

Health-related concerns about cyanobacteria-laden sludge of drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs) have been raised in the past few years. Microscopic taxonomy, shotgun metagenomic sequencing, and microcystin (MC) measurement were applied to study the fate of cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins after controlled sludge storage (stagnation) in the dark in a full-scale drinking water treatment plant within 7 to 38 days. For four out of eight dates, cyanobacterial cell growth was observed by total taxonomic cell counts during sludge stagnation.

Polygonapholine: A Total Synthesis Questions the Identity for the Purported Structure of the Natural Product.

Polygonapholine was isolated in 1997 from the rhizome. Based on spectroscopic data, it was assigned a structure comprising an unusual -2,6-disubstituted -aryl morpholine ring to which is attached a ()-4-hydroxycinnamate as an amide and an ()-4-hydroxycinnamate as an ester. Being a compound, polygonapholine should not exhibit an optical rotation as reported.

The fourth-order expansion of the exchange hole and neural networks to construct exchange-correlation functionals.

The curvature Q of spherically averaged exchange (X) holes ρ(r, u) is one of the crucial variables for the construction of approximations to the exchange-correlation energy of Kohn-Sham theory, the most prominent example being the Becke-Roussel model [A. D. Becke and M.

Programmable self-regulated molecular buffers for precise sustained drug delivery.

Unlike artificial nanosystems, biological systems are ideally engineered to respond to their environment. As such, natural molecular buffers ensure precise and quantitative delivery of specific molecules through self-regulated mechanisms based on Le Chatelier's principle. Here, we apply this principle to design self-regulated nucleic acid molecular buffers for the chemotherapeutic drug doxorubicin and the antimalarial agent quinine.

Supra-threshold deficits in normal hearing military recruits exposed to impulse noise.

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of impulse noise exposure on various proxy measures of cochlear synaptopathy in young military recruits. A total of 27 military recruits with exposure to firearm and artillery noise and 13 non exposed participants were recruited. All presented with normal hearing thresholds and the presence of distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs).

Nature and perceived benefits of patient-initiated consultations in community pharmacies: A population survey.

Background: The role of community pharmacists in enhancing patient care has received increased attention. However, there is a paucity of literature on the nature, frequency, and perceived impacts of patient-initiated consultations in community pharmacies.

Objectives: We aim to describe the profile of patients seeking advice from community pharmacists as well as the nature and impact of those consultations.

What's behind the Dashboard? Intervention Mapping of a Mobility Outcomes Monitoring System for Rehabilitation.

Training and follow-up for older adults who received new assistive technology can improve device use adoption and function, but there is a lack of systematic and coordinated services. To address this gap, the Internet-based MOvIT+™ was designed to provide remote monitoring and support for assistive technology users and their caregivers. This paper presents the intervention mapping approach that was used.