•Concentration of deep electron traps is in the range of 1019 cm−3 posing challenges for electrostatic control of HfO2- and HZO-based ferroelectric devices.•Trap energy distribution universally ...exhibit three characteristic optical energy levels: around 2 eV, 3 eV, and 4 eV below the oxide CB.•The observed traps are likely intrinsic to HfO2 lattice rather than related to dopants or ZrO2 sub-network.
Electron traps in HfO2-based ferroelectric layers are known to be a major performance-degrading factor. We use room temperature charge injection and photodepopulation techniques to reveal the trap density and energy distribution in ferroelectric HfO2 and HfZrO4. The concentration of occupied electron traps is in the order of 1019 cm−3 for all analyzed samples which provides the lower limit of the defect concentration in the film. Energy distributions universally exhibit three characteristic optical energy levels: around 2 eV, 3 eV, and 4 eV below the HfO2 conduction band edge. The latter energy level was not observed previously and, according to previous DFT calculations, is too deep to be either of polaronic or O-vacancy-related nature. Nevertheless, the trap energy spectrum remains very similar in all studied samples suggesting the same sorts of the dominant electron traps both in HfO2 and HfZrO4 probably related to intrinsic defects of the HfO2 sub-network.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
A critically ill polytrauma patient is one of the most complex cases to be admitted to the intensive care unit, due to both the primary traumatic complications and the secondary post-traumatic ...interactions. From a molecular, genetic, and epigenetic point of view, numerous biochemical interactions are responsible for the deterioration of the clinical status of a patient, and increased mortality rates. From a molecular viewpoint, microRNAs are one of the most complex macromolecular systems due to the numerous modular reactions and interactions that they are involved in. Regarding the expression and activity of microRNAs in sepsis, their usefulness has reached new levels of significance. MicroRNAs can be used both as an early biomarker for sepsis, and as a therapeutic target because of their ability to block the complex reactions involved in the initiation, maintenance, and augmentation of the clinical status.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Background
The emergence of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) in early 2020 and subsequent implementation of public health and social measures (PHSM) disrupted the ...epidemiology of respiratory viruses. This work describes the epidemiology of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) observed during two winter seasons (weeks 40–20) and inter‐seasonal periods (weeks 21–39) during the pandemic between October 2020 and September 2022.
Methods
Using data submitted to The European Surveillance System (TESSy) by countries or territories in the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region between weeks 40/2020 and 39/2022, we aggregated country‐specific weekly RSV counts of sentinel, non‐sentinel and Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) surveillance specimens and calculated percentage positivity. Results for both 2020/21 and 2021/22 seasons and inter‐seasons were compared with pre‐pandemic 2016/17 to 2019/20 seasons and inter‐seasons.
Results
Although more specimens were tested than in pre‐COVID‐19 pandemic seasons, very few RSV detections were reported during the 2020/21 season in all surveillance systems. During the 2021 inter‐season, a gradual increase in detections was observed in all systems. In 2021/22, all systems saw early peaks of RSV infection, and during the 2022 inter‐seasonal period, patterns of detections were closer to those seen before the COVID‐19 pandemic.
Conclusion
RSV surveillance continued throughout the COVID‐19 pandemic, with an initial reduction in transmission, followed by very high and out‐of‐season RSV circulation (summer 2021) and then an early start of the 2021/22 season. As of the 2022/23 season, RSV circulation had not yet normalised.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted healthcare workers, a professional category at risk of infection in both hospital and community settings. The aim of the study was to compare ...morbidity among hospital staff and that in general population, as well as the factors predicting non-vaccination and reinfection. Patients and Methods: The present study is a retrospective, cross-sectional study. It was conducted by including all the confirmed COVID-19 infection cases in medical staff members during the period 01.01.2021-31.03.2022 that were reported to the Public Health Authority of Timis County, Timisoara, Western Romania. Results: Direct, strong, statistically significant correlations were found between the incidence of COVID-19 recorded in all categories of medical personnel and the community pandemic trend, with maximum values for auxiliary and medium medical staff (rho = 0.852/0.821, p < 0.001). The high socio-economic level, as well as the advanced medical education level, were predictor factors for anti-SARS-COV-2 vaccination among the personnel. The non-vaccinated status as well as incomplete vaccination or even the 2-dose vaccination represented independent risk factors for reinfection in 2022. Conversely, receiving a higher number of vaccine doses emerged as the primary protective factor. Notably, reduced adherence to the administration of the following doses was observed particularly among medium and auxiliary staff, leading to additional risks of infection with the Omicron variant. Conclusion: Despite over 70% vaccination coverage among all studied medical personnel categories, there was low adherence to repeat doses of vaccination, particularly among medium and auxiliary staff. The study highlighted a distinct necessity for enhanced training on preventive behaviours and targeted prevention/control strategies for all professional groups interacting with patients, including caretakers, ambulance workers, receptionists, physiotherapists, and psychologists. Keywords: COVID-19, healthcare workers, incidence, vaccination, predictor factors
We present in this work an existence theorem for nonlinear complementarity problems. The main result is based on the condition
(
S
)
+
1
, and on the notions of quasi-bounded operator and scalarly ...compact operator.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
The mechanisms of neointima formation and hyperplasia in restenosis remain non-elucidated yet. Because micro-ribonucleic acids/143/145(micro-RNA/143 and micro-RNA/145) participate in the regulation ...and sustaining of the genotype of mature vascular myocytes we have measured their expression in tissue content of restenoses taken postmortem from 5 patients who underwent angioplasty and subsequently died, and studied its association with actin quantity and fibrillar collagen type I degradation degree. It has been found that during restenosis progression quantity of micro-RNA/143 and micro-RNA/145 decreases in media and intima of coronary artery. This finding has been associated with appearance in coronary intima of coronary myocytes with reduced size likely of secretory phenotype, diminution of number of myocytes with contractile phenotype, and increase of quantity of denaturized collagen type I-phenomena characteristic for neointima hyperplasia, a substrate of intra-stent restenosis.
Long-range-transported Canadian smoke layers in the stratosphere over
northern France were detected by three lidar systems in August 2017. The
peaked optical depth of the stratospheric smoke layer
...exceeds 0.20 at 532 nm, which is
comparable with the simultaneous tropospheric aerosol optical depth. The
measurements of satellite sensors revealed that the observed stratospheric
smoke plumes were transported from Canadian wildfires after being lofted by
strong pyro-cumulonimbus. Case studies at two observation sites, Lille (lat
50.612, long 3.142, 60 m a.s.l.) and Palaiseau (lat 48.712, long 2.215,
156 m a.s.l.), are presented in detail. Smoke particle depolarization
ratios are measured at three wavelengths: over 0.20 at 355 nm, 0.18–0.19 at
532 nm, and 0.04–0.05 at 1064 nm. The high depolarization ratios and their
spectral dependence are possibly caused by the irregular-shaped aged smoke
particles and/or the mixing with dust particles. Similar results are found by
several European lidar stations and an explanation that can fully resolve
this question has not yet been found. Aerosol inversion based on lidar
2α+3β data derived a smoke effective radius of about
0.33 µm for both cases. The retrieved single-scattering albedo is
in the range of 0.8 to 0.9, indicating that the smoke plumes are absorbing.
The absorption can cause perturbations to the temperature vertical profile,
as observed by ground-based radiosonde, and it is also related to the ascent
of the smoke plumes when exposed in sunlight. A direct radiative
forcing (DRF) calculation is performed using the obtained optical and
microphysical properties. The calculation revealed that the smoke plumes in
the stratosphere can significantly reduce the radiation arriving at the
surface, and the heating rate of the plumes is about 3.5 K day−1. The
study provides a valuable characterization for aged smoke in the
stratosphere, but efforts are still needed in reducing and quantifying the
errors in the retrieved microphysical properties as well as radiative forcing
estimates.
Differences exist between the proximal and distal colon in terms of developmental origin, exposure to patterning genes, environmental mutagens, and gut flora. Little is known on how these differences ...may affect mechanisms of tumorigenesis, side-specific therapy response or prognosis. We explored systematic differences in pathway activation and their clinical implications.
Detailed clinicopathological data for 3045 colon carcinoma patients enrolled in the PETACC3 adjuvant chemotherapy trial were available for analysis. A subset of 1404 samples had molecular data, including gene expression and DNA copy number profiles for 589 and 199 samples, respectively. In addition, 413 colon adenocarcinoma from TCGA collection were also analyzed. Tumor side-effect on anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) therapy was assessed in a cohort of 325 metastatic patients. Outcome variables considered were relapse-free survival and survival after relapse (SAR).
Proximal carcinomas were more often mucinous, microsatellite instable (MSI)-high, mutated in key tumorigenic pathways, expressed a B-Raf proto-oncogene, serine/threonine kinase (BRAF)-like and a serrated pathway signature, regardless of histological type. Distal carcinomas were more often chromosome instable and EGFR or human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) amplified, and more frequently overexpressed epiregulin. While risk of relapse was not different per side, SAR was much poorer for proximal than for distal stage III carcinomas in a multivariable model including BRAF mutation status N = 285; HR 1.95, 95% CI (1.6–2.4), P < 0.001. Only patients with metastases from a distal carcinoma responded to anti-EGFR therapy, in line with the predictions of our pathway enrichment analysis.
Colorectal carcinoma side is associated with differences in key molecular features, some immediately druggable, with important prognostic effects which are maintained in metastatic lesions. Although within side significant molecular heterogeneity remains, our findings justify stratification of patients by side for retrospective and prospective analyses of drug efficacy and prognosis.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Genetic manipulations of insect populations for pest control have been advocated for some time, but there are few cases where manipulated individuals have been released in the field and no cases ...where they have successfully invaded target populations. Population transformation using the intracellular bacterium Wolbachia is particularly attractive because this maternally-inherited agent provides a powerful mechanism to invade natural populations through cytoplasmic incompatibility. When Wolbachia are introduced into mosquitoes, they interfere with pathogen transmission and influence key life history traits such as lifespan. Here we describe how the wMel Wolbachia infection, introduced into the dengue vector Aedes aegypti from Drosophila melanogaster, successfully invaded two natural A. aegypti populations in Australia, reaching near-fixation in a few months following releases of wMel-infected A. aegypti adults. Models with plausible parameter values indicate that Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes suffered relatively small fitness costs, leading to an unstable equilibrium frequency <30% that must be exceeded for invasion. These findings demonstrate that Wolbachia-based strategies can be deployed as a practical approach to dengue suppression with potential for area-wide implementation.
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DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Nervous systems contain sensory neurons, local neurons, projection neurons, and motor neurons. To understand how these building blocks form whole circuits, we must distil these broad classes into ...neuronal cell types and describe their network connectivity. Using an electron micrograph dataset for an entire Drosophila melanogaster brain, we reconstruct the first complete inventory of olfactory projections connecting the antennal lobe, the insect analog of the mammalian olfactory bulb, to higher-order brain regions in an adult animal brain. We then connect this inventory to extant data in the literature, providing synaptic-resolution “holotypes” both for heavily investigated and previously unknown cell types. Projection neurons are approximately twice as numerous as reported by light level studies; cell types are stereotyped, but not identical, in cell and synapse numbers between brain hemispheres. The lateral horn, the insect analog of the mammalian cortical amygdala, is the main target for this olfactory information and has been shown to guide innate behavior. Here, we find new connectivity motifs, including axo-axonic connectivity between projection neurons, feedback, and lateral inhibition of these axons by a large population of neurons, and the convergence of different inputs, including non-olfactory inputs and memory-related feedback onto third-order olfactory neurons. These features are less prominent in the mushroom body calyx, the insect analog of the mammalian piriform cortex and a center for associative memory. Our work provides a complete neuroanatomical platform for future studies of the adult Drosophila olfactory system.
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•First complete parts list for second-order neurons of an adult olfactory system•Quantification of left-right stereotypy in cell and synapse number•Axo-axonic connections form hierarchical communities in the lateral horn•Local and memory-related feedback target projection neuron axons
Bates, Schlegel et al. report the first complete part list of second-order neurons in an adult arthropod olfactory system. They show that these neurons are stereotyped across hemispheres and reveal their hierarchical interconnectivity and how they connect to third-order targets and memory-related neurons.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
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