Citizen science can play an important role in school science education. Citizen science is particularly relevant to addressing current societal environmental sustainability challenges, as it engages ...the students directly with environmental science and gives students an understanding of the scientific process. In addition, it allows students to observe local representations of global challenges. Here, we report a citizen science programme designed to engage school‐age children in real‐world scientific research. The programme used standardized methods deployed across multiple schools through scientist–school partnerships to engage students with an important conservation problem: habitat for pollinator insects in urban environments. Citizen science programmes such as the programme presented here can be used to enhance scientific literacy and skills. Provided key challenges to maintain data quality are met, this approach is a powerful way to contribute valuable citizen science data for understudied, but ecologically important study systems, particularly in urban environments across broad geographical areas.
This article is one in a series in which contributing authors discuss how the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are linked to everyday clinical issues; national public health ...emergencies; and other nursing issues, such as leadership, shared governance, and advocacy. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a 15-year plan of action to achieve the goals, was unanimously adopted by all UN member states in September 2015 and took effect on January 1, 2016. The Agenda consists of 17 SDGs addressing social, economic, and environmental determinants of health and 169 associated targets focused on five themes: people, planet, peace, prosperity, and partnership. The SDGs build on the work of the UN Millennium Development Goals, which were in effect from 2000 to 2015. The current article discusses the International Council of Nurses Global Nursing Leadership Institute and its integration of the SDGs into a global leadership and policy development program.
Currently, there are mounting data suggesting that HIV-1 acquisition in women can be affected by the use of certain hormonal contraceptives. However, in non-human primate models, endogenous or ...exogenous progestin-dominant states are shown to increase acquisition. To gain mechanistic insights into this increased acquisition, we studied how mucosal barrier function and CD4+ T-cell and CD68+ macrophage density and localization changed in the presence of natural progestins or after injection with high-dose DMPA. The presence of natural or injected progestins increased virus penetration of the columnar epithelium and the infiltration of susceptible cells into a thinned squamous epithelium of the vaginal vault, increasing the likelihood of potential virus interactions with target cells. These data suggest that increasing either endogenous or exogenous progestin can alter female reproductive tract barrier properties and provide plausible mechanisms for increased HIV-1 acquisition risk in the presence of increased progestin levels.
Background: At the time of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction, there are usually concurrent meniscal and articular cartilage injuries. It is unclear if there is a significant difference ...between intra-articular injuries at the time of a primary ACL reconstruction compared with revision ACL reconstruction.
Purpose: To compare the meniscal and articular cartilage injuries found at the time of primary and revision ACL reconstruction surgery and to determine associations between primary and revision surgery and specific intra-articular findings.
Study Design: Cohort study (prevalence); Level of evidence, 2.
Methods: Primary and revision ACL surgeries were identified from the Multicenter Orthopedic Outcomes Network (MOON) and Multicenter ACL Revision Study (MARS) study groups, respectively, from January 1, 2007 to November 1, 2008. Demographic data on individual patients were analyzed including age, body mass index (BMI), and gender. Intra-articular findings including the presence of medial or lateral meniscal tears and chondral damage to articular surfaces were analyzed for each patient. Comparisons of intra-articular findings at the time of surgery for the 2 groups were analyzed. Chondral damage in the medial and lateral compartments was analyzed considering previous meniscal tear as a possible confounder.
Results: There were 508 patients undergoing primary ACL reconstruction and 281 patients undergoing revision ACL reconstruction who were identified for inclusion. There were no differences in the mean age, BMI, and gender in the 2 study groups. There was a decreased odds ratio (OR) of new untreated lateral meniscal tears (OR, 0.54; P < .01) but not of medial meniscal tears (OR, 0.86; P = .39) in revision compared with primary ACL reconstruction. There was an increased OR of Outerbridge grade 3 and 4 articular cartilage injury in revision compared with primary ACL reconstruction in the lateral compartment (OR, 1.73; P = .04) and in the patellar-trochlear compartment (OR, 1.70; P = .04) but not in the medial compartment (OR, 1.33; P = .23). There was an increased OR of Outerbridge grade 3 and 4 articular cartilage injury in patients from both groups having a prior medial meniscectomy on the medial femoral condyle (OR, 1.44; P < .01) and on the medial tibial plateau (OR, 1.63; P < .01). There was an increased OR of Outerbridge grade 3 and 4 articular cartilage injury in patients from both groups having a prior lateral meniscectomy on the lateral femoral condyle (OR, 1.65; P < .01) and on the lateral tibial plateau (OR, 1.56; P < .01).
Conclusion: Meniscal tears are a common finding in both primary and revision ACL reconstruction. These results show a decreased OR of new untreated lateral meniscal tears in revision compared with primary ACL reconstruction. A previous medial or lateral meniscectomy increases the OR of articular cartilage damage in the medial or lateral compartments, respectively. Even when controlling for meniscus status, there is an increased OR in revision compared with primary ACL reconstruction of significant lateral compartment and patellar-trochlear chondral damage but not medial compartment chondral damage.
Pay of Medical Assistants Bedarkar, M. K.; Butler, Michael; Dike, Angela E. ...
British Medical Journal,
10/1970, Volume:
4, Issue:
5728
Journal Article
Most genetic studies consider autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and developmental disorder (DD) separately despite overwhelming comorbidity and shared genetic etiology. Here, we analyzed de novo ...variants (DNVs) from 15,560 ASD (6,557 from SPARK) and 31,052 DD trios independently and also combined as broader neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) using three models. We identify 615 NDD candidate genes (false discovery rate FDR < 0.05) supported by ≥1 models, including 138 reaching Bonferroni exome-wide significance (
< 3.64e-7) in all models. The genes group into five functional networks associating with different brain developmental lineages based on single-cell nuclei transcriptomic data. We find no evidence for ASD-specific genes in contrast to 18 genes significantly enriched for DD. There are 53 genes that show mutational bias, including enrichments for missense (
= 41) or truncating (
= 12) DNVs. We also find 10 genes with evidence of male- or female-bias enrichment, including 4 X chromosome genes with significant female burden (
,
,
, and
. This large-scale integrative analysis identifies candidates and functional subsets of NDD genes.
Objective
Evidence regarding effectiveness of interleukin‐1 receptor antagonism in multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS‐C) is lacking. We characterized variation in initial treatment ...with anakinra and evaluated cardiovascular outcomes associated with adding anakinra to standard initial therapy.
Methods
We conducted a retrospective cohort study of MIS‐C cases in a US surveillance registry from November 2020 to December 2021. Day 0 was the first calendar day of immunomodulatory treatment. Factors associated with initial anakinra use (days 0–1) were identified. We compared cases in patients ages 2–20 years receiving intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) and glucocorticoids versus anakinra plus IVIG and/or glucocorticoids on days 0–1, using inverse probability weighting to balance disease severity. Primary outcomes were vasopressor requirement on day 3 and impaired left ventricular ejection fraction on days 3–4. The secondary outcome was 50% reduction in C‐reactive protein on day 3.
Results
Among 1,516 MIS‐C cases at 44 sites, 193 (13%) patients received anakinra alone or with other immunomodulators as initial treatment (range 0–74% by site). Site accounted for 59% of residual variance in anakinra use. After balancing disease severity, initial treatment with anakinra plus IVIG and/or glucocorticoids (n = 121) versus IVIG plus glucocorticoids (n = 389) was not associated with significant differences in vasopressor requirement (25.6% versus 20.1%, respectively; risk ratio RR 1.27 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.88–1.84), ventricular dysfunction (33.7% versus 25.7%, respectively; RR 1.31 95% CI 0.98–1.75), or C‐reactive protein reduction.
Conclusion
We identified substantial variation in initial anakinra use in a real‐world population of children with MIS‐C, but no average short‐term improvement in cardiovascular outcomes associated with early addition of anakinra to IVIG and/or glucocorticoids compared to IVIG and glucocorticoids alone.
Mononuclear, five-coordinate aluminum alkoxide complexes were prepared from ketoimines bearing pendant quinolyl donors and tris(2,6-dimethylphenoxy) aluminum dimer in the coordinating solvent, THF. ...The complexes were characterized spectroscopically and crystallographically and were shown to adopt distorted trigonal bipyramidal coordination geometries that included one ketoiminate and two phenoxide ligands.
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Three ketoimines with pendant quinolyl moieties and a series of five-coordinate ketoiminate aluminum complexes were prepared and characterized spectroscopically and crystallographically. The synthesis of the ketoimines completed a series of ten regioisomers for which the product ratio varied between the product resulting from quinoline addition adjacent to the alkyl/aryl group or adjacent to the trifluoromethyl substituent. Quantitation of the ketoimine regioisomer ratios with 19F NMR demonstrated the role of steric encumbrance in the nucleophilic attack mechanistic step of the Schiff base condensation reaction and was further supported by linear free energy relationships with the Charton steric parameter and DFT calculations. Eight five-coordinate aluminum complexes were prepared in 57–92% yield from ketoimines and tris(2,6-dimethylphenoxide) aluminum dimer and characterized with 1H, 13C, 19F, and 27Al nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, UV–visible absorbance spectroscopy, elemental analysis, and single-crystal X-ray crystallography. These mononuclear complexes differ from previously reported aluminum ion-pair complexes due to the symmetric cleavage of tris-dimethylphenoxide aluminum dimer by THF and were shown to have distorted trigonal bipyramidal coordination geometries (τ5 = 0.73–0.89). In a preliminary study, the aluminum complexes were demonstrated to be effective initiators for ring-opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone (εCL) to poly-caprolactone (PCL) and l-lactide (LA) to poly-lactic acid (PLA), reaching 77–99% conversion in 2 h for εCL and 10 h for LA at 100 °C.
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