A promising way to mitigate inequality is by addressing students' worries about belonging. But where and with whom is this social-belonging intervention effective? Here we report a team-science ...randomized controlled experiment with 26,911 students at 22 diverse institutions. Results showed that the social-belonging intervention, administered online before college (in under 30 minutes), increased the rate at which students completed the first year as full-time students, especially among students in groups that had historically progressed at lower rates. The college context also mattered: The intervention was effective only when students' groups were afforded opportunities to belong. This study develops methods for understanding how student identities and contexts interact with interventions. It also shows that a low-cost, scalable intervention generalizes its effects to 749 4-year institutions in the United States.
To assess adherence and persistence to sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2i), glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP1-RA), and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors (DPP4i) in ...routine care.
Using retrospective healthcare data from the Stockholm region, Sweden, we evaluated new-users of these agents during 2015–2020. We investigated adherence (≥80 % of days covered by an active supply), persistence (no treatment gap ≥ 60 days), and predictors for non-adherence and non-persistence.
We identified 24,470 new-users of SGLT2i (10,743), GLP1-RA (10,315), and/or DPP4i (9,488). Over 2.8 years median follow-up, the proportion demonstrating adherence was higher for SGLT2i (57 %) than DPP4i (53 %, comparison p < 0.001), and for GLP1-RA than DPP4i (54 % vs 53 %, p < 0.001). Similarly, persistence was higher for both SGLT2i and GLP-RA than DPP4i (respectively, 50 % vs 44 %, p < 0.001; 49 % vs 44 %, p < 0.001). Overall adherence was better among users who were older, had a history of high blood pressure, used more non-diabetic medications, had lower Hba1c, had better kidney function, and had completed secondary schooling or university. Women had worse adherence to SGLT2i and GLP1-RA than DPP4i.
We report adherence and persistence to SGLT2i, GLP1-RA and DPP4i in routine care, and identify prognostic factors that could inform implementation interventions to improve uptake of these important therapies.
Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are relevant sources of antibiotic resistance into aquatic environments. Disinfection of WWTPs’ effluents (e.g. by UV-C irradiation) may attenuate this problem, ...though some clinically relevant bacteria have been shown to survive disinfection. In this study we characterized 25 CTX-M-producing Escherichia coli strains isolated from a WWTP’s UV-C-irradiated effluent, aiming to identify putative human health hazards associated with such effluents. Molecular typing indicated that the strains belong to the phylogroups A, B2 and C and clustered into 9 multilocus sequence types (STs), namely B2:ST131 (n = 7), A:ST58 (n = 1), A:ST155 (n = 4), C:ST410 (n = 2), A:ST453 (n = 2), A:ST617 (n = 2), A:ST744 (n = 1), A:ST1284 (n = 3) and a putative novel ST (n = 3). PCR-screening identified 9 of the 20 antibiotic resistance genes investigated i.e. sul1, sul2, sul3, tet(A), tet(B), blaOXA-1-like, aacA4, aacA4-cr and qnrS1. The more prevalent were sul1, sul2 (n = 15 isolates) and tet(A) (n = 14 isolates). Plasmid restriction analysis indicated diverse plasmid content among strains (14 distinct profiles) and mating assays yielded cefotaxime-resistant transconjugants for 8 strains. Two of the transconjugants displayed a multi-drug resistance (MDR) phenotype. All strains were classified as cytotoxic to Vero cells (9 significantly more cytotoxic than the positive control) and 10 of 21 strains were invasive towards this cell line (including all B2:ST131 strains). The 10 strains tested against G. mellonella larvae exhibited a virulent behaviour. Twenty-four and 7 of the 25 strains produced siderophores and haemolysins, respectively. Approximately 66% of the strains formed biofilms. Genome analysis of 6 selected strains identified several virulence genes encoding toxins, siderophores, and colonizing, adhesion and invasion factors. Freshwater microcosms assays showed that after 28 days of incubation 3 out of 6 strains were still detected by cultivation and 4 strains by qPCR. Resistance phenotypes of these strains remained unaltered. Overall, we confirmed WWTP’s UV-C-treated outflow as a source of MDR and/or virulent E. coli strains, some probably capable of persisting in freshwater, and that carry conjugative antibiotic resistance plasmids. Hence, disinfected wastewater may still represent a risk for human health. More detailed evaluation of strains isolated from wastewater effluents is urgent, to design treatments that can mitigate the release of such bacteria.
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•CTX-M-encoding E. coli from an UV-treated effluent were studied for human health risk.•Most strains carried a wide array of antibiotic resistance and virulence genes.•Transfer of conjugative resistance plasmids was verified in 32% of the strains.•Tested strains were cytotoxic to Vero cells and pathogenic to G. mellonella.•An E. coli ST131 strain persisted in freshwater throughout a microcosms experiment.
All bacterial populations harbor a small fraction of transiently antibiotic-tolerant cells called persisters. These phenotypic variants compromise successful antibiotic treatment because they are ...held responsible for the relapse of many chronic infections. In addition, studies employing experimental evolution have demonstrated that persistence contributes to the development of antibiotic resistance. Persisters are typically described as dormant cells. However, recent findings indicate a role for active mechanisms in the formation and maintenance of the persister phenotype. This review summarizes novel insights into the molecular mechanisms of persister formation and awakening, focusing on changes in cell physiology mediated by persistence effectors.
Experimental evidence is accumulating for the contribution of persister cells to the recalcitrance of chronic infections and the increased development of antibiotic resistance.Target inactivity and dormancy caused by energy loss, halted DNA replication, and blocked translation contribute to persister formation.Target inactivity and dormancy cannot fully explain the complex nature of persister cells because some persisters rely on intrinsic mechanisms to repair antibiotic damage or to lower the intracellular antibiotic concentration.Depending on the persistence effector at play, persisters can have distinct physiologies that contribute to their heterogeneity within bacterial populations.In vitro evolution experiments have shown that persistence is a highly evolvable trait.
A 1975 fig crop reference chapter written by W.B. Storey contains pedigree information involving 30 cultivars from the University of California breeding program and early California. The data were ...compared with the records from the US Department of Agriculture and statements from two other sources. Graphical representations were used to determine differences among the authors. All data are supplied in this article and supplemental materials. An estimate of correct parentage is presented in the final graph.
In this paper, the problem of impulsive control for persistence of N-species cooperative models with time-varying delays are studied. A method on impulsive control is introduced to delayed ...cooperative models and some sufficient conditions for the persistence of the addressed models are derived, which are easy to check in real problems. The results show that proper impulsive control strategy may contribute to the persistence of cooperative populations and maintain the balance of an ecosystem. Conversely, the undesired impulsive control such as impulsive harvesting too frequently or impulsive harvesting too drastically may destroy the persistence of populations and leads to the extinction of some species. In addition, some discussions and comparisons with the recent works in the literature are given. Finally, the proposed method is applied to two numerical examples to show the effectiveness and advantages of our results.
In a nationally representative sample, first-year U.S. college students "somewhat agree," on average, that they feel like they belong at their school. However, belonging varies by key institutional ...and student characteristics; of note, racialethnic minority and first-generation students report lower belonging than peers at 4-year schools, while the opposite is true at 2-year schools. Further, at 4-year schools, belonging predicts better persistence, engagement, and mental health even after extensive covariate adjustment. Although descriptive, these patterns highlight the need to better measure and understand belonging and related psychological factors that may promote college students' success and well-being.
PERFUSE Martinez‐Vinson, Christine; Lemoine, Anaïs; Bouhnik, Yoram ...
Journal of pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition,
April 2023, Letnik:
76, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Objectives:
PERFUSE is a non‐interventional study of 1233 patients inflammatory rheumatic disease, n = 496; inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), n = 737 receiving infliximab (IFX) biosimilar SB2 ...therapy. This analysis describes response to treatment and persistence on SB2 for up to 12 months in pediatric IBD patients (n = 126).
Methods:
Pediatric IBD patients with Crohn disease (CD) or ulcerative colitis (UC), either naïve or switched from originator IFX, who started SB2 in routine practice after September 2017 were eligible. Data were captured for 12 months following SB2 initiation. Disease activity was measured using C‐reactive protein (CRP) levels and the Harvey‐Bradshaw Index or Pediatric Ulcerative Colitis Activity Index for CD and UC patients, respectively. Body mass index and height z scores were used to assess patient growth between initiation (M0) and month 12 (M12).
Results:
One hundred twenty‐six pediatric IBD patients were included (102 CD patients, 51 naïve and 51 switched; 24 UC patients, 9 naïve and 15 switched). Naive patients’ disease scores decreased between M0 and M12. CRP measurements also decreased in naïve CD patients. Switched patients’ disease scores and CRP levels remained stable between M0 and M12. Height z scores improved significantly over the course of the treatment for all groups except for naïve UC patients.
Conclusions:
SB2 provides effective disease control for naïve and switched pediatric patients. Clinical remission rates improved in naïve patients and no loss of control was observed in switched patients after 1 year. Growth failure is not observed in IBD patients under SB2 treatment.
Chemical’s persistence is known to be an important parameter applied for decades to identify persistent organic pollutants in hazard and/or risk assessments. Nevertheless it is greatly challenged in ...the case of emerging contaminants such as pharmaceuticals because the persistence of these chemicals could be more affected by environmental conditions. This fact brings more challenges to the current system for evaluating the persistence of chemical contaminants. In this paper, challenges in assessing the persistence of pharmaceuticals were identified, and more importantly research needs were addressed based on the existing data and knowledge.
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