•SAB patients with vertebral osteomyelitis showed a high treatment failure rate (48%).•Treatment failure was primarily due to death within three months.•Failure was equally attributable to S. aureus ...or underlying diseases.•Higher age, comorbidities, local abscess formation and neurological deficits proved as independent risk factors for treatment failure.
Staphylococcus aureus is the most common cause of pyogenic vertebral osteomyelitis (VO). Studies indicate that S. aureus VO results in poor outcome. We aimed to investigate risk factors for treatment failure in patients with Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infection (SAB) and VO.
We conducted a post hoc-analysis of data from a German bi-center prospective SAB cohort (2006–2014). Patients were followed-up for one year. Primary outcome was treatment failure defined as relapse and/or death within one year.
A total of 1069 patients with SAB were analyzed, with 92 VO patients. In addition to antibiotic treatment, surgery was performed in 60/92 patients. Treatment failed in 44/92 patients (death, n = 42; relapse, n = 2). Multivariable analysis revealed higher age (HR 1.04 per year, 95%CI 1.01–1.07), Charlson comorbidity index (HR 1.20, 95%CI 1.06–1.36), presence of neurologic deficits (HR 2.53, 95%CI 1.15–5.53) and local abscess formation (HR 3.35, 95%CI 1.39–8.04) as independent risk factors for treatment failure. In contrast, surgery seemed to be associated with a favourable outcome (HR 0.45 (95%CI 0.20–0.997)).
SAB patients with VO exhibit a high treatment failure rate. Red flags are older age, comorbidities, neurologic deficits and local abscess formation. Whether these patients benefit from intensified treatment (e.g. radical surgery, prolongation of antibiotics) should be investigated further.
Ground‐level ozone (O3) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) are associated with increased risk of mortality. We quantify the burden of modeled 2005 concentrations of O3 and PM2.5 on health in the ...United States. We use the photochemical Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model in conjunction with ambient monitored data to create fused surfaces of summer season average 8‐hour ozone and annual mean PM2.5 levels at a 12 km grid resolution across the continental United States. Employing spatially resolved demographic and concentration data, we assess the spatial and age distribution of air‐pollution‐related mortality and morbidity. For both PM2.5 and O3 we also estimate: the percentage of total deaths due to each pollutant; the reduction in life years and life expectancy; and the deaths avoided according to hypothetical air quality improvements. Using PM2.5 and O3 mortality risk coefficients drawn from the long‐term American Cancer Society (ACS) cohort study and National Mortality and Morbidity Air Pollution Study (NMMAPS), respectively, we estimate 130,000 PM2.5‐related deaths and 4,700 ozone‐related deaths to result from 2005 air quality levels. Among populations aged 65–99, we estimate nearly 1.1 million life years lost from PM2.5 exposure and approximately 36,000 life years lost from ozone exposure. Among the 10 most populous counties, the percentage of deaths attributable to PM2.5 and ozone ranges from 3.5% in San Jose to 10% in Los Angeles. These results show that despite significant improvements in air quality in recent decades, recent levels of PM2.5 and ozone still pose a nontrivial risk to public health.
This study examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on marriage, divorce, birth, and death rates using the Poisson regression model and an interrupted time-series Poisson regression model. Before ...the pandemic, marriage and birth rates were decreasing, while divorce and death rates were increasing, with only the trend in birth rates being statistically significant. The immediate effect of the pandemic was a significant decrease in the divorce rate, but there were non-significant effects on birth and marriage rates. However, in the months following the onset of the pandemic, there was a statistically significant sustained effect on increasing death and divorce rates. Forecasts based on pre-pandemic data showed that by the end of 2020, marriage, divorce, death, and birth rates were higher compared to pre-pandemic levels. In conclusion, the pandemic has greatly impacted society, particularly in terms of death and divorce rates. Birth rates were not immediately affected to the time lag between decisions and actual births. Fear of COVID-19 may have increased death rates as people avoided seeking medical help. Vaccination and effective treatment strategies are vital in reducing the pandemic's impact on mortality. Supporting families financially is important due to the role of economic issues in couples' decisions.
This paper is concerned with the pattern formation of a diffusive predator–prey model with strong Allee effect in the prey population and nonconstant death rate for the predator. The necessary and ...sufficient conditions of Turing instability are explicitly obtained. By regarding the diffusion coefficient d2 of the predator as bifurcation parameter, we demonstrate that at the critical value of the bifurcation parameter d2 a Turing bifurcation occurs (i.e. a pattern arises). The conditions for the stability of the pattern are also derived in detail. Our results show that strong Allee effect in our model plays a crucial role in the formation of stationary pattern, which is a strong contrast to the case without strong Allee effect.
•The necessary and sufficient conditions of Turing instability are obtained.•A pattern arises when diffusion coefficient of predator goes through critical value.•The conditions for the stability of the pattern are derived in detail.
•Vine burial in winter followed by vine excavation and straightening in spring are difficult and expensive tasks, posing risks to the plants and the environment.•The goal of this work was to identify ...a biodegradable liquid film (BLF) suitable for grapevine application to replace vine burial as an alternate strategy to protect against winter chill.•The results showed that BLF application can protect some cultivars from winter chill in Heyang and delays bud germination date in cold years.•BLF treatment has the opposite trend of reducing sugar and titratable acid content for Cabernet Sauvignon and Italian Riesling, causes higher polyphenols content of berries under most conditions, and requires lower winter vineyard operations costs than VB treatment.
In China, according to the climatic zoning, more than 90% Vitis vinifera are distributed in areas where the vines must be buried under a layer of soil during winter (vine burial) to protect them from severe winter chill (Li et al., 2006; Wang et al., 2018). Vine burial in winter followed by vine excavation and straightening in spring are difficult and expensive tasks, posing risks to the plants and the environment. Therefore, the goal of this work was to identify a biodegradable liquid film (BLF) suitable for grapevine application to replace vine burial as an alternate strategy to protect against winter chill. We evaluated the influence of BLF spraying on vines after being trained in winter (BLF spraying treatment) and compared it with vine burial (VB). The study evaluated the grapevine death rate of BLF treatment following freezing events in January 2016, and compared germination date, yields, berry quality, and a cost analysis of the two treatments during the winter of 2015 to the spring of 2017 at Heyang Station of Viticulture, NWAFU, in China. The results showed that BLF application can protect some cultivars from winter chill in Heyang and delays bud germination date in cold years. BLF treatment has the opposite trend of reducing sugar and titratable acid content for Cabernet Sauvignon and Italian Riesling, causes higher polyphenols content of berries under most conditions, and requires lower winter vineyard operations costs than VB treatment.
Eosinophil counts increase during chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbation and influence the response to different agents (such as inhaled and systemic corticosteroids), as well as ...increase the production of other inflammatory cytokines. However, few studies have evaluated the association between peripheral blood eosinophils with mortality rate.
To evaluate the association between peripheral blood eosinophils and mortality rate in COPD patients over a nine-year period.
This cohort included 133 COPD patients assessed at baseline by spirometry, pulse oximetry (SpO
), complete blood count, body composition, dyspnea intensity Modified Medical Research Council (mMRC) and the six-minute distance test (6MWD). The Kaplan-Meier curve followed by a Log rank test was used to evaluate mortality rate related to eosinophil cutoff point categorization. Multivariate Cox regression analysis was performed to identify the association between eosinophils and mortality with all subjects evaluated at baseline, adjusted for age, gender, mMRC, 6MWT, forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV
) and SpO
.
Nineteen patients did not complete follow-up and it was not possible to identify the date of death in four others. Therefore, 110 patients were included in the analysis. At baseline, 81% presented ≥150 eosinophil cells and 72% presented ≥2%. We identified a three-fold higher risk of death in those with <2% eosinophils and <150 cells. We did not identify statistical differences when using other cutoff points.
The decrease in number of peripheral eosinophils, with cutoff points at 2% and 150 cells, may be associated with a higher risk of death in COPD patients over nine years.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to adversely impact the United States socially, culturally, and economically. The purpose of this study was to understand the relationship ...between COVID-19 county death rates, risk perception, and US adults' voluntary behaviors-particularly physical distancing.
Data were collected from CloudResearch/Qualtrics, Johns Hopkins University, the American Community Survey, and SafeGraph.
Our results indicated that higher COVID-19 county death rates were associated with higher risk perceptions, leading to greater time spent at home.
These findings will help public health officials identify strategies that best encourage voluntary health behaviors to help curb the spread of COVID-19.
Trauma mortality review is the first step in assessing the quality of the trauma treatment system and provides an important basis for establishing a regional inclusive trauma system. This study aimed ...to obtain a reliable measure of the preventable trauma death rate in a single province in Korea.
From January to December 2017, a total of 500 sample cases of trauma-related deaths from 64 hospitals in Gyeonggi Province were included. All cases were evaluated for preventability and opportunities for improvement using a multidisciplinary panel review approach.
Overall, 337 cases were included in the calculation for the preventable trauma death rate. The preventable trauma death rate was estimated at 17.0%. The odds ratio was 3.97 folds higher for those who arrived within "1-3 hours" than those who arrived within "1 hour." When the final treatment institution was not a regional trauma center, the odds ratio was 2.39 folds higher than that of a regional trauma center. The most significant stage of preventable trauma death was the hospital stage, during which 86.7% of the cases occurred, of which only 10.3% occurred in the regional trauma center, whereas preventable trauma death was more of a problem at emergency medical institutions.
The preventable trauma death rate was slightly lower in this study than in previous studies, although several problems were noted during inter-hospital transfer; in the hospital stage, more problems were noted at emergency medical care facilities than at regional trauma centers. Further, several opportunities for improvements were discovered regarding bleeding control.
The study examined the relationship between financial remittances and health outcomes in 45 sub-Saharan African countries (SSA) using data obtained from the World Development Indicator (WDI) over the ...period 1990 to 2021. Because of the issue of endogeneity, the System Generalized Method of Moments (SGMM) was adopted to analyze the impact of remittances on life expectancy and infant mortality respectively. The results showed that contrary to expectations, remittances did not significantly improve life expectancy and infant mortality rate in SSA. The life expectancy in the previous year, has a statically significant impact on life expectancy at birth for the current year. Also, the lagged value of infant mortality rate significantly increased under five mortality. Therefore, the study recommends that governments in SSA sub-region should evolve policies aimed at guiding recipients of remittances towards effective utilization with a view to improving social welfare and health outcomes.
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