Analysis of COVID-19 Vaccination Status Among Parents of Hospitalized Children Younger Than 5 Years With SARS-CoV-2 Infection During the Delta and Omicron Waves.

This cohort study uses COVID-19 Pediatric Observatory study data to analyze the vaccination status of parents with young children hospitalized for SARS-CoV-2 variants Delta and Omicron

Presentations of children to emergency departments across Europe and the COVID-19 pandemic: A multinational observational study

BACKGROUND: During the initial phase of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, reduced numbers of acutely ill or injured children presented to emergency departments (EDs). Concerns were raised about the potential for delayed and more severe presentations and an increase in diagnoses such as diabetic ketoacidosis and mental health issues. This multinational observational study aimed to study the number of children presenting to EDs across Europe during the early COVID-19 pandemic and factors influencing this and to investigate changes in severity of illness and diagnoses. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Routine health data were extracted retrospectively from electronic patient records of children aged 18 years and under, presenting to 38 EDs in 16 European countries for the period January 2018 to May 2020, using predefined and standardized data domains. Observed and predicted numbers of ED attendances were calculated for the period February 2020 to May 2020. Poisson models and incidence rate ratios (IRRs), using predicted counts for each site as offset to adjust for case-mix differences, were used to compare age groups, diagnoses, and outcomes. Reductions in pediatric ED attendances, hospital admissions, and high triage urgencies were seen in all participating sites. ED attendances were relatively higher in countries with lower SARS-CoV-2 prevalence (IRR 2.26, 95% CI 1.90 to 2.70, p < 0.001) and in children aged <12 months (12 to <24 months IRR 0.86, 95% CI 0.84 to 0.89; 2 to <5 years IRR 0.80, 95% CI 0.78 to 0.82; 5 to <12 years IRR 0.68, 95% CI 0.67 to 0.70; 12 to 18 years IRR 0.72, 95% CI 0.70 to 0.74; versus age <12 months as reference group, p < 0.001). The lowering of pediatric intensive care admissions was not as great as that of general admissions (IRR 1.30, 95% CI 1.16 to 1.45, p < 0.001). Lower triage urgencies were reduced more than higher triage urgencies (urgent triage IRR 1.10, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.12; emergent and very urgent triage IRR 1.53, 95% CI 1.49 to 1.57; versus nonurgent triage category, p < 0.001). Reductions were highest and sustained throughout the study period for children with communicable infectious diseases. The main limitation was the retrospective nature of the study, using routine clinical data from a wide range of European hospitals and health systems. CONCLUSIONS: Reductions in ED attendances were seen across Europe during the first COVID-19 lockdown period. More severely ill children continued to attend hospital more frequently compared to those with minor injuries and illnesses, although absolute numbers fell. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN91495258 https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN91495258

Selective determination of polonium by photon electron rejecting alpha liquid scintillation (PERALS (R) System)

We developed a fast analysis method for the determination of polonium by alpha liquid scintillation with beta-gamma rejection in environmental samples. The liquid-liquid extraction with several extractants like HDEHP, TNOA, TOPO or NDA was applied. Among them, the use of the trioctylamine (TNOA) allows the separation of polonium from uranium, plutonium and thorium in a mixture containing 3 M H2SO4 and sodium chloride (2 x 10(-2) to 1 M). The distribution ratio of polonium is over 10(4), whereas it is only equal to about 10(-1) for U, 3 x 10(-2) for Th, and 3 x 10(-3) for Pu. This separation process was applied with success to large volume of aqueous solution (250 ml). The detection limit is below 1 mBq l(-1) for 200 ml of solution and for a counting time equal to 1000 min. We also successfully applied this procedure for the polonium activity measurement in various colorless aqueous solutions.Several difficulties were encountered by using this method to organic matter such as fish or shellfish. A yellow coloration occurs which does not allow a measurement. Moreover, the volatility of polonium compounds unables the use of conventional dissolution methods for organic matter. These problems are also discussed in this paper

Comparison and improvement of the resolution of several alpha liquid scintillation spectrometers for actinide measurements

Radioc

Some rules to improve the energy resolution in alpha liquid scintillation with beta rejection

RADIOC

Comparison and improvement of the determinations of actinide low activities using several alpha liquid scintillation spectrometers

We applied three procedures using two or liquid scintillation spectrometers (PERALS and TRI-CARB) and two scintillation cocktails (Alphaex and Ultima Gold LLT) for the determination of a-emitter low activities. For each procedure, the limit of detection, the resolution, the separation factor, and the Fischer coefficient were determined in order to perform U-232-U-234-U-238 isotopic measurements. The deconvolution usually performed is clean when the PERALS spectrometer is used. This is not possible for the TRI-CARB spectrometer using the Ultima Gold LLT scintillation cocktail. This problem was solved by combining the advantages of both techniques using the Alphaex scintillation cocktail in the TRI-CARB spectrometer, Under these conditions, the limit of detection was improved, the resolution decreased from 500-800 to 420-590 keV, and the separation factor increased from 0.9 to 1.1-1.2. This third procedure was applied with success for U-232-U-234-U-238 isotopic experiments

Complexation of protactinium( v ) with nitrilotriacetic acid: a study at the tracer scale

International audienc

A comparative thermodynamic study of the formation of scandium complexes with DTPA and DOTA

International audienc

Revisiting binding of plutonium to transferrin by CE-ICP-MS

International audienceCapillary electrophoresis coupled with an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer was applied for the first time to determine the binding constant of human transferrin (Tf ) for tetravalent plutonium. The experiments were carried out in a buffer 2-(N-morpholino)ethanesulfonic acid (MES) at pH 6, 0.1 M NaCl and at a temperature of 25 °C. The nitrilotriacetate anion (NTA) used in this study prevents the hydrolysis of plutonium and is an ideal competitor with Tf for Pu, both ligands sharing comparable binding strength. The separation revealed unambiguous two peaks associated with the complex Pu(NTA)2 used as the initial species and with Pu–transferrin. Two series of independent experiments were conducted and gave thefirst stepwise conditional bicarbonate-free Pu–transferrin binding constant of log K* = 22:50±0:19. In the absence of bicarbonate the affinity of transferrin for plutonium at pH 6 is about 104 times stronger than that of iron at pH 6.7 (log K1* = 18.06