The diagnosis of clinically significant oesophageal Candida infections: a reappraisal of clinicopathological findings

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154961/1/his14063_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154961/2/his14063.pd

Enabling the informal recycling sector to prevent plastic pollution and deliver an inclusive circular economy

Recycling by the informal sector provides a rapid, inexpensive solution to plastic pollution, whilst supporting the livelihoods via their inclusion and empowerment. This solution will have the greatest benefit to the environment if supporting interventions are targeted at types of plastic pollution that are the most damaging from an ecological and wider risk perspective. Interventions should target three aspects of the pollution: reducing barriers to collection, improving the revenue from the materials and wider informal recycler remuneration, and increasing the quality of the materials. Done well, these interventions will increase the collection rate, reduce pollution from plastics, and help millions of people escape poverty. They present a scalable international solution to a global challenge; and are likely the only viable solution to the widespread lack of solid waste services and infrastructure across low- and middle-income countries

Modifiable healthcare factors affecting 28-day survival in bloodstream infection: a prospective cohort study

Background: Bloodstream infection is common in the UK and has significant mortality depending on the pathogen involved, site of infection and other patient factors. Healthcare staffing and ward activity may also impact on outcomes in a range of conditions, however there is little specific National Health Service (NHS) data on the impact for patients with bloodstream infection. Bloodstream Infections – Focus on Outcomes is a multicentre cohort study with the primary aim of identifying modifiable risk factors for 28-day mortality in patients with bloodstream infection due to one of six key pathogens. Methods: Adults under the care of five NHS Trusts in England and Wales between November 2010 and May 2012 were included. Multivariable Cox regression was used to quantify the association between modifiable risk factors, including staffing levels and timing of appropriate therapy, and 28-day mortality, after adjusting for non-modifiable risk factors such as patient demographics and long-term comorbidities. Results: A total of 1676 patients were included in the analysis population. Overall, 348/1676 (20.8%) died within 28 days. Modifiable factors associated with 28-day mortality were ward speciality, ward activity (admissions and discharges), movement within ward speciality, movement from critical care, and time to receipt of appropriate antimicrobial therapy in the first 7 days. For each additional admission or discharge per 10 beds, the hazard increased by 4% (95% CI 1 to 6%) in medical wards and 11% (95% CI 4 to 19%) in critical care. Patients who had moved wards within speciality or who had moved out of a critical care ward had a reduction in hazard of mortality. In the first 7 days, hazard of death increased with increasing time to receipt of appropriate antimicrobial therapy. Conclusion: This study underlines the importance of appropriate antimicrobials within the first 7 days, and the potential for ward activity and ward movements to impact on survival in bloodstream infection

Overcoming cross-cultural group work tensions: mixed student perspectives on the role of social relationships

As universities worldwide rapidly internationalise, higher education classrooms have become unique spaces for collaboration between students from different countries. One common way to encourage collaboration between diverse peers is through group work. However, previous research has highlighted that cross-cultural group work can be challenging and has hinted at potential social tensions. To understand this notion better, we have used robust quantitative tools in this study to select 20 participants from a larger classroom of 860 students to take part in an in-depth qualitative interview about cross-cultural group work experiences. Participant views on social tensions in cross-cultural group work were elicited using a unique mediating artefact method to encourage reflection and in-depth discussion. In our analysis of emergent interview themes, we compared student perspectives on the role of social relationships in group work by their academic performance level. Our findings indicated that all students interviewed desired the opportunity to form social relationships with their group work members, but their motivations for doing so varied widely by academic performance level

Characterisation of Clostridium difficile Hospital Ward–Based Transmission Using Extensive Epidemiological Data and Molecular Typing

A population-based study in Oxfordshire (UK) hospitals by Sarah Walker and colleagues finds that in an endemic setting with good infection control, ward-based contact cannot account for most new cases of Clostridium difficile infection

Functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to assess cognitive function in infants in rural Africa

Cortical mapping of cognitive function during infancy is poorly understood in low-income countries due to the lack of transportable neuroimaging methods. We have successfully piloted functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) as a neuroimaging tool in rural Gambia. Four-to-eight month old infants watched videos of Gambian adults perform social movements, while haemodynamic responses were recorded using fNIRS. We found distinct regions of the posterior superior temporal and inferior frontal cortex that evidenced either visual-social activation or vocally selective activation (vocal > non-vocal). The patterns of selective cortical activation in Gambian infants replicated those observed within similar aged infants in the UK. These are the first reported data on the measurement of localized functional brain activity in young infants in Africa and demonstrate the potential that fNIRS offers for field-based neuroimaging research of cognitive function in resource-poor rural communities

Functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to assess cognitive function in infants in rural Africa

Cortical mapping of cognitive function during infancy is poorly understood in low-income countries due to the lack of transportable neuroimaging methods. We have successfully piloted functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) as a neuroimaging tool in rural Gambia. Four-to-eight month old infants watched videos of Gambian adults perform social movements, while haemodynamic responses were recorded using fNIRS. We found distinct regions of the posterior superior temporal and inferior frontal cortex that evidenced either visual-social activation or vocally selective activation (vocal > non-vocal). The patterns of selective cortical activation in Gambian infants replicated those observed within similar aged infants in the UK. These are the first reported data on the measurement of localized functional brain activity in young infants in Africa and demonstrate the potential that fNIRS offers for field-based neuroimaging research of cognitive function in resource-poor rural communities

Contemporary Evolutionary Divergence for a Protected Species following Assisted Colonization

Contemporary evolution following assisted colonization may increase the probability of persistence for refuge populations established as a bet-hedge for protected species. Such refuge populations are considered "genetic replicates" that might be used for future re-colonization in the event of a catastrophe in the native site. Although maladaptive evolutionary divergence of captive populations is well recognized, evolutionary divergence of wild refuge populations may also occur on contemporary time scales. Thus, refuge populations may lose their "value" as true genetic replicates of the native population. Here, we show contemporary evolutionary divergence in body shape in an approximately 30-year old refuge population of the protected White Sands pupfish (Cyprinodon tularosa) resulting in a body-shape mismatch with its native environment.Geometric morphometic data were collected from C. tularosa cultures raised in experimental mesocosms. Cultures were initiated with fish from the two native populations, plus hybrids, in high or low salinity treatments representing the salinities of the two native habitats. We found that body shape was heritable and that shape variation due to phenotypic plasticity was small compared to shape variation due to population source. C. tularosa from the high salinity population retained slender body shapes and fish from the low salinity population retained deep body shapes, irrespective of mesocosm salinity. These data suggest that the observed divergence of a recently established pupfish population was not explained by plasticity. An analysis of microsatellite variation indicated that no significant genetic drift occurred in the refuge population, further supporting the adaptive nature of changes in body shape. These lines of evidence suggest that body shape divergence of the refuge population reflects a case of contemporary evolution (over a 30-year period).These results suggest assisted colonization can introduce novel, and/or relaxed selection, and lead to unintended evolutionary divergence

Parametric study of EEG sensitivity to phase noise during face processing

<b>Background: </b> The present paper examines the visual processing speed of complex objects, here faces, by mapping the relationship between object physical properties and single-trial brain responses. Measuring visual processing speed is challenging because uncontrolled physical differences that co-vary with object categories might affect brain measurements, thus biasing our speed estimates. Recently, we demonstrated that early event-related potential (ERP) differences between faces and objects are preserved even when images differ only in phase information, and amplitude spectra are equated across image categories. Here, we use a parametric design to study how early ERP to faces are shaped by phase information. Subjects performed a two-alternative force choice discrimination between two faces (Experiment 1) or textures (two control experiments). All stimuli had the same amplitude spectrum and were presented at 11 phase noise levels, varying from 0% to 100% in 10% increments, using a linear phase interpolation technique. Single-trial ERP data from each subject were analysed using a multiple linear regression model. <b>Results: </b> Our results show that sensitivity to phase noise in faces emerges progressively in a short time window between the P1 and the N170 ERP visual components. The sensitivity to phase noise starts at about 120–130 ms after stimulus onset and continues for another 25–40 ms. This result was robust both within and across subjects. A control experiment using pink noise textures, which had the same second-order statistics as the faces used in Experiment 1, demonstrated that the sensitivity to phase noise observed for faces cannot be explained by the presence of global image structure alone. A second control experiment used wavelet textures that were matched to the face stimuli in terms of second- and higher-order image statistics. Results from this experiment suggest that higher-order statistics of faces are necessary but not sufficient to obtain the sensitivity to phase noise function observed in response to faces. <b>Conclusion: </b> Our results constitute the first quantitative assessment of the time course of phase information processing by the human visual brain. We interpret our results in a framework that focuses on image statistics and single-trial analyses

The XMM cluster survey: Testing chameleon gravity using the profiles of clusters

The chameleon gravity model postulates the existence of a scalar field that couples with matter to mediate a fifth force. If it exists, this fifth force would influence the hot X-ray emitting gas filling the potential wells of galaxy clusters. However, it would not influence the clusters weak lensing signal. Therefore, by comparing X-ray and weak lensing profiles, one can place upper limits on the strength of a fifth force. This technique has been attempted before using a single, nearby cluster (Coma, z = 0.02). Here we apply the technique to the stacked profiles of 58 clusters at higher redshifts (0.1 R0| R0| on cosmological scales. We hope to improve this constraint in future by extending the study to hundreds of clusters using data from the Dark Energy Survey