Mortality associated with avian reovirus infection in a free-living magpie (Pica pica) in Great Britain

Avian reoviruses (ARVs) cause a range of disease presentations in domestic, captive and free-living bird species. ARVs have been reported as a cause of significant disease and mortality in free-living corvid species in North America and continental Europe. Until this report, there have been no confirmed cases of ARV-associated disease in British wild birds

Finding a way: long-term care homes to support dementia

An ageing demographic has increased the number of people with dementia. Although dementia is commonly associated with memory loss, other early symptoms include difficulty with wayfinding. Dementia alters visuo-spatial perception and the processes used to interpret the physical environment. The role of the design of the physical environment for people with dementia has gained increased recognition. Despite this, design for dementia is often overlooked, focusing on issues relating to physical impairment. This paper presents the results of a PhD study and aims to examine the role of the design of the physical environment in supporting wayfinding for people with dementia living in long-term care settings in Northern Ireland. Mixed methods combined the observation of wayfinding walks and conversational style interviews to elicit perspectives and experiences of residents with dementia. The findings aim to promote well-being for those with dementia living in long-term care settings

Effect of remote ischaemic conditioning on contrast-induced nephropathy in patients undergoing elective coronary angiography (ERICCIN): rationale and study design of a randomised single-centre, double-blind placebo-controlled trial.

Contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN), an acute kidney injury resulting from the administration of intravascular iodinated contrast media, is an important cause of morbidity/mortality following coronary angiographic procedures in high-risk patients. Despite preventative measures intended to mitigate the risk of CIN, there remains a need for an effective intervention. Remote ischaemic conditioning (RIC), where non-injurious ischaemia is applied to an arm prior to the administration of contrast, has shown promise in attenuating CIN but its effectiveness in preserving long-term renal function is unknown, which will be studied as part of the effect of remote ischaemic conditioning against contrast-induced nephropathy (ERICCIN) trial. ( http://Controlled-trials.com Identifier: ISRCTN49645414.) METHODS: The ERICCIN trial is a single-centre, randomised double-blinded placebo-controlled trial which plans to recruit 362 patients who are at risk of CIN, defined by pre-existent renal impairment (estimated glomerular filtration rate 25 % of eGFR, or rise of creatinine of >44 μmol/l) at 48 h. A key secondary endpoint will be whether RIC impacts upon persistent renal impairment over the 3-month follow-up period. Additional secondary endpoints include the measurement of serum neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin and urinary albumin at 6, 48 h and 3 months following administration of contrast

The Effectiveness of Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention in Emergency Departments: A Multicentre Pragmatic Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

BACKGROUND: Alcohol misuse is common in people attending emergency departments (EDs) and there is some evidence of efficacy of alcohol screening and brief interventions (SBI). This study investigated the effectiveness of SBI approaches of different intensities delivered by ED staff in nine typical EDs in England: the SIPS ED trial. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Pragmatic multicentre cluster randomized controlled trial of SBI for hazardous and harmful drinkers presenting to ED. Nine EDs were randomized to three conditions: a patient information leaflet (PIL), 5 minutes of brief advice (BA), and referral to an alcohol health worker who provided 20 minutes of brief lifestyle counseling (BLC). The primary outcome measure was the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) status at 6 months. Of 5899 patients aged 18 or more presenting to EDs, 3737 (63·3%) were eligible to participate and 1497 (40·1%) screened positive for hazardous or harmful drinking, of whom 1204 (80·4%) gave consent to participate in the trial. Follow up rates were 72% (n?=?863) at six, and 67% (n?=?810) at 12 months. There was no evidence of any differences between intervention conditions for AUDIT status or any other outcome measures at months 6 or 12 in an intention to treat analysis. At month 6, compared to the PIL group, the odds ratio of being AUDIT negative for brief advice was 1·103 (95% CI 0·328 to 3·715). The odds ratio comparing BLC to PIL was 1·247 (95% CI 0·315 to 4·939). A per protocol analysis confirmed these findings. CONCLUSIONS: SBI is difficult to implement in typical EDs. The results do not support widespread implementation of alcohol SBI in ED beyond screening followed by simple clinical feedback and alcohol information, which is likely to be easier and less expensive to implement than more complex interventions

Aspergillus mastoiditis, presenting with unexplained progressive otalgia, in an immunocompetent (older) patient

Aspergillus mastoidits and skull-base osteomyelitis are extremely rare, even in immunocompromised patients. We report a case of an 81-year-old immunocompetent man, who underwent a mastoidectomy because of unexplained, progressive otalgia in spite of a noninflamed and air-containing middle-ear space. Histopathology yielded Aspergillus fumigatus. When confronted with otitis with an unexpected clinical course a high index of suspicion is required to facilitate early diagnosis and appropriate therapy of a potential lethal Aspergillus infection, even in immunocompetent patients. This seems to be more so in older patients with an open middle-ear cavity and/or when there is facial nerve involvement

Stem cell differentiation increases membrane-actin adhesion regulating cell blebability, migration and mechanics

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder in order to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/K. S. is funded by an EPSRC PhD studentship. S.T. is funded by an EU Marie Curie Intra European Fellowship (GENOMICDIFF)

Development of the Malocclusion Impact Questionnaire (MIQ) to measure the oral health-related quality of life of young people with malocclusion: part 2 - cross-sectional validation.

OBJECTIVE: To test the items, identified through qualitative inquiry that might form the basis of a new Malocclusion Impact Questionnaire (MIQ) to measure the oral health-related quality of life (OHQoL) of young people with malocclusion. METHODS: Piloting with 13 young people reduced the number of items from 37 to 28. Cross-sectional testing involved a convenience sample aged 10-16 years, attending the Orthodontic Department of the Charles Clifford Dental Hospital, Sheffield. The fit and function of the initial MIQ questions were examined using item response theory. RESULTS: 184 participants (113 females; 71 males) completed a questionnaire (response 85%), seven participants were excluded due to missing responses. The mean age of participants was 12·9 years (SD 1·4) and they had a wide range of malocclusions. The majority were White British (67·4%). Data from 47 participants were used to analyse test-retest reliability. Rasch analysis was undertaken, which further reduced the number of items in the questionnaire from 28 to 17. Unidimensionality of the scale was confirmed. The analysis also identified that the original 5-point response scale could be reduced to three points. The new measure demonstrated good criterion validity (r = 0·751; P < 0·001) and construct validity with the two global questions ('Overall bother' ρ = 0·733 and 'Life overall' ρ = 0·701). Internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0·906) and test-retest reliability Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC = 0·78; 95% CI 0·61-0·88) were also good. CONCLUSION: Cross-sectional testing has shown the new MIQ to be both valid and reliable. Further evaluation is required to confirm the generalisability as well as the ability of the new measure to detect change over time (responsiveness)

Regular Incidence Complexes, Polytopes, and C-Groups

Regular incidence complexes are combinatorial incidence structures generalizing regular convex polytopes, regular complex polytopes, various types of incidence geometries, and many other highly symmetric objects. The special case of abstract regular polytopes has been well-studied. The paper describes the combinatorial structure of a regular incidence complex in terms of a system of distinguished generating subgroups of its automorphism group or a flag-transitive subgroup. Then the groups admitting a flag-transitive action on an incidence complex are characterized as generalized string C-groups. Further, extensions of regular incidence complexes are studied, and certain incidence complexes particularly close to abstract polytopes, called abstract polytope complexes, are investigated.Comment: 24 pages; to appear in "Discrete Geometry and Symmetry", M. Conder, A. Deza, and A. Ivic Weiss (eds), Springe