Occurrence and phenomenology of hallucinations in the general population: A large online survey

Although epidemiological studies report that hallucinations occur in 6–15% of the general population, little is known about their phenomenology. To overcome this paucity, this study investigates the phenomenological characteristics of hallucinations in the general population, by using a nationally promoted online survey to assess hallucination phenomenology in four sensory modalities, through a self-report version of the Questionnaire for Psychotic Experiences (QPE), in 10,448 participants (aged 14–88 years). The phenomenology of hallucinations was assessed if hallucinations reportedly occurred in the past month. In the past month, auditory hallucinations were reported most frequently (29.5%), followed by visual (21.5%), tactile (19.9%), and olfactory hallucinations (17.3%); hallucinations in two or more modalities were reported by 47.6%. Substantial numbers of participants rated their hallucinations as severe, due to negative content (16.0–31.6%), previous bothersome experiences (14.8–20.2%), ensuing distress (10.5–16.8%), and/or ensuing disfunctioning (12.7–17.3%). Decreased insight was found in 10.2–11.4%. Hypnagogia was reported by 9.0–10.6%, and bereavement hallucinations by 2.8%. Despite a low prevalence of delusions (7.0%), these phenomena were significantly associated with recent hallucinations, observed in up to 13.4% of the participants with hallucinations during the past week (p < 0.001). Our results indicate a wide variety of the phenomenology of hallucinations in the general population and support the existence of a phenomenological continuum.publishedVersio

The association of female sex with management and mortality in patients with Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia

Objectives: The association of biological female sex with outcome in patients with Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia remains unresolved. The aim of this study was to determine the independent association of female sex with management and mortality in patients with S. aureus bacteraemia.Methods: This is a post hoc analysis of prospectively collected data from the S. aureus Bacteraemia Group Prospective Cohort Study. Adult patients with monomicrobial S. aureus bacteraemia at Duke University Medical Center were enrolled from 1994 to 2020. Univariable and multivariable Cox regression analyses were performed to assess differences in management and mortality between females and males.Results: Among 3384 patients with S. aureus bacteraemia, 1431 (42%) were women. Women were, as compared with men, more often Black (581/1431 [41%] vs. 620/1953 [32%], p < 0.001), haemodialysis dependent (309/1424 [22%] vs. 334/1940 [17%], p 0.001) and more likely to be infected with methicillinresistant S. aureus (MRSA) (697/1410 [49%] MRSA in women vs. 840/1925 [44%] MRSA in men, p 0.001). Women received shorter durations of antimicrobial treatment (median 24 [interquartile range 14-42] vs. 28 [interquartile range 14-45] days, p 0.005), and were less likely to undergo transesophageal echocardiography as compared with men (495/1430 [35%] vs. 802/1952 [41%], p < 0.001). Despite these differences, female sex was not associated with 90-day mortality in either univariable (388/1431 [27%] in women vs. 491/1953 [25%] in men, p 0.204) or multivariable analysis (adjusted hazard ratio for women 0.98 [95% CI, 0.85-1.13]).Discussion: Despite significant differences in patient characteristics, disease characteristics, and management, women and men with S. aureus bacteraemia have a similar mortality risk. Annette C. Westgeest, Clin Microbiol Infect 2023;29:1182Immunogenetics and cellular immunology of bacterial infectious disease

Burgerschap in het basisonderwijs:Technisch rapport Peil.Burgerschap 2020

Ruimte voor verbetering burgerschapscompetentiesHet niveau van burgerschapscompetenties, burgerschapskennis en -houdingen van groep 8-leerlingen blijkt anno 2020 niet onverdeeld gunstig. Zo beantwoordde een kwart van de leerlingen driekwart van de kennisvragen fout. Een kwart de leerlingen beantwoordde ten minste de helft van de kennisvragen goed. Het niveau van burgerschapskennis van leerlingen blijkt vergeleken met 2009 wat lager. De meerderheid van de leerlingen scoort relatief laag op burgerschapshoudingen.Omvangrijk onderzoek in het basisonderwijsDit blijkt uit Peil.burgerschap, een omvangrijk onderzoek, uitgevoerd door de afdeling Pedagogische en Onderwijswetenschappen van de Universiteit van Amsterdam, het Kohnstamm Instituut, het GION van de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen en het Cito. Aan het onderzoek deden 2.237 groep 8-leerlingen mee van 94 basisscholen. Gegevens zijn verzameld onder leerlingen, leerkrachten en schoolleiders. Peil.burgerschap geeft inzicht in de burgerschapscompetenties van leerlingen en het burgerschapsonderwijs aan het einde van het basisonderwijs. Het maakt onderdeel uit van Peil.onderwijs: een serie periodieke onderzoeken onder de regie van de Inspectie van het Onderwijs naar domeinen van onderwijskwaliteit

Recommendations for antibacterial therapy in adults with COVID-19-an evidence based guideline

Scope: The Dutch Working Party on Antibiotic Policy constituted a multidisciplinary expert committee to provide evidence-based recommendation for the use of antibacterial therapy in hospitalized adults with a respiratory infection and suspected or proven 2019 Coronavirus disease (COVID-19).Methods: We performed a literature search to answer four key questions. The committee graded the evidence and developed recommendations by using Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation methodology.Questions addressed by the guideline and Recommendations: We assessed evidence on the risk of bacterial infections in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, the associated bacterial pathogens, how to diagnose bacterial infections and how to treat bacterial infections. Bacterial co-infection upon admission was reported in 3.5% of COVID-19 patients, while bacterial secondary infections during hospitalization occurred up to 15%. No or very low quality evidence was found to answer the other key clinical questions. Although the evidence base on bacterial infections in COVID-19 is currently limited, available evidence supports restrictive antibiotic use from an antibiotic stewardship perspective, especially upon admission. To support restrictive antibiotic use, maximum efforts should be undertaken to obtain sputum and blood culture samples as well as pneumococcal urinary antigen testing. We suggest to stop antibiotics in patients who started antibiotic treatment upon admission when representative cultures as well as urinary antigen tests show no signs of involvement of bacterial pathogens after 48 hours. For patients with secondary bacterial respiratory infection we recommend to follow other guideline recommendations on antibacterial treatment for patients with hospital-acquired and ventilator-associated pneumonia. An antibiotic treatment duration of five days in patients with COVID-19 and suspected bacterial respiratory infection is recommended upon improvement of signs, symptoms and inflammatory markers. Larger, prospective studies about the epidemiology of bacterial infections in COVID-19 are urgently needed to confirm our conclusions and ultimately prevent unnecessary antibiotic use during the COVID-19 pandemic. (C) 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.Immunogenetics and cellular immunology of bacterial infectious disease

Possibilities and challenges of the potato genome sequence

This paper describes the progress that has been made since the draft genome sequence of potato has been obtained and the analyses that need to be done to make further progress. Although sequencing has become less expensive and read lengths have increased, making optimal use of the information obtained is still difficult, certainly in the tetraploid potato crop. Major challenges in potato genomics are standardized genome assembly and haplotype analysis. Sequencing methods need to be improved further to achieve precision breeding. With the current new generation sequencing technology, the focus in potato breeding will shift from phenotype improvement to genotype improvement. In this respect, it is essential to realize that different alleles of the same gene can lead to different phenotypes depending on the genetic background and that there is significant epistatic interaction between different alleles. Genome-wide association studies will gain statistical power when binary single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data can be replaced with multi-allelic haplotype data. Binary SNP can be distributed across the many different alleles per locus or may be haplotype-specific, and potentially tag specific alleles which clearly differ in their contribution to a certain trait value. Assembling reads from the same linkage phase proved to allow constructing sufficiently long haplotype tracts to ensure their uniqueness. Combining large phenotyping data sets with modern approaches to sequencing and haplotype analysis and proper software will allow the efficiency of potato breeding to increase

Lectures on conformal field theory and Kac-Moody algebras

This is an introduction to the basic ideas and to a few further selected topics in conformal quantum field theory and in the theory of Kac-Moody algebras.Comment: 59 pages, LaTeX2e, extended version of lectures given at the Graduate Course on Conformal Field Theory and Integrable Models (Budapest, August 1996), to appear in Springer Lecture Notes in Physic

Wound drainage after arthroplasty and prediction of acute prosthetic joint infection: prospective data from a multicentre cohort study using atelemonitoring app

Background: Differentiation between uncomplicated and complicated postoperative wound drainage after arthroplasty is crucial to prevent unnecessary reoperation.Prospective data about the duration and amount of postoperative wounddrainage in patients with and without prosthetic joint infection (PJI) are currently absent.Methods: A multicentre cohort study was conducted to assess the duration and amount of wound drainage in patients after arthroplasty. During 30 postoperative days after arthroplasty, patients recorded their wound status in a previously developed wound care app and graded the amount of wound drainage on a 5-point scale. Data about PJI in the follow-up period were extracted from the patient files.Results: Of the 1019 included patients, 16 patients (1.6 %) developed a PJI. Minor wound drainage decreased from the first to the fourth postoperative week from 50 % to 3 %. Both moderate to severe wound drainage in the third week and newly developed wound drainage in the second week after a week without drainage were strongly associated with PJI (odds ratio (OR) 103.23, 95 % confidence interval (CI)26.08 to 408.57, OR 80.71, 95 % CI 9.12 to 714.52, respectively). Thepositive predictive value (PPV) for PJI was 83 % for moderate to heavy wound drainage in the third week. Conclusion: Moderate to heavy wound drainage and persistent wound drainage were stronglyassociated with PJI. The PPV of wound drainage for PJI was high for moderate to heavy drainage in the third week but was low for drainage in the first week. Therefore, additional parameters are needed to guide the decision to reoperate on patients for suspected acute PJI.Orthopaedics, Trauma Surgery and Rehabilitatio