Plasma wave measurements for the Mariner to Venus and Mercury Final report of the Plasma Wave Instrument Science Advisory Team for the 1973 Mercury/Venus mission design

Very low frequency electric and magnetic wave measurements for Mariner Venus Mercury 1973 missio

Comparison of oral and vaginal metronidazole for treatment of bacterial vaginosis in pregnancy: impact on fastidious bacteria

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is a common condition that is associated with preterm birth and acquisition of complex communities of vaginal bacteria that include several fastidious species. Treatment of BV in pregnancy has mixed effects on the risk of preterm delivery, which some hypothesize is due to variable antibiotic efficacy for the fastidious bacteria. Both oral and intravaginal metronidazole can be used to treat bacterial vaginosis in pregnancy, but little is known about the impact of different routes of antibiotic administration on concentrations of fastidious vaginal bacteria.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This was a sub-study of a larger randomized trial of oral versus vaginal metronidazole for treatment of BV in pregnancy. Fifty-three women were evaluated, including 30 women who received oral metronidazole and 23 who received intravaginal metronidazole. Bacterial taxon-specific quantitative PCR assays were used to measure concentrations of bacterial vaginosis associated bacterium (BVAB) 1, 2, and 3, <it>Gardnerella vaginalis, Atopobium </it>species, <it>Leptotrichia/Sneathia </it>species, <it>Megasphaera </it>species, and <it>Lactobacillus crispatus </it>before and after antibiotic treatment.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Concentrations of <it>Leptotrichia </it>and <it>Sneathia </it>spp. and the fastidious Clostridia-like bacterium designated BVAB1 decreased significantly with oral (p = .002, p = .02) but not vaginal therapy (p = .141, p = .126). The fastidious bacterium BVAB3 did not significantly decrease with either treatment. Concentrations of <it>Atopobium </it>spp., reportedly resistant to metronidazole <it>in vitro</it>, dropped significantly with oral (p = .002) and vaginal (p = .001) treatment. There was no significant difference in the magnitude of change in bacterial concentrations between oral and vaginal treatment arms for any of the bacterial species. <it>Lactobacillus crispatus </it>concentrations did not change.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Both oral and vaginal metronidazole therapy in pregnant women result in a significant decrease in concentrations of most BV-associated anaerobic bacteria, with the exception that <it>Leptotrichia, Sneathia </it>and BVAB1 do not significantly decrease with vaginal metronidazole therapy. These data suggest that the route of antibiotic administration has a minor impact on bacterial eradication in pregnant women with BV.</p> <p>Trail Registration</p> <p>This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00153517</p

Daily changes in phytoplankton lipidomes reveal mechanisms of energy storage in the open ocean

© The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Nature Communications 9 (2018): 5179, doi:10.1038/s41467-018-07346-z.Sunlight is the dominant control on phytoplankton biosynthetic activity, and darkness deprives them of their primary external energy source. Changes in the biochemical composition of phytoplankton communities over diel light cycles and attendant consequences for carbon and energy flux in environments remain poorly elucidated. Here we use lipidomic data from the North Pacific subtropical gyre to show that biosynthesis of energy-rich triacylglycerols (TAGs) by eukaryotic nanophytoplankton during the day and their subsequent consumption at night drives a large and previously uncharacterized daily carbon cycle. Diel oscillations in TAG concentration comprise 23 ± 11% of primary production by eukaryotic nanophytoplankton representing a global flux of about 2.4 Pg C yr−1. Metatranscriptomic analyses of genes required for TAG biosynthesis indicate that haptophytes and dinoflagellates are active members in TAG production. Estimates suggest that these organisms could contain as much as 40% more calories at sunset than at sunrise due to TAG production.This work was supported by a grant from the Simons Foundation, and is a contribution of the Simons Collaboration on Ocean Processes and Ecology (SCOPE award # 329108, B.A.S.V.M.). K.W.B. was further supported by the Postdoctoral Scholarship Program at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution & U.S. Geological Survey

Practices and motives behind antibiotics provision in drug outlets in Tanzania : a qualitative study

Funding: This study was part of the larger 3-country Holistic Approach to Unravel Antibacterial Resistance in East Africa (HATUA) project funded by the National Institute for Health Research, Medical Research Council and the Department of Health and Social Care, Award (MR/S004785/1).Dispensing antibiotics without prescription is among the major factors leading to antimicrobial resistance. Dispensing of antibiotics without prescription has negative impact at the individual and societal level leading to poor patient outcomes, and increased risks of resistant bacteria facilitated by inappropriate choice of antibiotics doses/courses. Antimicrobial resistance is a global public health threat which is projected to cause 10 million deaths by 2050 if no significant actions are taken to address this problem This study explored the practices and motives behind dispensing of antibiotics without prescription among community drug outlets in Tanzania. Finding of this study provides more strategies to antibiotics stewardship intervention. In-depth interviews with 28 drug dispensers were conducted for three months consecutively between November 2019 and January 2020 in 12 community pharmacies and 16 Accredited Drug Dispensing Outlets (ADDOs) in the Mwanza, Kilimanjaro and Mbeya regions of Tanzania. Transcripts were coded and analyzed thematically using NVivo12 software. Majority of dispensers admitted to providing antibiotics without prescriptions, selling incomplete courses of antibiotics and not giving detailed instructions to customers on how to use the drugs. These practices were motivated by several factors including customers’ pressure/customers’ demands, business orientation-financial gain of drug dispensers, and low purchasing power of patients/customers. It is important to address the motives behind the unauthorized dispensing antibiotics. On top of the existing regulation and enforcement, we recommend the government to empower customers with education and purchasing power of drugs which can enhance the dispensers adherence to the dispensing regulations. Furthermore, we recommend ethnographic research to inform antibiotic stewardship interventions going beyond awareness raising, education and advocacy campaigns. This will address structural drivers of AMR such as poverty and inadequate government health services, and the disconnect between public messaging and/or policy and the public itself.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Understanding the Behaviours Employed by Parents to Support the Psychological Development of Elite Youth Tennis Players in England

The current study had two objectives: (1) to explore which psychological skills (e.g., self-talk and imagery) and characteristics (e.g., motivation and focus) (PSCs) parents deemed important for their children’s development, and (2) to investigate and understand the parental behaviours that supported the growth or development of these PSCs. A nine-month qualitative study comprising observations of and semi-structured interviews with 15 parents of 11 British male elite youth tennis players (8-15 years of age) took place. Results suggested that parents were sceptical of the development of psychological skills due to (1) a perceived inability to support the development effectively, (2) a misconception of psychological skills, and (3) concerns about unnecessary pressure. Despite this, parents reported the use of four behaviours in an effort to develop psychological characteristics within their children, including (1) talking about valuable psychological characteristics, (2) intentionally creating learning opportunities, (3) enabling athletes to go the extra mile, and (4) fostering developmentally beneficial peer relationships. Although well intended, these behaviours were usually informed by intermittent self-education, sometimes resulting in unwanted consequences such as the establishment of performance orientated climates. The results of this study add to the youth sport literature by providing insight into sport parents’ perceptions of PSCs, as well as the behaviours they employed to support their children’s psychological development. Additionally, it reinforces the need for more formalised parental education opportunities to support parents’ positive involvement in their children’s sporting lives

Estimating Level of Engagement from Ocular Landmarks

E-learning offers many advantages like being economical, flexible and customizable, but also has challenging aspects such as lack of – social-interaction, which results in contemplation and sense of remoteness. To overcome these and sustain learners’ motivation, various stimuli can be incorporated. Nevertheless, such adjustments initially require an assessment of engagement level. In this respect, we propose estimating engagement level from facial landmarks exploiting the facts that (i) perceptual decoupling is promoted by blinking during mentally demanding tasks; (ii) eye strain increases blinking rate, which also scales with task disengagement; (iii) eye aspect ratio is in close connection with attentional state and (iv) users’ head position is correlated with their level of involvement. Building empirical models of these actions, we devise a probabilistic estimation framework. Our results indicate that high and low levels of engagement are identified with considerable accuracy, whereas medium levels are inherently more challenging, which is also confirmed by inter-rater agreement of expert coders

Treatment seeking and antibiotic use for urinary tract infection symptoms in the time of COVID-19 in Tanzania and Uganda

Funding: CARE: COVID-19 and Antimicrobial Resistance in East Africa – impact and response is a Global Effort on COVID-19 (GECO) Health Research Award (MR/V036157/1) funded by UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council) and the Department of Health and Social Care (National Institute for Health Research).Background There is still little empirical evidence on how the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and associated regulations may have disrupted care-seeking for non-COVID-19 conditions or affected antibiotic behaviours in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We aimed to investigate the differences in treatment-seeking behaviours and antibiotic use for urinary tract infection (UTI)-like symptoms before and during the pandemic at recruitment sites in two East African countries with different COVID-19 control policies: Mbarara, Uganda and Mwanza, Tanzania. Methods In this repeated cross-sectional study, we used data from outpatients (pregnant adolescents aged >14 and adults aged >18) with UTI-like symptoms who visited health facilities in Mwanza, Tanzania and Mbarara, Uganda. We assessed the prevalence of self-reported behaviours (delays in care-seeking, providers visited, antibiotics taken) at three different time points, labelled as ‘pre-COVID-19 phase’ (February 2019 to February 2020), ‘COVID-19 phase 1’ (March 2020 to April 2020), and ‘COVID-19 phase 2’ (July 2021 to February 2022). Results In both study sites, delays in care-seeking were less common during the pandemic than they were in the pre-COVID phase. Patients in Mwanza, Tanzania had shorter care-seeking pathways during the pandemic compared to before it, but this difference was not observed in Mbarara, Uganda. Health centres were the dominant sources of antibiotics in both settings. Over time, reported antibiotic use for UTI-like symptoms became more common in both settings. During the COVID-19 phases, there was a significant increase in self-reported use of antibiotics like metronidazole (<30% in the pre-COVID-19 phase to 40% in COVID phase 2) and doxycycline (30% in the pre-COVID-19 phase to 55% in COVID phase 2) that were not recommended for treating UTI-like symptoms in the National Treatment Guidelines in Mbarara, Uganda. Conclusions There was no clear evidence that patients with UTI-like symptoms attending health care facilities had longer or more complex treatment pathways despite strict government-led interventions related to COVID-19. However, antibiotic use increased over time, including some antibiotics not recommended for treating UTI, which has implications for future antimicrobial resistance.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

University student engagement inventory (USEI): psychometric properties

Academic engagement describes students’ investment in academic learning and achievement and is an important indicator of students’ adjustment to university life, particularly in the first year. A tridimensional conceptualization of academic engagement has been accepted (behavioral, emotional and cognitive dimensions). This paper tests the dimensionality, internal consistency reliability and invariance of the University Student Engagement Inventory (USEI) taking into consideration both gender and the scientific area of graduation. A sample of 908 Portuguese first-year university students was considered. Good evidence of reliability has been obtained with ordinal alpha and omega values. Confirmatory factor analysis substantiates the theoretical dimensionality proposed (second-order latent factor), internal consistency reliability evidence indicates good values and the results suggest measurement invariance across gender and the area of graduation. The present study enhances the role of the USEI regarding the lack of consensus on the dimensionality and constructs delimitation of academic engagement.Jorge Sinval received funding from the William James Center for Research, Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT UID/PSI/04810/2013). Leandro S. Almeida and Joana R. Casanova received funding from CIEd – Research Centre on Education, projects UID/CED/1661/2013 and UID/CED/1661/2016, Institute of Education, University of Minho, through national funds of FCT/MCTES-PT. Joana R. Casanova received funding from the Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT) as a Doctoral Grant, under grant agreement number SFRH/BD/117902/2016.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Putting Youth on the Map: A Pilot Instrument for Assessing Youth Well-Being

Extant measures of adolescent well-being in the United States typically focus on negative indicators of youth outcomes. Indices comprised of such measures paint bleak views of youth and orient action toward the prevention of problems over the promotion of protective factors. Their tendency to focus analyses at a state or county geographic scale produces limited information about localized outcome patterns that could inform policymakers, practitioners and advocacy networks. We discuss the construction of a new geo-referenced index of youth well-being based on positive indicators of youth development. In demonstrating the index for the greater Sacramento, California region of the United States, we find that overall youth well-being falls far short of an optimal outcome, and geographic disparities in well-being appear to exist across school districts at all levels of our analysis. Despite its limitations, the sub-county geographic scale of this index provides needed data to facilitate local and regional interventions

Bacterial Vaginosis (BV) Candidate Bacteria: Associations with BV and Behavioural Practices in Sexually-Experienced and Inexperienced Women

BACKGROUND: In recent years several new fastidious bacteria have been identified that display a high specificity for BV; however no previous studies have comprehensively assessed the behavioural risk associations of these bacterial vaginosis-candidate organisms (BV-COs). METHODS: We examined the associations between 8 key previously described BV-COs and BV status established by Nugent's score (NS). We also examined the sexual practices associated with each BV-CO. We incorporated 2 study populations: 193 from a sexually-inexperienced university population and 146 from a highly sexually-active clinic population. Detailed behavioural data was collected by questionnaire and vaginal smears were scored by the Nugent method. Stored samples were tested by quantitative PCR assays for the 8 BV-COs: Atopobium vaginae, Gardnerella vaginalis, Leptotrichia spp., Megasphaera type I, Sneathia spp., and the Clostridia-like bacteria BVAB1, BVAB2 and BVAB3. Associations between BV-COs and BV and behaviours were examined by univariate and multivariable analyses. RESULTS: On univariate analysis, all BV-COs were more common in BV compared to normal flora. However, only Megasphaera type I, BVAB2, A. vaginae and G. vaginalis were significantly independently associated with BV by multivariable analysis. Six of the eight BV-COs (Megasphaera type I, BVAB2, BVAB3, Sneathia, Leptotrichia and G. vaginalis) were rare or absent in sexually-unexposed women, and demonstrated increasing odds of detection with increasing levels of sexual activity and/or numbers of lifetime sexual partners. Only G. vaginalis and A. vaginae were commonly detected in sexually-unexposed women. Megasphaera type I was independently associated with women-who-have-sex-with women (WSW) and lifetime sexual partner numbers, while unprotected penile-vaginal-sex was associated with BVAB2 detection by multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Four of eight key BV-COs were significantly associated with BV after adjusting for the presence of other BV-COs. The majority of BV-COs were absent or rare in sexually-unexposed women, and associated with increasing sexual exposure, suggesting potential sexual transmission of BV-COs