Book reviews

Book ReviewsWhen We Were Alone, David A. Robertson and Julie Flett (2016) Winnipeg, Manitoba: Highwater Press, 24 pp., ISBN: 978-1-55379-673-2, h/bk, £14.25.Frankenstein or, The Modern Prometheus: The 200th Anniversary Edition, Mary Shelley (author) and David Plunkert (illus.) (2018) Beverly: Rockport Publishers-The Quarto Group, 248 pp., ISBN 978-1-63159-397-0, h/bk, $25.00Party Pieces: Oral Storytelling and Social Performance in Joyce and Beckett, Alan W. Friedman (2007) New York: Syracuse University Press, 256 pp., ISBN 978-0-81563-123-1, h/bk, £43.95Journeys from the Abyss: The Holocaust and Forced Migration from the 1880s to the Present, Tony Kushner (2016) Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 360 pp., ISBN: 978-1-78694-062-9, h/bk, £85.00, p/bk, £24.95, ebook £24.95</div

Additional file 1. of Preparing linked population data for research: cohort study of prisoner perinatal health outcomes

CHeReL linkage summary. This is a copy of the final linkage summary provided to researchers by the Centre for Health Records Linkage (CHeReL) for the MAGIC project. (PDF 112 kb

Data_Sheet_1_COVID-19 and the risk of CNS demyelinating diseases: A systematic review.docx

BackgroundViral infections are a proposed possible cause of inflammatory central nervous system (CNS) demyelinating diseases, including multiple sclerosis (MS), neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD), and myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disease (MOGAD). During the past 2 years, CNS demyelinating events associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection have been reported, but causality is unclear.ObjectiveTo investigate the relationship between CNS demyelinating disease development and exacerbation with antecedent and/or concurrent SARS-CoV-2 infection.MethodsA systematic literature review of all publications describing either a new diagnosis or relapse of CNS demyelinating diseases (MS, NMOSD, MOGAD) in association with SARS-CoV-2 infection was performed utilizing PRISMA guidelines. Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis, using a case analysis approach.ResultsSixty-seven articles met the inclusion criteria for the study. Most of the reported cases of NMOSD (n = 13, 72.2% of reported cases) and MOGAD (n = 27, 96.5% of reported cases) were of new disease onset, presenting with typical clinical and radiographic features of these conditions, respectively. In contrast, reported MS cases varied amongst newly diagnosed cases (n = 10, 10.5% of reported cases), relapses (n = 63, 66.4%) and pseudo-relapses (n = 22, 23.2%). The median duration between COVID-19 infection and demyelinating event onset was 11.5 days (range 0–90 days) in NMOSD, 6 days (range−7 to +45 days) in MOGAD, and 13.5 days (range−21 to +180 days) in MS. Most cases received high-dose corticosteroids with a good clinical outcome.ConclusionBased upon available literature, the rate of CNS demyelinating events occurring in the setting of preceding or concurrent SARS-CoV-2 infection is relatively low considering the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The clinical outcomes of new onset or relapsing MS, NMOSD, or MOGAD associated with antecedent or concurrent infection were mostly favorable. Larger prospective epidemiological studies are needed to better delineate the impact of COVID-19 on CNS demyelinating diseases.</p

Additional file 1: Figure S1. of Public health impact of strain specific immunity to Borrelia burgdorferi

The proportion of cases occurring in patients with a prior infection and the proportion of averted cases increases exponentially with higher incidence rates in both the equilibrium dynamic (left column, panels A, C) and individual stochastic models (right column, panels B, D). The proportion of reinfections that are averted due to strain-specific immunity (bottom row, panels E, F) is constant across incidence rates in both models. The dashed lines describe the data output when strain-specific immunity is assumed to last 5 years; the black lines describe the data output when strain-specific immunity is assumed to last 30 years. (DOC 311 kb

Does premature elevated progesterone on the day of trigger increase spontaneous abortion rates in fresh and subsequent frozen embryo transfers?

<p>Recent evidence has shown elevated progesterone (<i>P</i>) advances the endometrium in fresh ART cycles, creating asynchrony with the embryo and thus implantation failure and decreased live birth rates. If the window of implantation is closing as the embryo attempts to implant, there may be difficulty with trophoblastic invasion, leading to failure of early pregnancies. Our objective was to evaluate if <i>P</i> on the day of trigger was associated with spontaneous abortion (SAB) rates in fresh ART transfers. This was a retrospective cohort study involving fresh autologous and FET cycles from 2011 to 2013. The main outcome was spontaneous abortion rates. About 4123 fresh and FET transfer cycles were included which resulted in 1547 fresh and 491 FET pregnancies. The overall SAB rate was 20% among fresh cycles and 19% in FET cycles. <i>P</i> on the day of trigger, as a continuous variable or when > 2 ng/mL, was not associated with SAB in fresh cycles. Similar results were found after adjusting for age, embryo quality, and embryo stage. Despite elevated <i>P</i> likely advancing the window of implantation, once implantation occurs, pregnancies were no longer negatively impacted by progesterone.</p

Additional file 2: Table S1. of Public health impact of strain specific immunity to Borrelia burgdorferi

Frequency of the different OspC types that were cultured from the skin of 200 patients with erythema migrans (17, 18) and expected percentage increase in total reinfections due to particular OspC types, if there were no strain specific immunity based on the deterministic probability model. Bold font indicates invasive OspC types, comprising 76.5 % of the total cases. (DOC 35 kb

Magnetic Nanoparticles for Ultrafast Mechanical Control of Inner Ear Hair Cells

We introduce cubic magnetic nanoparticles as an effective tool for precise and ultrafast control of mechanosensitive cells. The temporal resolution of our system is ∼1000 times faster than previously used magnetic switches and is comparable to the current state-of-the-art optogenetic tools. The use of a magnetism-gated switch reported here can address the key challenges of studying mechanotransduction in biological systems. The cube-shaped magnetic nanoparticles are designed to bind to components of cellular membranes and can be controlled with an electromagnet to exert pico-Newtons of mechanical force on the cells. The cubic nanoparticles can thus be used for noncontact mechanical control of the position of the stereocilia of an inner ear hair cell, yielding displacements of tens of nanometers, with sub-millisecond temporal resolution. We also prove that such mechanical stimulus leads to the influx of ions into the hair cell. Our study demonstrates that a magnetic switch can yield ultrafast temporal resolution, and has capabilities for remote manipulation and biological specificity, and that such magnetic system can be used for the study of mechanotransduction processes of a wide range of sensory systems

Iron Oxide Monocrystalline Nanoflowers for Highly Efficient Magnetic Hyperthermia

Magnetic nanoparticles exhibit a high potential to selectively treat cancer by hyperthermia provided that high heating capacity can be reached. In this work, we report an efficient synthesis of novel structures of magnetic iron oxide. The particles, obtained by applying a modified “polyol” protocol, present a particular shape: they look constituted of smaller grains of approximately 11 nm, assembled in a flower-shaped structure. These nanoflowers, dispersed in water at physiological pH, present particularly interesting magnetic properties and a great capacity of heating. The value of the specific loss power (SLP) of these nanoflowers is 1 order of magnitude higher than the SLP reported for conventional 11 nm single-domain maghemite nanoparticles in the same condition of field exposure