Association of angiitis of central nervous system, cerebral amyloid angiopathy, and Alzheimer's disease: Report of an autopsy case

The association of angiitis of central nervous system (ACNS) with cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) suggests a physiopathological relationship between these two affections. Few cases are reported in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We describe here a clinicopathological case associating ACNS, CAA, and AD. We discuss the aetiology of ACNS and its relationship with cerebral deposition of beta A4 amyloid protein (βA4)

Bond stress between reinforcement bars and fly ash-based geopolymer concrete

Geopolymer concrete is an innovative construction material that utilises industrial by-product materials, such as fly ash and slags to form a cement replacement for concrete manufacture. In order to simulate the behaviour of all types of reinforced concrete at all load levels, an understanding of the bond between the reinforcement and the concrete is required. This study involves 102 pullout test specimens with bar diameters of 12 to 16mm, concrete cover-to-diameter (Cc/db) ratios of 2, 3, 5.8 and 7.8, compressive strength of 33, 38 and 43MPa and a reinforcement corrosion level ranging from 0 to 85% in mass loss. The results show that the bond between the reinforcement and the geopolymer concrete is stronger than the bond that exists between the reinforcement and ordinary Portland cement (OPC)-based concrete. Hence, existing models for OPC can be used as a lower-bounds estimate for analysis and design. Alternatively, new predictive models for the local bond properties and the bond strength variation with corrosion are presented for geopolymer concrete. The results also show that the influence of the Cc/db ratio on the bond strength reduces as the Cc/db ratio increases, while the influence of the compressive strength on the bond strength remains virtual. This is because increasing the compressive strength leads to an increase in the bond strength.Mohammad Albitar, Mohamed Ali, Phillip Visintin, Olivier Lavigne and Erwin Gambo

Restrictive ID policies: implications for health equity

We wish to thank Synod Community Services for their critical work to develop, support, and implement a local government-issued ID in Washtenaw County, MI. We also thank Yousef Rabhi of the Michigan House of Representatives and Janelle Fa'aola of the Washtenaw ID Task Force, Lawrence Kestenbaum of the Washtenaw County Clerk's Office, Sherriff Jerry Clayton of the Washtenaw County Sherriff's Office, and the Washtenaw ID Task Force for their tireless commitment to developing and supporting the successful implementation of the Washtenaw ID. Additionally, we thank Vicenta Vargas and Skye Hillier for their contributions to the Washtenaw ID evaluation. We thank the Curtis Center for Research and Evaluation at the University of Michigan School of Social Work, the National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan, and the University of California-Irvine Department of Chicano/Latino Studies and Program in Public Health for their support of the Washtenaw ID community-academic research partnership. Finally, we thank the reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript. (Curtis Center for Research and Evaluation at the University of Michigan School of Social Work; National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan; University of California-Irvine Department of Chicano/Latino Studies; Program in Public Health)https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10903-017-0579-3.pdfPublished versio

Short-term exposure to ambient air pollution and individual emergency department visits for COVID-19: A case-crossover study in Canada

BACKGROUND: Ambient air pollution is thought to contribute to increased risk of COVID-19, but the evidence is controversial. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the associations between short-term variations in outdoor concentrations of ambient air pollution and COVID-19 emergency department (ED) visits. METHODS: We conducted a case-crossover study of 78 255 COVID-19 ED visits in Alberta and Ontario, Canada between 1 March 2020 and 31 March 2021. Daily air pollution data (ie, fine particulate matter with diameter less than 2.5 µm (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone were assigned to individual case of COVID-19 in 10 km × 10 km grid resolution. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate associations between air pollution and ED visits for COVID-19. RESULTS: Cumulative ambient exposure over 0-3 days to PM2.5 (OR 1.010; 95% CI 1.004 to 1.015, per 6.2 µg/m3) and NO2 (OR 1.021; 95% CI 1.015 to 1.028, per 7.7 ppb) concentrations were associated with ED visits for COVID-19. We found that the association between PM2.5 and COVID-19 ED visits was stronger among those hospitalised following an ED visit, as a measure of disease severity, (OR 1.023; 95% CI 1.015 to 1.031) compared with those not hospitalised (OR 0.992; 95% CI 0.980 to 1.004) (p value for effect modification=0.04). CONCLUSIONS: We found associations between short-term exposure to ambient air pollutants and COVID-19 ED visits. Exposure to air pollution may also lead to more severe COVID-19 disease

Virulence Potential and Genomic Mapping of the Worldwide Clone Escherichia coli ST131

Recently, the worldwide propagation of clonal CTX-M-15-producing Escherichia coli isolates, namely ST131 and O25b:H4, has been reported. Like the majority of extra-intestinal pathogenic E. coli isolates, the pandemic clone ST131 belongs to phylogenetic group B2, and has recently been shown to be highly virulent in a mouse model, even though it lacks several genes encoding key virulence factors (Pap, Cnf1 and HlyA). Using two animal models, Caenorhabditis elegans and zebrafish embryos, we assessed the virulence of three E. coli ST131 strains (2 CTX-M-15- producing urine and 1 non-ESBL-producing faecal isolate), comparing them with five non-ST131 B2 and a group A uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC). In C. elegans, the three ST131 strains showed intermediate virulence between the non virulent group A isolate and the virulent non-ST131 B2 strains. In zebrafish, the CTX-M-15-producing ST131 UPEC isolates were also less virulent than the non-ST131 B2 strains, suggesting that the production of CTX-M-15 is not correlated with enhanced virulence. Amongst the non-ST131 B2 group isolates, variation in pathogenic potential in zebrafish embryos was observed ranging from intermediate to highly virulent. Interestingly, the ST131 strains were equally persistent in surviving embryos as the non-ST131-group B2 strains, suggesting similar mechanisms may account for development of persistent infection. Optical maps of the genome of the ST131 strains were compared with those of 24 reference E. coli strains. Although small differences were seen within the ST131 strains, the tree built on the optical maps showed that these strains belonged to a specific cluster (86% similarity) with only 45% similarity with the other group B2 strains and 25% with strains of group A and D. Thus, the ST131 clone has a genetic composition that differs from other group B2 strains, and appears to be less virulent than previously suspected

Overlap between individual differences in cognition and symptoms of schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND Neurocognitive impairment is a core feature of schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs), and the relationship between cognition and symptoms in SSDs has been widely researched. Negative symptoms are related to a wide range of cognitive impairments; however, the aspects of negative symptoms that underpin this relationship have yet to be specified. STUDY DESIGN We used iterative Constrained Principal Component Analysis (iCPCA) to explore the relationship between 18 cognitive measures (including processing speed, attention, working, spatial and verbal memory and executive functions) and 46 symptoms in schizophrenia at the individual item level while minimizing the risk of Type I errors. ICPCA was conducted on a sample of SSD patients in the early stages of psychiatric treatment (n = 121) to determine the components of cognition overlapping with symptoms measured by the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) and the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS). RESULTS We found that a verbal memory component was associated with items from SANS and SAPS related to impoverished and disorganized emotional communication, language, and thought. In contrast, a working memory component was associated with SANS items related to motor system impoverishment. CONCLUSIONS The iCPCA allowed us to explore the associations between individual items, optimized to understand the overlap between symptoms and cognition. The specific symptoms linked to verbal and working memory impairments imply distinct brain networks, which further investigation may lead to our deeper understanding of the illness and the development of treatment methods

Conception of an anti-infectious and MRI visible mesh used for pelvic organs prolapse and abdominal hernias surgery

International audienceLa pose chirurgicale de prothèses afin de pallier les descentes d'organes de la zone pelvienne ou pariétale est une opération de plus en plus fréquente et requière l'implantation de plus de 1 200 000 dispositifs médicaux annuellement. Or, les cas de complications et de réinterventions chirurgicales restent très élevés, principalement dus aux infections associées à une réponse inflammatoire importante, ainsi qu'aux érosions, expositions et migrations des prothèses. Ces travaux présentent différentes stratégies permettant d'apporter des propriétés de résistance à l'infection et de suivi postopératoire à l'aide d'une visibilité en IRM à des treillis. Pour cela, un enrobage de polymères dégradables (polyesters) piégeant des antibiotiques est créé à l'aide d'un aérographe autour des filaments des treillis tout en conservant leurs aspects morphologiques et leurs propriétés mécaniques. Cet enrobage temporaire permet une libération prolongée de principes actifs inhibant l'adhésion bactérienne, la formation de biofilm et la prolifération bactérienne périprothétique pendant plus de trois jours in vitro. Parallèlement, des polymères contenant des agents de contraste greffés sur leur squelette carboné ont été utilisés comme agent d'enrobage, afin d'apporter des propriétés de visibilité en IRM aux treillis. In vitro, ces treillis enrobés induisent un signal significatif en IRM expérimentale (7 Tesla) et présentent une très bonne stabilité de l'agent de contraste, quelle que soit la technique de stérilisation employée. Surgical operations for soft tissue reinforcement (i.e. pelvic organs prolapse or abdominal hernias) are common procedures and require annually at least 1,200,000 of prostheses. Unfortunately, postoperatory complications and reinterventions are still important, mainly due to infection, inflammation, erosion, exposition or meshes migration. We present here several strategies to bring to meshes anti-infective resistance and clinical follow-up capability through an MRI visible material. A coating of the mesh by degradable polymers (polyesters) trapping antibiotics was created using an airbrushing technique, without modifying dramatically the morphology and the mechanical properties of the meshes. This temporary drug reservoir-coating allows a sustained release of the drugs and hamper in vitro bacterial contamination and biofilm formation on the meshes, associated to a large periprosthetic microorganism growth inhibition for a minimum of three days. Simultaneously, magnetic resonance contras

Oro-facial pain experience among symphony orchestra musicians in Finland is associated with reported stress, sleep bruxism and disrupted sleep-Independent of the instrument group

Background To evaluate whether oro-facial pain experience was related to the type of musical instrument and to learn more about the roles of sleep and sleep-related issues in the pain among professional musicians. Objectives A standard questionnaire was sent to all Finnish symphony orchestras (n = 19), with altogether 1005 professional musicians and other personnel. Methods The questionnaire covered descriptive data, instrument group, items on perceived quality of sleep, possible sleep bruxism, stress experience and oro-facial pain experience during the past 30 days. Results In the present study, which included the musicians only, the response rate was 58.7% (n = 488). All orchestras participated in the study, and there was no significant difference in the response rate between the orchestras. The mean age of men (52.3%) was 47.7 (SD 10.3) and of women (47.7%) was 43.4 (SD 9.8) years (P <0.001). Overall, current pain in the oro-facial area was reported by 28.9%, frequent bruxism by 12.1% and frequent stress by 20.8%. According to Somers' d, there were statistically significant but moderate correlations between overall pain reports in the oro-facial area and disrupted sleep (d = 0.127, P = 0.001), sleep bruxism (d = 0.241, P <0.001) and stress experiences (d = 0.193, P <0.001). Logistic regression revealed, independent of the instrument group (string, woodwind, brass wind, percussion), that current oro-facial pain experience was significantly associated with disrupted sleep (P = 0.001), frequent sleep bruxism (P <0.001) and frequent stress (P = 0.002) experiences. Conclusions Among symphony orchestra musicians, oro-facial pain experience seems to be related to perceptions of stress, sleep bruxism and disrupted sleep rather than the instrument group.Peer reviewe