Reconstitution of full‐thickness skin by microcolumn grafting

Abstract In addition to providing a physical barrier, skin also serves a diverse range of physiological functions through different specialized resident cell types/structures, including melanocytes (pigmentation and protection against ultraviolet radiation), Langerhans cells (adaptive immunity), fibroblasts (maintaining extracellular matrix, paracrine regulation of keratinocytes), sweat glands (thermoregulation) and hair follicles (hair growth, sensation and a stem cell reservoir). Restoration of these functional elements has been a long‐standing challenge in efforts to engineer skin tissue, while autologous skin grafting is limited by the scarcity of donor site skin and morbidity caused by skin harvesting. We demonstrate an alternative approach of harvesting and then implanting μm‐scale, full‐thickness columns of human skin tissue, which can be removed from a donor site with minimal morbidity and no scarring. Fresh human skin microcolumns were used to reconstitute skin in wounds on immunodeficient mice. The restored skin recapitulated many key features of normal human skin tissue, including epidermal architecture, diverse skin cell populations, adnexal structures and sweat production in response to cholinergic stimulation. These promising preclinical results suggest that harvesting and grafting of microcolumns may be useful for reconstituting fully functional skin in human wounds, without donor site morbidity. © 2016 The Authors Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Awareness and preparedness of healthcare workers against the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional survey across 57 countries.

BACKGROUND: Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, there have been concerns related to the preparedness of healthcare workers (HCWs). This study aimed to describe the level of awareness and preparedness of hospital HCWs at the time of the first wave. METHODS: This multinational, multicenter, cross-sectional survey was conducted among hospital HCWs from February to May 2020. We used a hierarchical logistic regression multivariate analysis to adjust the influence of variables based on awareness and preparedness. We then used association rule mining to identify relationships between HCW confidence in handling suspected COVID-19 patients and prior COVID-19 case-management training. RESULTS: We surveyed 24,653 HCWs from 371 hospitals across 57 countries and received 17,302 responses from 70.2% HCWs overall. The median COVID-19 preparedness score was 11.0 (interquartile range [IQR] = 6.0-14.0) and the median awareness score was 29.6 (IQR = 26.6-32.6). HCWs at COVID-19 designated facilities with previous outbreak experience, or HCWs who were trained for dealing with the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, had significantly higher levels of preparedness and awareness (p<0.001). Association rule mining suggests that nurses and doctors who had a 'great-extent-of-confidence' in handling suspected COVID-19 patients had participated in COVID-19 training courses. Male participants (mean difference = 0.34; 95% CI = 0.22, 0.46; p<0.001) and nurses (mean difference = 0.67; 95% CI = 0.53, 0.81; p<0.001) had higher preparedness scores compared to women participants and doctors. INTERPRETATION: There was an unsurprising high level of awareness and preparedness among HCWs who participated in COVID-19 training courses. However, disparity existed along the lines of gender and type of HCW. It is unknown whether the difference in COVID-19 preparedness that we detected early in the pandemic may have translated into disproportionate SARS-CoV-2 burden of disease by gender or HCW type

Mapping local patterns of childhood overweight and wasting in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2017

A double burden of malnutrition occurs when individuals, household members or communities experience both undernutrition and overweight. Here, we show geospatial estimates of overweight and wasting prevalence among children under 5 years of age in 105 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) from 2000 to 2017 and aggregate these to policy-relevant administrative units. Wasting decreased overall across LMICs between 2000 and 2017, from 8.4% (62.3 (55.1–70.8) million) to 6.4% (58.3 (47.6–70.7) million), but is predicted to remain above the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target of <5% in over half of LMICs by 2025. Prevalence of overweight increased from 5.2% (30 (22.8–38.5) million) in 2000 to 6.0% (55.5 (44.8–67.9) million) children aged under 5 years in 2017. Areas most affected by double burden of malnutrition were located in Indonesia, Thailand, southeastern China, Botswana, Cameroon and central Nigeria. Our estimates provide a new perspective to researchers, policy makers and public health agencies in their efforts to address this global childhood syndemic

Removal of Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics by Chitosan–Magnetite from Aqueous: Single and Binary Adsorption

In this research, chitosan–magnetite composites (CS-MNPs) were successfully synthesized using a rapid and easy technique. The materials were characterized by FTIR, XRD, EDX, TEM, VSM, and BET methods. The removal of the antibiotics ciprofloxacin (CFX) and levofloxacin (LFX) from aqueous solutions by CS-MNPs adsorbent was investigated. The influencing factors in a single adsorption system were studied, including pH (1–11), initial concentration (2.5–15.0 mg/L), contact time (0–120 min), and adsorbent dosage (5–50 mg/L). The experiment data were analyzed by pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order kinetic models. The adsorption isotherms were studied by fitting the experimental data to the Langmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin models. The results indicated that the adsorption of CFX and LFX antibiotics was consistent with the pseudo-second-order kinetics model, the Langmuir isotherm model. Binary adsorption systems (CFX: LFX) with concentration ratios of 1:0, 1:0.5, 1:1.0, 1:1.5, and 1:2.0 were also studied. The antibiotics CFX and LFX were absorbed by CS-MNPs simultaneously in the aqueous solution. The presence of the second component in the solution reduced the first component’s ability to adsorb. The adsorption process in the binary system followed the Langmuir competition model. After four regenerations, CS-MNPS exhibited stability and was well reusable. Studies on actual samples showed that CS-MNPs could effectively remove FQs from those samples, with a treatment efficiency of above 98%

Simple Synthesis of NdFeO3 Nanoparticles By the Co-Precipitation Method Based on a Study of Thermal Behaviors of Fe (III) and Nd (III) Hydroxides

In this study, a nanostructured NdFeO3 material was synthesized via a simple process of the hydrolysis of Nd (III) and Fe (III) cations in hot water with 5% NaOH as a precipitating agent. According to the results of the thermal behaviors of each hydroxide, either containing Fe (III) or Nd (III), the perovskite type of neodymium orthoferrite NdFeO3 was simply synthesized by annealing a mixture of Fe (III) and Nd (III) hydroxides at 750 &deg;C. The nanostructured NdFeO3 was obtained in spherical granules with diameters of around 30 nm. The magnetic properties of the material were a coercive force (Hc) of 136.76 Oe, a remanent magnetization (Mr) of 0.68 emu&middot;g&ndash;1, and a saturation magnetization (Ms) of 0.79 emu&middot;g&ndash;1

Awareness and preparedness of healthcare workers against the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional survey across 57 countries

BACKGROUND: Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, there have been concerns related to the preparedness of healthcare workers (HCWs). This study aimed to describe the level of awareness and preparedness of hospital HCWs at the time of the first wave. METHODS: This multinational, multicenter, cross-sectional survey was conducted among hospital HCWs from February to May 2020. We used a hierarchical logistic regression multivariate analysis to adjust the influence of variables based on awareness and preparedness. We then used association rule mining to identify relationships between HCW confidence in handling suspected COVID-19 patients and prior COVID-19 case-management training. RESULTS: We surveyed 24,653 HCWs from 371 hospitals across 57 countries and received 17,302 responses from 70.2% HCWs overall. The median COVID-19 preparedness score was 11.0 (interquartile range [IQR] = 6.0-14.0) and the median awareness score was 29.6 (IQR = 26.6-32.6). HCWs at COVID-19 designated facilities with previous outbreak experience, or HCWs who were trained for dealing with the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, had significantly higher levels of preparedness and awareness (p<0.001). Association rule mining suggests that nurses and doctors who had a 'great-extent-of-confidence' in handling suspected COVID-19 patients had participated in COVID-19 training courses. Male participants (mean difference = 0.34; 95% CI = 0.22, 0.46; p<0.001) and nurses (mean difference = 0.67; 95% CI = 0.53, 0.81; p<0.001) had higher preparedness scores compared to women participants and doctors. INTERPRETATION: There was an unsurprising high level of awareness and preparedness among HCWs who participated in COVID-19 training courses. However, disparity existed along the lines of gender and type of HCW. It is unknown whether the difference in COVID-19 preparedness that we detected early in the pandemic may have translated into disproportionate SARS-CoV-2 burden of disease by gender or HCW type