Determining the factors that impact the risk for infection with SARS-CoV-2 is a priority as the virus continues to infect people worldwide. The objective was to determine the effectiveness of vaccines and other factors associated with infection among Canadian healthcare workers (HCWs) followed from 15 June 2020 to 1 December 2023. We also investigate the association between antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 and subsequent infections with SARS-CoV-2. Of the 2474 eligible participants, 2133 (86%) were female, 33% were nurses, the median age was 41 years, and 99.3% had received at least two doses of COVID-19 vaccine by 31 December 2021. The incidence of SARS-CoV-2 was 0.91 per 1000 person-days. Prior to the circulation of the Omicron variants, vaccine effectiveness (VE) was estimated at 85% (95% CI 1, 98) for participants who received the primary series of vaccine. During the Omicron period, relative adjusted VE was 43% (95% CI 29, 54), 56% (95% CI 42, 67), and 46% (95% CI 24, 62) for 3, 4, and ≥ 5 doses compared with those who received primary series after adjusting for previous infection and other covariates. Exposure to infected household members, coworkers, or friends in the previous 14 days were risk factor for infection, while contact with an infected patient was not statistically significant. Participants with higher levels of immunoglobulin G (IgG) anti-receptor binding domain (RBD) antibodies had lower rates of infection than those with the lowest levels. COVID-19 vaccines remained effective throughout the follow-up of this cohort of highly vaccinated HCWs. IgG anti-RBD antibody levels may be useful as correlates of protection for issues such as vaccine development and testing. There remains a need to increase the awareness among HCWs about the risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 from contacts at a variety of venues.

Recent changes to US research funding are having far-reaching consequences that imperil the integrity of science and the provision of care to vulnerable populations. Resisting these changes, the BJPsych Portfolio reaffirms its commitment to publishing mental science and advancing psychiatric knowledge that improves the mental health of one and all.

Objectives/Goals: This study aims to address mobility disability in the rural South by collecting advanced clinical measures in underserved communities, uncovering relationships between socioeconomic status, mobility, and physical health, providing data to aid clinicians in diagnosis and treatment, and improving healthcare delivery in disadvantaged areas. Methods/Study Population: We will recruit 50 participants aged 65+ years from a diverse range of areas in the rural South. Data collection will occur at community health fairs, employing a community-centered approach. Assessments include mobility measures using portable inertial sensors, physical health assessments: body composition (TANITA BC-568), muscle size analysis (ultrasound), central and peripheral blood pressure. Demographic information: We will analyze relationships between ADI, mobility, and physical health measures. This approach allows for comprehensive health evaluation in participants’ own communities, facilitating trust building and immediate dissemination of health information. The study design enables investigation of socioeconomic impacts on health and mobility in this underserved population. Results/Anticipated Results: Preliminary data from our ongoing community health fairs (n = 172) show promising feasibility for data collection in rural settings. Importantly, initial analyses reveal a significant correlation between higher area deprivation index (ADI) scores and reduced mobility performance, supporting our hypothesis that socioeconomic factors influence physical function. We anticipate further findings, including more detailed relationships between ADI and specific mobility parameters (e.g., gait speed and balance), associations between ADI and poorer physical health measures (e.g., increased arterial stiffness and decreased muscle mass), and interrelationships between mobility impairments and cardiovascular health markers Discussion/Significance of Impact: Building vital relationships with rural communities while uncovering critical links between mobility and physical health. By bridging urban science and rural needs, we are addressing health disparities and informing targeted healthcare strategies. Our findings will improve clinical decision-making and healthcare delivery in underserved areas.

Jellyfishes have ecological and societal value, but our understanding of taxonomic identity of many jellyfish species remains limited. Here, an approach integrating morphological and molecular (16S ribosomal RNA and cytochrome oxidase I) data enables taxonomic assessment of the blubber jellyfish found in the Philippines. In this study, we aimed to resolve doubt on the taxonomy of Acromitoides purpurus, a valid binomen at the time of our research. Our morphological findings confirm that this jellyfish belongs to the genus Catostylus, and is distinct from known species of the genus inhabiting the Western Pacific, such as Catostylus ouwensi, Catostylus townsendi, and Catostylus mosaicus. Detailed morphological and molecular analyses of the type specimens from the Philippines with the other Catostylus species revive the binomen Catostylus purpurus and invalidate A. purpurus. Genetic analysis also distinguishes this Philippine jellyfish from C. townsendi and C. mosaicus. Through this study, we arranged several Catostylidae taxa into species inquirendae (Catostylus tripterus, Catostylus turgescens, and Acromitoides stiphropterus) and one genus inquirenda (Acromitoides) and provided an identification key for species of Catostylus. This comprehensive study confirms the blubber jellyfish as C. purpurus, enriching our understanding of jellyfish biodiversity. The integration of morphological and genetic analyses proves vital in resolving taxonomic ambiguities within the Catostylidae family and in the accurate identification of scyphozoan jellyfishes.

Background: Cancer survival rates in Canada have been improving, leading to a steady increase in the number of survivors entering the typical ages of dementia onset. Yet, some cancer treatments (e.g. chemotherapy) are neurotoxic and adversely affect normal brain functioning. We conducted a review to examine changes observed in brain imaging and cognitive measures in survivorship, and long-term risk of dementia among cancer survivors. Methods: 91 Primary studies were selected from PubMed. Inclusion criteria were studies investigating the changes in brain imaging, cognition, and future dementia risk among adult survivors who received chemotherapy. Study quality was assessed based on 1) prospective, controlled design, 2) sample size, and 3) validated imaging and cognitive metrics. Results: Imaging studies identified MRI-based structural grey and white matter changes and functional network changes among survivors. Cognitive studies reported heterogeneous impairments in attention, memory, and executive function. In studies that examined dementia risk among cancer survivors, 67% reported lower risk of dementia, while 33% reported no association or a higher risk. Conclusions: While short-term cognitive impairment with associated changes on brain imaging is widely reported, findings concerning future or long-term cognitive impairment are mixed. Studies are warranted to identify potential connections between short-term and long-term cognitive function after cancer treatment.

A suite of Georgia kaolinites, ranging from well-ordered to very poorly ordered samples, were studied to explore correlations between degree of structural disorder, geological environment, Fe3+ content, Fe3+ electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectrum, and infrared (IR) hydroxyl-stretching band frequencies and bandwidths. Samples from different localities showed a wide range of disorder which appears to be related to differences in their geological environments. High iron content correlated strongly with low degree of order. The areas of both the I and E components of the EPR spectrum and the fractional I area correlated inversely with degree of order. Fourier-transform IR studies of kaolinites and dickites showed that (1) interlayer hydrogen bonding is weaker in dickite than in kaolinite; (2) frequency of the ν11 stretching band of the inner-surface hydroxyls increases sequentially from well-ordered kaolinite through the disordered structures to well-ordered dickite, which is consistent with a model for disorder based on vacancy displacement; and (3) the character and temperature dependence of the inner hydroxyl-stretching band is not compatible with the crystal structures of kaolinite and dickite as refined by Suitch and Young.

Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) information has played a crucial role in the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic by providing evidence about variants to inform public health policy. The purpose of this study was to assess the representativeness of sequenced cases compared with all COVID-19 cases in England, between March 2020 and August 2021, by demographic and socio-economic characteristics, to evaluate the representativeness and utility of these data in epidemiological analyses. To achieve this, polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-confirmed COVID-19 cases were extracted from the national laboratory system and linked with WGS data. During the study period, over 10% of COVID-19 cases in England had WGS data available for epidemiological analysis. With sequencing capacity increasing throughout the period, sequencing representativeness compared to all reported COVID-19 cases increased over time, allowing for valuable epidemiological analyses using demographic and socio-economic characteristics, particularly during periods with emerging novel SARS-CoV-2 variants. This study demonstrates the comprehensiveness of England’s sequencing throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, rapidly detecting variants of concern, and enabling representative epidemiological analyses to inform policy.

School counselling has the potential to deliver significant support for the wellbeing of children. However, much of the research on school counsellors has been conducted in developed Western countries, with very limited research into factors influencing the effectiveness of counsellors in lower middle-income countries or in Asia. The aim of this qualitative study was to investigate the perceptions of Filipino counsellors about their roles, and factors that supported or impeded their effectiveness. Seventeen school counsellors in the Philippines were interviewed, and the data were analysed thematically. Our findings suggest that Filipino school counsellors often carry out dual roles, experience a lack of role clarity, and are systemically disempowered in their schools. Relationships with school principals have a significant influence on counsellors’ roles and positioning in schools, and therefore on their effectiveness. The ability of principals to foster a school ethos supportive of counselling is essential in enabling counsellors to leverage the multifunctional nature of their work, become embedded and centrally positioned in the school community, and enhance their effectiveness. Doing so can enable counselling to be more culturally accessible to young people.

In 2017 the Scottish Government passed the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act with the commitment to significantly reduce the relative child poverty rate from the current prevailing level of around 25% to 10% by 2030/31. In response, the government introduced the Scottish Child Payment (SCP) that provides a direct transfer to households at a fixed rate per eligible child – currently £25 per week. In this paper we explore, using a micro to macro modelling approach, the effectiveness of using the SCP to achieve the Scottish child poverty targets. While we find that the ambitious child poverty targets can technically be met solely using the SCP, the necessary payment of £165 per week amounting to a total government cost of £3 billion per year, makes the political and economy-wide barriers significant. A key issue with only using the SCP is the non-linearity in the response to the payment; as the payment increases, the marginal gain in the reduction of child poverty decreases – this is particularly evident after payments of £80 per week. A ‘policy-mix’ option combining the SCP, targeted cash transfers and other policy levels (such as childcare provision) seems the most promising approach to reaching the child poverty targets.

Shallow firn cores, in addition to a near-basal ice core, were recovered in 2018 from the Quelccaya ice cap (5470 m a.s.l) in the Cordillera Vilcanota, Peru, and in 2017 from the Nevado Illimani glacier (6350 m a.s.l) in the Cordillera Real, Bolivia. The two sites are ~450 km apart. Despite meltwater percolation resulting from warming, particle-based trace element records (e.g. Fe, Mg, K) in the Quelccaya and Illimani shallow cores retain well-preserved signals. The firn core chronologies, established independently by annual layer counting, show a convincing overlap indicating the two records contain comparable signals and therefore capture similar regional scale climatology. Trace element records at a ~1–4 cm resolution provide past records of anthropogenic emissions, dust sources, volcanic emissions, evaporite salts and marine-sourced air masses. Using novel ultra-high-resolution (120 μm) laser technology, we identify annual layer thicknesses ranging from 0.3 to 0.8 cm in a section of 2000-year-old radiocarbon-dated near-basal ice which compared to the previous annual layer estimates suggests that Quelccaya ice cores drilled to bedrock may be older than previously suggested by depth-age models. With the information collected from this study in combination with past studies, we emphasize the importance of collecting new surface-to-bedrock ice cores from at least the Quelccaya ice cap, in particular, due to its projected disappearance as soon as the 2050s.

Nitrogen fixation from pasture legumes is a fundamental process that contributes to the profitability and sustainability of dryland agricultural systems. The aim of this research was to determine whether well-managed pastures, based on aerial-seeding pasture legumes, could partially or wholly meet the nitrogen (N) requirements of subsequent grain crops in an annual rotation. Fifteen experiments were conducted in Western Australia with wheat, barley or canola crops grown in a rotation that included the pasture legume species French serradella (Ornithopus sativus), biserrula (Biserrula pelecinus), bladder clover (Trifolium spumosum), annual medics (Medicago spp.) and the non-aerial seeded subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum). After the pasture phase, five rates of inorganic N fertilizer (Urea, applied at 0, 23, 46, 69 and 92 kg/ha) were applied to subsequent cereal and oil seed crops. The yields of wheat grown after serradella, biserrula and bladder clover, without the use of applied N fertilizer, were consistent with the target yields for growing conditions of the trials (2.3 to 5.4 t/ha). Crop yields after phases of these pasture legume species were similar or higher than those following subterranean clover or annual medics. The results of this study suggest a single season of a legume-dominant pasture may provide sufficient organic N in the soil to grow at least one crop, without the need for inorganic N fertilizer application. This has implications for reducing inorganic N requirements and the carbon footprint of cropping in dryland agricultural systems.