Infectious disease consultation improves outcomes for S. aureus bacteremia. We developed an electronic health record alert (SABER) to automatically encourage consultation and replace manual intervention. In a pre-post evaluation, high rates of consultation and optimized patient management, shorter time to consult, and high provider-reported satisfaction were observed during SABER implementation.

The newly introduced discipline of Population-Based Structural Health Monitoring (PBSHM) has been developed in order to circumvent the issue of data scarcity in “classical” SHM. PBSHM does this by using data across an entire population, in order to improve diagnostics for a single data-poor structure. The improvement of inferences across populations uses the machine-learning technology of transfer learning. In order that transfer makes matters better, rather than worse, PBSHM assesses the similarity of structures and only transfers if a threshold of similarity is reached. The similarity measures are implemented by embedding structures as models —Irreducible-Element (IE) models— in a graph space. The problem with this approach is that the construction of IE models is subjective and can suffer from author-bias, which may induce dissimilarity where there is none. This paper proposes that IE-models be transformed to a canonical form through reduction rules, in which possible sources of ambiguity have been removed. Furthermore, in order that other variations —outside the control of the modeller— are correctly dealt with, the paper introduces the idea of a reality model, which encodes details of the environment and operation of the structure. Finally, the effects of the canonical form on similarity assessments are investigated via a numerical population study. A final novelty of the paper is in the implementation of a neural-network-based similarity measure, which learns reduction rules from data; the results with the new graph-matching network (GMN) are compared with a previous approach based on the Jaccard index, from pure graph theory.

Paediatric ventricular assist device patients, including those with single ventricle anatomy, are increasingly managed outside of the ICU. We used retrospective chart review of our single centre experience to quantify adverse event rates and ICU readmissions for 22 complex paediatric patients on ventricular assist device support (15 two ventricles, 7 single ventricle) after floor transfer. The median age was 1.65 years. The majority utilised the Berlin EXCOR (17, 77.3%). There were 9 ICU readmissions with median length of stay of 2 days. Adverse events were noted in 9 patients (41%), with infection being most common (1.8 events per patient year). There were no deaths. Single ventricle patients had a higher proportion of ICU readmission and adverse events. ICU readmission rates were low, and adverse event rates were comparable to published rates suggesting ventricular assist device patients can be safely managed on the floor.

Invented by Thomas Edison, the electric light bulb was the subject-matter of United States Patent Number 223,898 granted on 27 January 1880. The electric light bulb has come to be recognised universally as the symbol of invention. Patent claims providing for a compact fluorescent light bulb have, over one hundred years later in the N. V. Philips Gloeilampenfabrieken and Another v Mirabella International Pty Ltd litigation, been held by a court at first instance and two appeal courts to be not claims for a “patentable invention” under s 18 of the Patents Act 1990 (Cth).

Anglo-Australian patent law has been vigilant to deny patentability where, on the face of the specification, a claim is “nothing but a claim for the use of a known material in the manufacture of known articles for a purpose of which its known properties make that material suitable” — referred to herein as an “analogous use” claim.

The diets of children in the UK are suboptimal(1), which may influence their immediate and future health and well-being(2). Schools offer convenient and prolonged access to children from diverse backgrounds, thus interventions within this setting have been suggested as a means to promote diet and health outcomes among this population(3). This study explored the effects of Project Daire(4), a school-based food intervention, on children’s diet diversity and diet quality as well as their attitudes towards health behaviours.

A factorial design cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted. Fifteen primary schools in Northern Ireland were randomized into one of four 6-month intervention arms: Nourish, Engage, Nourish and Engage or Control (Delayed). The Nourish intervention modified the school food environment, provided food-related experiences and increased access to local foods. The Engage intervention included educational activities on nutrition, food and agriculture. Data on food consumption at home, school and/or in total over a 24-hour period were collected using ageappropriate food frequency questionnaires at baseline, with follow-up at 6-months. Diet diversity score (DDS) and diet quality score (DQS) were developed based on adherence to the Eatwell Guide. Additionally, a Health Attitudes and Behaviour measure assessed 10-11 year old children’s attitudes towards importance of various health behaviours at both time points. Linear and logistic regression models were used to examine intervention effects and to account for school clustering.

A total of 445 children aged 6-7 and 458 aged 10-11 years old completed the trial. Results indicated that children aged 10-11 year old who received the Nourish intervention demonstrated higher school DDS (adjusted mean difference=2.79, 95% CI 1.40 – 4.19; p = 0.001) and total DDS (adjusted mean difference=1.55, 95% CI 0.66 – 2.43, p = 0.002) compared to their counterparts who did not. Subgroup analyses revealed that the increases in school DDS among 10-11 year old children in the Nourish group were apparent in both boys and girls (Boys: adjusted mean difference=2.4 95% CI 0.1 – 4.7, p = 0.04; Girls: adjusted mean difference=3.1 95% CI 1.6 – 4.6, p = 0.001). However, the increase in total DDS remained statistically significant only among girls, with an adjusted mean difference of 1.9 (95% CI 1.1-2.7, p<0.001). No statistically significant changes in DQS were detected in either age group. High levels of positive attitudes towards health behaviours were observed at baseline, with no clinically significant effects of either the Nourish or Engage interventions detected during the follow-up period.

The multi-component approach of the Nourish intervention, addressing both food provision and environment, showed promise in promoting diet diversity. Further research is warranted to develop sustainable implementation strategies for Daire, to explore additional intervention components to impact other outcomes, including diet quality, and to evaluate long-term effectiveness.

Although offspring of women exposed to childhood trauma exhibit elevated rates of psychopathology, many children demonstrate resilience to these intergenerational impacts. Among the variety of factors that likely contribute to resilience, epigenetic processes have been suggested to play an important role. The current study used a prospective design to test the novel hypothesis that offspring epigenetic aging – a measure of methylation differences that are associated with infant health outcomes – moderates the relationship between maternal exposure to childhood adversity and offspring symptomatology. Maternal childhood adversity was self-reported during pregnancy via the ACEs survey and the CTQ, which assessed total childhood trauma as well as maltreatment subtypes (i.e., emotional, physical, and sexual abuse). Offspring blood samples were collected at or shortly after birth and assayed on a DNA methylation microarray, and offspring symptomatology was assessed with the CBCL/1.5–5 when offspring were 2–4 years old. Results indicated that maternal childhood trauma, particularly sexual abuse, was predictive of offspring symptoms (ps = 0.003–0.03). However, the associations between maternal sexual abuse and offspring symptomatology were significantly attenuated in offspring with accelerated epigenetic aging. These findings further our understanding of how epigenetic processes may contribute to and attenuate the intergenerational link between stress and psychopathology.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture–Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) has been a leader in weed science research covering topics ranging from the development and use of integrated weed management (IWM) tactics to basic mechanistic studies, including biotic resistance of desirable plant communities and herbicide resistance. ARS weed scientists have worked in agricultural and natural ecosystems, including agronomic and horticultural crops, pastures, forests, wild lands, aquatic habitats, wetlands, and riparian areas. Through strong partnerships with academia, state agencies, private industry, and numerous federal programs, ARS weed scientists have made contributions to discoveries in the newest fields of robotics and genetics, as well as the traditional and fundamental subjects of weed–crop competition and physiology and integration of weed control tactics and practices. Weed science at ARS is often overshadowed by other research topics; thus, few are aware of the long history of ARS weed science and its important contributions. This review is the result of a symposium held at the Weed Science Society of America’s 62nd Annual Meeting in 2022 that included 10 separate presentations in a virtual Weed Science Webinar Series. The overarching themes of management tactics (IWM, biological control, and automation), basic mechanisms (competition, invasive plant genetics, and herbicide resistance), and ecosystem impacts (invasive plant spread, climate change, conservation, and restoration) represent core ARS weed science research that is dynamic and efficacious and has been a significant component of the agency’s national and international efforts. This review highlights current studies and future directions that exemplify the science and collaborative relationships both within and outside ARS. Given the constraints of weeds and invasive plants on all aspects of food, feed, and fiber systems, there is an acknowledged need to face new challenges, including agriculture and natural resources sustainability, economic resilience and reliability, and societal health and well-being.

Community-based psychosocial interventions are key elements of mental health and psychosocial support; yet evidence regarding their effectiveness and implementation in humanitarian settings is limited. This study aimed to assess the appropriateness, acceptability, feasibility and safety of conducting a cluster randomized trial evaluating two versions of a group psychosocial intervention. Nine community clusters in Ecuador and Panamá were randomized to receive the standard version of the Entre Nosotras intervention, a community-based group psychosocial intervention co-designed with community members, or an enhanced version of Entre Nosotras that integrated a stress management component. In a sample of 225 refugees, migrants and host community women, we found that both versions were safe, acceptable and appropriate. Training lay facilitators to deliver the intervention was feasible. Challenges included slow recruitment related to delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, high attrition due to population mobility and other competing priorities, and mixed psychometric performance of psychosocial outcome measures. Although the intervention appeared promising, a definitive cluster randomized comparative effectiveness trial requires further adaptations to the research protocol. Within this pilot study we identified strategies to overcome these challenges that may inform adaptations. This comparative effectiveness design may be a model for identifying effective components of psychosocial interventions.

Human infection with antimicrobial-resistant Campylobacter species is an important public health concern due to the potentially increased severity of illness and risk of death. Our objective was to synthesise the knowledge of factors associated with human infections with antimicrobial-resistant strains of Campylobacter. This scoping review followed systematic methods, including a protocol developed a priori. Comprehensive literature searches were developed in consultation with a research librarian and performed in five primary and three grey literature databases. Criteria for inclusion were analytical and English-language publications investigating human infections with an antimicrobial-resistant (macrolides, tetracyclines, fluoroquinolones, and/or quinolones) Campylobacter that reported factors potentially linked with the infection. The primary and secondary screening were completed by two independent reviewers using Distiller SR®. The search identified 8,527 unique articles and included 27 articles in the review. Factors were broadly categorised into animal contact, prior antimicrobial use, participant characteristics, food consumption and handling, travel, underlying health conditions, and water consumption/exposure. Important factors linked to an increased risk of infection with a fluoroquinolone-resistant strain included foreign travel and prior antimicrobial use. Identifying consistent risk factors was challenging due to the heterogeneity of results, inconsistent analysis, and the lack of data in low- and middle-income countries, highlighting the need for future research.

Using a cognitive task (mental calculation) and a perceptual-motor task (stylized golf putting), we examined differential proficiency using the CWS index and several other quantitative measures of performance. The CWS index (Weiss & Shanteau, 2003) is a coherence criterion that looks only at internal properties of the data without incorporating an external standard. In Experiment 1, college students (n = 20) carried out 2- and 3-digit addition and multiplication problems under time pressure. In Experiment 2, experienced golfers (n = 12), also college students, putted toward a target from nine different locations. Within each experiment, we analyzed the same responses using different methods. For the arithmetic tasks, accuracy information (mean absolute deviation from the correct answer, MAD) using a coherence criterion was available; for golf, accuracy information using a correspondence criterion (mean deviation from the target, also MAD) was available. We ranked the performances of the participants according to each measure, then compared the orders using Spearman’s rs. For mental calculation, the CWS order correlated moderately (rs =.46) with that of MAD. However, a different coherence criterion, degree of model fit, did not correlate with either CWS or accuracy. For putting, the ranking generated by CWS correlated .68 with that generated by MAD. Consensual answers were also available for both experiments, and the rankings they generated correlated highly with those of MAD. The coherence vs. correspondence distinction did not map well onto criteria for performance evaluation.

This article deals with the location of Mount Theches, the vantage point from which Xenophon’s Ten Thousand famously got their first sight of the sea after a long and arduous march across eastern Anatolia. It discusses what the written sources can and cannot tell us about this iconic spot, comments on the currently favoured identification (stressing its dependence on an assumption about the route the army followed to and from the vantage point), and presents three other places that can come into contention if different assumptions are made about the route. The aim is not to insist that one or other of these is the correct solution but rather to underline the point that, since we do not (and are never likely to) know how the Ten Thousand approached Theches, and since there are many points in the Pontic Mountains behind Trabzon from which the sea can be glimpsed in the far distance, the identity of Theches is a problem that does not admit of more than conjectural solution. This prompts broader reflections on the textual and the topographical, and the relationship between landscape and narrative.