Klebsiella pneumoniae are opportunistic pathogens which can cause mastitis in dairy cattle. K. pneumoniae mastitis often has a poor cure rate and can lead to the development of chronic infection, which has an impact on both health and production. However, there are few studies which aim to fully characterize K. pneumoniae by whole-genome sequencing from bovine mastitis cases. Here, K. pneumoniae isolates associated with mastitis in dairy cattle were identified using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) and whole-genome sequencing. Furthermore, whole-genome sequence data were used for phylogenetic analyses and both virulence and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) prediction, in parallel with phenotypic AMR testing. Forty-two isolates identified as K. pneumoniae were subject to whole-genome sequencing, with 31 multi-locus sequence types being observed, suggesting the source of these isolates was likely environmental. Isolates were examined for key virulence determinants encoding acquired siderophores, colibactin, and hypermucoidy. The majority of these were absent, except for ybST (encoding yersiniabactin) which was present in six isolates. Across the dataset, there were notable levels of phenotypic AMR against streptomycin (26.2%) and tetracycline (19%), and intermediate susceptibility to cephalexin (26.2%) and neomycin (21.4%). Of importance was the detection of two ESBL-producing isolates, which demonstrated multi-drug resistance to amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, streptomycin, tetracycline, cefotaxime, cephalexin, and cefquinome.

Tiafenacil is a new nonselective protoporphyrinogen IX oxidase (PPO)–inhibiting herbicide with both grass and broadleaf activity labeled for preplant application to corn, cotton, soybean, and wheat. Early-season corn emergence and growth often coincides in the mid-South with preplant herbicide application in cotton and soybean, thereby increasing opportunity for off-target herbicide movement from adjacent fields. Field studies were conducted in 2022 to identify the impacts of reduced rates of tiafenacil (12.5% to 0.4% of the lowest labeled application rate of 24.64 g ai ha–1) applied to two- or four-leaf corn. Corn injury 1 wk after treatment (WAT) for the two- and four-leaf growth stages ranged from 31% to 6% and 37% to 9%, respectively, whereas at 2 WAT these respective ranges were 21.7% to 4% and 22.5% to 7.2%. By 4 WAT, visible injury following the two- and four-leaf exposure timing was no greater than 8% in all instances except the highest tiafenacil rate applied at the four-leaf growth stage (13%). Tiafenacil had no negative season-long impact, as the early-season injury observed was not manifested in a reduction in corn height 2 WAT or yield. Application of tiafenacil directly adjacent to corn in early vegetative stages of growth should be avoided. In cases where off-target movement does occur, however, affected corn should be expected to fully recover with no impact on growth and yield, assuming adequate growing conditions and agronomic/pest management practices are provided.

A review of fabric studies of clays suggests the need for relating those fabric characteristics which are revealed at the two levels of magnification provided by optical and electron microscopy, and a technique to achieve this has been developed and is described within the context of the initial stages of a long term study of the interrelation between fabric and engineering behaviour. Two kaolinitic clays with contrived fabrics were prepared by controlling particle size, moisture content and pH of suspension, and consolidation load and were subjected to shear loading to failure. Resin impregnation techniques which permit the kaolinite to be cut into thin sections for transmission electron microscopy have been optimized with the object of minimizing fabric strain and damage during ultratomy.

The fabrics of the hard and soft ambient material are qualitatively compared by means of electron micrographs and are explained in terms of the preparatory procedures adopted for fabric control. The fabrics of the two types of shear induced structures are also qualitatively compared and explained in terms of the original fabrics and the subsequent shear loading.

Background: Historical literature suggests the risk of neurologic injury in children supported by extracorporeal life support (ECLS) is between 10-20%, however recent studies suggest the incidence may be much higher. Methods: The Alberta Children’s Hospital (ACH) Rescue ECLS program cannulates patients who are then transferred to the partner program at Stollery Children’s Hospital. Data was systematically collected from all patients cannulated for Rescue ECLS at ACH October 2011 and May 2023. Neuroimaging (CT, MR) performed after cannulation was reviewed for evidence of ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes and hypoxic-ischemic brain injury. Results: Seventy-one patients were included in the Rescue ECLS cohort. Median age at cannulation was 1.74 years (range 0-17.6 years, 51% female). Survival to hospital discharge was 65%. Primary indication for ECLS included cardiac (42%), respiratory (33.3%), extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR; 23.2%) and trauma (1.4%). Seventy four percent of the cohort underwent neuroimaging, of whom 67% had evidence of neurologic injury including stroke (ischemic 67%; hemorrhagic 50%) or hypoxic-ischemic injury (33%). Risk of neurologic injury did not differ by indication for ECLS. Conclusions: Neuroimaging abnormalities are present in most pediatric patients imaged post-cannulation for Rescue ECLS. Further research into modifiable risk factors for specific ECLS-related brain injuries may help to improve outcomes for survivors.

Background: More than 1 in 4 children admitted to the pediatric ICU (PICU) have suspected neuroinflammation for a variety of reasons. While often beneficial, uncontrolled inflammation can lead to secondary neurologic injuries and interfere with repair mechanisms. Methods: A prospective cohort study was initiated at Alberta Children’s Hospital to evaluate neuroinflammation in children admitted to the PICU. Forty-eight cytokines, chemokines and growth factors collected at multiple pre-determined timepoints were analyzed along with data on clinical trajectory. Preliminary exploratory analyses of patients enrolled January 2022-July 2023 were completed. Results: Fifty-three patients were included in the initial analysis. Encephalopathy (18.9%), hypoxia (17%) and TBI (15.1%) were the most common reasons for enrollment. All groups had temporal alterations in serum cytokines, with primary inflammatory brain diseases having the highest levels of innate inflammation (cytokine storm) on admission and day one compared to other subgroups. There was a trend towards normalization of cytokine levels over time. Conclusions: Temporal profiling of cytokine levels can inform on neuroinflammatory pathways contributing to the clinical course in critically ill children. Further analysis is ongoing with the entire cohort to evaluate longitudinal and between-group differences. Improved understanding of altered neuroinflammatory pathways in this population may assist with rationalizing targeted immunotherapies to improve outcomes.

Background: Children with neurological injuries/insults carry the highest risk of death and disability in Pediatric and Neonatal ICUs. These patients comprise 25-30% of admissions and have a myriad of diagnoses. Longitudinal outcome data is required to inform treatment effects and innovation strategies. NCC at the Alberta Children’s Hospital (ACH) participates in acute, subacute, and long-term/outpatient management with an aim to use comprehensive clinical data to improve outcomes. Methods: A prospective, longitudinal, population-based observational cohort study of NCC patients from local NICUs, PICU, and a NCC follow-up program, with comprehensive data from clinical records, development scores and QoL assessments. Results: Since 2019, 929 patients have been enrolled including: 407 neonates, 167 infants, 106 preschool-age and 100 school-age children, and 152 adolescents. The most common reasons for NCC consult were paroxysmal events (36%), encephalopathy (27%) and neonatal HIE (20%). Conclusions: Our database encapsulates the diverse nature of NCC patients and has enabled cohort-specific studies (e.g., neonatal HIE and ECLS outcomes). Program evolution will further facilitate higher powered research studies through large enrollment, comprehensive data capture (with a provincial EHR), and longitudinal outcomes. Engagement with staff and families will also inform treatment and afford evidence-based counseling to families.

Galaxy gas kinematics are sensitive to the physical processes that contribute to a galaxy’s evolution. It is expected that external processes will cause more significant kinematic disturbances in the outer regions, while internal processes will cause more disturbances for the inner regions. Using a subsample of 47 galaxies ($0.27<z<0.36$) from the Middle Ages Galaxy Properties with Integral Field Spectroscopy (MAGPI) survey, we conduct a study into the source of kinematic disturbances by measuring the asymmetry present in the ionised gas line-of-sight velocity maps at the $0.5R_e$ (inner regions) and $1.5R_e$ (outer regions) elliptical annuli. By comparing the inner and outer kinematic asymmetries, we aim to better understand what physical processes are driving the asymmetries in galaxies. We find the local environment plays a role in kinematic disturbance, in agreement with other integral field spectroscopy studies of the local universe, with most asymmetric systems being in close proximity to a more massive neighbour. We do not find evidence suggesting that hosting an Active Galactic Nucleus contributes to asymmetry within the inner regions, with some caveats due to emission line modelling. In contrast to previous studies, we do not find evidence that processes leading to asymmetry also enhance star formation in MAGPI galaxies. Finally, we find a weak anti-correlation between stellar mass and asymmetry (i.e., high stellar mass galaxies are less asymmetric). We conclude by discussing possible sources driving the asymmetry in the ionised gas, such as disturbances being present in the colder gas phase (either molecular or atomic) prior to the gas being ionised, and non-axisymmetric features (e.g., a bar) being present in the galactic disk. Our results highlight the complex interplay between ionised gas kinematic disturbances and physical processes involved in galaxy evolution.

Background: Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) is the gold standard for neurological assessment in traumatic head injury. Limitations to GCS include variations in rater reliability, test setting and sedation/intubation. Serial Neurological Assessments in Pediatrics (SNAP) was designed to standardize neurological assessment. We examined the efficacy of SNAP for earlier detection of acute neurological decompensation. Methods: Retrospective analysis identified patients with acute neurological decline (drop in GCS of >2 in 1 hour). We reviewed GCS and SNAP (calculated using neurological consultant notes) scores 48 hours prior to decline. Slopes were calculated for each score over time. Results: Four patients were eligible, with > 2 GCS and SNAP scores available for calculation. Average slopes for GCS were 1.3, -0.8, 1.6 and 2.1 for eyes, voice, motor, and total GCS, respectively, and -2.6, 0, -2.3, -2.4, -2.4, -2.0, -2.8 and -11.9 for mental status, cranial nerve, communication, left and right upper extremities, left and right lower extremities, and total SNAP score, respectively. Conclusions: All aspects of the SNAP score had negative and steeper slopes prior to neurological decline, whereas only ‘voice’ in GCS had a negative trend. These findings suggest that the SNAP tool may be useful in earlier identification of acute decline. Ongoing prospective studies are underway.

Background: Our aim was to develop a National Quality Indicators Set for the Care of Adults Hospitalized for Neurological Problems, to serve as a foundation to build regional or national quality initiatives in Canadian neurology centres. Methods: We used a national eDelphi process to develop a suite of quality indicators and a parallel process of surveys and patient focus groups to identify patient priorities. Canadian content and methodology experts were invited to participate. To be included, >70% of participants had to rate items as critical and <15% had to rate it as not important. Two rounds of surveys and consensus meetings were used identify and rank indicators, followed by national consultation with members of the Canadian Neurological Society. Results: 38 neurologists and methodologists and 56 patients/caregivers participated in this project. An initial list of 91 possible quality indicators was narrowed to 40 indicators across multiple categories of neurological conditions. 21 patient priorities were identified. Conclusions: This quality indicators suite can be used regionally or nationally to drive improvement initiatives for inpatient neurology care. In addition, we identified multiple opportunities for further research where evidence was lacking or patient and provider priorities did not align.

The building of online atomic and molecular databases for astrophysics and for other research fields started with the beginning of the internet. These databases have encompassed different forms: databases of individual research groups exposing their own data, databases providing collected data from the refereed literature, databases providing evaluated compilations, databases providing repositories for individuals to deposit their data, and so on. They were, and are, the replacement for literature compilations with the goal of providing more complete and in particular easily accessible data services to the users communities. Such initiatives involve not only scientific work on the data, but also the characterization of data, which comes with the “standardization” of metadata and of the relations between metadata, as recently developed in different communities. This contribution aims at providing a representative overview of the atomic and molecular databases ecosystem, which is available to the astrophysical community and addresses different issues linked to the use and management of data and databases. The information provided in this paper is related to the keynote lecture “Atomic and Molecular Databases: Open Science for better science and a sustainable world” whose slides can be found at DOI : doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6979352 on the Zenodo repository connected to the “cb5-labastro” Zenodo Community (https://zenodo.org/communities/cb5-labastro).

The purpose of this study was to assess impact of different volumes of exercise as well as cumulative moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) on energy intake (EI) and diet quality, as assessed by the Healthy Eating Index-2010(HEI-2010), across a 12-month weight maintenance intervention. Participants were asked to attend group behavioural sessions, eat a diet designed for weight maintenance and exercise either 150, 225 or 300 min/week. Dietary intake was assessed by 3-d food records, and MVPA was assessed by accelerometry. Two hundred and twenty-four participants (42·5 years of age, 82 % female) provided valid dietary data for at least one time point. There was no evidence of group differences in EI, total HEI-2010 score or any of the HEI-2010 component scores (all P > 0·05). After adjusting for age, sex, time, group and group-by-time interactions, there was an effect of cumulative MVPA on EI (1·08, P = 0·04), total HEI-2010 scores (–0·02, P = 0·003), Na (–0·006, P = 0·002) and empty energy scores (–0·007, P = 0·004. There was evidence of a small relationship between cumulative daily EI and weight (β: 0·00187, 95 % CI 0·001, P = 0·003). However, there was no evidence for a relationship between HEI total score (β: −0·006, 95 % CI 0·07, 0·06) or component scores (all P > 0·05) and change in weight across time. The results of this study suggest that increased cumulative MVPA is associated with clinically insignificant increases in EI and decreases in HEI.

We present the most sensitive and detailed view of the neutral hydrogen ( ${\rm H\small I}$ ) emission associated with the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), through the combination of data from the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) and Parkes (Murriyang), as part of the Galactic Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (GASKAP) pilot survey. These GASKAP-HI pilot observations, for the first time, reveal ${\rm H\small I}$ in the SMC on similar physical scales as other important tracers of the interstellar medium, such as molecular gas and dust. The resultant image cube possesses an rms noise level of 1.1 K ( $1.6\,\mathrm{mJy\ beam}^{-1}$ ) $\mathrm{per}\ 0.98\,\mathrm{km\ s}^{-1}$ spectral channel with an angular resolution of $30^{\prime\prime}$ ( ${\sim}10\,\mathrm{pc}$ ). We discuss the calibration scheme and the custom imaging pipeline that utilises a joint deconvolution approach, efficiently distributed across a computing cluster, to accurately recover the emission extending across the entire ${\sim}25\,\mathrm{deg}^2$ field-of-view. We provide an overview of the data products and characterise several aspects including the noise properties as a function of angular resolution and the represented spatial scales by deriving the global transfer function over the full spectral range. A preliminary spatial power spectrum analysis on individual spectral channels reveals that the power law nature of the density distribution extends down to scales of 10 pc. We highlight the scientific potential of these data by comparing the properties of an outflowing high-velocity cloud with previous ASKAP+Parkes ${\rm H\small I}$ test observations.

BASF Corp. has developed p-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase (HPPD) inhibitor–resistant cotton and soybean that will allow growers to use isoxaflutole in future weed management programs. In 2019 and 2020, a multi-state non-crop research project was conducted to examine weed control following isoxaflutole applied preemergence alone and with several tank-mix partners at high and low labeled rates. At 28 d after treatment (DAT), Palmer amaranth was controlled ≥95% at six of seven locations with isoxaflutole plus the high rate of diuron or fluridone. These same combinations provided the greatest control 42 DAT at four of seven locations. Where large crabgrass was present, isoxaflutole plus the high rate of diuron, fluridone, pendimethalin, or S-metolachlor or isoxaflutole plus the low rate of fluometuron controlled large crabgrass ≥95% in two of three locations 28 DAT. In two of three locations, isoxaflutole plus the high rate of pendimethalin or S-metolachlor improved large crabgrass control 42 DAT when compared to isoxaflutole alone. At 21 DAT, morningglory was controlled ≥95% at all locations with isoxaflutole plus the high rate of diuron and at three of four locations with isoxaflutole plus the high rate of fluometuron. At 42 DAT at all locations, isoxaflutole plus diuron or fluridone and isoxaflutole plus the high rate of fluometuron improved morningglory control compared to isoxaflutole alone. These results suggest that isoxaflutole applied preemergence alone or in tank mixture is efficacious on a number of cross-spectrum annual weeds in cotton, and extended weed control may be achieved when isoxaflutole is tank-mixed with several soil-residual herbicides.

We present an overview of the Middle Ages Galaxy Properties with Integral Field Spectroscopy (MAGPI) survey, a Large Program on the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope. MAGPI is designed to study the physical drivers of galaxy transformation at a lookback time of 3–4 Gyr, during which the dynamical, morphological, and chemical properties of galaxies are predicted to evolve significantly. The survey uses new medium-deep adaptive optics aided Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) observations of fields selected from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey, providing a wealth of publicly available ancillary multi-wavelength data. With these data, MAGPI will map the kinematic and chemical properties of stars and ionised gas for a sample of 60 massive ( ${>}7 \times 10^{10} {\mathrm{M}}_\odot$ ) central galaxies at $0.25 < z <0.35$ in a representative range of environments (isolated, groups and clusters). The spatial resolution delivered by MUSE with Ground Layer Adaptive Optics ( $0.6-0.8$ arcsec FWHM) will facilitate a direct comparison with Integral Field Spectroscopy surveys of the nearby Universe, such as SAMI and MaNGA, and at higher redshifts using adaptive optics, for example, SINS. In addition to the primary (central) galaxy sample, MAGPI will deliver resolved and unresolved spectra for as many as 150 satellite galaxies at $0.25 < z <0.35$ , as well as hundreds of emission-line sources at $z < 6$ . This paper outlines the science goals, survey design, and observing strategy of MAGPI. We also present a first look at the MAGPI data, and the theoretical framework to which MAGPI data will be compared using the current generation of cosmological hydrodynamical simulations including EAGLE, Magneticum, HORIZON-AGN, and Illustris-TNG. Our results show that cosmological hydrodynamical simulations make discrepant predictions in the spatially resolved properties of galaxies at $z\approx 0.3$ . MAGPI observations will place new constraints and allow for tangible improvements in galaxy formation theory.