Incurable breast cancer bone metastasis causes widespread bone loss, resulting in fragility, pain, increased fracture risk, and ultimately increased patient mortality. Increased mechanical signals in the skeleton are anabolic and protect against bone loss, and they may also do so during osteolytic bone metastasis. Skeletal mechanical signals include interdependent tissue deformations and interstitial fluid flow, but how metastatic tumor cells respond to each of these individual signals remains under-investigated, a barrier to translation to the clinic. To delineate their respective roles, we report computed estimates of the internal mechanical field of a bone-mimetic scaffold undergoing combinations of high and low compression and perfusion using multiphysics simulations. Simulations were conducted in advance of multi-modal loading bioreactor experiments with bone metastatic breast cancer cells to ensure that mechanical stimuli occurring internally were physiological and anabolic. Our results show that mechanical stimuli throughout the scaffold were within the anabolic range of bone cells in all loading configurations, were homogenously distributed throughout, and that combined high magnitude compression and perfusion synergized to produce the largest wall shear stresses within the scaffold. These simulations, when combined with experiments, will shed light on how increased mechanical loading in the skeleton may confer anti-tumorigenic effects during metastasis.

Abstract The goal of this paper is to explore the relationship between the specific non-performing loan ratio (NPL ratio) and the corresponding impact on the bank’s profitability and lending behavior. It also seeks to investigate the macroeconomic impacts of economies with excessively high NPL ratios as well as the efficacy and impact of alleviation measures used by banks and governments around the world to help facilitate a decrease in high NPL ratios. The possible implications and effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on NPL ratios is also addressed in this paper. It is found that when excessively high NPL ratios go unaddressed, the economy tends to suffer. On the other hand, this study shows that when measures are taken to reduce or eliminate the high NPL ratios, economic performance improves, and the reduction has a clear positive impact on the economy.IntroductionA non-performing commercial bank loan is a loan in which the borrower has defaulted or has not made any scheduled loan payments for 90 days or more. The NPL ratio of a bank is a percentage measure of loans already at or at risk of becoming non-performing out of the total amount of loans at the bank. As research suggests, an excessively high NPL ratio causes bank to limit their credit supply to borrowers, often causing a credit supply contract ion in the immediate aftermath. Banks also risk profit loss and even bankruptcy if no measures are taken to reduce high levels of NPL ratios. At the macroeconomic level, countries with economies characterized by banks with high NPL-ratios often experience sluggish economic growth, a dramatic decrease in market confidence, increased distortion of credit allocation, sustained or increased demand of loans from borrowers, and a large contraction in available credit supply. To that end, both bank administrations as well as national governments take measures to ensure NPL ratios are kept at healthy levels. However, not all instances of high NPL ratios in modern economic history are addressed properly, and many of the NPL ratio crisis are accompanied by recessional periods in the economy. At the start of 2015, there were 33 countries with an NPL ratio of above 10%. Out of those 33 countries, 20 had an NPL ratio of over 15% and 11 had an NPL ratio of over 20% (refer to Figure 1 below).Figure 1: All countries with an NPL ratio of 10% or higher as of the start of 2015

Why are scientific ideas disseminated via "papers"? Is a paper the best way to share and publish research results today? The format and function of research communication has not changed much in the last 400 years. Take any paper published this week, download it, and compare it to a digitized version of a paper from the 1600s. The two papers may differ in page layout, color, and typeface, but they are essentially identical in format - a collection of text and figures. Indeed, the fact that we refer to the mainstream outlet of research communication as "paper" speaks volume of its boundness to print.While the published format has not changed in the last 400 years, the change in published content is astronomical: a proclamation of the success of science. The discovery of molecular structure of DNA \cite{WATSON_1953}, penicillin \cite{Fleming1980}, and the formulation of general relativity \cite{Einstein_1916} are some of the biggest and most splendid scientific discoveries of all time. They were all published in a two-dimensional paper format. Even more recently, the groundbreaking discovery of gravitational waves, which earned the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics to the leads of the LIGO collaboration, was published with a traditional paper format \cite{Abbott_2016}. LIGO's groundbreaking was certainly not analyzed on a 2D piece of paper.So, how is it possible that scientists produce and write cutting-edge "21st-century research" and still publish it in a "17th-century format"? \cite{obsolete,Pepe}Obviously, the paper format, being so enduring and persistent, has served science well. But things have changed in the last three decades. The recent explosion of content digitalization, growing internet speed and connectivity, and reliance on data, code, and computational power are leading to an unprecedented and irreversible path to changing the way we publish and disseminate research ideas. A Gutenberg-style revolution in scholarly communication is upon us, and we believe it is being pioneered by the Open Science movement. The Open Science initiative aims to make scientific research and its dissemination accessible, reproducible, and transparent. In addition to encouraging publication of research as Open Access as early as possible (the availability of preprints in subject-based repositories has moved beyond  the realm of physics), for many computational domains Open Science translates into making code and data available to everyone, and into practicing "open notebook" science. In other words: readers and reviewers must be able to understand how the authors produced the computational results, which parameters were used for the analysis, and how manipulations to these parameters affect the results. Increasingly, journals and funding agencies are mandating that researchers share their code and data when reporting on computational results based on code and data. However, even when data and code are provided by authors, and published, they are oftentimes relegated to Supplementary Information or to entirely separate platforms, disconnected from the published "full text". Since code, data, and text are not linked on a deep level, readers and reviewers are faced with barriers that hinder their ability to understand and retrace how the authors achieved a specific result. In addition, while data and code may be available in repositories external to the corresponding article \cite{Antoniol_2002}, it takes readers and reviewers considerable effort to verify the software and re-run analyses with, say, changed parameters.The idea of a multimedia, multi-dimensional, scholarly publication that defies the limitations of the 2-dimensional paper format  is not new. The publication history of the first detection of gravitational waves by the LIGO collaboration is an example of how much this is needed in scientific publishing. The discovery was reported in a series of traditional articles \cite{Abbott_2016}\cite{Abbott_2016a} but with an associated and externally hosted supplemental Jupyter notebook \cite{losc-tutoriallosc_event_tutorialmaster}. The notebook allows readers to run and tweak the code, change parameters to alter the analysis, and, in its section dedicated to the signal processing of the gravitational waves into sound, it even allows readers to play the bloop of two black holes colliding. Yet, the notebook and the multimedia elements had to reside outside the article. Why?

Introduction: The “crosstalk” (CST) ablation technique has been reported to reduce unnecessary ablation during cryoballoon (CB) ablation (CBA). Nevertheless, it is unclear which situations will necessitate the adoption of the technique. Methods and Results: The effect of the technique was analyzed in AF patients underwent CBA from July 2017 to February 2020. The balloon occlusion status and nadir temperature (NT) were compared, and all ablated PVs were categorized into three groups according to the necessity and effectiveness of the technique. Of 1082 superior PVs (SPVs), 16, 40, and 1026 were identified in the CST success group, CST failure group, and control group, respectively. The proportion of SPVs ablated with complete occlusion with CB was significantly higher in the CST success group (100%) than in the CST failure group (16.7%) or control group (49.4%) (CST success group vs. CST failure group, p<0.001; CST success group vs. control group, p<0.002). The proportion of SPVs ablated with NT ≤-46°C was higher in the CST success group (100%) than in the CST failure group (56.7%) (p<0.05). The CST ablation technique was always effective if CBA of the SPVs was performed with both complete occlusion and NT ≤-46°C and was almost always ineffective if it did not meet these two criteria (sensitivity, 100%; specificity, 93%). Conclusion: Successful CST ablation was highly predicted if complete PV occlusion and NT ≤-46°C during CBA of the SPVs were achieved, which could be useful when adopting the technique targeting inferior PVs to reduce unnecessary freezing during SPV isolation.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a re-emerging disease occurring worldwide and causing multi-billion-dollar loss and human death annually. The situation is worse in developing countries like Ethiopia, where lower knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of the people is imminent. A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was conducted to assess KAP of livestock ouners towards human and bovine Tuberculosis. A total of 349 study participants were addressed through face to face interview. Descriptive statistics and Pearson’s chi-squares analysis were used to observe the data and the association between outcome (KAP) and predictor variables. Out of the 349 respondents interviewed, 223 (63.9%) of them were males, while 126 (36.1%) were females. The KAP measuring interview indicated that almost all (97.4%) of the participants know human tuberculosis, while 84(24.1%) are aware of bovine tuberculosis cause and mode of transmission. Inhalation was reported as a common route of transmission for human TB (41.1%). In contrast, 50% of the respondent mentioned inhalation, contact, and ingestion of raw animal products as the main route of TB transmission from animal to human. Among those who have heard of bTB, only 56 (66.7%) of respondents consider bovine tuberculosis as a significant threat to public health. The study showed that there is a lower KAP on bovine TB among cattle owners. Therefore, community awareness promotion and health education on human and bovine TB should be operated under a “One Health” umbrella

In last decades, many alleviation measures were proposed in order to improve the life of fretting fatigue affected components. The aim of such palliatives is that to counteract the high stress gradients that arise near the contact surface. In such a context, the shot peening treatment is worth noting. Therefore, in the present paper, the fatigue life of shot-peened aluminium and titanium alloy specimens, subject to fretting fatigue under partial slip regime, is assessed by means of the Carpinteri et al. criterion for fretting fatigue. Firstly, according to the superposition principle, the relaxed residual stresses (due to the shot peening treatment) are combined with the stress components due to fretting fatigue loading. Then fretting fatigue assessment is performed. In such a context, a novel theoretical law for the relaxed residual stress field is here proposed, the implementation of which shows very promising results in terms of fatigue life estimation of the shot-peened specimens examined.

A Time-Reversal ( TR) imaging method for multiple targets that incorporates fewer transmitters is suggested using temporal filtering and Frequency Focusing (FF) matrices. This study is intended for the detection of malignant breast tumors with minimal microwave radiation. A couple of scenarios with two and four tumors are considered here. Using only two transmitters and twelve receivers, we show that two tumors could be detected in an inhomogeneous tissue breast. The results are compared with conventional TR Multiple Signal Classification method (MUSIC), which requires more transmitters. It is shown that several well-resolved tumors that exceed transmitters could be detected by subregion Spatio-Temporal Filtering (SSTF). In our proposed method, we used the orthogonal subspace instead of the signal subspace to have a higher Signal to Clutter Ratios (SCR). Since the Born approximation is not used, multiple scattering is considered. In addition, white Gaussian noise is added to measurement simulations. A 3-GHz modulated Gaussian pulse with a 1-GHz bandwidth is employed for illuminating the medium. Finite-Element Time-Domain method (FETD) is used in the measurement simulations, and the analytic Green’s function of the background is utilized for backpropagation. Several simulations are provided that show the effectiveness of this approach.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global health problem which is challenging healthcare worldwide. In this critical review, we discussed the advantages and limitations of the rapid implementation of salivary diagnostic platforms to COVID-19. The diagnostic test of COVID-19 by invasive nasopharyngeal collection is uncomfortable to the patients and requires specialized training to healthcare professionals in order to perform an appropriate collection of samples. Additionally, these professionals are in close contact with infected patients or suspected cases of COVID-19, leading to increased contamination risk for frontline healthcare workers (Scylla). Although there is a colossal demand for novel diagnostic platforms with non-invasive and self-collection samples to COVID-19, the implementation of the salivary platforms remains in debate due to its accuracy (Charybdis). Up to date, clinical trials supports the potential of detecting SARS-CoV-2 RNA in saliva as a biomarker for COVID-19, providing a self-collection, non-invasive, safety, and comfortable procedure. Therefore, the salivary diagnosis is suitable to protect healthcare professionals and others frontline workers, and may encourage patients to be tested due to its advantages over the current invasive methods. Furthermore, we expected that salivary diagnostic devices to COVID-19 continue to be used with austerity without excluding traditional gold standard specimens to detect SARS-CoV-2.

This study is a global meta-analysis of the effects of grassland plant species richness on aboveground and belowground carbon and nitrogen dynamics. Observations from 73 studies in grasslands totaling 1385 paired observations of plant mixtures and monocultures were compiled. Response variables included nine carbon and six nitrogen processes to plant diversity, examined the effects of experimental types and age on the responses, and predicted the carbon and nitrogen balance following different biodiversity loss scenario in grasslands. We found that carbon and nitrogen functions significantly enhanced in plant mixtures, but varied with experimental types. Most of the attributes was significantly correlated with species richness and experimental age, the relationship between species richness and carbon and nitrogen processes was interacted with experimental duration in the field experiments, except for soil respiration, fungal biomass, and soil nitrate nitrogen. Importantly, our results showed that the declines in soil carbon and nitrogen pool accelerated following plant diversity loss. Our meta-analysis revealed that the plant diversity has ubiquitous impacts on carbon and nitrogen cycles in grasslands, likely driven by complementarity effects of plant diversity on plant productivity and biomass, underlined interactive effects of plant diversity, experimental types and age, and climate on carbon and nitrogen processes, and suggested that the reduction in carbon and nitrogen stocks in grasslands will be larger following biodiversity loss in the future.

IntroductionThe ability for ecosystems to maintain productivity and functionality under seasonal and long term changes in resource availability relies on the diversity of functional groups (Cadotte et al. 2011). In marine food webs, functionally diverse assemblages of heterotrophic bacteria, heterotrophic protists and zooplankton transfer the organic matter from primary producers to higher trophic levels (Sommer 1989). Zooplankton regulate the flow of energy and matter in the food web through several mechanisms including grazing, respiration, excretion, and as food to support higher trophic levels (Calbet & Landry 2004; Mitra & Davis 2010; Steinberg & Landry 2017). Variation in temporal abundance, feeding traits, size, phenotypic plasticity, growth rate and predation resistance all contribute to the total diversity of zooplankton functional groups in marine food webs (Petchey & Gaston 2006). A high diversity of functional groups contributes to a large variety of resource use that is crucial for the maintenance of ecosystem services under changing conditions (Cadotte et al. 2011). To generate accurate predictions of vulnerability and estimate the resilience of marine ecosystems, a mechanistic understanding of resource use by zooplankton is needed (Bindoff et al. 2019). However, most trophic studies are based on size or phylogeny, and the complexity of zooplankton interactions is rarely considered in trophic studies because of the lack of detailed information about feeding interactions in nature. Consequently, the functional diversity of the zooplankton community and their ability to exploit similar resources is typically not accurately considered (Mitra et al. 2014).The diversity of zooplankton allows for maintaining the biomass of fish stocks over the seasons by a shift from a phytoplankton to detritus-based food webs at times when the biomass of phytoplankton is low or inedible (D’Alelio et al. 2016). While crustacean zooplankton (e.g. copepods and cladocerans) constitute the primary link between phytoplankton and planktivorous fish (Cushing 1990), microzooplankton (i.e. heterotrophic flagellates, ciliates and rotifers) can at times dominate ocean’s carbon respiration in productive coastal ecosystems(Sherr & Sherr 2002; Calbet & Landry 2004). By utilizing matter recycled by heterotrophic bacteria in the microbial loop (Azamet al. 1983), the microzooplankton serve as an additional link between primary producers and crustacean zooplankton (Gifford 1991). The possibility to switch between alternative food web states may be particularly critical in coastal ecosystems that experience an increase in filamentous cyanobacteria due to climate warming (Paerl & Huisman 2008; Cloern et al. 2016).While most trophic studies have clustered zooplankton into broad phylogenetic groups (Mitra et al. 2014), recent studies suggest that models based on traits, particularly size, reflect the true ecosystem structure more effectively (Sommer & Stibor 2002; Boyceet al. 2015). However, none of these approaches consider the entire functional group diversity of zooplankton. As an example, the rotifer phylum contains members of different size classes (belonging to both the micro- and mesozooplankton) (Arndt 1993), as well as organisms with different feeding behaviors such as micro-filtering feeders (Pourriot 1977), selective feeders (Bogdan et al. 1980; Bogdan & Gilbert 1982; Gilbert & Jack 1993), and in some cases even carnivores (Gilbert 1980). Similarly, copepods and cladocerans can perform different feeding strategies ranging from feeding-current feeding to passive/active ambush feeding (Kiørboe 2011), utilizing a wide spectrum of resources.The difficulty in resolving plankton food webs lies within method limitations. Traditional methods to study plankton food webs, such as grazing dilution techniques (Landry & Hassett 1982), biogeochemical tracers or microscopic observations (Post 2002), may not display its full complexity with enough resolution, and has created a biased knowledge towards larger organisms in the food web that are more frequently studied (Gutiérrez-Rodríguez et al. 2014). Molecular techniques, including DNA sequencing targeting plankton communities, has highlighted the complexity and diversity of plankton interactions on a global scale (Lima-Mendez et al. 2015). Further, DNA metabarcoding of gut content or selected organisms has proven to be a useful tool for resolving trophic interactions (Pompanon et al.2012) and for zooplankton, barcoding of whole organisms can resolve both trophic, parasitic and mutualistic interactions among crustacean zooplankton (De Corte et al. 2017; Zamora-Terol et al.2020). To our knowledge no study has so far aimed to estimate the diversity of functional groups of zooplankton spanning both phylum and size, using targeted DNA metabarcoding.In this study, we aimed to investigate the functional group diversity of the most abundant zooplankton genera in the Baltic Sea, a temperate coastal sea with strong seasonal variability, and where both micro- and mesozooplankton are at times dominating with well-defined abundance peaks (Fig. 1). We hypothesize that diet composition between zooplankton consumers constitutes a more realistic proxy for functional diversity compared to size and phylogeny. By sequencing 18S rRNA and16S rRNA barcoding genes, we analyzed zooplankton-associated prey of selected individuals of different size classes including a ciliate and rotifers, and compared them with the most abundant crustacean zooplankton (copepods and cladocerans). We demonstrate a larger functional group diversity in resource use within zooplankton in the Baltic Sea than previously acknowledged. The functional group diversity goes beyond both phylogenetic diversity and size and is crucial for the understanding of key ecological processes and maintenance of ecosystem functions.

Ethiopia is one of the well-endowed countries in Sub-Saharan Africa in terms of natural resources. However, land degradation is a major problem in the country. The objective of this study was to assess farmers’ perception on soil and water conservation (SWC) practices and its implication on land degradation. Data were collected using questionnaires, interviews, and focus group discussions from 117 randomly selected households. The result indicated that the perception of farmers on SWC practices was significantly influenced by age, sex, marital status, household size, educational qualification, farm-size (ha), farmers’ experience, distance from the homestead, and household income. Besides, greater than 50% of the respondents were aware of the causes of land degradation by indicating population growth, over-cultivation, overgrazing; soil erosion, poor farming practices, and poverty as the major causes. Furthermore, most of the respondents (>75%) were aware of the consequences of land degradation by pointing out the loss of agricultural productivity, the difficulty of farming, and loss in livestock productivity as the major ones. Moreover, about 72.5% of the respondents indicated that land degradation on their farm-field was severe. The SWC measures practiced in the study area include cutoff drains, contour farming, waterways, check dams, fallowing, application of manures, and soil bunds. Thus, it can be concluded that the perception of SWC practices is affected by many factors. Besides, land degradation in the study area can be deceased first by creating awareness in the society on the consequences of land degradation and then implementing SWC measures.

A study of cannabinoid content in commercially available cold-pressed hemp seed oil (CPHSO) manufactured in North America and assayed using a validated low-LOQ analytical method with UHPLC-MS/MS quantitation was conducted. Thirty CPHSO samples from small, medium, and large-scale manufacturers were voluntarily submitted. Samples were produced from eleven known cultivars grown in three Canadian provinces and six US States, plus one sample from seeds imported from Poland and pressed in the USA. Oil density was measured for each sample, as were the content of sixteen cannabinoids with validated commercial reference standards, and reported in parts-per-million (ppm). Observational and statistical methods were used to examine variances in analyte concentrations, demonstrating significant differences in cannabinoid concentrations between samples. Several per-sample and per-analyte heatmaps aided in the visual examination of variances. A two-phase series of linear regressions were performed on normally distributed cannabinoids with raw and trimmed data sets to determine if content variations correlated to manufacturer cleaning, handling, and storage procedures, or if the variation was influenced more by cultivar. The research findings suggest that variance in cannabinoid content is likely most influenced by cultivar, but do not rule out contributions by supplier handling and processing techniques.

Litters carry out the cycling and storage of multiple nutrients and heavy metals, and thus litter mineral elements sharp many key ecosystem processes. Understanding the global geographic patterns of litter elements is needed for plant nutrition and biogeochemical models, but such knowledge is largely limited to N and P. By compiling data on 12 mineral elements in leaf litter from 1, 666 species, we show that elements differed largely in their retranslocation efficiencies and among plant functional types. Elements in leaf litter responded to latitude in a similar manor as those in green leaves, except for N. Disproportionate resorption acted as a negative feedback and caused leaf litter N to decline with latitude, a trend contrary to green leaf N; litter P increased with latitude as predicted by the Plant Physiological Hypotheses. The rest elements generally declined with latitude, supporting the Temperature-Biogeochemistry Hypotheses. Soil nutrients likely had indirect effects on these latitudinal patterns via controls on green leaves, while woody plant distribution per se had modest effects. Overall, we suggest that fundamental constraints on plant nutrient conservation and usage strategies lead to predictable global-scale patterns in multiple litter elements.

Abstract. Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus are bacterial pathogens frequently associated with pulmonary complications and disease progression in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. However, these bacteria increasingly show multiple resistance to antibiotics, necessitating novel management strategies. One possibility is phage therapy, where lytic bacteriophages (phages; bacteria-specific viruses) are administered to kill target bacterial pathogens. Recent publication of case reports of phage-therapy treatment of antibiotic-resistant lung infections in CF has garnered significant attention. These cases exemplify the renewed interest in phage therapy, as an older concept that is newly updated to include rigorous collection and analysis of patient data to assess clinical benefit, while informing the development of clinical trials. As outcomes of these trials become public, the results will valuably gauge the potential usefulness of phage therapy to address the rise in antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. In addition, we highlight the further need for basic research on accurately predicting the different responses of target bacterial pathogens when phages are administered alone, sequentially or as mixtures (cocktails), and whether within-cocktail interactions among phages hold consequences for the efficacy of phage therapy in patient treatment.

Abstract INTRODUCTION: Effective Airway Clearance Techniques (ACT) is the key step in the management of Bronchiectasis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of 3% Hypertonic Saline (HS) pre-medication in ACT in children with non Cystic Fibrosis (non-CF) bronchiectasis. METHODS: Five to 15 year old children with non-CF bronchiectasis were randomized either to receive 200µg of inhaled salbutamol followed by hypertonic saline nebulization (test) or only 200µg of inhaled salbutamol, prior to chest physiotherapy which is the conventional ACT (controls) for 8 weeks. After completion of first phase both groups went through one month washout period, before being crossed over to the opposite arms in the second phase. Spirometric parameters were recorded at the end of each phase. RESULTS: Fifty two children completed the study. Baseline characteristics of the two groups were similar. A significantly higher mean improvement was seen in predicted Forced Expiratory Volume in one second(FEV1) in the HS arm during phase 1 [HS=14.15±5.50 vs. conventional =5.04±5.55, p=0.001] and phase II [HS =10.81±5.51 vs. conventional =3.54 ±5.13, p=0.001]. HS arm showed a significantly higher mean improvement in predicted Forced Vital Capacity(FVC) in phase I[HS=13.77±5.73 vs. conventional= 7.54±4.90, p=0.001] and phase II, [HS=9.42±7.00 vs. conventional =4.42±4.00, p=0.003). Mean number of exacerbations experienced by a single child during phase I (2 months) were significantly less (p=0,001) in HS group compared to that of conventional group. CONCLUSIONS: Incorporating HS nebulization into ACT is an effective strategy to improve dynamic lung volumes and morbidity in children with non-CF bronchiectasis.

Mesonephric adenocarcinoma (MA) is a rare tumor entity develops from mesonephric remnants.we demonstrate a well-differentiated case underdiagnosed as endometrial hyperplasia on a ThinPrep cytology test.

Objective: To examine the effect of prenatal maternal anxiety on birthweight and preterm birth, controlling for genetic confounding using a sibling comparison design. Design: This is a population-based prospective cohort study with a comparison of a population level analysis and a sibling analysis. Setting: This study is based on the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) conducted by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (https://www.fhi.no/en/studies/moba/ ). Sample: Women and their chiold participating in the MoBa (n= 78,117) and women participating with more than one pregnancy (n=12,480). Methods: Associations between prenatal maternal anxiety (measured across the 17th and 30th weeks) and birth outcomes (birthweight and gestational age) were examined using linear regression with adjustment for family-shared confounding in a sibling comparison design. Main outcomes: Birthweight (in grams) and gestational age (ultrasound measure in days) were obtained from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway. Results: The maternal anxiety score during pregnancy was inversely associated with newborn’s birthweight (Beta = -112,8 95% CI: –142.7, -83.0) and gestational age (Beta=-1.77, 95% CI: -2.42, -1.13) after adjustment for several covariates. The association of the maternal anxiety score with both newborn’s birthweight (Beta=-173.9, 95% CI: -252.3, -95.4) and gestational age (Beta=-1.08, 95% CI: -2.91, -0.75) remained but was largely weakened after further adjusting for the shared-family confounding in the sibling comparison design. Conclusion: The link between maternal prenatal anxiety and birthweight and gestational age remained after adjusting for shared family confounding, yet estimates were weakened after adjusting for environmental covariates.

Fever clinics are designed to provide prompt assessment, management, laboratory examination and decision-making for the potential infected cases, which serves as the crucial first-line of defense to control nosocomial infection. Guided by the primary principle of ‘early assessment, early detection, and early isolation’, fever clinics played a significant role in triaging suspected cases and minimize the risk of nosocomial infection during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) combat in China. However, fever clinics failed to function normally as expected, with an astonishing number of healthcare workers infected. In this comment, we systematically evaluated the current limitations of fever clinics and recommended several countermeasures, aiming to enhance and maximize the capability and capacity of fever clinics for acute infectious diseases.

Cardiac intimal sarcoma are extremely rare and aggressive primary malignant cardiac tumors. Here, we reported the case of a young man initially operated for a tumor of the left atrium, causing a dynamic obstruction of the mitral valve and (mis-)diagnosed as a myxoma at the histopathological analysis. Patient presented a local recurrence at 3 months and was reoperated. Pathology revealed this time the presence of an intimal sarcoma. Patient received adjuvant chemotherapy. Despite a good local control, the one-year follow-up PET scan revealed the presence of a metastasis in the left adrenal gland that was surgically resected. This paper aims to highlight the risk of misdiagnosis in case of cardiac tumors, the hypothetical concept of malignant transformation of a cardiac myxoma, the aggressive course of the extremely rare cardiac intimal sarcoma and the therapeutic modalities available to treat this pathology.

We reported a 34-year-old man who was diagnosed as primary cardiac angiosarcoma. The diagnosis was delayed until one month after he first entered the hospital. Because cardiac angiosarcoma is easy to be misdiagnosed as pneumonia or other diseases due to its rarity. Although surgical therapy is always considered as a method that can prolong survival time, highly malignant tumors with local infiltration and systemic metastasis lead to poor prognosis. We stressed that primary cardiac malignancy should be noticed when a young patient presented as unexplained pericardial effusion or refractory pneumonia. Early diagnosis can provide more possibilities for treatments.

This paper is concerned with a predator-prey model with prey-taxis and linear prey harvesting under the homogeneous Neumann boundary condition. The stability of the unique positive constant solution of the predator-prey model without prey-taxis is derived. Also, the emergence of Hopf bifurcation is concluded by choosing the proper Hopf bifurcation parameters. Moreover, the existence of non-constant positive steady states is investigated by the introduce of prey-taxis. The conclusions show that prey harvesting and prey-taxis can enrich the dynamics.

Epidemiologic studies performed in the Melbourne Sexual Health Center over several years have explored and emphasized the role of sexual transmission in the pathogenesis of sporadic bacterial vaginosis (BV) as well as recurrent BV (Fethers KA., et al. Infect. Dis. 2008; 47: 1426-1435). Some of the most definitive studies documenting details of heterosexual sexual transmission followed. There can be little doubt as to the causal role of sexual transmission in BV particularly with regard to the initial episode (Cherpes, TL., et al. Sex. Transm. Dis 2008; 35: 78-83). The present study adds solid molecular data to their previous epidemiologic data that recurrent BV is more likely to occur in a heterosexual woman with a single regular male partner (Ratten L., et al BJOG 2020 xxxx): Moreover, the risk is mitigated by use of an oral contraceptive and barrier contraceptives. Specifically, Ratten et al conclude that sex is associated with persistence of non-optimal, BV-associated vaginal dysbiosis following appropriate antimicrobial treatment for BV in a cohort followed prospectively, likely the result of sexual transmission from a regular partner. The key term used in the title of the study is persistence, which implies that the non-optimal vaginal microbiota fails to resolve, as opposed to future reintroduction from the same guilty partner. Persistence in this context, unfortunately, also indirectly suggests that inadequate antimicrobial treatment is currently prescribed to women, perhaps sufficient to relieve symptoms and meet diagnostic criteria of satisfactory response, but insufficient to eradicate BV pathogens. The author emphasizes needed improvement in the, so far, futile male partner therapy to prevent female reinfection, a goal that has repeatedly eluded experts to date.The unanswered question facing patients and clinicians alike is the role of sexual reinfection as opposed to vaginal relapse in the causation and likelihood of BV recurrence. The tone of the article would indicate that reinfection is the more likely causal mechanism of BV recurrence, by emphasizing “persistence” and outweighing the role of unexplained relapse. In dealing with a symptomatic patient suffering from an episode of recurrent BV, it is currently not possible to differentiate relapse from reinfection unless the patient declares herself to be celibate, ergo relapse is the cause of recurrence. The clinical picture is identical as are Amsel or Nugent criteria. Unfortunately, molecular microbiome studies have not revealed significant differences between sequential episodes regardless of causation. We lack a “unique fingerprint” to differentiate cause or nature of the recurrent episode. Even with reinfection, sexual or otherwise, details of pathogenesis are still lacking. We know too that coitus can elicit symptoms of BV (post coital malodor) even with use of a condom. The role of receptive oral-vulvovaginal sex is also undetermined, as is the role of penile – anorectal penetration although the latter was found to be minimal in the latest study by Ratten L., et al. (BJOG 2020 xxxx): Moreover, not all longitudinal studies have revealed that heterosexual sex is a major factor in recurrence (Sobel J.D., et al. Infect. Drug Resist. 2019: 12; 2297-2307).The role of sex and reinfection in causation of RBV will depend significantly upon the population studied, including biologic and behavioral differences. Determination of causation of BV recurrence in different patient populations should be personalized and acknowledged as we admit our current limitations. Will more effective male treatment help reduce BV recurrence? Hopefully but still unknown. Determining all the causes of vaginal microbiota persistence, including the role of biofilm, remains a challenge.No disclosures: A completed disclosure of interest form is available to view online as supporting information.

In this paper, we consider a class of non-cooperative critical nonlocal equation system with variable exponents of the form: $$ \left\{ \begin{array}{lll} -(-\Delta)_{p(\cdot,\cdot)}^su - |u|^{p(x)-2}u = F_u(x,u,v) + |u|^{q(x)-2}u, \quad &\mbox{in}\,\,\mathbb{R}^N,\\ (-\Delta)_{p(\cdot,\cdot)}^sv + |v|^{p(x)-2}v = F_v(x,u,v) + |v|^{q(x)-2}u, \quad &\mbox{in}\,\,\mathbb{R}^N,\\ u, v \in W^{s,p(\cdot,\cdot)}(\mathbb{R}^N), \end{array}\right. $$ where $\nabla F = (F_u, F_v)$ is the gradient of a $C^1$-function $F: \mathbb{R}^N\times \mathbb{R}^2 \rightarrow \mathbb{R}^+$ with respect to the variable $(u, v) \in \mathbb{R}^2$. We also assume that$\{x \in \mathbb{R}^N: q(x) = p_s^\ast(x)\} \neq \emptyset$, here $p_s^\ast(x)=Np(x,x)/(N-sp(x,x))$ is the critical Sobolev exponent for variable exponents. With the help of the Limit index theory and the concentration-compactness principles for fractional Sobolev spaces with variable exponents, we establish the existence of infinitely many solutions for the problem under the suitable conditions on the nonlinearity.

This work presents analytical and numerical results for the position- and momentum-space information entropies, of the 1s2-state of helium-like ions, using different interaction potentials. The potentials that we used are the Yukawa potential (YP), and the exponential-cosine-screened Coulomb potential (ECSCP). The investigated studies allow us to relate the position-space information with the momentum-space information of Shannon and Fisher, as well as Shannon entropy power, and the Fisher-Shannon information product, through different famous relations. The calculation is done using the one-electron charge density of entangled two-parameter wave function. On one hand, the results that are presented for ten members in the helium isoelectronic sequence demonstrate with precision the effect of correlation on bare charge distributions. On the other hand, it leads to some very important results for both the correlated and uncorrelated values of the informatic entropies. Analytical formula for the momentum-space information entropies are given. The effect of the nuclear charge and the screening parameter on the information expressions has been studied for both potentials. Detailed computational and numerical values and characteristics of these information quantities, as a function of the screening parameter, are reported here for the first time. New inequality has been proposed with Fisher’s total value to measure the correlation of two electrons.