Previous studies have suggested that a hospital patient's risk of developing healthcare facility-onset (HCFO) Clostridioides difficile infections (CDIs) increases with the number of concurrent spatially proximate patients with CDI, termed CDI pressure. However, these studies were performed either in a single institution or in a single state with a very coarse measure of concurrence. We conducted a retrospective case-control study involving over 17.5 million inpatient visits across 700 hospitals in eight US states. We built a weighted, directed network connecting overlapping inpatient visits to measure facility-level CDI pressure. We then matched HCFO-CDIs with non-CDI controls on facility, comorbidities and demographics and performed a conditional logistic regression to determine the odds of developing HCFO-CDI given the number of coincident patient visits with CDI. On average, cases' visits coincided with 9.2 CDI cases, which for an individual with an average length of stay corresponded to an estimated 17.7% (95% CI 12.9–22.7%) increase in the odds of acquiring HCFO-CDI compared to an inpatient visit without concurrent CDI cases or fully isolated from both direct and indirect risks from concurrent CDI cases. These results suggest that, either directly or indirectly, hospital patients with CDI lead to CDIs in non-infected patients with temporally overlapping visits.

The effect of milorganite, a commercially available organic soil amendment, on soil nutrients, plant growth, and yield has been investigated. However, its effect on soil hydraulic properties remains less understood. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of milorganite amendment on soil evaporation, moisture retention, hydraulic conductivity, and electrical conductivity of a Krome soil. A column experiment was conducted with two milorganite application rates (15 and 30% v/v) and a non-amended control soil. The results revealed that milorganite reduced evaporation rates and the length of Stage I of the evaporation process compared with the control. Moreover, milorganite increased moisture retention at saturation and permanent wilting point while decreasing soil hydraulic conductivity. In addition, milorganite increased soil electrical conductivity. Overall, milorganite resulted in increased soil moisture retention; however, moisture in the soil may not be readily available for plants due to increased soil salinity.

Increased access to defensible material wealth is hypothesised to escalate inequality. Market integration, which creates novel opportunities in cash economies, provides a means of testing this hypothesis. Using demographic data collected from 505 households among the matrilineal and patrilineal Mosuo in 2017, we test whether market integration is associated with increased material wealth, whether increased material wealth is associated with wealth inequality, and whether being in a matrilineal vs. patrilineal kinship system alters the relationship between wealth and inequality. We find evidence that market integration, measured as distance to the nearest source of tourism and primary source of household income, is associated with increased household income and ‘modern’ asset value. Both village-level market integration and mean asset value were associated negatively, rather than positively, with inequality, contrary to predictions. Finally, income, modern wealth and inequality were higher in matrilineal communities that were located closer to the centre of tourism and where tourism has long provided a relatively stable source of income. However, we also observed exacerbated inequality with increasing farm animal value in patriliny. We conclude that the forces affecting wealth and inequality depend on local context and that the importance of local institutions is obscured by aggregate statistics drawn from modern nation states.

Nontyphoidal salmonellosis is the leading reported foodborne illness in Florida. Although the diversity of Salmonella serotypes circulating in Florida has been identified, the geographical characteristics of the major serotypes are poorly described. Here we examined the geospatial patterns of 803 whole-genome sequenced Salmonella isolates within seven major serotypes (Enteritidis, Newport, Javiana, Sandiego, Braenderup, Typhimurium and I 4,[5],12:i:-) with the metadata obtained from Florida Department of Health during 2017–2018. Geographically, the distribution of incidence rates varied distinctively between serotypes. Illnesses with Enteritidis and Newport serotypes were widespread in Florida. The incidence rate for Javiana was relatively higher in the north compared to the south. Typhimurium was concentrated in the northwest, while I 4,[5],12:i:-, the monophasic variant of Typhimurium was limited to the south. We also evaluated space–time clustering of isolates at the zip code level using scan statistic models. Space–time clusters were detected for each major serotype during 2017–2018. The multinomial scan statistic found the risk of illness with Javiana was higher in the north and southwest in the fall of 2017 compared to other major serotypes. This serotype-specific clustering analysis will assist in further unpacking the associations between distinct reservoirs and illnesses with major serotypes in Florida.

It is well known that the Poiseuille mass flow rate along microchannels shows a stationary point as the fluid density decreases, referred to as the Knudsen minimum. Surprisingly, if the flow characteristic length is comparable to the molecular size, the Knudsen minimum disappears, as reported for the first time by Wu et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 794, 2016, pp. 252–266). However, there is still no fundamental understanding why the mass flow rate monotonically increases throughout the entire range of flow regimes. Although diffusion is believed to dominate the fluid transport at the nanoscale, here we show that the Fick's first law fails in capturing this behaviour, and so diffusion alone is insufficient to explain this confined flow phenomenon. Rather, we show that the Knudsen minimum disappears in tight confinements because the decay of the mass flow rate due to the decreasing density effects is overcome by the enhancing contribution to the flow provided by the fluid velocity slip at the wall.

In this prospective, longitudinal study, we examined the risk factors for severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection among a cohort of chronic hemodialysis (HD) patients and healthcare personnel (HCPs) over a 6-month period. The risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection among HD patients and HCPs was consistently associated with a household member having SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Heating of over-dense plasma represents a long-standing quest in laser–plasma physics. When the strength of the magnetic field is above the critical value, a right-handed circularly polarized laser could propagate into and heat up the highly magnetized over-dense collisional plasma directly; the processes are dependent on the parameters of the laser, plasma and magnetic field. The parametric dependence is fully studied both qualitatively and quantitatively, resulting in scaling laws of the plasma temperature, heating depth and energy conversion efficiency. Such heating is also studied with the most powerful CO2 and strongest magnetic field in the world, where plasma with density of ${10}^{23}$ cm–3 and initial temperature of 1 keV is heated to around 10 keV within a depth of several micrometres. Several novel phenomena are also discovered and discussed, that is, local heating in the region of high density, low temperature or weak magnetic field.

The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) has emerged out of the quantitative approach to psychiatric nosology. This approach identifies psychopathology constructs based on patterns of co-variation among signs and symptoms. The initial HiTOP model, which was published in 2017, is based on a large literature that spans decades of research. HiTOP is a living model that undergoes revision as new data become available. Here we discuss advantages and practical considerations of using this system in psychiatric practice and research. We especially highlight limitations of HiTOP and ongoing efforts to address them. We describe differences and similarities between HiTOP and existing diagnostic systems. Next, we review the types of evidence that informed development of HiTOP, including populations in which it has been studied and data on its validity. The paper also describes how HiTOP can facilitate research on genetic and environmental causes of psychopathology as well as the search for neurobiologic mechanisms and novel treatments. Furthermore, we consider implications for public health programs and prevention of mental disorders. We also review data on clinical utility and illustrate clinical application of HiTOP. Importantly, the model is based on measures and practices that are already used widely in clinical settings. HiTOP offers a way to organize and formalize these techniques. This model already can contribute to progress in psychiatry and complement traditional nosologies. Moreover, HiTOP seeks to facilitate research on linkages between phenotypes and biological processes, which may enable construction of a system that encompasses both biomarkers and precise clinical description.

The incidence of scarlet fever has increased dramatically in recent years in Chongqing, China, but there has no effective method to forecast it. This study aimed to develop a forecasting model of the incidence of scarlet fever using a seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) model. Monthly scarlet fever data between 2011 and 2019 in Chongqing, China were retrieved from the Notifiable Infectious Disease Surveillance System. From 2011 to 2019, a total of 5073 scarlet fever cases were reported in Chongqing, the male-to-female ratio was 1.44:1, children aged 3–9 years old accounted for 81.86% of the cases, while 42.70 and 42.58% of the reported cases were students and kindergarten children, respectively. The data from 2011 to 2018 were used to fit a SARIMA model and data in 2019 were used to validate the model. The normalised Bayesian information criterion (BIC), the coefficient of determination (R2) and the root mean squared error (RMSE) were used to evaluate the goodness-of-fit of the fitted model. The optimal SARIMA model was identified as (3, 1, 3) (3, 1, 0)12. The RMSE and mean absolute per cent error (MAPE) were used to assess the accuracy of the model. The RMSE and MAPE of the predicted values were 19.40 and 0.25 respectively, indicating that the predicted values matched the observed values reasonably well. Taken together, the SARIMA model could be employed to forecast scarlet fever incidence trend, providing support for scarlet fever control and prevention.

The groundbreaking, viewpoint theory of Merker et al. explains several properties of the conscious field, including why the observer cannot directly apprehend itself. We propose that viewpoint theory might also provide a progressive, constitutive marker of consciousness and shed light on why most of the contents of consciousness are encapsulated.

The spatio-temporal variation of leaf chlorophyll content is an important crop phenotypic trait that is of great significance for evaluating crop productivity. This study used a soil-plant analysis development (SPAD) chlorophyll meter for non-destructive monitoring of leaf chlorophyll dynamics to characterize the patterns of spatio-temporal variation in the nutritional status of maize (Zea mays L.) leaves under three nitrogen treatments in two cultivars. The results showed that nitrogen levels could affect the maximum leaf SPAD reading (SPADmax) and the duration of high SPAD reading. A rational model was used to measure the changes in SPAD readings over time in single leaves. This model was suitable for predicting the dynamics of the nutrient status for each leaf position under different nitrogen treatments, and model parameter values were position dependent. SPADmax at each leaf decreased with the reduction of nitrogen supply. Leaves at different positions in both cultivars responded differently to higher nitrogen rates. Lower leaves (8th–10th positions) were more sensitive than the other leaves in response to nitrogen. Monitoring the SPAD reading dynamic of lower leaves could accurately characterize and assess the nitrogen supply in plants. The lower leaves in nitrogen-deficient plants had a shorter duration of high SPAD readings compared to nitrogen-sufficient plants; this physiological mechanism should be studied further. In summary, the spatio-temporal variation of plant nitrogen status in maize was analysed to determine critical leaf positions for potentially assisting in the identification of appropriate agronomic management practices, such as the adjustment of nitrogen rates in late fertilization.