Declining labor force participation of older men throughout the 20th century and recent increases in participation have generated substantial interest in understanding the effect of public pensions on retirement. The National Bureau of Economic Research's International Social Security (ISS) Project, a long-term collaboration among researchers in a dozen developed countries, has explored this and related questions. The project employs a harmonized approach to conduct within-country analyses that are combined for meaningful cross-country comparisons. The key lesson is that the choices of policy makers affect the incentive to work at older ages and these incentives have important effects on retirement behavior.

Background: A vital role of hospital employee health is the management, characterization, and targeted prevention of bloodborne pathogen exposures (BPPE) among healthcare workers. A comprehensive review of a health center’s BPPE over time was conducted to identify areas for improvement and target education and training, given changes in BBPE standard operating procedures (SOPs) over time. Methods: A retrospective descriptive analysis was conducted on deidentified BBPE cases reported to employee health at VA Connecticut Healthcare System from 1995-2023 (N=296) using R statistical software. Results: The highest number of BBPE occurred among trainee physicians (N=103, 34.8%, especially surgery and internal medicine), registered nurses (N=60, 20.3%), and non-trainee physicians (N=45, 15.2%). The most frequently implicated devices were hollow-bore (N=103, 34.8%) and suture needles (N=60, 20.3%). Most BBPE occurred during surgical procedures (N=114, 38.5%) or medication administration (N=52, 17.6%). Over half of BBPE occurred during afternoons/nights (N=172, 58.1%). Over half occurred with use of personal protective equipment (PPE) (N=181, 61.1%). The majority of BBPE implicated finger injuries (N=220, 74.3%). Blood was the most frequently reported exposure (N=127, 42.9%), a similar percentage of records did not specifically name a body fluid type (N=121) or whether PPE was used (N=110). In most cases, the source patient was identified (N=282, 95.3%) and tested (N=272, 91.9%). Forty-three sources (14.5%) had positive BBP testing, which included HIV (N=14, 4.7%), hepatitis C (N=23, 7.8%), and hepatitis B (N=6, 2.0%). Most employees presented to employee health for initial evaluation (N=231, 78%) and underwent post-exposure testing (N=266, 89.9%); most had evidence of immunity to hepatitis B (N=246, 83.1%). Eighty-three employees (28%) received HIV PEP (average=1.9 days). Most records did not indicate if this was a first-time BBPE (N=250, 84.5%). No employee records indicated seroconversion for a bloodborne pathogen. Conclusions: Physicians and RNs, those performing surgical procedures and administering medications, and those on second and third shifts are at highest risk and may benefit from additional interventions such as exposure assessment or education. Required recordkeeping has been variable over time. Updated national SOPs have been adapted to employee health, though additional details could be considered for quality improvement purposes, such as duration of employment, level of training, and prior BBPE prevention education. It is unclear if some information such as history of BBPE or PPE use was elicited but not documented – this information could be helpful in management of BBPEs.

Pathogenic CACNA1A mutations can result in paroxysmal attacks of encephalopathy, hemiplegia and cerebral edema. We report two patients with CACNA1A-associated encephalopathy, hemiplegia and contralateral hemispheric cerebral edema treated successfully with intravenous magnesium sulfate and dexamethasone. One patient met the clinical criteria for familial hemiplegic migraine. There is a paucity of guidance in the literature on how to manage these patients. Despite some discrepancies in the treatment protocols in our two cases, they indicate that magnesium and dexamethasone could be part of the treatment algorithm for these patients. Further research to delineate appropriate dosing and duration of therapy is needed.

Soil samples from near Long Xuyen, South Vietnam, considered to be typical of the clayey alluvial soils of the Mekong Delta, were investigated to determine the soil mineral content and soil type. The soils are of fairly uniform composition, consisting mainly of clay minerals and quartz. the predominant clay minerals including illite and chlorite with lesser amounts of kaolinite and smectite. The small hydrous iron oxide content, indicated by fluorescence background intensity, verified that the soils are not latosols but are clayey estuarine soils amenable to future development as arable land.

The method of specimen preparation enabled direct quantitative analysis of the soil samples by X-ray diffraction with the aid of the results of mechanical analysis and of previous analyses of comparable soil samples from the Delta and nearby areas. A method for the quantitative determination of quartz was used that is independent of the powder crystallite orientation. A study of surface replicas of the soil samples by electron microscopy was made to illustrate the fabric of the soil. The undisturbed soil fabric consists mostly of somewhat randomly-oriented large domains of clay minerals with some blocky quartz particles. Nanno-fossils were present in all samples.

In this note, we examine the proportion of periodic orbits of Anosov flows that lie in an infinite zero density subset of the first homology group. We show that on a logarithmic scale we get convergence to a discrete fractal dimension.

Few studies have examined the genetic population structure of vector-borne microparasites in wildlife, making it unclear how much these systems can reveal about the movement of their associated hosts. This study examined the complex host–vector–microbe interactions in a system of bats, wingless ectoparasitic bat flies (Nycteribiidae), vector-borne microparasitic bacteria (Bartonella) and bacterial endosymbionts of flies (Enterobacterales) across an island chain in the Gulf of Guinea, West Africa. Limited population structure was found in bat flies and Enterobacterales symbionts compared to that of their hosts. Significant isolation by distance was observed in the dissimilarity of Bartonella communities detected in flies from sampled populations of Eidolon helvum bats. These patterns indicate that, while genetic dispersal of bats between islands is limited, some non-reproductive movements may lead to the dispersal of ectoparasites and associated microbes. This study deepens our knowledge of the phylogeography of African fruit bats, their ectoparasites and associated bacteria. The results presented could inform models of pathogen transmission in these bat populations and increase our theoretical understanding of community ecology in host–microbe systems.

We present a method for estimating the ideology of political YouTube videos. The subfield of estimating ideology as a latent variable has often focused on traditional actors such as legislators, while more recent work has used social media data to estimate the ideology of ordinary users, political elites, and media sources. We build on this work to estimate the ideology of a political YouTube video. First, we start with a matrix of political Reddit posts linking to YouTube videos and apply correspondence analysis to place those videos in an ideological space. Second, we train a language model with those estimated ideologies as training labels, enabling us to estimate the ideologies of videos not posted on Reddit. These predicted ideologies are then validated against human labels. We demonstrate the utility of this method by applying it to the watch histories of survey respondents to evaluate the prevalence of echo chambers on YouTube in addition to the association between video ideology and viewer engagement. Our approach gives video-level scores based only on supplied text metadata, is scalable, and can be easily adjusted to account for changes in the ideological landscape.

In the 1980s, heart transplantation was the first successful treatment for infants born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Infants who have required heart transplantation benefit from immunologic “advantages,” including long-term survival free from cardiac allograft vasculopathy. Currently ∼ 90% of children undergoing a heart transplant are reaching their first-year anniversary and the clinical practices of paediatric heart transplantation have dramatically improved. These successes are largely attributed to research sponsored by the Pediatric Heart Transplant Study Group, the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation and, more recently, the Non-profits Enduring Hearts and Additional Ventures. Despite these successes, the field is challenged to increase progress to achieve long-term survival into adulthood. The wait-list mortality, especially among infants, is unacceptably high often leading to palliative measures that can increase post-transplant mortality. Cardiac allograft vasculopathy remains a major cause for progressive graft loss of function and sudden death. The relative tolerance seen in immature recipients has not been translated to modifying older recipients’ post-transplant outcomes. The modifiable cause(s) for the increased risks of transplantation in children of different ethnicities and races require definition. Addressing these challenges faces the reality that for-profit research favours funding adult recipients, with ∼ 10-fold greater numbers, and their more modest longevity goals. Advocacy for funding “incentives” such as the Orphan Drug rules in the United States and upholding principles of equity and inclusion are critical to addressing the challenges of paediatric heart transplant recipients worldwide.

To investigate the symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection, their dynamics and their discriminatory power for the disease using longitudinally, prospectively collected information reported at the time of their occurrence. We have analysed data from a large phase 3 clinical UK COVID-19 vaccine trial. The alpha variant was the predominant strain. Participants were assessed for SARS-CoV-2 infection via nasal/throat PCR at recruitment, vaccination appointments, and when symptomatic. Statistical techniques were implemented to infer estimates representative of the UK population, accounting for multiple symptomatic episodes associated with one individual. An optimal diagnostic model for SARS-CoV-2 infection was derived. The 4-month prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 was 2.1%; increasing to 19.4% (16.0%–22.7%) in participants reporting loss of appetite and 31.9% (27.1%–36.8%) in those with anosmia/ageusia. The model identified anosmia and/or ageusia, fever, congestion, and cough to be significantly associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Symptoms’ dynamics were vastly different in the two groups; after a slow start peaking later and lasting longer in PCR+ participants, whilst exhibiting a consistent decline in PCR- participants, with, on average, fewer than 3 days of symptoms reported. Anosmia/ageusia peaked late in confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection (day 12), indicating a low discrimination power for early disease diagnosis.

We propose a constitutive equation for flows of gases in high-rate regimes where the Navier–Stokes theory breaks down. The model generalizes the Navier–Stokes relation and agrees well with that model in all lower rate flows examined. Our proposed constitutive relation is calibrated with the method of objective molecular dynamics (OMD) using families of compressible and incompressible flows of Lennard-Jones argon. The constitutive relation makes use of the higher-order objective strain rates due to Rivlin and Ericksen (J. Rat. Mech. Anal., vol. 4, 1955, pp. 323–425). The constitutive relation is fully frame-indifferent, and the macroscopic flows corresponding to the OMD simulations are exact solutions for the proposed model. The model is shown to agree with atomistic results much better than the Navier–Stokes equations in the transition regime. The success of our model indicates that it is not higher gradients that become important in the high-rate regime, but rather higher rates of change of the strain rate tensor. While somewhat more complicated to implement than the Navier–Stokes relation, the proposed model is expected to be compatible with existing methods of computational fluid dynamics and may extend those methods to higher rate regimes, while preserving their ability to handle large spatial scales.

Family caregivers are essential inpatient pediatric care partners, yet their handwashing knowledge and compliance are rarely studied. Through hand hygiene audits and self-administered questionnaires, we observed 9% compliance, significantly lower than self-reported practice. We suggest interventions to improve caregiver handwashing behaviors to decrease infection transmission risk to hospitalized children.