COVID-19 vaccine uptake in healthcare personnel (HCP) is poor. A cross-sectional survey study of behavioral health HCP was performed. Commonly identified reasons for vaccination were protecting others and oneself. Reasons against were a lack of perceived protection, dosing intervals, and side effects. Assessing vaccination attitudes can assist in uptake strategy.

Following an outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium in Wales in July 2021 associated with sheep meat and offal, further genetically related cases were detected across the UK. Cases were UK residents with laboratory-confirmed Salmonella Typhimurium in the same 5-single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) single-linkage cluster with specimen date between 01/08/2021–2031/12/2022. We described cases using routine (UK) and enhanced (Wales only) surveillance data. Exposures in cases in Wales were compared with non-Typhimurium Salmonella case–controls. Environmental Health Practitioners and the Food Standards Agency investigated supply chains of food premises reported by ≥2 cases. Animal, carcass, and environmental samples taken for diagnostic or monitoring purposes for gastrointestinal pathogens were included in microbiological investigations. We identified 142 cases: 75% in England, 23% in Wales and 3% in Scotland. Median age was 32 years, and 59% were male. Direct contact with sheep was associated with becoming a case (aOR: 14, 95%CI: 1.4–145) but reported by few (6/32 cases). No single food item, premises, or supplier linked all cases. Multi-agency collaboration enabled the identification of isolates in the same 5-SNP single-linkage cluster from a sheep carcass at an English abattoir and in ruminant, wildlife, poultry, and environmental samples, suggesting multiple vehicles and pathways of infection.

NASA’s all-sky survey mission, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), is specifically engineered to detect exoplanets that transit bright stars. Thus far, TESS has successfully identified approximately 400 transiting exoplanets, in addition to roughly 6 000 candidate exoplanets pending confirmation. In this study, we present the results of our ongoing project, the Validation of Transiting Exoplanets using Statistical Tools (VaTEST). Our dedicated effort is focused on the confirmation and characterisation of new exoplanets through the application of statistical validation tools. Through a combination of ground-based telescope data, high-resolution imaging, and the utilisation of the statistical validation tool known as TRICERATOPS, we have successfully discovered eight potential super-Earths. These planets bear the designations: TOI-238b (1.61$^{+0.09} _{-0.10}$ R$_\oplus$), TOI-771b (1.42$^{+0.11} _{-0.09}$ R$_\oplus$), TOI-871b (1.66$^{+0.11} _{-0.11}$ R$_\oplus$), TOI-1467b (1.83$^{+0.16} _{-0.15}$ R$_\oplus$), TOI-1739b (1.69$^{+0.10} _{-0.08}$ R$_\oplus$), TOI-2068b (1.82$^{+0.16} _{-0.15}$ R$_\oplus$), TOI-4559b (1.42$^{+0.13} _{-0.11}$ R$_\oplus$), and TOI-5799b (1.62$^{+0.19} _{-0.13}$ R$_\oplus$). Among all these planets, six of them fall within the region known as ‘keystone planets’, which makes them particularly interesting for study. Based on the location of TOI-771b and TOI-4559b below the radius valley we characterised them as likely super-Earths, though radial velocity mass measurements for these planets will provide more details about their characterisation. It is noteworthy that planets within the size range investigated herein are absent from our own solar system, making their study crucial for gaining insights into the evolutionary stages between Earth and Neptune.

Due to their unique polarity, pore-size distribution, and high surface areas, pillared and delaminated clays are potentially useful materials for the adsorption of environmental toxicants. To determine their properties for adsorption of chlorinated phenols, alumina-pillared montmorillonite (APM), chromia-pillared montmorillonite (CPM), and alumina-delaminated Laponite (ADL) were reacted with aqueous pentachlorophenol (PCP) solutions in batch equilibrium experiments. An hydroxy-Al Laponite (HAL) in which the Na+ exchange ions were replaced by ions of the type Al13O4(OH)(24+x)(H2O)(12-x)(7-x)+ was included in the study. With ADL as the adsorbent, the extent of PCP adsorption increased with decreasing pH, and then became constant at pH ≤ pKa. Thus, the neutral phenol was preferred over the phenolate form. Binding of neutral PCP at pH 4.7 to all adsorbents never reached saturation values, and the loadings achieved were limited by the water solubility of the adsorbate. Among the pillared and delaminated clays investigated, ADL exhibited the largest capacity for physical adsorption of PCP at pH 4.7. Differences in the PCP binding capacities for APM, CPM, and ADL suggested that adsorption was dependent on the pore structure and surface composition of the modified clay adsorbent, not on surface area alone. HAL exhibited quantitative uptake of PCP at the 8 µmole/g level, indicating that a chemi-sorption mechanism may operate for PCP binding to this adsorbent. Adsorption of 3-chlorophenol, 3,5-dichlorophenol, and 3,4,5-trichlorophenol by ADL at pH 7.4 increased as the degree of hydrophobicity and chlorination of the phenol increased; hence, the binding capacity was not limited by the molecular size of the adsorbate. In contrast to the adsorption properties observed for pillared, delaminated, and hydroxy-interlayered clays, Na+-montmorillonite and Na+-Laponite did not adsorb PCP from aqueous solution.

As readers of this journal can attest to, although philosophers and economists are somewhat used to talking to and learning from each other, it tends to be the subset of philosophers working in decision theory, philosophy of science, and particular areas of ethics and political philosophy that contribute to our interdisciplinary field of research. The book that is the subject of this review symposium, Anna Mahtani’s The Objects of Credence (Oxford University Press, 2024), is a wonderful exemplar of what can be learned when a different branch of philosophy is brought to bear on central questions in this field. Both philosophers and economists talk about and work with credences, or degrees of belief, all the time. These are usually modelled as probabilities, which are in turn usually thought of as attaching to propositions. But it has long been argued by philosophers of language that propositions cannot be the objects of credence. Mahtani’s book is an investigation into all that begins to unravel once we accept this insight. The results have profound implications both for rational choice modelling and for welfare economics.

We took a multilevel developmental contextual approach and characterized trajectories of alcohol misuse from adolescence through early midlife, examined genetic and environmental contributions to individual differences in those trajectories, and identified adolescent and young adult factors associated with change in alcohol misuse. Data were from two longitudinal population-based studies. FinnTwin16 is a study of Finnish twins assessed at 16, 17, 18, 25, and 35 years (N = 5659; 52% female; 32% monozygotic). The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) is a study of adolescents from the United States, who were assessed at five time points from 1994 to 2018 (N = 18026; 50% female; 64% White, 21% Black, 4% Native American, 7% Asian, 9% Other race/ethnicity). Alcohol misuse was measured as frequency of intoxication in FinnTwin16 and frequency of binge drinking in Add Health. In both samples, trajectories of alcohol misuse were best described by a quadratic growth curve: Alcohol misuse increased across adolescence, peaked in young adulthood, and declined into early midlife. Individual differences in these trajectories were primarily explained by environmental factors. Several adolescent and young adult correlates were related to the course of alcohol misuse, including other substance use, physical and mental health, and parenthood.

Although many return migrants had planned to go back to their country of origin, other return migrants who had originally planned to pursue the immigrant dream––the idea that one can have a better life by migrating—eventually change their mind and return to their society of origin. Just as the identity of individuals must adjust to the loss of a relationship, job, or membership of a group, many formerly aspiring immigrants give up on immigrating. I analyze data from oral history interviews and social media narratives of 121 Chinese ex-immigrants from 16 different countries. I show how disappointments, the language barrier, cultural alienation, racial-ethnic discrimination, intersectional-gender issues, barriers to upward socioeconomic mobility, and/or restrictive immigration policies interact with each other to constitute ex-immigrant subjectivity. This article highlights why immigration is a far less certain process than many perceive it to be, contributing to the broader sociological literature on how in different and similar ways processes of abandoning important social endeavors, like a romantic partnership, political party, or religious faith, transform subjectivities and social identities in other domains of social life.

In situ elemental imaging of planetary surface regolith at a spatial resolution of 100s to 1000s of microns can provide evidence of the provenance of rocks or sediments and their habitability, and can identify post-depositional diagenetic alteration affecting preservation. We use high-resolution elemental maps and XRF spectra from MapX, a flight prototype in situ X-ray imaging instrument, to demonstrate this technology in rock types relevant to astrobiology. Examples are given for various petrologies and depositional/diagenetic environments, including ultramafic/mafic rocks, serpentinites, hydrothermal carbonates, evaporites, stromatolitic cherts and diagenetic concretions.

This collectively authored article argues for a regional turn in the historical study of transnational activism. By considering not only pan-regional movements but also examples of borderland contexts, transregional connections and diasporic understandings of ‘region’, our discussion identifies fresh possibilities for investigating the evolution and functioning of transnational activism. Based on a Royal Historical Society-funded workshop held at and supported by Northumbria University, the article brings together insights from diverse locations and arenas of contestation. The first part considers literatures on three macro-regional settings – South Asia, Western Europe and Latin America – to illustrate the importance of distinctive regional contexts and constructs in shaping transnational activism and its goals. The second part turns to case studies of transnational activism in and beyond Eastern Europe, West Africa, the Caribbean and East Asia. In doing so, it explores very different notions of the regional to identify how transnational activism has both shaped and been shaped by these ideas. Taken together, the two parts highlight the role of regional identities and projects in challenging inequalities and external domination. Our analysis and examples indicate the possibilities of a regionally rooted approach for writing histories of transnational activism.

The serpentine subgroup mineral berthierine was synthesized as a metastable precursor of the chlorite group mineral chamosite in cold seal pressure vessels at 575°C, 0.5 GPa and fO2-conditions of the NNO buffer from a glass of almandine bulk composition. The run products were investigated with X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Mossbauer spectroscopy and electron microprobe analysis. One run product was also investigated by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and its heat capacity measured by heat pulse calorimetry and by differential scanning calorimetry in the temperature range 5–323 K. The XRD and HRTEM investigations clearly showed that the periodicity along the c axis of this sample is 7 Å demonstrating that the serpentine subgroup mineral berthierine of composition (Fe2+1.83Fe3+0.33Al0 67)[Si1.33Al0.67O5](OH)4 has formed in the synthesis experiments.

Integration of our heat capacity data, corrected to the composition (Fe2.5Al0.5)[Si1.5Al0.5O5](OH)4 for end-member berthierine, yields a standard entropy of 284.1±0.3 J mol−1 K−1. The Cp polynomial Cp = 610.72 − 5140.0 × T−0.5 − 5.8848 × 106T−2 + 9.5444 × 108T–3 is recommended for thermodynamic calculations above 298 K involving berthierine.

In ultra-short laser pulses, small changes in dispersion properties before the final focusing mirror can lead to severe pulse distortions around the focus and therefore to very different pulse properties at the point of laser–matter interaction, yielding unexpected interaction results. The mapping between far- and near-field laser properties intricately depends on the spatial and angular dispersion properties as well as the focal geometry. For a focused Gaussian laser pulse under the influence of angular, spatial and group-delay dispersion, we derive analytical expressions for its pulse-front tilt, duration and width from a fully analytic expression for its electric field in the time–space domain obtained with scalar diffraction theory. This expression is not only valid in and near the focus but also along the entire propagation distance from the focusing mirror to the focus. Expressions relating angular, spatial and group-delay dispersion before focusing at an off-axis parabola, where they are well measurable, to the respective values in the pulse’s focus are obtained by a ray tracing approach. Together, these formulas are used to show in example setups that the pulse-front tilts of lasers with small initial dispersion can become several tens of degrees larger in the vicinity of the focus while being small directly in the focus. The formulas derived here provide the analytical foundation for observations previously made in numerical experiments. By numerically simulating Gaussian pulse propagation and measuring properties of the pulse at distances several Rayleigh lengths off the focus, we verify the analytic expressions.

Over the last twenty years, global history has experienced a considerable boom, breaking with traditional historical approaches that privileged the national framework and very often adopted a Eurocentric perspective. This triumphalist discourse about the field of global history should not, however, obscure the local and national specificities of this field of research, be they epistemological, institutional, thematic, or historiographical, nor the disciplinary, political, and economic obstacles with which researchers are confronted. This conversation explores the intellectual and structural specificities and constraints of global history.

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.

Background: Recent evidence has shown that the updated COVID-19 bivalent booster is effective in preventing COVID-19 compared with no previous vaccination and prior monovalent vaccination. Despite its effectiveness, uptake has been poor, and a minority of eligible recipients have received the booster. Understanding healthcare worker (HCW) attitudes for and against voluntary uptake of the bivalent booster dose against COVID-19 can help guide communication strategy to maximize uptake. In this survey study, we investigated attitudes toward updated and/or bivalent booster uptake in a behavioral health hospital shortly after a COVID-19 outbreak. Methods: A survey tool was developed and sent to all HCWs at the Yale New Haven Psychiatric Hospital in December 2022. The survey queried demographic data, job category, history of COVID-19, prior COVID-19 vaccinations, perception of COVID-19 exposure, and updated and/or bivalent booster doses. The survey was administered several weeks after a COVID-19 outbreak on multiple inpatient behavioral health units. Receipt of the COVID-19 primary vaccination series and the first booster dose were mandated for HCWs; however, receipt of the bivalent booster was voluntary. Results: The survey was sent to 664 HCWs with primary assignments in behavioral health settings. In total, 182 (27.4%) provided complete responses to the survey and are included in these data. Moreover, 91 HCWs (50.0%) reported previously having COVID-19 at least once. Overall, 100 HCWs (55.0%) received the bivalent booster. The most identified reasons for receiving the bivalent booster were wanting to protect family and friends (n = 113), importance of staying healthy (n = 112), and protecting colleagues and patients (n = 103). The most identified reasons for not wanting to receive the bivalent booster dose were not thinking it provides additional protection (n = 33), “too many” shots already received (n = 31), and concern about side effects (n = 30). Discussion: Bivalent booster dose uptake in HCWs on behavioral health units shortly after a COVID-19 outbreak was greater than the general population. HCWs reported varying reasons for and against receipt of the bivalent booster dose, with the most common being protection of family and friends and perceptions of no additional protection, respectively. A limitation of this study was voluntary response bias, in which results are biased toward individuals more likely to receive a bivalent booster vaccine. It is unclear whether reasons for declining the vaccine are representative of HCWs who did not complete the survey. Assessing attitudes for the bivalent booster dose can assist in guiding communication and outreach strategies to increase vaccine uptake by HCWs.

Disclosures: None

Background: Oncology patients are at high risk for bloodstream infection (BSI) due to immunosuppression and frequent use of central venous catheters. Surveillance in this population is largely relegated to inpatient settings and limited data are available describing community burden. We evaluated rates of BSI, clinic or emergency department (ED) visits, and hospitalizations in a large cohort of oncology outpatients with peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs). Methods: In this prospective, observational study, we followed a convenience sample of adults (age>18) with PICCs at a large academic outpatient oncology clinic for 35 months between July 2015 and November 2018. We assessed demographics, malignancy type, PICC insertion and removal dates, history of prior PICC, and line duration. Outcomes included BSI events (defined as >1 positive blood cultures or >2 positive blood cultures if coagulase-negative Staphylococcus), ED visits (without hospitalization), and unplanned hospitalizations (excluding scheduled chemotherapy hospitalizations). We used χ2 analyses to compare the frequency of categorical outcomes, and we used unpaired t tests to assess differences in means of continuous variable in hematologic versus solid-tumor malignancy patients. We used generalized linear mixed-effects models to assess differences in BSI (clustered by patient) separately for gram-positive and gram-negative BSI outcomes. Results: Among 478 patients with 658 unique PICC lines and 64,190 line days, 271 patients (413 lines) had hematologic malignancy and 207 patients (232 lines) had solid-tumor malignancy. Cohort characteristics and outcomes stratified by malignancy type are shown in Table 1. Compared to those with hematologic malignancy, solid-tumor patients were older, had 47% fewer clinic visits, and had 32% lower frequency of prior PICC lines. Overall, there were 75 BSI events (12%; 1.2 per 1,000 catheter days). We detected no significant difference in BSI rates when comparing solid-tumor versus hematologic malignancies (P = 0.20); BSIs with gram-positive pathogen were 69% higher in patients with solid tumors. Gram-negative BSIs were 41% higher in patients with hematologic malignancy. Solid-tumor malignancy was associated with 4.5-fold higher odds of developing BSI with gram-positive pathogen (OR, 4.48; 95% CI, 1.60–12.60; P = .005) compared to those with hematologic malignancy, after adjusting for age, sex, history of prior PICC, and line duration. Differences in gram-negative BSI were not significant on multivariate analysis. Conclusions: The burden of all-cause BSIs in cancer clinic adults with PICC lines was 12% or 1.2 per 1,000 catheter days, as high as nationally reported inpatient BSI rates. Higher risk of gram-positive BSIs in solid-tumor patients suggests the need for targeted infection prevention activities in this population, such as improvements in central-line monitoring, outpatient care, and maintenance of lines and/or dressings, as well as chlorhexidine bathing to reduce skin bioburden.

Disclosures: None