Authors, scientists and others are offering fun livestream lessons and performances to keep kids engaged during isolation

Dreamscape is an escape from the relentless pace of cityscapes. A matrix caught between reality and a dream. A moment frozen amongst the chaos there is calm.

Mice, rats, or hamsters are immunized by giving biweekly injections of a purified antigen, cultured cells, or cDNA. For mice, if a pure, soluble protein antigen is being used and is abundant, a dose of 50–100 µg in adjuvant at each immunization is a sensible general recommendation; for rats and hamsters, a dose of 100–200 µg is sufficient. Lower doses can be used for antigens with higher immunogenicity. Adjuvants (Freund's, Ribi, Hunter's TiterMax, ImmunEasy, or Alum) should be mixed with the immunizing antigen for the first two immunizations only; Complete Freund's adjuvant is only used with the first immunization. Subsequent immunizations are performed in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) or normal saline, with or without Incomplete Freund's adjuvant. The choice of adjuvant is dependent on the subclass of immunoglobulin required. Over the course of the 6-wk immunization schedule, each animal usually receives a total of six injections (three subcutaneous and three intraperitoneal). Once a good titer has developed against the antigen of interest, regular boosts and bleeds are performed to collect the maximum amount of serum. For rats and hamsters, boosts should be spaced every 2–3 wk, and serum samples of 400–500 µL should be collected 10–12 d after each boost. For mice, boosts should be spaced every 2–3 wk, and serum samples of 200–300 µL should be collected 10–12 d after each boost.

The National Book Festival Presents series was created to provide a book festival experience to lovers of the event on a year-round basis. Because these programs can no longer be held at the Library, we are offering a virtual multipart series, with authors who have written books about widespread diseases and the worldwide response to them.

A group of Winnipeg-born hockey players connected with a sexist group chat are being either let go from their teams or investigated, after screenshots from the private chat were made public earlier this week.

Remarks (delivered via videoconference) by Mr John C Williams, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, at the Economic Club of New York, New York City, 16 April 2020.

The B.C. Lions opened the draft with a bang, securing the No. 1 pick from the Calgary Stampeders then taking Williams first overall.

Former CFL kicker Lirim Hajrullahu signed with the NFL's Los Angeles Rams on Monday to potentially replace veteran Greg Zuerlein.

The San Francisco 49ers acquired one Pro Bowl left tackle and said goodbye to another as they traded for LT Trent Williams.

Adventure Smart says search and rescue incidents increased 35 per cent last week, compared to the same time last year — and during the COVID-19 pandemic, SAR teams have to do extra work for each call.

Hanna Jovin and Adrian Morphy say many, including themselves, have been experiencing strange and vivid dreams since the pandemic began and the pair decided to illustrate and share them on social media.

A normal draft year would see NHL scouts and executives spend the spring crisscrossing Europe and North America collecting information. The circumstances surrounding a 2020 draft and the COVID-19 pandemic, however, aren't anything resembling normal.

Maple Leafs defenceman Justin Holl is ready to go. He's just waiting for the green light. Holl has spent most of the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down the NHL, and much of North America, at home in Minnesota since the season was paused March 12.

The notion that he is bound for four more years is pure superstition.

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On the fourth day of NCAA Division III Week on Thursday, April 16, the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference released its All-Sportsmanship teams for winter and spring sports. Between winter and spring sports, a total of nine Penn State Altoona student-athletes were selected as representatives to the teams.

Apple's Jeff Williams says that supply chains are running well and that the company is optimistic about the future for the economy both for itself and for America as a whole.

Following in the footsteps of Apple Card, and in the shadow of a rumored debit card solution from Google, Samsung on Thursday announced plans to field a physical debit card product in partnership with finance company SoFi.

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We visit the world's biggest grassroots tournament.

According to Stephan Bauer, short-term mission teams are "less a problem to be solved, but more a tension to be managed, and the aim should be for STTs to have a credible impact on the ministry and be effective in mobilising long-term workers."

5G tablets are on the way, and Samsung's Galaxy Tab S6 could be repackaged as one of the first. The South Korean company accidentally listed the 5G-ready model on its website. Now, it's only a matter of time before the Galaxy Tab S6 5G goes official.

While the Trump administration proposal would not strip student eligibility for Head Start, the federal school lunch program, or the Individual with Disabilities Education Act, it could still affect millions of school-aged children who live with immigrant parents.

A high school basketball program in Virginia has been suspended indefinitely amid allegations of a sexual assault involving a 16-year-old boy, while junior varsity wrestlers in Oklahoma face similar allegations.

As an attempt to mitigate a persistent school supply problem, New Mexico plans to give some 23,000 teachers prepaid gift cards for use on classroom materials. One local union calls it a distraction from larger funding issues.

The largest experiment to date comparing commercial math curricula gives a slight edge to two popular programs.

The Education Department programs the president wants to consolidate into a block grant deal with English-language acquisition, charter schools, after-school activities, rural education, and more.

Mandarin Chinese, French, German, and Vietnamese are also among five most-offered types of dual-language programs, a new federal report shows.

Youth and grassroots football was the focus as UEFA President Michel Platini attended the finals of a grassroots programme and a new maxi-pitch was opened in Amsterdam.

Teaching via combined languages is important, as multiple races and immigrants from different countries live in the United States.

Infants weighing 501 to 1500 g are at high risk for mortality and for neonatal morbidities associated with both short- and long-term adverse consequences.

Mortality and major neonatal morbidity in survivors decreased for infants 501 to 1500 g between 2000 and 2009. However, in 2009, a high proportion of these infants still either died or survived after experiencing ≥1 major neonatal morbidity. (Read the full article)

Infants born late preterm and early term are at increased risk for short-term morbidities compared with term infants. Longer-term morbidity and disability in this group of infants is not well established.

Massachusetts infants born late preterm and early term are at increased risk of early intervention program enrollment than term infants. Boys and children whose mothers were less educated, older, and with public insurance were most affected. (Read the full article)

Over the past 10 years, children’s hospitals increasingly have established pediatric palliative care programs, but little is known about the prevalence of these programs or their geographic distribution, range of services offered, staff composition, or funding.

Among the 162 hospitals that responded to this survey (71.7% response rate), 69% have a pediatric palliative care program, with substantial variation across programs in terms of how they are staffed and funded and what services they provide. (Read the full article)

Exclusively breastfed newborns lose weight daily in the first few days after birth. The amount of weight lost varies substantially between newborns, with higher amounts of weight loss increasing risk for morbidity.

This study presents nomograms demonstrating percentiles for weight loss by delivery mode for those who are exclusively breastfed. The nomograms have potential to be used for early identification of neonates on a trajectory for greater weight loss and related morbidities. (Read the full article)

Antibiotic overuse is common and is a major public health threat. The prevalence of antimicrobial stewardship programs in children’s hospitals is growing. Single-center studies reveal that antimicrobial stewardship programs are effective in reducing unnecessary antibiotic use. Multicenter evaluations are needed.

Antibiotic use is declining overall across a large network of freestanding children’s hospitals. Hospitals with formalized antimicrobial stewardship programs experienced greater reductions in antibiotic use than other hospitals, suggesting that these interventions are an effective strategy to address antibiotic overuse. (Read the full article)

Postnatal growth failure is common for very low birth weight infants. Although many of the major morbidities experienced by these infants during their initial NICU stays have decreased in recent years, it is unclear whether growth has improved.

For infants weighing 501 to 1500 g, average growth velocity increased and postnatal growth failure decreased from 2000 to 2013. Still, in 2013, half were discharged with a weight below the 10th percentile for postmenstrual age. (Read the full article)

Medicaid made substantial investments in enhanced prenatal and postnatal care programs to address maternal and infant health, including infant mortality. Evaluations of population-based programs are few, and although some have reported reductions in infant mortality, they have methodological limitations.

A population-based home visitation program can be a successful approach to reduce infant mortality. The reduced risk of infant death is consistent with previous findings on the effects of the program on health care utilization and birth outcomes. (Read the full article)

In response to growing demand from trainees, many pediatric residency programs offer global health (GH) experiences for their residents. There is diversity in what is offered at programs across the country.

This is the most comprehensive assessment of US pediatric residency training opportunities in GH. These opportunities are prevalent and increasingly formalized as tracks. However there remain gaps in universal pretravel preparation and coordination across GH partnerships nationally. (Read the full article)

Groundbreaking, Grammy-winning quartet Béla Fleck & The Flecktones is celebrating its 30th anniversary with an extended tour that will stop by the Community Arts Center on Tuesday, March 24, at 7:30 p.m.

Summer programs that use multimedia may improve student literacy, numeracy, phonics skills, and math vocabulary, according to a study released by WestEd, a nonprofit education research organization. The report examines the Electric Company's Summer Learning Program, which is sponsored by the Sesame

Students are learning how to research and write scripts, hone interviewing techniques, and edit video footage, and some teenagers are even earning certifications in media technology.

A handful of districts and other groups are reshaping the after-school space to provide a wide range of social and linguistic supports for newcomer students.

A 10-year study by a blue-ribbon panel of scientists concludes that high-stakes testing and other accountability measures have largely failed to translate to real improvements in student achievement.

Objectives. The aim of this study was to assess the safety of early oral switch (EOS) prior to 14 days for low-risk Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (LR-SAB), which is the primary treatment strategy employed at our institution. Usually recommended therapy is 14 days of intravenous (IV) antibiotics.

Methods. All patients with SAB at our hospital were identified between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2018. Those meeting low-risk criteria (healthcare-associated, no evidence of deep infection or demonstrated involvement of prosthetic material, and no further positive blood cultures after 72-hours) were included in the study. The primary outcome was occurrence of a SAB-related complication within 90 days.

Results. There were 469 SAB episodes during the study period, 100 (21%) of whom met inclusion criteria. EOS was performed in 84 patients. In this group, line infection was the source in 79%, methicillin-susceptible S. aureus caused 95% of SABs and 74% of patients received IV flucloxacillin. The median duration of IV and oral antibiotics in the EOS group was 5 (IQR 4-6) and 10 days (IQR 9-14), respectively. Seventy-one percent of patients received flucloxacillin as their EOS agent. Overall, 86% of oral step-down therapy was with beta-lactams. One patient (1%) undergoing EOS had SAB relapse within 90 days. No deaths attributable to SAB occurred within 90 days.

Conclusions. In this low MRSA prevalence LR-SAB cohort, EOS was associated with a low incidence of SAB-related complications. This was achieved with oral beta-lactam therapy in most patients. Larger prospective studies are needed to confirm these findings.

Background: Intensive care unit (ICU) patients may experience ceftriaxone underexposure but clinical outcomes data are lacking. The objective of this study was to determine the impact of ceftriaxone dosing on clinical outcomes amongst ICU patients without central nervous system (CNS) infection.

Methods: A retrospective study of ICU patients receiving intravenous, empiric ceftriaxone for non-CNS infections was conducted. Patients ≥18 years of age who received ≤2 grams of ceftriaxone daily for ≥72 hours were included and categorized as receiving ceftriaxone 1 gram or 2 grams daily. The primary, composite outcome was treatment failure: inpatient mortality and/or antibiotic escalation due to clinical worsening. Propensity score matching was performed based on the probability of receiving ceftriaxone 2 grams daily. Multivariable logistic regression determined the association between ceftriaxone dose and treatment failure in a propensity-matched cohort.

Results: A total of 212 patients were included in the propensity-matched cohort. The most common diagnoses (83.0%) were pneumonia and urinary tract infection. Treatment failure occurred in 17.0% and 5.7% of patients receiving 1 gram and 2 grams daily, respectively (p=0.0156). Overall inpatient mortality was 8.5%. Ceftriaxone 2 gram dosing was associated with a reduced likelihood of treatment failure (adjusted odds ratio=0.190; 95% confidence interval: 0.059 – 0.607). Other independent predictors of treatment failure included sequential organ failure assessment score (aOR 1.440, 95% CI 1.254 – 1.653) and creatinine clearance at 72 hours from ceftriaxone initiation (aOR 0.980, 95% CI (0.971 – 0.999).

Conclusions: Ceftriaxone 2 grams daily when used as appropriate antimicrobial coverage may be appropriate for ICU patients with lower mortality risk.

The Cpx stress response is widespread among Enterobacteriaceae. We have previously reported a mutation in cpxA in a multidrug resistant strain of Klebsiella aerogenes isolated from a patient treated with imipenem. This mutation yields to a single amino acid substitution (Y144N) located in the periplasmic sensor domain of CpxA. In this work, we sought to characterize this mutation in Escherichia coli by using genetic and biochemical approaches. Here, we show that cpxA^Y144N is an activated allele that confers resistance to β-lactams and aminoglycosides in a CpxR-dependent manner, by regulating the expression of the OmpF porin and the AcrD efflux pump, respectively. We also demonstrate the intimate interconnection between Cpx system and peptidoglycan integrity on the expression of an exogenous AmpC β-lactamase by using imipenem as a cell wall active antibiotic or inactivation of penicillin-binding proteins. Moreover, our data indicate that the Y144N substitution abrogates the interaction between CpxA and CpxP and increase phosphotransfer activity on CpxR. Because the addition of a strong AmpC inducer such as imipenem is known to causes abnormal accumulation of muropeptides (disaccharide-pentapeptide, N-acetylglucosamyl-1,6-anhydro-N-acetylmuramyl-l-alanyl-d-glutamy-meso-diaminopimelic-acid-d-alanyl-d-alanine) in the periplasmic space, we propose these molecules activate the Cpx system by displacing CpxP from the sensor domain of CpxA. Altogether, these data could explain why large perturbations to peptidoglycan caused by imipenem lead to mutational activation of the Cpx system and bacterial adaptation through multidrug resistance. These results also validate the Cpx system, in particular the interaction between CpxA and CpxP, as a promising therapeutic target.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bloodstream infections (BSI) are associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. Monotherapy with first-line antimicrobials such as vancomycin (VAN; glycopeptide) and daptomycin (DAP; lipopeptide) are inadequate in some cases due to reduced antibiotic susceptibilities or therapeutic failure. In recent years, β-lactam antibiotics have emerged as a potential option for combination therapy with VAN/DAP that may meet an unmet therapeutic need for MRSA BSI. Ceftaroline (CPT), the only commercially available β-lactam in the United States with intrinsic in vitro activity against MRSA, has been increasingly studied in the setting of VAN and DAP failures. Novel combinations of first-line agents (VAN and DAP) with β-lactams have been the subject of many recent investigations due to in vitro findings such as the "see-saw effect", where β-lactam susceptibility may be improved in the presence of decreased glycopeptide and lipopeptide susceptibility. The combination of CPT and DAP, in particular, has become the focus of many scientific evaluations, due to intrinsic anti-MRSA activities and potent in vitro synergistic activity against various MRSA strains. This article reviews the available literature describing these innovative therapeutic approaches for MRSA BSI, focusing on preclinical and clinical studies, and evaluates the potential benefits and limitations of each strategy.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ is a big, powerful phone that's good for artists and note-takers.

With speed and ingenuity, more than 100 researchers across Penn State are shifting their research programs to address the COVID-19 crisis, thanks to funding from a seed grant initiative led by the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. In total, the initiative awarded $2.25 million to 47 teams of researchers from three campuses, 10 colleges and more than 25 departments.