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This study assessed the hand hygiene performance in French nursing homes using the consumption of alcohol-based hand rubs (AHRs) as a surrogate. Nursing homes from the 17 French regions were contacted to collect their AHR consumption and occupancy in 2018 and 2019. A total of 1290 nursing homes from 15 French regions participated in the survey. The estimated median number of hand hygiene actions per resident-day was 1.48 (interquartile range: 1.04-2.03) in 2018 and 1.60 (1.10-2.26) in 2019. A significantly higher AHR consumption was observed in public nursing homes with an infection control team or link nurse.

AbstractCumulus‐intact and ‐denuded unfertilized oocytes from two mouse strains were exposed to 1.5 m ethanol (EtOH) or two cryoproteclant solutions, 1.5 M propanediol (PROH) or 1.5 M dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), for 4.5 min at 27°C, and the proportion of activating or degenerating oocytes studied. Exposure to DMSO did not significantly increase activation above that of oocytes not exposed to DMSO. Treatment of oocytes in PROH resulted in the activation of up to 87% of viable oocytes. This was significantly higher (P <01) than in control oocytes and comparable to the rate of activation after treatment with EtOH (59–96% activation). In solutions at 1°C, 47% of control oocytes were activated, which was not significantly different from the rate of activation in EtOH (36%) or PROH (50%) at 1°C. Following treatment with PROH, up to 87% of oocytes degenerated within a period of 6 h in vitro. The age of the oocytes (h post hCG) and the time of cumulus removal with the enzyme hyaluronidase, relative to the time of exposure to the chemicals, influenced the level of degeneration in most groups. Significantly fewer oocytes degenerated when cumulus cells were removed before treatment (0–31%) than when the cumulus was left intact throughout the treatment and 6 h culture period (10–87%). Exposure to PROH at 1°C reduced oocyte degeneration to 5%. We conclude that PROH causes significantly greater losses of oocytes as a result of parthenogenetic activation and degeneration than of exposure to DMSO.

Abstract Synchronous cultures of the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe 972 h −1 are most sensitive to killing by 15 min, 49 °C pulses during a stage stretching from nuclear division through short G1 and S phases to a point early in G2. In this work the cell cycle position of the S phase has been altered by growing the cells in the presence of 2-phenylethanol. The heat sensitivity of these cells was greater at all stages of the cell cycle compared with the cells grown without 2-phenylethanol. However, the position of the most heat sensitive stage in the cell cycle was unaltered. This heat sensitive stage did not include S phase in the cells grown with 2-phenylethanol.

Patients with pure autonomic failure (PAF) and multiple system atrophy (MSA) may complain of feeling light-headed after alcohol ingestion particularly on assumption of the upright posture. The reasons for this have not been investigated. We therefore studied the effects of oral alcohol (40% vodka in sugar-free orange juice) and placebo (juice only) on the systemic and regional (including superior mesenteric artery, SMA) blood flow in nine patients with PAF and six patients with MSA. After alcohol, there was a fall in supine blood pressure (BP) and vasodilatation in the SMA but no change in cardiac output, or forearm muscle and cutaneous blood flow in either PAF or MSA; BP fell further during head-up tilt with no changes in levels of plasma catecholamines. After placebo, there were no changes while supine. We conclude that alcohol lowers supine BP and dilates the SMA with no change in muscle or cutaneous blood flow. Alcohol also enhances the fall in BP during head-up tilt. This may explain the symptoms experienced by PAF and MSA patients after alcohol.

AbstractEcologists are increasingly aware of the importance of environmental variability in natural systems. Climate change is affecting both the mean and the variability in weather and, in particular, the effect of changes in variability is poorly understood. Organisms are subject to selection imposed by both the mean and the range of environmental variation experienced by their ancestors. Changes in the variability in a critical environmental factor may therefore have consequences for vital rates and population dynamics. Here, we examine ≥90‐year trends in different components of climate (precipitation mean and coefficient of variation (CV); temperature mean, seasonal amplitude and residual variance) and consider the effects of these components on survival and recruitment in a population of Eurasian beavers (n = 242) over 13 recent years. Within climatic data, no trends in precipitation were detected, but trends in all components of temperature were observed, with mean and residual variance increasing and seasonal amplitude decreasing over time. A higher survival rate was linked (in order of influence based on Akaike weights) to lower precipitation CV (kits, juveniles and dominant adults), lower residual variance of temperature (dominant adults) and lower mean precipitation (kits and juveniles). No significant effects were found on the survival of nondominant adults, although the sample size for this category was low. Greater recruitment was linked (in order of influence) to higher seasonal amplitude of temperature, lower mean precipitation, lower residual variance in temperature and higher precipitation CV. Both climate means and variance, thus proved significant to population dynamics; although, overall, components describing variance were more influential than those describing mean values. That environmental variation proves significant to a generalist, wide‐ranging species, at the slow end of the slow‐fast continuum of life histories, has broad implications for population regulation and the evolution of life histories.

Urea is the most common nitrogen (N) fertilizer in agriculture, due to its cheaper price and high N content. Although the reciprocal influence between NO3- and NH4+ nutrition are well known, urea (U) interactions with these N-inorganic forms are poorly studied. Here, the responses of two tomato genotypes to ammonium nitrate (AN), U alone or in combination were investigated. Significant differences in root and shoot biomass between genotypes were observed. Under AN+U supply, Linosa showed higher biomass compared to UC82, exhibiting also higher values for many root architectural traits. Linosa showed higher Nitrogen Uptake (NUpE) and Utilization Efficiency (NUtE) compared to UC82, under AN+U nutrition. Interestingly, Linosa exhibited also a significantly higher DUR3 transcript abundance. These results underline the beneficial effect of AN+U nutrition, highlighting new molecular and physiological strategies for selecting crops that can be used for more sustainable agriculture. The data suggest that translocation and utilization (NUtE) might be a more important component of NUE than uptake (NUpE) in tomato. Genetic variation could be a source for useful NUE traits in tomato; further experiments are needed to dissect the NUtE components that confer a higher ability to utilize N in Linosa.