Infection with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has become a worldwide problem and is no longer acquired only in a hospital setting. Community-associated MRSA is an emerging pathogen of increasing interest to both obstetricians and neonatologists, reported in all three trimesters of pregnancy and postpartum, and in neonatal intensive care units, leading to severe outcomes, including neonatal death. This case report describes a serious and potentially life-threatening infection (including wound abscess, septicemia, septic thrombophlebitis, and septic pulmonary emboli) that developed in an otherwise healthy postpartum woman who had screened positive for MRSA in nares, vagina, and rectum at the time of her prior admission in labor as part of a research study. We conclude that asymptomatic nasal, vaginal, and rectal colonization with MRSA occurs in pregnancy and may be a risk factor for serious systemic infection after delivery.
Hyper-surveillance in marginalized communities places Brown and Black boys at a high risk of involuntary police contact. Prior research, however, has primarily focused on the experiences of youth already labeled delinquent, and has only just begun to explore girls’ lived experiences and differentially surveilled spaces. The current study engages a sociospatial qualitative approach to explore how 84 nondelinquent boys and girls of color experience police presence across a racially/ethnically and socioeconomically segregated metropolitan area in the Northeast region of the United States. Specifically, 41 boys and 43 girls, ages 9–17, of African-American, Latina/Latino, Jamaican-American, Nigerian/Saint Lucian, and multiracial/ethnic descent, participated in semistructured interviews at four community youth centers. The results suggest that nondelinquent youth of color experience police presence in gendered and racialized ways in public spaces, and that such experiences vary across racially/ethnically and socioeconomically segregated cities and suburbs.
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is
the second-most prevalent neurodegenerative
disorder in the U.S. α-Synuclein (α-Syn) preformed fibrils
(PFFs) have been shown to propagate PD pathology in neuronal populations.
However, little work has directly characterized the morphological
changes on membranes associated with α-Syn PFFs at a cellular
level. Scanning ion conductance microscopy (SICM) is a noninvasive in situ cell imaging technique and therefore uniquely advantageous
to investigate PFF-induced membrane changes in neuroblastoma cells.
The present work used SICM to monitor cytoplasmic membrane changes
of SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells after incubation with varying concentrations
of α-Syn PFFs. Cell membrane roughness significantly increased
as the concentration of α-Syn PFFs increased. Noticeable protrusions
that assumed a more crystalline appearance at higher α-Syn PFF
concentrations were also observed. Cell viability was only slightly
reduced, though statistically significantly, to about 80% but independent
of the dose. These observations indicate that within the 48 h treatment
period, PFFs continue to accumulate on the cell membranes, leading
to membrane roughness increase without causing prominent cell death.
Since PFFs did not induce major cell death, these data suggest that
early interventions targeting fibrils before further aggregation may
prevent the progression of neuron loss in Parkinson’s disease.
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