BackgroundPneumonia is the leading infectious cause of morbidity and mortality in young children in Bangladesh. We present the epidemiology of pneumonia in Bangladeshi children <5 years before 10-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine introduction and investigate factors associated with disease severity and mortality.MethodsChildren aged 2–59 months admitted to three Bangladeshi hospitals with pneumonia (i.e., cough or difficulty breathing and age-specific tachypnea without danger signs) or severe pneumonia (i.e., cough or difficulty breathing and ≥1 danger signs) were included. Demographic, clinical, laboratory, and vaccine history data were collected. We assessed associations between characteristics and pneumonia severity and mortality using multivariable logistic regression.ResultsAmong 3639 Bangladeshi children with pneumonia, 61% had severe disease, and 2% died. Factors independently associated with severe pneumonia included ages 2–5 months (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.60 [95% CI: 1.26–2.01]) and 6–11 months (aOR 1.31 [1.10–1.56]) relative to 12–59 months, low weight for age (aOR 1.22 [1.04–1.42]), unsafe drinking water source (aOR 2.00 [1.50–2.69]), higher paternal education (aOR 1.34 [1.15–1.57]), higher maternal education (aOR 0.74 [0.64–0.87]), and being fully vaccinated for age with pentavalent vaccination (aOR 0.64 [0.51–0.82]). Increased risk of pneumonia mortality was associated with age <12 months, low weight for age, unsafe drinking water source, lower paternal education, disease severity, and having ≥1 co-morbid condition.ConclusionsModifiable factors for severe pneumonia and mortality included low weight for age and access to safe drinking water. Improving vaccination status could decrease disease severity.

In addition to the risk of death, pneumococcal meningitis in children causes severe disabilities among survivors, as well as disruption of the life of other siblings and family members. This study demonstrated that high rates of sequelae are associated with pneumococcal meningitis. Neurodevelopmental assessment during follow-up of patients with meningitis is critical to our understanding of the burden of the adverse consequences of pneumococcal disease. These data, along with the fact of poor access to health care, provide a compelling argument in favor of the introduction of pneumococcal vaccine, specifically in a setting where access to health care is poor and disabled children remain incapacitated because of a lack of resources and facilities.

Recent developments in solid‐state lighting lead to a demand for new phosphors with excellent thermal stability, exhibiting large bandgaps for highly efficient emission. A detailed characterization of the luminescent material AELi2Be4O6:Eu2+ (AE = Ba, Sr) is presented using soft X‐ray absorption spectroscopy, X‐ray emission spectroscopy, X‐ray excited optical luminescence (XEOL) spectroscopy, and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The experimental indirect bandgap for both BaLi2Be4O6:Eu2+ (BLBO:Eu) and SrLi2Be4O6:Eu2+ (SLBO:Eu) is found to be 6.5 ± 0.3 eV, which agrees well with the DFT calculations (6.8 eV for BLBO:Eu and 7.4 eV for SLBO:Eu). The crucial Eu2+ 5d to conduction band energy separation is determined to be 0.21 ± 0.10 and 0.25 ± 0.10 eV for BLBO:Eu and SLBO:Eu, respectively, using resonant inelastic X‐ray scattering. These measured values are in good agreement with the thermal quenching measurements (0.20 ± 0.03 eV for BLBO:Eu and 0.26 ± 0.03 eV for SLBO:Eu). Finally, the XEOL measurement confirms the Eu2+ 5d14f6 → 4f7 transition, which is responsible for the ultranarrow band (full width at half‐maximum: 25 nm) blue optical luminescence at 455–457 nm for both compounds. With these measurements and calculations, deep insights are gained into the key properties of those two phosphors.

The electronic structure and band gap of InN synthesized by the ammonothermal method are studied by synchrotron-based soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), emission spectroscopy (XES), X-ray excited optical luminescence (XEOL) spectroscopy, and density functional theory (DFT). The measured N K-edge XAS and XES spectra and XEOL spectra are used to estimate the band gap of InN, and it is found to be 1.7 ± 0.2 eV for both independent measurements, which is close to the initially reported values in the range of 1.89–2.10 eV for polycrystalline InN and about twice the value recently obtained for single crystalline thin films between 0.70 and 1.0 eV. The possible origin of the measured increased band gap is discussed in terms of the presence of oxygen impurities and other impurity phases. Oxygen K-edge XES and XAS measurements are performed and reveal the presence of oxygen impurities. To gain insight into the structure of InN in the presence of oxygen impurities, we perform DFT calculations for hypothetical Wurtzite-type InO0.5N0.5 and InO0.0625N0.9375 and the known c-In2O3 and find that the measured O K-edge spectra of the samples agree well with InO0.0625N0.9375. The XEOL measurements also confirm the presence of oxygen impurities, which are caused by substituting nitrogen atoms with oxygen atoms, and the impurity phase of In2O3 in the samples.