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The aim of this study was to assess the profile of nasal microbiome and evaluate the effect of a specific nasal decolonization solution on the microbiome. We conducted a randomized, placebo-controlled, and parallel-group clinical study of 50 volunteers aged 18 years and older. The subjects were randomly assigned to receive a nasal antiseptic solution, containing povidone-iodine as the main ingredient, (n = 25) or a control solution (n = 25). Nasal swabs were obtained before application (baseline) and at 3 timepoints after application (5 min, 2 h, 24 h). Nasal swabs were subjected to next generation sequencing analysis and cultured in agar plates. At baseline, there were substantial associations between anaerobic species, Corynebacterium spp., Staphylococcus spp., and Dolosigranulum spp. Then, a high bioburden reduction was observed after the application of povidone-iodine (log 10 3.68 ± 0.69 at 5 min; log 10 3.57 ± 0.94 at 2 h; log 10 1.17 ± 1.40 at 24 h), compared to the control. The top species affected by the treatment were Cutibacterium acnes, Staphylococcus, and Corynebacterium species. None of the subjects experienced any adverse effects, nor increases in mucociliary clearance time. Antiseptic solutions applied to the anterior nares can transiently and markedly reduce the bioburden of the nose. The registration number for this clinical trial is NCT05617729.

Abstract Background The most common organisms causing surgical site infection (SSI) are frequently found as part of the skin microbiota. Decolonization of the skin prior to a surgical procedure has been shown to be effective in reduction of SSI. The aim of this prospective study was to determine the organism profile of the skin and evaluate the effect of the application of an antiseptic solution on the skin microbiome. Methods A total of 50 volunteers were recruited into this study. After randomization, one arm was treated with a pre-saturated wipe containing a benzalkonium chloride (BZK)-based antiseptic solution and the contralateral arm was wiped with a PBS-based pre-saturated wipe. Swab samples of each extremity were taken at baseline (prior to application of the agents) and at 4 different timepoints after application (5 min, 2 h, 24 h, and 1 month). Skin was protected between 5 min and 2 h after application with a sterile wrap to prevent environmental contamination between sampling. Microbiological analysis consisted of standard culture and Next-generation sequencing. Study design Fifty volunteers were recruited for this double-blinded clinical trial. Randomization was performed to determine which arm will take the benzalkonium chloride (BZK) testing solution. We assessed bioburden and microbial diversity at 4 different timepoints after application (5 minutes, 2 hours, 24 hours, and 1 month). Results The baseline skin bioburden varied greatly among individuals (393 [IQR, 87-2 016] CFU/ml); however, baseline bioburden within subjects did not differ between the arms (p=0.61). A higher effect of bioburden reduction was observed at 5 minutes and 2 hours after application of BZK (log10 1.314 ± 0.086 and log10 1.308 ± 0.104, respectively; p< 0.01), compared to PBS. By 24 hours, the reduction in bacterial load was also higher in the BZK treated arm (log10 0.445 ± 0.115; p< 0.01). The top species affected by the treatment were C. acnes, S. cohnii, E. cloacae, L. crispatus, among others. The relative abundance of all Staphylococcus species was significantly decreased after the application of BZK, from 34.50% to 20.48%, at the 2-hour timepoint (p< 0.01). Bacterial alpha diversity metrics between groups and timepoints assessed (baseline, 2 hours, and 24 hours). Bacterial composition. A) Relative abundance of the most prevalent bacterial genus and B) heatmap illustrating the mean relative abundance of bacteria detected to be differentially abundant by ANCOMBC procedure. A cell colored in black can be considered “true” zero, whereas there were no detections of a particular bacteria for that given cell. CFU log10 reduction, from baseline bioburden, at different timepoints after application of the testing solutions (BZK or PBS). Data is expressed as mean ± SEM. Conclusion There was a wide difference in the skin microbiome between individuals but the organism profile was very similar in two arms of a given individual. Application of the BZK-based antiseptic solution led to a substantial reduction of the skin flora for up to 24 hours after application but the organism profile returned towards baseline rapidly. It appears that antiseptic solutions applied to skin are capable of transiently and markedly reduce the bioburden of skin Disclosures Javad Parvizi, MD, FRCS, 3M: Grant/Research Support|Acumed, LLC: Stocks/Bonds|Aesculap: Grant/Research Support|Alphaeon: Stocks/Bonds|AO Spine: Stocks/Bonds|Becton Dickenson: Advisor/Consultant|Biomet: Grant/Research Support|Cardinal Health: Advisor/Consultant|Cempra: Grant/Research Support|CeramTec: Grant/Research Support|Ceribell: Stocks/Bonds|Coracoid: Stocks/Bonds|Corentec: Advisor/Consultant|Datatrace: Grant/Research Support|DePuy: Grant/Research Support|Elsevier: Grant/Research Support|Elute: Stocks/Bonds|Ethicon: Advisor/Consultant|Hip Innovation Technology: Stocks/Bonds|Illuminus: Stocks/Bonds|Integra: Grant/Research Support|Intellijoint: Stocks/Bonds|Jaypee Publishers: Grant/Research Support|KCI / 3M (Acelity): Advisor/Consultant|Lima: Grant/Research Support|MicroGenDx: Advisor/Consultant|Molecular Surface Technologies: Stocks/Bonds|Myoscience: Grant/Research Support|Nanooxygenic: Stocks/Bonds|National Institutes of Health (NIAMS & NICHD): Grant/Research Support|NDRI: Grant/Research Support|Novartis: Grant/Research Support|OREF: Grant/Research Support|Orthospace: Grant/Research Support|Osteal: Stocks/Bonds|Parvizi Surgical Innovations and Subsidiaries: Stocks/Bonds|Peptilogic: Stocks/Bonds|Peptilogics: Advisor/Consultant|Pfizer: Grant/Research Support|PRN-Veterinary: Grant/Research Support|Rotation Medical: Grant/Research Support|Simplify Medical: Grant/Research Support|SLACK Incorporated: Grant/Research Support|Smith & Nephew: Grant/Research Support|Sonata: Stocks/Bonds|Stelkast: Grant/Research Support|Stryker: Grant/Research Support|Synthes: Grant/Research Support|Tenor: Advisor/Consultant|TissueGene: Grant/Research Support|Tornier: Grant/Research Support|Wolters Kluwer Health - Lippincott Williams & Wilkins: Grant/Research Support|Zimmer Biomet: Advisor/Consultant|Zimmer Biomet: Grant/Research Support

The correlations between the positions and shapes of galaxies, i.e. intrinsic alignments, have been measured in many observational studies and hydrodynamical simulations. The position-shape correlation measurements of disk galaxies with varying methodologies, samples and hydrodynamical simulations are inconsistent in amplitude and sign. This work compares the correlations of disk and elliptical shapes around all galaxy positions and disk shapes around the positions of ellipticals at \\(z=0\\) and \\(z=1\\) for two different shape definitions in TNG300, Horizon-AGN and EAGLE for multiple morphological definitions in a consistent way. All types of signals are positive and robust in TNG300 and EAGLE and positive or null in Horizon-AGN. The exception to this is the negative correlation of disks around ellipticals in Horizon-AGN. This arises for reduced shapes, which down-weight the outskirts of galaxies, at \\(z=1\\), when disks are identified via a threshold in \\(|v/|\\), the rotational velocity over the velocity dispersion. A re-weighting of the ellipticals around all galaxies signals in TNG300, according to the underlying stellar mass distributions of the samples, highlights the importance of the influence of (sub-grid) physics at these non-linear scales.

The shapes of dark matter haloes are sensitive to both cosmology and baryon physics, but are difficult to measure observationally. A promising way to constrain them is to use the positions of satellite galaxies as tracers of the underlying dark matter, but there are typically too few galaxies per halo for reliable shape estimates, resulting in biased shapes. We present a method to model sampling noise to correct for the shape bias. We compare our predicted median shape bias with that obtained from the FLAMINGO suite of simulations and find reasonable agreement. We check that our results are robust to resolution effects and baryonic feedback. We also explore the validity of our bias correction at various redshifts and we discuss how our method might be applied to observations in the future. We show that median projected halo axis ratios are on average biased low by 0.31 when they are traced by only 5 satellites. Using the satellite galaxies, the projected host halo axis ratio can be corrected with a residual bias of ~ 0.1, by accounting for sampling bias. Hence, about two-thirds of the projected axis ratio bias can be explained by sampling noise. This enables the statistical measurement of halo shapes at lower masses than previously possible. Our method will also allow improved estimates of halo shapes in cosmological simulations using fewer particles than currently required.

Unsteady airflow is investigated in a channel with a geometry approximating that of the human larynx. The laryngeal flow is simulated by solving the Navier-Stokes equations for an incompressible two-dimensional viscous fluid, and visualized using the Schlieren technique in an experimental setup consisting of a rigid replica of the larynx, with and without ventricular bands. This study shows the spontaneous formation of vortex couples in several regions of the laryngeal profile, and at different stages of the evolution of the starting glottal jet.

The origin of dark energy driving the accelerated expansion of the universe is still mysterious. We explore the possibility that dark energy fluctuates, resulting in spatial correlations. Due to these fluctuations, the Hubble rate itself becomes a fluctuating quantity. We discuss the effect this has on measurements of type Ia supernovae, which are used to constrain the luminosity distance. We show that the luminosity distance is affected by spatial correlations in several ways. First, the luminosity distance becomes dressed by the fluctuations, thereby differing from standard \\(\\Lambda\\)CDM. Second, angular correlations become visible in the two-point correlation function of the luminosity distance. To investigate the latter we construct the angular power spectrum of luminosity distance fluctuations. We then perform a forecast for two supernova surveys, the ongoing Dark Energy Survey (DES) and the upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), and compare this effect with relativistic lensing effects from perturbed \\(\\Lambda\\)CDM. We find that the signal can rise above the lensing effects and that LSST could test this effect for a large part of the parameter space. As an example, a specific realisation of such a scenario is that quantum fluctuations of some field in the early universe imprint spatial correlations with a predictable form in the dark energy density today. In this case, the Hubble rate fluctuates due to the intrinsic quantum nature of the dark energy density field. We study whether the signal of this specific model would be measurable, and conclude that testing this model with LSST would be challenging. However, taking into account a speed of sound \\(c_s<1\\) of the dark energy fluid can make this model observable.

Feedback processes play a fundamental role in the regulation of the star formation (SF) activity in galaxies and, in particular, in the quenching of early-type galaxies (ETGs) as has been inferred by observational and numerical studies of Lambda CDM models. At z = 0, ETGs exhibit well-known fundamental scaling relations, but the connection between them and the physical processes shaping ETG evolution remains unknown.This work aims at studying the impact of the energetic feedback due to active galactic nuclei (AGN) on the formation and evolution of ETGs.We focus on assessing the impact of AGN feedback on the evolution of the mass-plane and the fundamental plane (FP, defined by using mass surface density) as well as on morphology, kinematics, and stellar age across the FP.The Horizon-AGN and Horizon-noAGN cosmological hydrodynamical simulations were performed with identical initial conditions and including the same physical processes except for the activation of the AGN feedback in the former. We select a sample of central ETGs from both simulations using the same criteria and exhaustively study their SF activity, kinematics, and scaling relations for z <= 3. We find that Horizon-AGN ETGs identified at z = 0 follow the observed fundamental scaling relations (mass-plane, FP, mass-size relation) and qualitatively reproduce kinematic features albeit conserving a rotational inner component with a mass fraction regulated by the AGN feedback. AGN feedback seems to be required to reproduce the bimodality in the spin parameter distribution reported by observational works and the mass-size relation (with more massive galaxies having older stellar populations (SPs), larger sizes, and being slower rotators). We study the evolution of the fundamental relations with redshift, finding .Abridged

We present a bright galaxy sample with accurate and precise photometric redshifts (photo-zs), selected using \\(ugriZYJHK_s\\) photometry from the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS) Data Release 4 (DR4). The highly pure and complete dataset is flux-limited at \\(r<20\\) mag, covers \\(1000\\) deg\\(^2\\), and contains about 1 million galaxies after artifact masking. We exploit the overlap with Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) spectroscopy as calibration to determine photo-zs with the supervised machine learning neural network algorithm implemented in the ANNz2 software. The photo-zs have mean error of \\(| z | 5 10^-4\\) and low scatter (scaled mean absolute deviation of \\( 0.018(1+z)\\)), both practically independent of the \\(r\\)-band magnitude and photo-z at \\(0.05 < z_phot < 0.5\\). Combined with the 9-band photometry, these allow us to estimate robust absolute magnitudes and stellar masses for the full sample. As a demonstration of the usefulness of these data we split the dataset into red and blue galaxies, use them as lenses and measure the weak gravitational lensing signal around them for five stellar mass bins. We fit a halo model to these high-precision measurements to constrain the stellar-mass--halo-mass relations for blue and red galaxies. We find that for high stellar mass (\\(M_>5 10^11 M_\\)), the red galaxies occupy dark matter halos that are much more massive than those occupied by blue galaxies with the same stellar mass. The data presented here are publicly released via the KiDS webpage at http://kids.strw.leidenuniv.nl/DR4/brightsample.php.

This work investigates the alignment of galactic spins with the cosmic web across cosmic time using the cosmological hydrodynamical simulation Horizon-AGN. The cosmic web structure is extracted via the persistent skeleton as implemented in the DISPERSE algorithm. It is found that the spin of low-mass galaxies is more likely to be aligned with the filaments of the cosmic web and to lie within the plane of the walls while more massive galaxies tend to have a spin perpendicular to the axis of the filaments and to the walls. The mass transition is detected with a significance of 9 sigmas. This galactic alignment is consistent with the alignment of the spin of dark haloes found in pure dark matter simulations and with predictions from (anisotropic) tidal torque theory. However, unlike haloes, the alignment of low-mass galaxies is weak and disappears at low redshifts while the orthogonal spin orientation of massive galaxies is strong and increases with time, probably as a result of mergers. At fixed mass, alignments are correlated with galaxy morphology: the high-redshift alignment is dominated by spiral galaxies while elliptical centrals are mainly responsible for the perpendicular signal. These predictions for spin alignments with respect to cosmic filaments and unprecendently walls are successfully compared with existing observations. The alignment of the shape of galaxies with the different components of the cosmic web is also investigated. A coherent and stronger signal is found in terms of shape at high mass. The two regimes probed in this work induce competing galactic alignment signals for weak lensing, with opposite redshift and luminosity evolution. Understanding the details of these intrinsic alignments will be key to exploit future major cosmic shear surveys like Euclid or LSST.

Context. Accurate model predictions including the physics of baryons are required to make the most of the upcoming large cosmological surveys devoted to gravitational lensing. The advent of hydrodynamical cosmological simulations enables such predictions on sufficiently sizeable volumes. Aims. Lensing quantities (deflection, shear, convergence) and their statistics (convergence power spectrum, shear correlation functions, galaxy-galaxy lensing) are computed in the past lightcone built in the Horizon-AGN hydrodynamical cosmological simulation, which implements our best knowledge on baryonic physics at the galaxy scale in order to mimic galaxy populations over cosmic time. Methods. Lensing quantities are generated over a one square degree field of view by performing multiple-lens plane ray-tracing through the lightcone, taking full advantage of the 1 kpc resolution and splitting the line of sight over 500 planes all the way to redshift z~7. Two methods are explored (standard projection of particles with adaptive smoothing, and integration of the acceleration field) to assert a good implementation. The focus is on small scales where baryons matter most. Results. Standard cosmic shear statistics are impacted at the 10% level by the baryonic component for angular scales below a few arcmin. The galaxy-galaxy lensing signal, or galaxy-shear correlation function, is consistent with measurements for the redshift z~0.5 massive galaxy population. At higher redshift z>1, the impact of magnification bias on this correlation is relevant for separations greater than 1 Mpc. Conclusions. This work is pivotal for all current and upcoming weak lensing surveys and represents a first step towards building a full end-to-end generation of lensed mock images from large cosmological hydrodynamical simulations.