BlueDot (Canada)

The mcPHASES (menstrual cycle Physiological, Hormonal, and Self-Reported Events and Symptoms) dataset provides a multimodal record of menstrual health that integrates physiological monitoring, hormone measurements, and self-reported experiences. Forty-two Canadian young adults who menstruate participated in a 3-month observation period, and 20 of them also completed a second 3-month observation period. During data collection, participants wore Fitbit Sense smartwatches to capture diverse physiological signals and Dexcom G6 continuous glucose monitors for metabolic data. Hormone levels were obtained using at-home Mira Plus urinalysis tests, and daily symptom and lifestyle information (e.g., pain, sleep, stress) was reported through surveys. In total, the dataset comprises 23 structured tables organized by signal category, allowing for analyses that link endocrine dynamics to wearable-derived measures and self-reported outcomes. This resource supports investigations into cycle variability, hormone-physiology interactions, and contextual influences on menstrual health, while also offering benchmark data for developing predictive algorithms and advancing menstrual health informatics.

BackgroundTo examine the relationship between individual workers employed at more than one LTCH (inter-LTCH connectivity) across LTCH and SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective cohort study using secondary, aggregate data (surveillance and mobile geolocation data) from 179 LTCH in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario, the province where close to one-third of the Canada’s SARS-CoV-2 cases among long-term care homes residents were reported, between 2020-02-26 and 2020-08-31. The main exposure of interest was the inter-LTCH connectivity, generated from geographic location data procured across mobile apps. Three outcomes were examined: 1) at least one SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis among residents, 2) cumulative cases among residents in each facility, and 3) time to first outbreak.ResultsThe median degree of connectivity for LTCH that experienced an outbreak (59%; 106/179) was 1.2 times the degree of those without an outbreak (6 compared to 5). LTCH with higher inter-LTCH connectivity also had larger numbers of residents and beds, and were more likely to have for-profit ownership. After adjusting for facility-level and neighbourhood-level factors, every additional connection to another LTCH increased the odds of an outbreak in the respective LTCH by 8% (adjusted odds ratio=1.08, 90% credible interval [CrI]: 1.02-1.09). Inter-LTCH connectivity was also associated with higher risk of earlier occurrence of a first SARS-CoV-2 case (adjusted hazard ratio=1.05, 90%CrI: 1.02-1.09), but not with outbreak size. ConclusionsStaff cohorting was associated with reduced importation risk of SARS-CoV-2 cases into LTCH. However, once importation has occurred, other facility-level factors including facility infrastructure and staff benefits are more important in shaping outbreak size. Implementing these structural strategies to meet the LTCH workers and residents’ needs are pivotal to prevent and manage future respiratory virus outbreaks.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-025-23621-3.

The original version of the Article contained an error in the Methods section in that the first sentence of the subsection 'Epidemiological dengue data' contained an incorrect reference to the source of data used in the study and in the Supplementary Table 1 in that incorrect links to the source of the data were provided. This has been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the Article. The HTML has been updated to include a corrected version of the Supplementary Information.

in Toronto, but the COVID-19 pandemic hit and, as with many other things, plans were completely derailed because of the impossibility to meet in person. After much discussion by the Geostatistics Executive Committee that supports the organization of the Congress, and given the many unknowns at the time, it was decided to postpone the Congress to the summer of 2021, hence rebranding it to Toronto 2021, as a reminder of the odd circumstances that we were faced with. The Congress was held fully online, but with an original format, where all presentations were made available one week in advance, and the actual meeting time was used for brief summaries of each presentation and a Q&A session with extensive discussions about the topics. Despite being online, the discussions were lively and interesting, which again made this a special occasion. As always, presentations were split into sessions: Theory, Petroleum, Mining, Earth Science, and Domains. Authors were invited to submit a paper for a special issue on the conference in Mathematical Geosciences. These papers went through the rigorous review process that the journal has for all its papers. The special issue includes five articles on diverse topics, each of which is briefly discussed next. The paper by Lantuéjoul et al. entitled "Regularisation and deregularisation of covariances and variograms for univariate random functions in one-dimensional space" discusses an approach to go from regularised variograms to point variograms, by introducing an auxiliary function that can be determined for different covariance B Sebastian Avalos

SummarySARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) arise against the backdrop of increasingly heterogeneous human connectivity and population immunity. Through a large-scale phylodynamic analysis of 115,622 Omicron genomes, we identified >6,000 independent introductions of the antigenically distinct virus into England and reconstructed the dispersal history of resulting local transmission. Travel restrictions on southern Africa did not reduce BA.1 importation intensity as secondary hubs became major exporters. We explored potential drivers of BA.1 spread across England and discovered an early period during which viral lineage movements mainly occurred between larger cities, followed by a multi-focal spatial expansion shaped by shorter distance mobility patterns. We also found evidence that disease incidence impacted human commuting behaviours around major travel hubs. Our results offer a detailed characterisation of processes that drive the invasion of an emerging VOC across multiple spatial scales and provide unique insights on the interplay between disease spread and human mobility.HighlightsOver 6,000 introductions ignited the epidemic wave of Omicron BA.1 in EnglandImportations prior to international travel restrictions were responsible for majority of local BA.1 infections but importations continued from sources other than southern AfricaHuman mobility at regional and local spatial scales shaped dissemination and growth of BA.1Changes in human commuting patterns are associated with higher case incidence in travel hubs across England

A multi-country outbreak caused by monkeypox virus (MPXV) has been unfolding across endemic and non-endemic countries since May 2022. Throughout April and May 2022, Nigeria reported 31 MPXV cases, of which 11 were confirmed via testing. In May 2022, three internationally exported cases of MPXV, presumed to have originated in Nigeria, were reported, suggesting that a larger than reported outbreak might be occurring in the country. We used previously established methods to estimate the true size of the MPXV outbreak in Nigeria. We estimated the incidence rate of exported MPXV cases among all outbound international air travellers from Nigeria during the time period of April and May 2022, using forecasted air traveller volumes. We then applied this incidence rate to the entire population of Nigeria during April and May 2022 assuming that the rate of infection was the same in Nigeria for both travellers and the resident population. Information on the subset of population that were considered to be travellers was obtained from the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). We estimated that there were approximately 4000 (N = 4013; 95% CI: 828-11 728) active cases of MPXV in Nigeria in April and May 2022. This is approximately 360-fold greater than the confirmed number and approximately 130-fold greater than the reported number of cases in Nigeria. Our findings suggest that a larger outbreak than is appreciated may be ongoing in Nigeria. The observed international spread of MPXV offers important insights into the scale of the epidemic at its origin, where clinical detection and disease surveillance may be limited. These findings highlight the need to expand and support clinical, laboratory, and public health capacity to enable earlier detection of epidemics of international significance.

The SARS-CoV-2 Delta (Pango lineage B.1.617.2) variant of concern spread globally, causing resurgences of COVID-19 worldwide1,2. The emergence of the Delta variant in the UK occurred on the background of a heterogeneous landscape of immunity and relaxation of non-pharmaceutical interventions. Here we analyse 52,992 SARS-CoV-2 genomes from England together with 93,649 genomes from the rest of the world to reconstruct the emergence of Delta and quantify its introduction to and regional dissemination across England in the context of changing travel and social restrictions. Using analysis of human movement, contact tracing and virus genomic data, we find that the geographic focus of the expansion of Delta shifted from India to a more global pattern in early May 2021. In England, Delta lineages were introduced more than 1,000 times and spread nationally as non-pharmaceutical interventions were relaxed. We find that hotel quarantine for travellers reduced onward transmission from importations; however, the transmission chains that later dominated the Delta wave in England were seeded before travel restrictions were introduced. Increasing inter-regional travel within England drove the nationwide dissemination of Delta, with some cities receiving more than 2,000 observable lineage introductions from elsewhere. Subsequently, increased levels of local population mixing—and not the number of importations—were associated with the faster relative spread of Delta. The invasion dynamics of Delta depended on spatial heterogeneity in contact patterns, and our findings will inform optimal spatial interventions to reduce the transmission of current and future variants of concern, such as Omicron (Pango lineage B.1.1.529).

Understanding the chemical reactions that hybrid organic-inorganic halide perovskite (HP) semiconductors undergo in the presence of moisture, oxygen, and light are essential to the commercial development of HP solar cells and optoelectronics. Here we use optical absorbance to study the kinetics of methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI3) degradation in response to combinations of moisture, oxygen, and illumination over a range of temperatures. We identify two primary reaction pathways that dominate MAPbI3 material degradation in these mixed environmental conditions: (1) dry photooxidation (DPO) due to the combined role of oxygen and photoexcited electrons (with a rate of 2 x 10-9 mol/m2∙s in dry air at 25 C and an effective activation energy of 0.62 eV), and (2) a water-accelerated photooxidation (WPO) process due to the combined role of water, oxygen, and photoexcited electrons (with a rate of 1 x 10-7 mol/m2s in 50% RH air at 25 C and observed effective activation energy of 0.07 eV). Commonly reported humidity-only, blue light, and thermal degradation pathways are demonstrated to have rates that are respectively 100, 1000, and >1000 times slower than predominant photooxidation processes in ambient conditions. Extracting kinetic rate constants from the dynamics of the initial degradation, we calculate that in dry air, photooxidation rate of MAPbI3 follows a f(x)∝x/(1+Kx) relationship with respect to oxygen in the vapor phase (PO2) and excess concentration of photoexcited electrons (n). In humid air, photooxidation of MAPbI3 exhibits first order kinetics with respect to the partial pressure of water in the vapor phase (PH2O). However, with respect to PO2 and n, kinetics follow a f(x)∝x/(1+kx)^2 relationship with respect to rate. We then identify a plausible reaction mechanism for degradation of MAPbI3 material that is consistent with these rate functionalities. The rate determining step for both DPO and WPO is proton abstraction by photogenerated superoxide radicals. However, proton donation by adsorbed water proceeds much more rapidly than donation by methylammonium, resulting in faster degradation rates for WPO at typical ambient conditions (~50% RH). Rate laws derived from this mechanism were fit to the entire dataset to extract rate constants for DPO and WPO processes. Accurate predictions of material degradation rates, with narrow confidence intervals of fit parameters as identified by the Bootstrap algorithm, provide the first experimental estimates of the equilibrium constants of oxygen adsorption on MAPbI3 (Keq ≈ 3 x 10-3 kPa-1) and superoxide generation from adsorbed oxygen and photoexcited electrons in MAPbI3 (Keq ≈ 5 x 10-15 (photons/m2∙s)-0.7). Given that water has been reported as a degradation product of DPO, the results reported here highlight the need for the development of encapsulation schemes that rigorously block oxygen, as over longer time periods, product water (if generated) may accumulate inside the packaging and initiate the much faster WPO process.