Serious mental illness prolongs hospital admission following lung cancer resection.

Background: Serious mental illness (SMI) is associated with increased complications and worse outcomes in a variety of surgical diseases, however, SMI as a risk factor in thoracic surgery patients is incompletely understood. We aimed to investigate if comorbid SMI would impact mortality and morbidity following lung cancer resection.

Methods: We identified 615 patients from the Society of Thoracic Surgery (STS) database at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill (January 2013-June 2021) who underwent lung cancer resection for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Microplastic concentrations and risk assessment in water, sediment and invertebrates from Simon's Town, South Africa.

Plastic pollution is an ever-increasing threat globally and poor waste management in South Africa has caused an increase in plastic leakage into the environment. Plastic waste in the environment are categorized according to size and plastic particles smaller than 5 mm in size are regarded as microplastics (MPs), and little to no research has been done on MPs pollution within the marine coastal environment and rocky shores in South Africa. Sampling was done in February 2020 at a rocky shore within Simon's Town Marina, Cape Town.

The association of GNB5 with Alzheimer disease revealed by genomic analysis restricted to variants impacting gene function.

Disease-associated variants identified from genome-wide association studies (GWASs) frequently map to non-coding areas of the genome such as introns and intergenic regions. An exclusive reliance on gene-agnostic methods of genomic investigation could limit the identification of relevant genes associated with polygenic diseases such as Alzheimer disease (AD). To overcome such potential restriction, we developed a gene-constrained analytical method that considers only moderate- and high-risk variants that affect gene coding sequences.

Misinformation About Orthopaedic Conditions on Social Media: Analysis of TikTok and Instagram.

Introduction Social media outlets such as TikTok (TT) and Instagram (IG) have surged as a method to disseminate information. More recently, healthcare professionals have targeted this space as a means to provide medical education and advice. With the ever-growing content on these applications, there is significant variability and quality of material available, which can lead to the dissemination of misinformation.

Microplastic pollution and risk assessment in surface water and sediments of the Zandvlei Catchment and estuary, Cape Town, South Africa.

Microplastic (MP) (plastic <5 mm) pollution in South Africa is widespread but few studies have been done in catchments and estuaries of the country. The aim of this study was to investigate the abundance, characteristics and risks posed by microplastics in the Zandvlei Catchment and Estuary in Cape Town, South Africa. Water and sediment were sampled between 2019 and 2021, during wet and dry seasons, MPs extracted and identified using microscopy and fourier-transformed infrared spectrophotometry (FTIR) analyses.