Neighborhood Level Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Adherence to Guidelines for the Evaluation of Patients with Incidentally Detected Pulmonary Nodules.

Background: The management of incidental pulmonary nodules is guided by recommendations set forth by the Fleischner Society. While most pulmonary nodules are benign, timely and evidence-based follow-up can reduce morbidity and mortality. There are known socioeconomic disparities for engagement with recommended cancer screenings, however it is unclear whether disparities exist for follow-up of incidentally detected pulmonary lesions.

Best practices guidelines in the postoperative management of patients who underwent cervical and lumbar fusions.

Background: There is a lack of standardization in spine surgery in particular, as relates to postoperative care for the most common spine procedures such as cervical and lumbar fusions. The goal of this study was to develop a standardized postoperative treatment protocol for common spine procedures such as cervical and lumbar fusion to reduce unnecessary visits, imaging studies, and create a standard for all spine surgeons to adhere while maintaining quality.

Methods: We developed a best practices protocol (BPP) for postoperative spine care for anterior cervical diskectomy and fusion (ACDF) and posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF).

DiffraGAN: a conditional generative adversarial network for phasing single molecule diffraction data to atomic resolution.

Introduction: Proteins that adopt multiple conformations pose significant challenges in structural biology research and pharmaceutical development, as structure determination via single particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) is often impeded by data heterogeneity. In this context, the enhanced signal-to-noise ratio of single molecule cryo-electron diffraction (simED) offers a promising alternative. However, a significant challenge in diffraction methods is the loss of phase information, which is crucial for accurate structure determination.

Hospital-admitted drowning in Victoria, Australia, before and after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objectives: To examine trends in hospitalisation following drowning in Victoria, Australia, before and after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design: Retrospective analysis of administrative hospital admission records.

Setting: Hospital admissions recorded in the Victorian Admitted Episodes Dataset.

Students, community and belonging: an investigation of student experience across six European countries.

Despite existing empirical work that explores the multiple ways in which students develop a sense of belonging in higher education, there is a dearth of comparative research about the extent to which the concepts of community and belonging are central to what it means to be a student and how students in different national contexts (beyond Anglophone countries) construct community and belonging. Drawing on qualitative data from students from six European countries, we provide an account of conceptualisations of community and belonging. Specifically, this paper extends discussions around community and belonging in higher education through comparative inquiry.

Mapping study for health emergency and disaster risk management competencies and curricula: literature review and cross-sectional survey.

Background: With the increasing threat of hazardous events at local, national, and global levels, an effective workforce for health emergency and disaster risk management (Health EDRM) in local, national, and international communities is urgently needed. However, there are no universally accepted competencies and curricula for Health EDRM. This study aimed to identify Health EDRM competencies and curricula worldwide using literature reviews and a cross-sectional survey.

Deep learning applications in protein crystallography.

Deep learning techniques can recognize complex patterns in noisy, multidimensional data. In recent years, researchers have started to explore the potential of deep learning in the field of structural biology, including protein crystallography. This field has some significant challenges, in particular producing high-quality and well ordered protein crystals.

Migration patterns of acetabular cups: a systematic review and meta-analysis of RSA studies.

Background And Purpose: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of RSA studies to investigate the early and long-term migration patterns of acetabular cups and the influence of implant factors on cup migration over time.

Methods: We performed a systematic search of PubMed, Embase, and Scopus databases to identify all RSA studies of cup migration following primary total hip replacement (THR). Proximal migration at 3 and 6 months, 1, 2, 5, and 10 years were considered for analysis.

Position-specific N- and O-glycosylation of the reactive center loop impacts neutrophil elastase-mediated proteolysis of corticosteroid-binding globulin.

Corticosteroid-binding globulin (CBG) delivers anti-inflammatory cortisol to inflamed tissues through proteolysis of an exposed reactive center loop (RCL) by neutrophil elastase (NE). We previously demonstrated that RCL-localized Asn347-linked N-glycans impact NE proteolysis, but a comprehensive structure-function characterization of the RCL glycosylation is still required to better understand CBG glycobiology. Herein, we first performed RCL-centric glycoprofiling of serum-derived CBG to elucidate the Asn347-glycans and then used molecular dynamics simulations to study their impact on NE proteolysis.

Trace metal content prediction along an AMD (acid mine drainage)-contaminated stream draining a coal mine using VNIR-SWIR spectroscopy.

The current study investigated the use of VNIR-SWIR (visible/near infrared to short-wavelength infrared: 400-2500 nm) spectroscopy for predicting trace metals in overbank sediments collected in the study site. Here, we (i) derived spectral absorption feature parameters (SAFPs) from measured ground spectra for correlation with trace metal (Pb, Cd, As, and Cu) contents in overbank sediments, (ii) built univariate regression models to predict trace metal concentrations using the SAFPs, and (iii) evaluated the predictive capacities of the regression models. The derived SAFPs associated with goethite in overbank sediments were Depth433, Asym433, and Width433, and those associated with kaolinite in overbank sediments were Depth1366, Asym1366, Width1366, Depth2208, Asym2208, and Width2208.

TERSE/PROLIX (TRPX) - a new algorithm for fast and lossless compression and decompression of diffraction and cryo-EM data.

High-throughput data collection in crystallography poses significant challenges in handling massive amounts of data. Here, TERSE/PROLIX (or TRPX for short) is presented, a novel lossless compression algorithm specifically designed for diffraction data. The algorithm is compared with established lossless compression algorithms implemented in gzip, bzip2, CBF (crystallographic binary file), Zstandard(zstd), LZ4 and HDF5 with gzip, LZF and bitshuffle+LZ4 filters, in terms of compression efficiency and speed, using continuous-rotation electron diffraction data of an inorganic compound and raw cryo-EM data.

Exploring the Interior of Europa with the Europa Clipper.

The Galileo mission to Jupiter revealed that Europa is an ocean world. The Galileo magnetometer experiment in particular provided strong evidence for a salty subsurface ocean beneath the ice shell, likely in contact with the rocky core. Within the ice shell and ocean, a number of tectonic and geodynamic processes may operate today or have operated at some point in the past, including solid ice convection, diapirism, subsumption, and interstitial lake formation.

The absence of reporting standards and a lack of objective, performance-based outcomes following intramedullary nailing of tibial shaft fractures: findings from a scoping review into 179 articles.

Purpose: This scoping review was conducted to summarise the outcome tools reported in the assessment of tibial shaft fractures treated with intramedullary (IM) nailing, with a key focus on knee pain and function, and performance-based outcomes.

Methods: PubMed and Embase databases were searched on May 31, 2023. All study designs and populations were included, including ex vivo studies without fracture.

Evaluation of [F]AlF-EMP-105 for Molecular Imaging of C-Met.

C-Met is a receptor tyrosine kinase that is overexpressed in a range of different cancer types, and has been identified as a potential biomarker for cancer imaging and therapy. Previously, a Ga-labelled peptide, [Ga]Ga-EMP-100, has shown promise for imaging c-Met in renal cell carcinoma in humans. Herein, we report the synthesis and preliminary biological evaluation of an [F]AlF-labelled analogue, [F]AlF-EMP-105, for c-Met imaging by positron emission tomography.

Machine learning for classifying narrow-beam electron diffraction data.

As an alternative approach to X-ray crystallography and single-particle cryo-electron microscopy, single-molecule electron diffraction has a better signal-to-noise ratio and the potential to increase the resolution of protein models. This technology requires collection of numerous diffraction patterns, which can lead to congestion of data collection pipelines. However, only a minority of the diffraction data are useful for structure determination because the chances of hitting a protein of interest with a narrow electron beam may be small.

Strengthening hospital resilience in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.

"Adaptation is surviving but resilience is for thriving." In recent years, the multiple threats of COVID-19 and other disease outbreaks, intensified climate change and severe weather events, and increasing conflicts and humanitarian emergencies have highlighted the need to strengthen resilience in the different sectors, including social, economic, environment, and health. Resilience is the ability of a system, community or society exposed to hazards to resist, absorb, accommodate, adapt to, transform, and recover from the effects of a hazard in a timely and efficient manner, including through the preservation and restoration of its essential basic structures and functions through risk management.