Type 2 diabetes mellitus in people with intellectual disabilities: Examining incidence, risk factors, quality of care and related complications. A population-based matched cohort study.

Aims: People with intellectual disabilities are at higher risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) but there are currently gaps in our understanding related to risk of new onset, care of T2DM and complications.

Methods: We examined electronic health-record data from Jan 2010 to May 2022 in 189,172 people with intellectual disabilities and 306,697 age, sex and family practice matched controls. We estimated incidence rates per 1,000-person-years, incidence rate ratios (IRRs), risk factors for T2DM (odds ratio, OR), indicators of quality of care and complications (hazard ratio, HR).

Electrophysiological signatures of the effect of context on exploration: Greater attentional and learning signals when exploration is costly.

Humans are excellent at modifying our behaviour depending on context. For example, we will change how we explore when losses are possible compared to when losses are not possible. However, it remains unclear what specific cognitive and neural processes are modulated when exploring in different contexts.

Specialist intellectual disability liaison nurses in general hospitals in England: cohort study using a large mortality dataset.

Objective: Intellectual disability liaison nurses in general hospitals could enhance access to high-quality, adapted healthcare and improve outcomes. We aimed to explore associations between the input of intellectual disability liaison nurses and the quality of care in people with intellectual disability who are admitted to hospital.

Design: Retrospective analysis of a national dataset of mortality reviews.

Constipation prevalence and risk from prescribed medications in people with intellectual disability: Findings from an English mortality programme.

Constipation is common in people with intellectual disability, with case reports of associated deaths. Risk factors include lifestyle factors, health conditions, and certain medications. We aimed to explore constipation in a sample of people with intellectual disability who died in 2021.

Predicting recovery following stroke: Deep learning, multimodal data and feature selection using explainable AI.

Machine learning offers great potential for automated prediction of post-stroke symptoms and their response to rehabilitation. Major challenges for this endeavour include the very high dimensionality of neuroimaging data, the relatively small size of the datasets available for learning and interpreting the predictive features, as well as, how to effectively combine neuroimaging and tabular data (e.g.

Sequencing-guided design of genetically encoded small RNAs targeting CAG repeats for selective inhibition of mutant .

Huntington's disease (HD) is an incurable neurodegenerative disorder caused by genetic expansion of a CAG repeat sequence in one allele of the () gene. Reducing expression of the mutant HTT (mutHTT) protein has remained a clear therapeutic goal, but reduction of wild-type HTT (wtHTT) is undesirable, as it compromises gene function and potential therapeutic efficacy. One promising allele-selective approach involves targeting the CAG repeat expansion with steric binding small RNAs bearing central mismatches.

Global mpox lineage discovery and rapid outbreak tracking with nanopore sequencing.

Insufficient tracking of virus introduction, spread, and new lineage emergence for the human monkeypox (mpox) virus 1 (hMPXV1) outbreak of 2022 hindered epidemiological studies and public health response. hMPXV1 mutations accumulated unexpectedly faster than predicted. Thus, new variants with altered pathogenicity could emerge and spread without early detection.

An exploratory study into the relationship between playing at home or away and concussion.

Primary Objective: To investigate the effect of home and away game travel on risk of concussion across different levels of rugby union.

Research Design: Exploration study across school, university, and professional rugby teams.

Methods And Procedures: Retrospective analysis of concussion incidence and symptomology of surveillance data and prospective data collection for potential concussions via surveys.

From eye-blinks to state construction: Diagnostic benchmarks for online representation learning.

We present three new diagnostic prediction problems inspired by classical-conditioning experiments to facilitate research in online prediction learning. Experiments in classical conditioning show that animals such as rabbits, pigeons, and dogs can make long temporal associations that enable multi-step prediction. To replicate this remarkable ability, an agent must construct an internal state representation that summarizes its interaction history.

A Qualitative Exploration of Parents' Perceptions of Risk in Youth Contact Rugby.

The purpose of this study was to explore the understandings and perceptions of risk related to brain trauma amongst parents of children that play contact rugby. A qualitative approach was taken, using semi-structured interviews with 7 mothers and 27 fathers of children that participate in contact rugby. A thematic analysis of data suggests that parents used two primary cognitive strategies to process the risk they consented to with their children's participation in rugby; (1) minimalizing rugby risk to be equivalent to less injurious sports; and (2) elevating physical and social advantages above what they think other sports are capable of providing.

Selecting the best candidates for resurrecting extinct-in-the-wild plants from herbaria.

Resurrecting extinct species is a fascinating and challenging idea for scientists and the general public. Whereas some theoretical progress has been made for animals, the resurrection of extinct plants (de-extinction sensu lato) is a relatively recently discussed topic. In this context, the term 'de-extinction' is used sensu lato to refer to the resurrection of 'extinct in the wild' species from seeds or tissues preserved in herbaria, as we acknowledge the current impossibility of knowing a priori whether a herbarium seed is alive and can germinate.

Compulsory collisions and corporate interests in school rugby: challenging distortions in the framing of childhood injury.

This article examines how 'framing' is used to resist a proposal to remove rugby tackling from UK schools. It focuses on rugby tackling for UK school children, which is often a compulsory part of many schools' curricula. Specifically, we explore the importance of framing in how the problem is described in various academic publications, how ideas about risk are articulated and how advocates themselves are represented.

A bead-based method for high-throughput mapping of the sequence- and force-dependence of T cell activation.

Adaptive immunity relies on T lymphocytes that use αβ T cell receptors (TCRs) to discriminate among peptides presented by major histocompatibility complex molecules (pMHCs). Identifying pMHCs capable of inducing robust T cell responses will not only enable a deeper understanding of the mechanisms governing immune responses but could also have broad applications in diagnosis and treatment. T cell recognition of sparse antigenic pMHCs in vivo relies on biomechanical forces.

Applying the Bradford Hill Criteria for Causation to Repetitive Head Impacts and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disease associated with a history of repetitive head impacts (RHI). CTE was described in boxers as early as the 1920s and by the 1950s it was widely accepted that hits to the head caused some boxers to become "punch drunk." However, the recent discovery of CTE in American and Australian-rules football, soccer, rugby, ice hockey, and other sports has resulted in renewed debate on whether the relationship between RHI and CTE is causal.

Imposing Compulsory Rugby Union on Schoolchildren: An Analysis of English State-Funded Secondary Schools.

Objective: To establish the extent to which Rugby Union was a compulsory physical education activity in state-funded secondary schools in England and to understand the views of Subject Leaders for Physical Education with respect to injury risk.

Method: A cross-sectional research study using data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (2000) from 288 state-funded secondary schools.

Results: Rugby Union was delivered in 81% ( = 234 of 288) of state-funded secondary school physical education curricula, including 83% ( = 229 of 275) of state-funded secondary school boys' and 54% ( = 151 of 282) of girls' physical education curricular.

An assessment of current concussion identification and diagnosis methods in sports settings: a systematic review.

Background: Concussion in sport is an ongoing global concern. The head injury assessment (HIA) by the field of play is acknowledged as the first step in recognising and identifying concussion. While previous systematic literature reviews have evaluated the sensitivity of side-line screening tools and assessment protocols, no systematic review has evaluated the research designs and assessments used in a field setting.

Efficient Cloning and Sequence Validation of Repetitive and High GC-Content Short Hairpin RNAs.

Short hairpin RNAs, or short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs), are a proven tool for gene knockdown and a promising therapeutic approach for suppression of disease-associated genes. The efficient preparation of shRNA-expressing vectors can sometimes become a bottleneck due to the complexity of shRNA hairpin sequence and structure, especially for repetitive or high GC-content targets. Here, we present improved shRNA cloning and validation methods that enabled efficient and rapid cloning of several shRNAs targeting disease-associated repeat expansions, including GGGGCC, CAG, CTG, CCTG, and CGG into modified pLKO.

Longitudinal Structural Brain Changes in Bipolar Disorder: A Multicenter Neuroimaging Study of 1232 Individuals by the ENIGMA Bipolar Disorder Working Group.

Background: Bipolar disorder (BD) is associated with cortical and subcortical structural brain abnormalities. It is unclear whether such alterations progressively change over time, and how this is related to the number of mood episodes. To address this question, we analyzed a large and diverse international sample with longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and clinical data to examine structural brain changes over time in BD.

High throughput nanopore sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 viral genomes from patient samples.

In late 2019, a novel coronavirus began spreading in Wuhan, China, causing a potentially lethal respiratory viral infection. By early 2020, the novel coronavirus, called SARS-CoV-2, had spread globally, causing the COVID-19 pandemic. The infection and mutation rates of SARS-CoV-2 make it amenable to tracking introduction, spread and evolution by viral genome sequencing.

Pressure. A Qualitative Analysis of the Perception of Concussion and Injury Risk in Retired Professional Rugby Players.

This study interviewed retired professional rugby union players (≤10 years since retirement) to discuss their careers in the game of rugby union. The primary aim of the study was to document their understanding of concussion knowledge and the analogies they use to describe concussion. In addition, these interviews were used to determine any explicit and implicit pressures of playing professional rugby as described by ex-professional rugby players.

Dopamine release during psychological stress in euthymic bipolar I disorder: a Positron Emission Tomography study with [C]raclopride.

Background: Neurochemical mechanisms underlying stress induced relapse of mood episodes in Bipolar I Disorder (BD) remain unknown. This study investigated whether euthymic BD patients have a greater dopamine release in ventral striatum, caudate and putamen in response to psychological stress using Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanning with the radiotracer [C]raclopride.

Methods: Euthymic patients with BD (n = 10) and 10 matched healthy controls underwent two [C]raclopride PET scans, one during a "stress" and the other in a "no stress" condition separated by at least 24 h.