Novel MoS-decorated CuO hybrid nanoparticles for enhanced non-enzymatic electrochemical cholesterol detection.

Precise identification of cholesterol levels is crucial for the early diagnosis of cardiovascular risk factors. This paper presents a novel approach for cholesterol detection that circumvents the reliance on enzymatic processes. Leveraging the unique properties of advanced materials and electrochemical principles, our non-enzymatic approach demonstrates enhanced sensitivity, specificity, and limit of detection in cholesterol analysis.

Physician sentiment toward artificial intelligence (AI) in colonoscopic practice: a survey of US gastroenterologists.

 Early studies have shown that artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to augment the performance of gastroenterologists during endoscopy. Our aim was to determine how gastroenterologists view the potential role of AI in gastrointestinal endoscopy. In this cross-sectional study, an online survey was sent to US gastroenterologists.

Regulatory considerations for artificial intelligence technologies in GI endoscopy.

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in clinical medicine have become the subject of intensive investigative efforts and popular attention. In domains ranging from pathology to radiology, AI has demonstrated the potential to improve clinical performance and efficiency. In gastroenterology, AI has been applied on multiple fronts, with particular progress seen in the areas of computer-aided polyp detection (CADe) and computer-aided polyp diagnosis (CADx), to assist gastroenterologists during colonoscopy.

Prevalence of overweight/obesity and its associated factors among secondary school students in semi urban area in Malaysia.

Introduction: This cross-sectional study aimed to determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity and factors associated among secondary school students in Batang Padang District, Perak, Malaysia.

Methods: Out of the 7247 students in the ten selected schools studied, a total of 6248 students (2928 males, 3320 females) took part. A validated self-administered questionnaire was used.

The high resource impact of reformatting requirements for scientific papers.

Background: Most research manuscripts are not accepted for publication on first submission. A major part of the resubmission process is reformatting to another journal's specific requirements, a process separate from revising the scientific content. There has been little research to understand the magnitude of the burden imposed by the current resubmission process.

Behavioral and molecular markers of death in Drosophila melanogaster.

Fly movement was tracked through 3-dimensional (3D) space as the fly died, using either reflected visible light, reflected infrared (IR) light, or fly GFP fluorescence. Behaviors measured included centrophobism, negative geotaxis, velocity, and total activity. In addition, frequency of directional heading changes (FDHC) was calculated as a measure of erratic movement.

Yield of biliary stent cytology: Is it time to think lean?

 During evaluation of pancreaticobiliary strictures, it is common practice to send biliary stents for cytologic analysis. However, in recent years, complementary tissue acquisition techniques ranging from cholangioscopy to fine-needle biopsy have improved the ability to acquire tissue and diagnose malignancy. Data are limited on the current diagnostic yield and cost effectiveness of biliary stent analysis.

Artificial intelligence in gastrointestinal endoscopy: The future is almost here.

Artificial intelligence (AI) enables machines to provide unparalleled value in a myriad of industries and applications. In recent years, researchers have harnessed artificial intelligence to analyze large-volume, unstructured medical data and perform clinical tasks, such as the identification of diabetic retinopathy or the diagnosis of cutaneous malignancies. Applications of artificial intelligence techniques, specifically machine learning and more recently deep learning, are beginning to emerge in gastrointestinal endoscopy.

A Three-Step Letter Advance Directive Procedure to Facilitate Patient-Proxy Alignment in Advance Care Planning.

Little is known about the extent of alignment between hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) patients and their healthcare proxies with respect to advance care planning (ACP). To determine if a structured three-step process using the letter advance directive (LAD) could (1) allow for the differences in opinion between patient-proxy dyads to surface and (2) help bridge preexisting discordance about specific treatment choices. Blinded to each other, the HSCT patient (LAD-1) and proxy (LAD-2) each completed the LAD (step 1).

Development of colorimetric cholesterol detection kit using TPU nanofibre/cellulose acetate membrane.

In this study, the authors report a simple fabrication of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) nanofibres-based kit for cholesterol detection. TPU is a polymer that is highly elastic, resistant to microorganisms, abrasion and compatible with blood; thus, making it a natural selection as an immobilisation matrix for cholesterol oxidase (ChOx) enzyme. The nanofibre was fabricated by electrospinning process and was characterised using scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy.

Decaying relevance of clinical data towards future decisions in data-driven inpatient clinical order sets.

Objective: Determine how varying longitudinal historical training data can impact prediction of future clinical decisions. Estimate the "decay rate" of clinical data source relevance.

Materials And Methods: We trained a clinical order recommender system, analogous to Netflix or Amazon's "Customers who bought A also bought B.

Does radiotherapy still have a role in unresected biliary tract cancer?

The benefits of radiotherapy for inoperable biliary tract cancer remain unclear due to the lack of randomized data. We evaluated the impact of radiotherapy on survival in elderly patients using the SEER-Medicare database. Patients in the SEER-Medicare database with inoperable biliary tract tumors diagnosed between 1998 and 2011 were included.

Identification of Doxorubicin as an Inhibitor of the IRE1α-XBP1 Axis of the Unfolded Protein Response.

Activation of the IRE1α-XBP1 branch of the unfolded protein response (UPR) has been implicated in multiple types of human cancers, including multiple myeloma (MM). Through an in silico drug discovery approach based on protein-compound virtual docking, we identified the anthracycline antibiotic doxorubicin as an in vitro and in vivo inhibitor of XBP1 activation, a previously unknown activity for this widely utilized cancer chemotherapeutic drug. Through a series of mechanistic and phenotypic studies, we showed that this novel activity of doxorubicin was not due to inhibition of topoisomerase II (Topo II).

Quantitative Analysis of (18)F-Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography Identifies Novel Prognostic Imaging Biomarkers in Locally Advanced Pancreatic Cancer Patients Treated With Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy.

Purpose: To identify prognostic biomarkers in pancreatic cancer using high-throughput quantitative image analysis.

Methods And Materials: In this institutional review board-approved study, we retrospectively analyzed images and outcomes for 139 locally advanced pancreatic cancer patients treated with stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). The overall population was split into a training cohort (n=90) and a validation cohort (n=49) according to the time of treatment.

A Multimodal Data Analysis Approach for Targeted Drug Discovery Involving Topological Data Analysis (TDA).

In silico drug discovery refers to a combination of computational techniques that augment our ability to discover drug compounds from compound libraries. Many such techniques exist, including virtual high-throughput screening (vHTS), high-throughput screening (HTS), and mechanisms for data storage and querying. However, presently these tools are often used independent of one another.

Acridine Derivatives as Inhibitors of the IRE1α-XBP1 Pathway Are Cytotoxic to Human Multiple Myeloma.

Using a luciferase reporter-based high-throughput chemical library screen and topological data analysis, we identified N-acridine-9-yl-N',N'-dimethylpropane-1,3-diamine (DAPA) as an inhibitor of the inositol requiring kinase 1α (IRE1α)-X-box binding protein-1 (XBP1) pathway of the unfolded protein response. We designed a collection of analogues based on the structure of DAPA to explore structure-activity relationships and identified N(9)-(3-(dimethylamino)propyl)-N(3),N(3),N(6),N(6)-tetramethylacridine-3,6,9-triamine (3,6-DMAD), with 3,6-dimethylamino substitution on the chromophore, as a potent inhibitor. 3,6-DMAD inhibited both IRE1α oligomerization and in vitro endoribonuclease (RNase) activity, whereas the other analogues only blocked IRE1α oligomerization.

Albumin and Neutrophil-Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR) Predict Survival in Patients With Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma Treated With SBRT.

Purpose: To determine if pretreatment nutritional status and inflammatory markers correlate with survival in patients with locally advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma treated with stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT).

Materials And Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 208 patients with newly diagnosed, locally advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma treated with SBRT at our institution from 2002 to 2014. Laboratory values were collected before SBRT, including hemoglobin, platelets, albumin, red blood cell, white blood cell, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-lymphocyte ratio, and tumor markers CA 19-9 and CEA.

Single- versus multifraction stereotactic body radiation therapy for pancreatic adenocarcinoma: outcomes and toxicity.

Purpose: We report updated outcomes of single- versus multifraction stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for unresectable pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

Methods And Materials: We included 167 patients with unresectable pancreatic adenocarcinoma treated at our institution from 2002 to 2013, with 1-fraction (45.5% of patient) or 5-fraction (54.

Extracting insights from the shape of complex data using topology.

This paper applies topological methods to study complex high dimensional data sets by extracting shapes (patterns) and obtaining insights about them. Our method combines the best features of existing standard methodologies such as principal component and cluster analyses to provide a geometric representation of complex data sets. Through this hybrid method, we often find subgroups in data sets that traditional methodologies fail to find.

Posterior lumbar interbody fusion versus intertransverse fusion in the treatment of lumbar spondylolisthesis.

Purpose: To compare 2 methods of fusion in the treatment of lumbar spondylolisthesis: posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) and intertransverse fusion (ITF).

Methods: 20 patients with lumbar spondylolisthesis were randomly allocated to one of 2 groups: decompression, posterior instrumentation, and PLIF (n=10) or decompression, posterior instrumentation, and ITF (n=10). The Oswestry low back pain disability questionnaire was used for clinical assessment.

A completely shattered tibia.

Despite advances in reconstructive surgery, salvage of mangled extremities still requires long periods of treatment with many operations that can be taxing both to the surgeon and the patient. Attempts at reconstruction of severely shattered limbs necessitate counselling with regard to the protracted course of treatment and associated morbidity as well as problems which may require abandoning of the procedure and secondary amputation. We report the successful salvage of a severely comminuted and open fracture of the tibia in a 32-year-old man.

Pseudoaneurysm of anterior tibial artery following tibial nailing: a case report.

Interlocking nailing is a widely accepted and performed treatment for tibial shaft fractures. The addition of percutaneously placed transfixation screws increases the stabilisation provided by intramedullary nailing; however, the technical complexity associated with the procedure has introduced new potential complications. We report a pseudoaneurysm of the anterior tibial artery caused by a proximal interlocking screw after intramedullary nailing surgery to repair a tibial shaft fracture.