The efficacy of many compounds against is often limited when administered via conventional oral or injection routes due to suboptimal pharmacokinetic characteristics. Inhalation-based delivery methods have been investigated to achieve high local therapeutic doses in the lungs. However, previous models, typically employing wild-type strains, were intricate, time-consuming, labor-intensive, and with poor reproducibility.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground/purpose: The accuracy of intraoral scanners (IOSs) plays a crucial role in the success of final restorations in digital workflows. Previous studies have shown that numerous factors affect the accuracy of IOSs. Most studies have evaluated the accuracy of IOS under one restoration condition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicrofluidic chips often face challenges related to the formation and accumulation of air bubbles, which can hinder their performance. This study investigated a bubble trapping mechanism integrated into microfluidic chip to address this issue. Microfluidic chip design includes a high shear stress section of fluid flow that can generate up to 2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Sub-optimal inhaler adherence undermines the efficacy of pharmacotherapy in COPD. Digitalised care pathways are increasingly used to improve inhaler-use behaviour remotely. This review investigated the feasibility and impact of remote electronic inhaler adherence monitoring (EIM) and intervention platforms on clinical outcomes in COPD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPeople with a history of injecting drug use are a priority for eliminating blood-borne viruses and sexually transmissible infections. Identifying them for disease surveillance in electronic medical records (EMRs) is challenged by sparsity of predictors. This study introduced a novel approach to phenotype people who have injected drugs using structured EMR data and interactive human-in-the-loop methods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrevalence and incidence of HIV among people aged 50 years and older continue to rise worldwide, generating increasing awareness among care providers, scientists, and the HIV community about the importance of brain health in older adults with HIV. Many age-related factors that adversely affect brain health can occur earlier and more often among people with HIV, including epigenetic ageing, chronic medical conditions (eg, cardiovascular disease), and age-related syndromes (eg, frailty). Extensive dialogue between HIV community leaders, health-care providers, and scientists has led to the development of a multidimensional response strategy to protect and enhance brain health in people ageing with HIV that spans across public health, clinical spaces, and research spaces.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Tuberculosis (TB) is a chronic condition, with overlapping symptoms to those of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). There has been inconsistent evidence on whether TB is a predisposing factor for developing severe COVID-19. The aim of this report is to explore whether TB influences the severity of COVID-19.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Whole blood (WB) is increasingly being used for resuscitation of trauma patients. Although platelet-, red blood cell (RBC)- and plasma-specific parameters in cold-stored WB are well characterized, there has been limited investigation of biological response modifiers (BRMs), which may induce adverse reactions in recipients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality and function of RBC, platelets, plasma proteins, and BRMs in cold-stored WB during storage.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study aimed to synthesise evidence comparing the levels of cytokines in severe falciparum malaria with those in uncomplicated malaria from available systematic reviews and meta- analyses. Relevant individual meta-analyses were searched in PubMed, Ovid, and Google Scholar, following the selection criteria specified for this umbrella review. The AMSTAR-2 tool was applied to grade the quality of the meta-analyses identified.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe development of a non-invasive method for measuring the internal fluid behavior and dynamics of microchannels in microfluidics poses critical challenges to biological research, such as understanding the impact of wall shear stress (WSS) in the growth of a bone-forming osteoblast. This study used the General Defocus Particle Tracking (GDPT) technique to develop a non-invasive method for quantifying the fluid velocity profile and calculated the WSS within a microfluidic chip. The GDPT estimates particle motion in a three-dimensional space by analyzing two-dimensional images and video captured using a single camera.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhole blood donors who donate more frequency are more likely to develop iron deficiency, which could potentially affect the quality of the red blood cell (RBC) components during storage. Additional donor factors such as sex, age at donation, donor body mass index (BMI), as well as the manufacturing method could also affect RBC component quality, particularly haemolysis. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between donation frequency, donor ferritin levels and BMI status on an extensive set of RBC characteristics in vitro, during storage at 2-6 °C for 42 days.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA delicate balance between neural stem cell (NSC) quiescence and proliferation is important for adult neurogenesis and homeostasis. Small ubiquitin-related modifier (SUMO)-dependent post-translational modifications cause rapid and reversible changes in protein functions. However, the role of the SUMO pathway during NSC reactivation and brain development is not established.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: This study aimed to produce Odontoglossum ringspot virus (ORSV)-free Cymbidium orchid 'New True' plants from ORSV-infected mother plants by culturing their meristems and successively repeating subcultures of protocorm-like bodies (PLBs) derived from the meristems.
Results: Initially, ORSV was confirmed as the causative agent of viral symptoms in orchid leaves via reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis. Meristems from infected plants were cultured to generate PLBs, which in sequence were repeatedly subcultured up to four times.
Background: Gay and bisexual men (GBM) remain overrepresented among syphilis diagnoses in Australia and globally. The extent to which changes in sexual networks associated with HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and treatment as prevention (TasP) may have influenced syphilis transmission among GBM at the population-level is poorly understood. We describe trends in syphilis testing and incidence among GBM in Australia over eleven years spanning widespread uptake of HIV PrEP and TasP.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is frequently associated with non-cardia type gastric cancer, and it is designated as a group I carcinogen. This study aimed to systematically review and meta-analyze the evidence on the prevalence of CagA status in people with gastric disorders in the Indo-Pacific region, and to examine the association of CagA positive in the risk of gastric disorders.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFADP ribosylation factor-like GTPase 2 (Arl2) is crucial for controlling mitochondrial fusion and microtubule assembly in various organisms. Arl2 regulates the asymmetric division of neural stem cells in Drosophila via microtubule growth. However, the function of mammalian Arl2 during cortical development was unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRationale: Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common type of liver cancer, accounting for 70% to 85% of individuals with primary liver cancer. Tamoxifen has been evaluated in randomised clinical trials in people with hepatocellular cancer. The reported results have been inconsistent.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWorld J Gastrointest Surg
June 2024
Background: Data regarding the worldwide gastrointestinal surgery rates in patients with Crohn's disease (CD) remains limited.
Aim: To systematically review the global variation in the rates of surgery in CD.
Methods: A comprehensive search analysis was performed using multiple electronic databases from inception through July 1, 2020, to identify all full text, randomized controlled trials and cohort studies pertaining to gastrointestinal surgery rates in adult patients with CD.
Objectives: To examine relationships between visual function (ie, contrast sensitivity, visual field, color vision, and motion perception) and cognitive impairment, including any definition of "cognitive impairment," mild cognitive impairment, or dementia.
Design: Systematic review and meta-analyses.
Setting And Participants: Any settings; participants with (cases) or without (controls) cognitive impairment.
Objective: To identify groups more likely to be referred for HIV testing because of symptomatic presentation rather than as part of asymptomatic screening.
Design: A retrospective analysis of Australian National HIV Registry (NHR) surveillance data including sociodemographic and clinical data, as well as reasons for HIV test.
Methods: Using notification records from 2017 to 2022, we summarised reasons for testing leading to an HIV diagnosis.
Background: After the military coup in Myanmar in February 2021, the health system began to disintegrate when staff who called for the restoration of the democratic government resigned and fled to states controlled by ethnic minorities. The military retaliated by blocking the shipment of humanitarian aid, including vaccines, and attacked the ethnic states. After two years without vaccines for their children, parents urged a nurse-led civil society organization in an ethnic state to find a way to resume vaccination.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDomestic wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) play a vital role in limiting the release of microplastics (MP) into the environment. This study examined MP removal efficiency from five centralized and four decentralized domestic WWTPs in Bangkok, Thailand. MP concentrations in wastewater and sludge were comparable between centralized and decentralized WWTPs, despite these decentralized WWTPs serving smaller populations and having limited treatment capacity.
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