SERIAL HEALTH ASSESSMENT WITH STANDARDIZED EXTERNAL SCORING AND HEMOLYMPH EVALUATION IN THE AMERICAN HORSESHOE CRAB ().

Serial health assessment of a managed population of American horseshoe crabs (HSC; ) was performed. Twenty HSC were examined once a month for 7 mon; this included a physical exam with a standardized scoring sheet, HR, morphometrics, and hemolymph evaluation with hemocyte count, copper concentration, and biochemistry panel. The HSC in this population had varying levels of external lesions at enrollment.

Polycystic ovarian disease in aquarium-managed cownose rays Rhinoptera bonasus.

Significant knowledge gaps remain in our understanding of the reproductive physiology and diseases of elasmobranchs. The objective of this work is to describe the clinical, imaging, and pathologic findings associated with polycystic ovaries in cownose rays housed in public aquariums. Ten adult female cownose rays Rhinoptera bonasus housed in 4 public aquariums presented with variable nonspecific (lethargy, anorexia, cutaneous discoloration) or no clinical signs.

Ocular and Systemic Risk Factors for Disease Worsening Among Patients with NPDR: Post Hoc Analysis of the PANORAMA Trial.

Purpose: Identify baseline systemic and ocular characteristics associated with nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) worsening, and the impact of intravitreal aflibercept injection (IAI) on these associations.

Design: Post hoc analysis of PANORAMA.

Participants: Patients with moderately severe to severe NPDR enrolled in the prospective PANORAMA phase 3 trial.

Nitrogen accountancy in space agriculture.

Food production and pharmaceutical synthesis are posited as essential biotechnologies for facilitating human exploration beyond Earth. These technologies not only offer critical green space and food agency to astronauts but also promise to minimize mass and volume requirements through scalable, modular agriculture within closed-loop systems, offering an advantage over traditional bring-along strategies. Despite these benefits, the prevalent model for evaluating such systems exhibits significant limitations.

Trismus in cold-stunned Kemp's ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) and loggerhead (Caretta caretta) sea turtles.

Objective: To describe the presentation, clinical findings, diagnosis, treatment, and outcome of cases of trismus (lockjaw) in cold-stunned sea turtles.

Animals: 4 Kemp's ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) and 1 loggerhead (Caretta caretta) sea turtle.

Methods: Cold-stunned sea turtles that presented with difficulty or inability to open their jaw between 2009 and 2023 were included.

Isolation and characterization of a species for non-axenic growth-associated production of bio-polyesters from sustainable feedstocks.

Unlabelled: Biodegradable plastics are urgently needed to replace petroleum-derived polymeric materials and prevent their accumulation in the environment. To this end, we isolated and characterized a halophilic and alkaliphilic bacterium from the Great Salt Lake in Utah. The isolate was identified as a species and designated "CUBES01.

Intravitreal aflibercept 8 mg in diabetic macular oedema (PHOTON): 48-week results from a randomised, double-masked, non-inferiority, phase 2/3 trial.

Background: A high-dose formulation of intravitreal aflibercept (8 mg) could improve treatment outcomes in diabetic macular oedema (DMO) by requiring fewer injections than the standard comparator, aflibercept 2 mg. We report efficacy and safety results of aflibercept 8 mg versus 2 mg in patients with DMO.

Methods: PHOTON was a randomised, double-masked, non-inferiority, phase 2/3 trial performed at 138 hospitals and specialty retina clinics in seven countries.

Intravitreal aflibercept 8 mg in neovascular age-related macular degeneration (PULSAR): 48-week results from a randomised, double-masked, non-inferiority, phase 3 trial.

Background: Intravitreal aflibercept 8 mg could improve treatment outcomes and provide sustained disease control in patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD), with extended dosing compared with aflibercept 2 mg.

Methods: PULSAR is a phase 3, randomised, three-group, double-masked, non-inferiority, 96-week trial conducted across 223 sites worldwide. Adults with nAMD were randomised 1:1:1 to aflibercept 8 mg every 12 weeks (8q12), aflibercept 8 mg every 16 weeks (8q16), or aflibercept 2 mg every 8 weeks (2q8), following three initial monthly doses in all groups.

Domains of life sciences in spacefaring: what, where, and how to get involved.

The integration of biology and spacefaring has led to the development of three interrelated fields: Astrobiology, Bioastronautics, and Space Bioprocess Engineering. Astrobiology is concerned with the study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe, while Bioastronautics focuses on the effects of spaceflight on biological systems, including human physiology and psychology. Space Bioprocess Engineering, on the other hand, deals with the design, deployment, and management of biotechnology for human exploration.

Effect of High-Dose Intravitreal Aflibercept, 8 mg, in Patients With Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration: The Phase 2 CANDELA Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Aflibercept, 8 mg, may have greater therapeutic benefits compared with aflibercept, 2 mg, in patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD), including potentially improved outcomes and decreased treatment burden.

Objective: To assess safety and efficacy of aflibercept, 8 mg, in patients with nAMD.

Design, Setting, And Participants: The CANDELA trial was a phase 2, randomized, single-masked, open-label, 44-week clinical trial conducted in the US.

Radioactive contamination in feral dogs in the Chernobyl exclusion zone: Population body-burden survey and implications for human radiation exposure.

This report describes a two-year effort to survey the internal 137Cs and external β-emitter contamination present in the feral dog population near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (ChNPP) site, and to understand the potential for human radiation exposure from this contamination. This work was performed as an integral part of the radiation safety and control procedures of an animal welfare oriented trap-neuter-release (TNR) program. The measurement program focused on external contamination surveys using handheld β-sensitive probes, and internal contamination studies using a simple whole-body counter.

Microbial biomanufacturing for space-exploration-what to take and when to make.

As renewed interest in human space-exploration intensifies, a coherent and modernized strategy for mission design and planning has become increasingly crucial. Biotechnology has emerged as a promising approach to increase resilience, flexibility, and efficiency of missions, by virtue of its ability to effectively utilize in situ resources and reclaim resources from waste streams. Here we outline four primary mission-classes on Moon and Mars that drive a staged and accretive biomanufacturing strategy.

NALTREXONE AS A PROMISING TREATMENT FOR CLINICAL SIGNS OF LATERAL LINE DEPIGMENTATION IN PALETTE SURGEONFISH ().

Lateral line depigmentation (LLD) is a common condition in managed tropical saltwater fish, and treatment is somewhat elusive. Naltrexone, an opioid receptor antagonist, enhances epithelial cell replication, cytokine production, and angiogenesis to stimulate wound healing in mice. A treatment trial with 11 palette surgeonfish with LLD was performed.

Data-driven flow-map models for data-efficient discovery of dynamics and fast uncertainty quantification of biological and biochemical systems.

Computational models are increasingly used to investigate and predict the complex dynamics of biological and biochemical systems. Nevertheless, governing equations of a biochemical system may not be (fully) known, which would necessitate learning the system dynamics directly from, often limited and noisy, observed data. On the other hand, when expensive models are available, systematic and efficient quantification of the effects of model uncertainties on quantities of interest can be an arduous task.

Nodular and neoplastic skin lesions in an aquarium-managed group of Sabana Surinam toads Pipa parva.

Although skin disease is a common cause of morbidity and mortality in amphibians, published reports of integumentary conditions affecting skin-brooding anurans are extremely limited. This case series describes the clinical, macroscopic, and histopathologic features of nodular skin lesions in an aquarium-managed population of Sabana Surinam toads Pipa parva, a fully aquatic, skin-brooding species native to South America. The skin lesions represented an ongoing clinical concern in this group, affecting approximately 10-20% of animals throughout the study period, and were observed exclusively in females, suggesting an association with the females' specialized cutaneous reproductive anatomy.

Placing CF in the Center: Major Physicochemical Changes Upon a Minor Structural Alteration in Gem-Difunctional Compounds.

Fluorine atoms play an important role in all branches of chemistry and accordingly, it is very important to study their unique and varied effects systematically, in particular, the structure-physicochemical properties relationship. The present study describes exceptional physicochemical effects resulting from a H/F exchange at the methylene bridge of gem-difunctional compounds. The Δlog P values, that is, the change in lipophilicity, observed for the CH /CF replacement in various α,α-phenoxy- and thiophenoxy-esters/amides, diketones, benzodioxoles and more, fall in the range of 0.

INCIDENCE OF NEW DIABETIC MACULAR EDEMA IN FELLOW EYES OF PATIENTS IN THE VISTA AND VIVID STUDIES.

Purpose: To characterize diabetic macular edema (DME) incidence in fellow eyes of patients treated for DME in the study eye.

Methods: This post hoc analysis of VISTA/VIVID data evaluated fellow eyes without DME at baseline through Week 100. Diabetic macular edema presence in the fellow eye was inferred by investigator-reported DME adverse events and use of DME treatments.

Towards an extension of equivalent system mass for human exploration missions on Mars.

NASA mission systems proposals are often compared using an equivalent system mass (ESM) framework, wherein all elements of a technology to deliver an effect-its components, operations, and logistics of delivery-are converted to effective masses, which has a known cost scale in space operations. To date, ESM methods and the tools for system comparison largely fail to consider complexities stemming from multiple transit and operations stages, such as would be required to support a crewed mission to Mars, and thus do not account for different mass equivalency factors during each period and the inter-dependencies of the costs across the mission segments. Further, ESM does not account well for the differential reliabilities of the underlying technologies.

Functional outcomes of sustained improvement on Diabetic Retinopathy Severity Scale with intravitreal aflibercept in the VISTA and VIVID trials.

Aims: To assess time to, cumulative incidence of, and functional benefit of achieving sustained ≥2-step Diabetic Retinopathy Severity Scale (DRSS) improvement in diabetic macular oedema (DMO).

Methods: Post hoc analysis of VISTA/VIVID including eyes with DMO treated with intravitreal aflibercept injections (IAI), 2 mg q4 weeks (2q4, n = 250) or q8 weeks after 5 monthly doses (2q8, n = 249), or laser control (n = 249). Changes from baseline in best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and central subfield thickness (CST) were evaluated in sustained (≥2 consecutive visits) DRSS subgroups (≥1-step worsening, no change, ≥2-step improvement).

Evaluating the Cost of Pharmaceutical Purification for a Long-Duration Space Exploration Medical Foundry.

There are medical treatment vulnerabilities in longer-duration space missions present in the current International Space Station crew health care system with risks, arising from spaceflight-accelerated pharmaceutical degradation and resupply lag times. Bioregenerative life support systems may be a way to close this risk gap by leveraging resource utilization (ISRU) to perform pharmaceutical synthesis and purification. Recent literature has begun to consider biological ISRU using microbes and plants as the basis for pharmaceutical life support technologies.

Evaluation of Intravitreal Aflibercept for the Treatment of Severe Nonproliferative Diabetic Retinopathy: Results From the PANORAMA Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Proactive treatment of nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) reduces the risk of progression to vision-threatening complications.

Objective: To evaluate vascular endothelial growth factor blockade therapy with intravitreal aflibercept injections in eyes with severe NPDR without diabetic macular edema (DME).

Design, Setting, And Participants: The Study of the Efficacy and Safety of Intravitreal Aflibercept for the Improvement of Moderately Severe to Severe Nonproliferative Diabetic Retinopathy (PANORAMA) was a double-masked 100-week randomized clinical trial conducted in multiple centers worldwide.

Modulation of the H-Bond Basicity of Functional Groups by α-Fluorine-Containing Functions and its Implications for Lipophilicity and Bioisosterism.

Modulation of the H-bond basicity (p) of various functional groups (FGs) by attaching fluorine functions and its impact on lipophilicity and bioisosterism considerations are described. In general, H/F replacement at the α-position to H-bond acceptors leads to a decrease of the p value, resulting, in many cases, in a dramatic increase in the compounds' lipophilicity (log ). In the case of α-CFH, we found that these properties may also be affected by intramolecular H-bonds between CFH and the FG.

Molecular pharming to support human life on the moon, mars, and beyond.

Space missions have always assumed that the risk of spacecraft malfunction far outweighs the risk of human system failure. This assumption breaks down for longer duration exploration missions and exposes vulnerabilities in space medical systems. Space agencies can no longer reduce the majority of the human health and performance risks through crew members selection process and emergency re-supply or evacuation.