Bioconversion of aflatoxin-contaminated groundnut press cake by larvae of black soldier fly Hermetia illucens results in a complete mass balance for aflatoxin B.

Groundnuts are considered as one of the most important cultivated food crops globally. Groundnuts are used for vegetable oil production, which generate a variety of by-products, such as peanut press cake (PPC). Groundnuts are sensitive to infection by aflatoxigenic fungi.

Challenges in the Development and Evaluation of Pediatric Heart Valve Technologies.

Background: In October 2022, the Heart Valve Collaboratory and Food and Drug Administration convened a global multidisciplinary workshop to address the unmet clinical need to promote and accelerate the development of pediatric-specific heart valve technologies.

Methods: The Pediatric Heart Valve Global Multidisciplinary Workshop was convened in October 2022. Key stakeholders, including expert clinicians in pediatric cardiology and cardiac surgery, valve manufacturers, engineers and scientists were assembled to review the current state-of-the-art, discuss unique challenges in the pre-and post-market evaluation of pediatric valve therapies, and highlight emerging technologies that show potential to address some of the key unmet needs of children with valve disease.

Nucleophilic Amination of Aryl Halides with an Azanide Surrogate.

We report the development of an azanide (NH) surrogate which enables the facile conversion of electron-deficient (hetero)aryl halides into primary N-aryl amines under transition-metal-free conditions. The designed amidine reagent is easy to prepare, bench stable, and undergoes facile N-arylation under basic conditions at 40 °C. Intermediate N-aryl amidines are readily cleaved to form N-aryl amines in situ through hydrolysis or base-promoted elimination.

Ferroptosis Inhibition Combats Metabolic Derangements and Improves Cardiac Function in Pulmonary Artery Banded Pigs.

Right heart failure (RHF) is a leading cause of mortality in multiple cardiovascular diseases and preclinical and human data suggest impaired metabolism is a significant contributor to right-sided cardiac dysfunction. Ferroptosis is a nonapopotic form of cell death driven by impaired metabolism. Rodent data suggests ferroptosis inhibition can restore mitochondrial electron transport chain function and enhance cardiac contractility in left heart failure models, but the effects of ferroptosis inhibition in translational large animal models of RHF are unknown.

Evaluation of an engineered vascular graft exhibiting somatic growth in lambs to model repair of absent pulmonary artery branch.

Background: Growth is the holy grail of tissue implants in pediatrics. No vascular graft currently in use for surgical repairs of congenital heart defects has somatic growth capacity.

Methods: Biologically-engineered grafts (6 mm) grown from donor ovine fibroblasts in a sacrificial fibrin gel were implanted into the left pulmonary branch of 3-month old lambs for 3, 6, and 18 months.

"My Cross to Bear": Mothering in the Context of Intimate Partner Violence Among Pregnant Women in Mexico.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy negatively affects both maternal and infant health, yet gaps remain in understanding factors that maintain violence and/or promote resilience within the context of mothering. Nine focus groups were conducted with pregnant and/or IPV-exposed women ( 17) and service providers ( =  26) working with these women in Nuevo León, Mexico. Thematic analysis of the focus group data revealed the detrimental impact of cultural norms that prioritize the relationship with women's partners, marriage, and family above women's dignity.

Ethics-testing an eating disorder recovery memoir: a pre-publication experiment.

Background: Narratives (including memoirs and novels) about eating disorders (EDs) are typically published with the intention to benefit readers, but survey evidence suggests that reading such narratives with an active ED may more often be harmful than helpful. To reduce the probability of inadvertent harm and learn more about how narrative reading and EDs interact, a pre-publication study was designed to determine whether or not a recovery memoir should be published.

Methods: 64 participants with a self-reported ED read either the experimental text (The Hungry Anorexic [HA]) or a control text (Ten Zen Questions [TZ]) over a roughly two-week period.

Non-immune factors cause prolonged myofibroblast phenotype in implanted synthetic heart valve scaffolds.

The clinical application of heart valve scaffolds is hindered by complications associated with the activation of valvular interstitial cell-like (VIC-like) cells and their transdifferentiation into myofibroblasts. This study aimed to examine several molecular pathway(s) that may trigger the overactive myofibroblast phenotypes in the implanted scaffolds. So, we investigated the influence of three molecular pathways - macrophage-induced inflammation, the TGF-β1-SMAD2, and WNT/β-catenin β on VIC-like cells during tissue engineering of heart valve scaffolds.

Ethics and Academic Discourse, Scientific Integrity, Uncertainty, and Disinformation in Medicine: An American College of Physicians Position Paper.

Respect for the scientific process and a diversity of views; open discourse and debate based on principles of ethics, best available evidence, and scientific inquiry and integrity; and an understanding of evidence gaps and uncertainty and how to communicate about them are important values in the advancement of science and the practice of medicine. Physicians often must make decisions about their recommendations to patients in the face of scarce or conflicting data. Are these characteristics of medicine and science widely understood and effectively communicated among members of the profession and to patients and the public? Issues of scientific integrity are longstanding, but COVID-19 brought them to the forefront, in an environment that was sometimes characterized by communication missteps as guidance came and went-or changed-quickly.

BONE Break: A Hot Debrief Tool to Reduce Second Victim Syndrome for Nurses.

The pandemic has intensified clinicians' workloads, leading to an increased incidence of adverse events and subsequent second victim syndrome, with almost half of health care clinicians experiencing its symptoms. However, following a literature review, no tools were found that addressed second victim syndrome in nurses. To address these issues and the gap in the literature, the authors developed the BONE Break hot debriefing tool.

Multimodal preoperative imaging for transcatheter mitral valve replacement in the domestic sheep model.

Preclinical in vivo evaluation is an essential step in the progression of new cardiac devices into patient use, with studies predominantly performed in the domestic sheep model. A growing area of interest in cardiac device development is transcatheter mitral valve replacement (TMVR). Clinically, multimodal imaging, or computed tomography (CT) and echocardiography (echo) are used extensively to preoperatively determine mitral valve morphology prior to an intervention, but there is no description on how these modalities can be implemented to support preclinical studies.

A machine learning algorithm improves the diagnostic accuracy of the histologic component of antibody mediated rejection (AMR-H) in cardiac transplant endomyocardial biopsies.

Background: Pathologic antibody mediated rejection (pAMR) remains a major driver of graft failure in cardiac transplant patients. The endomyocardial biopsy remains the primary diagnostic tool but presents with challenges, particularly in distinguishing the histologic component (pAMR-H) defined by 1) intravascular macrophage accumulation in capillaries and 2) activated endothelial cells that expand the cytoplasm to narrow or occlude the vascular lumen. Frequently, pAMR-H is difficult to distinguish from acute cellular rejection (ACR) and healing injury.

Evidence-Based Storytelling for a Strategic Roadmap to Promote Cancer Prevention via Adolescent HPV Vaccination in Northern New England.

Vaccination rates for the human papillomavirus (HPV) among rural youth in northern New England lag those of more urbanized areas. Reasons include a lack of available medical offices, time constraints, perceptions of vaccines and HPV, and, to a smaller degree, delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We have a responsibility to increase vaccinations in these communities.

Child Maltreatment, Adult Trauma, and Mental Health Symptoms Among Women Veterans: A Scoping Review of Published Quantitative Research.

The objective of this scoping review was to describe and synthesize the measures, methods, and key findings of published quantitative research examining the influence of child maltreatment (i.e., abuse and/or neglect) and adult trauma exposure on mental health symptoms among women Veterans.

The role of mental health and protective factors in student academic persistence and retention during a global crisis.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated challenges for millions of students globally, leading to enrollment cliff. This study addresses the existing research gap by investigating the influence of students' mental health and various protective factors (i.e.

Visual monitoring of biocatalytic processes using small molecular fluorescent probes: strategies-mechanisms-applications.

Real-time monitoring of biocatalytic-based processes is significantly improved and simplified when they can be visualized. Visual monitoring can be achieved by integrating a fluorescent unit with the biocatalyst. Herein, we outline the design strategies of fluorescent probes for monitoring biocatalysis: (1) probes for monitoring biocatalytic transfer: γ-glutamine is linked to the fluorophore as both a recognition group and for intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) inhibition; the probe is initially in an off state and is activated the transfer of the γ-glutamine group and the release of the free amino group, which results in restoration of the "Donor-π-Acceptor" (D-π-A) system and fluorescence recovery.

Does Surgeon Compensation Differ by Implant Choice for the Treatment of Femoral Neck Fractures?

The objective of this study was to determine if physicians are compensated equally for the treatment of femoral neck fractures based on fixation method in a propensity score matched cohort of patients. The American College of Surgeons' National Surgical Quality Improvement Project (ACS NSQIP) database was queried for patients undergoing open reduction internal fixation (ORIF), hemiarthroplasty (HA), and total hip arthroplasty (THA) for femoral neck fractures. Exact matching was used to account for differences in patient-specific variables and underlying medical comorbidities.

The diagnosis of asbestosis in the 21 century: a clinicopathological correlation of 102 cases.

Asbestosis, defined as diffuse pulmonary fibrosis caused by inhalation of asbestos fibers, occurs after heavy exposures to asbestos dust over several decades. Because workplace exposures have been significantly curtailed since the banning of asbestos in insulation products, we were interested in examining the clinicopathological characteristics of cases diagnosed in the 21 century. The consultation files of one of the authors (VLR) were reviewed for cases of asbestosis diagnosed since 1/1/2001.