Prospective observational study on the accuracy of predictors of high-grade atrioventricular conduction block after transcatheter aortic valve implantation (CONDUCT-TAVI): study protocol, background and significance.

Introduction: Aortic stenosis is the most common cardiac valve pathology worldwide and has a mortality rate of over 50% at 5 years if left untreated. Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is a minimally invasive and highly effective alternative treatment option to open-heart surgery. High-grade atrioventricular conduction block (HGAVB) is one of the most common complications after TAVI and requires a permanent pacemaker.

Deep tubewell use is associated with increased household microbial contamination in rural Bangladesh: Results from a prospective cohort study among households in rural Bangladesh.

Deep tubewells are important sources of arsenic mitigation in rural Bangladesh. Compared to commonly available shallow tubewells, deep tubewells tap into deeper low-arsenic aquifers and greatly reduce exposure to arsenic in drinking-water. However, benefits from these more distant and expensive sources may be compromised by higher levels of microbial contamination at point-of-use (POU).

Phage therapy in a lung transplant recipient with cystic fibrosis infected with multidrug-resistant Burkholderia multivorans.

Background: There is increased interest in bacteriophage (phage) therapy to treat infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. A lung transplant recipient with cystic fibrosis and Burkholderia multivorans infection was treated with inhaled phage therapy for 7 days before she died.

Methods: Phages were given via nebulization through the mechanical ventilation circuit.

Factors Influencing COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy among Patients with Serious Chronic Illnesses during the Initial Australian Vaccine Rollout: A Multi-Centre Qualitative Analysis Using the Health Belief Model.

: People with chronic illnesses have increased morbidity and mortality associated with COVID-19 infection. The influence of a person's serious and/or comorbid chronic illness on COVID-19 vaccine uptake is not well understood. : To undertake an in-depth exploration of factors influencing COVID-19 vaccine uptake among those with various serious and/or chronic diseases in the Australian context, using secondary data analysis of a survey study.

A scoping review of echocardiographic and lung ultrasound biomarkers of bronchopulmonary dysplasia in preterm infants.

Despite recent improvements in neonatal care, moderate to severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is still associated with high mortality and with an increased risk of developing pulmonary hypertension (PH). This scoping review provides an updated overview of echocardiographic and lung ultrasound biomarkers associated with BPD and PH, and the parameters that may prognosticate their development and severity, which could be clinically helpful to undertake preventive strategies. A literature search for published clinical studies was conducted in PubMed using MeSH terms, free-text words, and their combinations obtained through appropriate Boolean operators.

Sodium/(calcium + potassium) exchanger NCKX4 optimizes KLK4 activity in the enamel matrix microenvironment to regulate ECM modeling.

Enamel development is a process in which extracellular matrix models from a soft proteinaceous matrix to the most mineralized tissue in vertebrates. Patients with mutant , a gene encoding a K-dependent Na/Ca-exchanger, develop a hypomineralized and hypomature enamel. How NCKX4 regulates enamel protein removal to achieve an almost protein-free enamel is unknown.

Detection of Hepatic Drug Metabolite-Specific T-Cell Responses Using a Human Hepatocyte, Immune Cell Coculture System.

Drug-responsive T-cells are activated with the parent compound or metabolites, often via different pathways (pharmacological interaction and hapten). An obstacle to the investigation of drug hypersensitivity is the scarcity of reactive metabolites for functional studies and the absence of coculture systems to generate metabolites in situ. Thus, the aim of this study was to utilize dapsone metabolite-responsive T-cells from hypersensitive patients, alongside primary human hepatocytes to drive metabolite formation, and subsequent drug-specific T-cell responses.

From doctors to ancillary staff: Regional and metropolitan cancer workforce perceptions and distress resulting from COVID-19 pandemic adaptations.

Introduction: The declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in necessary and rapid changes to health service delivery. In the Australian context, it has been broadly identified that these impacts have been felt by health care workers (HCW) providing care. We aimed to capture oncology HCW perceptions of support, stress, personal ability to meet needs and institutional preparedness across longitudinal periods of COVID-19 response in the early stages of the pandemic.

The core ionization energies calculated by delta SCF and Slater's transition state theory.

The core ionization energies of the second-period and third-period elements are studied by ΔSCF and Slater's transition state (STS) theory by using Hartree-Fock (HF) and Kohn-Sham (KS) approximations. Electron correlation increases the estimated core ionization energies, while the self-interaction error (SIE) decreases them, especially for the third-period elements and is a more significant factor. As a result, while HF lacks electron correlation, it is free of SIE and reasonably predicts the core ionization energies.

Ethnicity, Language, and HIV Screening in Older Adult Safety-Net Patients.

Introduction: HIV screening should occur for all adults at least once by age 65 years. Older adults have low screening rates. Latinos, with historically low screening rates, have worse HIV outcomes than non-Hispanic White patients.

Effect of vaccine booster, vaccine type, and hybrid immunity on humoral and cellular immunity against SARS-CoV-2 ancestral strain and Omicron variant sublineages BA.2 and BA.5 among older adults with comorbidities: a cross sectional study.

Background: Vaccination reduces COVID-19-related hospitalization among older adults. However, how SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccine regimens affect vaccine-elicited immunity remain unclear.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study recruiting adults aged ≥70 years with comorbidities in Hong Kong.

"The SUMMIT Team is All I Got": perspectives of medically and socially complex patients seen in intensive primary care.

Context: There is great interest in intensive primary care (IPC) interventions to address the needs of medically and socially complex patients, however it is unknown how these interventions impact patient experience. Objective: Describe the experience of patients on the Streamlined Unified Meaningfully Managed Interdisciplinary Team (SUMMIT), an IPC for patients with complex needs at a federally qualified health center serving patients with high rates of homelessness. Study Design: Qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with 25 patients enrolled in the SUMMIT intervention.

Enhancing Antibiotics Efficacy by Combination of Kuraridin and Epicatechin Gallate with Antimicrobials against Methicillin-Resistant .

Background: is an opportunistic pathogen and a major cause of nosocomial and community-acquired infections. The alarming rise in Methicillin-resistant (MRSA) infection worldwide and the emergence of vancomycin-resistant MRSA strains have created an urgent need to identify new and alternative treatment options. Triple combinations of antimicrobials with different antimicrobial mechanisms may be a good choice to overcome antimicrobial resistance.

Experimental-theoretical study of laccase as a detoxifier of aflatoxins.

We investigate laccase-mediated detoxification of aflatoxins, fungal carcinogenic food contaminants. Our experimental comparison between two aflatoxins with similar structures (AFB and AFG) shows significant differences in laccase-mediated detoxification. A multi-scale modeling approach (Docking, Molecular Dynamics, and Density Functional Theory) identifies the highly substrate-specific changes required to improve laccase detoxifying performance.

Diversity and Distribution of Fiddler Crabs (Crustacea: Brachyura: Ocypodidae) in Vietnam.

Based on recently collected material and records in the literature, 14 species of fiddler crabs (Crustacea: Ocypodidae: Gelasiminae) are reported from Vietnam. DNA barcoding analyses using the mitochondrial gene (cytochrome oxidase subunit I) was performed to identify examined materials and their precise distributional range. Thirteen species-level taxa are identified and, with the exception of and , have minimum interspcific divergences of at least 7.

The prognostic impacts of frailty on clinical and patient-reported outcomes in patients undergoing coronary artery or valvular surgeries/procedures: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Frailty is emerging as an important prognostic indicator for patients undergoing cardiac surgeries/procedures. We sought to evaluate the prognostic and differential impacts of frailty on patients undergoing coronary artery or valvular surgical procedures of different levels of invasiveness, and to explore the differential predictability of various frailty measurement models.

Methods: Eight databases were searched for prospective cohort studies that have adopted validated measure(s) of frailty and reported clinical, healthcare service utilization, or patient-reported outcomes in patients undergoing coronary artery or valvular surgeries/procedures.

Risk of Liver Fibrosis Is Associated with More Severe Strokes, Increased Complications with Thrombolysis, and Mortality.

The Fibrosis (FIB)-4 index is an established non-invasive test to detect liver fibrosis. Liver fibrosis is postulated to be one of the predictors of the risk of symptomatic Intracranial Haemorrhage (SICH) after intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (IV tPA) therapy, the mainstay of treatment following acute ischemic stroke (AIS). However, SICH is a feared complication of thrombolytic therapy.

Impact of atrial fibrillation on the treatment effect of bridging thrombolysis in ischemic stroke patients undergoing endovascular thrombectomy: a multicenter international cohort study.

Background: The role of bridging intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) before endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) in the treatment of acute ischemic stroke (AIS) remains debatable. Atrial fibrillation (AF) associated strokes may be associated with reduced treatment effect from IVT. This study compares the effect of bridging IVT in AF and non-AF patients.

Collision-System and Beam-Energy Dependence of Anisotropic Flow Fluctuations.

Elliptic flow measurements from two-, four-, and six-particle correlations are used to investigate flow fluctuations in collisions of U+U at sqrt[s_{NN}]=193  GeV, Cu+Au at sqrt[s_{NN}]=200  GeV and Au+Au spanning the range sqrt[s_{NN}]=11.5-200  GeV. The measurements show a strong dependence of the flow fluctuations on collision centrality, a modest dependence on system size, and very little if any, dependence on particle species and beam energy.