Publications by authors named "D'Souza D"

Tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) are organized immune cell aggregates that arise in chronic inflammatory conditions. In cancer, TLS are associated with better prognosis and enhanced response to immunotherapy, making these structures attractive therapeutic targets. However, the mechanisms regulating TLS formation and maintenance in cancer are incompletely understood.

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Objective: With robotic technology's rapid growth and integration, an urgent need to bridge the educational gap in thoracic surgical training has emerged. This document, a result of consensus among a group of experts in the practice and training of robotic surgery from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), aims to provide a framework for a standardized national robotic curriculum for thoracic surgery trainees.

Methods: The STS Task Force on Robotic Thoracic Surgery and Workforce on E-learning and Educational Innovation assembled an expert group with the input of the Thoracic Surgery Director's Association (TSDA).

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Foodborne bacteria like Escherichia coli threaten global food security, necessitating affordable, on-site detection methods, especially in resource-limited settings. This study optimized loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) integrated with peroxidase-mimicking G-quadruplex DNA structures (DNAzyme), termed DNAzyme-LAMP which was designed to incorporate two different catalytic DNAzymes per amplification unit, enabling colorimetric detection of E. coli in leafy vegetables and milk samples.

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Computational anatomical models have many applications in paediatric radiotherapy. Age-specific computational anatomical models were historically developed to represent average and/or healthy individuals, where cancer patients may present with anatomical variations caused by the disease and/or treatment effects. We developed RT-PAL, a library of computational age-specific voxelized anatomical models tailored to represent the paediatric radiotherapy population.

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Measuring the quality of life of an animal in a production system is difficult, time-consuming, and expensive. We tested the ability of both NIR and MIR spectroscopy, each combined with machine learning, to predict the prior exposure of pigs to long- and short-term life challenges when they are raised in an intensive system. Samples were obtained post-mortem from two locations in the prefrontal cortex.

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Background: Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a common medical condition that is associated with clinically significant sequelae, including postthrombotic syndrome (PTS). Anticoagulation alone remains the guideline-recommended treatment for many patients with iliofemoral DVT. Recent technological advances have led to an increase in the use of mechanical thrombectomy for DVT, but mechanical thrombectomy-based procedures have not yet been compared with standard-of-care anticoagulation therapy in randomized studies.

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Article Synopsis
  • Sleep plays a crucial role in heart health, especially after a heart attack (myocardial infarction), by influencing inflammatory responses and healing processes.
  • After a heart attack, certain immune cells (monocytes) are recruited to the brain to promote sleep, which helps reduce harmful stress on the heart and supports recovery.
  • Disruption of sleep can worsen heart function and increase the risk of further cardiovascular issues, as poor sleep can reprogram immune cells in a way that enhances inflammation and hinders the healing process.
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Gastrointestinal (GI) B cells and plasma cells (PCs) are critical to mucosal homeostasis and the host response to HIV-1 infection. Here, high-resolution mapping of human B cells and PCs sampled from the colon and ileum during both viremic and suppressed HIV-1 infection identified a reduction in germinal center (GC) B cells and follicular dendritic cells (FDCs) during HIV-1 viremia. Immunoglobulin A-positive (IgA) PCs are the major cellular output of intestinal GCs and were significantly reduced during viremic HIV-1 infection.

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  • The study investigated 69 COVID-19 patients with mucormycosis, focusing on their clinical presentation, risk factors, complications, and in-hospital results over seven months from March to September 2021.
  • The majority of patients were male, around 52.8 years old, with most developing mucormycosis within 30 days of COVID-19; common symptoms included facial pain and vision loss, and diabetes was prevalent in 98.6% of cases.
  • The overall mortality rate was 26.1%, with severe cases requiring intensive care linked to factors such as chronic kidney disease and current COVID-19 infection, indicating a heightened risk for these patients.
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Conventional UV-C (254 nm) inactivation technologies have limitations and potential operator-safety risk. To overcome these disadvantages, novel UV-C light-emitting diodes (LED) are developed and investigated for their performance. This study aimed to determine the inactivation of human norovirus (HuNoV) surrogates, Tulane virus (TV), and feline calicivirus (FCV-F9), by UV-C (254 nm) in comparison to UV-C LED (279 nm) in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and coconut water (CW).

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Food contact surfaces can harbor and transmit pathogens leading to outbreaks. Decontamination strategies that are user- and environmentally-friendly without toxic by-product formation are needed. Novel UV-C light-emitting diode (LED) technologies are being explored to deliver the required dose to inactivate viruses in food-processing environments.

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Objective: Chat-based artificial intelligence programs like ChatGPT are reimagining how patients seek information. This study aims to evaluate the quality and accuracy of ChatGPT-generated answers to common patient questions about lung cancer surgery.

Methods: A 30-question survey of patient questions about lung cancer surgery was posed to ChatGPT in July 2023.

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Background: Metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGlu5) dysregulation has been implicated in the pathophysiology of trauma-related psychopathology, and there are direct interactions between the endocannabinoid and glutamatergic systems. However, relationships between cannabis use (CU) and mGlu5 have not been directly investigated in trauma-related psychopathology.

Methods: Using positron emission tomography with [18F]FPEB, we examined relationships between CU status and mGlu5 availability in vivo in a cross-diagnostic sample of individuals with trauma-related psychopathology (n = 55).

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Enhancing stress resilience through the early life period in pigs could potentially improve pork quality. It was hypothesised that pigs receiving maternal contact or positive human contact during lactation would have improved carcass and pork quality. Seventy-nine mixed-sex pigs were selected from a 2 × 2 factorial randomised block design for treatments maternal contact (MC+) / reduced maternal contact (MC-); and positive human contact (HC+) / control (HC-).

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Article Synopsis
  • Aging increases the risk of cancer by affecting how the immune system works, especially in lung tumors.
  • Older immune cells lead to the buildup of certain cells that produce IL-1⍺, which makes cancer grow faster.
  • By blocking IL-1R1 signaling early on, scientists found they could slow down cancer growth in the lungs, colon, and pancreas, and learned how aging is linked to worse cancer outcomes in humans.
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The Maternity Ring was developed as a free farrowing alternative to crates that preserved space whilst providing the sow with unrestricted movement. This experiment aimed to apply the Five Domains model to assess sow welfare in the Maternity Ring in comparison with the farrowing crate. Eighty-eight sows were housed in a farrowing crate (FC) and 83 in a Maternity Ring (MR), and measures collected focussed on nutrition, environment, health, behaviour, and mental state outcomes.

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Background: In the early 2000s, a significant shortage of cardiothoracic surgeons was predicted. We sought to evaluate our specialty's progress and to update the predicted needs of cardiothoracic surgeons in the coming decades.

Methods: To assess the supply of cardiothoracic surgeons, the evolution of cardiothoracic surgery training was reviewed.

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Background And Purpose: Anemia is common in locally advanced cervical cancer. Clinical practice varies greatly for management of anemia during brachytherapy, with some centres providing red cell transfusion to increase hemoglobin levels above 100 g/L.

Materials And Methods: This is a retrospective observational cohort study of adult patients with cervical cancer treated with brachytherapy at two academic hospitals.

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In this study, pigs from 3 supply chains were slaughtered in an Australian summer and winter (n = 20 for each supply chain). The pigs were from 2 sexes (female and castrated male) and 2 carcass weight groups (high: 95.0 to 100.

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Pork eating quality is affected by various factors. In this study, Longissimus thoracis et lumborum (LTL) and Semimembranosus (SM) muscles from seven genetic lines (PM-LR - Pure maternal, Landrace-type; PM-LW - Pure maternal, Large White-type; PM-D - Pure maternal, Duroc-type; PT-D - Pure terminal, Duroc-type; PT-LW - Pure terminal, Large White-type; PT-LR - Pure Terminal, Landrace-type; Comp-P × LW × D - Composite Terminal - Pietran × Large white × Duroc) were analyzed for pH, intramuscular fat (IMF) content, and collagen content and solubility. A consumer sensory test using check-all-that-apply (CATA) and biometric approaches was also conducted.

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Nature is dynamic and interdependent. Yet we typically study and understand it as a hierarchy of independent static things (objects, factors, capacities, traits, attributes) with well-defined boundaries. Hence, since Plato, the dominant research practice has been to 'carve Nature at its joints' (Phaedrus 265e), rooted in the view that the world comes to us pre-divided - into static forms or essences - and that the goal of science is to simply discover (identify and classify) them.

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