Meta-analytic connectivity perturbation analysis (MACPA): a new method for enhanced precision in fMRI connectivity analysis.

Co-activation of distinct brain areas provides a valuable measure of functional interaction, or connectivity, between them. One well-validated way to investigate the co-activation patterns of a precise area is meta-analytic connectivity modeling (MACM), which performs a seed-based meta-analysis on task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (task-fMRI) data. While MACM stands as a powerful automated tool for constructing robust models of whole-brain human functional connectivity, its inherent limitation lies in its inability to capture the distinct interrelationships among multiple brain regions.

Differential vegfc expression dictates lymphatic response during zebrafish heart development and regeneration.

Vascular endothelial growth factor C (Vegfc) is crucial for lymphatic and blood vessel development, yet its cellular sources and specific functions in heart development remain unclear. To address this, we created a vegfc reporter and an inducible overexpression line in zebrafish. We found vegfc expression in large coronary arteries, circulating thrombocytes, cardiac adipocytes, and outflow tract smooth muscle cells.

From gut to brain: unveiling probiotic effects through a neuroimaging perspective-A systematic review of randomized controlled trials.

The gut-brain axis, a bidirectional communication network between the gastrointestinal system and the brain, significantly influences mental health and behavior. Probiotics, live microorganisms conferring health benefits, have garnered attention for their potential to modulate this axis. However, their effects on brain function through gut microbiota modulation remain controversial.

Enhancing Comprehensive Assessments in Chronic Heart Failure Caused by Ischemic Heart Disease: The Diagnostic Utility of Holter ECG Parameters.

: Chronic heart failure (CHF) caused by ischemic heart disease (IHD) is the leading cause of death worldwide and presents significant health challenges. Effective management of IHD requires prevention, early detection, and treatment to improve patient outcomes. This study aims to expand the diagnostic utility of various 24 h Holter ECG parameters, such as T-wave alternans (TWA), late ventricular potentials (LVPs), and heart rate variability (HRV) in patients with CHF caused by IHD.

Oligoarginine peptide structure and its effect on cell penetration in ocular drug delivery.

Oligoarginine cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) are short peptides that can enhance drug delivery into cells and are of particular interest in ocular topical formulations for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) treatments. The length and structural characteristics of these peptides are considered crucial for drug delivery. This study investigates how oligoarginine length (R) affects their penetration mechanism, drug delivery capabilities, and antimicrobial properties, providing insights into their potential roles in AMD treatment delivery.

Local functional connectivity abnormalities in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease: A meta-analytic investigation using minimum Bayes factor activation likelihood estimation.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging research employing regional homogeneity (ReHo) analysis has uncovered aberrant local brain connectivity in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) in comparison with healthy controls. However, the precise localization, extent, and possible overlap of these aberrations are still not fully understood. To bridge this gap, we applied a novel meta-analytic and Bayesian method (minimum Bayes Factor Activation Likelihood Estimation, mBF-ALE) for a systematic exploration of local functional connectivity alterations in MCI and AD brains.

Disentangling the role of gray matter volume and concentration in autism spectrum disorder: A meta-analytic investigation of 25 years of voxel-based morphometry research.

Despite over two decades of neuroimaging research, a unanimous definition of the pattern of structural variation associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has yet to be found. One potential impeding issue could be the sometimes ambiguous use of measurements of variations in gray matter volume (GMV) or gray matter concentration (GMC). In fact, while both can be calculated using voxel-based morphometry analysis, these may reflect different underlying pathological mechanisms.

Programmed Cell Death Reversal: Polyamines, Effectors of the U-Turn from the Program of Death in L.

This review describes a 50-year-long research study on the characteristics of L. tuber dormancy, its natural release and programmed cell death (PCD), as well as on the ability to change the PCD so as to return the tuber to a life program. The experimentation on the tuber over the years is due to its particular properties of being naturally deficient in polyamines (PAs) during dormancy and of immediately reacting to transplants by growing and synthesizing PAs.

Test performance and clinical utility of expanded non-invasive prenatal test: Experience on 71,883 unselected routine cases from one single center.

Objective: The balance between benefits and risks of discordant outcomes makes the Genome-Wide Non-Invasive Prenatal Test (GW-NIPT) controversial. This study aims to evaluate performance and clinical utility in a wide cohort of unselected clinical cases from a single center when a standardized protocol is applied and integrated with a secondary algorithm for data interpretation.

Method: In 2 years, over 70,000 pregnant patients underwent GW-NIPT for fetal common trisomies, sex chromosome aneuploidies, rare autosomal aneuploidies, segmental abnormalities (CNVs ≥ 7 Mb) and microdeletions (CNVs < 7 Mb).

Insights into the Novel Cardiac Biomarker in Acute Heart Failure: Mybp-C.

(1) Background: Given its high cardiac specificity and its capacity to directly assess the cardiac function, cardiac myosin-binding protein (MyBP-C) is a promising biomarker in patients with acute heart failure (AHF). The aim of our study was to investigate the clinical utility of this novel marker for diagnosis and short-term prognosis in subjects with AHF. (2) Methods: We measured plasma levels of MyBP-C at admission in 49 subjects (27 patients admitted with AHF and 22 controls).

The Great Gobi A Strictly Protected Area: Characterization of Soil Bacterial Communities from Four Oases.

Understanding how microbial communities survive in extreme environmental pressure is critical for interpreting ecological patterns and microbial diversity. Great Gobi A Strictly Protected Area represents an intriguing model for studying the bacterial community since it is a protected and intact wild area of the Mongolian desert. In this work, the composition of a bacterial community of the soil from four oases was characterized by extracting total DNA and sequencing through the Illumina NovaSeq platform.

Harmony in Chaos: Deciphering the Influence of Ischemic Cardiomyopathy and Non-Cardiac Comorbidities on Holter ECG Parameters in Chronic Heart Failure Patients: A Pilot Study.

: In the landscape of heart failure, non-cardiac comorbidities represent a formidable challenge, imparting adverse prognostic implications. Holter ECG monitoring assumes a supplementary role in delineating myocardial susceptibility and autonomic nervous system dynamics. This study aims to explore the potential correlation between Holter ECG parameters and comorbidities in individuals with ischemic cardiomyopathy experiencing heart failure (HF), with a particular focus on the primary utility of these parameters as prognostic indicators.

Re-learning mental representation of walking after a brain lesion. Effects of a cognitive-motor training with a robotic orthosis.

Introduction: Stroke-related deficits often include motor impairments and gait dysfunction, leading to a limitation of social activities and consequently affecting the quality of life of stroke survivors. Neurorehabilitation takes advantage of the contribution of different techniques in order to achieve more benefits for patients. Robotic devices help to improve the outcomes of physical rehabilitation.

[Evaluation of a referral protocol to primary health care for patients eligible for health service access points following hospitalization].

Introduction: PASS is a hospital care unit that provides access to health care for precarious persons and supports them as soon as they have obtained primary health care insurance. No details of this support had previously been described. A Hospital-to-Community protocol for referral to the public health system has been developed at the adult PASS unit of the Marseille public hospitals (AP-HM).

Employing Genome Mining to Unveil a Potential Contribution of Endophytic Bacteria to Antimicrobial Compounds in the L. Essential Oil.

Essential oils (EOs) from medicinal plants have long been used in traditional medicine for their widely known antimicrobial properties and represent a promising reservoir of bioactive compounds against multidrug-resistant pathogens. Endophytes may contribute to the yield and composition of EOs, representing a useful tool for biotechnological applications. In this work, we investigated the genomic basis of this potential contribution.

Could Endothelin-1 Be a Promising Neurohormonal Biomarker in Acute Heart Failure?

Acute heart failure (AHF) is a life-threatening condition with high morbidity and mortality. Even though this pathology has been extensively researched, there are still challenges in establishing an accurate and early diagnosis, determining the long- and short-term prognosis and choosing a targeted therapeutic strategy. The use of reliable biomarkers to support clinical judgment has been shown to improve the management of AHF patients.

Acute Myocardial Infarction in Patients with Hereditary Thrombophilia-A Focus on Factor V Leiden and Prothrombin G20210A.

Factor V (FV) Leiden and prothrombin G20210A are the most common hereditary thrombophilias. While their role in venous thromboembolism is well known, there are still uncertainties regarding their relationship with arterial thrombotic events, especially coronary ones. Our research, based on an in-depth analysis of the available literature, provides up-to-date information on the relationship between FV Leiden and prothrombin G20210A and acute myocardial infarction.

Tomato Biodiversity and Drought Tolerance: A Multilevel Review.

Ongoing global climate change suggests that crops will be exposed to environmental stresses that may affect their productivity, leading to possible global food shortages. Among these stresses, drought is the most important contributor to yield loss in global agriculture. Drought stress negatively affects various physiological, genetic, biochemical, and morphological characteristics of plants.

Mimicking the last step of gene elongation: hints from the bacterial hisF gene.

Gene elongation consists in an in-tandem duplication of a gene and divergence and fusion of the two copies, resulting in a gene constituted by two divergent paralogous modules. Many present-day proteins show internal repeats of amino acid sequences, generated by gene elongation events; however, gene elongation is still a poorly studied evolutionary molecular mechanism. The most documented case is that of the histidine biosynthetic genes hisA and hisF, which derive from the gene elongation of an ancestral gene half the size of the extant ones.

T-Wave Analysis on the 24 h Holter ECG Monitoring as a Predictive Assessment of Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events in Patients with Myocardial Infarction: A Literature Review and Future Perspectives.

Myocardial ischemia is a pathophysiological state characterized by inadequate perfusion of the myocardium, resulting in an imbalance between myocardial oxygen demand and supply. It is most commonly caused by coronary artery disease, in which atherosclerotic plaques lead to luminal narrowing and reduced blood flow to the heart. Myocardial ischemia can manifest as angina pectoris or silent myocardial ischemia and can progress to myocardial infarction or heart failure if left untreated.

Cardiac Reverse Remodeling in Ischemic Heart Disease with Novel Therapies for Heart Failure with Reduced Ejection Fraction.

Despite the improvements in the treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD) and acute myocardial infarction (MI) over the past 20 years, ischemic heart disease (IHD) continues to be the most common cause of heart failure (HF). In clinical trials, over 70% of patients diagnosed with HF had IHD as the underlying cause. Furthermore, IHD predicts a worse outcome for patients with HF, leading to a substantial increase in late morbidity, mortality, and healthcare costs.

The Operon as a Conundrum of Gene Dynamics and Biochemical Constraints: What We Have Learned from Histidine Biosynthesis.

Operons represent one of the leading strategies of gene organization in prokaryotes, having a crucial influence on the regulation of gene expression and on bacterial chromosome organization. However, there is no consensus yet on why, how, and when operons are formed and conserved, and many different theories have been proposed. Histidine biosynthesis is a highly studied metabolic pathway, and many of the models suggested to explain operons origin and evolution can be applied to the histidine pathway, making this route an attractive model for the study of operon evolution.