Endocannabinoid involvement in beneficial effects of caloric restriction in a rodent model of comorbid depression and epilepsy.

Clinically, patients with depression are at a heightened risk for developing epilepsy, and vice versa, suggesting shared mechanisms for this bidirectional comorbidity. Unfortunately, comorbid depression and epilepsy is associated with worsened quality of life and treatment refractoriness, highlighting the need for novel treatment targets and nonpharmacologic supplements to existing therapies. The present study used the Swim-Low Active rat, a well-validated model of depression and epilepsy comorbidity that was selectively bred based on forced swim test behavior, to assess the safety and efficacy of caloric restriction in treating this comorbidity.

Usability of an Automated System for Real-Time Monitoring of Shared Decision-Making for Surgery: Mixed Methods Evaluation.

Background: Improving shared decision-making (SDM) for patients has become a health policy priority in many countries. Achieving high-quality SDM is particularly important for approximately 313 million surgical treatment decisions patients make globally every year. Large-scale monitoring of surgical patients' experience of SDM in real time is needed to identify the failings of SDM before surgery is performed.

Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Bilingual Nutrition Education Program in Partnership with a Mobile Health Unit.

There are limited reports of community-based nutrition education with culinary instruction that measure biomarkers, particularly in low-income and underrepresented minority populations. Teaching kitchens have been proposed as a strategy to address social determinants of health, combining nutrition education, culinary demonstration, and skill building. The purpose of this paper is to report on the development, implementation, and evaluation of Journey to Health, a program designed for community implementation using the RE-AIM planning and evaluation framework.

Advancing the Role of Proton Therapy for Spine Metastases Through Diagnostic Scan-Based Planning.

Purpose: Many patients with metastatic cancer live years beyond diagnosis, and there remains a need to improve the therapeutic ratio of metastasis-directed radiation for these patients. This study aimed to assess a process for delivering cost-effective palliative proton therapy to the spine using diagnostic scan-based planning (DSBP) and prefabricated treatment delivery devices.

Materials And Methods: We designed and characterized a reusable proton aperture system that adjusts to multiple lengths for spine treatment.

Conserved temperature requirements but contrasting responses to humidity across oviposition preferences in temperate grasshoppers.

The right choice of an oviposition site is a crucial task for oviparous species without maternal care. In contrast to well investigated biotic factors, e.g.

Impact of Culinary Medicine Course on Confidence and Competence in Diet and Lifestyle Counseling, Interprofessional Communication, and Health Behaviors and Advocacy.

Most physicians report inadequate training to provide diet and lifestyle counseling to patients despite its importance to chronic disease prevention and management. To fill the nutrition training gap, elective Culinary Medicine (CM) courses have emerged as an alternative to curriculum reform. We evaluated the impact of an interprofessional CM course for medical and health professional students who experienced the hands-on cooking component in person or a in mixed-mode format (in-person and via Zoom) at the University of Utah from 2019-2023 ( = 84).

Evaluating Carbon Footprint of Proton Therapy Based on Power Consumption and Possible Mitigation Strategies.

Purpose: There is increasing concern about rising carbon dioxide (CO) emissions and their hazardous effect on human health. This study quantifies the energy utilization of proton therapy, assesses the corresponding carbon footprint, and discusses possible offsetting strategies toward carbon-neutral health care operations.

Methods And Materials: Patients treated between July 2020 and June 2021 using the Mevion proton system were evaluated.

Prognostic Properties of the GOLD 2023 Classification System.

Introduction: Recently, the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) has published an update on the Global Strategy for Prevention, Diagnosis and Management of COPD, introducing a new classification of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Our aim was to assess the prognostic value of the new GOLD classification system in comparison with the previous GOLD classification systems (GOLD stages I-IV and GOLD groups A-D) and the BODE index.

Methods: We used the data of 784 patients with COPD from the Czech Multicenter Research Database of COPD.

Incorporating interactions into structured life course modelling approaches: A simulation study and applied example of the role of access to green space and socioeconomic position on cardiometabolic health.

Background: Structured life course modelling approaches (SLCMA) have been developed to understand how exposures across the lifespan relate to later health, but have primarily been restricted to single exposures. As multiple exposures can jointly impact health, here we: i) demonstrate how to extend SLCMA to include exposure interactions; ii) conduct a simulation study investigating the performance of these methods; and iii) apply these methods to explore associations of access to green space, and its interaction with socioeconomic position, with child cardiometabolic health.

Methods: We used three methods, all based on lasso regression, to select the most plausible life course model: visual inspection, information criteria and cross-validation.

Sex chromosome differentiation via changes in the Y chromosome repeat landscape in African annual killifishes Nothobranchius furzeri and N. kadleci.

Homomorphic sex chromosomes and their turnover are common in teleosts. We investigated the evolution of nascent sex chromosomes in several populations of two sister species of African annual killifishes, Nothobranchius furzeri and N. kadleci, focusing on their under-studied repetitive landscape.

Using Species Groups to Approach the Large and Taxonomically Unresolved Freshwater Fish Family Nemacheilidae (Teleostei: Cypriniformes).

Large animal families with unresolved taxonomy are notoriously difficult to handle with respect to their biodiversity, systematics, and evolutionary history. We approach a large and taxonomically unresolved family of freshwater fishes (Nemacheilidae, >600 species) by proposing, on the basis of morphologic data, a species group within the family and study its phylogeny with conclusions regarding its diversity, taxonomy, and biogeographic history. Phylogenetic analyses of two mitochondrial and three nuclear genes of 139 specimens, representing about 46 species (17 candidate species from the proposed species-group, plus 29 comparative species), revealed that the proposed species group does not form a distinct monophyletic lineage, but that the candidate and comparative species mixed in three different lineages.

Impact of Radiation Oncology Alternative Payment Model on Community Cancer Centers.

Purpose: An episode-based payment model, the Radiation Oncology Alternative Payment Model (RO-APM), is scheduled to go into effect in January 2022. This article investigates the effects of RO-APM on hospital-based and freestanding community centers.

Methods: Historical Medicare data used to generate the RO-APM base rates were reviewed.

Investigation of the Relationship between Morphology and Thermal Conductivity of Powder Metallurgically Prepared Aluminium Foams.

Among different promising solutions, coupling closed-cell aluminium foam composite panels prepared by a powder metallurgical method with pore walls interconnected by microcracks, with low thermal conductivity phase change materials (PCMs), is one of the effective ways of increasing thermal conductivity for better performance of thermal storage systems in buildings. The internal structure of the foam formation, related to the porosity which decides the heat transfer rate, plays a significant role in the thermal energy storage performance. The dependence of the heat transfer characteristics on the internal foam structure is studied numerically in this work.

Five-Year Longitudinal Analysis of Patient-Reported Outcomes and Cosmesis in a Randomized Trial of Conventionally Fractionated Versus Hypofractionated Whole-Breast Irradiation.

Purpose: There are limited prospective data on predictors of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) after whole-breast irradiation (WBI) plus a boost. We sought to characterize longitudinal PROs and cosmesis in a randomized trial comparing conventionally fractionated (CF) versus hypofractionated (HF) WBI.

Methods And Materials: From 2011 to 2014, women aged ≥40 years with Tis-T2 N0-N1a M0 breast cancer who underwent a lumpectomy with negative margins were randomized to CF-WBI (50 Gray [Gy]/25 fractions plus boost) versus HF-WBI (42.

The Relation Between Clinical Phenotypes, GOLD Groups/Stages and Mortality in COPD Patients - A Prospective Multicenter Study.

Introduction: The concept of phenotyping emerged, reflecting specific clinical, pulmonary and extrapulmonary features of each particular chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) case. Our aim was to analyze prognostic utility of: "Czech" COPD phenotypes and their most frequent combinations, "Spanish" phenotypes and Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) stages + groups in relation to long-term mortality risk.

Methods: Data were extracted from the Czech Multicenter Research Database (CMRD) of COPD.

Simple and Eco-Friendly Route from Agro-Food Waste to Water Pollutants Removal.

The current study reflects the demand to mitigate the environmental issues caused by the waste from the agriculture and food industry. The crops that do not meet the supply chain requirements and waste from their processing are overfilling landfills. The mentioned wastes contain cellulose, which is the most abundant carbon precursor.

Effect of Proposed Episode-Based Payment Models on Advanced Radiotherapy Procedures.

Purpose: An episode-based payment model, the Radiation Oncology Alternative Payment Model (RO-APM), has been proposed for Medicare reimbursement of radiation services provided to oncology patients. RO-APM may have significant impact on reimbursement for specific patient populations.

Methods: This investigation compares historical fee-for-service technical reimbursement estimates at a large hospital-based system to the RO-APM for advanced radiotherapy treatment of specific cancer types.

Resolving an unnoticed diversity within the Schistura robertsi species complex (Teleostei: Nemacheilidae) using molecules and morphology.

The Schistura robertsi species complex is a group of freshwater fish inhabiting streams in southeast Myanmar as well as in western and southern Thailand. In southern Thailand, the distribution exceeds the biogeographically important 'Surat Thani - Krabi line'. The complex is believed to include five described and one undescribed species, but monophyly and systematics of the group have never been studied explicitly.

Sea water shaping the freshwater biota: Hidden diversity and biogeographic history in the Paracanthocobitis zonalternans species complex (Teleostei: Nemacheilidae) in western Southeast Asia.

Western Southeast Asia is hosting one of the world's most diverse faunas, and one of the reasons for this huge diversity is the complex geologic past of the area, increasing the frequency of isolation and expansion events over evolutionary time scale. As an example case, the present study reveals the phylogeny and biogeographic history of the Paracanthocobitis zonalternans species complex, small benthic freshwater fish (Teleostei: Nemacheilidae) that are commonly occurring across western Southeast Asia (from central Myanmar through western and southern Thailand to northern Malaysia). The group is particularly interesting since it occurs in three biogeographic subdivisions (Indian, Indochinese, Malay/Sundaic) and across all of the major biogeographic barriers in the region.

Technical Report: Diagnostic Scan-Based Planning (DSBP), A Method to Improve the Speed and Safety of Radiation Therapy for the Treatment of Critically Ill Patients.

Purpose: Treating critically ill patients in radiation oncology departments poses multiple safety risks. This study describes a method to improve the speed of radiation treatment for patients in the intensive care unit by eliminating the need for computed tomography (CT) simulation or on-table treatment planning using patients' previously acquired diagnostic CT scans.

Methods And Materials: Initially, a retrospective planning study was performed to assess the applicability and safety of diagnostic scan-based planning (DSBP) for 3 typical indications for radiation therapy in patients in the intensive care unit: heterotopic ossification (10), spine metastases (cord compression; 10), and obstructive lung lesions (5).

Expression and prognostic significance of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) in Merkel cell carcinoma.

Purpose: To detect the expression of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) in Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) and to determine the prognostic influence of the PD-L1 expression.

Methods: A total of 13 patients with MCC were retrospectively evaluated (12 patients with primary skin lesion, one patient was diagnosed as unknown primary MCC). All patients underwent surgical resection.