A systematic review of prostate bed motion and anisotropic margins in post-prostatectomy external beam radiotherapy.

Background: Prostate bed (PB) motion may lead to geographical miss of the target volume in post-prostatectomy radiotherapy (RT). Optimal clinical target volume (CTV) to planning target volume (PTV) margins prevent geographical miss and unnecessary irradiation of normal tissue. There is little data available informing appropriate CTV to PTV margins in the post-prostatectomy setting.

Data challenges for international health emergencies: lessons learned from ten international COVID-19 driver projects.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of international data sharing and access to improve health outcomes for all. The International COVID-19 Data Alliance (ICODA) programme enabled 12 exemplar or driver projects to use existing health-related data to address major research questions relating to the pandemic, and developed data science approaches that helped each research team to overcome challenges, accelerate the data research cycle, and produce rapid insights and outputs. These approaches also sought to address inequity in data access and use, test approaches to ethical health data use, and make summary datasets and outputs accessible to a wider group of researchers.

Impact of Dental Institutions' Values on Students' Intent to Practice in Underserved Communities: A Cross-sectional Study.

Aim: To evaluate how an institution's values can impact students' intent to practice in underserved areas.

Materials And Methods: The values of 71 accredited dental schools in the United States were searched and tabulated. The American Dental Education Association (ADEA) survey results were used to tabulate the desire to serve the underserved population before entering dental school and upon graduation.

What does "Advanced" mean in 2023? reflecting on 10 years of the ESTRO advanced Skills in modern radiotherapy course.

The roles and responsibilities of radiation therapists (RTTs) are many and varied. Professional expectations are influenced by the technology available, as well as the level of autonomy RTTs have in their daily practice. This professional range requires RTTs to possess a unique set of ever evolving skills, posing challenges from an educational perspective.

GP trainees' values and knowledge regarding global health competencies.

Globalisation is having a significant impact on health through the increasingly interconnected nature of our world, population movement and effects of political and environmental issues. In response, medical educators are urged to review postgraduate training programmes to ensure that doctors are up-to-date with training in contemporary global health issues. Positioned on the frontline of healthcare provision, GPs have an integral role to play in addressing local and global health inequities.

Refugee, Migrant and Asylum Seekers' Experience of Accessing and Receiving Primary Healthcare in a UK City of Sanctuary.

The World Health Organisation estimate there are about 1 billion migrants in the world today. The scale of population movement and a global refugee crisis presents an enormous challenge for healthcare provision, and too often the specific health needs of refugees and migrants are not met. This study assessed refugee, asylum seeker and vulnerable migrants' (AMRs') experience of front line primary healthcare in a region of the United Kingdom designated as a 'City of Sanctuary'.

Activation of platelet-rich plasma by pulse electric fields: Voltage, pulse width and calcium concentration can be used to control and tune the release of growth factors, serotonin and hemoglobin.

Activated platelet-rich plasma (PRP) has been used in the clinical settings of wound healing and regenerative medicine, with activation typically induced by the addition of bovine thrombin. To eliminate issues with availability, cost and potential side effects associated with bovine thrombin, ex vivo PRP activation using pulse electric fields (PEF) has been proposed and demonstrated. The present study characterizes the effect of PEF voltage and pulse width, in combination with a range of calcium concentrations, on clot formation, growth factor release, and serotonin (5-HT) release from dense granules.

Improving organ at risk sparing in oropharyngeal treatment planning by increasing target dose heterogeneity: A feasibility study.

Target dose homogeneity has historically been a priority in radiotherapy treatment planning. However, in an era of more advanced modulated techniques, there is now greater flexibility in shaping dose distributions suggesting that allowing controlled target dose heterogeneity may consequently improve organ at risk (OAR) sparing. This study sought to determine the feasibility of allowing an increase in target dose heterogeneity in oropharyngeal VMAT plans, and to examine the dosimetric impact this has on target coverage and OARs such as the parotid glands, spinal cord, brainstem and mandible.

Influence of inter-observer delineation variability on radiomic features of the parotid gland.

Purpose: This study aimed to quantify the variability in the values of radiomic features extracted from a right parotid gland (RPG) delineated by a series of independent observers.

Methods: This was a secondary analysis of anonymous data from a delineation workshop. Inter-observer variability of the RPG from 40 participants was quantified using DICE similarity coefficient (DSC) and Hausdorff distance (HD).

The Pivotal Role of the Therapeutic Radiographer/Radiation Therapist in Image-guided Radiotherapy Research and Development.

The ability to personalise radiotherapy to fit the individual patient and their diagnosis has been realised through technological advancements. There is now more opportunity to utilise these technologies and deliver precision radiotherapy for more patients. Image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) has enabled users to safely and accurately plan, treat and verify complex cases; and deliver a high dose to the target volume, while minimising dose to normal tissue.

The value of 'expert trainees' in primary care postgraduate education.

Peer-led teaching is well established within many undergraduate medical courses but relatively underutilised in postgraduate training, despite the fact it can be useful for both teachers and learners. A significant number of doctors training to be GPs bring expertise and experience from other specialities and in this paper we explore the potential of using 'expert trainees' to teach their peers on postgraduate GP training programmes. A GP trainee with expertise in Lifestyle Medicine taught alongside local and national experts and delivered workshops to her peers.

Can the arts enhance postgraduate GP training?

The value of arts-based medical education is becoming increasingly well established in undergraduate curricula. However, little is known about its value, and acceptability, to qualified doctors undertaking postgraduate training. In this work we examined GP trainees' views on whether arts-based education was useful for their professional development and, if so, what they perceived its value to be.

Poly(ethylene glycol)-Based Peptidomimetic "PEGtide" of Oligo-Arginine Allows for Efficient siRNA Transfection and Gene Inhibition.

While a wide range of experimental and commercial transfection reagents are currently available, persistent problems remain regarding their suitability for continued development. These include the transfection efficiency for difficult-to-transfect cell types and the risks of decreased cell viability that may arise from any transfection that does occur. Therefore, research is now turning toward alternative molecules that improve the toxicity profile of the gene delivery vector (GDV), while maintaining the transfection efficiency.

GP trainees' experience, knowledge and attitudes towards caring for refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants.

: According to the World Health Organisation 'more people are on the move now than ever before with an estimated 1 billion migrants in the world today and 68 million forcibly displaced people'. GPs are on the frontline of healthcare in the UK and have a responsibility to provide free and equitable access for everyone. : The main aim of our work was to assess GP trainees' current experience, knowledge and attitudes towards caring for refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants.

Vibrating Mesh Nebulisation of Pro-Antimicrobial Peptides for Use in Cystic Fibrosis.

Background: There has been considerable interest in the use of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) as antimicrobial therapeutics in many conditions including cystic fibrosis (CF). The aim of this study is to determine if the prodrugs of AMPs (pro-AMPs) can be delivered to the lung by a vibrating mesh nebuliser (VMN) and whether the pro-AMP modification has any effect on delivery.

Methods: Physical characteristics of the peptides (AMP and pro-AMP) and antimicrobial activity were compared before and after nebulisation.

Using extracellular calcium concentration and electric pulse conditions to tune platelet-rich plasma growth factor release and clotting.

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is an emerging autologous biologic method for wound healing. Clinicians apply PRP either topically (where it is activated ex-vivo before treatment by adding an external agent to trigger clotting and the release of growth factors that facilitate wound healing) or through injection (where it is activated in vivo at the injury site with no prior activation before injection). Because topical PRP activation typically utilizes bovine thrombin, which has significant potential side effects and high costs, recent studies have assessed the efficacy of combining extracellular calcium (EC) and electric pulses (EPs) to activate PRP.

Acute myeloid leukemia induces protumoral p16INK4a-driven senescence in the bone marrow microenvironment.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an age-related disease that is highly dependent on the bone marrow (BM) microenvironment. With increasing age, tissues accumulate senescent cells, characterized by an irreversible arrest of cell proliferation and the secretion of a set of proinflammatory cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors, collectively known as the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). Here, we report that AML blasts induce a senescent phenotype in the stromal cells within the BM microenvironment and that the BM stromal cell senescence is driven by p16INK4a expression.

Avatrombopag increases platelet count but not platelet activation in patients with thrombocytopenia resulting from liver disease.

Unlabelled: Essentials Thrombopoietin (TPO) lowers the threshold for platelet activation. TPO receptor agonists (RAs) may therefore also lead to platelet activation. Patients with chronic liver disease and thrombocytopenia participated in a randomized trial.