An analysis of perceptions and thoughts of rapid weight loss in Olympic weightlifters.

Background: Weight-class athletes commonly engage in rapid weight loss (RWL) practices.

Aim: Investigate attributed RWL perceptions and thoughts of UK-based Olympic weightlifters.

Methods: Participants (n: 39, male: 22, female: 17) were selected from International Weightlifting Federation populations, 85% had previously acutely reduced pre-competition body mass.

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.

Development and Validation of the PICK-UP-STRICS Score to Predict Fibrostenosis in Patients with EoE Prior to Endoscopy.

Background: Predicting fibrostenotic complications prior to endoscopy in eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) is challenging and esophageal strictures and narrowing are commonly missed on endoscopy.

Aim: To develop and validate a score to predict fibrostenosis in EoE patients prior to endoscopy.

Methods: We leveraged a large database of newly diagnosed EoE patients.

Daily or Twice Daily Treatment with Topical Steroids Results in Similar Responses in Eosinophilic Esophagitis.

Background & Aims: Few data compare topical corticosteroid (tCS) dosing regimens and outcomes. We aimed to compare treatment outcomes in patients with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) by once or twice daily dosing regimens.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study using the UNC EoE Clinicopathologic Database of newly diagnosed patients with EoE treated with a tCS who had a follow-up endoscopy with biopsy.

The Practice of Weight Loss in Combat Sports Athletes: A Systematic Review.

The aim of this systematic review is to comprehensively assess the weight loss (WL) practices in different combat sports (CS). The review protocol was preregistered with PROSPERO [CRD42023487196]. Three databases were searched (Web of Science, EBSCOhost, and PubMed) until 8 December 2023.

Biomechanical Remodeling of Aortic Valve Interstitial Cells During Calcified Lesion Formation In Vitro.

Healthy aortic heart valves are essential to the regulation of unidirectional blood flow. Calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) is an actively progressive disease that involves the disorganization of valve cells and accumulation of calcium deposits on the aortic valve leaflets. CAVD involves disruption of cell environment homeostasis that prior cell culture models have found difficult to portray and model.

Enhancing Clinical Success Through Intensive Dietary Support in Bariatric Patients: a Retrospective Study in Asian Population.

Background: Weight loss surgery is an established intervention for obesity and related conditions, ensuring sustained weight reduction and improved comorbidities. Post-bariatric surgery, maintaining nutritional adequacy and weight loss necessitates ongoing, intensive dietary support. This research aims to discern the impact of standard care vs.

Rapid Weight Loss Practices Within Olympic Weightlifters.

Gee, TI, Campbell, P, Bargh, MJ, and Martin, D. Rapid weight loss practices within Olympic weightlifters. J Strength Cond Res 37(10): 2046-2051, 2023-Rapid weight loss (RWL) practices are common among athletes to "make weight" for a chosen bodyweight class.

A comparison of rapid weight loss practices within international, national and regional powerlifters.

Rapid weight loss (RWL) practices are common amongst strength-sport athletes to 'make weight' for a chosen weight class. This study compared the RWL practices of International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) powerlifters from Great Britain. Participants (n = 69, male = 36, female = 33) were recruited from IPF lifting populations (mandatory <2-hour competition weigh-in).

Brain PET and SPECT imaging and quantification: a survey of the current status in the UK.

Objectives: With disease-modifying therapies in development for neurological disorders, quantitative brain imaging techniques become increasingly relevant for objective early diagnosis and assessment of response to treatment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of Brain SPECT and PET scans in the UK and explore drivers and barriers to using quantitative analysis through an online survey.

Methods: A web-based survey with 27 questions was used to capture a snapshot of brain imaging in the UK.

Mepolizumab for treatment of adolescents and adults with eosinophilic oesophagitis: a multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial.

Objective: We aimed to determine whether mepolizumab, an anti-IL-5 antibody, was more effective than placebo for improving dysphagia symptoms and decreasing oesophageal eosinophil counts in eosinophilic oesophagitis (EoE).

Methods: We conducted a multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, trial. In the first part, patients aged 16-75 with EoE and dysphagia symptoms (per EoE Symptom Activity Index (EEsAI)) were randomised 1:1 to 3 months of mepolizumab 300 mg monthly or placebo.

FAIR in action: Brain-CODE - A neuroscience data sharing platform to accelerate brain research.

The effective sharing of health research data within the healthcare ecosystem can have tremendous impact on the advancement of disease understanding, prevention, treatment, and monitoring. By combining and reusing health research data, increasingly rich insights can be made about patients and populations that feed back into the health system resulting in more effective best practices and better patient outcomes. To achieve the promise of a learning health system, data needs to meet the FAIR principles of findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability.

Validating a novel deterministic privacy-preserving record linkage between administrative & clinical data: applications in stroke research.

Introduction: Research data combined with administrative data provides a robust resource capable of answering unique research questions. However, in cases where personal health data are encrypted, due to ethics requirements or institutional restrictions, traditional methods of deterministic and probabilistic record linkages are not feasible. Instead, privacy-preserving record linkages must be used to protect patients' personal data during data linkage.

Data and Tools Integration in the Canadian Open Neuroscience Platform.

We present the Canadian Open Neuroscience Platform (CONP) portal to answer the research community's need for flexible data sharing resources and provide advanced tools for search and processing infrastructure capacity. This portal differs from previous data sharing projects as it integrates datasets originating from a number of already existing platforms or databases through DataLad, a file level data integrity and access layer. The portal is also an entry point for searching and accessing a large number of standardized and containerized software and links to a computing infrastructure.

Molecular, Metabolic, and Nutritional Changes after Metabolic Surgery in Obese Diabetic Patients (MoMen): A Protocol for a Multicenter Prospective Cohort Study.

Metabolic surgery is an essential option in the treatment of obese patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Despite its known advantages, this surgery still needs to be introduced in Malaysia. In this prospective study, the pathophysiological mechanisms at the molecular level will be studied and the metabolomics pathways of diabetes remission will be explored.

Increased brain volumetric measurement precision from multi-site 3D T1-weighted 3 T magnetic resonance imaging by correcting geometric distortions.

Purpose: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner-specific geometric distortions may contribute to scanner induced variability and decrease volumetric measurement precision for multi-site studies. The purpose of this study was to determine whether geometric distortion correction increases the precision of brain volumetric measurements in a multi-site multi-scanner study.

Methods: Geometric distortion variation was quantified over a one-year period at 10 sites using the distortion fields estimated from monthly 3D T1-weighted MRI geometrical phantom scans.

Food tolerance, nutritional status and health-related quality of life of patients with morbid obesity after bariatric surgery.

Background And Aims: Bariatric surgery has been proven to be the most effective weight loss treatment for patients with morbid obesity. However, the alteration in the anatomy of the gastrointestinal structure, food aversion, and non-compliance to recommended dietary advice after bariatric surgery may cause food intolerance, which may affect the nutritional status and health-related quality of life (HRQOL). This study aims to determine the effects of bariatric surgery on food tolerance, nutritional status, and HRQOL among patients with morbid obesity in Malaysia.

Rac1 mediates cadherin-11 induced cellular pathogenic processes in aortic valve calcification.

Background: Calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD), a major cause for surgical aortic valve replacement, currently lacks available pharmacological treatments. Cadherin-11 (Cad11), a promising therapeutic target, promotes aortic valve calcification in vivo, but direct Cad11 inhibition in clinical trials has been unsuccessful. Targeting of downstream Cad11 effectors instead may be clinically useful; however, the downstream effectors that mediate Cad11-induced aortic valve cellular pathogenesis have not been investigated.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging Sequence Identification Using a Metadata Learning Approach.

Despite the wide application of the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique, there are no widely used standards on naming and describing MRI sequences. The absence of consistent naming conventions presents a major challenge in automating image processing since most MRI software require knowledge of the type of the MRI sequences to be processed. This issue becomes increasingly critical with the current efforts toward open-sharing of MRI data in the neuroscience community.

Privacy-Preserving Cross-Environment Human Activity Recognition.

Recent studies have demonstrated the success of using the channel state information (CSI) from the WiFi signal to analyze human activities in a fixed and well-controlled environment. Those systems usually degrade when being deployed in new environments. A straightforward solution to solve this limitation is to collect and annotate data samples from different environments with advanced learning strategies.

Religious Fasting of Muslim Patients After Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery: a Modified Delphi Consensus.

Background: Fasting during Ramadan is one of the five pillars of the Muslim faith. Despite the positive effects of fasting on health, there are no guidelines or clear recommendations regarding fasting after metabolic/bariatric surgery (MBS). The current study reports the result of a modified Delphi consensus among expert metabolic/bariatric surgeons with experience in managing patients who fast after MBS.

Resting state fMRI scanner instabilities revealed by longitudinal phantom scans in a multi-center study.

Quality assurance (QA) is crucial in longitudinal and/or multi-site studies, which involve the collection of data from a group of subjects over time and/or at different locations. It is important to regularly monitor the performance of the scanners over time and at different locations to detect and control for intrinsic differences (e.g.

Evaluation of electrochemical methods for tonic dopamine detection .

Dysfunction in dopaminergic neuronal systems underlie a number of neurologic and psychiatric disorders such as Parkinson's disease, drug addiction, and schizophrenia. Dopamine systems communicate via two mechanisms, a fast "phasic" release (sub-second to second) that is related to salient stimuli and a slower "tonic" release (minutes to hours) that regulates receptor tone. Alterations in tonic levels are thought to be more critically important in enabling normal motor, cognitive, and motivational functions, and dysregulation in tonic dopamine levels are associated with neuropsychiatric disorders.