Breath-hold capacities and circadian dive rhythmicity shape optimal foraging strategies in a polar marine mammal, the Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii).

Air-breathing vertebrates must balance their response to diel shifts in prey accessibility with physiological thresholds and the need to surface after each dive. Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii) dive behaviors were tracked across the year under rapidly-changing light regimes in the Ross Sea, Antarctica ( ~ 75-77°S). This provides a 'natural experiment' with free-living seals experiencing 24-hrs of light (Polar Day), light/dark cycling, and continuous darkness (Polar Night).

Factors influencing the choice of specialization - a cross-sectional study with civilian medical students and prospective medical officers in Germany.

Background: The recruitment of physicians is an increasing challenge. The aim of the study was to explore factors that might influence future civilian and military doctors' choice of specialization.

Methods: A 28 item author developed questionnaire was used to survey civilian medical students and prospective medical officers.

Data Harmonization, Standardization, and Collaboration for Diabetic Retinal Disease (DRD) Research: Report From the 2024 Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative Workshop on Data.

The 2024 Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative (MTM Vision) Workshop on Data convened to discuss best practices and specific considerations for building a comprehensive, shareable MTM Vision data lake. The workshop aimed to accelerate the development of new indications, therapies, and regulatory pathways for diabetic retinal disease (DRD) by standardizing and harmonizing clinical data and ocular 'omics analyses. Standardization of data collection, the use of common data elements, and data interoperability were emphasized, alongside federated learning approaches to promote data sharing and collaboration while maintaining data privacy and security.

Ocular Imaging Challenges, Current State, and a Path to Interoperability: A HIMSS-SIIM Enterprise Imaging Community Whitepaper.

Office-based testing, enhanced by advances in imaging technology, is routinely used in eye care to non-invasively assess ocular structure and function. This type of imaging coupled with autonomous artificial intelligence holds immense opportunity to diagnose eye diseases quickly. Despite the wide availability and use of ocular imaging, there are several factors that hinder optimization of clinical practice and patient care.

Effectiveness of marine protected areas in safeguarding important migratory megafauna habitat.

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a commonly used management tool to safeguard marine life from anthropogenic impacts, yet their efficacy often remains untested. Evaluating how highly dynamic marine species use static MPAs is challenging but becoming more feasible with the advancement of telemetry data. Here, we focus on southern right whales (Eubalaena australis, SRWs) in the waters off Aotearoa/New Zealand, which declined from 30,000 whales to fewer than 40 mature females due to whaling.

Physicians' experiences with indications and prescriptions of foot orthoses-A cross-sectional study in northern Germany.

Background: Foot orthoses (FOs) are prescribed by general practitioners (GPs) and orthopedic surgeons for various complaints. As there are very limited medical guidelines and checklists, the prescription of FOs is often inconsistent. Therefore, our study to evaluate the general prescription behavior and indication experiences with FOs from the perspective of GPs and orthopedists.

Ethical issues in dental education-A cross-sectional study with pre-clinical and clinical dental students.

Introduction: Although ethics is an indispensable part of dental education, it has not yet played a relevant role in the dental curriculum in Germany. The study aimed at assessing their prior knowledge of ethical aspects, and their expectations of and wishes for ethics course of dental students, preclinical vs. clinical, at the dental school Kiel, Germany by means of a validated questionnaire.

An Interprofessional Initiative to Address Tests Pending at Discharge for Hospitalized Pediatric Patients.

Introduction: Pediatric hospitalized patients often are discharged before all lab tests are completed. Given the risk of medical errors related to inadequate test follow-up, we piloted a collaborative initiative to address tests pending at discharge (TPAD) within our pediatric hospital medicine section. Our objectives were to delineate the responsibilities of case managers and pediatric hospital medicine clinicians in addressing these tests and to establish a communication process.

Atomic diffusion in liquid gallium and gallium-nickel alloys probed by quasielastic neutron scattering and molecular dynamic simulations.

The atomic mobility in liquid pure gallium and a gallium-nickel alloy with 2 at% of nickel is studied experimentally by incoherent quasielastic neutron scattering. The integral diffusion coefficients for all-atom diffusion are derived from the experimental data at different temperatures. DFT-basedmolecular dynamics (MD) is used to find numerically the diffusion coefficient of liquid gallium at different temperatures, and numerical theory results well agree with the experimental findings at temperatures below 500 K.

The influence of fears of perceived legal consequences on general practitioners' practice in relation to defensive medicine - a cross-sectional survey in Germany.

Background: Medical decisions are influenced by a variety of factors also by legal requirements and feelings of uncertainty, which results in the term defensive medicine. The aim of the study was to evaluate the influence of fears of perceived legal consequences on the practice of defensive medicine from the perspective of German general practitioners (GPs).

Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed from April to May 2022.

Job satisfaction and work stress among physicians in Norway and Germany-A cross-sectional study.

Purpose: Physicians' health and wellbeing are important albeit often neglected quality indicators of health care systems. The aims of the study were to compare job satisfaction and work stress among doctors in Germany and Norway, and to identify predictors for job satisfaction.

Methods: All active physicians in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany (N = 13,304) and a nationwide sample of Norwegian physicians (N = 2,316) were surveyed in a cross-sectional design in 2021.

Advancing Toward a Common Data Model in Ophthalmology: Gap Analysis of General Eye Examination Concepts to Standard Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) Concepts.

Purpose: Evaluate the degree of concept coverage of the general eye examination in one widely used electronic health record (EHR) system using the Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) common data model (CDM).

Design: Study of data elements.

Participants: Not applicable.

Ultrafast vibrational control of organohalide perovskite optoelectronic devices using vibrationally promoted electronic resonance.

Vibrational control (VC) of photochemistry through the optical stimulation of structural dynamics is a nascent concept only recently demonstrated for model molecules in solution. Extending VC to state-of-the-art materials may lead to new applications and improved performance for optoelectronic devices. Metal halide perovskites are promising targets for VC due to their mechanical softness and the rich array of vibrational motions of both their inorganic and organic sublattices.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on professional life and well-being in German physicians: A cross-sectional study.

This study assessed perceptions of German physicians' regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on work-related issues as well as mental and physical health. Almost three quarters of the physicians felt stressed by the increased quantity (69%) and quality (73%) of the work and felt physically (68%) or mentally exhausted (71%). Also about three-quarters of physicians reported the pandemic having a strong impact on family life.

Rare ^{40}K Decay with Implications for Fundamental Physics and Geochronology.

Potassium-40 is a widespread, naturally occurring isotope whose radioactivity impacts subatomic rare-event searches, nuclear structure theory, and estimated geological ages. A predicted electron-capture decay directly to the ground state of argon-40 has never been observed. The KDK (potassium decay) collaboration reports strong evidence of this rare decay mode.

Remarkable performance recovery in highly defective perovskite solar cells by photo-oxidation.

Exposure to environmental factors is generally expected to cause degradation in perovskite films and solar cells. Herein, we show that films with certain defect profiles can display the opposite effect, healing upon exposure to oxygen under illumination. We tune the iodine content of methylammonium lead triiodide perovskite from understoichiometric to overstoichiometric and expose them to oxygen and light prior to the addition of the top layers of the device, thereby examining the defect dependence of their photooxidative response in the absence of storage-related chemical processes.

Determinants of the implementation of artificial intelligence-based screening for diabetic retinopathy-a cross-sectional study with general practitioners in Germany.

Objective: Diabetic retinopathy (DR) may lead to irreversible damage to the eye and cause blindness if diagnosed in its advanced stages. Artificial intelligence (AI) may support screening and contribute to a timely diagnosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate factors that might influence the success of implementing AI-supported devices for DR screenings in general practice.

Certainty in Uncertain Times: Dental Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic-A Qualitative Study.

Background: The restrictions concerning social contact due to the COVID-19 pandemic implied a rethinking of teaching methods at universities in general, and for practice-oriented teaching such as dental education in particular. This qualitative study aimed to assess aspects of feelings of certainty and uncertainty during this specific education process, incorporating the perspectives of teaching staff and dental students.

Methods: Qualitative methods based on interviews were used for data collection.

Systematic assessment of the contribution of structural variants to inherited retinal diseases.

Despite increasing success in determining genetic diagnosis for patients with inherited retinal diseases (IRDs), mutations in about 30% of the IRD cases remain unclear or unsettled after targeted gene panel or whole exome sequencing. In this study, we aimed to investigate the contributions of structural variants (SVs) to settling the molecular diagnosis of IRD with whole-genome sequencing (WGS). A cohort of 755 IRD patients whose pathogenic mutations remain undefined were subjected to WGS.