Higher skeletal muscle mitochondrial oxidative capacity is associated with preserved brain structure up to over a decade.

Impaired muscle mitochondrial oxidative capacity is associated with future cognitive impairment, and higher levels of PET and blood biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease and neurodegeneration. Here, we examine its associations with up to over a decade-long changes in brain atrophy and microstructure. Higher in vivo skeletal muscle oxidative capacity via MR spectroscopy (post-exercise recovery rate, k) is associated with less ventricular enlargement and brain aging progression, and less atrophy in specific regions, notably primary sensorimotor cortex, temporal white and gray matter, thalamus, occipital areas, cingulate cortex, and cerebellum white matter.

Providing healthcare under the threat of gang-violence: a survey of Haitian healthcare providers.

In addition to having some of the worst health outcomes in the region, Haiti faces a political and economic crisis. The most recent humanitarian crisis includes an increase in homicides and kidnappings in the capital Port-au-Prince. This study is a cross-sectional, mixed methods online survey of health workers and medical students in Port-au-Prince from May 20 - September 15, 2023.

Benefits of an online group dance program for adolescents' social bonding and wellbeing.

Introduction: The Covid-19 pandemic and its ensuing effects on mental health made it clearer than ever that social bonds are critical for survival, flourishing, and mental wellbeing. Experimental laboratory-based research with children and adults shows that activities involving movement alignment and joint action, such as dance, can facilitate social bonds.

Methods: This study examined whether an online group dance intervention positively affects social bonding and wellbeing using a randomized control design.

Shared plasma metabolomic profiles of cognitive and mobility decline predict future dementia.

Experiencing decline in both cognition and mobility is associated with a substantially higher dementia risk than cognitive decline only. Metabolites associated with both cognitive and mobility declines may be early predictors of dementia and reveal specific pathways to dementia. We analyzed data from 2450 participants initially free of dementia who had 613 metabolites measured in plasma in 1998-1999 (mean age = 75.

Plasma metabolomic markers underlying skeletal muscle mitochondrial function relationships with cognition and motor function.

Background: Lower skeletal muscle mitochondrial function is associated with future cognitive impairment and mobility decline, but the biological underpinnings for these associations are unclear. We examined metabolomic markers underlying skeletal muscle mitochondrial function, cognition and motor function.

Methods: We analysed data from 560 participants from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (mean age: 68.

Pushing the limit: Globe salvage of Group D retinoblastoma with severe vitreous seeding with intra-arterial chemotherapy and 15 cycles of intravitreal chemotherapy.

Purpose: To report the successful treatment of persistent retinoblastoma vitreous seeding with 6 cycles of intra-arterial chemotherapy and 15 cycles of intravitreal chemotherapy injections.

Observations: A three-year-old female presented to the ocular oncology clinic with Group D retinoblastoma with severe vitreous seeding. The patient received 3 cycles of intra-arterial chemotherapy (melphalan, topotecan, and carboplatin) and 15 cycles of intravitreal chemotherapy (melphalan and combined melphalan/topotecan).

Assessment of Choriocapillaris Flow Prior to Nascent Geographic Atrophy Development Using Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography.

Purpose: To assess the relationship between choriocapillaris (CC) loss and the development of nascent geographic atrophy (nGA) using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) imaging.

Methods: In total, 105 from 62 participants with bilateral large drusen, without late age-related macular degeneration (AMD) or nGA at baseline, were included in this prospective, longitudinal, observational study. Participants underwent swept-source OCTA imaging at 6-month intervals.

Racial, Ethnic, and Socioeconomic Disparities Drive Appointment No-Show in Patients with Chronic Eye Disease.

Background: Visit no-shows (NS) reduce clinic efficiency and effective resource allocation. Inadequate follow-up among patients with chronic eye disease increases risk of disease progression. Our study identifies demographic, medical, and socioeconomic characteristics that increase odds of NS among patients with chronic eye conditions at high risk of vision-threatening complications.

Sex role similarity and sexual selection predict male and female song elaboration and dimorphism in fairy-wrens.

Historically, bird song complexity was thought to evolve primarily through sexual selection on males; yet, in many species, both sexes sing and selection pressure on both sexes may be broader. Previous research suggests competition for mates and resources during short, synchronous breeding seasons leads to more elaborate male songs at high, temperate latitudes. Furthermore, we expect male-female song structure and elaboration to be more similar at lower, tropical latitudes, where longer breeding seasons and year-round territoriality yield similar social selection pressures in both sexes.

MULTISCALE CORRELATION OF MICROVASCULAR CHANGES ON OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY ANGIOGRAPHY WITH RETINAL SENSITIVITY IN DIABETIC RETINOPATHY.

Purpose: To assess global, zonal, and local correlations between vessel density changes measured by optical coherence tomography angiography and retinal sensitivity measured by microperimetry across diabetic retinopathy severity.

Methods: Diabetic patients and nondiabetic controls underwent optical coherence tomography angiography imaging and microperimetry testing. Pearson's correlation was used to assess associations between average sensitivity and skeletonized vessel density (SVD) or foveal avascular zone area centrally.

Cell-specific transcriptional control of mitochondrial metabolism by TIF1γ drives erythropoiesis.

Transcription and metabolism both influence cell function, but dedicated transcriptional control of metabolic pathways that regulate cell fate has rarely been defined. We discovered, using a chemical suppressor screen, that inhibition of the pyrimidine biosynthesis enzyme dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH) rescues erythroid differentiation in bloodless zebrafish mutant embryos defective for transcriptional intermediary factor 1 gamma (). This rescue depends on the functional link of DHODH to mitochondrial respiration.

SWEPT-SOURCE OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY ANGIOGRAPHY IN SMALL CHOROIDAL MELANOMAS AND CHOROIDAL NEVI.

Purpose: To evaluate the use of swept-source optical coherence tomography angiography to detect distinct vascular features in small choroidal melanomas and choroidal nevi.

Methods: Patients with a choroidal nevus or a treatment-naïve choroidal melanoma were imaged with color fundus photography, ultrasound, and swept-source optical coherence tomography angiography (12 × 12 mm). High-risk features including overlying fluid, orange pigment, shaggy photoreceptors, acoustic hollowness, depth >2 mm, and basal diameter >5 mm were assessed.

A practical guide to optical coherence tomography angiography interpretation.

Background: Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) can image the retinal vasculature in vivo, without the need for contrast dye. This technology has been commercially available since 2014, however, much of its use has been limited to the research setting. Over time, more clinical practices have adopted OCTA imaging.

Factors associated with preterm birth in women undergoing cervical cerclage.

Objectives: Cervical cerclage is used to manage women at high risk of late miscarriage (LM) and spontaneous preterm birth (PTB) due to factors such as history of cervical insufficiency (CI), uterine anomaly, cervical surgery and ultrasound (US) diagnosed cervical shortening. Urinary tract infection (UTI) and subsequent pyelonephritis, and bacterial infection are associated with PTB, but their role in PTB after cervical cerclage is unknown. We examined the relationship between UTI and bacterial vaginosis (BV), fetal fibronectin (fFN) test and PTB in women undergoing elective- or US-indicated cervical cerclage.

Repeatability and reproducibility of vessel density measurements on optical coherence tomography angiography in diabetic retinopathy.

Purpose: Understanding the precision of measurements on and across optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) devices is critical for tracking meaningful change in disease. The purpose of this study is to investigate the repeatability and reproducibility of vessel area density and vessel skeleton density measurements from various commercial OCTA devices in diabetic eyes.

Methods: Patients were imaged three consecutive times each on three different OCTA devices.

Genetics and evidence for balancing selection of a sex-linked colour polymorphism in a songbird.

Colour polymorphisms play a key role in sexual selection and speciation, yet the mechanisms that generate and maintain them are not fully understood. Here, we use genomic and transcriptomic tools to identify the precise genetic architecture and evolutionary history of a sex-linked colour polymorphism in the Gouldian finch Erythrura gouldiae that is also accompanied by remarkable differences in behaviour and physiology. We find that differences in colour are associated with an ~72-kbp region of the Z chromosome in a putative regulatory region for follistatin, an antagonist of the TGF-β superfamily genes.

Winter range expansion of a hummingbird is associated with urbanization and supplementary feeding.

Anthropogenic changes to the landscape and climate cause novel ecological and evolutionary pressures, leading to potentially dramatic changes in the distribution of biodiversity. Warm winter temperatures can shift species' distributions to regions that were previously uninhabitable. Further, urbanization and supplementary feeding may facilitate range expansions and potentially reduce migration tendency.

Using best practice to create a pathway to improve management of irritable bowel syndrome: aiming for timely diagnosis, effective treatment and equitable care.

Background: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) costs the National Health Service almost £12 million per annum. Despite national guidelines advising primary care management, these have failed to stem secondary care referrals of patients with likely IBS for unnecessary and costly assessment and investigation without necessarily achieving resolution of their symptoms.

Methods: In 2011, an integrated team from primary and secondary care developed a business case using baseline data to create a Somerset-wide IBS pathway using Clinical Commissioning Group funding.

The couple that sings together stays together: duetting, aggression and extra-pair paternity in a promiscuous bird species.

When individuals mate outside the pair bond, males should employ behaviours such as aggression or vocal displays (e.g. duetting) that help assure paternity of the offspring they care for.

Differential rates of phenotypic introgression are associated with male behavioral responses to multiple signals.

Sexual selection on multiple signals may lead to differential rates of signal introgression across hybrid zones if some signals contribute to reproductive isolation but others facilitate gene flow. Competition among males is one powerful form of sexual selection, but male behavioral responses to multiple traits have not been considered in a system where traits have introgressed differentially. Using playbacks, mounts, and a reciprocal experimental design, we tested the hypothesis that male responses to song and plumage in two subspecies of red-backed fairy-wren (Malurus melanocephalus) explain patterns of differential signal introgression (song has not introgressed, whereas plumage color has introgressed asymmetrically).

The Challenges of Establishing and Sustaining an Overseas Enterprise: One Haitian NGO's Perspective.

This article describes the creation of Project Medishare for Haiti, Inc, a US 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and its counterpart in Haiti, Project Medishare in Haiti, a nongovernmental organization that provides health care resources and training and education in Haiti. It summarizes the strategy for fundraising and sustaining such an enterprise in a developing country and discusses the lessons learned and goals achieved during the last 20 years.

Project Medishare's Historic Haitian Earthquake Response.

This article describes the immediate large-scale medical and surgical response of Project Medishare to the 2010 Haitian earthquake. It summarizes the rapid evolution of critical care and trauma capacity in a developing nation after earthquake and discusses the transition from acute trauma treatment to interdisciplinary health care sector building.

Effect of WIC Food Package Changes on Dietary Intake of Preschool Children in New Mexico.

Objectives: This study examined WIC policy change effects on dietary intake of preschool children from WIC-participating households in rural New Mexico communities.

Methods: Dietary intake of children enrolled in Head Start in 8 communities was compared before and after 2009 WIC food package changes.

Results: Following the policy change, participants reported significantly increased consumption of lower-fat milk, reduced consumption of saturated fat (grams), and decreased consumption of vegetables without potatoes.

HLA-DQA1-HLA-DRB1 variants confer susceptibility to pancreatitis induced by thiopurine immunosuppressants.

Pancreatitis occurs in approximately 4% of patients treated with the thiopurines azathioprine or mercaptopurine. Its development is unpredictable and almost always leads to drug withdrawal. We identified patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) who had developed pancreatitis within 3 months of starting these drugs from 168 sites around the world.