KaRhab: an international online registry for cardiac rhabdomyomas.

Background: Cardiac rhabdomyoma (RHM) is considered one of the most frequent benign heart tumors in children. However, encounters with cardiac RHM in clinical practice remain rare. Clinical information is primarily available in the form of single case reports or smaller studies with a shortage of large-scale reviews encompassing a substantial number of cases.

Sulfur Diffusion Studies Imitating Recycled Ground-Rubber-Containing Compounds.

In-rubber properties of vulcanizates deteriorate in the presence of incorporated recycled ground rubber (GR). This behavior is partly explained by a possible diffusion of sulfur from the rubber matrix into the GR. Therefore, the sulfur concentration and, thus, the crosslink density in the matrix are reduced.

On the Distillation of Stories for Transferring Narrative Arcs in Collections of Independent Media.

The act of telling stories is a fundamental part of what it means to be human. This work introduces the concept of narrative information, which we define as the overlap in information space between a story and the items that compose the story. Using contrastive learning methods, we show how modern artificial neural networks can be leveraged to distill stories and extract a representation of the narrative information.

Shifting the paradigm: engaging multicellular networks for cancer therapy.

Most anti-cancer modalities are designed to directly kill cancer cells deploying mechanisms of action (MOAs) centered on the presence of a precise target on cancer cells. The efficacy of these approaches is limited because the rapidly evolving genetics of neoplasia swiftly circumvents the MOA generating therapy-resistant cancer cell clones. Other modalities engage endogenous anti-cancer mechanisms by activating the multi-cellular network (MCN) surrounding neoplastic cells in the tumor microenvironment (TME).

Autoantibodies against type I IFNs in humans with alternative NF-κB pathway deficiency.

Patients with autoimmune polyendocrinopathy syndrome type 1 (APS-1) caused by autosomal recessive AIRE deficiency produce autoantibodies that neutralize type I interferons (IFNs), conferring a predisposition to life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia. Here we report that patients with autosomal recessive NIK or RELB deficiency, or a specific type of autosomal-dominant NF-κB2 deficiency, also have neutralizing autoantibodies against type I IFNs and are at higher risk of getting life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia. In patients with autosomal-dominant NF-κB2 deficiency, these autoantibodies are found only in individuals who are heterozygous for variants associated with both transcription (p52 activity) loss of function (LOF) due to impaired p100 processing to generate p52, and regulatory (IκBδ activity) gain of function (GOF) due to the accumulation of unprocessed p100, therefore increasing the inhibitory activity of IκBδ (hereafter, p52/IκBδ).

Counting the Capital's cats: Estimating drivers of abundance of free-roaming cats with a novel hierarchical model.

Free-roaming cats are a conservation concern in many areas but identifying their impacts and developing mitigation strategies requires a robust understanding of their distribution and density patterns. Urban and residential areas may be especially relevant in this process because free-roaming cats are abundant in these anthropogenic landscapes. Here, we estimate the occupancy and density of free-roaming cats in Washington D.

Warm springs alter timing but not total growth of temperate deciduous trees.

As the climate changes, warmer spring temperatures are causing earlier leaf-out and commencement of CO uptake in temperate deciduous forests, resulting in a tendency towards increased growing season length and annual CO uptake. However, less is known about how spring temperatures affect tree stem growth, which sequesters carbon in wood that has a long residence time in the ecosystem. Here we show that warmer spring temperatures shifted stem diameter growth of deciduous trees earlier but had no consistent effect on peak growing season length, maximum growth rates, or annual growth, using dendrometer band measurements from 440 trees across two forests.

An mHealth Intervention to Reduce the Packing of Discretionary Foods in Children's Lunch Boxes in Early Childhood Education and Care Services: Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Interventions in early childhood education and care (ECEC) services have the potential to improve children's diet at the population level.

Objective: This study aims to test the efficacy of a mobile health intervention in ECEC services to reduce parent packing of foods high in saturated fat, sugar, and sodium (discretionary foods) in children's (aged 3-6 years) lunch boxes.

Methods: A cluster randomized controlled trial was undertaken with 355 parent and child dyads recruited by phone and in person from 17 ECEC services (8 [47%] intervention and 9 [53%] control services).

Joint effects of climate, tree size, and year on annual tree growth derived from tree-ring records of ten globally distributed forests.

Tree rings provide an invaluable long-term record for understanding how climate and other drivers shape tree growth and forest productivity. However, conventional tree-ring analysis methods were not designed to simultaneously test effects of climate, tree size, and other drivers on individual growth. This has limited the potential to test ecologically relevant hypotheses on tree growth sensitivity to environmental drivers and their interactions with tree size.

Impact of consensus guidelines for breast-conserving surgery in patients with ductal carcinoma in situ.

Background: Consensus guidelines published in 2016 recommended a 2 mm free margin as the standard for negative margins in patients undergoing breast-conserving surgery (BCS) for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). The goal of the guideline recommendation was standardization of re-excision practices.

Aims: To evaluate the impact of this consensus guideline on our institutional practices.

Is There a Difference in Whole Body Standing Posture in Women With Urinary Incontinence Based on the Presence of Myofascial Dysfunction in the Pelvic Floor Muscles?

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of postural changes in women who had urinary incontinence (UI) with myofascial dysfunction (MD) and women who had UI without MD in the pelvic floor muscles (PFM).

Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed with 234 women who had UI and were at least 18 years old at the urogynecology outpatient clinic of a tertiary academic hospital. The International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Short Form and the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Overactive Bladder were used to collect urinary data.

PLGA-particle vaccine carrying TLR3/RIG-I ligand Riboxxim synergizes with immune checkpoint blockade for effective anti-cancer immunotherapy.

With emerging supremacy, cancer immunotherapy has evolved as a promising therapeutic modality compared to conventional antitumor therapies. Cancer immunotherapy composed of biodegradable poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) particles containing antigens and toll-like receptor ligands induces vigorous antitumor immune responses in vivo. Here, we demonstrate the supreme adjuvant effect of the recently developed and pharmaceutically defined double-stranded (ds)RNA adjuvant Riboxxim especially when incorporated into PLGA particles.

Motor learning deficits in cervical dystonia point to defective basal ganglia circuitry.

Dystonia is conceptualized as a network disorder involving basal ganglia, thalamus, sensorimotor cortex and the cerebellum. The cerebellum has been implicated in dystonia pathophysiology, but studies testing cerebellar function in dystonia patients have provided equivocal results. This study aimed to further elucidate motor network deficits in cervical dystonia with special interest in the role of the cerebellum.

Global patterns of forest autotrophic carbon fluxes.

Carbon (C) fixation, allocation, and metabolism by trees set the basis for energy and material flows in forest ecosystems and define their interactions with Earth's changing climate. However, while many studies have considered variation in productivity with latitude and climate, we lack a cohesive synthesis on how forest carbon fluxes vary globally with respect to climate and one another. Here, we draw upon 1,319 records from the Global Forest Carbon Database, representing all major forest types and the nine most significant autotrophic carbon fluxes, to comprehensively review how annual C cycling in mature, undisturbed forests varies with latitude and climate on a global scale.

Leaf turgor loss point shapes local and regional distributions of evergreen but not deciduous tropical trees.

The effects of climate change on tropical forests will depend on how diverse tropical tree species respond to drought. Current distributions of evergreen and deciduous tree species across local and regional moisture gradients reflect their ability to tolerate drought stress, and might be explained by functional traits. We measured leaf water potential at turgor loss (i.

Tree height and leaf drought tolerance traits shape growth responses across droughts in a temperate broadleaf forest.

As climate change drives increased drought in many forested regions, mechanistic understanding of the factors conferring drought tolerance in trees is increasingly important. The dendrochronological record provides a window through which we can understand how tree size and traits shape growth responses to droughts. We analyzed tree-ring records for 12 species in a broadleaf deciduous forest in Virginia (USA) to test hypotheses for how tree height, microenvironment characteristics, and species' traits shaped drought responses across the three strongest regional droughts over a 60-yr period.

Mapping carbon accumulation potential from global natural forest regrowth.

To constrain global warming, we must strongly curtail greenhouse gas emissions and capture excess atmospheric carbon dioxide. Regrowing natural forests is a prominent strategy for capturing additional carbon, but accurate assessments of its potential are limited by uncertainty and variability in carbon accumulation rates. To assess why and where rates differ, here we compile 13,112 georeferenced measurements of carbon accumulation.

Assessing the implementation of healthy eating and physical activity policies and practices in the family day care setting: A cross-sectional study.

Issue Addressed: While the family day care setting provides a unique opportunity to improve child health, few studies have assessed obesity prevention practices of this setting. This study aimed to examine the (a) prevalence of implementation of evidence-based healthy eating and physical activity policies and practices among schemes (ie overarching governing agency) and educators in the family day care setting in Australia; and (b) associations between educator socio-demographic characteristics and implementation of healthy eating and physical activity practices.

Methods: Family day care schemes (n = 16) responsible for educators (n = 174) located in the Hunter New England region of NSW participated in a telephone survey in 2018, reporting their implementation of evidence-based healthy eating and physical activity policies and practices.

Implementation of a School Physical Activity Policy Improves Student Physical Activity Levels: Outcomes of a Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.

Aim: To assess the impact of a multistrategy intervention designed to improve teachers' implementation of a school physical activity (PA) policy on student PA levels.

Methods: A cluster-randomized controlled trial was conducted in 12 elementary schools. Policy implementation required schools to deliver 150 minutes of organized PA for students each week via physical education, sport, or class-based activities such as energizers.

Evaluating the quality of multiple-choice questions in a NAPLEX preparation book.

Introduction: There is a plethora of preparatory books and guides available to help study for the North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination (NAPLEX). However, the quality of questions included has not been scrutinized. Our objective was to evaluate the quality of multiple-choice questions (MCQs) construction in a commonly used NAPLEX preparatory book.