Identifying Genetic Predisposition to Dozer Lamb Syndrome: A Semi-Lethal Muscle Weakness Disease in Sheep.

Background: Lamb health is crucial for producers; however, the percentage of lambs that die before weaning is still 15-20%. One factor that can contribute to lamb deaths is congenital diseases. A novel semi-lethal disease has been identified in newborn Polypay lambs and termed dozer lamb syndrome.

[Health Literacy and Metabolic Control in Individuals Diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial].

Unlabelled: People with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) experience difficulties in self-management. One of the variables involved is the low level of health literacy (HL) which corresponds to the degree to which people access, understand, evaluate and use information to engage with health demands in different contexts, in order to promote and maintain good health.

Hypothesis: People diagnosed with diabetes mellitus who participate in an intervention to increase their level of health literacy improve their metabolic compensation measured in HBA1c.

Artificial intelligence-based, non-invasive assessment of the central aortic pressure in adults after operative or interventional treatment of aortic coarctation.

Background: Aortic coarctation (CoA) is a congenital anomaly leading to upper-body hypertension and lower-body hypotension. Despite surgical or interventional treatment, arterial hypertension may develop and contribute to morbidity and mortality. Conventional blood pressure (BP) measurement methods lack precision for individual diagnoses and therapeutic decisions.

Serial changes of systemic ventricular function and atrioventricular valve function in patients with failing Fontan.

Objectives: This study investigated the longitudinal changes in ventricular function and atrioventricular valve function to clarify the timing and the mechanisms of failing Fontan.

Methods: Patients who underwent total cavopulmonary connection between 1994 and 2023 were reviewed, and longitudinal echocardiographic examinations of ventricular function and atrioventricular valve regurgitation were analyzed.

Results: A total of 650 patients were included.

Contribution of hypoxia-inducible factor 1alpha to pathogenesis of sarcomeric hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) caused by autosomal-dominant mutations in genes coding for structural sarcomeric proteins, is the most common inherited heart disease. HCM is associated with myocardial hypertrophy, fibrosis and ventricular dysfunction. Hypoxia-inducible transcription factor-1α (Hif-1α) is the central master regulators of cellular hypoxia response and associated with HCM.

Twins with at least one with CHD and their immunisation status in direct comparison-are both twins complying with the German immunisation recommendations?

Background: Patients with congenital heart defects (CHDs) are at higher risk for infectious diseases. This may partly be due to frequent hospital stays and the associated exposure to pathogens. This study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of immunisation coverage among twins in which at least one twin has CHD.

Modelling mixed crop-livestock systems and climate impact assessment in sub-Saharan Africa.

Climate change significantly challenges smallholder mixed crop-livestock (MCL) systems in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), affecting food and feed production. This study enhances the SIMPLACE modeling framework by incorporating crop-vegetation-livestock models, which contribute to the development of sustainable agricultural practices in response to climate change. Applying such a framework in a domain in West Africa (786,500 km) allowed us to estimate the changes in crop (Maize, Millet, and Sorghum) yield, grass biomass, livestock numbers, and greenhouse gas emission in response to future climate scenarios.

Associated Cardiac and Extracardiac Anomalies in Patients with Abnormal Coronary Artery from the Pulmonary Artery.

Anomalous origin of coronary arteries from the pulmonary artery (ACAPA) are rare but clinically significant condition with high mortality if left untreated. Even more rarely, ACAPA is associated with other congenital heart defects. From 1974 to 2024, 120 patients with anomalous coronary arteries connected to the pulmonary artery were retrospectively analyzed.

Diazocines as Guests of Cucurbituril Macrocycles: Light-Responsive Binding and Supramolecular Catalysis of Thermal Isomerization.

The photoswitching of supramolecular host-guest complexes is the basis of numerous molecularly controlled macroscopic functions, such as sol-gel transition, photopharmacology, the active transport of ions or molecules, light-powered molecular machines, and much more. The most commonly used systems employ photoactive azobenzene guests and synthetic host molecules, which bind as the stable isomers and dissociate as the forms after exposure to UV light. We present a new, extraordinarily efficient cucurbit[7]uril (CB7)/diazocine host/guest complex with inverted stability that self-assembles under UV irradiation and dissociates in the dark.

[Combination drug therapy in pulmonary hypertension: switch from selexipaq to intravenous trepostinil].

A wide range of substances is currently available for the treatment of patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension. The current recommendations for initial drug therapy are based on the patient's risk profile. For patients at high risk, an initial triple combination therapy with different substances including prostanoids is recommended.

Serial Dilation and Intentional Fracturing of Stents in Congenital Heart Disease-Benchside Tests and Initial Clinical Results.

Background: There is some reluctance to implant stents in small children due to concerns regarding outgrowing the maximal stent diameter during follow-up.

Aim: Evaluation of a treatment strategy on the bench side, including intentional stent fracturing, and description of our initial clinical experience.

Methods: A series of benchside tests was performed with small stents, in which the stents were dilated above the rated diameters until they ultimately fractured.

MICCAI-CDMRI 2023 QuantConn Challenge Findings on Achieving Robust Quantitative Connectivity through Harmonized Preprocessing of Diffusion MRI.

White matter alterations are increasingly implicated in neurological diseases and their progression. International-scale studies use diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) to qualitatively identify changes in white matter microstructure and connectivity. Yet, quantitative analysis of DW-MRI data is hindered by inconsistencies stemming from varying acquisition protocols.

Prognostic relevance of exercise pulmonary hypertension: results of the multicentre PEX-NET Clinical Research Collaboration.

Background: Exercise pulmonary hypertension (PH) was defined by a mean pulmonary arterial pressure (mPAP)/cardiac output (CO) slope >3 mmHg·min·L between rest and exercise in the 2022 European Society of Cardiology/European Respiratory Society PH guidelines. However, large, multicentre studies on the prognostic relevance of exercise haemodynamics and its added value to resting haemodynamics are missing.

Patients And Methods: The PEX-NET (Pulmonary Haemodynamics during Exercise Network) registry enrolled patients who underwent clinically indicated right heart catheterisations both at rest and ergometer exercise from 23 PH centres worldwide.

Association Between Sleep Position, Obesity, and Obstructive Sleep Apnea Severity.

Background: This study examines the relationship between obstructive sleep apnea severity, sleep position, and body weight, particularly focusing on the negative impact of sleeping in a supine position combined with being overweight in a population-based sample.

Methods: The Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI) was utilized as a marker of OSA severity and sleep position from a standardized overnight polysomnography. Participants were categorized by body mass index (BMI) (kg/m) into normal weight/underweight (<25) and overweight (≥25).

Non-invasive cerebral autoregulation monitoring during paediatric cardiac surgery without cardiopulmonary bypass requiring intraoperative cross-clamping of one of the carotid arteries.

Introduction: Neurologic complications remain one of the major risks after pediatric cardiac surgery. Cerebral autoregulation (CA) is a physiologic mechanism regulating cerebral perfusion. A dynamic intraoperative evaluation can possibly detect the impairment of the cerebral regulatory function during surgery.

Geometric deep learning for diffusion MRI signal reconstruction with continuous samplings (DISCUS).

Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) permits a detailed in-vivo analysis of neuroanatomical microstructure, invaluable for clinical and population studies. However, many measurements with different diffusion-encoding directions and possibly -values are necessary to infer the underlying tissue microstructure within different imaging voxels accurately. Two challenges particularly limit the utility of dMRI: limit feasible scans to only a few directional measurements, and the makes it difficult to combine datasets.

Trametinib alters contractility of paediatric Noonan syndrome-associated hypertrophic myocardial tissue slices.

Aims: No curative treatment is available for RASopathy-associated childhood-onset hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (RAS-CM). Preclinical data and individual reports suggest a beneficial effect of small molecules targeting the RAS-mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase (MAPK) pathway in severely affected RAS-CM patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the biophysical effects of trametinib, rapamycin and dasatinib on cultivated myocardial tissue slices of a paediatric RAS-CM patient using biomimetic cultivation chambers (BMCCs) and to correlate the findings with clinical data.

An allosteric inhibitor of RhoGAP class-IX myosins suppresses the metastatic features of cancer cells.

Aberrant Ras homologous (Rho) GTPase signalling is a major driver of cancer metastasis, and GTPase-activating proteins (GAPs), the negative regulators of RhoGTPases, are considered promising targets for suppressing metastasis, yet drug discovery efforts have remained elusive. Here, we report the identification and characterization of adhibin, a synthetic allosteric inhibitor of RhoGAP class-IX myosins that abrogates ATPase and motor function, suppressing RhoGTPase-mediated modes of cancer cell metastasis. In human and murine adenocarcinoma and melanoma cell models, including three-dimensional spheroid cultures, we reveal anti-migratory and anti-adhesive properties of adhibin that originate from local disturbances in RhoA/ROCK-regulated signalling, affecting actin-dynamics and actomyosin-based cell-contractility.

Surgical outcome of the borderline hypoplastic left ventricle: impact of the left ventricle rehabilitation strategy.

Objective: This study aims to assess the surgical outcome of borderline hypoplastic left ventricle before and after the induction of the left ventricle rehabilitation strategy.

Methods: A retrospective review investigated patients with borderline hypoplastic left ventricle who underwent surgical intervention between 2012 and 2022. The patient cohort was stratified into two groups based on the initiation of left ventricle rehabilitation: an early-era group (E group, 2012-2017) and a late-era group (L group, 2018-2022).

Impact of coupled input data source-resolution and aggregation on contributions of high-yielding traits to simulated wheat yield.

High-yielding traits can potentially improve yield performance under climate change. However, data for these traits are limited to specific field sites. Despite this limitation, field-scale calibrated crop models for high-yielding traits are being applied over large scales using gridded weather and soil datasets.