Benefits and challenges of the integration of haptics-enhanced virtual reality training within dental curricula.

Background: Haptics-enhanced virtual reality (VR-haptic) simulation in dental education has evolved considerably during the past decade, representing a promising resource of simulation-based training opportunities to support conventional practice. We aim to summarize current literature on the applications of VR-haptics in learning, practicing, and teaching dental education.

Methods: A literature search was performed using PubMed, focusing on research articles published between January 2010 and January 2024.

A biocompatible supramolecular hydrogel mesh for sample stabilization in light microscopy and nanoscopy.

Most embedding media for live and fixed samples were not designed for microscopy and have issues including long polymerization times, peak of toxicity toward the sample during the sol-gel transition, and irreversibility of this transition. Gels derived from biological sources are widely used in microscopy, but their precise composition is ill-defined and can vary between batches. Non-physiological temperatures and/or specific enzymatic solutions are often needed to revert the gel back to the sol state to allow sample recovery.

Safety of Antiretroviral Exposure During Pregnancy: Opportunities to Close Data Gaps.

Pregnant persons with chronic health conditions often require pharmacotherapy to remain healthy. The Antiretroviral Pregnancy Registry is a prospective, international, voluntary, and exposure registry that collects information on antiretroviral (ARV) exposure; however, a minority of providers use the registry, leaving critical gaps to guide prescribing in this population. The Task Force for the Elimination of Perinatal HIV Transmission in the United States, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has identified the monitoring of ARV safety as a paramount concern in the ongoing mission to eliminate perinatal human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission.

Quantitative imaging of loop extruders rebuilding interphase genome architecture after mitosis.

How cells establish the interphase genome organization after mitosis is incompletely understood. Using quantitative and super-resolution microscopy, we show that the transition from a Condensin to a Cohesin-based genome organization occurs dynamically over two hours. While a significant fraction of Condensins remains chromatin-bound until early G1, Cohesin-STAG1 and its boundary factor CTCF are rapidly imported into daughter nuclei in telophase, immediately bind chromosomes as individual complexes and are sufficient to build the first interphase TAD structures.

The reproduction of gram-negative protoplasts and the influence of environmental conditions on this process.

Bacterial protoplasts are known to reproduce independently of canonical molecular biological processes. Although their reproduction is thought to be influenced by environmental conditions, the growth of protoplasts in their natural habitat has never been empirically studied. Here, we studied the life cycle of protoplasts in their native environment.

Dolutegravir and pregnancy outcomes including neural tube defects in the USA during 2008-20: a national cohort study.

Background: A study from Botswana identified an increased risk of neural tube defects (NTDs) in infants of mothers with HIV who were treated with dolutegravir around the time of conception. We aimed to examine associations of dolutegravir use with NTDs and pregnancy loss using large health-care claims databases from the USA, a country with folic acid fortification of food.

Methods: In this cohort study, we analysed health-care claims data, recorded in the Merative MarketScan commercial database (MarketScan data) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Medicaid database (Medicaid data) from Jan 1, 2008, to Dec 31, 2020.

Competitive interference among rhizobia reduces benefits to hosts.

The capacity of beneficial microbes to compete for host infection-and the ability of hosts to discriminate among them-introduces evolutionary conflict that is predicted to destabilize mutualism. We investigated fitness outcomes in associations between legumes and their symbiotic rhizobia to characterize fitness impacts of microbial competition. Diverse Bradyrhizobium strains varying in their capacity to fix nitrogen symbiotically with a common host plant, Acmispon strigosus, were tested in full-factorial coinoculation experiments involving 28 pairwise strain combinations.

Fast-exchanging spirocyclic rhodamine probes for aptamer-based super-resolution RNA imaging.

Live-cell RNA imaging with high spatial and temporal resolution remains a major challenge. Here we report the development of RhoBAST:SpyRho, a fluorescent light-up aptamer (FLAP) system ideally suited for visualizing RNAs in live or fixed cells with various advanced fluorescence microscopy modalities. Overcoming problems associated with low cell permeability, brightness, fluorogenicity, and signal-to-background ratio of previous fluorophores, we design a novel probe, SpyRho (Spirocyclic Rhodamine), which tightly binds to the RhoBAST aptamer.

'Getting to Denmark': the role of agricultural elites for development.

Unlabelled: We explore the role of elites for development and the spread of industrialized dairying in Denmark in the 1880s. We demonstrate that the location of early proto-modern dairies, introduced by landowning elites from northern Germany in the eighteenth century, explains the location of industrialized dairying in 1890: an increase of one standard deviation in elite influence increases industrialized dairying by 56 percent of the mean exposure in one specification. We interpret this as evidence for a spread of ideas from the elites to the peasantry, which we capture through measures of specialization in dairying and demand for education and identify a causal relationship using an instrument based on distance to the influential first mover.

Identification of pregnancies and their outcomes in healthcare claims data, 2008-2019: An algorithm.

Pregnancy is a condition of broad interest across many medical and health services research domains, but one not easily identified in healthcare claims data. Our objective was to establish an algorithm to identify pregnant women and their pregnancies in claims data. We identified pregnancy-related diagnosis, procedure, and diagnosis-related group codes, accounting for the transition to International Statistical Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) diagnosis and procedure codes, in health encounter reporting on 10/1/2015.

Protocol for the setup and use of a human choroid plexus endothelial-epithelial two-cell-type model.

Choroid plexus, located in brain ventricles, is the site of blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier that contains endothelial cells and an epithelial monolayer separated by stroma. We established a two-cell-type model of the human choroid plexus consisting of immortalized endothelial cells (iHCPEnC) and epithelial papilloma (HIBCPP) cells grown on opposite sides of filter supports. In this protocol, we describe the preparation of this model, the measurement of transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER), and immunofluorescence imaging-based analysis to determine the barrier function.

Quality of early prostate cancer follow-up care from the patients' perspective.

Purpose: To develop optimal cancer survivorship care programs, this study assessed the quality of prostate cancer follow-up care as experienced by patients shortly after completion of primary treatment.

Methods: We surveyed 402 patients with localized prostate cancer participating in a randomized controlled trial comparing specialist versus primary care-based follow-up. For the current study, we used patient-reported data at the time of the first follow-up visit at the hospital, prior to randomization.

Effects of Iron Minerals on the Compressive Strengths and Microstructural Properties of Metakaolin-Based Geopolymer Materials.

The current study aims to investigate the influence of iron minerals on the amorphous phase content, compressive strengths and the microstructural properties of the geopolymer materials. Geopolymer materials were prepared by the substitution of metakaolin by 10 and 20 wt.% of each iron mineral sample.

Superresolution microscopy localizes endogenous Dvl2 to Wnt signaling-responsive biomolecular condensates.

During organismal development, homeostasis, and disease, Dishevelled (Dvl) proteins act as key signaling factors in beta-catenin-dependent and beta-catenin-independent Wnt pathways. While their importance for signal transmission has been genetically demonstrated in many organisms, our mechanistic understanding is still limited. Previous studies using overexpressed proteins showed Dvl localization to large, punctate-like cytoplasmic structures that are dependent on its DIX domain.

Immortalized human choroid plexus endothelial cells enable an advanced endothelial-epithelial two-cell type model of the choroid plexus.

The choroid plexus (CP) is a highly vascularized structure containing endothelial and epithelial cells located in the ventricular system of the central nervous system (CNS). The role of the fenestrated CP endothelium is under-researched and requires the generation of an immortalized CP endothelial cell line with preserved features. Transduction of primary human CP endothelial cells (HCPEnC) with the human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) resulted in immortalized HCPEnC (iHCPEnC), which grew as monolayer with contact inhibition, formed capillary-like tubes in Matrigel, and showed no colony growth in soft agar.

Liquid-to-solid phase transition of oskar ribonucleoprotein granules is essential for their function in Drosophila embryonic development.

Asymmetric localization of oskar ribonucleoprotein (RNP) granules to the oocyte posterior is crucial for abdominal patterning and germline formation in the Drosophila embryo. We show that oskar RNP granules in the oocyte are condensates with solid-like physical properties. Using purified oskar RNA and scaffold proteins Bruno and Hrp48, we confirm in vitro that oskar granules undergo a liquid-to-solid phase transition.

Being Transparent About Brilliant Failures: An Attempt to Use Real-World Data in a Disease Model for Patients with Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer.

Background: Real-world disease models spanning multiple treatment lines can provide insight into the (cost) effectiveness of treatment sequences in clinical practice.

Objective: Our objective was to explore whether a disease model based solely on real-world data (RWD) could be used to estimate the effectiveness of treatments for patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) that could then be suitably used in a cost-effectiveness analysis.

Methods: We developed a patient-level simulation model using patient-level data from the Dutch CAPRI registry as input parameters.

Phospholipase D and retromer promote recycling of TRPL ion channel via the endoplasmic reticulum.

Plasma membrane protein trafficking is of fundamental importance for cell function and cell integrity of neurons and includes regulated protein recycling. In this work, we report a novel role of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) for protein recycling as discovered in trafficking studies of the ion channel TRPL in photoreceptor cells of Drosophila. TRPL is located within the rhabdomeric membrane from where it is endocytosed upon light stimulation and stored in the cell body.