Confinement-sensitive volume regulation dynamics via high-speed nuclear morphological measurements.

Diverse tissues in vivo present varying degrees of confinement, constriction, and compression to migrating cells in both homeostasis and disease. The nucleus in particular is subjected to external forces by the physical environment during confined migration. While many systems have been developed to induce nuclear deformation and analyze resultant functional changes, much remains unclear about dynamic volume regulation in confinement due to limitations in time resolution and difficulty imaging in PDMS-based microfluidic chips.

Parental Acceptance and Understanding of Autistic Children (PAUACS) - an Instrument Development Study.

Currently there are no instruments designed to assess parents' acceptance and understanding of their autistic child. We aimed to develop and evaluate the reliability and validity of a parent-report scale assessing parents' acceptance and understanding of their autistic child - the Parental Acceptance and Understanding of Autistic Children Scale (PAUACS). A total of 158 parents (74 non-autistic, 42 autistic, 42 questioning; mean age 42.

A Longitudinal Study of the Association of Awareness of Disease Incurability with Patient-Reported Outcomes in Heart Failure.

Objectives: To examine awareness of disease incurability among patients with heart failure over 24 mo and its associations with patient characteristics and patient-reported outcomes (distress, emotional, and spiritual well-being).

Methods: This study analyzed 24-mo data from a prospective cohort study of 251 patients with heart failure (New York Heart Association class III/IV) recruited from inpatient wards in Singapore General Hospital and National Heart Centre Singapore. Patients were asked to report if their doctor told them they were receiving treatment to cure their condition.

Real-Time Adaptive Inline Acidification Enhances Continuous pH Control for Viral Inactivation.

Existing low pH viral inactivation methods for continuous downstream processing of biologics typically rely on predictive models to estimate the necessary pH adjustments. However, these methods are of limited use during the process development stage due to the dynamic nature of capture chromatography, where batch variations can alter the eluted protein titer. This study introduces an inline viral inactivation system (IVIS) that utilizes real-time adaptive control and inline sensor readings to precisely regulate the pH manipulation for inline acidification and continuous viral inactivation.

Performance of indicators used in regular risk assessments for COVID-19 in association with contextual factors.

Background: This study aimed to summarize the results of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) risk assessments and to examine the associations between risk levels and various indicators, including COVID-19 incidence, risk perception, community mobility, and government policy.

Methods: The results of the risk assessment and the indicators utilized were summarized. From November 2021 to May 2022, the COVID-19 risk level was evaluated on a weekly basis, and its correlation with these indicators was analyzed.

Revealing molecular mechanisms of early-onset tongue cancer by spatial transcriptomics.

Tongue cancer at a young age demonstrates an increase in incidence, aggressiveness, and poor response to therapy. Classic etiological factors for head and neck tumors such as tobacco, alcohol, and human papillomavirus are not related to early-onset tongue cancer. Mechanisms of development and progression of this cancer remain unclear.

Virus-like Particles-Based Vaccine to Combat Neurodegenerative Diseases.

Neurodegenerative diseases are regarded as gradual, incurable conditions with an insidious onset. Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) are two of the most prevalent neurodegenerative diseases reported globally. Developing effective treatment strategies for neurodegenerative diseases has remained a primary objective and a huge challenge for researchers.

Magnetic Miniature Soft Robot with Reprogrammable Drug-Dispensing Functionalities: Toward Advanced Targeted Combination Therapy.

Miniature robots are untethered actuators, which have great prospects to transform targeted drug delivery because they can potentially deliver high concentrations of medicine to the disease site(s) with minimal complications. However, existing miniature robots cannot perform advanced targeted combination therapy; majority of them can at most transport one type of drug, while those that can carry multiple drugs are unable to change their drug-dispensing sequence and dosage. Furthermore, the latter robots cannot transport more than three types of drugs, selectively dispense their drugs, maintain their mobility, or release their drugs at multiple sites.

An aptamer-guided fluorescence polarisation platform for extracellular vesicle liquid biopsy.

The translation of discoveries on extracellular vesicle (EV) based cancer biomarkers to personalised precision oncology requires the development of robust, sensitive and specific assays that are amenable to adoption in the clinical laboratory. Whilst a variety of elegant approaches for EV liquid biopsy have been developed, most of them remain as research prototypes due to the requirement of a high level of microfabrication and/or sophisticated instruments. Hence, this study is set to develop a simple DNA aptamer-enabled and fluorescence polarisation-based homogenous assay that eliminates the need to separate unbound detection ligands from the bound species for EV detection.

Children and young people's preferences and needs when using health technology to self-manage a long-term condition: a scoping review.

Background: The use of patient-facing health technologies to manage long-term conditions (LTCs) is increasing; however, children and young people (CYP) may have preferences about health technologies which they interact or engage with, that influence their decision to use these technologies.

Aims: To identify CYP's reported preferences about health technologies to self-manage LTCs.

Methods: We undertook a scoping review, searching MEDLINE, PsycINFO and CINAHL in July 2021.

Methods and participant characteristics in the Cancer Risk in Vegetarians Consortium: a cross-sectional analysis across 11 prospective studies.

Background: The associations of vegetarian diets with risks for site-specific cancers have not been estimated reliably due to the low number of vegetarians in previous studies. Therefore, the Cancer Risk in Vegetarians Consortium was established. The aim is to describe and compare the baseline characteristics between non-vegetarian and vegetarian diet groups and between the collaborating studies.

The role of the gut microbiome in neuroinflammation and chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy.

Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is one of the most debilitating adverse effects caused by chemotherapy drugs such as paclitaxel, oxaliplatin and vincristine. It is untreatable and often leads to the discontinuation of cancer therapy and a decrease in the quality of life of cancer patients. It is well-established that neuroinflammation and the activation of immune and glial cells are among the major drivers of CIPN.

Lessons Learnt from Imaging Review of Interval Breast Cancers in a Single Center in the UK National Breast Screening Program.

False-negative mammograms are a part of any screening program and the National Breast Screening Program in the United Kingdom is no exception. Every year, 2.5 million women have screening mammograms in the United Kingdom.

Developing a Mental Health Screening Questionnaire in an Asian Children's Hospital Emergency Setting.

Introduction: Mental health concerns among adolescents are increasingly prevalent, yet underrecognized. Adolescents with psychological distress often present to the emergency department (ED) with somatic symptoms. Due to inadequate time for rapport building and lack of familiarity of ED clinicians with psychosocial evaluation, these concerns often get missed.

Blood-based therapies to combat neurodegenerative diseases.

Neurodegeneration, known as the progressive loss of neurons in terms of their structure and function, is the principal pathophysiological change found in the majority of brain-related disorders. Ageing has been considered the most well-established risk factor in most common neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). There is currently no effective treatment or cure for these diseases; the approved therapeutic options to date are only for palliative care.

Comparison of manual and artificial intelligence-automated choroidal thickness segmentation of optical coherence tomography imaging in myopic adults.

Background: Myopia affects 1.4 billion individuals worldwide. Notably, there is increasing evidence that choroidal thickness plays an important role in myopia and risk of developing myopia-related conditions.

Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption and Height Loss in Adults: A Longitudinal Analysis in the EPIC-Norfolk Study.

Background: Height loss in aging has been recognized to reflect a decline in musculoskeletal health but not investigated in relation to dietary factors, such as sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), the consumption of which may deteriorate musculoskeletal health.

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the longitudinal association of habitual consumption of total SSBs and its subtypes with height loss and examine effect-modification by age, sex, and anthropometry.

Methods: We evaluated 16,230 adults aged 40-79 y in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition-Norfolk cohort.

Global seroprevalence and prevalence of infection of influenza in dogs (Canis familiaris): A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Influenza in dogs holds considerable public health significance due to their close companionship with humans, yet several facets of this phenomenon remain largely unexplored. This study undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies to gauge the global seroprevalence of influenza in dogs. We also assessed whether pet dogs exhibited a higher seroprevalence of influenza compared to non-pet dogs, explored seasonal variations in seroprevalence, scrutinised the design and reporting standards of existing studies, and elucidated the geographical distribution of canine influenza virus (cIV).

The role of the size of affinity ligands in the detection and characterization of extracellular vesicles.

Surface proteins on the membrane of nano-sized extracellular vesicles (EVs) not only play crucial roles in cell-to-cell communication, but also are specific binding targets for EV detection, isolation and tracking. The low abundance of protein biomarkers on EV surface, the formation of clusters and the complex EV surface network impose significant challenges to the study of EVs. Employing bulky sized affinity ligands, such as antibodies, in the detection and characterization of these vesicles often result in reduced sensitivity of detection or poor quantification of proteins on the EV surface.

Potentials of ribosomopathy gene as pharmaceutical targets for cancer treatment.

Ribosomopathies encompass a spectrum of disorders arising from impaired ribosome biogenesis and reduced functionality. Mutation or dysexpression of the genes that disturb any finely regulated steps of ribosome biogenesis can result in different types of ribosomopathies in clinic, collectively known as ribosomopathy genes. Emerging data suggest that ribosomopathy patients exhibit a significantly heightened susceptibility to cancer.

Engineering approaches for understanding mechanical memory in cancer metastasis.

Understanding cancer metastasis is crucial for advancing therapeutic strategies and improving clinical outcomes. Cancer cells face dynamic changes in their mechanical microenvironment that occur on timescales ranging from minutes to years and exhibit a spectrum of cellular transformations in response to these mechanical cues. A crucial facet of this adaptive response is the concept of mechanical memory, in which mechanosensitive cell behavior and function persists even when mechanical cues are altered.

One-pot isothermal amplification permits recycled activation of CRISPR/Cas12a for sensing terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase activity.

This study introduces a one-pot isothermal amplification assay for ultrasensitive analysis of terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) activity. The system realizes recycled activation of CRISPR/Cas12a, enabling exceptional signal amplification. This approach maximizes the simplicity of the detection method, offering a promising avenue for molecular disease diagnosis.