Introduction: Anaesthesiology is a high-demand speciality with 24-hour on-call shifts, which can lead to significant stress and impaired sleep quality among anaesthetists. Nonpharmacological interventions like acupuncture have been widely explored for stress relief. This study aims to evaluate the impact of transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation (TEAS) on physiological parameters, specifically heart rate variability (HRV) and sleep quality, in anaesthesiology trainees following 24-hour on-call duty.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNat Struct Mol Biol
November 2024
The ESCRT-III-like protein Vipp1 couples filament polymerization with membrane remodeling. It assembles planar sheets as well as 3D rings and helical polymers, all implicated in mitigating plastid-associated membrane stress. The architecture of Vipp1 planar sheets and helical polymers remains unknown, as do the geometric changes required to transition between polymeric forms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFScratch recovery of micro-nano-patterned polymer surfaces extends the service life of products that require tunable surface properties and contributes to more sustainable development. Scratch recovery has been widely studied in bulk and 4D-printed polymers via intrinsic self-healing mechanisms. Existing studies on self-healing of micro/nano-scale polymeric surfaces are limited to the recovery of controlled tensile or compressive strain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLactate is the highest turnover circulating metabolite in mammals. While traditionally viewed as a waste product, lactate is an important energy source for many organs, but first must be oxidized to pyruvate for entry into the tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA cycle). This reaction is thought to occur in the cytosol, with pyruvate subsequently transported into mitochondria via the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier (MPC).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe bacterial tight adherence pilus system (TadPS) assembles surface pili essential for adhesion and colonisation in many human pathogens. Pilus dynamics are powered by the ATPase CpaF (TadA), which drives extension and retraction cycles in Caulobacter crescentus through an unknown mechanism. Here we use cryogenic electron microscopy and cell-based light microscopy to characterise CpaF mechanism.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a well-recognised treatment for advanced Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. Structural brain alterations of the white matter can correlate with disease progression and act as a biomarker for DBS therapy outcomes. This study aims to develop a machine learning-driven predictive model for DBS patient selection using whole-brain white matter radiomics and common clinical variables.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOur objective was to demonstrate primarily the safety and secondarily the efficacy of Y glass microspheres in selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in a local Southeast Asian hospital. Eleven consecutive patients with small, unresectable, nonmetastatic HCC and referred for locoregional therapy with SIRT with a curative intention were followed up for 6 mo after the procedure by way of interviews, blood tests, and anatomic scans. Although 5 patients had deranged liver function tests after the procedure, in only 1 patient did this constitute a grade 1 toxicity (in alkaline phosphatase) by the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The efficacy of long-course corticosteroid therapy in treating COVID-19-related diffuse interstitial lung abnormalities (DILA) needs to be better understood. We aimed to investigate the benefits of 12-week corticosteroid treatment in COVID-19-related DILA by evaluating computed tomography (CT) lung severity scores.
Materials And Methods: This retrospective, single-centre observational study included patients aged 18 years or older admitted with moderate to severe COVID-19 pneumonia who received 12 weeks of oral prednisolone between January 2021 and December 2021.
Biochim Biophys Acta Mol Cell Biol Lipids
August 2024
Activating mutations in the CTNNB1 gene encoding β-catenin are among the most frequently observed oncogenic alterations in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Profound alterations in lipid metabolism, including increases in fatty acid oxidation and transformation of the phospholipidome, occur in HCC with CTNNB1 mutations, but it is unclear what mechanisms give rise to these changes. We employed untargeted lipidomics and targeted isotope tracing to measure phospholipid synthesis activity in an inducible human liver cell line expressing mutant β-catenin, as well as in transgenic zebrafish with activated β-catenin-driven HCC.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To investigate how the accumulation of deficits traditionally related and not traditionally related to dementia predicts dementia and mortality.
Design: A retrospective cohort study with up to 9 years of follow-up.
Setting And Participants: Long-term care residents aged ≥65 with or without dementia.
The authors present the case of a 59-year-old lady diagnosed with lymphoepithelial carcinoma (LEC) of the left parotid gland. The primary tumour was identified using contrast-enhanced CT, and diagnosis was confirmed via fine needle aspiration cytology and immunohistochemistry. Staging using fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose PET CT revealed regional nodal metastases, while no distant metastasis was evident.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Surveillance of pancreatic cysts are necessary due to risk of malignant transformation. However, reported progression rates to advanced neoplasia are variable and the high frequency of surveillance scans may pose a considerable burden on healthcare resources.
Purpose: To validate the effectiveness of the Fukuoka Guidelines surveillance regime and determine if a longer surveillance interval can be established.
Introduction: Fluoroscopic-guided transbronchial lung biopsy (FG-TBLB) is routinely performed via bronchoscopy to diagnose focal peripheral lesions and diffuse lung disease. Identifying the risk factors of FG-TBLB-related pneumothorax can assist the operator in taking pre-emptive measures to prepare for this potential complication.
Materials And Methods: We retrospectively analysed data from 157 patients who underwent FG-TBLB, with the primary outcome being procedure-related pneumothorax.
The genus and the recently described genus , to which some previously named species have been reclassified as a result of a taxogenomic assessment, includes lactic acid bacteria species with high biotechnological and probiotic potential. Only one species, namely, (.) , whose type strain has been shown to possess probiotic features, has so far been described to be motile.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSelf-organization by the directed migration of components within a system is an important process in many applications, such as the unidirectional migration of motor proteins for transporting items to specific sites in a cell. This manuscript describes a class of functional polymeric molecules that have a set of instructions written by specific chemical moieties. These instructions allow the functional polymeric molecules to be used for autonomous synthesis of particles: particles with both functional core-shell structure and customizable shapes are fabricated for the first time.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnnu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc
July 2023
The use of e-textiles in wearable sensor design has recently received much interest in many applications, such as robotics, rehabilitation, personal wellness, and sports. Particularly in the rehabilitation domain, it has provided a potential alternative tool for telerehabilitation. In this paper, we designed and evaluated a knitted knee brace with interconnects, resistors, and sensors for real-time kinematic data acquisition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe present a case of a 59-year-old woman with lymphoepithelial carcinoma of left parotid gland. She was treated with radical radiotherapy, but her plasma Epstein-Barr virus DNA load continued to increase despite good locoregional response. As her primary tumor was positive for somatostatin receptor type 2, we performed 68 Ga-DOTATATE PET/CT, which revealed multiple DOTATATE-avid distant metastases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe present a case of a 68-year-old man with metastatic small bowel neuroendocrine tumor who underwent 4 cycles of peptide receptor radionuclide therapy with 177 Lu-DOTATATE. For his first 3 cycles, therapy was performed approximately 4 weeks after his last dose of octreotide LAR. Because of miscommunication in scheduling, his fourth cycle was performed only 48 hours after his last full dose of octreotide LAR.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTrends Biochem Sci
November 2023
Structural and evolutionary studies of cyanobacterial phage shock protein A (PspA) and inner membrane-associated protein of 30 kDa (IM30) have revealed that these proteins belong to the endosomal sorting complex required for transport-III (ESCRT-III) superfamily, which is conserved across all three domains of life. PspA and IM30 share secondary and tertiary structures with eukaryotic ESCRT-III proteins, whilst also oligomerizing via conserved interactions. Here, we examine the structures of bacterial ESCRT-III-like proteins and compare the monomeric and oligomerized forms with their eukaryotic counterparts.
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