Gestational hypercholanemia suppresses pregnancy-associated adipose mass increase and stimulates a pro-inflammatory environment in mice.

Women with intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) have hypercholanemia alongside an increased risk of dyslipidemia. We investigated how cholic acid (CA) supplementation in murine pregnancy impacts adipose tissue function. Mice were fed normal or 0.

The impact of game play on dementia knowledge: A student evaluation of the Dementia Inequalities Game.

People with dementia and carers can face many barriers, or inequalities, in accessing a diagnosis or care. These barriers are unjust and can be addressed by the right interventions, to ensure that everyone receives equitable access to diagnosis and care. A lack of knowledge about dementia in the health and social care workforce is a recognised barrier.

Sexual History-Taking in a Surgery Clerkship Assessment: A Stubborn Clinical Skills Gap With Reproductive Health Care Implications.

Purpose: Patients present with sexual and reproductive health needs in a variety of clinical settings, so knowing when and how to elicit a relevant sexual history is critical in any specialty. This work examined whether reinforcing the surgical relevance of sexual health with an integrated training improved third-year medical students' sexual history-taking.

Method: Third-year surgery clerkship standardized patient assessments were video coded from a 2021-2022 comparison and 2022-2023 intervention cohort (University of Louisville School of Medicine).

Management and prevention of Neisseria meningitidis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae infections in the context of evolving antimicrobial resistance trends.

Purpose: To describe the relationships between Neisseria meningitidis (NM) and Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) at genetic, population, and individual levels; to review historical trends in antimicrobial resistance (AMR); to review the treatment and preventive landscapes and explore their potential impact on AMR.

Methods: A narrative literature search was conducted in PubMed, with searches restricted to 2003-2023 and additional articles included based on expertise.

Results: NM and NG are closely related bacterial pathogens causing invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) and gonorrhea, respectively.

Transbronchial Needle Aspiration via Ultrathin Bronchoscope Improves Diagnostic Yield for Peripheral Lung Lesions: Randomized Sequencing Trial.

Background: Peripheral pulmonary lesions (PPLs) are frequently identified and require diagnostic sampling. Diagnostic yield of radial endobronchial ultrasound (rEBUS) guided bronchoscopic biopsies is suboptimal, despite ultrasound confirmation of navigation success. Pairing ultrathin bronchoscopy and peripheral transbronchial needle aspiration (pTBNA) may improve yield.

The Platform Trial In COVID-19 priming and BOOsting (PICOBOO): The immunogenicity, reactogenicity, and safety of licensed COVID-19 vaccinations administered as a second booster in BNT162b2 primed individuals aged 18-<50 and 50-<70 years old.

Objectives: PICOBOO is a randomised, adaptive trial evaluating the immunogenicity, reactogenicity, and safety of COVID-19 booster strategies. Here, we present data for second boosters among individuals aged 18-<50 and 50-<70 years old primed with BNT162b2 until Day (D) 84.

Methods: Immunocompetent adults who had received two doses of BNT162b2 and any licensed COVID-19 booster at least three months prior were eligible.

Molecular correlates of swarming behaviour in males.

Mosquitoes are the deadliest vectors of diseases. They impose a huge health burden on human populations spreading parasites as disparate as protozoans (malaria), viruses (yellow fever and more) and nematodes (filariasis) that cause life-threatening conditions. In recent years, mating has been proposed as a putative target for population control.

Antibody responses against influenza A decline with successive years of annual influenza vaccination: results from an Australian Healthcare Worker cohort.

Influenza vaccine effectiveness and immunogenicity can be compromised with repeated vaccination. We assessed immunological markers in a cohort of healthcare workers (HCW) from six public hospitals around Australia during 2020-2021. Sera were collected pre-vaccination and ~14 and ~ 180 days post-vaccination and assessed in haemagglutination inhibition assay against egg-grown vaccine and equivalent cell-grown viruses.

The Platform Trial In COVID-19 Priming and BOOsting (PICOBOO): The immunogenicity, reactogenicity, and safety of different COVID-19 vaccinations administered as a second booster (fourth dose) in AZD1222 primed individuals aged 50-<70 years old.

Objectives: PICOBOO is a randomised, adaptive trial evaluating the immunogenicity, reactogenicity, and safety of COVID-19 booster strategies. We report data for second boosters among individuals 50-<70 years old primed with AZD1222 (50-<70y-AZD1222) until Day 84.

Methods: Immunocompetent adults who received any first booster ≥three months prior were eligible.

Interpersonal emotion regulation and depressive symptoms in parent-adolescent dyads: A daily-diary investigation.

Deficient parental extrinsic (IER, how people regulate others' emotions) is a known risk factor for adolescent depression. Although IER and depression development are transactional, dyadic processes, previous work has almost exclusively focused on how parental IER is associated with adolescent depression. The association between parental IER and adolescent depression, and the associations between adolescent IER and adolescent and parental depression have received little attention.

Lung cancer screening - Time for an update?

Lung cancer screening can reduce the mortality of lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Real world screening experience highlights areas for improvement in a complex and changing world, particularly ethnic disparity, and the potential for new and emerging risk factors, in addition to well known risk of smoking and asbestos exposure. Biomarkers offer the promise of objective risk assessment but are not yet ready for clinical practice.

Coronary artery calcification detected on low-dose computed tomography in high-risk participants of an Australian lung cancer screening program: A prospective observational study.

Background And Objectives: Coronary artery calcification (CAC) is a frequent additional finding on lung cancer screening (LCS) low-dose computed tomography (LDCT). Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major cause of death in LCS participants. We aimed to describe prevalence of incidental CAC detected on LDCT in LCS participants without prior history of coronary artery disease (CAD), evaluate their CVD risk and describe subsequent investigation and management.

The seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies in Australian children: A cross-sectional study.

Background: Following reduction of public health and social measures concurrent with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron emergence in late 2021 in Australia, COVID-19 case notification rates rose rapidly. As rates of direct viral testing and reporting dropped, true infection rates were most likely to be underestimated.

Objective: To better understand infection rates and immunity in this population, we aimed to estimate SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in Australians aged 0-19 years.

"Because that is the right thing to do": A focus group study of Australian expert perspectives on offering smoking cessation support in lung cancer screening.

Introduction: Lung cancer screening (LCS) trials, targeting people with smoking history, have demonstrated reduced mortality. How to optimally embed evidence-based smoking cessation support in LCS, including in Australia, needs to be better understood. We sought experts' perspectives to identify potential barriers and effective implementation strategies.

Identifying motivational interviewing techniques in Quitline smoking cessation counselling sessions from Queensland, Australia.

Motivational interviewing (MI) is a common approach for smoking cessation counselling, yet little is known about the use of MI techniques in practice. This qualitative content analysis applied a published classification of content and relational MI techniques to a sample of 30 Quitline transcripts (January-March 2019) from Queensland, Australia. Overall, 36 MI techniques (94.

Interactive Cascaded Network for Prostate Cancer Segmentation from Multimodality MRI with Automated Quality Assessment.

The accurate segmentation of prostate cancer (PCa) from multiparametric MRI is crucial in clinical practice for guiding biopsy and treatment planning. Existing automated methods often lack the necessary accuracy and robustness in localizing PCa, whereas interactive segmentation methods, although more accurate, require user intervention on each input image, thereby limiting the cost-effectiveness of the segmentation workflow. Our innovative framework addresses the limitations of current methods by combining a coarse segmentation network, a rejection network, and an interactive deep network known as Segment Anything Model (SAM).

Interventions to Reduce Lung Cancer and COPD-Related Stigma: A Systematic Review.

Background: Many individuals with lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) experience high levels of stigma, which is associated with psychological distress and delayed help-seeking.

Purpose: To identify interventions aimed at reducing the stigma of lung cancer or COPD and to synthesize evidence on their efficacy.

Methods: A systematic review was conducted by searching PubMed, Scopus, PsycINFO, and CINAHL for relevant records until March 1, 2024.

Co-Designing a Smoking Cessation Chatbot: Focus Group Study of End Users and Smoking Cessation Professionals.

Background: Our prototype smoking cessation chatbot, Quin, provides evidence-based, personalized support delivered via a smartphone app to help people quit smoking. We developed Quin using a multiphase program of co-design research, part of which included focus group evaluation of Quin among stakeholders prior to clinical testing.

Objective: This study aimed to gather and compare feedback on the user experience of the Quin prototype from end users and smoking cessation professionals (SCPs) via a beta testing process to inform ongoing chatbot iterations and refinements.

Improving Xenon-129 lung ventilation image SNR with deep-learning based image reconstruction.

Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility and utility of a deep learning (DL)-based reconstruction for improving the SNR of hyperpolarized Xe lung ventilation MRI.

Methods: Xe lung ventilation MRI data acquired from patients with asthma and/or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were retrospectively reconstructed with a commercial DL reconstruction pipeline at five different denoising levels. Quantitative imaging metrics of lung ventilation including ventilation defect percentage (VDP) and ventilation heterogeneity index (VH) were compared between each set of DL-reconstructed images and alternative denoising strategies including: filtering, total variation denoising and higher-order singular value decomposition.