Co-immunization with spike and nucleocapsid based DNA vaccines for long-term protective immunity against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron.

The continuing evolution of SARS-CoV-2 variants challenges the durability of existing spike (S)-based COVID-19 vaccines. We hypothesized that vaccines composed of both S and nucleocapsid (N) antigens would increase the durability of protection by strengthening and broadening cellular immunity compared with S-based vaccines. To test this, we examined the immunogenicity and efficacy of wild-type SARS-CoV-2 S- and N-based DNA vaccines administered individually or together to K18-hACE2 mice.

Masked Image Modeling Meets Self-Distillation: A Transformer-Based Prostate Gland Segmentation Framework for Pathology Slides.

Detailed evaluation of prostate cancer glands is an essential yet labor-intensive step in grading prostate cancer. Gland segmentation can serve as a valuable preliminary step for machine-learning-based downstream tasks, such as Gleason grading, patient classification, cancer biomarker building, and survival analysis. Despite its importance, there is currently a lack of a reliable gland segmentation model for prostate cancer.

Evaluating the Benefit of Home Support Provider Services for Positive Airway Pressure Therapy in Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnoea: Protocol for an Ambispective International Real-World Study.

Background: Adherence and persistence to positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy are key factors for positive health outcomes. Home support providers (HSPs) participate in home implementation and follow-up of PAP therapy for patients with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). In Europe, HSP levels of service are country (or area) specific, resulting in differences in content and frequency of patient interactions.

Impact of Discordance Between MRI and US Volume Measurements on Prostate Fusion Biopsy Outcomes.

Purpose: To determine whether the difference between MRI-based and ultrasound (US)-based volume measurements are associated with MRI/US-targeted fusion-guided biopsy outcomes.

Materials And Methods: This retrospective, single-center study involved 4177 consecutive patients biopsied between 2010 and 2023 using both MRI/US-targeted fusion and systematic biopsy. Biopsies were indicated because of elevated prostate-specific antigen levels or abnormal multiparametric MRI results.