Genome-Editing Products Line up for the Market: Will Europe Harvest the Benefits from Science and Innovation?

Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) technologies have revolutionized genome editing, significantly advancing the improvement of cultivated crop species. This review provides an overview of genome-edited crops that have either reached the market or received the necessary approvals but are not yet available to consumers. We analyze various genome-editing studies to understand the distribution of different genome-editing systems, the types of site-directed nucleases employed, and the geographical spread of these studies, with a specific focus on global and European contexts.

Circumferential resection margin rates in esophageal cancer resection: oncological equivalency and comparable clinical outcomes between open versus minimally invasive techniques - a retrospective cohort study.

Background: Radical surgery for esophageal cancer requires macroscopic and microscopic clearance of all malignant tissue. A critical element of the procedure is achieving a negative circumferential margin (CRM) to minimize local recurrence. The utility of minimally invasive surgery poses challenges in replicating techniques developed in open surgery, particularly for hiatal dissection in esophago-gastrectomy.

Gait analysis comparison between manual marking, 2D pose estimation algorithms, and 3D marker-based system.

Introduction: Recent advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Computer Vision (CV) have led to automated pose estimation algorithms using simple 2D videos. This has created the potential to perform kinematic measurements without the need for specialized, and often expensive, equipment. Even though there's a growing body of literature on the development and validation of such algorithms for practical use, they haven't been adopted by health professionals.

Validation of Claims-Based Algorithm for Lyme Disease, Massachusetts, USA.

Compared with notifiable disease surveillance, claims-based algorithms estimate higher Lyme disease incidence, but their accuracy is unknown. We applied a previously developed Lyme disease algorithm (diagnosis code plus antimicrobial drug prescription dispensing within 30 days) to an administrative claims database in Massachusetts, USA, to identify a Lyme disease cohort during July 2000-June 2019. Clinicians reviewed and adjudicated medical charts from a cohort subset by using national surveillance case definitions.

Freeze-Drying Process for the Fabrication of Collagen-Based Sponges as Medical Devices in Biomedical Engineering.

This paper presents a systematic review of a key sector of the much promising and rapidly evolving field of biomedical engineering, specifically on the fabrication of three-dimensional open, porous collagen-based medical devices, using the prominent freeze-drying process. Collagen and its derivatives are the most popular biopolymers in this field, as they constitute the main components of the extracellular matrix, and therefore exhibit desirable properties, such as biocompatibility and biodegradability, for in vivo applications. For this reason, freeze-dried collagen-based sponges with a wide variety of attributes can be produced and have already led to a wide range of successful commercial medical devices, chiefly for dental, orthopedic, hemostatic, and neuronal applications.

Radiomic applications in upper gastrointestinal cancer surgery.

Introduction: Cross-sectional imaging plays an integral role in the management of upper gastrointestinal (UGI) cancer, from initial diagnosis and staging to determining appropriate treatment strategies. Subjective imaging interpretation has known limitations. The field of radiomics has evolved to extract quantitative data from medical imaging and relate these to biological processes.

A Multiple change-point detection framework on linguistic characteristics of real versus fake news articles.

Extracting information from textual data of news articles has been proven to be significant in developing efficient fake news detection systems. Pointedly, to fight disinformation, researchers concentrated on extracting information which focuses on exploiting linguistic characteristics that are common in fake news and can aid in detecting false content automatically. Even though these approaches were proven to have high performance, the research community proved that both the language as well as the word use in literature are evolving.

The Use of Mechanical Bowel Preparation and Oral Antibiotic Prophylaxis in Elective Colorectal Surgery: A Call for Change in Practice.

Elective colorectal surgery is associated with one of the highest rates of surgical site infections (SSIs), which result in prolonged length of stay, morbidity, and mortality for these patients and have a significant financial burden to healthcare systems. In an effort to reduce the frequency of SSI rates associated with colorectal surgery, the 2018 World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines recommend the routine use of mechanical bowel preparation (MBP) and oral antibiotic prophylaxis (OAP) in adult patients undergoing elective colorectal surgery. However, this recommendation remains a topic of debate internationally.

Laparoscopic Management of Acute Small Bowel Obstruction in Non-Selected Patients: A 10-Year Experience.

The laparoscopic approach to the management of small bowel obstruction (SBO) has been associated with reduced length of hospital stay, complications, and mortality. The laparoscopy-first approach has been limited to highly selective cases to date. In this retrospective observational study, we report our 10-year experience and outcomes within a dedicated Emergency Surgery unit that adopted a non-selective approach in the laparoscopic management of SBO.

Anastomotic Leak in Ovarian Cancer Cytoreduction Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Introduction: Anastomotic leaks (AL) following ovarian cytoreduction surgery could be detrimental, leading to significant delays in commencing adjuvant chemotherapy, prolonged hospital stays and increased morbidity. The aim of this study was to investigate risk factors associated with anastomotic leaks after ovarian cytoreduction surgery.

Material And Methods: The MEDLINE (via PubMed), Cochrane Library, EMBASE and Scopus bibliographical databases were searched.

Colorectal Cancer and the Obese Patient: A Call for Guidelines.

The link between obesity and colorectal cancer has been well established. The worldwide rise in obesity rates in the past 40 years means that we are dealing with increasing numbers of obese patients with colorectal cancer. We aimed to review the existing guidelines and make recommendations specific to this group of patients.

Self-Amputation in Two Non-Psychotic Patients.

Self-amputation, the extreme form of self-mutilation, is uncommon. The vast majority of cases are associated with psychosis, with a small number being assigned the controversial diagnosis of body identity integrity disorder. In this article, we report two cases of non-psychotic self-amputation and their similarities with a view to highlighting the risk factors and formulating an appropriate management plan.

Solitary median maxillary central incisor syndrome (SMMCI) with congenital nasal puriform aperture stenosis: literature review and case report with comprehensive dental treatment and 14 years follow-up.

Background: Solitary median maxillary central incisor syndrome [SMMCI] is an extremely rare anomaly, especially when no other abnormalities are present. The defect is often found together with various nasal abnormalities and short stature with or without decreased levels of growth hormone. In more severe cases, SMMCI has been associated with holoprosencephaly, the CHARGE and the VACTERL association.

Predicting the risk and severity of acute spinal cord injury after a minor trauma to the cervical spine.

Background Context: Acute spinal cord injury (SCI) after a minor trauma to the cervical spine has been reported in patients without preceding neurologic symptoms. Spinal canal stenosis may be the reason for the discrepancy between the severity of the injury and that of the trauma. The spinal canal to vertebral body ratio is often used to assess canal stenosis on conventional radiographs.

The Torg-Pavlov ratio for the prediction of acute spinal cord injury after a minor trauma to the cervical spine.

Background Context: Acute cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) has been observed in some patients after a minor trauma to the cervical spine. The discrepancy between the severity of the trauma and the clinical symptoms has been attributed to spinal canal stenosis. However, to date, there is no universally established radiological parameter for identifying critical spinal stenosis in these patients.

Kisspeptin signalling in the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus regulates GnRH pulse generator frequency in the rat.

Background: Kisspeptin and its G protein-coupled receptor (GPR) 54 are essential for activation of the hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal axis. In the rat, the kisspeptin neurons critical for gonadotropin secretion are located in the hypothalamic arcuate (ARC) and anteroventral periventricular (AVPV) nuclei. As the ARC is known to be the site of the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) pulse generator we explored whether kisspeptin-GPR54 signalling in the ARC regulates GnRH pulses.

Shoulder abduction moment arms in three clinically important positions.

The abduction moment arms of 4 shoulder muscles were calculated in clinically important positions to evaluate the best test situation for the supraspinatus based on its mechanical advantage.Moment arms of the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, and middle and anterior deltoid in 18 individuals were computed using individual magnetic resonance imaging data and a computer-assisted design tool for simulation. Three tests with the arm in the neutral position (arm hanging on side), at 90 of scaption,and at 90 of scaption and full internal humeral rotation (Jobe test) were investigated.

A quantitative study of humeral cartilage in individuals with spinal cord injury.

Study Design: Cross-sectional design.

Objectives: In this in vivo study, we investigated the influence of different load situations on humeral cartilage thickness in individuals with paraplegia and quadriplegia.

Setting: ETH Zurich and Swiss Paraplegic Centre Nottwil, Switzerland.