Clinical Pharmacokinetics of Antitubercular Drugs in the Overweight and Obese Population: Implications for Dosage Adjustments.

The rise in global obesity prevalence has increased the need to understand the pharmacokinetics of drugs in overweight and obese individuals. Tuberculosis remains a significant health challenge, and its treatment outcomes can be influenced by the pharmacokinetic profiles of antitubercular agents. This literature review aims to point out the clinical pharmacokinetics of antitubercular drugs in the overweight and obese patient population, highlighting considerations for potential dosage adjustments.

Immunogenicity, safety, and reactogenicity of concomitant administration of the novavax vaccine against Omicron XBB.1.5 (NVX-CoV2601) and a 20-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in adults aged ≥60 years: A randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, non-inferiority trial.

Objectives: There is conflicting evidence as to whether the combined administration of two vaccines can lead to poorer immunogenicity and reactogenicity. The co-administration of the Omicron-adapted COVID-19 vaccine from Novavax (NVX-CoV2601) and a 20-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV20) has not been previously investigated.

Methods: In this randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, non-inferiority trial, immunocompetent participants aged ≥60 years were randomised in a 1:1:1:1 ratio to four groups: NVX-CoV2601 plus PCV20 (combination group); NVX-CoV2601 plus placebo (NVX-only group); PCV20 plus placebo (PCV20-only group); or placebo plus placebo (placebo group).

Amide proton transfer weighted MRI measurements yield consistent and repeatable results in patients with gliomas: a prospective test-retest study.

Objectives: Chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) imaging has emerged as a promising imaging biomarker, but its reliability for clinical practice remains uncertain. This study aimed to investigate the robustness of CEST parameters in healthy volunteers and patients with brain tumours.

Methods: A total of n = 52 healthy volunteers and n = 52 patients with histologically confirmed glioma underwent two consecutive 3-T MRI scans separated by a 1-min break.

Prevalence and clinical implications of bloodstream infections in intensive care patients with or without burn injury: a retrospective cohort study.

Purpose: Severe burn injuries are often accompanied by infections and associated with high morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to compare the prevalence and clinical impact of bacteremia between patients receiving intensive care with and without burns.

Methods: This single-center retrospective cohort study at the University Hospital Vienna, Austria, analyzed blood cultures from intensive care unit (ICU) patients with and without burns (2012-2022) to assess the prevalence of bacteremia, the associated pathogen distribution and the 60-day all-cause mortality.

Vaginal misoprostol versus vaginal dinoprostone for cervical ripening and induction of labour: An individual participant data meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.

Background: Induction of labour (IOL) is common practice and different methods carry different effectiveness and safety profiles.

Objectives: To compare the effectiveness, and maternal and perinatal safety outcomes of IOL with vaginal misoprostol versus vaginal dinoprostone using individual participant data from randomised clinical trials.

Search Strategy: The following databases were searched from inception to March 2023: CINAHL Plus, ClinicalTrials.

Mode-multiplexing deep-strong light-matter coupling.

Dressing electronic quantum states with virtual photons creates exotic effects ranging from vacuum-field modified transport to polaritonic chemistry, and squeezing or entanglement of modes. The established paradigm of cavity quantum electrodynamics maximizes the light-matter coupling strength , defined as the ratio of the vacuum Rabi frequency and the frequency of light, by resonant interactions. Yet, the finite oscillator strength of a single electronic excitation sets a natural limit to .

Tackling Vaccine Hesitancy and Increasing Vaccine Willingness Among Parents of Unvaccinated Children in Austria.

In autumn 2021, there was a surge of COVID-19 infections in Austria, and vaccination coverage stagnated at a below-average level compared to the rest of Europe. Surveys showed that both children and adolescents were the main drivers of the rising infection rates and that vaccination numbers were particularly low in this age group. This was due to widespread vaccination skepticism and hesitancy among parents of unvaccinated children and adolescents.

A spatial obesity risk score for describing the obesogenic environment using kernel density estimation: development and parameter variation.

Background: Overweight and obesity are severe public health problems worldwide. Obesity can lead to chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus. Environmental factors may affect lifestyle aspects and are therefore expected to influence people's weight status.

Interfacial Tuning of Anisotropic Gilbert Damping.

Tuning of the anisotropic Gilbert damping Δα has been realized in ultrathin single-crystalline Fe films grown on GaAs (001). A nonmonotonic dependence of Δα on film thickness t is observed upon varying t about 10 ML (∼1.4  nm).

ASV portal: an interface to DNA-based biodiversity data in the Living Atlas.

Background: The Living Atlas is an open source platform used to collect, visualise and analyse biodiversity data from multiple sources, and serves as the national biodiversity data hub in many countries. Although powerful, the Living Atlas has had limited functionality for species occurrence data derived from DNA sequences. As a step toward integrating this fast-growing data source into the platform, we developed the Amplicon Sequence Variant (ASV) portal: a web interface to sequence-based biodiversity observations in the Living Atlas.

Practical challenges of continuous real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging neurofeedback with multiband accelerated echo-planar imaging and short repetition times.

Continuous real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) neurofeedback is gaining increasing scientific attention in clinical neuroscience and may benefit from the short repetition times of modern multiband echoplanar imaging sequences. However, minimizing feedback delay can result in technical challenges. Here, we report a technical problem we experienced during continuous fMRI neurofeedback with multiband echoplanar imaging and short repetition times.

Balloon catheters versus vaginal prostaglandins for labour induction (CPI Collaborative): an individual participant data meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.

Background: Induction of labour is one of the most common obstetric interventions globally. Balloon catheters and vaginal prostaglandins are widely used to ripen the cervix in labour induction. We aimed to compare the effectiveness and safety profiles of these two induction methods.

Diagnostic and Therapeutic Indications for Endoscopic Ultrasound (EUS) in Patients with Pancreatic and Biliary Disease-Novel Interventional Procedures.

There is growing evidence supporting the substantial, essential and indispensable role of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) as a key diagnostic armamentarium for upper GI oncologic surgery. Well described in countless publications, EUS holds that position in gastroenterological expert centers all over Europe. Despite its undisputable contributions to oncologic upper GI surgery, the availability of this technique at the expert level shows up in an irregular spread pattern.

Seasonal but not sex-biased gene expression of the carotenoid ketolase, , in the sexually dichromatic southern red bishop ().

Intense red colours in birds are often owing to ketocarotenoids (KCs). In many land birds, KCs are oxidized from dietary yellow precursors, presumably by the avian carotenoid ketolase CYP2J19, the regulation and constraints of which have important implications for condition-dependence and honest signalling of carotenoid colour displays. We investigated hepatic gene expression in the seasonally and sexually dichromatic southern red bishop () in relation to season, sex, progression of the prenuptial moult, testis size, body condition, redness and circulating sex steroids.

Scalable high-repetition-rate sub-half-cycle terahertz pulses from spatially indirect interband transitions.

Intense phase-locked terahertz (THz) pulses are the bedrock of THz lightwave electronics, where the carrier field creates a transient bias to control electrons on sub-cycle time scales. Key applications such as THz scanning tunnelling microscopy or electronic devices operating at optical clock rates call for ultimately short, almost unipolar waveforms, at megahertz (MHz) repetition rates. Here, we present a flexible and scalable scheme for the generation of strong phase-locked THz pulses based on shift currents in type-II-aligned epitaxial semiconductor heterostructures.

Brown Adipose Tissue Prevalence Is Lower in Obesity but Its Metabolic Activity Is Intact.

Due to its high metabolic activity, brown adipose tissue (BAT) has become a promising target for the development of novel treatment concepts for metabolic disease. Despite several reports of a negative association between the presence of active BAT and obesity, very little is known about the quantitative and qualitative differences of BAT in lean and obese individuals. Systematic studies directly comparing cold-induced BAT activity in leanness and obesity are currently lacking.

Active Brown Adipose Tissue is Associated With a Healthier Metabolic Phenotype in Obesity.

Obesity is associated with increasing cardiometabolic morbidity and mortality worldwide. Not everyone with obesity, however, develops metabolic complications. Brown adipose tissue (BAT) has been suggested as a promoter of leanness and metabolic health.

The plasminogen receptor Plg-R regulates adipose function and metabolic homeostasis.

Background: Plg-R , a unique transmembrane plasminogen receptor, enhances the activation of plasminogen to plasmin, and localizes the proteolytic activity of plasmin on the cell surface.

Objectives: We investigated the role of Plg-R in adipose function, metabolic homeostasis, and obesity.

Methods: We used adipose tissue (AT) sections from bariatric surgery patients and from high fat diet (HFD)-induced obese mice together with immunofluorescence and real-time polymerase chain reaction to study adipose expression of Plg-R .

The effect of microprocessor controlled exo-prosthetic knees on limited community ambulators: systematic review and meta-analysis.

Purpose: The clinical benefits of microprocessor-controlled prosthetic knees (MPKs) in community ambulators have been well-established. A systematic review in limited community ambulators published in 2014 found benefits in safety, performance-based, and patient-reported outcomes. This work updates the previous analysis to the current state of the published evidence.

A case of not just Pott's disease.

Spinal tuberculosis (TB) is a rare cause of vertebral osteomyelitis in the developed world. Co-infections with other microorganisms are seldom reported in the literature. Here we report a case of and causing acute on chronic vertebral osteomyelitis with an epidural abscess.

Characterization of endogenous bile acid composition in individuals with cold-activated brown adipose tissue.

Introduction: Bile acid signaling has been suggested to promote BAT activity in various experimental models. However, little is known if and how physiologic bile acid metabolism is linked to BAT function in humans. Here we investigated the association between BAT activity and circulating bile acid concentrations in lean and obese individuals.

Sex differences in brown adipose tissue activity and cold-induced thermogenesis.

Introduction: Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is suggested to exhibit a sexual dimorphism and thus contributes to the observed sex differences in cardiometabolic risk observed between women and men. Clinical data supporting this hypothesis are however scarce. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between BAT activity and sex using positron emission tomography (PET) - the current gold-standard for BAT quantification.