The 30-year evolution of oral cholera vaccines: A case study of a collaborative network alternative innovation model.

Cholera outbreaks have been rapidly increasing around the world. While long-term cholera prevention and control measures rely on improvements in water, sanitation, and hygiene, oral cholera vaccines (OCVs) are used for prevention and control in the short-to-medium term. OCVs lack the market incentives available in other more profitable disease areas.

CD-44 targeted nanoparticles for combination therapy in an in vitro model of triple-negative breast cancer: Targeting the tumour inside out.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive form of breast cancer defined by the lack of three key receptors: estrogen, progesterone, and HER2. This lack of receptors makes TNBC difficult to treat with hormone therapy or drugs, and so it is characterised by a poor prognosis compared to other kinds of breast cancer. This study explores photoactive Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles as a potential therapeutic strategy for TNBC.

Pros and Cons of Human Brain Organoids to Study Alzheimer's Disease.

There is increasing pressure for researchers to reduce their reliance on animals, particularly in early-stage research. The main reason for that change arises from the different biological behavior of humans that leads to frequent failure of translating data from bench to bed. The advent of organoid technology ten years ago, along with the feasibility of obtaining brain organoids in most laboratories, has created considerable expectations not exempting frustration.

Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner's Confidence to Care for Black, Indigenous, and Transgender Survivors: Development and Preliminary Content Validity of Practice Vignettes.

Introduction: This paper developed and used practice vignettes to understand sexual assault nurse examiners' perceptions of self-confidence to provide care for Black, Indigenous, and transgender sexual violence survivors. Sexual assault nurse examiners are uniquely positioned to provide patient-centered postsexual violence health care but not all sexual assault nurse examiners receive culturally specific and identity-affirming training. Black/African American, Indigenous, and/or transgender people disproportionately experience sexual violence but may receive poorer health care after sexual violence compared with white cisgender people.

Efficacy of the ECHOMANTRA online intervention to support recovery from anorexia nervosa in adult patients: study protocol of a randomized controlled multi-center trial.

Background: Poor quality of life in adults with anorexia nervosa (AN) and persistent high rates of readmission highlight the necessity of developing interventions to optimize treatment outcomes. ECHOMANTRA is a novel online intervention based on interventions for carers (Experienced Carers Helping Others, ECHO) and patients (Maudsley Model of Anorexia Nervosa Treatment for Adults, MANTRA) with anorexia nervosa. The objective of this paper is to describe the study protocol of a randomized control trial (RCT) aimed at evaluating the efficacy of an adaptation of the ECHOMANTRA for adults AN inpatients and outpatients, and their carers, to be implemented as an add-on to treatment-as-usual (TAU).

Quality of Headache Management in Inpatients.

Purpose: Headache is a prevalent and highly disabling neurological disorder. There are no data on its prevalence in and impact on hospitalized patients. The objective of this study was to describe the prevalence of headache in hospitalized patients, triggers associated with headaches in this population, and compliance with documentation in the electronic medical record system (EMRS).

Head-to-Head Comparison of Aptamer- and Antibody-Based Proteomic Platforms in Human Cerebrospinal Fluid Samples from a Real-World Memory Clinic Cohort.

High-throughput proteomic platforms are crucial to identify novel Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers and pathways. In this study, we evaluated the reproducibility and reliability of aptamer-based (SomaScan 7k) and antibody-based (Olink Explore 3k) proteomic platforms in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from the Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona real-world cohort. Intra- and inter-platform reproducibility were evaluated through correlations between two independent SomaScan assays analyzing the same samples, and between SomaScan and Olink results.

Ancient DNA Reveals the Earliest Evidence of Sheep Flocks During the Late Fourth and Third Millennia BC in Southern Iberia.

The Spanish Merino is the most significant sheep breed globally due to its economic and cultural importance in human history. It has also had a substantial influence on the development of other Merino and Merino-derived breeds. Historical sources indicate that crossbreeding to produce finer, higher-quality wool was already taking place in the south of the Iberian Peninsula during the Roman era.

Parasite Screening in Wild Passerines: Enhancing Diagnostic Approaches in Wildlife Rehabilitation Centers.

The order Passeriformes is the richest and most abundant group of birds, but despite numerous parasites being identified in wild birds, this order has received limited focus. This study analyzed 17 passerines admitted to the Grupo de Rehabilitación de la Fauna Autóctona y su Hábitat (GREFA), a wildlife rehabilitation center in Spain, during October to December 2022. Necropsies were conducted to determine the presence of parasites, and intestinal contents were analyzed using fecal smear, flotation and sedimentation techniques and the McMaster method.

Self-Intercalation as Origin of High-Temperature Ferromagnetism in Epitaxially Grown Fe_{5}GeTe_{2} Thin Films.

The role of self-intercalation in 2D van der Waals materials is key to the understanding of many of their properties. Here we show that the magnetic ordering temperature of thin films of the 2D ferromagnet Fe_{5}GeTe_{2} is substantially increased by self-intercalated Fe that resides in the van der Waals gaps. The epitaxial films were prepared by molecular beam epitaxy and their magnetic properties explored by element-specific x-ray magnetic circular dichroism that showed ferromagnetic ordering up to 375 K.

Contrasting genetic burden for bipolar disorder: Early onset versus late onset in an older adult bipolar disorder sample.

Older Adults with Bipolar Disorder (OABD) represent a heterogeneous group, including those with early and late onset of the disorder. Recent evidence shows both groups have distinct clinical, cognitive, and medical features, tied to different neurobiological profiles. This study explored the link between polygenic risk scores (PRS) for bipolar disorder (PRS-BD), schizophrenia (PRS-SCZ), and major depressive disorder (PRS-MDD) with age of onset in OABD.

FACEmemory, an Innovative Self-Administered Online Memory Assessment Tool.

: Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are currently underdiagnosed in the community, and early detection of cognitive deficits is crucial for timely intervention. FACEmemory, the first completely self-administered online memory test with voice recognition, has been launched as an accessible tool to detect such deficits. This study aims to investigate the neuropsychological associations between FACEmemory subscores and cognitive composites derived from traditional paper-and-pencil neuropsychological tests and to develop an optimal algorithm using FACEmemory data and demographics to discriminate cognitively healthy (CH) individuals from those with MCI.

MerQuaCo: a computational tool for quality control in image-based spatial transcriptomics.

Image-based spatial transcriptomics platforms are powerful tools often used to identify cell populations and describe gene expression in intact tissue. Spatial experiments return large, high-dimension datasets and several open-source software packages are available to facilitate analysis and visualization. Spatial results are typically imperfect.

Further delineation of the SCAF4-associated neurodevelopmental disorder.

While mostly de novo truncating variants in SCAF4 were recently identified in 18 individuals with variable neurodevelopmental phenotypes, knowledge on the molecular and clinical spectrum is still limited. We assembled data on 50 novel individuals with SCAF4 variants ascertained via GeneMatcher and personal communication. With detailed evaluation of clinical data, in silico predictions and structural modeling, we further characterized the molecular and clinical spectrum of the autosomal dominant SCAF4-associated neurodevelopmental disorder.

Associations of plasma SMOC1 and soluble IL6RA levels with the progression from mild cognitive impairment to dementia.

Despite the central role attributed to neuroinflammation in the etiology and pathobiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD), the direct link between levels of inflammatory mediators in blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) compartments, as well as their potential implications for AD diagnosis and progression, remains inconclusive. Moreover, there is debate on whether inflammation has a protective or detrimental effect on disease onset and progression. Indeed, distinct immunological mechanisms may govern protective and damaging effects at early and late stages, respectively.

Breast radiotherapy planning: A decision-making framework using deep learning.

Background: Effective breast cancer treatment planning requires balancing tumor control while minimizing radiation exposure to healthy tissues. Choosing between intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3D-CRT) remains pivotal, influenced by patient anatomy and dosimetric constraints.

Purpose: This study aims to develop a decision-making framework utilizing deep learning to predict dose distributions, aiding in the selection of optimal treatment techniques.

Matrix metalloprotease-7 is associated with post-COVID-19 persistent lung abnormalities.

https://bit.ly/4etsvk5.

Head-to-head comparison of tau PET tracers [F]PI-2620 and [F]RO948 in non-demented individuals with brain amyloid deposition: the TAU-PET FACEHBI cohort.

Background: Second-generation tau tracers for positron emission tomography (PET) show high affinity for paired helical filaments tau deposits characteristic of Alzheimer´s disease and low off-target binding. Differences in their chemical structure though may lead to variations in their regional tau uptake and off-target signal. In this work, we aimed to compare the in-vivo uptake of tau tracers [F]PI-2620 and [F]RO948 in the early stages of the AD continuum.

Machine Learning Models for Tracking Blood Loss and Resuscitation in a Hemorrhagic Shock Swine Injury Model.

Hemorrhage leading to life-threatening shock is a common and critical problem in both civilian and military medicine. Due to complex physiological compensatory mechanisms, traditional vital signs may fail to detect patients' impending hemorrhagic shock in a timely manner when life-saving interventions are still viable. To address this shortcoming of traditional vital signs in detecting hemorrhagic shock, we have attempted to identify metrics that can predict blood loss.

Artificial intelligence-created personal statements compared with applicant-written personal statements: a survey of obstetric anesthesia fellowship program directors in the United States.

Background: A personal statement is a common requirement in medical residency and fellowship applications. Generative artificial intelligence may be used to create a personal statement for these applications.

Methods: Two personal statements were created using OpenAI's Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT) and two applicant-written statements were collected.