Characteristics of pulmonary rehabilitation programs and their effects on exercise capacity and health related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with interstitial lung disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) is characterized by dyspnoea, reduced exercise capacity and poor health related quality of life (HRQoL). The evidence to support the benefits of pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) on exercise capacity (EC) and HRQoL in this population is still limited. We aimed to determine the effect of the different PR components on exercise capacity and HRQoL in patients with ILD.

Assessment and Fixation Strategies for the Unstable Volar Lunate Facet.

Surgical fixation of unstable distal radius fractures greatly depends on the characteristics of the fracture pattern. Intra-articular fractures of the distal radius often involve several key fragments that require adequate reduction and fixation. The volar lunate facet is just one of those fragments, making up the critical corner of the distal radius articular surface and serving as the keystone to both the radiocarpal and distal radioulnar joints.

The Clinical Utility of a 7-Gene Biosignature on Radiation Therapy Decision Making in Patients with Ductal Carcinoma In Situ Following Breast-Conserving Surgery: An Updated Analysis of the DCISionRT PREDICT Study.

Background: Breast-conserving surgery (BCS) followed by adjuvant radiotherapy (RT) is a standard treatment for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). A low-risk patient subset that does not benefit from RT has not yet been clearly identified. The DCISionRT test provides a clinically validated decision score (DS), which is prognostic of 10-year in-breast recurrence rates (invasive and non-invasive) and is also predictive of RT benefit.

Default mode network electrophysiological dynamics and causal role in creative thinking.

The default mode network (DMN) is a widely distributed, intrinsic brain network thought to play a crucial role in internally directed cognition. The present study employs stereo-EEG in 13 human patients, obtaining high resolution neural recordings across multiple canonical DMN regions during two processes that have been associated with creative thinking: spontaneous and divergent thought. We probe these two DMN-associated higher cognitive functions through mind wandering and alternate uses tasks, respectively.

Lessons from community engagement to improve COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

Background: Community engagement is recognized as a vital component of health-related research and programs, particularly during infectious disease outbreaks and epidemics. Despite the importance of engaging communities in the response to COVID-19, relatively little research has examined how this was (or was not) achieved, and even less in low- and middle-income countries. This article describes the community engagement that accompanied efforts to strengthen COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment as part of the ECO Project in Cochabamba, Bolivia and highlights lessons for future pandemic response.

Real-world walking cadence in people with COPD.

Introduction: The clinical validity of real-world walking cadence in people with COPD is unsettled. Our objective was to assess the levels, variability and association with clinically relevant COPD characteristics and outcomes of real-world walking cadence.

Methods: We assessed walking cadence (steps per minute during walking bouts longer than 10 s) from 7 days' accelerometer data in 593 individuals with COPD from five European countries, and clinical and functional characteristics from validated questionnaires and standardised tests.

Exploring the perceptions of patients with chronic respiratory diseases and their insights into pulmonary rehabilitation in Bangladesh.

Background: Chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs) require holistic management which considers patients' preferences, appropriate pharmacotherapy, pulmonary rehabilitation, and integrated care. We aimed to understand the perceptions of people with CRDs about their condition and pulmonary rehabilitation in Bangladesh.

Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with a maximum variation sample of people with CRDs who had participated in a feasibility study of pulmonary rehabilitation in 2021/2022.

Acquired brown syndrome in a child with acute rheumatic fever.

Purpose: To describe a rare case of acquired Brown syndrome (ABS) associated with acute rheumatic fever (ARF).

Case Report: a healthy 9-year-old girl developed polyarthritis, carditis, and elevated inflammatory markers 10 days after suffering from a sore throat. She was diagnosed with ARF and was treated with systemic antibiotics and high-dose non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID).

Default mode network spatio-temporal electrophysiological signature and causal role in creativity.

The default mode network (DMN) is a widely distributed, intrinsic brain network thought to play a crucial role in internally-directed cognition. It subserves self-referential thinking, recollection of the past, mind wandering, and creativity. Knowledge about the electrophysiology underlying DMN activity is scarce, due to the difficulty to simultaneously record from multiple distant cortical areas with commonly-used techniques.

Greater male variability in daily energy expenditure develops through puberty.

There is considerably greater variation in metabolic rates between men than between women, in terms of basal, activity and total (daily) energy expenditure (EE). One possible explanation is that EE is associated with male sexual characteristics (which are known to vary more than other traits) such as musculature and athletic capacity. Such traits might be predicted to be most prominent during periods of adolescence and young adulthood, when sexual behaviour develops and peaks.

Alternative approaches for creating a wealth index: the case of Mozambique.

Introduction: The wealth index is widely used as a proxy for a household's socioeconomic position (SEP) and living standard. This work constructs a wealth index for the Mopeia district in Mozambique using data collected in year 2021 under the BOHEMIA (Broad One Health Endectocide-based Malaria Intervention in Africa) project.

Methods: We evaluate the performance of three alternative approaches against the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) method based wealth index: feature selection principal components analysis (PCA), sparse PCA and robust PCA.

Border malaria: defining the problem to address the challenge of malaria elimination.

Border malaria is frequently cited as an obstacle to malaria elimination and sometimes used as a justification for the failure of elimination. Numerous border or cross-border meetings and elimination initiatives have been convened to address this bottleneck to elimination. In this Perspective, border malaria is defined as malaria transmission, or the potential for transmission, across or along shared land borders between countries where at least one of them has ongoing malaria transmission.

Burden and risk factors of snakebite in Mopeia, Mozambique: Leveraging larger malaria trials to generate data of this neglected tropical disease.

Background: Snakebite is a neglected disease that disproportionally affects the rural poor. There is a dearth of evidence regarding incidence and risk factors in snakebite-endemic countries. Without this basic data, it will be impossible to achieve the target of a 50% reduction of snakebite morbidity and mortality by 2030 as set by the World Health Organization.

Bone aerophones from Eynan-Mallaha (Israel) indicate imitation of raptor calls by the last hunter-gatherers in the Levant.

Direct evidence for Palaeolithic sound-making instruments is relatively rare, with only a few examples recorded from Upper Palaeolithic contexts, particularly in European cultures. However, theoretical considerations suggest that such artefacts have existed elsewhere in the world. Nevertheless, evidence for sound production is tenuous in the prehistoric archaeological record of the Levant, the study of music and its evolution being sparsely explored.

Pulmonary rehabilitation and physical interventions.

Pulmonary rehabilitation has established a status of evidence-based therapy for patients with symptomatic COPD in the stable phase and after acute exacerbations. Rehabilitation should have the possibility of including different disciplines and be offered in several formats and lines of healthcare. This review focusses on the cornerstone intervention, exercise training, and how training interventions can be adapted to the limitations of patients.

BOHEMIA a cluster randomized trial to assess the impact of an endectocide-based one health approach to malaria in Mozambique: baseline demographics and key malaria indicators.

Background: Many geographical areas of sub-Saharan Africa, especially in rural settings, lack complete and up-to-date demographic data, posing a challenge for implementation and evaluation of public health interventions and carrying out large-scale health research. A demographic survey was completed in Mopeia district, located in the Zambezia province in Mozambique, to inform the Broad One Health Endectocide-based Malaria Intervention in Africa (BOHEMIA) cluster randomized clinical trial, which tested ivermectin mass drug administration to humans and/or livestock as a potential novel strategy to decrease malaria transmission.

Methods: The demographic survey was a prospective descriptive study, which collected data of all the households in the district that accepted to participate.

A retrospective study of crossover ambulatory oxygen walk testing in patients with fibrotic lung disease.

Background: Fibrotic interstitial lung disease (ILD) comprises a group of lung conditions that are often progressive, debilitating, and life-shortening. Ambulatory oxygen therapy (AOT) is regularly prescribed to manage symptoms in patients with fibrotic ILD. In our institution, the decision to prescribe portable oxygen is made on the basis of oxygen improving exercise capacity, measured with the single-blinded, crossover ambulatory oxygen walk test (AOWT).

Midcarpal Instability.

Midcarpal instability (MCI) of the wrist represents multiple distinct clinical entities that all have in common abnormal force transmission across the midcarpal joint. This can be asymptomatic but can also result in painful wrist motion, a characteristic catch-up clunk, and symptoms of instability. The carpus is stabilized by numerous extrinsic and intrinsic ligaments.

Variation in human water turnover associated with environmental and lifestyle factors.

Water is essential for survival, but one in three individuals worldwide (2.2 billion people) lacks access to safe drinking water. Water intake requirements largely reflect water turnover (WT), the water used by the body each day.