Effectiveness of complement inhibitors against refractory antibody-mediated rejection of lung transplantation: Two clinical cases.

Antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) has been recognized as a significant cause of acute and chronic lung allograft dysfunction after lung transplantation. Some treatments, eculizumab, an anti-complement (C)5 component monoclonal antibody (Mab), seem to have a promising effect in the management of some patients with AMR. We present two patients with acute AMR after lung transplantation who received the anti-C5 Mab therapy.

Classification of direct threats to the conservation of ecosystems and species 4.0.

Identifying and assessing the magnitude of direct threats to ecosystems and species are critical steps to prioritizing, planning, implementing, and assessing conservation actions. Just as medical clinicians and researchers need a standard way to talk about human diseases, conservation practitioners and scientists need a common and comprehensive language to talk about the threats they are facing to facilitate joint action, evaluation, and learning. To meet this need, in 2008 the IUCN Species Survival Commission and the Conservation Measures Partnership produced the first version of a common threats classification with the understanding that it would be periodically updated to take into account new information and learning.

Management of a Patient With an Anomalous Right Coronary Artery: A Case Report.

Coronary artery anomalies are rare congenital defects that involve abnormalities in the origin, course, or termination of the three main epicardial coronary arteries. Due to the variety of aberrant coronary artery defects, the clinical presentation can differ. Anomalous origins of the right coronary artery include the pulmonary trunk, ascending aorta, left sinus of Valsalva, and a course that traverses between the great vessels.

Heat disproportionately kills young people: Evidence from wet-bulb temperature in Mexico.

Recent studies project that temperature-related mortality will be the largest source of damage from climate change, with particular concern for the elderly whom it is believed bear the largest heat-related mortality risk. We study heat and mortality in Mexico, a country that exhibits a unique combination of universal mortality microdata and among the most extreme levels of humid heat. Combining detailed measurements of wet-bulb temperature with age-specific mortality data, we find that younger people who are particularly vulnerable to heat: People under 35 years old account for 75% of recent heat-related deaths and 87% of heat-related lost life years, while those 50 and older account for 96% of cold-related deaths and 80% of cold-related lost life years.

SMART-PET: a Self-SiMilARiTy-aware generative adversarial framework for reconstructing low-count [18F]-FDG-PET brain imaging.

Introduction: In Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging, the use of tracers increases radioactive exposure for longitudinal evaluations and in radiosensitive populations such as pediatrics. However, reducing injected PET activity potentially leads to an unfavorable compromise between radiation exposure and image quality, causing lower signal-to-noise ratios and degraded images. Deep learning-based denoising approaches can be employed to recover low count PET image signals: nonetheless, most of these methods rely on structural or anatomic guidance from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and fails to effectively preserve global spatial features in denoised PET images, without impacting signal-to-noise ratios.

Interplay of socio-emotional vulnerability and physiological stress response: Unraveling distress patterns amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to increased internalizing symptoms (IS) among adults, with notable interindividual differences. Cross-sectional studies suggest that both biological (physiological stress) and psychological (socio-emotional) factors independently contribute to IS. This longitudinal study examined whether physiological stress during the pandemic moderated the relationship between socio-emotional vulnerability and IS.

Miro1 expression alters global gene expression, ERK1/2 phosphorylation, oxidation, and cell cycle progression.

Subcellular mitochondrial positioning in cells is necessary for localized energy and signaling requirements. Mitochondria are strategically trafficked throughout the cytoplasm via the actin cytoskeleton, microtubule motor proteins, and adaptor proteins. Miro1, an outer mitochondrial membrane adaptor protein, is necessary for attachment of mitochondria to microtubule motor proteins for trafficking.

Radio-pathomic estimates of cellular growth kinetics predict survival in recurrent glioblastoma.

A radio-pathomic machine learning (ML) model has been developed to estimate tumor cell density, cytoplasm density (Cyt) and extracellular fluid density (ECF) from multimodal MR images and autopsy pathology. In this multicenter study, we implemented this model to test its ability to predict survival in patients with recurrent glioblastoma (rGBM) treated with chemotherapy. Pre- and post-contrast T-weighted, FLAIR and ADC images were used to generate radio-pathomic maps for 51 patients with longitudinal pre- and post-treatment scans.

Automated, Transferable, and Ethanol-Free Radiosynthesis of [C]Butanol.

Cerebral blood flow and blood-brain barrier permeability assessment are crucial hemodynamic parameters to measure under neurological conditions. In conjunction with positron emission tomography (PET), oxygen-15-labeled water has emerged as a gold standard for measuring cerebral perfusion; however, at higher flow rates, [O]water extraction becomes nonlinear. In such a scenario, freely diffusible [C]butanol can provide a truer estimate.

"Synthetic" DSC perfusion MRI with adjustable acquisition parameters in brain tumors using dynamic spin-and-gradient-echo echoplanar imaging.

Background And Purpose: Normalized relative cerebral blood volume (nrCBV) and percentage of signal recovery (PSR) computed from dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) perfusion imaging are useful biomarkers for differential diagnosis and treatment response assessment in brain tumors. However, their measurements are dependent on DSC acquisition factors, and CBV-optimized protocols technically differ from PSR-optimized protocols. This study aimed to generate "synthetic" DSC data with adjustable synthetic acquisition parameters using dual-echo gradient-echo (GE) DSC datasets extracted from dynamic spin-and-gradient-echo echoplanar imaging (dynamic SAGE-EPI).

When talking goes awry: association between co-rumination and trait anxiety, test anxiety, and anxiety sensitivity in early and late adolescents.

Background And Objectives: Friends are major sources of social support for adolescents. This support may sometimes lead to co-rumination when the problem is discussed exhaustively with a focus on negative feelings. Co-rumination has been associated with some forms of anxiety, including clinical symptoms.

A multicriteria vulnerability index for equitable resource allocation in public health funding.

Setting: This paper describes an action research project with the Centre universitaire intégré de santé et de services sociaux - Capitale Nationale (CIUSSS-CN) who identified a need to assess vulnerability in their territories in order to ensure equitable distribution of the Integrated Perinatal and Early Childhood Services (SIPPE) program funds. The objective was to design and validate a multicriteria model to provide a more accurate portrait of vulnerability based on recent social realities.

Intervention: Our multidisciplinary research team of 7 members included experts in analytics, decision aiding, and community and public health.

Effectiveness, acceptability, and potential of lay student vaccinators to improve vaccine delivery.

Setting: Task sharing can fill health workforce gaps, improve access to care, and enhance health equity by redistributing health services to providers with less training. We report learnings from a demonstration project designed to assess whether lay student vaccinators can support community immunizations.

Intervention: Between July 2022 and February 2023, 27 undergraduate and graduate students were recruited from the University of Toronto Emergency First Responders organization and operated 11 immunization clinics under professional supervision.

Facilitators and Barriers to Developing a Research Program: A Focused Ethnography of New Tenure-Track PhD-Prepared Nursing Faculty.

Background: Creating a research program is a critical requirement for new PhD-prepared tenure-track nursing faculty in Canada.

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to present key findings of new faculty members focusing on facilitators and barriers to development of their research program.

Method: We conducted focused ethnography research examining the experience of 17 new faculty members from across Canada.

Digital "flipbooks" for enhanced visual assessment of simple and complex brain tumors.

Typical longitudinal radiographic assessment of brain tumors relies on side-by-side qualitative visualization of serial magnetic resonance images (MRIs) aided by quantitative measurements of tumor size. However, when assessing slowly growing tumors and/or complex tumors, side-by-side visualization and quantification may be difficult or unreliable. Whole-brain, patient-specific "digital flipbooks" of longitudinal scans are a potential method to augment radiographic side-by-side reads in clinical settings by enhancing the visual perception of changes in tumor size, mass effect, and infiltration across multiple slices over time.

It's all in the hair: Association between changes in hair cortisol concentrations in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic and post-traumatic stress symptoms in children over time.

After exposure to a stressful/traumatic event, some individuals will develop post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). In adults, low cortisol levels appear to be a risk factor for the development of PTSS. Indeed, both lower pre-trauma cortisol levels and low cortisol levels in the aftermath of a traumatic event have been associated with greater PTSS.