Booster vaccination and post COVID-19 condition during the Omicron variant-dominant wave: A large population-based study.

Objectives: The effect of the COVID-19 booster vaccination and the long-term consequences concerning preventing post COVID-19 condition (PCC) remain unclear. We aimed to investigate the association of COVID-19 booster vaccination dose and vaccination timing before infection with the risk of PCC during the Omicron variant-dominant wave.

Methods: This population-based study included confirmed COVID-19 patients (extracted from the Health Center Real-time Information-sharing System) aged 20-69 years, who were infected between July 1 and August 31, 2022.

Prevalence of and Risk Factors for Post-COVID-19 Condition during Omicron BA.5-Dominant Wave, Japan.

The increased risk for post-COVID-19 condition after the Omicron-dominant wave remains unclear. This population-based study included 25,911 persons in Japan 20-69 years of age with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection enrolled in the established registry system during July-August 2022 and 25,911 age- and sex-matched noninfected controls who used a self-reported questionnaire in January-February 2023. We compared prevalence and age- and sex-adjusted odds ratios of persistent COVID-19 symptoms (lasting ≥2 months).

A 48-Year-Old Man Presenting as an Emergency with Severe Back Pain, a Large Anterior Paravertebral Hematoma, and Spontaneous Rupture of the Right 9th Intercostal Artery Successfully Managed by Transcatheter Arterial Embolization: A Case Report.

BACKGROUND The rupture of an intercostal artery is rare and is usually associated with trauma, neurofibromatosis type 1, or coarctation of the aorta. Transcatheter arterial embolization is a minimally invasive vascular surgical procedure used to control hemorrhage of an intercostal artery. This report describes a case of a 48-year-old man who presented with severe back pain.

An adult case of a retroperitoneal isolated enteric duplication cyst with the imaging changes over time.

Background: Adult cases of retroperitoneal isolated enteric duplication cyst (IEDC) are rare, with only 17 case reports in the relevant literature. We herein present a case, which was characterized by changes in intra-cystic density on computed tomography (CT), which was safely resected by laparoscopic surgery.

Case Presentation: The patient was a 60-year-old male who received abdominal CT to investigate the cause of increased serum CA19-9 levels.

Detection of acute rib fractures on CT images with convolutional neural networks: effect of location and type of fracture and reader's experience.

Purpose: The evaluation of all ribs on thin-slice CT images is time consuming and it can be difficult to accurately assess the location and type of rib fracture in an emergency. The aim of our study was to develop and validate a convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm for the detection of acute rib fractures on thoracic CT images and to investigate the effect of the CNN algorithm on radiologists' performance.

Methods: The dataset for development of a CNN consisted of 539 thoracic CT scans with 4906 acute rib fractures.

A Quasi-Experimental Study of the Effects of Pre-Kindergarten Education on Pediatric Asthma.

Ensuring access to pre-kindergarten (Pre-K) education remains a pressing policy issue in the United States. Prior research has shown the positive effects that Pre-K has on children's cognitive development. However, studies on its effects on children's health outcomes are scarce.

T Shortening in the Cerebral Cortex after Multiple Administrations of Gadolinium-based Contrast Agents.

We report a 34-year-old male who manifested T shortening of the cerebral cortices after more than 86 contrast-enhanced MRI studies. We observed high-signal intensity (SI) on T-weighted images (TWIs) not only in the globus pallidus, dentate nucleus, and pulvinar of thalamus, but also in the cortices of the pre- and post-central gyri and around the calcarine sulcus. High SI in the cerebral cortices was not clearly demonstrated on TWI scans performed 11 years earlier.

Sequential action of ATP-dependent subunit conformational change and interaction between helical protrusions in the closure of the built-in lid of group II chaperonins.

ATP drives the conformational change of the group II chaperonin from the open lid substrate-binding conformation to the closed lid conformation to encapsulate an unfolded protein in the central cavity. The detailed mechanism of this conformational change remains unknown. To elucidate the intra-ring cooperative action of subunits for the conformational change, we constructed Thermococcus chaperonin complexes containing mutant subunits in an ordered manner and examined their folding and conformational change abilities.

Formation of molecular glasses and the aggregation in solutions for lanthanum(III), calcium(II), and yttrium(III) complexes of octanoyl-DL-alaninate.

Octanoylalaninato-metal (metal = calcium(II), yttrium(III), lanthanum(III), and zinc(II)) complexes were prepared and the first three metal complexes were found to readily form transparent and stable molecular glasses from methanol and chloroform solutions. The process of glass formation from solution was studied in detail. The effect of the central metal ions on the formation of glassy states was remarkable: the lanthanum and calcium complexes assumed glassy or crystalline states depending on the isolation method and the yttrium complex had a large tendency to assume an amorphous state, whereas the zinc complex did not assume a pure and stable glassy-state.

Amphotericin B covalent dimers bearing a tartarate linkage.

Amphotericin B (AmB, 1) is known to assemble together and form an ion channel across biomembranes, by which the drug presumably exerts its antimicrobial activity. To access the whole architecture of this channel assemblage, the understanding of binary interaction between AmB molecules is of prime importance because the dimeric interaction is the basis of the assemblage. In this context, we have recently reported covalently conjugated AmB dimers such as 2 and 3 with a long linker, which show prominent hemolytic potency and ion-channel activity.

Cyclin D1 overexpression is not a specific grouping marker, but may collaborate with CDC37 in myeloma cells.

Cyclin D1 is a positive-regulator of the cell cycle and is overexpressed in myeloma cells with t(11;14)(q13;q32). First, we analyzed whether there was a correlation between cyclin D1 overexpression and the presence of Ki67-positive myeloma cells in multiple myeloma (MM). Cyclin D1 overexpression was examined by competitive RT-PCR.

A possible role for the loss of CD27-CD70 interaction in myelomagenesis.

CD27 is a marker of memory B cells and its interaction with its ligand, CD70, is very important for differentiation into plasma cells. Although CD27 is detected on normal plasma cells, its expression is significantly reduced with the progression of multiple myeloma (MM), including monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS). CD27+ myeloma cells are thought to represent an early phase of myeloma, as CD27+ plasma cells from MM patients were found to be composed of normal plasma cells (CD19+/CD38++) and myeloma cells (CD19-/CD38++), and monoclonality was detected in the CD27+/CD38++ fraction.