A foundation model for generalized brain MRI analysis.

Artificial intelligence (AI) applied to brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has the potential to improve disease diagnosis and management but requires algorithms with generalizable knowledge that can perform well in a variety of clinical scenarios. The field has been constrained, thus far, by limited training data and task-specific models that do not generalize well across patient populations and medical tasks. Foundation models, by leveraging self-supervised learning, pretraining, and targeted adaptation, present a promising paradigm to overcome these limitations.

Vasoactive Agents in Burn Patients - Perspectives on Angiotensin-II.

Severe burn injury poses significant clinical challenges, often necessitating the use of vasoactive agents to maintain perfusion. This narrative review explores the current landscape of vasoactive agents in acute burn shock resuscitation and severe burn-injured patients who develop septic shock, with a particular focus on the potential role of the novel vasoactive agent, synthetic angiotensin-II (AT-II), in these settings. While catecholamines and vasopressin remain cornerstone therapies, adverse effects, variable patient response, and a new understanding of burn injury pathophysiology highlight the potentially evolving role of vasoactive agents in these clinical scenarios.

Sexual selection promotes reproductive isolation in barn swallows.

Despite the well-known effects of sexual selection on phenotypes, links between this evolutionary process and reproductive isolation, genomic divergence, and speciation have been difficult to establish. We unravel the genetic basis of sexually selected plumage traits to investigate their effects on reproductive isolation in barn swallows. The genetic architecture of sexual traits is characterized by 12 loci on two autosomes and the Z chromosome.

Reduced fitness of secondary females in a polygynous species: a 32-yr study of Savannah sparrows.

The evolution of mating systems reflects a balance of the often-conflicting interests of males and females. Polygyny, a mating system in which males have multiple mates, presents a fitness benefit to males, but the consequences for females are less clear. Females with polygynous social mates may suffer reduced fitness, especially secondary females who typically receive less male support.