Quantitative Liver Fat Assessment by Handheld Point-of-Care Ultrasound: A Technical Implementation and Pilot Study in Adults.

Objectives: To implement, examine the feasibility of, and evaluate the performance of quantitative ultrasound (QUS) with a handheld point-of-care US (POCUS) device for assessing liver fat in adults.

Materials And Methods: This prospective IRB-approved, HIPAA-compliant pilot study enrolled adults with overweight or obesity. Participants underwent chemical-shift-encoded magnetic resonance imaging to estimate proton density fat fraction (PDFF) and, within 1 mo, QUS with a POCUS device by expert sonographers and novice operators (no prior US scanning experience).

Plankton food web structure and productivity under ocean alkalinity enhancement.

Ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) is a nature-based technology for CO removal and storage, but little is known about its environmental safety. We tested a CO-equilibrated OAE deployment in a close-to-natural community using in situ mesocosms in the oligotrophic subtropical North Atlantic and assessed metazoan zooplankton to inform about food web stability, structure, and production. In addition, a literature review complemented experimental results by summarizing physiological responses of marine animals to decreasing proton concentrations, or increased pH.

The effects of developmental sub-chronic low-level lead exposure on microglia and a test of possible mitigation by apigenin in C57BL/6J young mice.

Developmental chronic low-level lead (Pb) exposure disrupts central nervous system function and diminishes neurocognition. Microglial cell activation might contribute to these deficits. The present study evaluated the effects of developmental sub-chronic low-level lead exposure on microglial cells and the possible effectiveness of a natural anti-inflammatory intervention with apigenin to mitigate these effects.

Regulation of Catalase Expression and Activity by Hog1 in the Halotolerant Yeast Under Saline and Oxidative Conditions.

Efficient transcriptional regulation of the stress response is critical for microorganism survival. In yeast, stress-related gene expression, particularly for antioxidant enzymes like catalases, mitigates reactive oxygen species such as hydrogen peroxide (HO), preventing cell damage. The halotolerant yeast shows oxidative stress tolerance, largely due to high catalase activity from and genes.

Identification of distinct subtypes of post-stroke and neurotypical gait behaviors using neural network analysis of kinematic time series data.

Background: Heterogeneous types of gait impairment are common post-stroke. Studies used supervised and unsupervised machine learning on discrete biomechanical features to summarize the gait cycle and identify common patterns of gait behaviors. However, discrete features cannot account for temporal variations that occur during gait.

Understanding Community-Specific Health Behaviors to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes and Depression in Rural Adolescents: A Qualitative Study.

Background: Type 2 diabetes (T2D) and depression co-occur, and rates are on the rise in adolescents, disproportionately affecting teenagers in rural communities and those who identify as members of historically disadvantaged racial/ethnic groups. Addressing the promotion of health behaviors is important for prevention of these comorbid health concerns; however, disparities in their prevalence highlight that a healthy lifestyle is not equally accessible for all individuals. Thus, holistic and multi-level approaches that address structural inequities, leverage cultural and family assets, and are effectively integrated into the community are critically needed.

The dual timescales of gait adaptation: initial stability adjustments followed by subsequent energetic cost adjustments.

Gait adaptation during bipedal walking allows people to adjust their walking patterns to maintain balance, avoid obstacles and avoid injury. Adaptation involves complex processes that function to maintain stability and reduce energy expenditure. However, the processes that influence walking patterns during different points in the adaptation period remain to be investigated.

Neighbors affect vocal behavior of tropical wrens: a multispeaker density-manipulation experiment.

For territorial animals, the behavior of conspecific neighbors sets the social context of communication. Despite numerous investigations of vocalizations related to territory defense and mate attraction, the effect of neighbor density on animal vocal behavior has received little attention, particularly in tropical animals and animals where both sexes produce complex acoustic signals. In this study, we used an innovative multispeaker playback experiment to manipulate the apparent density of neighbors in rufous-and-white wrens, , living in Costa Rica's tropical dry forest.

Cross-Sectional and Prospective Associations between Parkinsonism and Parkinson's Disease with Frailty in Latin America.

Background: Little is known about the relationship between parkinsonism or Parkinson's disease (PD) and frailty in Latin America.

Objective: The study aimed to determine the cross-sectional and prospective associations between parkinsonism and PD with frailty in a large multi-country cohort in Latin America. Frailty was assessed using three different models to explore which definitions are more appropriate to screen for frailty in a PD population.

Racial and ethnic sleep health disparities in adolescents and risk for type 2 diabetes: a narrative review.

Introduction: Sleep is an essential factor for health and wellbeing in people across the age spectrum; yet many adolescents do not meet the recommended 8-10 h of nightly sleep. Unfortunately, habitually insufficient sleep, along with the metabolic changes of puberty, puts adolescents at increased risk for a host of adverse health outcomes such as obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D). Furthermore, individuals from historically minoritized racial and ethnic groups (e.

Plasma Antioxidant Capacity Is Related to Dietary Intake, Body Composition, and Stage of Reproductive Aging in Women.

Background: women aging is a normal process of life; however, hormonal changes create an imbalance between prooxidants and antioxidants and could be measured as the antioxidant capability (AC) of an organism.

Objective: to find the association between plasma AC levels, dietary intakes, and body composition in 18-64-year-old women living in the northeast of Mexico.

Methods: A total of = 514 women (18-64 years old) were grouped according to STRAW criteria as reproductive, menopausal transition, and postmenopausal.

Effects of medium pH on the yeast plasma membrane potential.

The effects of different pH incubation values and K on yeast plasma membrane potential (PMP) were studied both by the fluorescence changes and the accumulation of thioflavin T (ThT), a method that has been shown most adequate for both procedures. By the changes in fluorescence of ThT, the qualitative observation of PMP at the 3 evaluated pHs indicated that cells at pH 4.0 maintain a PMP lower, but close to the observed at pH 6.

[XI SEFAC Congress: strengthening primary care and claiming the clinical value of community pharmacy].

To continue providing solutions to the great challenges of the present and future of healthcare and the changing needs of patients, we must have a reinforced and coordinated primary care, with the decisive support of the Administration, which embraces technological and digital advances. Now more than ever, community pharmacy must claim reclaim its commitment to patients and its vocation to strengthen primary care, focusing on its clinical value. These are precisely the two points on which the motto of the XI National Congress of Community Pharmacists and IV International Meeting of Community Pharmacists rests, which SEFAC celebrates from May 16 to 18 in Las Palmas with the collaboration of the Official College of Pharmacists of Las Palmas ; three intense scientific-professional days in which top national and international speakers will teach content based on scientific evidence, professional practice and current health news in community pharmacy.

Insulin Resistance in Women Correlates with Chromatin Histone Lysine Acetylation, Inflammatory Signaling, and Accelerated Aging.

Background: Epigenetic changes link medical, social, and environmental factors with cardiovascular and kidney disease and, more recently, with cancer. The mechanistic link between metabolic health and epigenetic changes is only starting to be investigated. In our in vitro and in vivo studies, we performed a broad analysis of the link between hyperinsulinemia and chromatin acetylation; our top "hit" was chromatin opening at H3K9ac.

Enhancing metabarcoding efficiency and ecological insights through integrated taxonomy and DNA reference barcoding: A case study on beach meiofauna.

Molecular techniques like metabarcoding, while promising for exploring diversity of communities, are often impeded by the lack of reference DNA sequences available for taxonomic annotation. Our study explores the benefits of combining targeted DNA barcoding and morphological taxonomy to improve metabarcoding efficiency, using beach meiofauna as a case study. Beaches are globally important ecosystems and are inhabited by meiofauna, microscopic animals living in the interstitial space between the sand grains, which play a key role in coastal biodiversity and ecosystem dynamics.

Analyzing the spatiotemporal habitat colonization dynamics of the common vole (Microtus arvalis Pallas) in Castilla y León, northwest Spain, using a hotspot-based approach.

Background: The common vole is an agricultural pest and population outbreaks have caused significant crop damage in the agricultural areas of the west-central part of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain) during the last few decades. Thus, monitoring is imperative to gain a comprehensive insight on its spatiotemporal habitat colonization dynamics. This work was performed on a long-term database with the primary objective of establishing an operational framework for understanding the spatial and temporal distribution of the common vole, all of it based on the Getis-Ord statistics.

Obesity Is Associated With Increased Pediatric Dengue Virus Infection and Disease: A 9-Year Cohort Study in Managua, Nicaragua.

Background: Obesity is on the rise globally in adults and children, including in tropical areas where diseases such as dengue have a substantial burden, particularly in children. Obesity impacts risk of severe dengue disease; however, the impact on dengue virus (DENV) infection and dengue cases remains an open question.

Methods: We used 9 years of data from 5940 children in the Pediatric Dengue Cohort Study in Nicaragua to determine whether pediatric obesity is associated with increased susceptibility to DENV infection and symptomatic presentation.

Correction: SARS-CoV-2 and endemic coronaviruses: Comparing symptom presentation and severity of symptomatic illness among Nicaraguan children.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.

Anti-Neuraminidase Antibodies Reduce the Susceptibility to and Infectivity of Influenza A/H3N2 Virus.

Immune responses against neuraminidase (NA) are of great interest for developing more robust influenza vaccines, but the role of anti-NA antibodies on influenza infectivity has not been established. We conducted household transmission studies in Managua, Nicaragua to examine the impact of anti-NA antibodies on influenza A/H3N2 susceptibility and infectivity. Analyzing these data with mathematical models capturing household transmission dynamics and their drivers, we estimated that having higher preexisting antibody levels against the hemagglutinin (HA) head, HA stalk, and NA was associated with reduced susceptibility to infection (relative susceptibility 0.

Expansion of Sinotaia quadrata (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Architaenioglossa: Viviparidae) in two major rivers from Argentina.

Invasive non-native freshwater mollusks are a growing concern in South America, with 16 species already recorded in the region. Among them, Sinotaia quadrata has only been documented in Argentina, for the first time in the Punilla Valley, Córdoba (2009) and La Plata, Buenos Aires (since 2015). In this study, we report the presence of S.

Pediatric conjunctival melanoma: A comprehensive case report and literature review.

Purpose: This case report aims to present a rare instance of conjunctival melanoma in a 5-year-old patient and contribute to the limited body of knowledge on pediatric conjunctival melanoma. The purpose is to understand the characteristics, diagnosis, and management of this uncommon malignancy in young individuals.

Observations: The case describes a 5-year-old female with a progressively growing pigmented conjunctival lesion.

Perception of task duration affects metabolic cost during split-belt adaptation.

Humans continuously adapt locomotor patterns. Whether metabolic cost reduction is the primary objective or a by-product of the observed biomechanical changes during adaptation is not known. The main goal of our study is to determine if perception of task duration affects the adaptation of locomotor patterns to reduce energetic cost during split-belt walking.

The uniqueness of on-demand male contraception.

Because nearly half of pregnancies worldwide are unintended, available contraceptive methods are inadequate. Moreover, due to the striking imbalance between contraceptive options available for men compared to the myriad of options available to women, there is an urgent need for new methods of contraception for men. This review summarizes ongoing efforts to develop male contraceptives highlighting the unique aspects particular to on-demand male contraception, where a man takes a contraceptive only when and as often as needed.

Modified Roller Compaction Model to Account for Roll Speed Effect on Powder Compaction in Dry Granulation Process.

This study introduces a modification to the roller compaction model proposed by Sousa et al. to account for the effect of roll speed on powder compaction in the dry granulation process. The proposed model enhances the prediction accuracy, particularly at higher roll speeds, which are often overlooked in existing models.