Effects of Tesamorelin on Neurocognitive Impairment in Abdominally Obese Persons with HIV.

Background: In people with HIV (PWH) who are virally suppressed (VS) on antiretroviral therapy (ART), abdominal obesity (AO) is linked to neurocognitive impairment (NCI), potentially due to visceral adiposity, inflammation, and reduced insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). Tesamorelin, a growth hormone-releasing hormone, reduces AO and increases IGF-1, suggesting it might mitigate NCI in VS PWH.

Methods: This 6-month, Phase II randomized, open-label clinical trial compared Tesamorelin versus standard-of-care (SOC) for NCI in abdominally obese PWH.

Dupilumab in a 9-week-old with Netherton Syndrome Leads to Deep Symptom Control.

Purpose: Netherton syndrome (NS) is a rare inborn error of immunity (IEI) with an incidence of approximately 1:200,000 and the phenotypic triad of trichorrhexis invaginate (bamboo hair), congenital ichthyosiform erythroderma, and multiple atopic manifestations. Treatment options especially in infants are scarce and generally not licensed.

Methods: Case report of a 9-week-old infant with NS treated with dupilumab off-label.

Effects of Semaglutide on Muscle Structure and Function in the SLIM LIVER Study.

Background: Semaglutide, a GLP-1 receptor agonist, is highly effective for decreasing weight. Concomitant loss of muscle mass often accompanies weight loss and may have consequences on muscle function.

Methods: This is a secondary analysis from the SLIM LIVER (ACTG A5371) study, a single-arm study of semaglutide in people with HIV (PWH) with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disorder (MASLD).

"Delabeling" by direct provocation testing in children and adolescents with a suspected history of a delayed reaction to β-lactam antibiotics: Consensus paper of Gesellschaft für pädiatrische Allergologie und Umweltmedizin (GPAU), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Allergologie und klinische Immunologie (DGAKI), and Ärzteverband deutscher Allergologen (ÄDA).

Background: Approximately 10% of European children are classified as allergic to drugs. In the majority of these children, no allergy to β-lactam antibiotics (BLA) can be found. In most cases, the exanthema is caused by the infection.

[Implementation of an Open Door Policy on Two Acute Care Units].

Background: Since the amendments to the Baden-Württemberg Psychiatric Assistance Act, psychiatric patients who are treated involuntarily can be admitted to open wards. As a result, a comprehensive research project was carried out to implement an open-door policy. This work evaluates the attitudes of patients and therapeutic teams.

Single-centre prospective evaluation of the first 5 years of cystic fibrosis newborn screening in Germany.

Background: In 2016, nationwide cystic fibrosis newborn screening (CFNS) was newly implemented in Germany, using an immunoreactive trypsin/pancreatitis-associated protein/DNA screening algorithm that differs from most other nationwide screening programmes.

Methods: We analysed real-life feasibility of the confirmation process with respect to our pre-specified procedural objectives. These included overall accuracy through false-negative and false-positive results, effectiveness of the Bavarian tracking system, and accuracy of Macroduct and Nanoduct sweat conductivity compared with quantitative chloride determination.

ABCA3-related interstitial lung disease beyond infancy.

Background: The majority of patients with childhood interstitial lung disease (chILD) caused by pathogenic variants in ATP binding cassette subfamily A member 3 (ABCA3) develop severe respiratory insufficiency within their first year of life and succumb to disease if not lung transplanted. This register-based cohort study reviews patients with ABCA3 lung disease who survived beyond the age of 1 year.

Method: Over a 21-year period, patients diagnosed as chILD due to ABCA3 deficiency were identified from the Kids Lung Register database.

Mental health disparities between German lesbian and bisexual women and a population-based sample.

Lesbians are at greater risk of mental health problems than heterosexual women, and bisexual individuals are even more likely to report mental health problems. No study has yet tested whether there are any mental health differences between German lesbians, bisexual women, and female controls. We tested for mental health differences between matched groups of 161 lesbian and bisexual women and 161 women in the general population, as well as between matched groups of 79 lesbians and 79 bisexual women.

Near-roadway air pollution, immune cells and adipokines among obese young adults.

Background: Air pollution has been associated with metabolic disease and obesity. Adipokines are potential mediators of these effects, but studies of air pollution-adipokine relationships are inconclusive. Macrophage and T cells in adipose tissue (AT) and blood modulate inflammation; however, the role of immune cells in air pollution-induced dysregulation of adipokines has not been studied.

FedAUX: Leveraging Unlabeled Auxiliary Data in Federated Learning.

Federated distillation (FD) is a popular novel algorithmic paradigm for Federated learning (FL), which achieves training performance competitive to prior parameter averaging-based methods, while additionally allowing the clients to train different model architectures, by distilling the client predictions on an unlabeled auxiliary set of data into a student model. In this work, we propose FedAUX, an extension to FD, which, under the same set of assumptions, drastically improves the performance by deriving maximum utility from the unlabeled auxiliary data. FedAUX modifies the FD training procedure in two ways: First, unsupervised pre-training on the auxiliary data is performed to find a suitable model initialization for the distributed training.

Gay men's stress response to a general and a specific social stressor.

Gay men show altered psychobiological stress responses and exhibit a higher prevalence of mental disorders than their heterosexual counterparts. Both of these findings are likely due to gay-specific discrimination. Since it has not yet been determined whether gay-specific stress is more noxious than general stress, we tested whether gay men react more strongly to gay-specific socially stressful stimuli than to general socially stressful stimuli.

Risk estimation of SARS-CoV-2 transmission from bluetooth low energy measurements.

Digital contact tracing approaches based on Bluetooth low energy (BLE) have the potential to efficiently contain and delay outbreaks of infectious diseases such as the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. In this work we propose a machine learning based approach to reliably detect subjects that have spent enough time in close proximity to be at risk of being infected. Our study is an important proof of concept that will aid the battery of epidemiological policies aiming to slow down the rapid spread of COVID-19.

Feasibility of quantifying change in immune white cells in abdominal adipose tissue in response to an immune modulator in clinical obesity.

Background: Obesity is often associated with inflammation in adipose tissue (AT) with release of mediators of atherogenesis. We postulated that it would be feasible to collect sufficient abdominal AT to quantify changes in a broad array of adaptive and innate mononuclear white cells in obese non-diabetic adults in response to a dipeptidyl protease inhibitor (DPP4i), known to inhibit activation of immune white cells.

Methods: Adults 18-55 years-of-age were screened for abdominal obesity and insulin resistance or impaired glucose tolerance but without known inflammatory conditions.

Clustered Federated Learning: Model-Agnostic Distributed Multitask Optimization Under Privacy Constraints.

Federated learning (FL) is currently the most widely adopted framework for collaborative training of (deep) machine learning models under privacy constraints. Albeit its popularity, it has been observed that FL yields suboptimal results if the local clients' data distributions diverge. To address this issue, we present clustered FL (CFL), a novel federated multitask learning (FMTL) framework, which exploits geometric properties of the FL loss surface to group the client population into clusters with jointly trainable data distributions.

Effect of High Intensity Interval Training on Matrix Metalloproteinases in Women with Breast Cancer Receiving Anthracycline-Based Chemotherapy.

Anthracycline chemotherapy is commonly used to treat breast cancer yet may increase the level of matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) -2 and -9, which increase the risk of atherosclerosis. While exercise has been shown to reduce the level of MMP in patients with diabetes, high intensity interval training (HIIT) has not been utilized to improve level of MMP in women with breast cancer receiving anthracycline chemotherapy. Thirty women were randomized to either 8-week HIIT or control (CON) group.

Robust and Communication-Efficient Federated Learning From Non-i.i.d. Data.

Federated learning allows multiple parties to jointly train a deep learning model on their combined data, without any of the participants having to reveal their local data to a centralized server. This form of privacy-preserving collaborative learning, however, comes at the cost of a significant communication overhead during training. To address this problem, several compression methods have been proposed in the distributed training literature that can reduce the amount of required communication by up to three orders of magnitude.

Feasibility of high intensity interval training in patients with breast Cancer undergoing anthracycline chemotherapy: a randomized pilot trial.

Background: Anthracycline-based chemotherapy is associated with reduced cardiorespiratory fitness in breast cancer patients. High intensity interval training (HIIT) induces greater benefits on cardiorespiratory fitness than moderate continuous aerobic exercise in patients with heart failure. The study purpose was to determine whether a HIIT intervention is a feasible exercise strategy for breast cancer patients undergoing anthracycline-based chemotherapy.

Effects of high-intensity interval training on vascular endothelial function and vascular wall thickness in breast cancer patients receiving anthracycline-based chemotherapy: a randomized pilot study.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of an 8-week high-intensity interval training (HIIT) intervention on vascular endothelial function, measured as brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (baFMD), and vascular wall thickness measured by carotid intima media thickness (cIMT) in breast cancer patients undergoing anthracycline-based chemotherapy.

Methods: Thirty women were randomized to either HIIT or non-exercise control groups (CON). The HIIT group participated in an 8-week HIIT intervention occurring three times per week on a cycle ergometer.

Body image disturbance in children and adolescents with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa: a systematic review.

Purpose: While several meta-analyses and reviews revealed a worse body image disturbance (BID) in adults with anorexia nervosa (AN) or bulimia nervosa (BN) than in controls, no systematic evidence is available on BID in children and adolescents. Since the usual onset of AN and BN is before the age of 21 years, being aware of BID in children and adolescents is crucial for preventing and treating eating disorders. This systematic review aims to provide an initial overview of differences in the BID components perception, global subjective satisfaction, affect/cognition, and behavior between children and adolescents with AN and BN and healthy controls.

Effects of high-intensity interval training on vascular function in breast cancer survivors undergoing anthracycline chemotherapy: design of a pilot study.

Introduction: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality is higher among breast cancer survivors (BCS) who receive chemotherapy compared with those not receiving chemotherapy. Anthracycline chemotherapy is of particular concern due to anthracycline-related impairment of vascular endothelial cells and dysregulation of the extracellular matrix. One strategy proven to offset these impairments is a form of exercise known as high-intensity interval training (HIIT).

Biomarkers Associated with Death After Initiating Treatment for Tuberculosis and HIV in Patients with Very Low CD Cells.

Background: The risk of short-term death for treatment naive patients dually infected with and HIV may be reduced by early anti-retroviral therapy. Of those dying, mechanisms responsible for fatal outcomes are unclear. We hypothesized that greater malnutrition and/or inflammation when initiating treatment are associated with an increased risk for death.