Influenza Other Respir Viruses
October 2024
Background: Lytic phages have been considered as a solution to mitigate the emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria. Nevertheless, finding phages capable of targeting a broad host-range remains a significant challenge.
Materials And Methods: Our study introduces two lytic phages isolated from hospital effluent, which are active against extended-spectrum cephalosporin-resistant .
Fractal analysis is a mathematical tool which allows the evaluation of complex microstructural features within materials that cannot be expressed in traditional geometric terms. The purpose of this study is to quantify the differences in polymethylmethacrylate intravertebral cement spatial distribution patterns following vertebroplasty using fractal analysis through the examination of osteoporotic and malignant compression fractures. Frontal and lateral post-vertebroplasty radiographs were evaluated from 29 patients with osteoporotic and malignant compression fractures who underwent vertebroplasty.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective Schwartz Rounds (SR) is an interdisciplinary, case-based forum that augments compassionate care at the bedside and promotes discussion of the psycho-emotional aspects of patient care. This pilot study analyzed the perspectives of pediatric SR attendees through the lens of , as defined by "PERMA" (positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment). Methods This qualitative study was conducted at our Children's Hospital from September 2023 to October 2023.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: MRI and PET are used in neuro-oncology for the detection and characterisation of lesions for malignancy to target surgical biopsy and to plan surgical resections or stereotactic radiosurgery. The critical role of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in brain tumour biology has come to the forefront. The non-metabolised SCFA radiotracer, [F]fluoropivalate (FPIA), shows low background signal in most tissues except eliminating organs and has appropriate human dosimetry.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe stability of underground mine roofs is critical to the safety of miners. They often assess the condition of the roof by striking it with a long bar and then interpret the sound of the impact as either "tight" (safe) or "drummy" (unsafe). This paper presents a dataset of a 3309 acoustic recordings of such impacts, labelled as by an expert miner as either drummy or tight.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInteroception, the ability to perceive internal bodily sensations, and heart rate variability (HRV) share common physiological pathways, including the baroreflex feedback loop. The baroreflex can be activated by resonance breathing, wherein respiration is paced at 6 times per minute (0.1 Hz), eliciting immediate physiological changes and longer-term therapeutic responses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInteroceptive signals give rise to subjective feeling states that can drive motivational and behavioural responses. In the context of alcohol use behaviours, interoceptive signals may shape subjective alcohol experiences and thereby support biobehavioural mechanisms of drinking behaviour change. This study examined the acute effects of alcohol on participants' interoceptive abilities and determined whether pharmacologically induced changes in heart beat detection correlate with subjective alcohol effects, craving and expectancies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To correlate the metabolic activity of primary uveal melanoma on positron emission tomography (PET)/CT scan with known clinical and pathological prognostic factors.
Methods: A retrospective cohort analysis of eyes enucleated for uveal melanoma that underwent preoperative imaging with a PET/CT scan was performed. Tumour dimensions were recorded and classified using Collaborative Ocular Melanoma Study (COMS) and American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) Tumour - Nodes - Metastases (TNM) criteria.
There is growing realization that many - if not all - cancer-cell populations contain a subpopulation of self-renewing stem cells known as cancer stem cells (CSCs). Unlike normal adult stem cells that remain constant in number, CSCs can increase in number as tumours grow, and give rise to progeny that can be both locally invasive and colonise distant sites - the two hallmarks of malignancy. Immunodeficient mouse models in which human tumours can be xenografted provide persuasive evidence that CSCs are present in human leukaemias and many types of solid tumour.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn both the UK and USA more people die of lung cancer than any other type of cancer. Lung cancer's high mortality rate is also reflected on a global scale, with lung cancer accounting for more than 1 million deaths per year. In tissues with ordered structure such a lung epithelia, it is likely that the cancers have their origins in normal adult stem cells, and then the tumours themselves are maintained by a population of malignant stem cells - so-called cancer stem cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe clinical demand for whole organ transplantation for the treatment of end-stage liver disease far outstrips supply. As a result, research efforts have focused on hepatocyte therapies to support this scarce clinical resource, including the investigation of alternative cell sources, in particular bone marrow cells (BMCs). In animal models of metabolic liver disease, adopting strategies that provide a selective advantage for transplanted hepatocytes have proved to be highly effective in repopulating recipient livers, and the current relatively poor success rate of hepatocyte transplants in humans can be attributed to the lack of a clinically applicable procedure to induce a similar repopulation of the human liver.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMethods for lineage tracing of stem cell progeny in human tissues are currently not available. We describe a technique for detecting the expansion of a single cell's progeny that contain clonal mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations affecting the expression of mtDNA-encoded cytochrome c oxidase (COX). Because such mutations take up to 40 years to become phenotypically apparent, we believe these clonal patches originate in stem cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLike their normal counterparts, many tumours are thought to have a hierarchical organization, albeit a disorganized one. Accordingly, the concept of cancer stem cells has emerged, and that these cells are responsible for perpetuating tumour existence. Operationally, cancer stem cells are regarded as prospectively purified cells that are the most effective at tumour initiation in an in vivo assay, usually after xenotransplantation to NOD/SCID mice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: We have used immunohistochemical and histochemical techniques to identify patches of hepatocytes deficient in the enzyme cytochrome c oxidase, a component of the electron transport chain and encoded by mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). These patches invariably abutted the portal tracts and expanded laterally as they spread toward the hepatic veins. Here we investigate, using mtDNA mutations as a marker of clonal expansion, the clonality of these patches.
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