Use of blended feeds in children requiring tube feeding.

Aim: The use of blended tube feeding (BTF) in children is a controversial area with persistent concerns regarding the nutritional adequacy and risk of associated infections and equipment complications. Parents in Australia are electing to use BTF in their children despite local hospital guidelines, calling for further research to support its use.

Methods: A retrospective case-series study was conducted at a tertiary paediatric hospital, to characterise the paediatric population electively using BTF and evaluate their clinical outcomes.

EpiGePT: a pretrained transformer-based language model for context-specific human epigenomics.

The inherent similarities between natural language and biological sequences have inspired the use of large language models in genomics, but current models struggle to incorporate chromatin interactions or predict in unseen cellular contexts. To address this, we propose EpiGePT, a transformer-based model designed for predicting context-specific human epigenomic signals. By incorporating transcription factor activities and 3D genome interactions, EpiGePT outperforms existing methods in epigenomic signal prediction tasks, especially in cell-type-specific long-range interaction predictions and genetic variant impacts, advancing our understanding of gene regulation.

Prioritizing disease-related rare variants by integrating gene expression data.

Rare variants, comprising the vast majority of human genetic variations, are likely to have more deleterious impact in the context of human diseases compared to common variants. Here we present carrier statistic, a statistical framework to prioritize disease-related rare variants by integrating gene expression data. By quantifying the impact of rare variants on gene expression, carrier statistic can prioritize those rare variants that have large functional consequence in the patients.

Activated partial thromboplastin time-based clot waveform analysis: a potential for application in acute myocardial infarction and its complications.

Activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT)-based clot waveform analysis (CWA) is a plasma-based global haemostatic assay. Elevated CWA parameters have been associated with hypercoagulability in venous thromboembolism, but its role in arterial thrombotic disease is uncertain. This study aims to explore the relationship between aPTT-based CWA and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and its complications.

Can 'Script Elicitation' Methods Be Used to Promote Physical Activity? An Acceptability Study.

Sustaining physical activity may require incorporating activity into everyday routines. Yet, many such routines are executed habitually, so people may not recognise physical activity opportunities. 'Script Elicitation'-a novel intervention method whereby participants detail the content and structure of their routines and are supported to plan modifications to those routines-has not yet been applied to physical activity.

Chemical Treatments on Invasive Bivalve, .

The Asian clam is a native aquatic species in Eastern Asia and Africa but has become one of the ecologically and economically harmful invasive species in aquatic ecosystems in Europe, North America, and South America. Due to their natural characteristics as a hermaphroditic species with a high fecundity and dispersal capacity, Asian clams are extremely difficult to eradicate once they have infiltrated a waterbody. This is an emerging issue for states in the Northeastern United States, as Asian clams expand their range farther North due to climate change.

An encoding generative modeling approach to dimension reduction and covariate adjustment in causal inference with observational studies.

In this article, we develop CausalEGM, a deep learning framework for nonlinear dimension reduction and generative modeling of the dependency among covariate features affecting treatment and response. CausalEGM can be used for estimating causal effects in both binary and continuous treatment settings. By learning a bidirectional transformation between the high-dimensional covariate space and a low-dimensional latent space and then modeling the dependencies of different subsets of the latent variables on the treatment and response, CausalEGM can extract the latent covariate features that affect both treatment and response.

Prioritizing disease-related rare variants by integrating gene expression data.

Rare variants, comprising a vast majority of human genetic variations, are likely to have more deleterious impact on human diseases compared to common variants. Here we present carrier statistic, a statistical framework to prioritize disease-related rare variants by integrating gene expression data. By quantifying the impact of rare variants on gene expression, carrier statistic can prioritize those rare variants that have large functional consequence in the diseased patients.

Functional Diversity of Memory CD8 T Cells is Spatiotemporally Imprinted.

Tissue-resident memory CD8 T cells (T) kill infected cells and recruit additional immune cells to limit pathogen invasion at barrier sites. Small intestinal (SI) T cells consist of distinct subpopulations with higher expression of effector molecules or greater memory potential. We hypothesized that occupancy of diverse anatomical niches imprints these distinct T transcriptional programs.

Prioritizing disease-related rare variants by integrating gene expression data.

Rare variants, comprising a vast majority of human genetic variations, are likely to have more deleterious impact on human diseases compared to common variants. Here we present carrier statistic, a statistical framework to prioritize disease-related rare variants by integrating gene expression data. By quantifying the impact of rare variants on gene expression, carrier statistic can prioritize those rare variants that have large functional consequence in the diseased patients.

Normative values of motor performance and their relationship with BMI status in Hong Kong preschoolers.

This study aimed to establish sex- and age-specific reference values for motor performance (MP) in Hong Kong preschoolers aged 3-5 years old and examine the relationship between MP and BMI status. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 5579 preschoolers in Hong Kong. Three MP tests were administered, and height and weight information were collected.

Effectiveness of non-pharmacological interventions in improving sleep quality after cardiac surgery: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Sleep disturbance is highly prevalent among post-operative cardiac patients, with negative impacts on surgical recovery and rehabilitation. Post-operative pain and anxiety commonly seen in cardiac surgery patients are associated with poor sleep. Sleep medications commonly used are not ideal with prolonged usage, and non-pharmacological interventions can be good alternatives or complements.

Impacts of income inequality and the mediation role of reporting delays on COVID-19 deaths during 2020 and 2021 in Hong Kong: an observational study.

Objective: To estimate the impacts of demographic factors and income disparities on the case fatality rate (CFR) of COVID-19 in Hong Kong, taking into account the influence of reporting delays (ie, the duration between symptom onset and case confirmation).

Design: Retrospective observational longitudinal study.

Participants: A total of 7406 symptomatic patients with residence information reported between 23 January 2020 and 2 October 2021.

Effectiveness of inactivated COVID-19 vaccine CoronaVac in children aged less than 3 years old during Omicron wave in Hong Kong.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected people of all ages worldwide. However, there is still no information on the vaccine effectiveness (VE) of inactivated COVID-19 vaccines in children aged less than 3 years old. This study highlighted that 2 doses of CoronaVac were effective in preventing COVID-19, with a VE of 83.

Treatment of Symptomatic Spinal Muscular Atrophy with Nusinersen: A Prospective Longitudinal Study on Scoliosis Progression.

Background: Nusinersen treatment has demonstrated efficacy in improving clinical outcomes for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), yet its impact on scoliosis progression remains unclear.

Objective: This study aimed to assess the progression of scoliosis in pediatric patients with SMA undergoing nusinersen treatment.

Methods: In this prospective study, data were systematically collected from Hong Kong pediatric SMA patients receiving nusinersen between 2018 and 2023.

Effect of a Mobile Game-Based Intervention to Enhance Child Safety: Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Evidence supports the effectiveness of serious games in health education, but little is known about their effects on the psychosocial well-being of children in the general population.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the potential of a mobile game-based safety education program in improving children's safety and psychosocial outcomes.

Methods: Safe City is a mobile roleplaying game specifically designed to educate children in Hong Kong about safety.

Data integration and inference of gene regulation using single-cell temporal multimodal data with scTIE.

Single-cell technologies offer unprecedented opportunities to dissect gene regulatory mechanisms in context-specific ways. Although there are computational methods for extracting gene regulatory relationships from scRNA-seq and scATAC-seq data, the data integration problem, essential for accurate cell type identification, has been mostly treated as a standalone challenge. Here we present scTIE, a unified method that integrates temporal multimodal data and infers regulatory relationships predictive of cellular state changes.

Genetic effects of sequence-conserved enhancer-like elements on human complex traits.

Background: The vast majority of findings from human genome-wide association studies (GWAS) map to non-coding sequences, complicating their mechanistic interpretations and clinical translations. Non-coding sequences that are evolutionarily conserved and biochemically active could offer clues to the mechanisms underpinning GWAS discoveries. However, genetic effects of such sequences have not been systematically examined across a wide range of human tissues and traits, hampering progress to fully understand regulatory causes of human complex traits.

Association of vitamin D-binding protein polymorphisms and serum 25(OH)D concentration varies among Chinese healthy infants of different VDR-FokI genotypes: A multi-centre cross-sectional study.

Hypovitaminosis D during infancy is associated with the development of chronic diseases and poor health later in life. While the effect of environmental factors on vitamin D concentration has been extensively explored, this study aimed to explore the effect of genetic factors on vitamin D concentration among Chinese infants. We conducted a multi-centre cross-sectional study in Hong Kong from July 2019 to May 2021.