Irregularly regulated collecting markets: antiquities, fossils, and wildlife.

This paper examines the dynamics of 'irregularly regulated markets', specifically those dealing with what we term 'criminogenic collectables': antiquities, fossils, and wildlife. Through the lens of 'irregular regulation' we consider how inconsistencies and loopholes in legal frameworks contribute to criminal activities in these markets. We outline five ways that such markets can be considered irregular: socially, jurisdictionally, temporally, culturally and discursively.

Establishing Effective Patient Engagement Through a Terms of Reference to Foster Inclusivity and Empowerment in Research: Example From a Healthcare Transition Quality Indicators Project.

Introduction: Patient engagement in research aims to foster meaningful partnerships, integrating patient experiences into the research process. This paper describes the development of a Terms of Reference (ToR) to support these meaningful partnerships. While engagement improves data collection and empowerment, ineffective engagement can lead to negative outcomes.

Climate change and its influence on water systems increases the cost of electricity system decarbonization.

The electric sector simultaneously faces two challenges: decarbonization to mitigate, and adaptation to manage, the impacts of climate change. In many regions, these challenges are compounded by an interdependence of electricity and water systems, with water needed for hydropower generation and electricity for water provision. Here, we couple detailed water and electricity system models to evaluate how the Western Interconnection grid can both adapt to climate change and develop carbon-free generation by 2050, while accounting for interactions and climate vulnerabilities of the water sector.

Attention-based multi-residual network for lung segmentation in diseased lungs with custom data augmentation.

Lung disease analysis in chest X-rays (CXR) using deep learning presents significant challenges due to the wide variation in lung appearance caused by disease progression and differing X-ray settings. While deep learning models have shown remarkable success in segmenting lungs from CXR images with normal or mildly abnormal findings, their performance declines when faced with complex structures, such as pulmonary opacifications. In this study, we propose AMRU++, an attention-based multi-residual UNet++ network designed for robust and accurate lung segmentation in CXR images with both normal and severe abnormalities.

A cross-sectional study of the experiences of distressed callers when accessing financial assistance from a telephone-based cancer information and support service.

Objective: The objective of this study was to explore the experiences of distressed people calling helplines regarding offer and uptake of financial services after cancer diagnosis.

Methods: Cancer patients and caregivers reported whether they had discussed then used financial services and perceptions surrounding service uptake. Associations between being offered services and demographic, clinical and financial characteristics were explored.

Cadaveric Prosections Prepared by Qualified Instructional Staff Were More Efficient and Effective Teaching Modalities for Veterinary Gross Anatomy than In-Class Dissections by Students.

Veterinary programs traditionally teach gross anatomy by having students perform regional dissections on animal cadavers. Dissection is effective but also costly, time consuming, and intimidating for students. These factors, along with reduced contact hours devoted to gross anatomy, warrant investigation of more time-efficient teaching modalities.

Spatial proteomics of with pleomorphic neoplasms shows local and systemic dysregulation of protein expression.

is the agent of onchocerciasis (river blindness) and targeted by WHO for elimination though mass drug administration with ivermectin. A small percentage of adult worms develop pleomorphic neoplasms (PN) that are positively associated with the frequency of ivermectin treatment. Worms with PN have a lower life expectancy and a better understanding about the proteins expressed in PN, and how PN affect protein expression in different tissues could help to elucidate the mechanisms of macrofilaricidal activity of ivermectin.

Blood immune profiles reveal a CXCR3/CCR5 axis of dysregulation in early sepsis.

We report on a pilot study exploring whether blood immune signatures can reveal early specific indicator profiles for patients meeting sepsis criteria upon hospital admission. We analysed samples of sepsis-suspected patients (N=20) and age-spanning healthy controls (N=12), using flow cytometry-based assays. We measured inflammatory markers from plasma fractions, and immunophenotyped freshly isolated unfixed PBMCs for leukocytes subsets representation and expression of activation markers, including chemokine receptors.

Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of offering a chair-based yoga programme in addition to usual care in older adults with multiple long-term conditions: a pragmatic, parallel group, open label, randomised controlled trial.

Background: People with multiple long-term conditions are more likely to have poorer health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Yoga has the potential to improve HRQOL. Gentle Years Yoga© (GYY) is a chair-based yoga programme for older adults.

Effect of non-invasive brain stimulation in children with acquired brain injury-a scoping review.

Background: Children and young people (CYP) with acquired brain injury (ABI) require early and effective neurorehabilitation to improve long-term functional outcomes. Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS), including transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), have been used to improve motor and sensory skills for children with cerebral palsy. However, there is limited evidence supporting its use in CYP with ABI.

Chair-based yoga programme for older adults with multimorbidity: RCT with embedded economic and process evaluations.

Background: Older adults with multimorbidity experience impaired health-related quality of life and treatment burden. Yoga has the potential to improve several aspects of health and well-being. The British Wheel of Yoga's Gentle Years Yoga© programme was developed specifically for older adults, including those with chronic conditions.

Intraoperative Intracranial Pressure Changes in Children With Craniosynostosis Undergoing Endoscopic-Assisted Strip Craniectomy.

Background And Objectives: Craniosynostosis can lead to progressive cranial and skull base deformities and can be associated with increased intracranial pressure (ICP), ophthalmological manifestations, behavioral changes, and developmental delay. Most published data on the incidence of elevated ICP include older children undergoing open surgical correction. Endoscopic-assisted release of fused sutures with postoperative helmet therapy is an established method for managing craniosynostosis presenting at an early age; however, the immediate effect of this approach on ICP in a young cohort has not been previously reported.

Daily Eicosapentaenoic Acid Infusion in IUGR Fetal Lambs Reduced Systemic Inflammation, Increased Muscle ADRβ2 Content, and Improved Myoblast Function and Muscle Growth.

Intrauterine growth-restricted (IUGR) fetuses exhibit systemic inflammation that contributes to programmed deficits in myoblast function and muscle growth. Thus, we sought to determine if targeting fetal inflammation improves muscle growth outcomes. Heat stress-induced IUGR fetal lambs were infused with eicosapentaenoic acid (IUGR+EPA; = 9) or saline (IUGR; = 8) for 5 days during late gestation and compared to saline-infused controls ( = 11).

Affimer reagents as tool molecules to modulate platelet GPVI-ligand interactions and specifically bind GPVI dimer.

Glycoprotein VI (GPVI) plays a key role in collagen-induced platelet aggregation. Affimers are engineered binding protein alternatives to antibodies. We screened and characterized GPVI-binding Affimers as novel tools to probe GPVI function.

Patient, caregiver and other knowledge user engagement in consensus-building healthcare initiatives: a scoping review protocol.

Introduction: Patient engagement and integrated knowledge translation (iKT) processes improve health outcomes and care experiences through meaningful partnerships in consensus-building initiatives and research. Consensus-building is essential for engaging a diverse group of experienced knowledge users in co-developing and supporting a solution where none readily exists or is less optimal. Patients and caregivers provide invaluable insights for building consensus in decision-making around healthcare, policy and research.

A workflow to practically apply true dose considerations to in vitro testing for next generation risk assessment.

With the move away from safety testing assessment based on data generated in experimental animals the concept of Next Generation Risk Assessment (NGRA) has arisen which instead uses data from in silico and in vitro models. A key uncertainty in risk assessment is the actual dose of test chemical at the target site, and therefore surrogate dose metrics, such as nominal concentration in test media are used to describe in vitro effect (or no-effect) doses. The reliability and accuracy of the risk assessment therefore depends largely on our ability to understand and characterise the relationship between the dose metrics used and the actual biologically effective dose at the target site.