Approaches to ensure an equitable and fair admissions process for medical training.

There has been considerable discussion of how best to address racial and ethnic disparities in health outcomes, both globally and specifically in the United States. Increasing diversity among future clinicians and physician-scientists has been identified as a key strategy for addressing and correcting health disparities among underrepresented populations. Increasingly, medical schools, the institutions that train clinicians, have embraced the practice of holistic review for evaluating applicants and virtually all medical schools have reported contributing to a diverse physician workforce as an important aspect of their educational mission.

Mining of antioxidant sesquiterpene lactones from the aerial parts of Saussurea involucrata with feature-based molecular network strategy.

Sesquiterpene lactones (SLs) are a class of natural products with diverse structural scaffoldings and biological activities, making them intriguing objects in the fields of pharmaceutical industry, drug development, and pharmacology. Herein, fifteen SLs, including eleven undescribed SLs compounds sauruintones A-K (1-8 and 13-15), were isolated and identified from the aerial parts of Saussurea involucrata. Their structures were characterized by using mass spectrometry, spectroscopic methods, computational calculations, and single crystal X-ray diffraction.

Measuring the Burden of Epilepsy Hospitalizations in CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder.

Background: Information on the hospital service use among individuals with CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder, an ultrarare developmental epileptic encephalopathy, is limited, evidence of which could assist with service planning. Therefore, using baseline and longitudinal data on 379 genetically verified individuals in the International CDKL5 Disorder Database, we aimed to investigate rates of seizure-related and other hospitalizations and associated length of stay in this cohort.

Methods: Outcome variables were lifetime count of family-reported hospitalizations and average length of stay both for seizure- (management and/or investigative) and non-seizure-related causes.

Neurofilament Light Chain as a Discriminator of Disease Activity Status in MOG Antibody-Associated Disease.

Background And Objectives: In patients with myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) antibody-associated disease (MOGAD), acute disease activity is generally identified through medical history, neurologic examination, and imaging. However, these may be insufficient for detecting disease activity in specific conditions. This study aimed to investigate the dynamics of serum neurofilament light chain (sNfL) and serum glial fibrillary acidic protein (sGFAP) after clinical attacks and to assess their utility in discriminating attacks from remission in patients with MOGAD.

Cerebral Hemodynamic Responses to Disease-Modifying and Curative Sickle Cell Disease Therapies.

Background And Objectives: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a hemoglobinopathy resulting in hemoglobin-S production, hemolytic anemia, and elevated stroke risk. Treatments include oral hydroxyurea, blood transfusions, and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Our objective was to evaluate the neurologic relevance of these therapies by characterizing how treatment-induced changes in hemoglobin (Hb) affect brain health biomarkers.

Intranasal influenza-vectored vaccine expressing pneumococcal surface protein A protects against Influenza and Streptococcus pneumoniae infections.

Streptococcus pneumoniae and influenza A virus (IAV) are significant agents of pneumonia cases and severe respiratory infections globally. Secondary bacterial infections, particularly by Streptococcus pneumoniae, are common in IAV-infected individuals, leading to critical outcomes. Despite reducing mortality, pneumococcal vaccines have high production costs and are serotype specific.

Designing strong inducible synthetic promoters in yeasts.

Inducible promoters are essential for precise control of target gene expression in synthetic biological systems. However, engineering eukaryotic promoters is often more challenging than engineering prokaryotic promoters due to their greater mechanistic complexity. In this study, we describe a simple and reliable approach for constructing strongly inducible synthetic promoters with minimum leakiness in yeasts.

Diagnostic Characteristics and Clinical Relevance of Incidental Hypermetabolic Breast Lesions Detected on F-FDG PET-CT: A Retrospective Evaluation.

Rationale And Objectives: The study aimed to evaluate demographic and radiological characteristics of breast incidentalomas found on 18-fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography-Computed Tomography (F-FDG PET-CT) performed for extramammary indications.

Materials And Methods: A total of 12633 F-FDG PET-CT scans performed between January 1, 2018 and January 1, 2024, were retrospectively reviewed. Breast incidentalomas that had undergone breast imaging, tissue diagnosis, or at least 2-year radiological follow-up were included.

Intramolecular feedback regulation of the LRRK2 Roc G domain by a LRRK2 kinase-dependent mechanism.

The Parkinson's disease (PD)-linked protein Leucine-Rich Repeat Kinase 2 (LRRK2) consists of seven domains, including a kinase and a Roc G domain. Despite the availability of several high-resolution structures, the dynamic regulation of its unique intramolecular domain stack is nevertheless still not well understood. By in-depth biochemical analysis, assessing the Michaelis-Menten kinetics of the Roc G domain, we have confirmed that LRRK2 has, similar to other Roco protein family members, a K value of LRRK2 that lies within the range of the physiological GTP concentrations within the cell.

Dissecting gene expression heterogeneity: generalized Pearson correlation squares and the -lines clustering algorithm.

Motivated by the pressing needs for dissecting heterogeneous relationships in gene expression data, here we generalize the squared Pearson correlation to capture a mixture of linear dependences between two real-valued variables, with or without an index variable that specifies the line memberships. We construct the generalized Pearson correlation squares by focusing on three aspects: variable exchangeability, no parametric model assumptions, and inference of population-level parameters. To compute the generalized Pearson correlation square from a sample without a line-membership specification, we develop a -lines clustering algorithm to find clusters that exhibit distinct linear dependences, where can be chosen in a data-adaptive way.

Covered Stent Correction for Sinus Venosus Atrial Septal Defects, an Emerging Alternative to Surgical Repair: Results of an International Registry.

Background: Covered stent correction for a sinus venosus atrial septal defect (SVASD) was first performed in 2009. This innovative approach was initially viewed as experimental and was reserved for highly selected patients with unusual anatomic variants. In 2016, increasing numbers of procedures began to be performed, and in several centers, it is now offered as a standard of care option alongside surgical repair.

Revealing novel CD8 T-cell epitopes from the H5N1 avian influenza virus in HBW/B1 haplotype ducks.

The duck CD8 T-cell response effectively defends against H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) infection, but the recognized peptide is rarely identified. Here, we found that the ratio of CD8 T cells and the expression of IFN-γ and cytotoxicity-associated genes, including granzyme A/K, perforin and IL2, at 7 days post-infection in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from B1 haplotype ducks significantly increased in the context of defending against H5N1 AIV infection in vivo. Moreover, similar results were observed in cultured and sorted H5N1 AIV-stimulated duck CD8 T cells in vitro.

Arthritis and Public Health Monitoring: Longitudinal Changes of Triglyceride-Glucose Index Associated with Arthritis in a Cohort of Older Chinese Adults.

The current decade 2021-2030 was designated by the United Nations as the decade of healthy aging, which underlines the need for public health innovation for arthritis clinical care. The triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index is a novel and emerging parameter closely associated with diabetes and cardiovascular diseases and has been suggested to indicate the risk of arthritis. This study examined the longitudinal changes of TyG levels in relation to arthritis among a nationwide cohort of older Chinese adults.

Safety of Gadopiclenol After Its First Year of Clinical Use.

Gadopiclenol is a novel, macrocyclic high-relaxivity gadolinium-based contrast agent recently approved for use in magnetic resonance imaging of the central nervous system and body organs at a dose of 0.05 mmol/kg body weight. Postmarketing surveillance of its first year of clinical use in the United States of America showed no serious adverse events (AEs) following over 882,550 administrations and a very low rate of nonserious AEs (1 case every 27,580 exposures).

Bone Lengthening Radius using Limb Reconstruction System - A Successful Treatment for Radius Shortening: A Case Report.

Fractures of the distal radius are the most common type of forearm fractures seen in children. The most serious outcome of physeal injuries is growth arrest, which can result in deformity and even significant differences in limb length. Therefore, we'd like to share our experience with treating a patient whose left radius stopped growing after she had a physeal injury in an accident.

Discovery of Non-Covalent Inhibitors for SARS-CoV-2 PLpro: Integrating Virtual Screening, Synthesis, and Experimental Validation.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has significantly challenged global public health, highlighting the need for effective therapeutic options. This study focuses on the papain-like protease (PLpro) of SARS-CoV-2, which is a critical enzyme for viral polyprotein processing, maturation, and immune evasion. We employed a combined approach that began with computational models in a virtual screening campaign, prioritizing compounds from our in-house chemical library against PLpro.

An open-label study evaluating the safety and efficacy of AMO-01 for the treatment of seizures in Phelan-McDermid syndrome.

Phelan-McDermid syndrome (PMS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by haploinsufficiency of the SHANK3 gene. Approximately 25% of individuals with PMS have epilepsy. Treatment of epilepsy in PMS may require multiple anticonvulsants, and in a minority of cases, seizures remain poorly controlled.

Phase separation in ordered polar active fluids: A completely different universality class from that of equilibrium fluids.

It has recently been shown that large collections of self-propelled entities (a.k.a.

Can Intra-Operative Cell Salvage Reduce the Rate of Allogeneic Transfusion in Pediatric Spinal Deformity Surgery?

Study Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to characterize the association between cell-salvage and allogeneic transfusion rate in pediatric patients undergoing posterior arthrodesis for scoliosis.

Methods: NSQIP Pediatric database years 2016-2022 was used.

Li[AlPOF(OH)](HO) and [Al(PO)F(HO)]( = K, Rb): Counter Cation Templates Derived Three Polar Alkaline Metal Fluoroaluminophosphates.

Three novel alkali metal fluoroaluminophosphates, Li[AlPOF(OH)](HO) and [Al(PO)F(HO)]( = K, Rb), were designed and synthesized by using low-temperature flux methods. They crystallized in polar space groups and 222, respectively. Li[AlPOF(OH)](HO) features a unique two-dimensional layered structure of fluoroaluminophosphate [AlPOF(OH)], composed of alternately connected AlFO octahedra and PO tetrahedra.