A tribute to Laszlo Zaborszky: pioneering discoveries in the basal forebrain and inspiring generations of neuroscientists.

This editorial celebrates the 80th birthday of Distinguished Professor Laszlo Zaborszky, co-founder of Brain Structure and Function, and reflects on his monumental contributions to neuroscience, particularly his pioneering work on the cholinergic basal forebrain. Professor Zaborszky's research has reshaped our understanding of this brain region's organization and function, uncovering its critical role in cognitive processes such as learning, memory, and attention. His findings have challenged longstanding assumptions, demonstrating that the cholinergic projections to the cortex are highly organized, with implications for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's.

The Gift of Time, How Do I Want to Spend It? Exploring Preferences for Time Allocation Among Women with and without a Breast Cancer Diagnosis.

Background: Women's preferences for time allocation reveal how they would like to prioritise market work, family life, and other competing activities. Whilst preferences may not always directly translate to behaviour, they are an important determinant of intention to act.

Objective: We present the first study to apply a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to investigate time allocation preferences among women diagnosed with breast cancer and women without a cancer diagnosis.

Factors influencing early postnatal care use among postpartum women in Afghanistan.

Using postnatal care (PNC) within the first week following childbirth is crucial, as both the mother and her baby are particularly vulnerable to infections and mortality during this period. In this study, we examined the factors associated with early postnatal care (EPNC) use in Afghanistan. We used data from the multiple indicator cluster survey (MICS) 2022-2023.

Concordance and test-retest consistency of sleep biomarker-based neurodegenerative disorder profiling.

Biomarkers that aid in early detection of neurodegeneration are needed to enable early symptomatic treatment and enable identification of people who may benefit from neuroprotective interventions. Increasing evidence suggests that sleep biomarkers may be useful, given the bi-directional relationship between sleep and neurodegeneration and the prominence of sleep disturbances and altered sleep architectural characteristics in several neurodegenerative disorders. This study aimed to demonstrate that sleep can accurately characterize specific neurodegenerative disorders (NDD).

Gas transport mechanisms during high-frequency ventilation.

By virtue of applying small tidal volumes, high-frequency ventilation is advocated as a method of minimizing ventilator-induced lung injury. Lung protective benefits are established in infants, but not in other patient cohorts. Efforts to improve and extend the lung protection potential should consider how fundamental modes of gas transport can be exploited to minimize harmful tidal volumes while maintaining or improving ventilation.

Non-adherence to antenatal iron supplementation and its determinants among pregnant women in 35 sub-saharan African countries: a generalized linear mixed-effects modeling with robust Poisson regression analysis.

Background: Despite the integration of iron supplementation into routine antenatal care programs as a nutritional intervention to prevent anemia in pregnant women, the use of this supplement for the recommended duration remains low in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Evidence on maternal compliance with iron supplementation at the SSA level is lacking and most of the previous studies have been limited to specific geographic areas. Therefore, the current study used large population survey data from 35 SSA countries to estimate the pooled prevalence of non-adherence and its determinants.

RESCUE - Rapid, Effective, Safe Communication in Emergency Departments: A cross-sectional e-survey.

Background: Effective staff-to-staff and patient-provider communication in the Emergency Department (ED) is essential for safe, quality care. Routine wearing of Personal-Protective-Equipment (PPE) has introduced new challenges to communication. We aimed to understand the perspectives of ED staff about communicating while wearing PPE, and to identify factors contributing to communication success, breakdown, and repair.

Pharmacists as independent prescribers in community pharmacy: A scoping review.

Background: There has been a growing interest in granting prescribing rights to pharmacists as a strategy to improve healthcare access. Researchers continue to explore the impact and implementation of pharmacist prescribing. Given the recent international changes in this field, an overview of current territories allowing pharmacist independent prescribing would provide a comprehensive understanding for researchers and policymakers.

Inequalities in ownership and availability of home-based vaccination records in 82 low- and middle-income countries.

Introduction: Home-based records (HBRs) are widely used for recording health information including child immunisations. We studied levels and inequalities in HBR ownership in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) using data from national surveys conducted since 2010.

Methods: We used data from national household surveys (Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS)) from 82 LMICs.

Ozone Concentration, Physical Activity, and Emotional and Behavioral Problems in Children and Adolescents.

Background: No prior study has examined the mutual association of long-term outdoor ozone (O) concentration and physical activity (PA) with emotional and behavioral problems (EBPs) in children and adolescents. This study aims to investigate the association between long-term outdoor O concentration and the risk of EBPs in children and adolescents and further explore whether increased PA levels modify this association.

Methods: Data were obtained from the 2020 wave follow-up examination of an ongoing prospective cohort study (COHERENCE project) in Guangzhou, China.

Effect of Medium Chain Triglycerides and Whey Protein Isolate Preloads on Glycaemia in Type 2 Diabetes: A randomised crossover study.

Background: Small nutritional preloads can reduce postprandial glucose excursions in individuals with and without metabolic syndrome or T2D. However, most studies have focused on preloads administered before single meals and have predominantly used protein-based preloads.

Objective: To investigate the effects of sequential consumption of medium chain triglycerides (MCT) and whey protein isolate (WPI) preloads before breakfast lunch and dinner on postprandial, diurnal and 24h glycaemia in individuals with T2D.

Proteomic analysis of natural photoheterotrophic mixed consortium for biohydrogen production under nongrowing conditions.

A biohydrogen and polyhydroxyalkanoates(PHA)-producing natural photoheterotrophic mixed culture composed mainly by Rhodopseudomonas palustris and Clostridium sp was studied by a proteomic analysis under non-growth conditions (nitrogen-absence and organic acids). Proteins in C. pasteurianum were upregulated, particularly those related to stress response.

IUPHAR Themed Review: The Gut Microbiome in Schizophrenia.

Gut microbial dysbiosis or altered gut microbial consortium, in schizophrenia suggests a pathogenic role through the gut-brain axis, influencing neuroinflammatory and neurotransmitter pathways critical to psychotic, affective, and cognitive symptoms. Paradoxically, conventional psychotropic interventions may exacerbate this dysbiosis, with antipsychotics, particularly olanzapine, demonstrating profound effects on microbial architecture through disruption of bacterial phyla ratios, diminished taxonomic diversity, and attenuated short-chain fatty acid synthesis. To address these challenges, novel therapeutic strategies targeting the gut microbiome, encompassing probiotic supplementation, prebiotic compounds, faecal microbiota transplantation, and rationalised co-pharmacotherapy, show promise in attenuating antipsychotic-induced metabolic disruptions while enhancing therapeutic efficacy.

Conceptualizing patient-level adverse effects in implementation trials.

Identifying and monitoring adverse effects (AEs) are integral to ensuring patient safety in clinical trials. Research sponsors and regulatory bodies have put into place a variety of policies and procedures to guide researchers in protecting patient safety during clinical trials. However, it remains unclear how these policies and procedures should be adapted for trials in implementation science.

Rapid confirmation of autochthonous origin in suspected cases of melioidosis from French overseas departments in the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean by PCR-high resolution melting (HRM) analysis.

Burkholderia pseudomallei, a soil-borne bacterium that causes melioidosis, endemic in South and Southeast Asia and northern Australia, is now emerging in new regions. Since the 1990s, cases have been reported in French overseas departments, including Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, and Reunion Island and Mayotte in the Indian Ocean, suggesting a local presence of the bacterium. Our phylogenetic analysis of 111 B.

Effects of molecular weight of chitosan on its binding ability with OSA starch and oil-water interface behavior of complex-stabilized emulsion.

This work examined the effects of molecular weight (2-15 kDa) and concentration (10-30 mg/mL) of chitosan (CTS) on the binding capacity and interface behavior between octenyl succinic acid sodium starch (OSS) and CTS, as well as their effects on the storage stability of emulsions. The results of the isothermal calorimetry titration demonstrated that OSS and CTS were complexed by electrostatic interaction and spontaneous hydrogen bonding driven by enthalpy (ΔH from -3931 to -7983 cal/mol, ΔS from -38.5 to -49.

Antisense oligonucleotides-based approaches for the treatment of multiple myeloma.

Multiple myeloma (MM), a hematological malignancy which affects the monoclonal plasma cells in the bone marrow, is in rising incidence around the world, accounting for approximately 2 % of newly diagnosed cancer cases in the US, Australia, and Western Europe. Despite the progress made in the last few years in the available therapeutic options (e.g.

Competing mechanisms for the buckling of an epithelial monolayer identified using multicellular simulation.

A model using the rigid body multi-cellular framework (RBMCF) is implemented to investigate the mechanisms of buckling of an epithelial monolayer. Specifically, the deformation of a monolayer of epithelial cells which are attached to a basement membrane and the surrounding stromal tissue. The epithelial monolayer , supporting basement membrane and stromal tissue are modelled using two separate vertex dynamics models (one for the epithelial monolayer layer and one for the basement membrane and stromal tissue combined) and interactions between the two are considered using the RBMCF to ensure biologically realistic interactions.

A client-server based recognition system: Non-contact single/multiple emotional and behavioral state assessment methods.

Background And Objectives: In the current global health landscape, there is an increasing demand for rapid and accurate assessment of mental states. Traditional assessment methods typically rely on face-to-face interactions, which are not only time-consuming but also highly subjective. Addressing this issue, this study aims to develop a client-server-based, non-contact multimodal emotion and behavior recognition system to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of mental state assessments.

Exposure therapy consortium: Outcomes of the proof-of-principle study.

Background: This paper reports on the outcomes of a proof-of-principle study for the Exposure Therapy Consortium, a global network of researchers and clinicians who work to improve the effectiveness and uptake of exposure therapy. The study aimed to test the feasibility of the consortium's big-team science approach and test the hypothesis that adding post-exposure processing focused on enhancing threat reappraisal would enhance the efficacy of a one-session large-group interoceptive exposure therapy protocol for reducing anxiety sensitivity.

Methods: The study involved a multi-site cluster-randomized controlled trial comparing exposure with post-processing (ENHANCED), exposure without post-processing (STANDARD), and a stress management intervention (CONTROL) in students with elevated anxiety sensitivity.

Unified Knowledge-Guided Molecular Graph Encoder with multimodal fusion and multi-task learning.

The remarkable success of Graph Neural Networks underscores their formidable capacity to assimilate multimodal inputs, markedly enhancing performance across a broad spectrum of domains. In the context of molecular modeling, considerable efforts have been made to enrich molecular representations by integrating data from diverse aspects. Nevertheless, current methodologies frequently compartmentalize geometric and semantic components, resulting in a fragmented approach that impairs the holistic integration of molecular attributes.

Blue light promotes conjunctival epithelial-mesenchymal transition and collagen deposition through ITGB4.

The increasing prevalence of LED technology heightened blue light (BL) exposure, raising concerns about its long-term effects on ocular health. This study investigated the transcriptomic response of conjunctiva to BL exposure, highlighting potential biomarkers for conjunctival injury. We exposed human conjunctival epithelial cells and C57BL/6 mice to BL to establish in vitro and in vivo models and identified the responsive genes in mice's conjunctiva to BL exposure by RNA sequencing transcriptome analysis.

Status of coral, giant clam and sea cucumber communities including CITES listed species on a remote Australian coral reef atoll and the potential impact of illegal fishing.

Following a recent dramatic increase in illegal fishing by Indonesian fishing vessels in Australian waters in 2022, we conducted an extensive survey of coral reef communities covering 33,000 m at Mermaid Reef Marine Park in the Rowley Shoals off north-western Australia in July 2022. Species richness of sea cucumbers was 13 species (three CITES listed) and 6 species of giant clams (all CITES listed). The most abundant sea cucumber species were the low or intermediate value, asexually reproducing species Holothuria atra and H.

Maintaining hexagonal structures through interfacial positioning of crosslinkers for nanofiltration.

Hypothesis: Optimizing interfacial positioning of crosslinkers within a reactive self-assembled hexagonal lyotropic liquid crystals (HLLC) system could assist in retaining the hexagonal structure during polymerization and thereby improving water filtration performances of the as-synthesized nanofiltration membranes.

Experiments: The positioning of the hydrophilic crosslinker, poly (ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA), within the reactive HLLC system was systematically investigated using H and C solid nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) techniques. The structural variation and water filtration performances of these HLLC systems with/without crosslinkers after polymerization were further studied using grazing incidence SAXS (GISAXS) and crossflow filtration tests, respectively.