Biomarker-Directed Radiotherapy in Breast Cancer: A Narrative Review.

Importance: Integration of molecular biomarker information into systemic therapy has become standard practice in breast cancer care. However, its implementation in guiding radiotherapy (RT) is slower. Although postoperative RT is recommended for most patients after breast-conserving surgery and, depending on risk factors, following mastectomy, emerging evidence has indicated that patients with low scores on gene expression signatures or selected clinical-pathological features may have very low local recurrence rates.

A shallow-water oxygen minimum zone in an oligotrophic Tonian basin.

The Tonian Period (1000-720 Ma) bore witness to the transition from a prokaryote-dominated marine ecosystem to one characterized by the proliferation of eukaryotes. This fundamental shift has generally been attributed to evolving marine redox states. Here, we present sedimentological and geochemical analyses of the early Tonian Huainan, Feishui, and Huaibei groups in the Xuhuai basin of the North China craton.

Correction: study of temperature-dependent piezoelectric and electronic properties of thermally stable GaPO.

Correction for ' study of temperature-dependent piezoelectric and electronic properties of thermally stable GaPO' by Xiaoqing Yang , , 2024, , 21530-21537, https://doi.org/10.1039/D4CP02270J.

Determinants of viral haemorrhagic fever risk in Africa's tropical moist forests: A scoping review of spatial, socio-economic, and environmental factors.

Background: Viral haemorrhagic fevers (VHFs) are identified by international health authorities as priorities for research and development, as they pose a threat to global health and economy. VHFs are zoonotic diseases whose acute forms in humans present a haemorrhagic syndrome and shock, with mortality rates of up to 90%. This work aims at synthetizing existing knowledge on spatial and spatially aggregable determinants that support the emergence and maintenance of VHFs in African countries covered by tropical moist forest, to better identify and map areas at risk.

Urinary prostaglandin metabolites evaluation for activity monitoring in inflammatory bowel disease.

Inflammatory bowel diseases cause chronic intestinal inflammation, including Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). Prostaglandin E-major urinary metabolite (PGE-MUM) is a urine biomarker for disease activity in IBD. This study evaluated PGE-MUM performance for predicting an active disease in patients with CD and UC.

Association between poor drug adherence and undernutrition among adult HIV patients in southern Ethiopia: an institution based cross sectional study.

Objective: Undernutrition is a common issue for HIV and other immune suppressed patients. Approximately 462 million people worldwide living with HIV are experiencing undernutrition, with sub-Saharan Africa having the highest prevalence. Good adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) indirectly helps prevent undernutrition by suppressing viral load, increasing CD4 count, preventing viral resistance, enhancing immune reconstitution and delaying disease progression in HIV patients.

Reduced contribution of sulfur to the mass extinction associated with the Chicxulub impact event.

The Chicxulub asteroid impact event at the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary ~66 Myr ago is widely considered responsible for the mass extinction event leading to the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs. Short-term cooling due to massive release of climate-active agents is hypothesized to have been crucial, with S-bearing gases originating from the target rock vaporization considered an important driving force. Yet, the magnitude of the S release remains poorly constrained.

Volumetric bioprinting of the osteoid niche.

Volumetric bioprinting has revolutionized the field of biofabrication by enabling the creation of cubic centimeter-scale living constructs at faster printing times (in the order of seconds). However, a key challenge remains: developing a wider variety of available osteogenic bioinks that allow osteogenic maturation of the encapsulated cells within the construct. Herein, the bioink exploiting a step-growth mechanism (norbornene-norbornene functionalized gelatin in combination with thiolated gelatin - GelNBNBSH) outperformed the bioink exploiting a chain-growth mechanism (gelatin methacryloyl - GelMA), as the necessary photo-initiator concentration was three times lower combined with a more than 50 % reduction in required light exposure dose resulting in an improved positive and negative resolution.

Neural speech tracking contribution of lip movements predicts behavioral deterioration when the speaker's mouth is occluded.

Observing lip movements of a speaker facilitates speech understanding, especially in challenging listening situations. Converging evidence from neuroscientific studies shows stronger neural responses to audiovisual stimuli compared to audio-only stimuli. However, the interindividual variability of this contribution of lip movement information and its consequences on behavior are unknown.

Prognostic models for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms following traumatic brain injury: a CENTER-TBI study.

Background: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with an increased risk of major depressive disorder (MDD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We aimed to identify predictors and develop models for the prediction of depression and PTSD symptoms at 6 months post-TBI.

Methods: We analysed data from the Collaborative European NeuroTrauma Effectiveness Research in Traumatic Brain Injury study.

Percutaneous self-expandable valve implantation in patients with stented pulmonary arteries: case examples.

CHDs affecting the right ventricular outflow tract often require repeated surgical or transcatheter interventions due to pulmonary insufficiency or stenosis. This study presents percutaneous implantation of large self-expanding valves in patients with complex right ventricular outflow tract anatomy after prior pulmonary branch stenting.

Building Public Health Quantitative Methods Capacity and Networks in sub-Saharan Africa: An Evaluation of a Faculty Training Program.

Introduction: There is a shortage of individuals trained in using quantitative methods in biomedical research in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Improving public health in SSA requires new ways to promote quantitative knowledge and skills among faculty in biomedical research and better-integrated network systems of support.

Methods: We describe the development, implementation, and evaluation of an innovative faculty training and support program in SSA from December 2017-June 2020, using courses in monitoring and evaluation, data management, and complex surveys as prototypical examples.

Gamified Web-Delivered Attentional Bias Modification Training for Adults With Chronic Pain: Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial.

Background: Attentional bias to pain-related information has been implicated in pain chronicity. To date, research investigating attentional bias modification training (ABMT) procedures in people with chronic pain has found variable success, perhaps because training paradigms are typically repetitive and monotonous, which could negatively affect engagement and adherence. Increasing engagement through the gamification (ie, the use of game elements) of ABMT may provide the opportunity to overcome some of these barriers.

Unbiased identification of cell identity in dense mixed neural cultures.

Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology is revolutionizing cell biology. However, the variability between individual iPSC lines and the lack of efficient technology to comprehensively characterize iPSC-derived cell types hinder its adoption in routine preclinical screening settings. To facilitate the validation of iPSC-derived cell culture composition, we have implemented an imaging assay based on cell painting and convolutional neural networks to recognize cell types in dense and mixed cultures with high fidelity.

Unveiling the immunomodulatory dance: endothelial cells' function and their role in non-small cell lung cancer.

The dynamic interactions between tumor endothelial cells (TECs) and the immune microenvironment play a critical role in the progression of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In general, endothelial cells exhibit diverse immunomodulatory properties, influencing immune cell recruitment, antigen presentation, and regulation of immune checkpoint expression. Understanding the multifaceted roles of TECs as well as assigning specific functional hallmarks to various TEC phenotypes offer new avenues for targeted development of therapeutic interventions, particularly in the context of advanced immunotherapy and anti-angiogenic treatments.

On the ability to extract MLVA profiles of Vibrio cholerae isolates from WGS data generated with Oxford Nanopore Technologies.

Objective: Multiple-Locus Variable Number of Tandem Repeats (VNTR) Analysis (MLVA) is widely used to subtype pathogens causing foodborne and waterborne disease outbreaks. The MLVAType shiny application was previously designed to extract MLVA profiles of Vibrio cholerae isolates from whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data, and provide backward compatibility with traditional MLVA typing methods. The previous development and validation work was conducted using short (pair-end 300 and 150 nt long) reads from Illumina MiSeq and Hiseq sequencing.

Young Hearts: A Film Review.

Young Hearts, a gay movie from Belgium directed by Anthony Schatteman, was released in December 2024. It offers a tender and nuanced portrayal of queer love, identity, and self-discovery. The film follows Elias and Alexander, two 14-year-olds navigating the complexities of a budding relationship amidst societal expectations in a conservative town.

Information Service "My Cancer Navigator" to Support Shared Decision-Making: An Online Survey Among Patients with Cancer and Their Caregivers.

The personalized information service My Cancer Navigator (MCN) answers therapy-related questions of patients with cancer and their caregivers, to address information needs and contribute to shared decision-making (SDM). An explorative and descriptive cross-sectional study using online surveys was conducted to assess whether users perceived a change in factors contributing to SDM after using the service. Of 253 invited MCN users, 109 (43.

Decarbonisation of Fishing Vessels: Policy Challenges and Areas of Concern in View of Accident Investigation and Inspections.

Objective: The fisheries sector is essential to the economies of developing countries, but it is a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Although emissions can be substantially reduced through energy efficiency measures, compliance with the Paris Agreement of 2015 requires further action through national frameworks for the decarbonization of fishing vessels. The objective of this paper is to explain the impact in greenhouse gas emissions from fishing vessels, discuss the possible regulatory indexes that could be made applicable to fishing vessels and how these ships can transition to alternative and low carbon fuels, identifying the main challenges in view of accident analysis and inspections.

Adjusting for switches to multiple treatments: Should switches be handled separately or combined?

Treatment switching is common in randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Participants may switch onto a variety of different treatments, all of which may have different treatment effects. Adjustment analyses that target hypothetical estimands - estimating outcomes that would have been observed in the absence of treatment switching - have focused primarily on a single type of switch.

Exploring the conformational space of ROS1 kinase domain and the impact of allosteric mutations.

Chromosomal rearrangements are common oncogenic events in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. An example is the fusion of the ROS1 kinase domain with extracellular receptors. Although the fusion leads to a target that is druggable with multi-kinase inhibitors, several reports indicate the emergence of point mutations leading to drug resistance.