Decoding bull fertility in vitro: A proteomics exploration from sperm to blastocyst.

Male fertility plays a pivotal role in the success rates of in vitro embryo production. While livestock breeding programs rigorously select bulls according to their predicted field fertility, specific traits like polyspermy rates are not routinely evaluated. Despite the known negative impact of polyspermy on embryo survival, the paternal factors involved remain unclear.

Respiratory measurements, respiratory symptoms, and quality of life in ALS: results from the REVEALS study.

: Progressing respiratory weakness throughout the course of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is clinically associated with distressing symptoms, including dyspnea, orthopnea, and difficulty clearing secretions. Fatigue, poor sleep, and reduced quality of life are also considered to be associated with declining respiratory function. Respiratory measurements guide prescription of interventions, which aim to alleviate symptoms.

Factors Influencing Nasal Irrigation Efficacy in Infants: An Exploratory 3D Model Study.

Background: Nasal irrigation is widely practiced in infants, but its execution varies greatly. Although a consensus on how to perform this procedure has been published, supporting experimental evidence is lacking. In vitro investigations using anatomical models are a promising first step toward clinical research.

Implementation of a genome-scale model for upgrading syngas fermentations.

Syngas fermentation is a powerful platform for converting waste streams into sustainable carboxylic acid precursors for value-added biochemicals. Steel mills produce significant syngas, yet industrial microbial syngas valorization remains unrealized. The most promising syngas-converting biocatalysts consist of species, such as , , and .

Polysaccharide quantification using microbial enzyme cocktails.

Polysaccharide quantification plays a vital role in understanding ecological and nutritional processes in microbes, plants, and animals. Traditional methods typically hydrolyze these large molecules into monomers using chemical methods, but such approaches do not work for all polysaccharides. Enzymatic degradation is a promising alternative but typically requires the use of characterized recombinant enzymes or characterized microbial isolates that secrete enzymes.

Using negative controls to identify causal effects with invalid instrumental variables.

Many proposals for the identification of causal effects require an instrumental variable that satisfies strong, untestable unconfoundedness and exclusion restriction assumptions. In this paper, we show how one can potentially identify causal effects under violations of these assumptions by harnessing a negative control population or outcome. This strategy allows one to leverage subpopulations for whom the exposure is degenerate, and requires that the instrument-outcome association satisfies a certain parallel trend condition.

The academic impact of Open Science: a scoping review.

Open Science seeks to make research processes and outputs more accessible, transparent and inclusive, ensuring that scientific findings can be freely shared, scrutinized and built upon by researchers and others. To date, there has been no systematic synthesis of the extent to which Open Science (OS) reaches these aims. We use the PRISMA scoping review methodology to partially address this gap, scoping evidence on the academic (but not societal or economic) impacts of OS.

Drug Repurposing in Pancreatic Cancer: A Multi-Stakeholder Perspective to Improve Treatment Options for Pancreatic Cancer Patients.

Pancreatic cancer (PC) remains one of the most challenging malignancies to treat. Current therapeutic options are unsatisfactory, and there is an urgent need for more effective and less toxic drugs to improve the dismal prognosis of PC. In recent years, drug repurposing (DR) has emerged as an attractive strategy to identify novel treatments for PC by leveraging existing drugs approved for other indications.

Pediatric cardiac arrest registries and survival outcomes: A European study.

Objective: The epidemiology of pediatric cardiac arrest in Europe is largely unknown. We aimed to characterize pediatric cardiac arrest registries and obtain the first survival outcome data on pediatric cardiac arrest in Europe.

Design: This is a prospective multinational survey.

Chemogenetic modulation of the rat locus coeruleus alters hippocampal noradrenaline release and modulates perforant path-evoked responses.

Introduction: The locus coeruleus (LC)-noradrenaline (NA) system plays a crucial role in modulating neuronal excitability and plasticity. In epilepsy, the LC-NA system plays an important role in regulating seizure thresholds and severity, with elevated NA release mediating the seizure-suppressing effects of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS). We investigated whether chemogenetic LC activation is able to increase hippocampal NA release and affect hippocampal electrophysiology in anesthetized rats.

Occupational history questionnaire for job coding and exposure assessment in systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases.

Objectives: Systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases (SARDs) develop in genetically susceptible individuals when exposed to environmental factors such as respirable crystalline silica (RCS) particles. Assessing occupational exposure in population-based studies is critical but resource intensive, often requiring expert interviews. This study aimed to develop and validate a self-administered occupational history questionnaire that allows for International Standard Classification of Occupations 1968 (ISCO-68) coding and exposure assessment as a cost-effective alternative to traditional interviews.

Bibliometric analysis of global research on the clinical applications of aminoglycoside antibiotics: improving efficacy and decreasing risk.

Background: Infections by drug-resistant bacteria are a significant threat to human health worldwide although many drug-resistant bacteria are sensitive to aminoglycosides (AGs), an older class of antibiotics. AGs have played a significant role in clinical practice in recent years.

Methods: Publications from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2023 that described clinical research of AGs were identified by searching the Web of Science Core Collection Database.

Modern health worries and exposure perceptions of individuals reporting varying levels of sensitivity to electromagnetic fields: results of two successive surveys.

Introduction: Individuals who claim to be affected by idiopathic environmental intolerance attributed to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) report symptoms linked to EMF exposure. Uncertainties about the causes of these symptoms often leave them seeking their own care solutions. In our connected societies, they may limit their exposure, leading to a spiral of avoidance that negatively impacts overall health.

Cultural practices, oral health service utilisation and oral health policy and guidelines development in Africa: insights from the yorùbá ethnic group.

Cultural beliefs and practices influence oral health behaviors in Africa, where traditions around health are deeply woven into daily life and community values. From the symbolism embedded in African art, belief in efficacy of herbs and natural elements, to the communal customs around oral hygiene, culture serves as a lens through which health beliefs and practices related to oral health are cultivated, understood and acted upon. This manuscript discusses rituals and embodied culture practices surrounding oral health among yorùbá, and links this discussion to the implications for oral health policies and interventions in Africa.

Increased RhoA pathway activation downstream of αIIbβ3/SRC contributes to heterozygous Bernard Soulier syndrome.

Bernard Soulier Syndrome (BSS) is a severe bleeding disorder with moderate to severe thrombocytopenia, giant platelets, and platelet dysfunction, caused by biallelic mutations in GP1BA, GP1BB, or GP9 genes. We generated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) from a BSS patient with a novel heterozygous GP1BA p.N103D mutation, resulting in moderate macrothrombocytopenia.

Axial electrokinetic trapping of label-free nanoparticles using evanescent field scattering.

Anti-Brownian electrokinetic trapping enables the confinement of individual nanoparticles in liquids by applying electric fields. This technique facilitates the long-term observation of nanoscopic objects, allowing for detailed studies of their physical, chemical, and biomolecular properties. However, this method has been largely restricted to nanoparticles that can be visualized by photoluminescence.

Ribosome specialization by cancer-associated ribosomal protein mutations: progress made and open questions.

Congenital mutations in ribosomal proteins (RPs) cause Diamond-Blackfan anaemia (DBA) syndrome. Whereas DBA patients suffer from anaemia and disease symptoms owing to a lack of cell proliferation (hypo-proliferation) early in life, they have a significantly elevated risk of developing cancer (a disease of hyper-proliferation) at a later age. The association between ribosome defects and cancer is further underscored by animal models in which heterozygous RP loss promotes tumourigenesis, as well as by a variety of somatic RP mutations that have been described in haematological and solid malignancies.

ParasiteBlitz: Adaptation of the BioBlitz concept to parasitology.

A BioBlitz is a rapid and intensive survey of a specific geographic area that brings together experts and often lay participants to assess biodiversity, typically of macrobiota that are easily observed and identifiable on-site. This concept has become popular across taxonomic fields, attracting interest globally to increase knowledge of local biodiversity. Inspired by the success of the approach, we undertook a 'ParasiteBlitz' at an unexplored locality (Stono Preserve, Charleston, South Carolina, USA) to determine its feasibility for parasites, whose assessment of diversity is largely neglected worldwide.

The future of precision oncology and artificial intelligence in Belgium: scenarios and policy responses.

Purpose: Precision medicine, also known as personalized medicine, enables the provision of tailored health services to patients. In the prevention, early detection, and treatment of cancers, precision medicine is highly promising, given the increasing use of genomic profiling for diagnosis and adapting therapies in several tumor types. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can support this process by analyzing vast amounts of relevant data.

Structural Characterization of Dimeric Perfluoroalkyl Carboxylic Acid Using Experimental and Theoretical Ion Mobility Spectrometry Analyses.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are contaminants of increasing concern, with over seven million compounds currently inventoried in the PubChem PFAS Tree. Recently, ion mobility spectrometry has been combined with liquid chromatography and high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-IMS-HRMS) to assess PFAS. Interestingly, using negative electrospray ionization, perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCAs) form homodimers ([2M-H]), a phenomenon observed with trapped, traveling wave, and drift-tube IMS.

Community members' knowledge, attitude, and practices towards Ebola virus prevention in the Western Province of Rwanda.

Background: The Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) for decades has been a public health concern in some parts of the world especially in East, Central, and West Africa. Despite investment in improving community members' health, there is regular resistance to available intervention, with little literature describing the reasons. This necessitated exploring knowledge, attitude, and practices of community members' towards the EVD prevention strategies in the Western Province of Rwanda.

Establishment of a regional Mpox surveillance network in Central Africa: shared experiences in an endemic region.

To address the underreporting of mpox cases in endemic regions, a regional surveillance network, known as the Mpox Threat Reduction Network (MPX-TRN), was established between five neighboring countries in Central and West Africa in 2022. One direct outcome of the MPX-TRN has been the strengthening of regional mpox surveillance. This consortium has facilited open communication channels, detection of cross-border mpox cases, and improvements of the detection and diagnosis of mpox in Central Africa and worldwide.

Achieving well-informed decision-making in drug discovery: a comprehensive calibration study using neural network-based structure-activity models.

In the drug discovery process, where experiments can be costly and time-consuming, computational models that predict drug-target interactions are valuable tools to accelerate the development of new therapeutic agents. Estimating the uncertainty inherent in these neural network predictions provides valuable information that facilitates optimal decision-making when risk assessment is crucial. However, such models can be poorly calibrated, which results in unreliable uncertainty estimates that do not reflect the true predictive uncertainty.