A systematic review of participant diversity in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy trials.

A lack of diverse and representative participant samples in mental health intervention research perpetuates mental health disparities. This issue has become a salient concern in studies of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAT), which is emerging as a promising mental health intervention. This systematic review evaluates the reporting, representation, and analysis of participant sociodemographic characteristics in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of PAT.

Demographic trends of boxing-associated fractures over 10 years.

Background: Boxing is a sport well-known for the risk of injury. However, the epidemiology of boxing-associated fractures has not been well studied. This study aims to report the characteristics of boxing fractures that lead to presentation to the emergency room and evaluate the demographics and practices of the patients to prevent these injuries.

Exploring treatment-driven subclonal evolution of prognostic triple biomarkers: Dual gene fusions and chimeric RNA variants in novel subtypes of acute myeloid leukemia patients with KMT2A rearrangement.

Chromosomal rearrangements (CR) initiate leukemogenesis in approximately 50 % of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients; however, limited targeted therapies exist due to a lack of accurate molecular and genetic biomarkers of refractory mechanisms during treatment. Here, we investigated the pathological landscape of treatment resistance and relapse in 16 CR-AML patients by monitoring cytogenetic, RNAseq, and genome-wide changes among newly diagnosed, refractory, and relapsed AML. First, in FISH-diagnosed KMT2A (MLL gene, 11q23)/AFDN (AF6, 6q27)-rearrangement, RNA-sequencing identified an unknown CCDC32 (15q15.

Association of experienced stigma in healthcare settings with health outcomes among Black women living with HIV: Mediating roles of internalized stigma, anticipated stigma, and trust in HIV care.

Background: Black women living with HIV (WLHIV) often have suboptimal ART adherence due to a multitude of social and structural barriers, including HIV-related stigma. Trust in healthcare providers plays a significant role in adhering to ART and is likely lower among Black WLHIV compared to their White counterparts. This study examined the relationship between experienced stigma in healthcare settings and ART adherence and viral suppression through anticipated stigma in healthcare settings, internalized stigma, and medical mistrust.

A comparative analysis of image harmonization techniques in mitigating differences in CT acquisition and reconstruction.

Objective: The study aims to systematically characterize the effect of CT parameter variations on images and lung radiomic and deep features, and to evaluate the ability of different image harmonization methods to mitigate the observed variations.

Approach: A retrospective in-house sinogram dataset of 100 low-dose chest CT scans was reconstructed by varying radiation dose (100%, 25%, 10%) and reconstruction kernels (smooth, medium, sharp). A set of image processing, convolutional neural network (CNNs), and generative adversarial network-based (GANs) methods were trained to harmonize all image conditions to a reference condition (100% dose, medium kernel).

Acute physical exercise and ambulatory blood pressure in resistant hypertension.

Objectives: The effects of acute physical exercise in patients with resistant hypertension remain largely unexplored compared with hypertensive patients in general. We assessed the short-term effects of acute moderate-intensity (MICE) and high-intensity interval exercise (HIIE) on the clinic (BP) and 24-h ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) of patients with resistant hypertension.

Methods: Using a crossover randomized controlled design, 10 participants (56 ± 7 years) with resistant hypertension performed three experimental sessions: MICE, HIIE, and control.

Prognostic value of manual versus automatic methods for assessing extents of resection and residual tumor volume in glioblastoma.

Objective: The extent of resection (EOR) and postoperative residual tumor (RT) volume are prognostic factors in glioblastoma. Calculations of EOR and RT rely on accurate tumor segmentations. Raidionics is an open-access software that enables automatic segmentation of preoperative and early postoperative glioblastoma using pretrained deep learning models.

Motion-Compensated Multishot Pancreatic Diffusion-Weighted Imaging With Deep Learning-Based Denoising.

Objectives: Pancreatic diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) has numerous clinical applications, but conventional single-shot methods suffer from off resonance-induced artifacts like distortion and blurring while cardiovascular motion-induced phase inconsistency leads to quantitative errors and signal loss, limiting its utility. Multishot DWI (msDWI) offers reduced image distortion and blurring relative to single-shot methods but increases sensitivity to motion artifacts. Motion-compensated diffusion-encoding gradients (MCGs) reduce motion artifacts and could improve motion robustness of msDWI but come with the cost of extended echo time, further reducing signal.

Composition and functional diversity of soil and water microbial communities in the rice-crab symbiosis system.

Rice-crab co-culture is an environmentally friendly agricultural and aquaculture technology with high economic and ecological value. In order to clarify the structure and function of soil and water microbial communities in the rice-crab symbiosis system, the standard rice-crab field with a ring groove was used as the research object. High-throughput sequencing was performed with rice field water samples to analyze the species and abundance differences of soil bacteria and fungi.

The impact of shelter-in-place during the COVID-19 pandemic on social support for mental health recovery: A prescribing-oriented qualitative study of patient perspectives.

The COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented challenges for social connectivity and mental health, especially during mandated shelter-in-place periods. For patients engaged in mental health treatment, the social impact of their shelter-in-place experience remains an area of active investigation. This is particularly relevant in the context of social prescribing, a growing area of clinical intervention where healthcare providers actively refer patients to local social resources or activities to enhance mental health and wellbeing.

Exploring the impact of grazing on fecal and soil microbiome dynamics in small ruminants in organic crop-livestock integration systems.

In integrated crop-livestock systems, livestock graze on cover crops and deposit raw manure onto fields to improve soil health and fertility. However, enteric pathogens shed by grazing animals may be associated with foodborne pathogen contamination of produce influenced by fecal-soil microbial interactions. We analyzed 300 fecal samples (148 from sheep and 152 from goats) and 415 soil samples (272 from California and 143 from Minnesota) to investigate the effects of grazing and the presence of non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) or generic E.

Hepatic and Pancreatic Cellular Response to Early Life Nutritional Mismatch.

To determine the basis for perinatal nutritional mismatch causing metabolic dysfunction associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and diabetes mellitus, we examined adult phenotype, hepatic transcriptome, and pancreatic β-islet function. In prenatal caloric restricted rat with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) and postnatal exposure to high fat with fructose (HFhf) or high carbohydrate (RC), we investigated male and female IUGR-Hfhf and IUGR-RC, versus HFhf and CON offspring. Males more than females displayed adiposity, glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, hyperlipidemia, hepatomegaly with hepatic steatosis.

Pooled PPIseq: Screening the SARS-CoV-2 and human interface with a scalable multiplexed protein-protein interaction assay platform.

Protein-Protein Interactions (PPIs) are a key interface between virus and host, and these interactions are important to both viral reprogramming of the host and to host restriction of viral infection. In particular, viral-host PPI networks can be used to further our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of tissue specificity, host range, and virulence. At higher scales, viral-host PPI screening could also be used to screen for small-molecule antivirals that interfere with essential viral-host interactions, or to explore how the PPI networks between interacting viral and host genomes co-evolve.

Evidence for Endogenous Collagen in Fossil Bone.

Reports of proteins in fossilized bones have been a subject of controversy in the scientific literature because it is assumed that fossilization results in the destruction of all organic components. In this paper, a novel combination of analytical techniques is used to address this question for an exceptionally well-preserved sacrum excavated from the Upper Cretaceous strata of the South Dakota Hell Creek Formation. Cross-polarized light microscopy (XPol) shows birefringence consistent with collagen presence.

Permeability Benchmarking: Guidelines for Comparing , , and Measurements.

Permeability is a measure of the degree to which cells can transport molecules across biological barriers. Units of permeability are distance per unit time (typically cm/s), where accurate measurements are needed to define drug delivery in homeostasis and to model dysfunction occurring during disease. This perspective offers a set of community-led guidelines to benchmark permeability data across multidisciplinary approaches and different biological contexts.

Effects of the Affordable Care Act on Contraception, Pregnancy, and Pregnancy Termination Rates.

Objective: To investigate the effects of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and its elimination of cost sharing on contraception utilization, pregnancy rates, and abortion rates.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study within a health care system serving more than 4.5 million insured members across 21 medical centers and 250 clinics.

Outcomes of Triceps Surae Lengthening Surgery in Children With Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease: A Multisite Investigation.

Background: Orthopaedic surgical intervention in children with Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) often includes triceps surae lengthening (TSL) and foot procedures to address instability and pain due to equinus and cavovarus deformities. These surgeries may unmask underlying weakness in this progressive disease causing increased calcaneal pitch and excessive dorsiflexion in terminal stance leading to crouch. The purpose of this study was to evaluate changes in ankle function during gait following TSL surgery in children with CMT.

Separation and recycling of hydrofluorocarbon refrigerant mixtures with fluoropolymer-coated hollow fiber membranes.

Many hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants used in air-conditioning and refrigeration equipment are being phased out based on international restrictions to reduce global warming. Over 1 billion kilograms of hydrofluorocarbons are in use, and recycling is imperative to preventing the release of these greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. We report on composite hollow fiber membranes that can efficiently separate a mixture of difluoromethane and pentafluoroethane that is used worldwide in air conditioners.

Morphogenesis of bacterial cables in polymeric environments.

Many bacteria live in polymeric fluids, such as mucus, environmental polysaccharides, and extracellular polymers in biofilms. However, laboratory studies typically focus on cells in polymer-free fluids. Here, we show that interactions with polymers shape a fundamental feature of bacterial life-how they proliferate in space in multicellular colonies.

Activation of locus coeruleus noradrenergic neurons rapidly drives homeostatic sleep pressure.

Homeostatic sleep regulation is essential for optimizing the amount and timing of sleep for its revitalizing function, but the mechanism underlying sleep homeostasis remains poorly understood. Here, we show that optogenetic activation of locus coeruleus (LC) noradrenergic neurons immediately increased sleep propensity following a transient wakefulness, contrasting with many other arousal-promoting neurons whose activation induces sustained wakefulness. Fiber photometry showed that repeated optogenetic or sensory stimulation caused a rapid reduction of calcium activity in LC neurons and steep declines in noradrenaline/norepinephrine (NE) release in both the LC and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC).

Stimulating the regenerative capacity of the human retina with proneural transcription factors in 3D cultures.

Retinal diseases often lead to degeneration of specific retinal cell types with currently limited therapeutic options to replace the lost neurons. Previous studies have reported that overexpression of or combinations of proneural factors in Müller glia (MG) induce regeneration of functional neurons in the adult mouse retina. Recently, we applied the same strategy in dissociated cultures of fetal human MG and although we stimulated neurogenesis from MG, our effect in 2D cultures was modest and our analysis of newborn neurons was limited.

Plant BCL-DOMAIN HOMOLOG proteins play a conserved role in SWI/SNF complex stability.

The SWItch/Sucrose Non-Fermenting (SWI/SNF) complexes are evolutionarily conserved, ATP-dependent chromatin remodelers crucial for multiple nuclear functions in eukaryotes. Recently, plant BCL-DOMAIN HOMOLOG (BDH) proteins were identified as shared subunits of all plant SWI/SNF complexes, significantly impacting chromatin accessibility and various developmental processes in Arabidopsis. In this study, we performed a comprehensive characterization of mutants, revealing the role of BDH in hypocotyl cell elongation.