Detection of chronic wasting disease prions in the farm soil of the Republic of Korea.

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a highly contagious prion disease occurring in free-ranging and farmed cervids. CWD continues to spread uncontrolled across North America, and cases continue to be detected almost every year in the Republic of Korea. CWD-infected animals contaminate the soil by releasing infectious prions through their excreta, and shed prions accumulate and remain infectious in the soil for years.

Climate change and waterborne diseases in temperate regions: a systematic review.

Risk of waterborne diseases (WBDs) persists in temperate regions. The extent of influence of climate-related factors on the risk of specific WBDs in a changing climate and the projections of future climate scenarios on WBDs in temperate regions are unclear. A systematic review was conducted to identify specific waterborne pathogens and diseases prevalent in temperate region literature and transmission cycle associations with a changing climate.

Wildfire Smoke Contributions to Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Loadings in Western Canadian Urban Surface Grime.

Wildfires emit large amounts of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) into the atmosphere. As PAHs emitted from anthropogenic sources are known to accumulate in urban surface grime present on building exteriors and windows, we hypothesized that PAH-containing wildfire smoke plumes could similarly increase PAH grime loadings. To explore this hypothesis, we coupled analysis of PAHs in grime samples collected from August to November 2021 in two historically smoke-affected Canadian cities, Calgary and Kamloops, with contemporaneous field- and model-based indicators of wildfire influence.

Canadian Association of Radiologists Central Nervous System Diagnostic Imaging Referral Guideline.

The Canadian Association of Radiologists (CAR) Central Nervous System Expert Panel is made up of physicians from the disciplines of radiology, emergency medicine, neurosurgery, and neurology, a patient advisor, and an epidemiologist/guideline methodologist. After developing a list of 24 clinical/diagnostic scenarios, a rapid scoping review was undertaken to identify systematically produced referral guidelines that provide recommendations for one or more of these clinical/diagnostic scenarios. Recommendations from 55 guidelines and contextualization criteria in the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations (GRADE) for guidelines framework were used to develop 51 recommendation statements across the 24 scenarios.

The energetic cost of human walking as a function of uneven terrain amplitude.

Humans expend more energy walking on uneven terrain, but the amount varies across terrains. Few experimental characterizations exist, each describing terrain qualitatively without any relation to others or flat ground. This precludes mechanistic explanation of the energy costs.

It's a good thing that severely hypoxic salmon (Salmo salar) have a limited capacity to increase heart rate when warmed.

With climate change, fish are facing rising temperatures, an increase in the frequency and severity of heat waves and hypoxia, sometimes concurrently. However, only limited studies have examined the combined effects of increases in temperature and hypoxia on fish physiology and survival. We measured the cardiorespiratory physiology of 12°C-acclimated Atlantic salmon when exposed acutely to normoxia [100% air saturation (sat.

Evolutionary insights into gut acidification: Invertebrate-like mechanisms in the basal vertebrate hagfish.

Acidification is a key component of digestion throughout metazoans. The gut digestive fluid of many invertebrates is acidified by the vesicular-type H+-ATPase (VHA). In contrast, vertebrates generate acidic gut fluids using the gastric H+/K+-ATPase (HKA); an evolutionary innovation linked with the appearance of a true stomach that greatly improves digestion, absorption, and immune function.

Impaired Exercise Capacity in High-Risk Diabetic Cardiomyopathy: The ARISE-HF Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing Subanalysis.

Background: Objective indices of functional capacity in patients with diabetic cardiomyopathy and stage B heart failure (HF) have not been comprehensively defined. We sought to characterize the cardiopulmonary exercise characteristics of individuals with diabetic cardiomyopathy at high risk for overt HF.

Methods: The relationships from cardiopulmonary exercise testing with clinical and laboratory characteristics of participants with diabetic cardiomyopathy were evaluated using baseline data from the ARISE-HF trial (Aldose Reductase Inhibition for Stabilization of Exercise Capacity in Heart Failure).

Ultra-Early Hematoma Expansion Is Associated With Ongoing Hematoma Growth and Poor Functional Outcome.

There is limited data on ultra-early hematoma growth dynamics and its clinical relevance in primary intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). We aimed to estimate the incidence of hematoma expansion (HE) within the hyperacute period of ICH, describe hematoma dynamics over time, investigate the associations between ultra-early HE and clinical outcomes after ICH, and assess the effect of tranexamic acid on ultra-early HE. We performed a planned secondary analysis of the STOP-MSU international multicenter randomized controlled trial.

US general population food allergy treatment preferences: a discrete choice experiment.

Objective: To quantify treatment preferences for food allergy management options (oral immunotherapy, biologic therapy, and allergen avoidance), overall and by sociodemographic strata.

Methods: A US general population (≥13 years) discrete choice experiment (DCE) conducted comprised of 12 treatment-feature focused DCE choice sets; the Intolerance of Uncertainty─12 Scale (IUS-12); and clinical/demographic questions. Conditional logistic regression analyses were conducted overall and by age, income, urbanization, educational attainment, food and other sociodemographic factors, and presented as odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs).

From flat to twisted - multifunctional phosphacyclic nanocarbons based on Vat Orange 3.

The field of π-conjugated organic materials has seen significant advances in recent years. However, enhancing the functionality of well-established, mass-produced compounds remains a considerable challenge, despite being an intriguing strategy for designing high-value organic materials with low production costs. In this context, vat dyes, known for their wide range of colors and extensive use in the textile industry are particularly attractive.

Plastic Surgeon Well-being, Mindfulness, and the Art of Letting Go.

As plastic surgeons, we strive to achieve the best possible outcomes for our patients. However, despite being a good surgeon with a sound plan that was thoughtfully crafted and well executed, complications still happen. As a result, surgeons involved in the care of patients who have complications can experience mental and emotional suffering, including feelings of guilt, sadness, anxiety, and stress.

Dynamic Coupling of MAPK Signaling to the Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factor GEF-H1.

The gene is nearly ubiquitously subjected to activating mutation in pancreatic adenocarcinomas (PDAC), occurring at a frequency of over 90% in tumors. Mutant KRAS drives sustained signaling through the MAPK pathway to affect frequently disrupted cancer phenotypes including transcription, proliferation and cell survival. Recent research has shown that PDAC tumor growth and survival required a guanine nucleotide exchange factor for RAS homolog family member A (RhoA) called GEF-H1.

Raising aluminum foil fists: how to speak about anger in transplant medicine.

Dominant narratives of solid-organ transplantation foreground vocabularies of gratitude. Solid-organ transplantation is often celebrated in biomedicine for its high-tech innovation and specialization. But transplantation also includes the organizations that oversee the distribution of donated organs to potential recipients who disproportionately outnumber available organs.

A novel small RNA regulates Locus of Enterocyte Effacement and site-specific colonization of enterohemorrhagic O157:H7 in gut.

Enterohemorrhagic (EHEC) is a contagious foodborne pathogen that specifically colonizes the human large intestine, which is regulated by different environmental stimuli within the gut. Transcriptional regulation of EHEC virulence and infection has been extensively studied, while the posttranscriptional regulation of these processes by small RNAs (sRNAs) remains not fully understood. Here we present a virulence-regulating pathway in EHEC O157:H7, in which the sRNA EvrS binds to and destabilizes the mRNA of Z2269, a novel transcriptional regulator.

Quality of undifferentiated chest pain evaluation and diagnosis guidelines: a systematic review and critical appraisal.

Chest pain is a symptom that is potentially life-threatening and requires quick and accurate evaluations. This article describes the quality of guidelines related to the evaluation and diagnosis of acute, undifferentiated chest pain. After systematically evaluating existing guidelines, we found that there exists a wide variety of quality in these documents.

Inflammation severity, rather than respiratory failure, is strongly associated with mortality of ARDS patients in high-altitude ICUs.

Introduction: In high-altitude cities located above 2,500 m, hospitals face a concerning mortality rate of over 50% among intensive care unit (ICU) patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). This elevated mortality rate is largely due to the absence of altitude-specific medical protocols that consider the unique physiological adaptations of high-altitude residents to hypoxic conditions. This study addresses this critical gap by analyzing demographic, clinical, sex-specific, and preclinical data from ICUs in Bogotá, Colombia (2,650 m) and El Alto, Bolivia (4,150 m).

Early life adverse environmental, nutrition and infection factors are associated with lower developmental scores in Pakistani children at 5 years: a cohort study.

Background: The effects of multiple early adverse psychosocial and biological factors on child development at preschool age in deprived settings are not fully understood.

Methods: The 'Etiology, Risk Factors and Interactions of Enteric Infections and Malnutrition and the Consequences for Child Health and Development' (MAL-ED) project followed children from eight countries, recording sociodemographic, nutritional, illness, enteroinfection biomarkers and scores for quality of home environment (Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME)), development (Bayley) and maternal depression during the first year of life. In the Pakistan cohort, we investigated associations of these early factors with Z-scores (derived from the eight participating countries) of three developmental outcomes at 5 years: Executive Functions (Z-EF), the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale for Intelligence (Z-WPPSI) and the externalising behaviours component of the Strength and Difficulties test (Z-externalising behaviours).

Health policy to address disease-related malnutrition: a scoping review.

Background: Health policies promote optimal care, yet policies that address disease-related malnutrition (DRM) are lacking. The purpose of this study was to conduct a scoping review to identify literature on existing and planned policy to address DRM in children or adults and explore the settings, contexts and actors of DRM policy.

Methods: A search strategy comprising DRM and policy keywords was applied to eight databases on 24 February 2023.