A transdisciplinary, comparative analysis reveals key risks from Arctic permafrost thaw.

Permafrost thaw poses diverse risks to Arctic environments and livelihoods. Understanding the effects of permafrost thaw is vital for informed policymaking and adaptation efforts. Here, we present the consolidated findings of a risk analysis spanning four study regions: Longyearbyen (Svalbard, Norway), the Avannaata municipality (Greenland), the Beaufort Sea region and the Mackenzie River Delta (Canada) and the Bulunskiy District of the Sakha Republic (Russia).

Climate signal age effects in tree-ring density data from the Spanish Pyrenees.

Key Message:

Abstract: Tree-rings are the prime archive for high-resolution climate information over the past two millennia. However, the accuracy of annually resolved reconstructions from tree-rings can be constrained by what is known as climate signal age effects (CSAE), encompassing changes in the sensitivity of tree growth to climate over their lifespans. Here, we evaluate CSAE in from an upper tree line site in the Spanish central Pyrenees, Lake Gerber, which became a key location for reconstructing western Mediterranean summer temperatures at annual resolution.

Prediction of Current and Future Distributions of (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) Under Climate Change Scenarios.

The consequences of climate change, accelerated by anthropogenic activities, have different effects on different ecosystems, and the severity of these effects is predicted to increase in the near future. The number of studies investigating how forest ecosystems respond to these changes is increasing. However, there remains a significant gap in research concerning how saproxylic organisms-one of the key contributors to the healthy functioning of these fragile ecosystems-will respond to the consequences of climate change.

Perceptions of Cardiovascular Healthcare Professionals Regarding Clinical Trials: A Survey-Based Study from the Middle East.

Background: Low-middle income countries harbor the highest burden of cardiovascular diseases globally, but there is an under-representation of these countries in cardiovascular clinical trials. This limits the generalizability of the trial results to these countries. There is a lack of data on insights of cardiologists in these countries regarding conducting and participating in clinical trials.

Targeted Nanotherapy by Vinblastine-Loaded Chitosan-Coated PLA Nanoparticles to Improve the Chemotherapy via Reactive Oxygen Species to Hamper Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Liver cancer is a prevalent and significant cause of death in humans. The use of novel biodegradable materials for various biomedical applications is being recently recommended as complementary as well as alternative solution for traditional chemotherapy. This study focuses on the synthesis of biodegradable nanocarriers [chitosan-coated poly(lactic acid) NPs (Cht-PLA NPs)] for the delivery of an anticancer drug vinblastine (Vbx) and to evaluate its therapeutic potential in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cells.

A randomised double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of pramipexole in addition to mood stabilisers for patients with treatment-resistant bipolar depression (the PAX-BD study).

Background: Options for 'treatment-resistant bipolar depression' (TRBD) are limited. Two small, short-term, trials of pramipexole suggest it might be an option.

Aims: To evaluate the clinical effectiveness and safety of pramipexole in the management of TRBD.

Auxin fluctuation and PIN polarization in moss leaf cell reprogramming.

Auxin and its PIN-FORMED (PIN) exporters are essential for tissue repair and regeneration in flowering plants. To gain insight into the evolution of this mechanism, we investigated their roles in leaves excised from Physcomitrium patens, a bryophyte known for its remarkable cell reprogramming capacity. We used various approaches to manipulate auxin levels, including exogenous application, pharmacological manipulations, and auxin biosynthesis mutants.

Assessing Metabolic Ageing via DNA Methylation Surrogate Markers: A Multicohort Study in Britain, Ireland and the USA.

Metabolomics and epigenomics have been used to develop 'ageing clocks' that assess biological age and identify 'accelerated ageing'. While metabolites are subject to short-term variation, DNA methylation (DNAm) may capture longer-term metabolic changes. We aimed to develop a hybrid DNAm-metabolic clock using DNAm as metabolite surrogates ('DNAm-metabolites') for age prediction.

A qualitative exploration of change processes relevant to compassion-focused therapy that occurs when people view both soothing and non-soothing images.

Objective: Using soothing imagery within psychotherapy may support people to undertake positive visualisation exercises. However, little is known about what processes happen when people view images they find to be soothing or non-soothing.

Design: Exploratory qualitative methods were used.

Trees First Inhibit Then Promote Litter Decomposition in the Subarctic.

Trees affect organic matter decomposition through allocation of recently fixed carbon belowground, but the magnitude and direction of this effect may depend on substrate type and decomposition stage. Here, we followed mass loss, chemical composition and fungal colonisation of leaf and root litters incubated in mountain birch forests over 4 years, in plots where belowground carbon allocation was severed by tree girdling or in control plots. Initially, girdling stimulated leaf and root litter mass loss by 12% and 22%, respectively, suggesting competitive release of saprotrophic decomposition when tree-mediated competition by ectomycorrhizal fungi was eliminated (Gadgil effect).

Update to the PRISMA guidelines for network meta-analyses and scoping reviews and development of guidelines for rapid reviews: a scoping review protocol.

Objective: The objective of this scoping review is to develop a list of items for potential inclusion in the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) reporting guidelines for network meta-analysis (NMA), scoping reviews (ScRs), and rapid reviews (RRs).

Introduction: The PRISMA extensions for NMA and ScRs were published in 2015 and 2018. However, since then, their methodologies and innovations, including automation, have evolved.

New Integrative Vectors Increase Agrobacterium rhizogenes Transformation and Help Characterise Roles for Soybean GmTML Gene Family Members.

Hairy-root transformation is widely used to generate transgenic plant roots for genetic functional characterisation studies. However, transformation efficiency can be limited, largely due to the use of binary vectors. Here, we report on the development of novel integrative vectors that significantly increase the transformation efficiency of hairy roots.

Identification of vascular hotspots and analysis of micro-vessel flow velocity waveforms in high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions of the cervix.

Objectives: To assess hotspot micro-vessel flow velocity waveforms in human papillomavirus (HPV) cervical infections using transvaginal power Doppler ultrasound (TV-PDU) and explore associations with high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia [CIN] II and III).

Methods: In all, 62 patients with confirmed HPV-HSIL (14 CIN II, 48 CIN III) and 65 age- and parity-matched women with neither HPV infection nor CIN were compared. Seven parameters by TV-PDU were used to assess vascular classification and micro-vessel flow velocity, including vascular grading (class I, II, III), lowest pulsatility index (PI), resistance index (RI), peak systolic velocity (PS), end-diastolic velocity (ED), time average maximum velocity (TAMV), and the vascular index (VI = PS/ED).

The brain in Spain: The legacy of Santiago Ramón y Cajal.

The legacy of Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Spain's first Nobel laureate neuroscientist recognized as the founding father of modern neuroscience, is to be preserved in a new museum in Madrid: the National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN), one of the most important scientific research institutes in the country sciences in the scope of natural sciences of the Spanish National Research Council. For a boy who dreamed of being an artist but started his career apprenticed to first a barber and then a cobbler, Santiago Ramón y Cajal made a distinguished mark in science. One of Cajal's most important contributions to our understanding of the brain was his discovery of the direction of the information flow within neurons and in neural circuits, which he called the "dynamic polarization law," without a doubt the founding principle of neurosciences.

The Role of Inflammation, Oxidative Stress, Neuronal Damage, and Endothelial Dysfunction in the Neuropathology of Cognitive Complications in Diabetes: A Moderation and Mediation Analysis.

Objective: Cognitive impairment is increasingly recognized as a complication of diabetes, yet the underlying pathology remains unclear. This study aims to investigate the roles of inflammation, oxidative stress, endothelial dysfunction, and neuronal damage in the neuropathology underlying diabetes related cognitive impairment.

Methods: This study assessed 183 participants (54 prediabetes, 71 Type 2 diabetes mellitus [T2DM], and 58 controls) for cognitive performance using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA).

Coagulation and platelet function in cold-stored whole blood on missions in a helicopter emergency service.

Background: Haemorrhage is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in trauma, and prehospital transfusion of blood products is often necessary. Whole blood has been proposed to be the best alternative, but it is unclear whether, and how, storage and transport of the blood in a helicopter affects the blood units. We investigated the coagulation capacity and platelet function in whole blood at different time points during helicopter missions.

Oronasal mucosal melanoma is defined by two transcriptional subtypes in humans and dogs with implications for diagnosis and therapy.

Mucosal melanoma is a rare melanoma subtype associated with a poor prognosis and limited existing therapeutic interventions, in part due to a lack of actionable targets and translational animal models for preclinical trials. Comprehensive data on this tumour type are scarce, and existing data often overlooks the importance of the anatomical site of origin. We evaluated human and canine oronasal mucosal melanoma (OMM) to determine whether the common canine disease could inform the rare human equivalent.

Phenolic Compounds and Bacteriocins: Mechanisms, Interactions, and Applications in Food Preservation and Safety.

Beneficial properties of different natural antimicrobials are topics of scientific curiosity for improving safety and extending the shelf life of food commodities. In this regard, phenolic compounds, natural molecules known for their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial properties can be right choice. Moreover, bacteriocins, antimicrobial peptides produced by various microorganisms, capable of inhibiting the growth of other bacteria, particularly closely related species can be genuine alternative.

Ecomorphology of South American Penguins.

A major goal of evolutionary ecology is to understand the interaction between ecological differences and the functional morphology of organisms. Studies of this type are common among flying birds but less so in penguins. Penguins (Spheniscidae) are the most derived extant underwater flying birds using their wings for swimming and beak when foraging.

Clinical toxicity of nitazene detections in two Australian emergency department toxicosurveillance systems.

Introduction: Nitazenes are a group of potent synthetic opioids that have had increasing prominence as novel psychoactive drugs in the last 5 years. We describe emergency department nitazene-related presentations.

Methods: This is a prospective series of patients with analytically confirmed nitazene presentations identified by the Emerging Drugs Network of Australia and Emerging Drugs Network of Australia Victoria.

Developing, Piloting and Evaluating a Patient Support Portal for Men With Prostate Cancer in Victoria: An Action Research Study.

Introduction: Men with prostate cancer (PCa) and their support providers face challenges in accessing high-quality, impartial information tailored to their specific needs to enhance their overall care and decision-making. We describe the development, piloting and evaluation of the co-designed web portal 'BroSupPORT'.

Methods: IT teams developed and integrated BroSupPORT into the Victorian Prostate Cancer Outcomes Registry (PCOR-Vic) electronic patient-reported outcome follow-up process.

Clinical Assessment of Drug Transporter Inhibition Using Biomarkers: Review of the Literature (2015-2024).

As part of a narrative review of various publications describing the clinical use of urine- and plasma-based drug transporter biomarkers, it was determined that the utilization of coproporphyrin I, a hepatic organic anion transporting polypeptide (OATP) 1B1 and OATP1B3 biomarker, has been reported for 28 different drug-drug interaction (DDI) perpetrator drugs. Similarly, biomarkers for liver organic cation transporter 1 (isobutyryl-l-carnitine, N = 7 inhibitors), renal organic cation transporter 2 and multidrug and toxin extrusion proteins (N-methylnicotinamide, N = 13 inhibitors), renal organic anion transporter (OAT) 1 and 3 (pyridoxic acid, N = 7 inhibitors), and breast cancer resistance protein (riboflavin, N = 3 inhibitors) have also been described. Increased use of biomarkers has also been accompanied by modeling efforts to enable DDI predictions and development of multiplexed methods to facilitate their bioanalysis.

AS3MT Gene Variant Shows Association with Skin Lesions in an Arsenic Exposed Population of India.

AS3MT, GSTO2, and GSTP1 genes play important roles in the arsenic biotransformation pathway, while CYP2E1 gene has a prominent role in the metabolic activation of xenobiotics. Hence, polymorphisms of these genes might have an effect on arsenic biotransformation and could impact susceptibility to arsenical skin lesions in individuals of chronic arsenic toxicity. The present case-control study, comprising 148 subjects, attempted to evaluate genetic association between nine polymorphisms of AS3MT, GSTO2, GSTP1 and CYP2E1 genes and arsenical skin lesions in a West Bengal (WB) population.

Design of Flavonoid-Based Lipid Domains as Fusion Inhibitors to Efficiently Block Coronavirus and Other Enveloped Virus Infection.

Developing a broad-spectrum antiviral is imperative in light of the recent emergence of recurring viral infections. The critical role of host-virus attachment and membrane fusion during enveloped virus entry is a suitable target for developing broad-spectrum antivirals. A new class of flavonoid-based fusion inhibitors are designed to alter the membrane's physical properties.