Chronotropic effects of milrinone in a guinea pig ex vivo model: a pilot study to screen for new mechanisms of action.

Positive inotropic responses upon administration of milrinone, an inhibitor of the phosphodiesterase enzyme (PDE), involve a well-pronounced positive chronotropic effect. Here we tested whether milrinone evokes this chronotropic response solely by PDE inhibition or by a concerted action that involve additional pharmacological targets. Milrinone stimulated increases in heart rate were studied in right atrial preparations of guinea pig in the presence or absence of inhibitors of putative ancillary molecular pathways or ion channels: i.

Adjuvant Chemotherapy After Resection of Localized Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma Following Preoperative FOLFIRINOX.

Importance: The effect of adjuvant chemotherapy following resection of pancreatic adenocarcinoma after preoperative (m)FOLFIRINOX (combination leucovorin calcium [folinic acid], fluorouracil, irinotecan hydrochloride, and oxaliplatin in full or modified dosing) chemotherapy on overall survival (OS) is unclear because current studies do not account for the number of cycles of preoperative chemotherapy and adjuvant chemotherapy regimen.

Objective: To investigate the association of adjuvant chemotherapy following resection of pancreatic adenocarcinoma after preoperative (m)FOLFIRINOX with OS, taking into account the number of cycles of preoperative chemotherapy and adjuvant chemotherapy regimen.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This retrospective cohort study included patients with localized pancreatic adenocarcinoma treated with 2 to 11 cycles of preoperative (m)FOLFIRINOX followed by resection across 48 centers in 20 countries from 2010 to 2018.

Generation of ribosomal protein S1 mutants for improving of expression of difficult to translate mRNAs.

Metagenomes present a source for novel enzymes, but under 1% of environmental microbes are cultivatable. Because of its useful properties, Escherichia coli has been used as a host organism in functional genomic screens. However, due to differing expression machineries in the expression host compared to the source organism of the DNA sequences, screening outcomes can be biased.

Improving postsurgical paresis in brain tumor patients by transcranial magnetic stimulation.

Background And Objectives: Recently, reduction of transcallosal inhibition by contralateral navigated repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (nrTMS) improved neurorehabilitation of glioma patients with new postoperative paresis. This multicentric study examines the effect of postoperative nrTMS in brain tumor patients to treat surgery-related upper extremity paresis.

Methods: This is a secondary analysis of two randomized and three one-arm studies in brain tumor patients with new/progressive postoperative paresis.

Survey of legislative frameworks and national recommendations governing paediatric maintenance haemodialysis in Europe.

Background: The application of international recommendations for paediatric maintenance haemodialysis (HD) could be strengthened by national laws or written recommendations. Our aim was therefore to describe the national rules governing paediatric maintenance HD in European countries.

Methods: A national representative, approved by the president of each paediatric nephrology society, was contacted in all 42 European countries to complete two online questionnaires.

Equitable shifts in youth resilience? Distinguishing normative changes and pandemic effects on academic self-efficacy and cognitive reappraisal.

This preregistered longitudinal study examined the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on academic self-efficacy and cognitive reappraisal in early adolescence. It followed and compared two cohorts over 4 years: one prepandemic (11-14 years, 2016-2019) and one during the pandemic (2019-2022). The study analyzed annual well-being surveys merged with school enrolment data from South Australian public schools ( = 28,307, 49% female).

Microfluidic vessel-on-chip platform for investigation of cellular defects in venous malformations and responses to various shear stress and flow conditions.

A novel microfluidic platform was designed to study the cellular architecture of endothelial cells (ECs) in an environment replicating the 3D organization and flow of blood vessels. In particular, the platform was constructed to investigate EC defects in slow-flow venous malformations (VMs) under varying shear stress and flow conditions. The platform featured a standard microtiter plate footprint containing 32 microfluidic units capable of replicating wall shear stress (WSS) in normal veins and enabling precise control of shear stress and flow directionality without the need for complex pumping systems.

Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21) for Finnish-speaking adults: Validation and normative data.

We conducted the first validation of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21) in Finnish. DASS-21 is a short public domain questionnaire, which presents a way to quickly and effectively screen for mental ill health. We recruited two large samples, one aged 24-45 ( = 3,101 [2,488 women]), and the other aged 60-82 ( = 5,462 [4,473 women]), all employees of the city of Helsinki at inclusion (2017 and 2000-2002).

Methylaluminoxane Reactivities and Anionic Structures: From Small Oligomers to Large Sheets.

The structure and reactivity of small methylaluminoxane (MAO) species (MeAlO)n(Me3Al)m (n = 1-8) have been investigated using DFT (M06-2X), MP2, and CCSD(T) calculations. This hierarchy of methods reveals that DFT artificially stabilizes structures containing 4-coordinate oxygen atoms while higher-level calculations demonstrate a clear preference for structures with 3-coordinate oxygen and 4-coordinate aluminum centers. Analysis of ionization pathways shows these neutral MAO molecules form anions through either methide or Me2Al+ abstraction, with the latter mechanism dominant for sheet structures (n = 5-8).

An In Vivo Biostability Evaluation of ALD and Parylene-ALD Multilayers as Micro-Packaging Solutions for Small Single-Chip Implants.

Miniaturization of next-generation active neural implants requires novel micro-packaging solutions that can maintain their long-term coating performance in the body. This work presents two thin-film coatings and evaluates their biostability and in vivo performance over a 7-month animal study. To evaluate the coatings on representative surfaces, two silicon microchips with different surface microtopography are used.

Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) Classes in MASK-air Users.

Background And Objectives: The Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) guidelines classify rhinitis as "intermittent" or "persistent" and "mild" or "moderate-severe". To assess ARIA classes in a real-world study in terms of phenotypic differences and their association with asthma.

Methods: We performed a cross-sectional real-world study based on users of the MASK-air® app who reported data for at least 3 different months.

Reverse Time-to-Death as Time-Scale in Time-to-Event Analysis for Studies of Advanced Illness and Palliative Care.

Incidence of adverse outcome events rises as patients with advanced illness approach end-of-life. Exposures that tend to occur near end-of-life, for example, use of wheelchair, oxygen therapy and palliative care, may therefore be found associated with the incidence of the adverse outcomes. We propose a concept of reverse time-to-death (rTTD) and its use for the time-scale in time-to-event analysis based on partial likelihood to mitigate the time-varying confounding.

Plasmonic Single-Molecule Affinity Detection at 10 Molar.

DNA can be readily amplified through replication, enabling the detection of a single-target copy. A comparable performance for proteins in immunoassays has yet to be fully assessed. Surface-plasmon-resonance (SPR) serves as a probe capable of performing assays at concentrations typically around 10⁻⁹ molar.

Dynamic Outlier Slicing Allows Broader Exploration of Adaptive Divergence: A Comparison of Individual Genome and Pool-Seq Data Linked to Humic Adaptation in Perch.

How genetic variation contributes to adaptation at different environments is a central focus in evolutionary biology. However, most free-living species still lack a comprehensive understanding of the primary molecular mechanisms of adaptation. Here, we characterised the targets of selection associated with drastically different aquatic environments-humic and clear water-in the common freshwater fish, Eurasian perch (Perca fluviatilis).

Correlation of zero echo time functional MRI with neuronal activity in rats.

Zero echo time (zero-TE) pulse sequences provide a quiet and artifact-free alternative to conventional functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) pulse sequences. The fast readouts (<1 ms) utilized in zero-TE fMRI produce an image contrast with negligible contributions from blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) mechanisms, yet the zero-TE contrast is highly sensitive to brain function. However, the precise relationship between the zero-TE contrast and neuronal activity has not been determined.

Interaction between opium use and cigarette smoking on bladder cancer: An inverse probability weighting approach based on a multicenter case-control study in Iran.

Introduction: Opium and cigarette smoking have been identified as significant cancer risk factors. Recently, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified opium as a Group 1 carcinogen in 2020.

Method: Using data from a multicenter case-control study in Iran called IROPICAN, involving 717 cases of bladder cancer and 3477 controls, we assessed the interactions on the causal additive scale between opium use and cigarette smoking and their attributing effects to evaluate public health relevance and test for different mechanistic interaction forms to provide new insights for developing of bladder cancer.

Early subacute frontal callosal microstructure and language outcomes after stroke.

The integrity of the frontal segment of the corpus callosum, forceps minor, is particularly susceptible to age-related degradation and has been associated with cognitive outcomes in both healthy and pathological ageing. The predictive relevance of forceps minor integrity in relation to cognitive outcomes following a stroke remains unexplored. Our goal was to evaluate whether the heterogeneity of forceps minor integrity, assessed early after stroke onset (2-6 weeks), contributes to explaining variance in longitudinal outcomes in post-stroke aphasia.

A customizable wireless potentiostat for assessing Ni(OH) decorated vertically aligned MoS thin films for electrochemical sensing of dopamine.

In this study, we show that on-chip grown, vertically aligned MoS films that are decorated with Ni(OH) catalyst are suitable materials to be applied as working electrodes in electrochemical sensing. The constructed sensors display a highly repeatable response to dopamine, used as a model analyte, in a large dynamic range from 1 μM to 1 mM with a theoretical detection limit of 0.1 μM.

The effect of feedstock concentration on the crystal phase, morphology, and optical properties of WO nanostructures.

In this study, the effect of feedstock concentration on the synthesis of WO nanostructures in a one-step hydrothermal process was investigated. According to our experiments, when titrating aqueous NaWO·2HO with HCl solutions of different concentrations to a constant pH of 1.5, after identical hydrothermal treatments at 180 °C, the morphology, crystal size and phase composition as well as the optical properties of the products could be tuned.

Microbial communities in the phyllosphere and endosphere of Norway spruce under attack by .

species complex has been regarded as the most destructive disease agent of conifer trees in boreal forests. Tree microbiome can regulate the plant-pathogen interactions by influencing both host resistance and pathogen virulence. Such information would help to improve the future health of forests and explore strategies to enhance ecosystem stability.

Avian influenza annual report 2023.

All European Union (EU) Member States (MSs), along with Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom (Northern Ireland), conduct surveillance for avian influenza (AI) in poultry and wild birds. EFSA, upon mandate of the European Commission, compiles and analyses this data in an annual report. This summary highlights findings from the 2023 surveillance activities.

Recommendations for Mental Health Chatbot Conversations: An Integrative Review.

Aim: To identify and synthesise recommendations and guidelines for mental health chatbot conversational design.

Design: Integrative review.

Methods: Suitable publications presenting recommendations or guidelines for mental health conversational design were included.

Parent and Carer Experiences of Health Care Professionals' Communications About a Child's Higher Weight: a Qualitative Systematic Review.

Objective: The objective of this systematic review was to identify, critically appraise, and synthesize the best available qualitative evidence on parent and carer experiences of communications by health care professionals (HCPs) concerning children's higher weight.

Introduction: A child's higher weight can be a sensitive issue to discuss in health care, but successful communication with parents can increase parental compliance with treatment and improve overall family welfare. Public discourse on obesity has shifted in recent years and created pressure to change the way that weight is discussed in health care.

Fear of childbirth and psychiatric disorders decrease the likelihood of subsequent births: a retrospective register-based cohort study.

Background: Mirroring other developed countries globally, the birth rate has decreased in Finland in recent years. The effects of a fear of childbirth (FOC) and psychiatric disorders on the likelihood of having more than one child remain relatively unstudied. This study aims to assess the influence of FOC, psychiatric disorders, and the mode of first delivery on the likelihood of the second birth among primiparous women.

Increased PD-1 expression in livers associated with PD-1-antibody-induced hepatotoxicity.

Vanishing bile duct syndrome (VBDS) is a serious drug induced liver injury characterized by chronic cholestasis and loss of intrahepatic bile ducts. VBDS has been reported also following checkpoint inhibitor treatment. We compared CD3 + , CD4 + , CD8 + , CD20 + , CD57 + , PD-1 + and PD-L1 + lymphocyte infiltrates in liver biopsies of patients that encountered VBDS (n = 2) or hepatotoxicity (n = 3) after pembrolizumab (n = 4) or nivolumab (n = 1) treatment with samples from normal liver (n = 10), non-alcohol steatohepatitis (NASH, n = 10), primary biliary cholangitis (PBC, n = 10) or pembrolizumab-treated patients without adverse events (n = 2).