Automated AI-based image analysis for quantification and prediction of interstitial lung disease in systemic sclerosis patients.

Background: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a rare connective tissue disease associated with rapidly evolving interstitial lung disease (ILD), driving its mortality. Specific imaging-based biomarkers associated with the evolution of lung disease are needed to help predict and quantify ILD.

Methods: We evaluated the potential of an automated ILD quantification system (icolung) from chest CT scans, to help in quantification and prediction of ILD progression in SSc-ILD.

A comparative study of the effect of capsular repair in the Latarjet procedure.

Background: Long term studies have shown the Latarjet procedure to be successful in preventing re-dislocation in primary and recurrent anterior inferior shoulder instability. It provides stability through the sling effect of the conjoint tendon and the bone block. It is unclear whether augmentation with capsular repair provides an added benefit or leads to restricted range of external rotation.

COVID-19 associated thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura: a case report and review of the literature.

Introduction: Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) is a rare but potentially life-threatening complication whose association with COVID-19 is controversial. Understanding this connection is essential due to its significant impact on patient outcomes, and timely diagnosis and intervention are critical in managing this condition effectively.

Areas Covered: This paper presents a case of TTP triggered by COVID-19 infection in a 48-year-old female.

Ten pressure points in primary care during COVID-19: findings from an international narrative review.

Background: Strong primary care (PC) services are the foundation of high-performing health care systems and can support effective responses to public health emergencies. Primary care practitioners (PCPs) and PC services played crucial roles in supporting global health system responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, these contributions have come at a cost, impacting on PC services and affecting patient care.

Elevated Fecal Lipocalin-2 Levels During Early Life Are Associated with Maternal Inflammatory Bowel Disease Diagnosis.

Background: Fecal lipocalin-2 (LCN2) is a biomarker of neutrophil activation, which is elevated in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD); however, its dynamic changes during pregnancy and early life are largely unknown. We characterized LCN2 levels by maternal IBD diagnosis, offspring feeding behavior, and gut microbiota composition.

Methods: In the prospective MECONIUM (Exploring Mechanisms of Disease Transmission In Utero through the Microbiome) study, we analyzed 559 fecal samples from 91 pregnant women with IBD, 78 healthy controls, and their 147 offspring for LCN2 levels at each trimester of pregnancy and multiple time points during early life using linear mixed-effects model and multiple logistic regression analyses.

Multiple Lurias. Reconstructing Alexander Romanovich's Life-Writing.

While widely considered Alexander Luria's (1902-1977) autobiography, The Making of Mind. A Personal Account of Soviet Psychology, published posthumously in 1979, is not a true autobiography but rather an autobiography with heterobiographic elements. However, the largely overlooked Spanish book, Mirando hacia atrás.

Mortality and ocular parameters and diseases.

Background: To assess associations between mortality and major ocular parameters and diseases.

Methods: The population-based Ural Eye and Medical Study (UEMS) and Ural Very Old Study (UVOS) included 5899 individuals (age: 40+ years) and 1526 individuals (age: 85+ years), respectively. Cause-specific mortality was determined using the government regional information and analytical system.

Unveiling the functional connectivity of astrocytic networks with AstroNet, a graph reconstruction algorithm coupled to image processing.

Astrocytes form extensive networks with diverse calcium activity, yet the organization and connectivity of these networks across brain regions remain largely unknown. To address this, we developed AstroNet, a data-driven algorithm that uses two-photon calcium imaging to map temporal correlations in astrocyte activation. By organizing individual astrocyte activation events chronologically, our method reconstructs functional networks and extracts local astrocyte correlations.

Structural model of a bacterial focal adhesion complex.

Cell movement on surfaces relies on focal adhesion complexes (FAs), which connect cytoskeletal motors to the extracellular matrix to produce traction forces. The soil bacterium Myxococcus xanthus uses a bacterial FA (bFA), for surface movement and predation. The bFA system, known as Agl-Glt, is a complex network of at least 17 proteins spanning the cell envelope.

Defining Hyperphagia for Improved Diagnosis and Management of MC4R Pathway-Associated Disease: A Roundtable Summary.

Purpose Of Review: Hyperphagia is a condition associated with rare obesity-related diseases, presenting as a pathologic, insatiable hunger accompanied by abnormal food-seeking behaviors. In October 2023, a group of researchers and clinicians with expert knowledge on hyperphagia convened at the annual ObesityWeek meeting to discuss the need for a unified definition of hyperphagia and key items necessary to improve the identification, assessment, and treatment of hyperphagia in patients with melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) pathway-associated diseases.

Recent Findings: The definition of hyperphagia proposed by this group is a pathologic, insatiable hunger accompanied by abnormal food-seeking behaviors.

A guide to the biogenesis and functions of endogenous small non-coding RNAs in animals.

Small non-coding RNAs can be categorized into two main classes: structural RNAs and regulatory RNAs. Structural RNAs, which are abundant and ubiquitously expressed, have essential roles in the maturation of pre-mRNAs, modification of rRNAs and the translation of coding transcripts. By contrast, regulatory RNAs are often expressed in a developmental-specific, tissue-specific or cell-type-specific manner and exert precise control over gene expression.

A novel method for multi-matrix arsenic speciation analysis by anion-exchange HPLC-ICP-MS in the framework of the third (French) total diet study.

This study presents the development and validation of a precise analytical method for the speciation analysis of arsenic (As) compounds, including inorganic species [As(III) and As(V)] and organic species such as monomethylarsonic acid (MMA) and dimethylarsinic acid (DMA). The method employs anion-exchange high-performance liquid chromatography (AE HPLC) coupled with inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). To optimize the sample preparation process, microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) and heat-assisted extraction (HAE) techniques were evaluated and compared.

Sexual dimorphism of the humerus bones in a French sample: comparison of several statistical models including machine learning models.

Sex estimation is an important part of skeletal analysis and forensic identification. Traditionally pelvic traits are utilized for accurate sex estimation. However, the long bones, especially humerus, have been proved to be as effective for determine the sex of the individual.

Astrocyte-to-neuron HO signalling supports long-term memory formation in Drosophila and is impaired in an Alzheimer's disease model.

Astrocytes help protect neurons from potential damage caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS). While ROS can also exert beneficial effects, it remains unknown how neuronal ROS signalling is activated during memory formation, and whether astrocytes play a role in this process. Here we discover an astrocyte-to-neuron HO signalling cascade in Drosophila that is essential for long-term memory formation.

V3+ extends the V3 framework to ensure user-centricity and scalability of sensor-based digital health technologies.

We propose the addition of usability validation to the extended V3 framework, now "V3+", and describe a pragmatic approach to ensuring that sensor-based digital health technologies can be used optimally at scale by diverse users. Alongside the original V3 components (verification; analytical validation; clinical validation), usability validation will ensure user-centricity of digital measurement tools, paving the way for more inclusive, reliable, and trustworthy digital measures within clinical research and clinical care.

Thermoelectric properties of a quantum dot attached to normal metal and topological superconductor.

The thermoelectric properties of hybrid systems based on a single-level quantum dot coupled to a normal-metal/half-metallic lead and attached to a topological superconductor wire are investigated. The topological superconductor wire is modeled by a spinless p-wave superconductor which hosts both a Majorana bound state at its extremity and above gap quasiparticle excitations. The main interest of our investigation is to study the interplay of sub-gap and single-particle tunneling processes and their contributions to the thermoelectric response of the considered system.

Connecting electronic health records to a biomedical knowledge graph to link clinical phenotypes and molecular endotypes in atopic dermatitis.

Precision medicine is defined by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration as "an innovative approach to tailoring disease prevention and treatment that considers differences in people's genes, environments, and lifestyles".

Segmental analysis of human hair reveals intra-annual variation in 25(OH)D concentrations in modern and archaeological individuals.

Vitamin D is essential for healthy skeletal growth and is increasingly recognised for its role in chronic disease development, inflammation and immunity. 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations are an indicator of vitamin D status and are normally analysed in plasma or serum samples in clinical settings, while archaeological studies rely on the identification of skeletal markers of vitamin D deficiency, such as rickets. Here, we determined 25(OH)D concentrations in hair specimens ('locks') that had been sampled close to the root, aligned by cut end, and sliced into sequential segments from participants (n = 16), from Aberdeen, Scotland, using a modified protocol designed to minimise sample size.

An epigenetic memory at the CYP1A gene in cancer-resistant, pollution-adapted killifish.

Human exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) is a significant public health problem that will worsen with a warming climate and increased large-scale wildfires. Here, we characterize an epigenetic memory at the cytochrome P450 1 A (CYP1A) gene in wild Fundulus heteroclitus that have adapted to chronic, extreme PAH pollution. In wild-type fish, CYP1A is highly induced by PAH.

Unraveling complexity and leveraging opportunities in uncommon breast cancer subtypes.

Special histologic subtypes of breast cancer (BC) exhibit unique phenotypes and molecular profiles with diagnostic and therapeutic implications, often differing in behavior and clinical trajectory from common BC forms. Novel methodologies, such as artificial intelligence may improve classification. Genetic predisposition plays roles in a subset of cases.

Gate- and flux-tunable sin(2φ) Josephson element with planar-Ge junctions.

Hybrid superconductor-semiconductor Josephson field-effect transistors (JoFETs) function as Josephson junctions with gate-tunable critical current. Additionally, they can feature a non-sinusoidal current-phase relation (CPR) containing multiple harmonics of the superconducting phase difference, a so-far underutilized property. Here we exploit this multi-harmonicity to create a Josephson circuit element with an almost perfectly π-periodic CPR, indicative of a largely dominant charge-4e supercurrent transport.

The influence of positive and negative intraoperative feedback in laparoscopic simulation in pediatric urology training.

Background And Objective: This study aimed to explore the impact of positive or negative feedback on the performance of trainees in pediatric urology during simulation exercises in pediatric laparoscopy.

Methods: Twenty-five students enrolled in a national Pediatric Urology Laparoscopy Simulation participated in the study. They performed the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS) skills, specifically peg-transfer and intracorporeal knot-tying, in a randomized study design while receiving positive or negative feedback from an attending pediatric urologist.