Challenges and opportunities for validation of AI-based new approach methods.

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into new approach methods (NAMs) for toxicology rep-resents a paradigm shift in chemical safety assessment. Harnessing AI appropriately has enormous potential to streamline validation efforts. This review explores the challenges, opportunities, and future directions for validating AI-based NAMs, highlighting their transformative potential while acknowledging the complexities involved in their implementation and acceptance.

Impact of Two Flap Advancement Techniques and Periosteal Suturing on Graft Displacement During Guided Bone Regeneration.

Objectives: This preclinical ex vivo porcine study aimed to evaluate the effects of two flap advancement techniques and periosteal suturing (PS) on graft material displacement during primary wound closure in guided bone regeneration (GBR). Secondary objectives included assessing flap advancement and the impact of soft tissue characteristics on graft displacement.

Materials And Methods: Standardized two-walled horizontal bone defects were created in second premolar sites of pig hemimandibles.

Development of a Recombinant Omicron BA.1 Subunit Vaccine Candidate in Pichia pastoris.

Low-cost and safe vaccines are needed to fill the vaccine inequity gap for future pandemics. Pichia pastoris is an ideal expression system for recombinant protein production due to its cost-effective and easy-to-scale-up process. Here, we developed a next-generation SARS-CoV2 Omicron BA.

Physician knowledge, use, and perceptions of genetic biomarker testing for the management of patients with newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer: an international physician survey.

Aims: To explore physician-reported knowledge, use, and perceptions of genetic testing for advanced ovarian cancer management.

Materials & Methods: Gynecology/oncology specialists ( = 390) in the US, Europe, Canada, Japan, and Australia completed an online survey spanning March 2021 to April 2022.

Results: Physician-reported breast cancer gene mutation (BRCAm) testing rates increased over the 2 years before the survey; most patients underwent testing in the preceding 6 months.

"Telephone Angels" Against Loneliness: Experimental Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Telephone Partnerships with Older Adults.

Loneliness affects many older adults.As part of the "Telephone Angel" project, telephone partnerships between volunteers and older adults affected by loneliness were designed to counteract experiencing loneliness. Volunteers (100 ≤  ≤ 114) and older adults who are (22 ≤  ≤ 45) and who are not (25 ≤  ≤ 71) part of the project were surveyed twice.

"Double-Use" Strategy for Improving the Photoelectrochemical Performance of BiVO Photoanodes Using a Cobalt-Functionalized Polyoxotungstate.

Doping and surface-modification are well-established strategies for the performance enhancement of bismuth vanadate (BiVO) photoanodes in photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting devices. Herein, a "double-use" strategy for the development of high-performance BiVO photoanodes for solar water splitting is reported, where a molecular cobalt-phosphotungstate (CoPOM = Na[Co(HO)(PWO)]) is used both as a bulk doping agent as well as a surface-deposited water oxidation cocatalyst. The use of CoPOM for bulk doping of BiVO is shown to enhance the electrical conductivity and improve the charge separation efficiency, resulting in the enhancement of the maximum applied-bias photoconversion efficiency (ABPE) by a factor of ∼18 to 0.

CFD simulation of turbulent mass transfer of HS and O in a stirring tank.

This study explores the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation of oxygen (O) and hydrogen sulfide (HS) mass transfer in a highly turbulent stirring tank. Using the open-source software OpenFOAM, we extended three-dimensional two-phase flow solvers with a rotating mesh feature to model the mass transfer processes between the water and air phases. The accuracy of these simulations was validated against experimental data, demonstrating a strong agreement in the mass transfer rates of HS and O.

Single-cell microbiota phenotyping reveals distinct disease and therapy-associated signatures in Crohn's disease.

IgA-coated fractions of the intestinal microbiota of Crohn's disease (CD) patients have been shown to contain taxa that hallmark the compositional dysbiosis in CD microbiomes. However, the correlation between other cellular properties of intestinal bacteria and disease has not been explored further, especially for features that are not directly driven by the host immune-system, e.g.

Evaluation of synaptotagmin-1 action models by all-atom molecular dynamics simulations.

Neurotransmitter release is triggered in microseconds by the two C domains of the Ca sensor synaptotagmin-1 and by SNARE complexes, which form four-helix bundles that bridge the vesicle and plasma membranes. The synaptotagmin-1 CB domain binds to the SNARE complex via a 'primary interface', but the mechanism that couples Ca-sensing to membrane fusion is unknown. Widespread models postulate that the synaptotagmin-1 Ca-binding loops accelerate membrane fusion by inducing membrane curvature, perturbing lipid bilayers or helping bridge the membranes, but these models do not seem compatible with SNARE binding through the primary interface, which orients the Ca-binding loops away from the fusion site.

Increase of nitrous oxide-induced neurological disorders - a German multicenter experience.

Background: Nitrous oxide (N₂O), commonly known as laughing gas, is widely recognized for its anesthetic and analgesic effects, and is frequently used in medical contexts. However, its misuse can lead to significant neurological complications, which are often under-recognized in clinical practice. Recent data on such cases in Germany are rare.

Maximal mouth opening in infants and toddlers with spinal muscular atrophy: a prospective controlled study.

Background: Bulbar function is frequently impaired in patients with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Although extremely important for the patient's quality of life, it is difficult to address therapeutically. Due to bulbar dysfunction, maximum mouth opening (MMO) is suspected to be reduced in children with SMA.

Discontiguous recurrences of IDH-wildtype glioblastoma share a common origin with the initial tumor and are frequently hypermutated.

Glioblastoma is the deadliest primary brain tumor, largely due to inevitable recurrence of the disease after treatment. While most recurrences are local, patients rarely present with a new discontiguous focus of glioblastoma. Little is currently known about the genetic profile of discontiguous recurrences.

Sleep and circadian rhythms in delayed sleep-wake phase disorder: Phenotypic differences between patients with and without comorbid depression.

Delayed sleep-wake phase disorder involves chronic difficulty going to bed and waking up at conventional times and often co-occurs with depression. This study compared sleep and circadian rhythms between patients with delayed sleep-wake phase disorder with depression (DSWPD-D) and without (DSWPD-ND) comorbid depression. Clinical records of 162 patients with delayed sleep-wake phase disorder (70 DSWPD-D, 92 DSWPD-ND) were analysed, including a subset of 76 patients with circadian phase determined by the dim light melatonin onset.

Scale-up of CHO cell cultures: from 96-well-microtiter plates to stirred tank reactors across three orders of magnitude.

Background: For process development in mammalian cell cultivations, scale-up approaches are essential. A lot of studies concern the scale transfer between different-sized stirred tank reactors. However, process development usually starts in even smaller cultivation vessels like microtiter plates or shake flasks.

A rare haplotype of the GJD3 gene segregating in familial Meniere's disease interferes with connexin assembly.

Background: Familial Meniere's disease (FMD) is a rare polygenic disorder of the inner ear. Mutations in the connexin gene family, which encodes gap junction proteins, can also cause hearing loss, but their role in FMD is largely unknown.

Methods: We retrieved exome sequencing data from 94 individuals in 70 Meniere's disease (MD) families.

Context-dependent similarity analysis of analogue series for structure-activity relationship transfer based on a concept from natural language processing.

Analogue series (AS) are generated during compound optimization in medicinal chemistry and are the major source of structure-activity relationship (SAR) information. Pairs of active AS consisting of compounds with corresponding substituents and comparable potency progression represent SAR transfer events for the same target or across different targets. We report a new computational approach to systematically search for SAR transfer series that combines an AS alignment algorithm with context-depending similarity assessment based on vector embeddings adapted from natural language processing.

Comparison of whole genome sequencing performance from fish swabs and fin clips.

Objective: Fin clipping is the standard DNA sampling technique for whole genome sequencing (WGS) of small fish. The collection of fin clips requires anaesthesia or even euthanisation of the individual. Swabbing may be a less invasive, non-lethal alternative to fin-clipping.

Identification and characterization of tumor and stromal derived liquid biopsy analytes in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

Background: The lack of predictive biomarkers contributes notably to the poor outcomes of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are the key components of the prominent PDAC stroma. Data on clinical relevance of CAFs entering the bloodstream, known as circulating CAFs (cCAFs) are scarce.

Effectiveness of workplace health promotion programs for industrial workers: a systematic review.

Background: Workplace health promotion is essential for individual and organisational well-being and disease prevention, also in industrial workers. As the transfer of the evidence on the effectiveness of such programs into practice is limited due to scattered effects, the need for a consolidation of the available studies is given. The purpose of this systematic review was to synthesise the evidence on the effectiveness of workplace health promotion programs for industrial workers.

Patient perspectives on stress after ICU and a short primary care based psychological intervention - results from a qualitative sub‑study of the PICTURE trial.

Background: Approximately 20-25% of patients who survive medical treatment at an intensive care unit (ICU) develop post-traumatic stress symptoms. There is currently a gap in follow-up care for them. As part of the PICTURE study, general practitioners (GPs) carried out a brief interview-based intervention.

Incidence of seroma and postoperative complications after breast surgery before and during the Covid-19 pandemic: results from a retrospective multicenter analysis.

Background: In recent years, there has been a growing number of case reports documenting delayed seroma in patients with a history of breast surgery and reconstruction. The occurrence of these seromas has been associated with prior SARS-CoV-2 infection or SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. So far, there are few systematic analyses on postoperative complications in breast surgery since the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Copper Tantalate by a Sodium-Driven Flux-Mediated Synthesis for Photoelectrochemical CO Reduction.

Copper-tantalate, CuTaO (CTO), shows significant promise as an efficient photocathode for multi-carbon compounds (C) production through photoelectrochemical (PEC) CO reduction, owing to its suitable energy bands and catalytic surface. However, synthesizing CTO poses a significant challenge due to its metastable nature and thermal instability. In this study, this challenge is addressed by employing a flux-mediated synthesis technique using a sodium-based flux to create sodium-doped CTO (Na-CTO) thin films, providing enhanced nucleation and stabilization for the CTO phase.