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.

The influence of perivascular tissue on lateral thermal expansion during bipolar vessel sealing.

Background: Lateral heat propagation has been an unavoidable effect of bipolar sealing with the risk of damage to surrounding structures. It is presently unknown whether leaving the perivascular tissue in situ may be advantageous in the sense of an isolation effect.

Material And Methods: Two groups were formed from ex vivo carotid specimens.

Amino-substituted Azoxybenzenes as Potential Redox-Active Catholyte Materials.

Aryl diazenes, particularly azobenzenes (AB), represent a versatile class of compounds with significant historical and practical relevance, ranging from dyes to molecular machines, solar thermal and electrochemical storage. Their oxygen-substituted counterparts, azoxybenzenes (AOB), share structural similarities but have been less explored, especially in energy storage applications. This study investigates the redox properties of AOB, comparing them to AB, and evaluates their potential as redox-active materials for energy storage systems.

Pre-phase treatment with rituximab and high-dose methotrexate to re-evaluate eligibility for intensive induction treatment of frail patients with central nervous system lymphoma.

Not available.

Triangular-shaped Cu-Zn-In-Se-based nanocrystals with narrow near infrared photoluminescence.

Tunable optical properties exhibited by semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) in the near infrared (NIR) spectral region are of particular interest in various applications, such as telecommunications, bioimaging, photodetection, photovoltaics, . While lead and mercury chalcogenide NCs do exhibit exemplary optical properties in the NIR, Cu-In-Se (CISe)-based NCs are a suitable environment-friendly alternative to these toxic materials. Several reports of NIR-emitting (quasi)spherical CISe NCs have been published, but their more complex-shaped counterparts remain rather less explored.

Lymph Node Staging and Treatment in Pediatric Patients With Soft Tissue Sarcomas: A Consensus Opinion from the Children's Oncology Group, European paediatric Soft tissue sarcoma Study Group, and the Cooperative Weichteilsarkom Studiengruppe.

Accurate staging of nodal involvement in pediatric sarcoma patients is important to determine correct systemic and local therapy, with the goal to reduce subsequent recurrences. However, differences in lymph node staging strategies, definitions, and treatment protocols between the Children's Oncology Group (COG), European paediatric Soft tissue sarcoma Study Group (EpSSG), and the Cooperative Weichteilsarkom Studiengruppe (CWS) complicate comparisons. In this article, we aim to establish internationally recognized recommendations for lymph node assessment and treatment of children and adolescents diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) and non-rhabdomyosarcoma soft tissue sarcoma (NRSTS) according to the Consensus Conference Standard Operating Procedure methodology.

Retrospective Evaluation of Test Results in Patients Applying to A Research Hospital.

Objective: This study retrospectively evaluates our laboratory immunoglobulin (Ig)M, IgG antibody and avidity test results to determine the distribution of the pathogen according to sex, age, clinics and years.

Methods: The serum samples sent to Pamukkale University Healthcare Research and Practice Hospital's Medical Microbiology laboratory between January 2016 and December 2023 were evaluated for seropositivity. antibodies and avidity testing were studied using chemiluminescent microparticle immunological testing method (Abbott Architect i2000SR, Weisbaden, Germany).

The branched-chain amino acid-related isoleucic acid: recent research advances.

Isoleucic acid (ILA) was identified in human patients with maple syrup urine disease (MSUD) half a century ago. MSUD patients, who are defective in the catabolism of branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), that is, isoleucine, leucine, and valine, have urine with a unique maple syrup odour related to the accumulation of BCAA breakdown products, largely 2-keto acid derivatives and their reduced 2-hydroxy acids including ILA. A decade ago, ILA was identified in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Putting seedlings on the map: Trade-offs in demographic rates between ontogenetic size classes in five tropical forests.

All species must partition resources among the processes that underly growth, survival, and reproduction. The resulting demographic trade-offs constrain the range of viable life-history strategies and are hypothesized to promote local coexistence. Tropical forests pose ideal systems to study demographic trade-offs as they have a high diversity of coexisting tree species whose life-history strategies tend to align along two orthogonal axes of variation: a growth-survival trade-off that separates species with fast growth from species with high survival and a stature-recruitment trade-off that separates species that achieve large stature from species with high recruitment.

Severity of Repetitive Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Depends on Microglial Heme Oxygenase-1 and Carbon Monoxide.

Traumatic brain injury is one of the most common cerebral incidences worldwide. Repetitive mild traumatic brain injuries occurring, for example, in athletes or victims of abuse, can cause chronic neurodegeneration due to neuroinflammation, in which the crosstalk between reactive astrocytes and activated microglia is crucial for modulating neuronal damage. The inducible enzyme heme oxygenase-1 and its product carbon monoxide are known to be ascribed neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory properties.

Changes in microcirculation variables in an acute endotoxaemic equine model.

Background: Microcirculation is the essential link between macrocirculation and cellular metabolism.

Objectives: To test our hypotheses that microcirculation variables will show a heterogeneous flow pattern during experimental endotoxaemia, and that fluid therapy and noradrenaline (NA) infusion will normalise altered microcirculation variables.

Study Design: In vivo experiments.

Normalized Reflectivity of Middle Limiting Membrane on SD-OCT: A Measure of Acute Ischemia in CRVO.

Purpose: To validate the quantification of the prominent middle limiting membrane (PMLM) sign, a marker of mild-to-moderate acute ischemic damage on optical coherence tomography (OCT), by measuring middle limiting membrane (MLM) reflectivity in patients with central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) and to investigate the prognostic impact of this measure.

Methods: Spectral Domain (SD)-OCT B-scans of 30 patients with CRVO, either sole CRVO or combined central retinal artery and vein occlusion (CCRAVO), were analyzed retrospectively and graded as PMLM present or absent. Normalized MLM reflectivity was calculated as a ratio of the maximum reflectivity within a MLM target layer and the average reflectivity of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE).

Carbonyl compounds of Rh, Ir, and Mt: electronic structure, bonding and volatility.

With the aim to render assistance to future experiments on the production and investigation of chemical properties of carbonyl compounds of element 109, Mt, calculations of the molecular properties of M(CO) and MH(CO), where M = Rh, Ir, and Mt, and of the products of their decomposition, M(CO) and MH(CO), were performed using relativistic Density Functional Theory and Coupled-Cluster methods implemented in the ADF, ReSpect and DIRAC software suites. According to the results, MH(CO) should be formed at experimental conditions from the M atom with a mixture of CO and He gases. The calculated first M-CO bond dissociation energies (FBDE) of Mt(CO) and MtH(CO) turned out to be significantly weaker than those of the corresponding Ir homologs.

Problematising menstrual tracking apps: presenting a novel critical scoping review methodology for mapping and interpreting research literature.

Objectives: To showcase a novel, theoretically informed methodology for conducting scoping reviews by operationalising critical theory. And to advance the field of women's digital health by applying this critical scoping review methodology (CSR) to research on menstrual tracking apps (MTAs).

Methods And Measures: 116 articles published in English, between November 2015 and November 2023, focusing on MTAs, and/or user's experiences of MTAs, were thematically analysed through the Foucauldian concept of problematisation and analytics from critical psychology.

Camellia saponin modulates oleic acid/linoleic acid-induced lipogenesis in human sebocytes through lipophagy activation.

Background: Oily skin not only threatens people with aesthetic and hygienic discomfort but also confronts them with annoying skin problems. To explore new skin care ingredients from herbal or plant extracts and understand their underlying mechanism for sebum control would assist in the discovery of desirable sebosuppressive agents, though it is still a deserving and challenging task.

Aim: To explore the effect of Camellia saponin (CS) on modulating the lipogenesis of human sebocytes.

Global Delphi consensus on treatment goals for generalised pustular psoriasis.

Background: Generalised pustular psoriasis (GPP) is a chronic, systemic, neutrophilic inflammatory disease. A previous Delphi panel established areas of consensus on GPP, although patient perspectives were not included, and aspects of treatment goals remain unclear.

Objectives: To identify and achieve consensus on refined, specific treatment goals for GPP treatment via a Delphi panel with patient participation.

Co-inoculation with Bacillus thuringiensis RZ2MS9 and rhizobia improves the soybean development and modulates soil functional diversity.

Despite the beneficial effects of Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) on agriculture, understanding the consequences of introducing foreign microbes into soil taxonomic and functional diversity is necessary. This study evaluated the effects co-inoculation of soybean with Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) RZ2MS9 and commercial rhizobia on the natural microbial community structure and functional potential. Our results indicated that soybean development was positively influenced by co-inoculation, plants exhibited greater height and a higher number of pods, and no reductions in productivity estimates.

Delayed feeding disrupts diurnal oscillations in the gut microbiome of a neotropical bat in captivity.

Diurnal rhythms of the gut microbiota are emerging as an important yet often overlooked facet of microbial ecology. Feeding is thought to stimulate gut microbial rhythmicity, but this has not been explicitly tested. Moreover, the role of the gut environment is entirely unexplored, with rhythmic changes to gut pH rather than feeding per se possibly affecting gut microbial fluctuations.

Healthcare worker views on antimicrobial resistance in chronic respiratory disease.

Background And Objective: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global crisis, however, relatively little is known regarding its impact in chronic respiratory disease and the specific challenges faced by healthcare workers across the world in this field. We aimed to assess global healthcare worker views on the challenges they face regarding AMR in chronic respiratory disease.

Methods: An online survey was sent to healthcare workers globally working in chronic respiratory disease through a European Respiratory Society clinical research collaboration (AMR-Lung) focussed on AMR in chronic lung disease.

Associations of maternal night shift work during pregnancy with DNA methylation in offspring: a meta-analysis in the PACE consortium.

Background: Night shift work during pregnancy has been associated with differential DNA methylation in placental tissue, but no studies have explored this association in cord blood. We aimed to examine associations of maternal night shift work with cord blood DNA methylation.

Methods: A total of 4487 mother-newborn pairs from 7 studies were included.

Sprengel deformity: What is the functional outcome of conservative treatment versus surgical correction?

Background: Sprengel deformity is a rare congenital malformation of the scapula defined by malposition during embryonic development. Affected individuals have limited range of motion of the shoulder and torticollis. Surgical reconstruction is an option to treat patients with severe deformity and functional impairment.