Can a low-threshold check-up motivate older adults to schedule a dental visit? Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Most oral diseases benefit from early detection by dental professionals. However, in the older population, regular dental attendance is low. This trial investigates whether a low-threshold check-up by a dental professional in a non-dental setting can motivate older persons to seek professional oral care.

The influence of land surface temperature on Ghana's climate variability and implications for sustainable development.

Climate change poses significant global challenges, especially in the West African sub-region, with high temperature and precipitation patterns variability, threatening socio-economic stability and ecosystem health. While global factors such as greenhouse gases and oceanic circulations shape regional climates, this study focuses on the understudied role of local climatic variables in influencing near-surface air temperature (NST) in Ghana from 1981 to 2020. Based on ground observations, our findings reveal significant correlations between land surface temperature (LST) and NST before and after the identified breakpoint year of 2001.

Pupylation-based proximity labeling reveals regulatory factors in cellulose biosynthesis in Arabidopsis.

Knowledge about how and where proteins interact provides a pillar for cell biology. Protein proximity-labeling has emerged as an important tool to detect protein interactions. Biotin-related proximity labeling approaches are by far the most commonly used but may have labeling-related drawbacks.

Chitosan/γ-PGA nanoparticles and IFN-γ immunotherapy: A dual approach for triple-negative breast cancer treatment.

Interferon-γ (IFN-γ) is a key mediator in antitumor immunity and immunotherapy responses, yet its clinical applications remain restricted to chronic granulomatous disease and malignant osteopetrosis. IFN-γ effectiveness as a standalone treatment has shown limited success in clinical trials and its potential for synergistic effects when combined with immunotherapies is under clinical exploration. A particularly compelling combination is that of IFN-γ with Toll-like receptor (TLR) agonists that holds significant promise for cancer treatment.

Transferrin Saturation, Serum Iron, and Ferritin in Heart Failure: Prognostic Significance and Proteomic Associations.

Background: Iron deficiency (ID) is currently defined as a serum ferritin level <100 or 100 to 299 ng/mL with transferrin saturation (TSAT) <20%. Serum ferritin and TSAT are currently used to define absolute and functional ID. However, individual markers of iron metabolism may be more informative than current arbitrary definitions of ID.

Climate change aggravated wildfire behaviour in the Iberian Peninsula in recent years.

Climate change is considered to affect wildfire spread both by increasing fuel dryness and by altering vegetation mass and structure. However, the direct effect of global warming on wildfires is hard to quantify due to the multiple non-climatic factors involved in their ignition and spread. By combining wildfire observations with the latest generation of climate models, here we show that more than half of the large wildfires (area>500 ha) occurring in the Iberian Peninsula between 2001 and 2021 present a significant increase in the rate of spread with respect to what it would have been in the pre-industrial period, attributable to global warming.

It's Hard to Prepare for Task Novelty: Cueing the Novelty of Upcoming Tasks Does Not Facilitate Task Performance.

Rapidly learning new tasks, such as using new technology or playing a new game, is ubiquitous in our daily lives. Previous studies suggest that our brain relies on different networks for rapid task learning versus retrieving known tasks from memory, and behavioral studies have shown that novel versus practiced tasks may rely on different task configuration processes. Here, we investigated whether explicitly informing about the novelty of an incoming task would help participants prepare for different task configuration processes, such as pre-adjusting working memory gating functions.

Human stem cell models for Marfan syndrome: a .

The introduction of pluripotent stem cells into the field of disease modelling resulted in numerous opportunities to study and uncover disease mechanisms in a petri dish. This promising avenue has also been applied to model Marfan syndrome, a disease affecting multiple organ systems, including the skeletal and cardiovascular system. Marfan syndrome is caused by pathogenic variants in , the gene encoding for the extracellular matrix protein fibrillin-1 which ensembles into microfibrils.

Is provisioning rate of parents and helpers influenced by the simulated presence of novel individuals?

Abstract: Cooperative behaviour is widespread in animals and is likely to be the result of multiple selective pressures. A contentious hypothesis is that helping enhances the probability of obtaining a sexual partner (i.e.

Nutrient Digestibility in Zoo-Kept Tapirs (Tapirus spp) as Compared to Other Herbivores.

Tapirs are hindgut fermenters with a natural diet dominated by browse, with a certain proportion of wild fruit. By contrast, diets fed to tapirs in zoos are often dominated by domestic fruit and other sources of easily digestible carbohydrates, which have been linked to obesity and various health problems. We aimed at better understanding the digestive physiology of tapirs, measuring the digestive efficiency of 13 lowland (Tapirus terrestris) and five Malayan (Tapirus indicus) tapirs from five zoos on various zoo diets by recording intake and total faecal excretion.

Unexpected High Prevalence of Focal Facial Dermal Dysplasia (FFDD) Type IV Is Linked to a Founder Effect in the Belgian Population.

Focal facial dermal dysplasia (FFDD) type IV is a rare inherited facial defect caused by biallelic variants in CYP26C1. This study reports two novel Belgian FFDD type IV cases, both homozygous for a recurrent CYP26C1 frameshift variant, with a common 700 kb haplotype, indicating a founder effect.

Machine learning reveals novel compound for the improved production of chitooligosaccharides in Escherichia coli.

In order to improve predictability of outcome and reduce costly rounds of trial-and-error, machine learning models have been of increasing importance in the field of synthetic biology. Besides applications in predicting genome annotation, process parameters and transcription initiation frequency, such models have also been of help for pathway optimization. The latter is a common strategy in metabolic engineering and improves the production of a desirable compound by optimizing enzyme expression levels of the production pathway.

Towards parameter-free attentional spiking neural networks.

Brain-inspired spiking neural networks (SNNs) are increasingly explored for their potential in spatiotemporal information modeling and energy efficiency on emerging neuromorphic hardware. Recent works incorporate attentional modules into SNNs, greatly enhancing their capabilities in handling sequential data. However, these parameterized attentional modules have placed a huge burden on memory consumption, a factor that is constrained on neuromorphic chips.

Beyond the sum of their parts: A multi-dimensional approach to dyscalculia-dyslexia comorbidity integrating studies of the brain, behavior, and genetics.

Mathematics learning disorders (MD) and reading learning disorders (RD) are persistent conditions that interfere with success in academic and daily-life tasks, and cannot be attributed to intellectual disabilities, sensory deficits, or environmental factors. Prevalence rates of MD and RD are estimated at 5-10 % of school-age children, and their comorbidity (MDRD) is highly prevalent, with around 40 % of children with MD also experiencing RD. Despite this high comorbidity rate, research on MDRD has received less attention compared to isolated conditions, leaving its neurocognitive mechanisms unclear.

3'-deoxytubercidin: A potent therapeutic candidate for the treatment of Surra and Dourine.

Surra and Dourine are widespread diseases caused by two protozoan parasites Trypanosoma brucei evansi and Trypanosoma brucei equiperdum, respectively. A wide range of animals including camels, horses, cattle and buffaloes are susceptible to infection. These diseases pose a significant socio-economic burden, primarily due to the limited therapeutic options and the complications associated with toxicity and drug resistance, making disease management particularly challenging.

SOLFA study: a multicenter, open-label, prospective, randomized study to investigate the clotting propensity of asymmetric cellulose triacetate membrane compared to synthetic membranes in on line HDF.

Background: Performing hemodialysis without heparin is still challenging. The objective of the present work was to evaluate the impact on thrombogenicity of the hemodialysis circuit using synthetic membranes compared to the asymmetric cellulose triacetate (ATA) membrane.

Methods: Prospective, multicenter, randomized, crossover, open-label study.

Novel adaptive immune systems in pristine Antarctic soils.

Antarctic environments are dominated by microorganisms, which are vulnerable to viral infection. Although several studies have investigated the phylogenetic repertoire of bacteria and viruses in these poly-extreme environments with freezing temperatures, high ultra violet irradiation levels, low moisture availability and hyper-oligotrophy, the evolutionary mechanisms governing microbial immunity remain poorly understood. Using genome-resolved metagenomics, we test the hypothesis that Antarctic poly-extreme high-latitude microbiomes harbour diverse adaptive immune systems.

Ethics and trustworthiness of artificial intelligence in Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary surgery: a snapshot of insights from the European-African Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association (E-AHPBA) survey.

Background: Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary (HPB) surgery is a complex specialty and Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications have the potential to improve pre- intra- and postoperative outcomes of HPB surgery. While ethics guidelines have been developed for the use of AI in clinical surgery, the ethical implications and reliability of AI in HPB surgery remain specifically unexplored.

Methods: An online survey was developed by the Innovation Committee of the E-AHPBA to investigate the current perspectives on the ethical principles and trustworthiness of AI in HPB Surgery among E-AHPBA membership.

The benefit of extrinsic motivation on effortful cognitive control is influenced by need for cognition.

Extrinsic motivation can foster effortful cognitive control. Moreover, the selective coupling of extrinsic motivation on low- versus high-control demands tasks would exert an additional impact. However, to what extent their influences are further modulated by the level of Need for Cognition (NFC) remains unclear.

Effect of Balloon-Dilated Restenosis on Exercise Performance and Cardiac Function in Children After Coarctation Repair.

Restenosis occurs commonly after aortic coarctation (CoA) repair, usually requiring treatment by balloon dilation. Its effect on physical exercise performance is not documented. A retrospective analysis of exercise testing and echocardiographic assessment was performed in children after CoA repair.

Genomic reanalysis of a pan-European rare-disease resource yields new diagnoses.

Genetic diagnosis of rare diseases requires accurate identification and interpretation of genomic variants. Clinical and molecular scientists from 37 expert centers across Europe created the Solve-Rare Diseases Consortium (Solve-RD) resource, encompassing clinical, pedigree and genomic rare-disease data (94.5% exomes, 5.

Evaluating case definitions of respiratory disease in dairy calves: a scoping review.

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is one of the most common diseases observed in dairy calves in both the pre- and post-weaning periods. Despite its common occurrence, there has been no formal synthesis (e.g.

Appetite and childhood malnutrition: A narrative review identifying evidence gaps between clinical practice and research.

Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) is a critical global health issue, contributing to approximately one-half of all child mortality worldwide. SAM management guidelines recommend the use of appetite assessment determined by an "appetite test" to distinguish between complicated and uncomplicated SAM, subsequently guiding clinical decisions regarding outpatient versus inpatient care and discharge from hospital. Despite the widespread utilization of this recommendation, its validity lacks substantial evidence within the existing literature.

Marine microbes suppressed Vibrio and enhanced biological performance of euryhaline rotifer, Brachionus plicatilis.

The excessive use of antibiotics in mariculture has surpassed permitted levels, leading to their release into surrounding waters and accumulation in cultured organisms, which poses risks to human health and highlighting the urgent need for alternatives to reduce antibiotic use. Therefore, the present study aimed to test four microbes including Debaryomyces hansenii, Ruegeria mobilis, Lactobacillus plantarum and Bacillus subtilis, on lowering Vibrio, promoting population increase and survival of Brachionus plicatilis. The digestive enzymes activity including α-amylase, lipase and protease, microbial retention and biochemical composition of rotifers were analyzed.