Factors That Influence Young Adults' Preferences for Virtual Reality Exergames in a Weight Control Setting: Qualitative Study.

Background: Obesity could compromise people's health and elevate the risk of numerous severe chronic conditions and premature mortality. Young adults are at high risk of adopting unhealthy lifestyles related to overweight and obesity, as they are at a phase marked by several significant life milestones that have been linked to weight gain. They gain weight rapidly and excess adiposity mostly accrues, compared with middle-aged and older adults when weight stabilizes or even decreases.

Slit Lamp Report Generation and Question Answering: Development and Validation of a Multimodal Transformer Model with Large Language Model Integration.

Background: Large language models have shown remarkable efficacy in various medical research and clinical applications. However, their skills in medical image recognition and subsequent report generation or question answering (QA) remain limited.

Objective: We aim to finetune a multimodal, transformer-based model for generating medical reports from slit lamp images and develop a QA system using Llama2.

Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-1 (FLT1) interactions with amyloid-beta in Alzheimer's disease: A putative biomarker of amyloid-induced vascular damage.

We have identified FLT1 as a protein that changes during Alzheimer's disease (AD) whereby higher brain protein levels are associated with more amyloid, more tau, and faster longitudinal cognitive decline. Given FLT1's role in angiogenesis and immune activation, we hypothesized that FLT1 is upregulated in response to amyloid pathology, driving a vascular-immune cascade resulting in neurodegeneration and cognitive decline. We sought to determine (1) if in vivo FLT1 levels (CSF and plasma) associate with biomarkers of AD neuropathology or differ between diagnostic staging in an aged cohort enriched for early disease, and (2) whether FLT1 expression interacts with amyloid on downstream outcomes, such as phosphorylated tau levels and cognitive performance.

The need for pediatric sleep education to enhance healthcare for children and adolescents: A global perspective from a survey of members of the international pediatric sleep association.

Introduction: Sleep concerns have become increasingly common over the past few decades. This study outlines the perceived needs and gaps in pediatric sleep education, drawing insights from a diverse international cohort of pediatric sleep health professionals.

Methods: International Pediatric Sleep Association (IPSA) members were invited to complete an online survey examining a variety of topics related to pediatric sleep education developed by the education committee.

Novel antimalarial 3-substituted quinolones isosteres with improved pharmacokinetic properties.

Aryl quinolone derivatives can target the cytochrome bc complex of Plasmodium falciparum, exhibiting excellent in vitro and in vivo antimalarial activity. However, their clinical development has been hindered due to their poor aqueous solubility profiles. In this study, a series of bioisosteres containing saturated heterocycles fused to a 4-pyridone ring were designed to replace the inherently poorly soluble quinolone core in antimalarial quinolones with the aim to reduce π-π stacking interactions in the crystal packing solid state, and a synthetic route was developed to prepare these alternative core derivatives.

Disentangling Sources of Momentum Fluctuations in Xe+Xe and Pb+Pb Collisions with the ATLAS Detector.

High-energy nuclear collisions create a quark-gluon plasma, whose initial condition and subsequent expansion vary from event to event, impacting the distribution of the eventwise average transverse momentum [P([p_{T}])]. Disentangling the contributions from fluctuations in the nuclear overlap size (geometrical component) and other sources at a fixed size (intrinsic component) remains a challenge. This problem is addressed by measuring the mean, variance, and skewness of P([p_{T}]) in ^{208}Pb+^{208}Pb and ^{129}Xe+^{129}Xe collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=5.

Intelligent Hierarchical Targeting Near-Infrared Persistent Luminescence Nanosystem for Improved Nuclear Delivery and Simultaneous Visualization/Therapy of EBV-Associated Cancer.

Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1), a sequence-specific DNA binding protein of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), is essential for viral genome replication and maintenance and is therefore an attractive target for the therapeutic intervention of EBV-associated cancers. Several EBNA1-specific inhibitors have demonstrated the ability to block EBNA1 function in vitro, but practical delivery strategies for these inhibitors in vivo are still lacking. Here, we report an intelligent hierarchical targeting theranostic nanosystem (denoted as mZGOCS@MnO-P5) that integrates an azide (N3) terminal dual-targeting peptide (N3-P5), a tumor microenvironment-responsive degradable MnO nanosheet, and a mesoporous ZnGaO:Cr, Sn near-infrared persistent luminescence (NIR-PL) nanosphere (mZGOCS).

Contrasting Responses of Smoke Dispersion and Fire Emissions to Aerosol-Radiation Interaction during the Largest Australian Wildfires in 2019-2020.

The record-breaking 2019-2020 Australian wildfires have been primarily linked to climate change and its internal variability. However, the meteorological feedback mechanisms affecting smoke dispersion and wildfire emissions on a synoptic scale remain unclear. This study focused on the largest wildfires occurring between December 25, 2019 and January 10, 2020, under the enhanced subtropical high, when the double peak in wildfire evolution was favored by sustained low humidity and two synchronous increases in temperature and wind.

A novel quantitative angiogenesis assay based on visualized vascular organoid.

Angiogenesis describes the sprouting of blood vessels from existing vasculatures and it plays a pivotal role in disease progress such as diabetes, age-related macular degeneration and cancer. However, the most widely used anti-angiogenic agents targeting vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) pathway still lacked of specificity and therapeutic efficacy. To establish a method suitable for high-throughput drug screening and faithfully recapitulate the feature of in vivo angiogenesis, we generated a PECAM1-mRuby3-secNluc; ACTA2-EGFP dual reporter human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) line and utilizing the cell line to establish a visualized and quantifiable in vitro angiogenesis model with stem cell-derived vascular organoid.

Curcumin/kaolin composite for advanced latent fingerprint imaging with fluorescence quantification.

Latent fingerprints (LFPs) are invisible impressions that need to be developed before being used for criminal investigation; however, existing fingerprint visualization techniques face challenges, such as complex preparation and poor contrast. To advance practical fingerprint detection, green-emissive micron-sized curcumin/kaolin composites were synthesized a facile and cost-effective one-step physical cross-linking method, which exhibited unprecedented performance in developing diversified marks, including LFPs, knuckle prints, palm prints, and footprints, with clear three-level details on various substrates. Notably, the powders successfully developed LFPs that were aged for 30 days and even up to 100 days, meeting the stringent requirements for comprehensive forensic application.

Polymorphic Crystalline Layer at the Crystallization Front.

The morphology and kinetics of the crystal growth front have been poorly explored at the particle level. Here, we experimentally observe the crystal growth front in liquid with single-particle kinetics using colloid systems and reveal a surface layer of polymorphic crystal near the solid-solid transition when the two crystals form a low-energy coherent interface. The thickness of the surface crystal can exceed 50 particles and grows logarithmically with the temperature as approaching the solid-solid transition which follows premelting theory.

Global, regional, and national burden of primary liver cancer attributable to metabolic risks: an analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 1990-2021.

Background: The global burden of metabolic diseases is increasing, but estimates of their impact on primary liver cancer are uncertain. We aimed to assess the global burden of primary liver cancer attributable to metabolic risk factors, including high body mass index (BMI) and high fasting plasma glucose (FPG) levels, between 1990 and 2021.

Methods: The total number and age-standardized rates of deaths and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) from primary liver cancer attributable to each metabolic risk factor were extracted from the Global Burden of Disease Study 1990-2021.

Family Caregivers' Experiences of Long-Term Care Residents Living With Dementia During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An International Grounded Theory Study.

Aims: Caution around the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in visitation restrictions to prevent the spread of the virus among vulnerable older persons living in long-term care (LTC), which posed a threat to individual well-being and family togetherness across the globe. The purpose of this study was to explore family caregiver's experience of having a person who is living with dementia residing in a long-term care facility during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design: Qualitative descriptive study using constructivist grounded theory (GT) methodology.

Non-Pharmacological Interventions Targeting Sense of Coherence Among Older Adults and Adults With Chronic Conditions: A Meta-Analysis With Trial Sequential Analysis.

Background: Sense of coherence (SoC) is a core concept of 'salutogenesis' in positive psychology, correlated with emotional distress and disease development in adults with chronic disease and older adults. A diversity of non-pharmacological interventions (NPIs) has been developed to enhance SoC, but research findings are conflicting and the adequacy of sample sizes is uncertainty.

Objective: This paper aimed to explore appropriate interventions, evaluate the effectiveness of these SoC interventions and verify the statistical robustness and reliability of pooled results.

Who Can Help Me? Citizens' Help-Seeking on Weibo During the Shanghai Lockdown.

Objective: In the context of the Omicron-induced lockdown in Shanghai, this paper investigated the appeals for assistance by citizens on Weibo, aiming to understand their principal challenges and immediate needs.

Methods: This paper collected Weibo posts ( 1040) containing the keyword "Shanghai Anti-epidemic Help" during the citywide lockdown. The online help requests from Shanghai citizens were analyzed across 7 dimensions, including the help sought, level of urgency, help recipient, the intended beneficiary of the help, expression, position, and emotion.

Longitudinal Associations Between Youth Information Management With Mothers and Self-Esteem: The Role of a Sense of Control.

Introduction: Adolescents' information management behaviors involve calibrating interactions between the self and parents, which could serve as either risk or protective factors for self-esteem. Since a sense of control over life outcomes is a protective factor for overall well-being, it might account for links between youth information management and self-esteem. This longitudinal study examined whether youth's sense of control mediated associations between concealment and voluntary disclosure and their self-esteem, at both the between- and within-person levels.

Intramolecular Repulsive Interactions Enable High Efficiency of NIR-II Aggregation-Induced Emission Luminogens for High-Contrast Glioblastoma Imaging.

Strategies to acquire high-efficiency luminogens that emit in the second near-infrared (NIR-II, 1000-1700 nm) range are still rare due to the impediment of the energy gap law. Herein, a feasible strategy is pioneered by installing large-volume encumbrances in a confined space to intensify the repulsive interactions arising from overlapping electron densities. The experimental results, including smaller coordinate displacement, reduced reorganization energy, and suppressed internal conversion, demonstrate that the repulsive interactions assist in the inhibition of radiationless deactivation.

Mate-Pair Sequencing Enables Identification and Delineation of Balanced and Unbalanced Structural Variants in Prenatal Cytogenomic Diagnostics.

Background: Mate-pair sequencing detects both balanced and unbalanced structural variants (SVs) and simultaneously informs in relation to both genomic location and orientation of SVs for enhanced variant classification and clinical interpretation, while chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA) only reports deletion/duplication. Herein, we evaluated its diagnostic utility in a prospective back-to-back prenatal comparative study with CMA.

Methods: From October 2021 to September 2023, 426 fetuses with ultrasound anomalies were prospectively recruited for mate-pair sequencing and CMA in parallel for prenatal genetic diagnosis.

Detection of Clinically Relevant Monogenic Copy-Number Variants by a Comprehensive Genome-Wide Microarray with Exonic Coverage.

Background: Disease-causing copy-number variants (CNVs) often encompass contiguous genes and can be detected using chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA). Conversely, CNVs affecting single disease-causing genes have historically been challenging to detect due to their small sizes.

Methods: A custom comprehensive CMA (Baylor College of Medicine - BCM v11.

Spatial transcriptomics in breast cancer: providing insight into tumor heterogeneity and promoting individualized therapy.

A comprehensive understanding of tumor heterogeneity, tumor microenvironment and the mechanisms of drug resistance is fundamental to advancing breast cancer research. While single-cell RNA sequencing has resolved the issue of "temporal dynamic expression" of genes at the single-cell level, the lack of spatial information still prevents us from gaining a comprehensive understanding of breast cancer. The introduction and application of spatial transcriptomics addresses this limitation.