The Role of Neutrophils in Allergic Disease.

Neutrophils are short-lived cells of the innate immune system and represent 50-70% of the circulating leucocytes. Their primary role is antimicrobial defence which they accomplish through rapid migration to sites of inflammation followed by phagocytosis, degranulation and the release of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETosis). While previously considered terminally-differentiated cells, they have been shown to have great adaptability and to play a role in conditions ranging from cancer to autoimmunity.

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Background: Cannabis is the most commonly used illicit substance in Ireland and globally. It is most likely to be used in adolescence, a period of biopsychosocial vulnerability to maladaptive behaviours. This study aims to investigate the risk and protective factors for cannabis use among adolescents.

Experience and attitudes in relation to telepsychiatry use among non-consultant doctors.

Introduction: In order to minimise physical interaction during the COVID-19 pandemic, telepsychiatry became a key part of clinical practice for many psychiatrists.

Methods: This study involved an exploratory, cross-sectional, opt-in online survey circulated to non-consultant doctors in psychiatry working in Ireland. It assessed experience and attitudes in relation to telepsychiatry use.

Radiographers' knowledge, clinical expertise and application of pain management strategies in the radiology department - results from a qualitative focus group.

Background: Radiographers are frequently involved in imaging patients in pain thus requiring a heightened awareness and focus on this crucial issue.

Purpose: To explore the challenges radiographers encounter when imaging patients in pain and to identify strategies that could be implemented to improve overall patient-centered care.

Methods: A qualitative research study with a single focus group (FG) was conducted using six radiographers working within Irish hospitals.

Analysis of cutting forces and microdamage during indentation cutting of bone.

In surgery, bone can be cut by applying force to a wedge-shaped blade. The published literature is relatively sparse regarding the biomechanics of this type of indentation cutting, especially regarding the relationships between blade geometry, bone quality, cutting force and microdamage. Microdamage created near the cut surfaces can be beneficial, as a trigger for bone remodelling, but it is known that excessive fracture damage can prolong the healing time.

Resilience in the Face of War: a Collaborative Autoethnography of a Ukrainian Refugee Student's Journey through Europe Striving to Find Oneself.

Objective: This study presents the personal experience of a 19-year-old student who fled the war in Ukraine, journeyed across multiple countries, and ultimately enrolled in a university psychology program in Croatia.

Methods: A collaborative autoethnographic approach was employed to explore the student's experience as a war refugee, traversing Europe, and beginning university life in a foreign country. Data were collected through the student's reflective writing.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Implementation and Adoption of a Virtual Fracture Clinic Pathway: A Closed Loop Audit.

Introduction: Trauma and orthopedics departments have traditionally used face-to-face (FTF) fracture clinics for non-operative fractures. Developed in 2011, the virtual fracture clinic (VFC) was fully implemented at an institution during the COVID-19 pandemic to reduce in-person interactions.

Aims: First, the study aims to measure the percentage of non-operative patients triaged through the VFC when this was optional and re-audit after implementing a COVID-19-related policy change mandating VFC triage.

Autoencoder imputation of missing heterogeneous data for Alzheimer's disease classification.

Missing Alzheimer's disease (AD) data is prevalent and poses significant challenges for AD diagnosis. Previous studies have explored various data imputation approaches on AD data, but the systematic evaluation of deep learning algorithms for imputing heterogeneous and comprehensive AD data is limited. This study investigates the efficacy of denoising autoencoder-based imputation of missing key features of heterogeneous data that comprised tau-PET, MRI, cognitive and functional assessments, genotype, sociodemographic, and medical history.

A study of sheep scab in Northern Ireland including detection and identifying barriers to control.

Background: Sheep scab, caused by the highly infectious mite, is considered to be endemic in Northern Ireland, although little investigation has been reported. A pilot project was undertaken to engage farmers, confirm cases with diagnostic methods and identify specific barriers to control, with the aim of informing future control programmes.

Methods: Through farmers self-reporting suspected outbreaks, on-farm risk assessments and clinical investigations were carried out by the farm's veterinary surgeon, who utilised light microscopy and serological testing to diagnose scab.

Born into homelessness: A retrospective observational study.

Objective: To evaluate the differences in the antenatal and neonatal courses of maternal-infant dyads within a homeless population as compared to the general hospital population.

Design: This was a retrospective observational study.

Setting: A large single tertiary maternity hospital (8500 deliveries/year) in Ireland.

"ICODE Hip US Calculator": a mobile phone aid for screening with Graf's sonographic technique.

Aim: Aiming to offer a diagnostic tool to aid examiners with correct hip typing and decision-making about patient management, members of the Board of the International Interdisciplinary Consensus Committee on DDH Evaluation (ICODE - https://www.icode.expert), introduced the cross-platform mobile application (Android and iOS) called "ICODE Hip US Calculator".

Factors That Determine the Outcomes of Surgical Versus Conservative Management in Achilles Tendon Ruptures: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Introduction: Achilles tendon rupture is the most commonly ruptured tendon in humans. Recent evidence suggests no significant differences in long-term functional outcomes between conservative and surgical management. Conservative treatment carries a higher risk of re-rupture, while surgical management presents risks such as wound infections and sural nerve damage.

Indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic: A cause-of-death analysis of life expectancy changes in 24 countries, 2015 to 2022.

Worldwide, mortality was strongly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, both directly through COVID-19 deaths and indirectly through changes in other causes of death. Here, we examine the impact of the pandemic on COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 mortality in 24 countries: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, England and Wales, Hungary, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Poland, Russia, Scotland, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. Using demographic decomposition methods, we compare age- and cause-specific contributions to changes in female and male life expectancy at birth in 2019-2020, 2020-2021, and 2021-2022 with those before the COVID-19 pandemic (2015-2019).

Comparing and assessing physical activity and sedentary behaviour guidelines for different populations with and without chronic conditions and/or disabilities: a systematic review protocol.

Physical activity guidelines targeting different populations with and without chronic diseases or disabilities are required to meet the diverse functional and physiological needs experienced by different subgroups of people to achieve optimal health benefits. As the importance of physical activity guidelines in promoting optimal health and well-being becomes increasingly recognised, there is a critical need for their systematic evaluation to ensure they remain effective, applicable and aligned with evolving health needs and scientific insights. This study aims to systematically review, critically evaluate, and compare global physical activity and sedentary behaviour guidelines on frequency, intensity, time, and type of exercise for adults, pregnant and postpartum women, and people living with chronic conditions and/or disabilities.

Electrically Conductive Injectable Silk/PEDOT: PSS Hydrogel for Enhanced Neural Network Formation.

With no effective treatments for functional recovery after injury, spinal cord injury (SCI) remains one of the unresolved healthcare challenges. Human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) transplantation is a versatile patient-specific regenerative approach for functional recovery after SCI. Injectable electroconductive hydrogel (ECH) can further enhance the cell transplantation efficacy through a minimally invasive manner as well as recapitulate the native bioelectrical microenvironment of neural tissue.

Effects of ALS-associated 5'tiRNA on the transcriptomic and proteomic profile of primary neurons in vitro.

tRNA-derived stress-induced RNAs (tiRNAs) are a new class of small non-coding RNA that have emerged as important regulators of cellular stress responses. tiRNAs are derived from specific tRNA cleavage by the stress-induced ribonuclease angiogenin (ANG). Loss-of-function mutations in the ANG gene are linked to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and elevated levels of specific tiRNAs were recently identified in ALS patient serum samples.

T lymphocyte plasticity in chronic inflammatory diseases: The emerging role of the Ikaros family as a key Th17-Treg switch.

T helper (Th) 17 and regulatory T (Treg) cells are highly plastic CD4 Th cell subsets, being able not only to actively adapt to their microenvironment, but also to interconvert, acquiring mixed identity markers. These phenotypic changes are underpinned by transcriptional control mechanisms, chromatin reorganization events and epigenetic modifications, that can be hereditable and stable over time. The Ikaros family of transcription factors have a predominant role in T cell subset specification through mechanisms of transcriptional program regulation that enable phenotypical diversification.

Primary Versus Secondary Immune Thrombocytopenia (ITP): A Meeting Report from the 2023 McMaster ITP Summit.

The McMaster Immune Thrombocytopenia (ITP) Summit was an educational seminar from leading experts in immune thrombocytopenia and related disorders geared towards hematologists, internists, immunologists, and clinical and translational scientists. The focus of the Summit was to review the mechanisms, diagnosis and treatment of primary versus secondary ITP. Specific objectives were to describe the unique features of secondary ITP, and to review its mechanisms in the context of autoimmune disease and infection.

Robust assessment of the cortical encoding of word-level expectations using the temporal response function.

Speech comprehension involves detecting words and interpreting their meaning according to the preceding semantic context. This process is thought to be underpinned by a predictive neural system that uses that context to anticipate upcoming words. Recent work demonstrated that such a predictive process can be probed from neural signals recorded during ecologically-valid speech listening tasks by using linear lagged models, such as the temporal response function.

Synchronization cluster bursting in adaptive oscillator networks.

Adaptive dynamical networks are ubiquitous in real-world systems. This paper aims to explore the synchronization dynamics in networks of adaptive oscillators based on a paradigmatic system of adaptively coupled phase oscillators. Our numerical observations reveal the emergence of synchronization cluster bursting, characterized by periodic transitions between cluster synchronization and global synchronization.

The Structure, Function, and Adaptation of Lower-Limb Aponeuroses: Implications for Myo-Aponeurotic Injury.

The aponeurosis is a large fibrous connective tissue structure within and surrounding skeletal muscle and is a critical component of the muscle-tendon unit (MTU). Due to the lack of consensus on terminology and the heterogeneous nature of the aponeurosis between MTUs, there are several questions that remain unanswered. For example, the aponeurosis is often conflated with the free tendon rather than being considered an independent structure.

Red room temperature phosphorescence from lignin.

Materials with red room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) derived from sustainable sources are crucial but rarely reported. Here, we produced red RTP materials from lignin. Lignin was covalently modified with Upy (1-(6-isocyanatohexyl)-3-(6-methyl-4-oxo-1,4-dihydropyrimidin-2-yl) urea) to obtain Lig-Upy.