Enhancing Bone Healing Through Localized Cold Therapy in a Murine Femoral Fracture Model.

Fracture healing, a critical and complex biological process, often presents challenges in clinical practice with the current standards failing to fully address the medical needs for rapid and effective recovery. In this work, a localized cold therapy is investigated as an alternative approach to expedite bone healing. We hypothesized that optimized cold application can enhance bone healing within a fracture model by inducing hypoxia, leading to accelerated angiogenesis along with improved osteogenesis.

Yb-based high dose rate intensity modulated brachytherapy for focal treatment of prostate cancer.

Purpose: This study compares conventional Ir-based high dose rate brachytherapy (HDR-BT) with Yb-based HDR intensity modulated brachytherapy (IMBT) for focal prostate cancer treatment. Additionally, the study explores the potential to generate less invasive treatment plans with IMBT by reducing the number of catheters needed to achieve acceptable outcomes.

Methods And Materials: A retrospective dosimetric study of ten prostate cancer patients initially treated with conventional Ir-based HDR-BT and 5-14 catheters was employed.

Biomarker development for PD-(L)1 axis inhibition: a consensus view from the SITC Biomarkers Committee.

Therapies targeting the programmed cell death protein-1/programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) (abbreviated as PD-(L)1) axis are a significant advancement in the treatment of many tumor types. However, many patients receiving these agents fail to respond or have an initial response followed by cancer progression. For these patients, while subsequent immunotherapies that either target a different axis of immune biology or non-immune combination therapies are reasonable treatment options, the lack of predictive biomarkers to follow-on agents is impeding progress in the field.

A group 3 medulloblastoma stem cell program is maintained by OTX2-mediated alternative splicing.

OTX2 is a transcription factor and known driver in medulloblastoma (MB), where it is amplified in a subset of tumours and overexpressed in most cases of group 3 and group 4 MB. Here we demonstrate a noncanonical role for OTX2 in group 3 MB alternative splicing. OTX2 associates with the large assembly of splicing regulators complex through protein-protein interactions and regulates a stem cell splicing program.

Curriculum Frameworks and Educational Programs in AI for Medical Students, Residents, and Practicing Physicians: Scoping Review.

Background: The successful integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into clinical practice is contingent upon physicians' comprehension of AI principles and its applications. Therefore, it is essential for medical education curricula to incorporate AI topics and concepts, providing future physicians with the foundational knowledge and skills needed. However, there is a knowledge gap in the current understanding and availability of structured AI curriculum frameworks tailored for medical education, which serve as vital guides for instructing and facilitating the learning process.

Family medicine residents' perspectives on shared decision-making: A mixed methods study.

Objectives: To 1) examine the willingness of residents to undertake shared decision-making and 2) explore whether the willingness to engage in shared decision-making is influenced by the perceived stakes of a clinical situation.

Methods: Sequential mixed methods design. Phase One: Family Medicine residents completed IncorpoRATE, a seven-item measure of clinician willingness to engage in shared decision making.

An E3 ubiquitin ligase localization screen uncovers DTX2 as a novel ADP-ribosylation-dependent regulator of DNA double-strand break repair.

DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) elicit an elaborate response to signal damage and trigger repair via two major pathways: nonhomologous end-joining (NHEJ), which functions throughout the interphase, and homologous recombination (HR), restricted to S/G2 phases. The DNA damage response relies, on post-translational modifications of nuclear factors to coordinate the mending of breaks. Ubiquitylation of histones and chromatin-associated factors regulates DSB repair and numerous E3 ubiquitin ligases are involved in this process.

The black box of the relationship between breast cancer patients and accompanying patients: the accompanied patients' point of view.

Background: The PAROLE-Onco program was introduced in the province of Quebec, Canada in 2019. It integrates accompanying patients (APs), i.e.

Target trial framework for determining the effect of changes in training load on injury risk using observational data: a methodological commentary.

In recent years, a large focus has been placed on managing training load for injury prevention. To minimise injuries, training recommendations should be based on research that examines causal relationships between load and injury risk. While observational studies can be used to estimate causal effects, conventional methods to study the relationship between load and injury are prone to bias.

The use of venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in cardiogenic shock: a narrative review.

Aims: Cardiogenic shock (CS) develops in up to 10% of patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and carries a 50% risk of mortality. Despite the paucity of evidence regarding its benefits, venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) is increasingly used in clinical practice in patients with AMI in CS (AMI-CS). This review aims to provide an in-depth description of the four available randomized controlled trials to date designed to evaluate the benefit of VA-ECMO in patients with AMI-CS.

Media Use and Its Associations With Paranoia in Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder: Ecological Momentary Assessment.

Background: Paranoia is a spectrum of fear-related experiences that spans diagnostic categories and is influenced by social and cognitive factors. The extent to which social media and other types of media use are associated with paranoia remains unclear.

Objective: We aimed to examine associations between media use and paranoia at the within- and between-person levels.

Profiles of healthcare use of persons living with dementia: A population-based cohort study.

Aim: Persons living with dementia are a heterogeneous population with complex needs whose healthcare use varies widely. This study aimed to identify the healthcare use profiles in a cohort of persons with incident dementia, and to describe their characteristics.

Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study of health administrative data in Quebec (Canada).

Individual patient data meta-analysis estimates the minimal detectable change of the Geriatric Depression Scale-15.

Objectives: To use individual participant data meta-analysis (IPDMA) to estimate the minimal detectable change (MDC) of the Geriatric Depression Scale-15 (GDS-15) and to examine whether MDC may differ based on participant characteristics and study-level variables.

Study Design And Setting: This was a secondary analysis of data from an IPDMA on the depression screening accuracy of the GDS. Datasets from studies published in any language were eligible for the present study if they included GDS-15 scores for participants aged 60 or older.

Association of COVID-19 vaccination and anxiety symptoms: A Scleroderma Patient-centered Intervention Network (SPIN) Cohort longitudinal study.

Objective: Symptoms of anxiety increased early in the COVID-19 pandemic among people with systemic sclerosis (SSc) then returned to pre-pandemic levels, but this was an aggregate finding and did not evaluate whether vaccination may have contributed to reduced anxiety symptom levels. We investigated whether being vaccinated for COVID-19 was associated with reduced anxiety symptoms among people with SSc.

Methods: The longitudinal Scleroderma Patient-centered Intervention Network (SPIN) COVID-19 Cohort was launched in April 2020 and included participants from the ongoing SPIN Cohort and external enrollees.

The Value of Board Recertification Among Physicians.

An ongoing challenge among healthcare certifying organizations is identifying an effective manner of evaluating a physician's competency. The medical field is constantly changing, with new technology, research and pharmacology available, and physicians must be kept up to date in order to properly care for their patients. Maintenance of certification and specifically, recertification exams, are used to verify that a high standard of care is consistently met across all medical specialties.

Minimal Detectable Changes of the Health Assessment Questionnaire-Disability Index, Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System-29 Profile Version 2.0 Domains, and Patient Health Questionnaire-8 in People With Systemic Sclerosis: A Scleroderma Patient-Centered Intervention Network Cohort Cross-Sectional Study.

Objective: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a rare, chronic autoimmune disorder associated with disability, diminished physical function, fatigue, pain, and mental health concerns. We assessed minimal detectable changes (MDCs) of the Health Assessment Questionnaire-Disability Index (HAQ-DI), Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System-29 Profile version 2.0 (PROMIS-29v2.

Addressing dispersion in mis-measured multivariate binomial outcomes: A novel statistical approach for detecting differentially methylated regions in bisulfite sequencing data.

Motivated by a DNA methylation application, this article addresses the problem of fitting and inferring a multivariate binomial regression model for outcomes that are contaminated by errors and exhibit extra-parametric variations, also known as dispersion. While dispersion in univariate binomial regression has been extensively studied, addressing dispersion in the context of multivariate outcomes remains a complex and relatively unexplored task. The complexity arises from a noteworthy data characteristic observed in our motivating dataset: non-constant yet correlated dispersion across outcomes.

Identifying Differential Methylation in Cancer Epigenetics via a Bayesian Functional Regression Model.

DNA methylation plays an essential role in regulating gene activity, modulating disease risk, and determining treatment response. We can obtain insight into methylation patterns at a single-nucleotide level via next-generation sequencing technologies. However, complex features inherent in the data obtained via these technologies pose challenges beyond the typical big data problems.

Circadian Control of the Response of Macrophages to Plasmodium Spp.-Infected Red Blood Cells.

Malaria is a serious vector-borne disease characterized by periodic episodes of high fever and strong immune responses that are coordinated with the daily synchronized parasite replication cycle inside RBCs. As immune cells harbor an autonomous circadian clock that controls various aspects of the immune response, we sought to determine whether the intensity of the immune response to Plasmodium spp., the parasite causing malaria, depends on time of infection.

Physical activity during COVID-19 in people with systemic sclerosis: A Scleroderma Patient-centred Intervention Network COVID-19 Cohort longitudinal study.

Introduction/objective: People with systemic sclerosis (SSc) face barriers to physical activity. Few studies have described physical activity in SSc, and none have explored physical activity longitudinally during COVID-19. We evaluated physical activity from April 2020 to March 2022 among people with SSc.