Experience of conductive hearing loss and impacts of hearing aid use throughout life.

Introduction: Hearing loss and Deafness/deafness affects as much as 5% of the world's population and has a considerable health and economic burden. We explored the relationship with hearing and hearing aids as well as other assistive technology for health in general with a cohort of UK adults who have conductive hearing loss. We anticipated that insights could lead to greater understanding for the delivery of assistive technology (AT) for conductive hearing loss and the participant's lived experience related to technology and society.

FDA-approved drugs as PIM-1 kinase inhibitors: A drug repurposed approach for cancer therapy.

PIM-1 kinase, a member of the Serine/Threonine kinase family, has emerged as a promising therapeutic target in various cancers due to its role in promoting tumor growth and resistance to conventional therapies. In this study, we employed a structure-based approach to screen 3800 FDA-approved drugs to discover potential inhibitors of PIM-1 after an initial selection of 50 candidates based on high docking scores. Four drugs, stanozolol, alfaxalone, rifaximin, and telmisartan, were identified as strong PIM-1 binders, interacting with key residues in the ATP-binding pocket of the kinase.

Automatic MRI-TRUS Fusion Technique for Transperineal Biopsy Guidance: From Preoperative Planning to Intraoperative Navigation.

Background: Targeted and systematic transperineal biopsy of lesions guided by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and transrectal ultrasonography (TRUS) fusion technique may optimize the biopsy procedure and enhance the detection of prostate cancer. We described the transperineal biopsy guided by an automatic MRI-TRUS fusion technique, and evaluated the accuracy and feasibility of this method in a prospective single-center study.

Methods: The proposed method focuses on automating the delineation of prostate contours in both the MRI and TRUS images, the registration and fusion of MRI and TRUS images, the generation and visualiztion of the systematic biopsy cores in their corresponding locations within the 2D and the 3D views, as well as the computation and visualiztion of needle trajectories from preoperative planning to intraoperative navigation.

Case report: Primary infection of conjunctival histoplasmosis mimicking a large conjunctival neoplasm in an immunosuppressed patient.

We report a rare case of a rapidly growing and large conjunctival histoplasmosis lesion in an immunosuppressed West African woman in her 80s, affecting her only eye. The patient had undergone a renal transplant and was on immunosuppressive medications. Additionally, she had previously been treated for presumed systemic histoplasmosis with itraconazole more than 5 years ago.

Distinct virologic trajectories in chronic hepatitis B identify heterogeneity in response to nucleos(t)ide analogue therapy.

Background & Aims: The dynamics of HBV viral load (VL) in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) on nucleos(t)ide analogue (NA) treatment and its relationship with liver disease are poorly understood. We aimed to study longitudinal VL patterns and their associations with CHB clinical outcomes.

Methods: Utilising large scale, routinely collected electronic health records from six centres in England, collated by the National Institute for Health and Care Research Health Informatics Collaborative (NIHR HIC), we applied latent class mixed models to investigate VL trajectory patterns in adults receiving NA treatment.

Perceptions, opportunities and barriers of social engagement among the Chinese older adults: a qualitative study.

Background: Understanding and promoting healthy aging are increasingly important as China transitions into an aging society. Our study examines the challenges and opportunities faced by the older adults in urban areas regarding social engagement, potentially informing the development of effective, context-sensitive interventions and policies.

Methods: The study is based on in-depth interviews with 30 participants from a Northern city in Mainland China regarding their daily lives, attitudes towards and subjective experiences of aging, and involvement in social activities.

Conditional Relay Activation of Theranostic Prodrug by Pretargeting Bioorthogonal Trigger and Fluorescence-guided Visible Light Irradiation.

Bioorthogonalized light-responsive click-and-uncage platform has enabled precise cell surface engineering and timed payload release, but most of such photoactivatable prodrugs have "always-on" photoactivity leading to the dark toxicity. On the other hand, the conditionally activatable photocage is limited to the application of fluorogenic probe/photosensitizer liberation. Herein, we devise a conditionally activatable theranostic platform based on the tetrazine (Tz)-boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY) construct, in which tetrazine serves as a quencher motif to disable both the fluorescence and photoresponsivity of BODIPY.

Mechano-Graded Contact-Electrification Interfaces Based Artificial Mechanoreceptors for Robotic Adaptive Reception.

Triboelectrification-based artificial mechanoreceptors (TBAMs) is able to convert mechanical stimuli directly into electrical signals, realizing self-adaptive protection and human-machine interactions of robots. However, traditional contact-electrification interfaces are prone to reaching their deformation limits under large pressures, resulting in a relatively narrow linear range. In this work, we fabricated mechano-graded microstructures to modulate the strain behavior of contact-electrification interfaces, simultaneously endowing the TBAMs with a high sensitivity and a wide linear detection range.

Advances in the development of N-glycopeptide enrichment materials based on hydrophilic interaction chromatography.

Protein glycosylation is one of the most important post-translational modifications, implicated in the development of various diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, and cancers. However, the low content of glycoproteins in biological samples, the diversity and heterogeneity of glycan structures, and insensitive detection methods make glycosylation analysis challenging. As a result, efficient enrichment of glycopeptides from complex samples is a critical step.

The effects of risk preferences on consumers' reference-dependent choices for autonomous vehicles.

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are reshaping mobility through autonomous vehicles (AVs), which may introduce risks such as technical malfunctions, cybersecurity threats, and ethical dilemmas in decision-making. Despite these complexities, the influence of consumers' risk preferences on AV acceptance remains poorly understood. This study explores how individuals' risk preferences affect their choices among private AVs (PAVs), shared AVs (SAVs), and private conventional vehicles (PCVs).

Histological assessment of extensive or unresectable central giant cell granulomas treated with denosumab - A case series.

Objective: The management of large central giant cell granuloma (CGCG) can pose a significant surgical challenge. In such circumstances, the use of denosumab has been proposed with the literature reporting varying degrees of success. Histopathological assessment of CGCG post-denosumab treatment remains unknown.

"My name is bond. Green bond." Informational efficiency of climate finance markets.

This paper investigates the informational efficiency of green bond markets using a recently introduced quantitative measure for market inefficiency. The paper finds that, first, the degree of inefficiency of the green bond market is very similar to that of benchmark bond markets; in addition, fundamental factors that drive bond prices in general also drive prices for green bonds. The green bond market, however, is less affected by challenging environments such as the COVID outbreak in 2020 and the inflation shock in 2022/2023 than the benchmark markets.

Triple-mode sensing platform for acetylcholinesterase activity monitoring and anti-Alzheimer's drug screening based on a highly stable Cu (I) compound.

Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and AChE inhibitors play critical roles in the early diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Herein, a fluorescence/colorimetry/smartphone triple-mode sensing platform was constructed for both AChE activity monitoring and AChE inhibitor screening by exploring a Cu (I) compound, CuI (SR) (R = CHCHNH), as a fluorescent probe. In comparison of most other fluorescent probes, CuI (SR) presented exceptional stability against pH, temperature, UV irradiation, redox agents, and metal ions, as well as good recyclability due to its unique chemical structure.

Field-Induced Polarization Rotation in Order-Disorder (K,Na)NbO-Based Ferroelectrics.

Phase boundary is highly recognized for its capability in engineering various physical properties of ferroelectrics. Here, field-induced polarization rotation is reported in a high-performance (K, Na)NbO-based ferroelectric system at the rhombohedral-tetragonal phase boundary. First, the lattice structure is examined from both macroscopic and local scales, implementing Rietveld refinement and pair distribution function analysis, respectively.

An anatomical investigation of alkaptonuria: Novel insights into ochronosis of cartilage and bone.

Ochronotic pigmentation of connective tissue is the central pathological process in the rare metabolic disease alkaptonuria (AKU). Tissue pigmentation in AKU occurs due to unmetabolised homogentisic acid (HGA) in the circulation, caused by an enzyme deficiency in the liver. Ochronotic pigmentation, derived from HGA, has previously been reported and described in large joints obtained from arthroplasty surgeries, which typically have advanced disease.

MSA-MaxNet: Multi-Scale Attention Enhanced Multi-Axis Vision Transformer Network for Medical Image Segmentation.

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are well established in handling local features in visual tasks; yet, they falter in managing complex spatial relationships and long-range dependencies that are crucial for medical image segmentation, particularly in identifying pathological changes. While vision transformer (ViT) excels in addressing long-range dependencies, their ability to leverage local features remains inadequate. Recent ViT variants have merged CNNs to improve feature representation and segmentation outcomes, yet challenges with limited receptive fields and precise feature representation persist.

Diagnostic interobserver variability of atypia assessment in columnar cell lesions among a group of expert breast pathologists in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, on behalf of the UK national coordinating committee for breast pathology.

Aims: Atypical ductal hyperplasia and flat epithelial atypia (FEA) have defined diagnostic criteria, yet there is variation in the interpretation of these criteria, particularly when the atypia is present in a background of columnar cell lesions (CCLs). This study focuses upon cases which are especially challenging or difficult to classify reproducibly according to existing criteria.

Methods And Results: Thirteen breast pathology experts were asked to classify 10 challenging cases with CLLs as atypical or non-atypical.

Unpacking polarization: Antagonism and alignment in signed networks of online interaction.

Political conflict is an essential element of democratic systems, but can also threaten their existence if it becomes too intense. This happens particularly when most political issues become aligned along the same major fault line, splitting society into two antagonistic camps. In the 20th century, major fault lines were formed by structural conflicts, like owners vs.

Construction and Expression of Fc-FGF21 by Different Expression Systems and Comparison of Their Similarity and Difference with Efruxifermin by In Vitro and In Vivo Studies.

Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a potential serious disease, which almost has no available medicine for effective treatment today. Efruxifermin is a bivalent Fc-FGF21 candidate drug developed by Akero Therapeutics that has shown promising results in preclinical and clinical trials for NASH and may be approved in future. However, it is produced by Escherichia coli (E.

A Novel System for Simultaneous Real-Time Determination of N-Enriched Ammonia, Hydroxylamine, Nitrite, and Nitrate.

Ammonium (NH), hydroxylamine (NHOH), nitrite (NO), and nitrate (NO) account for the most important reactive nitrogen (N) species in the N cycle, playing a key role in N elimination and N retention, as well as the production of nitrogenous trace gases. However, it is still challenging to fulfill simultaneous real-time determination of all four N compounds enriched in N. This study successfully established a novel system by coupling an utomatic imultaneous ample reparation unit to a embrane nlet ass pectrometer (4n-ASSP-MIMS) for rapid online N fraction analysis of all four key compounds in the N cycle.

Right upper quadrant pain after previous blunt abdominal trauma: undiagnosed traumatic diaphragmatic hernia with strangulated right colon.

A woman in her 40s self-presented to an emergency department in a major trauma centre with severe right-sided abdominal pain, a tender right upper quadrant mass and chest pain. Diagnostic imaging showed a previously undiagnosed diaphragmatic hernia containing strangulated right colon. The patient had been the victim of a high-energy road traffic accident 18 months earlier, but at that time had not presented to hospital or undergone any outpatient investigation.

Metastatic conjunctival melanoma: a multicentre international study.

Background: To reveal clinical findings related to metastatic conjunctival melanoma.

Methods: 10 ophthalmic oncology centres (9 countries and 4 continents) shared data to create a large clinical case series. The main outcome measures were the incidence and cumulative risk of systemic metastasis, study mortality rates and Kaplan-Meier patient mortality after developing conjunctival melanoma metastasis.

Comparative Assessment of the Burden of Injury in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Analysis of Estimates From Global Burden of Disease 2021 Study.

Objectives Surgical care for traumatic injuries remains a major concern to public health in sub-Saharan Africa. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes rising inequalities in global health. The objectives of this study were to compare the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2021 estimates on injury mortality and disability across sub-Saharan sub-regions by cause-of-injury category.