Empowerment in prevention: a qualitative inquiry into Black girl-centred strategies for reducing HIV/STI and drug misuse risk.

Black girls in the United States are disproportionately diagnosed with sexually transmitted infections (STIs), which can increase the risk of contracting HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), compared to adolescent girls of other races. Therefore, this study was designed to understand barriers to impactful HIV/STI and substance use prevention programmes for Black girls. Data was collected between October 2021 and June 2022 from twelve focus groups which included (N = 62) participants who identified as Black and female between the ages of 13 and 18 years old.

Chiral Locomotion Transitions of an Active Gel and Their Chemomechanical Origin.

Transitions between chiral rotational locomotion modes occur in a variety of active individuals and populations, such as sidewinders, self-propelled chiral droplets, and dense bacterial suspensions. Despite recent progress in the study of active matter, general principles governing rotational chiral transition remain elusive. Here, we study, experimentally and theoretically, rotational locomotion and its chiral transition in a 2D polyacrylamide (PAAm)-based BZ gel driven by Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction-diffusion waves.

Examining the arrhythmogenicity of dobutamine when used in conjunction with isoflurane in horses: A retrospective study at a single university teaching hospital.

Background: Dobutamine is used to treat hypotension in isoflurane-anaesthetised horses but may produce arrhythmias. Halothane is a volatile anaesthetic that was, historically, widely used in horses, but in one study, 56 of 200 halothane-anaesthetised horses (28%) developed arrhythmias after dobutamine administration. Although isoflurane has largely replaced halothane, it is unknown how isoflurane and dobutamine interact in the development of arrhythmias.

Risk Factors and Outcomes of Invasive Candida Infections in Heart Transplant Recipients: A Case-Control Study.

Background: Invasive Candida infections (ICI) are the most common invasive fungal infections in solid organ transplant recipients. There are limited contemporary data on the risk factors for infection in heart transplant (HT) recipients especially since the expansion of temporary mechanical circulatory support (MCS) use.

Methods: This was a case-control study conducted at a tertiary care academic hospital of HT recipients from January 2022 to January 2024.

Robotic versus laparoscopic colorectal surgery for patients with obesity: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Obesity poses significant challenges in colorectal surgery, affecting operative difficulty and postoperative recovery. The choice of minimally invasive approach for this patient population remains a challenge during preoperative planning. This review aims to provide an updated synthesis of studies comparing laparoscopic and robotic approaches for adult patients with obesity undergoing colorectal surgery.

Longitudinal Changes in Patient- and Clinical-Reported Outcomes in Early Spinocerebellar Ataxia Types 1, 2, 3, and 6 from the IDEA Study.

Background: Clinical outcomes assessments (COAs) in spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) need to be standardized, ataxia-specific, sensitive to change, clinically relevant, and meaningful to patients.

Objectives: To evaluate the longitudinal 1- and 2-year performances of different patient reported outcomes, including the Patient Reported Outcome Measure of Ataxia (PROM-Ataxia), and clinician reported outcomes, including FARS and SARA, in those with early manifest symptoms of SCA 1, 2, 3, and 6.

Methods: We studied 53 patients with early stage SCA1-3 and SCA6 from The Instrumented Data Exchange for Ataxia Study and 24 age-matched healthy controls.

Triangular Margin: Reliable Imaging Feature of Fibrous Dysplasia in Long Bones?

Objective: To determine the utility of a triangular margin as an imaging diagnostic feature for fibrous dysplasia.

Materials And Methods: We retrospectively reviewed all surgically biopsied or managed benign and malignant bone tumors by a single orthopedic oncologist over 19 years (2003 to 2022). A musculoskeletal radiologist and an orthopedic oncologist, both with >10 years of experience, retrospectively evaluated all imaging in consensus.

Residential Exposure to PM Constituents and Fecundability in a Danish Preconception Cohort.

Background: Epidemiologic studies have demonstrated that ambient concentrations of particulate matter < 2.5 μm (PM) are associated with reduced fecundability, the per cycle probability of conception. The specific constituents driving this association are unknown.

Functional Morphology of Hatching: Ontogeny and Distribution of Hatching Gland Cells in Red-Eyed Treefrogs and a New Marker for Anuran Hatching Enzyme.

Environmentally cued hatching (ECH) is widespread in animals and requires regulation of hatching mechanisms. Enzymatic digestion of the egg membrane is a common hatching mechanism in vertebrates and invertebrates. In amphibians and fishes, hatching enzymes (HE) are synthesized and released by hatching gland cells (HGC), whose functional ontogeny determines when hatching can occur.

IQ Survey Results on Current Industry Practices-Part 1: Immunogenicity Risk Assessment.

An immunogenicity risk assessment (IRA) is a relatively new expectation of health authorities that is increasingly incorporated into the drug development process across the pharmaceutical/biotech industry. The guiding principle for an IRA includes a comprehensive evaluation of product- and patient-related factors that may influence the immunogenic potential of a biotherapeutic drug and a potential action plan. The Immunogenicity Working Group from the IQ Consortium (Clinical Pharmacology Leadership Group) has conducted a survey to understand the current practices for conducting IRAs and relevant aspects of bioanalysis.

Integrated Longitudinal Population Dose-Hemoglobin Response of Daprodustat Following Dose Titration in Patients With Anemia in Chronic Kidney Disease.

Daprodustat, a novel oral hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase inhibitor is approved in the United States for the treatment of anemia due to chronic kidney disease (CKD) in adults receiving dialysis for at least 4 months. Pharmacodynamic dose-hemoglobin (Dose-Hgb) models were developed as daprodustat progressed through development. To support global phase III development, a dose-titration algorithm, guided by simulations from the initial Dose-Hgb model based on phase II clinical data, was implemented.

Practical management of adverse events in patients receiving tarlatamab, a delta-like ligand 3-targeted bispecific T-cell engager immunotherapy, for previously treated small cell lung cancer.

Tarlatamab is a bispecific T-cell engager immunotherapy targeting delta-like ligand 3 (DLL3) and the cluster of differentiation 3 (CD3) molecule. In the phase 2 DeLLphi-301 trial of tarlatamab for patients with previously treated small cell lung cancer, tarlatamab 10 mg every 2 weeks achieved durable responses and encouraging survival outcomes. Analyses of updated safety data from the DeLLphi-301 trial demonstrated that the most common treatment-emergent adverse events were cytokine release syndrome (53%), pyrexia (38%), decreased appetite (36%), dysgeusia (32%), and an emia (30%).

Descriptive Epidemiology of Complete ACL Tears in the Skeletally Immature Population: A Prospective Multicenter PLUTO Study.

Background: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries are common in pediatric and adolescent patients. Understanding this population's injury characteristics and treatment strategies is vital for managing this high-risk group.

Purpose: To report the descriptive epidemiology and treatment strategies of a large cohort of skeletally immature patients with complete ACL tears.

Investigation of the frequency and selected prevalence factors of equid alphaherpesvirus 4 viremia in horses with acute onset of fever and respiratory signs.

Equid alphaherpesvirus 4 (EqAHV4; , ; equine rhinopneumonitis virus) has seldom been associated with complications such as abortion and myeloencephalopathy, given the low tendency of this virus to induce viremia. We investigated the frequency of EqAHV4 viremia in horses with fever and respiratory signs. Case selection included all equids with EqAHV4 quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR)-positive nasal secretions (defined as EqAHV4 qPCR-positive cases) submitted to a diagnostic laboratory.

Marigold: a machine learning-based web app for zebrafish pose tracking.

Background: High-throughput behavioral analysis is important for drug discovery, toxicological studies, and the modeling of neurological disorders such as autism and epilepsy. Zebrafish embryos and larvae are ideal for such applications because they are spawned in large clutches, develop rapidly, feature a relatively simple nervous system, and have orthologs to many human disease genes. However, existing software for video-based behavioral analysis can be incompatible with recordings that contain dynamic backgrounds or foreign objects, lack support for multiwell formats, require expensive hardware, and/or demand considerable programming expertise.

Association between lactate dehydrogenase levels and all-cause mortality in ICU patients with heart failure: a retrospective analysis of the MIMIC-IV database.

Background: Heart failure (HF) patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) often face high short-term mortality rates. This study aims to investigate the relationship between lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels and all-cause mortality in critically ill patients with HF.

Methods: Data from the MIMIC-IV database were extracted for subjects eligible for HF diagnosis.

Noisy-channel language comprehension in aphasia: A Bayesian mixture modeling approach.

Individuals with "agrammatic" receptive aphasia have long been known to rely on semantic plausibility rather than syntactic cues when interpreting sentences. In contrast to early interpretations of this pattern as indicative of a deficit in syntactic knowledge, a recent proposal views agrammatic comprehension as a case of "noisy-channel" language processing with an increased expectation of noise in the input relative to healthy adults. Here, we investigate the nature of the noise model in aphasia and whether it is adapted to the statistics of the environment.

Readmissions and Mortality After "Before Medically Advised" Hospital Discharges Among Medicare Beneficiaries with Opioid Use Disorder.

Background: "Before medically advised" (BMA) discharges are rising among hospitalized people with opioid use disorder (OUD) and associated with worse outcomes. However, little is known about BMA discharge among the growing share of U.S.

Multimodal learning for mapping genotype-phenotype dynamics.

How complex phenotypes emerge from intricate gene expression patterns is a fundamental question in biology. Integrating high-content genotyping approaches such as single-cell RNA sequencing and advanced learning methods such as language models offers an opportunity for dissecting this complex relationship. Here we present a computational integrated genetics framework designed to analyze and interpret the high-dimensional landscape of genotypes and their associated phenotypes simultaneously.

Description of STRIVE-ON Study Protocol: Safety and Tolerability of GTX-104 (Nimodipine Injection for IV Infusion) Compared with Oral Nimodipine in Patients Hospitalized for Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage (aSAH): A Prospective, Randomized, Phase III Trial (STRIVE-ON).

Oral nimodipine is the only drug approved in North America for patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH). However, bioavailability is variable and frequently poor, leading to fluctuations in peak plasma concentrations that cause dose-limiting hypotension. Furthermore, administration is problematic in patients who cannot swallow.

Aging disrupts the coordination between mRNA and protein expression in mouse and human midbrain.

Age-related dopamine (DA) neuron loss is a primary feature of Parkinson's disease. However, whether similar biological processes occur during healthy aging, but to a lesser degree, remains unclear. We therefore determined whether midbrain DA neurons degenerate during aging in mice and humans.

Rapid structural analysis of bacterial ribosomes in situ.

Rapid structural analysis of purified proteins and their complexes has become increasingly common thanks to key methodological advances in cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and associated data processing software packages. In contrast, analogous structural analysis in cells via cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) remains challenging due to critical technical bottlenecks, including low-throughput sample preparation and imaging, and laborious data processing methods. Here, we describe a rapid in situ cryo-ET sample preparation and data analysis workflow that results in the routine determination of sub-nm resolution ribosomal structures.

Association between changes in genital immune markers and vaginal microbiome transitions in bacterial vaginosis.

Bacterial vaginosis (BV), characterized by an imbalance in the vaginal microbiota, is a prevalent condition among women of reproductive age and a risk factor for human immunodeficiency virus, sexually transmitted infections, and preterm birth. BV is generally considered to induce mucosal inflammation, but the specific pathways and cell types involved are not well characterized. This prospective study aimed to assess associations between microbial changes and mucosal immune responses in BV patients.