Observation of broadband super-absorption of electromagnetic waves through space-time symmetry breaking.

Using time as an additional design parameter in electromagnetism, photonics, and wave physics is attracting considerable research interest, motivated by the possibility to explore physical phenomena and engineering opportunities beyond the limits of time-invariant systems. Here, we report the experimental demonstration of enhanced broadband absorption of electromagnetic waves in a continuously modulated time-varying system, exceeding one of the key theoretical limits of linear time-invariant absorbers. This is achieved by harnessing the frequency-wave vector transitions and enhanced interference effects enabled by breaking both continuous space- and time-translation symmetries in a periodically time-modulated absorbing structure operating at radio frequencies.

An Incognito Standardized Patient Approach for Measuring and Reducing Intersectional Healthcare Stigma: A Pilot Cluster Randomized Control Trial.

Background: Consistent evidence shows stigma impedes healthcare access in people living with HIV (PLWH) and men who have sex with men (MSM). We evaluated the impact of a stigma reduction training for providers whose design was informed by direct observation of their clinical behaviors obtained through visits by incognito standardized patient (SP).

Setting: We conducted this study in in sexually transmitted infection clinics in Guangzhou, China.

Pharmacokinetics and safety of bictegravir in pregnant and postpartum persons with HIV and their infants.

Background: Limited data exist on bictegravir pharmacokinetics in pregnancy among persons with HIV (PWH) and infant washout.

Setting: Nonrandomized, open-label, multi-center phase-IV prospective study of bictegravir pharmacokinetics and safety in pregnant PWH and their infants.

Methods: Steady-state 24-hour pharmacokinetic sampling of oral bictegravir 50 mg once daily (a component of fixed-dose combination bictegravir/emtricitabine/tenofovir alafenamide) during the 2nd and 3rd trimesters and postpartum was performed.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Mobile Health Intervention on Enhancing HIV Knowledge in Sexual and Gender Minority Men.

Background: In the United States, young men who have sex with men (YMSM) and young transgender women (YTGW) are disproportionately affected by HIV infection. Adequate HIV knowledge is critical for protecting adolescents and young adults at risk for HIV. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the mLab App intervention in enhancing HIV knowledge among YMSM and YTGW.

Spatially programmed alignment and actuation in printed liquid crystal elastomers.

Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) exhibit reversible shape morphing behavior when cycled above their nematic-to-isotropic transition temperature. During extrusion-based 3D printing, LCE inks are subjected to coupled shear and extensional flows that can be harnessed to spatially control the alignment of their nematic director along prescribed print paths. Here, we combine experiment and modeling to elucidate the effects of ink composition, nozzle geometry, and printing parameters on director alignment.

Effectiveness and Safety of Adalimumab in Patients With Very Early-Onset Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Retrospective Study on Behalf of the Porto Inflammatory Bowel Disease Working Group of European Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition.

Background And Aims: Patients with very early-onset inflammatory bowel disease (VEO-IBD), with an age of onset < 6 years, can present with severe manifestations and may require biologic therapy. Infliximab and adalimumab are approved for induction and maintenance in pediatric IBD patients but are licensed only above the age of 6 years. Effectiveness and safety data on adalimumab in this patient population are lacking.

Decentralized worker-centred occupational management in health care: nationwide survey and alpha testing.

Background: Occupational stress among healthcare workers negatively impacts job satisfaction and patient care quality, jeopardizing healthcare system sustainability. Traditional employer-driven approaches often fail to address these challenges comprehensively, leading to persistent gaps in work condition transparency and well-being.

Aims: To elucidate the working conditions of health workers and introduce a worker-centred, technology-based strategy moving beyond traditional practices and entrenched medical culture.

Guidelines for Gene and Genome Assembly Nomenclature.

The rapid increase in the number of reference-quality genome assemblies presents significant new opportunities for genomic research. However, the absence of standardized naming conventions for genome assemblies and annotations across datasets creates substantial challenges. Inconsistent naming hinders the identification of correct assemblies, complicates the integration of bioinformatics pipelines, and makes it difficult to link assemblies across multiple resources.

Benign Bone Tumors of the Hand: Beyond Enchondromas.

Beyond enchondromas, the most common bone tumors of the hand, there are numerous less common benign bone tumors and mimickers with which orthopaedic and hand surgeons should be familiar. These include other benign cartilage tumors, cystic lesions, osteogenic tumors, giant cell tumor, and fibrous dysplasia. Particularly unique lesions include bizarre parosteal osteochondromatous proliferation (Nora lesion), florid reactive periostitis, turret exostosis (acquired osteochondroma), giant cell reparative granuloma (solid aneurysmal bone cyst), and epidermoid cyst.

The Golgi complex governs natural killer cell lytic granule positioning to promote directionality in cytotoxicity.

Cytotoxic immune cells mediate precise attacks against diseased cells to maintain organismal health. Their operational unit of killing and host defense is lytic granules (LGs), which are specialized lysosomal-related organelles. Precision in cytotoxicity is achieved by converging the many LGs to the microtubule-organizing center (MTOC) and polarizing these to the diseased cell for secretion.

Testing a Web-Based Interactive Comic Tool to Decrease Obesity Risk Among Racial and Ethnic Minority Preadolescents: Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Childhood obesity prevalence remains high, especially in racial and ethnic minority populations with low incomes. This epidemic is attributed to various dietary behaviors, including increased consumption of energy-dense foods and sugary beverages and decreased intake of fruits and vegetables. Interactive, technology-based approaches are emerging as promising tools to support health behavior changes.

Outcomes and complications of vertebral body tethering by patient gender.

Purpose: Non-fusion surgical options for pediatric scoliosis management such as vertebral body tethering (VBT) offer an alternative to spinal fusion. With this study, we aim to evaluate the postoperative outcomes in boys versus girls who have undergone VBT. Our hypothesis is that girls and boys will have similar outcomes by 2-year follow-up.

Restorative Neurostimulation Therapy Compared to Optimal Medical Management: A Randomized Evaluation (RESTORE) for the Treatment of Chronic Mechanical Low Back Pain due to Multifidus Dysfunction.

Introduction: Many interventional strategies are commonly used to treat chronic low back pain (CLBP), though few are specifically intended to target the distinct underlying pathomechanisms causing low back pain. Restorative neurostimulation has been suggested as a specific treatment for mechanical CLBP resulting from multifidus dysfunction. In this randomized controlled trial, we report outcomes from a cohort of patients with CLBP associated with multifidus dysfunction treated with restorative neurostimulation compared to those randomized to a control group receiving optimal medical management (OMM) over 1 year.

HIV Prevention in Syringe Service Programs Since the Start of COVID-19: Where Do We Go From Here?

Purpose: This narrative review addresses post-2020, specific, complex challenges for use of and adherence to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention among out-of-treatment people who use drugs (PWUD) at syringe services programs (SSPs).

Recent Findings: The COVID-19 pandemic and its associated changes to the provision of healthcare have significantly impacted HIV prevention, especially for PWUD. Through a synthesis of literature and clinical experience, we (1) characterize the operational changes imposed by the pandemic on SSPs that shaped the current HIV prevention landscape; (2) describe three levels of current challenges for PWUD, including consumer attitudes, non-medical and medical provider attitudes, and structural and scalability barriers; (3) characterize current models for PrEP in SSPs; and (4) offer practical recommendations for HIV prevention in harm reduction programs.

Translation, cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric evaluation of the Serbian Ankylosing Spondylitis Quality of Life (ASQoL) Questionnaire (refers to r-axSpA) and its relations with disease activity and functional status indices.

Objectives: To translate, cross-culturally adapt and validate the Serbian Ankylosing Spondylitis Quality of Life (ASQoL) questionnaire, e.g. according to the new nomenclature Radiographic-Axial Spondyloarthritis (r-axSpA), and to relate it to disease activity and functional status domains.

Closing the Gap: Digital Innovations to Address Hypertension Disparities.

Purpose Of Review: Significant inequities persist in hypertension detection and control, with minoritized populations disproportionately experiencing organ damage and premature death due to uncontrolled hypertension. Remote blood pressure monitoring combined with telehealth visits (RBPM) is proving to be an effective strategy for controlling hypertension. Yet there are challenges related to technology adoption, patient engagement and social determinants of health (SDoH), contributing to disparities in patient outcomes.

Diagnostic value of CT scans in pediatric patients with acute non-traumatic altered mental status: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Computed tomography (CT) scans are widely used for evaluating children with acute atraumatic altered mental status (AMS) despite concerns about radiation exposure and limited diagnostic yield. This study aims to assess the efficacy of CT scans in this population and provide evidence-based recommendations.

Methods: A systematic review was conducted according to PRISMA guidelines.

Longitudinal qualitative assessment of meaningful symptoms and relevance of WATCH-PD digital measures for people with early Parkinson's.

Background: Longitudinal qualitative data on what matters to people with Parkinson's disease are lacking and needed to guide patient-centered clinical care and development of outcome measures.

Objective: To evaluate change over time in symptoms, impacts, and relevance of digital measures to monitor disease progression in early Parkinson's.

Methods: In-depth, online symptom mapping interviews were conducted with 33 people with early Parkinson's at baseline and 1 year later to evaluate (A) symptoms, (B) impacts, and (C) relevance of digital measures to monitor personally relevant symptoms.

Anatomy-driven segmentation of parafoveal optical coherence tomography (OCT) measures may improve associations with clinical outcomes in multiple sclerosis.

Background: Previous investigations on optical coherence tomography (OCT) in multiple sclerosis (MS) focused on generalizable macular and peri-papillary regions without considering the anatomic variations of the retinal layer thickness.

Objective: This study aimed to assess the utility of parafoveal retinal layer thickness measured by OCT, underscoring its relationships with clinical outcomes in MS.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 214 people with MS (pwMS) and 57 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled.

Marriage is associated with decreased lesion volumes and less brain atrophy in people with multiple sclerosis.

Background: Married or long-term partnered patients with chronic diseases generally have better outcomes than unmarried patients, likely due to the potential for multifaceted support. However, the impact of marital status on multiple sclerosis (MS) radiographic disease burden is currently unknown.

Objective: To compare total white matter hyperintensity lesion volumes, periventricular lesion volumes, and whole brain and grey matter volumes in married and unmarried people with MS (PwMS).

Improvement in vision-related quality-of-life using the NEI-VFQ-9 over 1-year in the Manhattan Vision Screening and Follow-up Study (NYC-SIGHT).

Purpose: To examine the nine-item National Eye Institute Vision Function Questionnaire (NEI-VFQ-9) scores at baseline and 12 months in participants enrolled in the Manhattan Vision Screening and Follow-up Study (NYC-SIGHT) and determine factors associated with improvements in vision-related quality-of-life (VRQOL).

Methods: Retrospective review of NEI-VFQ-9 scores at baseline and 12-month follow-up in a community-based eye health screening study conducted in Upper Manhattan, New York. Participants were age ≥ 40 years and older, living independently in public/affordable housing developments and able to provide informed consent.

Outcomes of mechanical thrombectomy for medium vessel occlusion in acute ischemic stroke patients with ASPECTS 4-5 vs. 6-7: a retrospective, multicenter, and multinational study.

Introduction: Mechanical thrombectomy (MT) efficacy in medium vessel occlusion (MeVO) stroke, particularly in patients with low Alberta Stroke Program Early Computed Tomography Score (ASPECTS), remains less explored.

Methods: This retrospective study analyzed data from 443 AIS patients treated with MT for MeVO and low ASPECTS (4-7) at 37 centers across North America, Asia, and Europe, from September 2017 to July 2021. Patients were categorized into ASPECTS of 4-5 and 6-7.

Content Validity of the Friedreich Ataxia Rating Scale in Patients with Spinocerebellar Ataxia.

Introduction: The Friedreich Ataxia Rating Scale-Activities of Daily Living (FARS-ADL) is a validated and highly utilized measure for evaluating patients with Friedreich Ataxia. While construct validity of FARS-ADL has been shown for spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA), content validity has not been established.

Methods: Individuals with SCA1 or SCA3 (n = 7) and healthcare professionals (HCPs) with SCA expertise (n = 8) participated in qualitative interviews evaluating the relevance, clarity, and clinical meaningfulness of FARS-ADL for assessment of individuals with SCA.

Not All Antiseptic Solutions Are Equivalent in Removing Biofilm: A Comparison Across Different Orthopaedic Surfaces.

Background: Antiseptic solutions are commonly utilized during total joint arthroplasty (TJA) to prevent and treat periprosthetic joint infection (PJI). The purpose of this study was to investigate which antiseptic solution is most effective against methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) and Escherichia coli biofilms established in vitro on orthopaedic surfaces commonly utilized in total knee arthroplasty: cobalt-chromium (CC), oxidized zirconium (OxZr), and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA).

Methods: MSSA and E.

Mutations disrupting the kinase domain of IKKα lead to immunodeficiency and immune dysregulation in humans.

IKKα, encoded by CHUK, is crucial in the non-canonical NF-κB pathway and part of the IKK complex activating the canonical pathway alongside IKKβ. The absence of IKKα causes fetal encasement syndrome in humans, fatal in utero, while an impaired IKKα-NIK interaction was reported in a single patient and causes combined immunodeficiency. Here, we describe compound heterozygous variants in the kinase domain of IKKα in a female patient with hypogammaglobulinemia, recurrent lung infections, and Hay-Wells syndrome-like features.