Effect of Cu- and Fe- Isolated from Environmental Particulate Matter on Mitochondrial Dynamics in Human Colon CaCo-2 Cells.

Atmospheric particulate matter (PM) is one of the most dangerous air pollutants of anthropogenic origin; it consists of a heterogeneous mixture of inorganic and organic components, including transition metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Although previous studies have focused on the effects of exposure to highly concentrated PM on the respiratory and cardiovascular systems, emerging evidence supports a significant impact of air pollution on the gastrointestinal (GI) tract by linking exposure to external stressors with conditions such as appendicitis, colorectal cancer, and inflammatory bowel disease. In general, it has been hypothesized that the main mechanism involved in PM toxicity consists of an inflammatory response and this has also been suggested for the GI tract.

Ultrahigh concentration exfoliation and aqueous dispersion of few-layer graphene by excluded volume effect.

Colloidal properties of nanoparticles are intricately linked to their morphology. Traditionally, achieving high-concentration dispersions of two-dimensional (2D) nanosheets has proven challenging as they tend to agglomerate or re-stack under increased surface contact and Van der Waals attraction. Here, we unveil an excluded volume effect enabled by 2D morphology, which can be coupled with electrostatic repulsion to synthesize high-concentration aqueous graphene dispersions.

Role of Hypoxia Induced by Medicinal Plants; A Revolutionary Era of Cellular and Molecular Herbal Medicine in Neuroblastoma Treatment.

As one of the most common solid pediatric cancers, Neuroblastoma (NBL) accounts for 15% of all of the cancer-related mortalities in infants with increasing incidence all around the world. Despite current therapeutic approaches for NBL (radiotherapies, surgeries, and chemotherapies), these approaches could not be beneficial for all of patients with NBL due to their low effectiveness, and some severe side effects. These challenges lead basic medical scientists and clinical specialists toward an optimal medical interventions for clinical management of NBL.

Monitoring of organochlorine pesticides using pine needle, pine bark, and soil samples across South Korea: Source apportionment and implications for atmospheric transport.

Pine needle, pine bark, and soil samples were collected from various regions in South Korea, considering the suitability of vegetation samples as passive samplers. A total of 27 organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) were analyzed using a gas chromatograph/high-resolution mass spectrometer (GC/HRMS). The total concentrations of OCPs ranged between 650 and 3652 pg/g dw in soil, 215 and 1384 pg/g ww in pine needles, and 456 and 1723 pg/g ww in pine bark.

Do Risk Factors for HCC Impact the Association of CT/MRI LIRADS Major Features With HCC? An Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis.

Guidelines suggest the Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System (LI-RADS) may not be applicable for some populations at risk for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, data assessing the association of HCC risk factors with LI-RADS major features are lacking. To evaluate whether the association between HCC risk factors and each CT/MRI LI-RADS major feature differs among individuals at-risk for HCC.

Improved aquila optimizer for swarm-based solutions to complex engineering problems.

The traditional optimization approaches suffer from certain problems like getting stuck in local optima, low speed, susceptibility to local optima, and searching unknown search spaces, thus requiring reliance on single-based solutions. Herein, an Improved Aquila Optimizer (IAO) is proposed, which is a unique meta-heuristic optimization method motivated by the hunting behavior of Aquila. An improved version of Aquila optimizer seeks to increase effectiveness and productivity.

Global incidence and prevalence in uveal melanoma.

Purpose: The most common intraocular cancer in adults is uveal melanoma (UM). This study aimed to investigate and report the incidence and prognosis of UM in different regions of the world.

Methods: We retrieved relevant data on UM from the PubMed database and analyzed its global incidence and prognosis.

Love as a Commitment Device : Evidence from a Cross-Cultural Study across 90 Countries.

Given the ubiquitous nature of love, numerous theories have been proposed to explain its existence. One such theory refers to love as a commitment device, suggesting that romantic love evolved to foster commitment between partners and enhance their reproductive success. In the present study, we investigated this hypothesis using a large-scale sample of 86,310 individual responses collected across 90 countries.

Feed additives for methane mitigation: Regulatory frameworks and scientific evidence requirements for the authorization of feed additives to mitigate ruminant methane emissions.

This article describes the regulatory and evidence requirements necessary for the authorization of antimethanogenic feed additives (AMFA) aimed at mitigating enteric methane (CH) emissions from ruminants. It outlines the legislation and legal procedures in Australia, Canada, the European Union, New Zealand, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States as illustrative examples, offering insights for applicants seeking authorization. Additionals objectives are to highlight consequential similarities and differences in regulations and evidence requirements and offer recommendations for scientists and applicants.

Enhancing glioblastoma therapy via intranasal administration of highly potent cell-penetrating peptide decorated nanoparticles.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a devastating primary tumor of the central nervous system with a significantly poor prognosis. The primary challenge in treating GBM lies in the restrictive nature of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), impeding effective drug delivery to the brain. In this study, intranasal polymeric micelles encapsulating a quercetin-etoposide combination were developed to induce synergistic apoptotic effects and enhance direct drug delivery to the brain.

Characteristics and Outcomes of Over a Million Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Seven Countries: Multinational Cohort Study and Open Data Resource.

Background And Aims: Observational healthcare data are an important tool for delineating patients' inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) journey in real-world settings. However, studies that characterize IBD cohorts typically rely on a single resource, apply diverse eligibility criteria, and extract variable sets of attributes, making comparison between cohorts challenging. We aim to longitudinally describe and compare IBD patient cohorts across multiple geographic regions, employing unified data and analysis framework.

Geocultural differences in pre-schooler sleep profiles and family practices: an analysis of pooled data from 37 countries.

Study Objectives: To examine 1) multidimensional sleep profiles in pre-schoolers (3-6 years) across geocultural regions and 2) differences in sleep characteristics and family practices between Majority World regions (Pacific Islands, Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, Latin America) and the Minority World (the Western world).

Methods: Participants were 3507 pre-schoolers from 37 countries. Nighttime sleep characteristics and nap duration (accelerometer: n=1950) and family practices (parental questionnaire) were measured.

Assessing the predicted impact of single amino acid substitutions in calmodulin for CAGI6 challenges.

Recent thermodynamic and functional studies have been conducted to evaluate the impact of amino acid substitutions on Calmodulin (CaM). The Critical Assessment of Genome Interpretation (CAGI) data provider at University of Verona (Italy) measured the melting temperature (T) and the percentage of unfolding (%unfold) of a set of CaM variants (CaM challenge dataset). Thermodynamic measurements for the equilibrium unfolding of CaM were obtained by monitoring far-UV Circular Dichroism as a function of temperature.

Connectome-based symptom mapping and related gene expression in children with autism and/or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Clinical, neuroimaging and genomics evidence have increasingly underscored a degree of overlap between autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This study explores the specific contribution of their core symptoms to shared biology in a sample of N=166 verbal children (6-12 years) with rigorously-established primary diagnoses of either autism or ADHD (without autism). We investigated the associations between inter-individual differences in clinician-based dimensional measures of autism and ADHD symptoms and whole-brain low motion intrinsic functional connectivity (iFC).

Iron as a Sulfidation-Resistant Current Collector for Negative Electrode in Sulfide-Based All-Solid-Batteries.

The demand for all-solid-state batteries (ASSBs) featuring credible LiPSCl argyrodite (LPSCl) electrolytes is increasing, driving interest in exploring suitable current collectors for ASSBs. Copper (Cu), used as a current collector in traditional lithium-ion batteries, exhibits significant instability in LPSCl-ASSBs. In this study, the effectiveness of iron (Fe) is systematically investigated as an alternative current collector in LPSCl-ASSBs and compare its performance to that of Cu.

Investigational Use of Real-World Data as a Hybrid Control in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma from the Randomized Phase Ib/II MORPHEUS Trial.

Enrolling adequate numbers of patients into the control arm of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) often presents barriers. There is interest in leveraging real-world data (RWD) from electronic health records (EHRs) to construct external control (EC) arms to supplement RCT control arms and form hybrid control (HC) arms. This investigation showed the use of an HC arm in second-line metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).

Prognostic value of residual disease (RD) biology and gene expression changes during the neoadjuvant treatment in patients with HER2+ early breast cancer (EBC).

Background: In HER2+ early breast cancer (EBC), we investigated tumor and immune changes during neoadjuvant treatment and their impact on residual disease (RD) biology and prognostic implications across 4 neoadjuvant studies of trastuzumab with or without lapatinib, and with or without chemotherapy: CALGB 40601, PAMELA, NeoALTTO and NSABP B-41.

Patients And Methods: We compared tumor and immune gene expression changes during neoadjuvant treatment and their association with with event-free survival (EFS) by uni- and multivariable Cox regression models in different cohorts and timepoints: 452 RD samples at baseline including 169 with a paired RD, and biomarker changes during neoadjuvant therapy, evaluating model performance via the c-index.

Results: Analysis of 169 paired tumor samples revealed a shift in intrinsic subtype proportions from HER2-Enriched at baseline (50.

Cationic conjugated polymers with tunable hydrophobicity for efficient treatment of multidrug-resistant wound biofilm infections.

Biofilm-associated infections arising from antibiotic-resistant bacteria pose a critical challenge to global health. We report the generation of a library of cationic conjugated poly(phenylene ethynylene) (PPE) polymers featuring trimethylammonium terminated sidechains with tunable hydrophobicity. Screening of the library identified an amphiphilic polymer with a C hydrophobic spacer as the polymer with the highest antimicrobial efficacy against biofilms in the dark with excellent selectivity.

Population-specific reference panel improves imputation quality for genome-wide association studies conducted on the Japanese population.

To improve imputation quality for genome-wide association studies (GWAS) conducted on the Japanese population, we developed and evaluated four Japanese population-specific reference panels. These panels were constructed through the augmentation of the 1000 Genomes Project (1KG) panel using Japanese whole genome sequencing (WGS) data, with sample sizes ranging from 1 K to 7 K individuals enrolled through the Biobank Japan (BBJ) project, and sequencing depths ranging from 3× to 30×. Among these panels, an augmented reference panel comprising 7472 WGS samples of mixed depth (1KG+7K) exhibit the greatest improvement in imputation quality relative to the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) reference panel.

Relationship Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Resilience: The Indirect Effect of a Sense of Purpose in Life.

Purpose: This study examined the association between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and resilience through a sense of purpose in life (SP) among 578 college students, applying resilience theory and positive psychology.

Materials And Methods: Using a cross-sectional, online survey design, data were collected. Most respondents were female (71.

Long-Term Follow-Up and Overall Survival in NRG258, a Randomized Phase III Trial of Chemoradiation Versus Chemotherapy for Locally Advanced Endometrial Carcinoma.

This randomized phase III trial aimed to determine whether treatment with cisplatin and volume-directed radiation followed by carboplatin and paclitaxel for four cycles (chemoradiotherapy [C-RT]) increased recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) when compared with carboplatin and paclitaxel for six cycles (chemotherapy [CT]) in locally advanced endometrial cancer (UC). Previously reported results showed that C-RT did not improve RFS compared with CT. Here we report the final OS analysis.

Radiographic and visual response to the type II RAF inhibitor tovorafenib in children with relapsed/refractory optic pathway glioma in the FIREFLY-1 trial.

Background: Due to their anatomical locations, optic pathway gliomas (OPGs) can rarely be cured by resection. Given the importance of preserving visual function, we analyzed radiological and visual acuity (VA) outcomes for the type II RAF inhibitor tovorafenib in the OPG subgroup of the phase 2 FIREFLY-1 trial.

Methods: FIREFLY-1 investigated the efficacy (arm 1, n=77), safety, and tolerability (arms 1/2) of tovorafenib (420 mg/m2 once weekly; 600 mg maximum) in patients with BRAF-altered relapsed/refractory pediatric low-grade glioma (pLGG).

Are ultrasound salivary parenchymal lesions more severe in primary Sjögren patients with a longer disease duration? A cross-sectional study.

Objectives: Salivary gland ultrasound (SGUS) has an interest in primary Sjögren's disease (pSD) for diagnosis, but the evolution of parenchymal lesions over time is unknown. The objective of this study was to assess the severity of ultrasound abnormalities in relation to pSD duration from the time of buccal dryness onset.

Methods: In this cross-sectional international multicentre study, patients with pSD according to the 2002 or 2016 ACR/EULAR classification criteria were included.

International perspectives on LI-RADS.

Given the crucial role of imaging in HCC diagnosis, LI-RADS CT/MRI was developed to standardize the imaging interpretation and reporting of HCC in patients at risk for HCC and categorize hepatic observations on an ordinal scale according to the likelihood of HCC. LI-RADS has since been expanded to include 5 algorithms: LI-RADS US Surveillance, contrast-enhanced US (CEUS) LI-RADS, LI-RADS CT/MRI, and LI-RADS Treatment Response Assessment. LI-RADS has been adopted broadly in North America, however with less ubiquitous adoption outside of North America.

Diagnostic test accuracy of self-administered cognitive assessment tools for dementia.

Background: Dementia is a chronic and progressive clinical syndrome that can present with a range of cognitive and behavioural symptoms. Global prevalence is projected to increase due to ageing populations, particularly in resource-limited settings, with significant associated health and social care costs. There is a critical need for accurate cognitive assessment as part of the diagnostic workup for dementia.