Exploring the stigma experienced by people affected by Parkinson's disease: a systematic review.

Background: Stigma significantly impacts individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) and their caregivers, exacerbating social isolation, psychological distress, and reducing quality of life (QoL). Although considerable research has been conducted on PD's clinical aspects, the social and emotional challenges, like stigma, remain underexplored. Addressing stigma is crucial for enhancing well-being, fostering inclusivity and improving access to care and support.

Place-based household vouchers for locally supplied fruit and vegetables: the Fresh Street pilot cluster randomised controlled trial.

Background: Households in areas of socio-economic deprivation are more likely to consume diets low in fruit and vegetables. Fresh Street is a place-based fruit and vegetable voucher scheme with vouchers redeemable with local independent (non-supermarket) vendors. Paper vouchers are offered to all households in a geographical area regardless of household type, size, or income with no requirement to demonstrate need.

Guruism and Cultic Social Dynamics in Psychedelic Practices and Organisations.

This chapter explores the risks of guruism and cultic social dynamics in organisations that work with psychedelic drugs, which include therapist offices, clinics, research departments, retreat centres, training programmes, NGOs, underground ceremonies and new religious movements. It has been hypothesised, and argued by experienced practitioners, that psychedelics can increase suggestibility, amplify transference and facilitate an intense form of projective mechanisms in the recipients. They may thereby lead to ego-inflation and feelings of grandiosity and omnipotence in those giving the drugs and intensify cultic social dynamics in psychedelic communities - all of which can create conditions that make cases of harm and misconduct more likely to occur and go unreported.

Microbial fuel cells to monitor natural attenuation around groundwater plumes.

This research presents a straightforward and economically efficient design for a microbial fuel cell (MFC) that can be conveniently integrated into a borehole to monitor natural attenuation in groundwater. The design employs conventional, transparent, and reusable PVC bailers with graphite tape and granular activated carbon to create high surface area electrodes. These electrodes are connected across redox environments in nested boreholes through a wire and variable resistor setup.

Context-dependent effects of CDKN2A and other 9p21 gene losses during the evolution of esophageal cancer.

CDKN2A is a tumor suppressor located in chromosome 9p21 and frequently lost in Barrett's esophagus (BE) and esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC). How CDKN2A and other 9p21 gene co-deletions affect EAC evolution remains understudied. We explored the effects of 9p21 loss in EACs and cancer progressor and non-progressor BEs with matched genomic, transcriptomic and clinical data.

Heterodyne analysis of high-order partial waves in attosecond photoionization of helium.

Partial wave analysis is key to interpretation of the photoionization of atoms and molecules on the attosecond timescale. Here we propose a heterodyne analysis approach, based on the delay-resolved anisotropy parameters to reveal the role played by high-order partial waves during photoionization. This extends the Reconstruction of Attosecond Beating By Interference of Two-photon Transitions technique into the few-photon regime.

Allocentric and egocentric spatial representations coexist in rodent medial entorhinal cortex.

Successful navigation relies on reciprocal transformations between spatial representations in world-centered (allocentric) and self-centered (egocentric) frames of reference. The neural basis of allocentric spatial representations has been extensively investigated with grid, border, and head-direction cells in the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) forming key components of a 'cognitive map'. Recently, egocentric spatial representations have also been identified in several brain regions, but evidence for the coexistence of neurons encoding spatial variables in each reference frame within MEC is so far lacking.

Preoperative estimated glomerular filtration rate to predict cardiac events in major noncardiac surgery: a secondary analysis of two large international studies.

Background: Optimised use of kidney function information might improve cardiac risk prediction in noncardiac surgery.

Methods: In 35,815 patients from the VISION cohort study and 9219 patients from the POISE-2 trial who were ≥45 yr old and underwent nonurgent inpatient noncardiac surgery, we examined (by age and sex) the association between continuous nonlinear preoperative estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and the composite of myocardial injury after noncardiac surgery, nonfatal cardiac arrest, or death owing to a cardiac cause within 30 days after surgery. We estimated contributions of predictive information, C-statistic, and net benefit from eGFR and other common patient and surgical characteristics to large multivariable models.

IMPACT-ICU feasibility study: pragmatic mixed-methods randomised controlled trial of a follow-up care intervention for survivors of critical illness and caregivers.

Introduction: Survivors of critical illness and their caregivers are at risk for long-term cognitive, physical and psychiatric impairments known as post-intensive care syndrome (PICS) and PICS-family, respectively. This study will assess the feasibility of a randomised controlled trial (RCT) evaluating an intensive care unit (ICU) follow-up care bundle versus standard-of-care for ICU patients and their caregivers.

Methods And Analysis: This is a single-centre feasibility study.

Behind the scenes of EQA - characteristics, capabilities, benefits and assets of external quality assessment (EQA).

External quality assessment (EQA) enhances patient safety through the evaluation of the quality of laboratory-based and point of care testing. Regulatory agencies and accreditation organizations utilize the results and the laboratory's response to them as part of assessing the laboratory's fitness to practice. In addition, where EQA samples are commutable and the assigned value has been determined using reference measurement procedures (RMPs), EQA data contributes to the verification of metrological traceability of assays as part of the post-market surveillance of diagnostic (IVD) medical devices (IVD-MDs).

EEFSEC deficiency: A selenopathy with early-onset neurodegeneration.

Inborn errors of selenoprotein expression arise from deleterious variants in genes encoding selenoproteins or selenoprotein biosynthetic factors, some of which are associated with neurodegenerative disorders. This study shows that bi-allelic selenocysteine tRNA-specific eukaryotic elongation factor (EEFSEC) variants cause selenoprotein deficiency, leading to progressive neurodegeneration. EEFSEC deficiency, an autosomal recessive disorder, manifests with global developmental delay, progressive spasticity, ataxia, and seizures.

Adsorption behaviors of microplastics from packaging materials subjected to ultraviolet irradiation and microbial colonization.

Microplastics (MPs) in nature inevitably undergo various aging processes and may exhibit varied interfacial interactions with the coexisted contaminants. Here several discarded disposable polyethylene and polypropylene plastic packaging materials were collected and employed as the raw materials of MPs, and the effects of stimulated UV irradiation and microbial colonization on the variations of surface physicochemical characteristics, including biofilm content, oxygen-containing functional groups, oxygen/carbon ratio, hydrophilicity and surface charge properties were explored. Simultaneously, the adsorption behavior of each MPs on the representative cationic dye crystal violet (CV), as well as the influences of salinity and pH of CV solution, was investigated.

Disentangling Sources of Momentum Fluctuations in Xe+Xe and Pb+Pb Collisions with the ATLAS Detector.

High-energy nuclear collisions create a quark-gluon plasma, whose initial condition and subsequent expansion vary from event to event, impacting the distribution of the eventwise average transverse momentum [P([p_{T}])]. Disentangling the contributions from fluctuations in the nuclear overlap size (geometrical component) and other sources at a fixed size (intrinsic component) remains a challenge. This problem is addressed by measuring the mean, variance, and skewness of P([p_{T}]) in ^{208}Pb+^{208}Pb and ^{129}Xe+^{129}Xe collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=5.

Tocilizumab and rituximab for systemic sclerosis interstitial lung disease: a real-world cohort analysis.

Objectives: Systemic sclerosis (SSc)-interstitial lung disease (ILD) is one of the leading causes of mortality in SSc. Data from randomised controlled trials (RCTs) supports rituximab and tocilizumab monotherapy but there is limited data regarding their use for those who fail standard immunomodulatory therapies.

Methods: SSc patients treated with rituximab or tocilizumab were retrospectively identified in a single centre cohort.

Bola-Amphiphilic Dendrimer Enhances Imatinib to Target Metastatic Ovarian Cancer via β-Catenin-HRP2 Signaling Axis.

Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death among all gynecological malignancies, and drug resistance renders the current chemotherapy agents ineffective for patients with advanced metastatic tumors. We report an effective treatment strategy for targeting metastatic ovarian cancer involving a nanoformulation (Bola/IM)─bola-amphiphilic dendrimer (Bola)-encapsulated imatinib (IM)─to target the critical mediator of ovarian cancer stem cells (CSCs) CD117 (c-Kit). Bola/IM offered significantly more effective targeting of CSCs compared to IM alone, through a novel and tumor-specific β-catenin/HRP2 axis, allowing potent inhibition of cancer cell survival, stemness, and metastasis in metastatic and drug-resistant ovarian cancer cells.

A European Survey to Identify Challenges in the Management of Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease.

Background And Aims: Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and its more severe subtype, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), are highly prevalent and strongly associated with obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D). This study sought to identify challenges to the diagnosis, treatment and management of people living with MASLD and MASH and understand the key barriers to adopting relevant clinical guidelines.

Methods: A real-world, cross-sectional study (BARRIERS-MASLD) consisting of a quantitative survey and qualitative interviews of physicians in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom was conducted from March to September 2023.

The ultrasound competency assessment tool for evaluation of early pregnancy with POCUS.

Objectives: POCUS is a core emergency medicine skill and mainstay of early pregnancy assessment. The ultrasound competency assessment tool was developed as an entrustment-based assessment tool for use by content experts evaluating trainees performing multiple POCUS study types. The objective of this study was to evaluate the scoring and extrapolation inferences of the tool within Kane's validity framework when used to assess trainees performing an early pregnancy POCUS.

Perspectives Toward COVID-19 Sanctions in the Orthodox Jewish Community in Brooklyn and Queens: A Qualitative Study of Medical Providers Experience.

The Ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) Jewish Community in New York City suffered significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The community came under public scrutiny after some members staunchly advocated for reopening of certain resources central to community culture. This study utilizes qualitative techniques to examine the perspectives of medical providers that serve the Haredi community toward pandemic-related government sanctions, as well as the resultant effects the restrictions had on community receipt of healthcare.

Extrinsic and intrinsic effects setting viscosity in complex fluids and life processes: the role of fundamental physical constants.

Understanding the values and origin of fundamental physical constants, one of the grandest challenges in modern science, has been discussed in particle physics, astronomy and cosmology. More recently, it was realized that fundamental constants have a biofriendly window set by life processes involving motion and flow. This window is related to intrinsic fluid properties such as energy and length scales in condensed matter set by fundamental constants.

Basic Science and Pathogenesis.

Background: Physical exercise improves overall brain health, cognition, and stimulates the release of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in humans. Exercise upregulates irisin, a myokine derived from fibronectin type III domain-containing protein 5 (FNDC5) previously shown to mediate the beneficial actions of exercise on memory in mouse models of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here, we investigated if physical exercise upregulates EVs.

Professional Development Among African Oncologists: Examining Professional Development Activities, Satisfaction Levels, Barriers, and Enablers.

Africa is currently facing unprecedented growth in its cancer burden. Training an adequate number of skilled physicians is critical to addressing this challenge. We examine African oncology faculty's professional development (PD) activities, associated barriers, enablers, satisfaction levels, and highlight the implications for improving the quality of the oncology faculty workforce in SSA.