Genetic and environmental influences on alcohol consumption in middle to late life.

Objective: Alcohol use is common in older adults and linked to poor health and aging outcomes. Studies have demonstrated genetic and environmental contributions to the quantity of alcohol consumption in mid-to-late life, but less is known about whether these influences are moderated by sociodemographic factors such as age, sex, and educational attainment. This study sought to better understand sociodemographic trends in alcohol consumption across the second half of the life course and their underlying genetic and environmental influences.

Assessing the feasibility of handheld scanning technologies in neonatal intensive care: Trueness, acceptability, and suitability for personalised medical devices.

Background: Nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) injuries are common for premature infants. Clinical use of three-dimensional (3D) scanning is established in adult medicine, but the possibilities in neonatal care are still emerging. Custom printed CPAP devices have the potential to reduce injuries and disfigurement in this vulnerable population.

Comprehensive humoral and cellular immune responses to COVID-19 vaccination in adults with cancer.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted people with cancer. Initial vaccine studies excluded patients with malignancy. Immunocompromised individuals remain vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2, necessitating detailed understanding of vaccine response.

Squamous cell carcinoma is associated with reduced IL34 expression, alterations in the Langerhans cell antigen-processing-presentation machinery and poor patient survival.

Objectives: Langerhans cells (LCs) are epithelial antigen-presenting cells (APC) contributing to immune surveillance. LCs depend on interleukin 34 (IL34) production by epithelial cells. This study aimed to uncover mechanisms of alteration of IL34 and LC function in squamous cell carcinoma (SCC).

Predictive Power of Polygenic Risk Scores for Intraocular Pressure or Vertical Cup-Disc Ratio.

Importance: Early detection of glaucoma is essential to timely monitoring and treatment, and primary open-angle glaucoma risk can be assessed by measuring intraocular pressure (IOP) or optic nerve head vertical cup-disc ratio (VCDR). Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) could provide a link between genetic effects estimated from genome-wide association studies (GWASs) and clinical applications to provide estimates of an individual's genetic risk by combining many identified variants into a score.

Objective: To construct IOP and VCDR PRSs with clinically relevant predictive power.

Integrated elemental analysis supports targeting copper perturbations as a therapeutic strategy in multiple sclerosis.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a debilitating affliction of the central nervous system (CNS) that involves demyelination of neuronal axons and neurodegeneration resulting in disability that becomes more pronounced in progressive forms of the disease. The involvement of neurodegeneration in MS underscores the need for effective neuroprotective approaches necessitating identification of new therapeutic targets. Herein, we applied an integrated elemental analysis workflow to human MS-affected spinal cord tissue utilising multiple inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry methodologies.

Genetic control of DNA methylation is largely shared across European and East Asian populations.

DNA methylation is an ideal trait to study the extent of the shared genetic control across ancestries, effectively providing hundreds of thousands of model molecular traits with large QTL effect sizes. We investigate cis DNAm QTLs in three European (n = 3701) and two East Asian (n = 2099) cohorts to quantify the similarities and differences in the genetic architecture across populations. We observe 80,394 associated mQTLs (62.

Potential Serological Misdiagnosis of Barmah Forest Virus and Ross River Virus Diseases as Chikungunya Virus Infections in Australia: Comparison of ELISA with Neutralization Assay Results.

To evaluate the frequency of errors in the diagnosis of medical laboratory-diagnosed Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) infections in Australia, we studied 42 laboratory-diagnosed CHIKV serum samples from one Queensland medical laboratory by ELISA IgG/IgM and measured the specific neutralization antibodies (Nab) against Barmah Forest virus (BFV), CHIKV and Ross River virus (RRV). The sero-positivity rates for the sera were as follows: anti-BFV IgG 19% (8/42), IgM 2.4% (1/42) and Nab 16.

Immersive Virtual Reality-Based Methods for Assessing Executive Functioning: Systematic Review.

Background: Neuropsychological assessments traditionally include tests of executive functioning (EF) because of its critical role in daily activities and link to mental disorders. Established traditional EF assessments, although robust, lack ecological validity and are limited to single cognitive processes. These methods, which are suitable for clinical populations, are less informative regarding EF in healthy individuals.

Iron Supplementation in Management of Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis, and Qualitative Synthesis.

Objective: The authors sought to explore the role of iron supplementation in the management of neurodevelopmental disorders among children and youths.

Methods: A systematic review in accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines was undertaken. A subset of results was suitable for meta-analysis.

Evidence for decreased copper associated with demyelination in the corpus callosum of cuprizone-treated mice.

Demyelination within the central nervous system (CNS) is a significant feature of debilitating neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis and administering the copper-selective chelatorcuprizone to mice is widely used to model demyelination in vivo. Conspicuous demyelination within the corpus callosum is generally attributed to cuprizone's ability to restrict copper availability in this vulnerable brain region. However, the small number of studies that have assessed copper in brain tissue from cuprizone-treated mice have produced seemingly conflicting outcomes, leaving the role of CNS copper availability in demyelination unresolved.

Perforated intravenous catheter design is acceptable for the administration of contrast-enhanced computed tomography administration in cancer patients: Results of a pilot randomised controlled trial.

Background: Optimising first time success of peripheral intravenous catheter (PIVC) insertion and reducing intravenous (IV) complications in cancer patients undergoing contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) is vital to ensure vascular access preservation and diagnostic accuracy. The aim of this study was to test the feasibility of a randomised controlled trial (RCT) evaluating a novel perforated PIVC compared to a standard PIVC.

Methods: A single centre, parallel-group, pilot RCT was conducted between March and May 2020.

Evaluation of Brain-Body Health in Individuals With Common Neuropsychiatric Disorders.

Importance: Physical health and chronic medical comorbidities are underestimated, inadequately treated, and often overlooked in psychiatry. A multiorgan, systemwide characterization of brain and body health in neuropsychiatric disorders may enable systematic evaluation of brain-body health status in patients and potentially identify new therapeutic targets.

Objective: To evaluate the health status of the brain and 7 body systems across common neuropsychiatric disorders.

, Homologous-Recombination Genes, and Gastric Cancer.

Background: infection is a well-known risk factor for gastric cancer. However, the contribution of germline pathogenic variants in cancer-predisposing genes and their effect, when combined with infection, on the risk of gastric cancer has not been widely evaluated.

Methods: We evaluated the association between germline pathogenic variants in 27 cancer-predisposing genes and the risk of gastric cancer in a sample of 10,426 patients with gastric cancer and 38,153 controls from BioBank Japan.

Prevalence of Barmah Forest Virus, Chikungunya Virus and Ross River Virus Antibodies among Papua New Guinea Military Personnel before 2019.

Barmah Forest virus (BFV), Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) and Ross River virus (RRV) belong to the genus of the family All three virus infections have been reported in Papua New Guinea (PNG) previously, but the exact prevalence and distribution of these three alphaviruses in PNG has not been established. Sera collected from 204 PNG Military Personnel (PNGMP) study participants in April 2019 was tested for the presence of anti-BFV, anti-CHIKV and anti-RRV immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies using commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) IgG detection kits, as well as for specific neutralizing antibodies (NAb) against individual viruses. Overall, sero-positivity of the sera was anti-BFV IgG 12.

Alpha kinase 3 signaling at the M-band maintains sarcomere integrity and proteostasis in striated muscle.

Muscle contraction is driven by the molecular machinery of the sarcomere. As phosphorylation is a critical regulator of muscle function, the identification of regulatory kinases is important for understanding sarcomere biology. Pathogenic variants in alpha kinase 3 (ALPK3) cause cardiomyopathy and musculoskeletal disease, but little is known about this atypical kinase.

Serological evidence of possible high levels of undetected transmission of Zika virus among Papua New Guinea military personnel, 2019.

Objectives: The Papua New Guinea (PNG) Health Department retrospectively reported six cases of Zika virus (ZIKV) from a cohort of febrile patients during outbreaks of dengue and malaria in 2016. However, the transmission of ZIKV remains unclear due to lack of testing capability. This study aimed to determine the level of immunity to ZIKV among PNG military personnel (PNGMP) in 2019.