Health system financing fragmentation and maternal mortality transition in Mexico, 2000-2022.

Objective: To analyze the temporal and territorial relationship between health system financing fragmentation and maternal mortality in the last two decades in Mexico.

Methods: We conducted an ecological-longitudinal study of the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) in the 32 states of Mexico during the period 2000-2022. Annual MMRs were estimated at the national and state levels according to health insurance.

Cannabis consumption and risk of asthma: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Cannabis is the third most widely used psychoactive substance globally, and its consumption has been increasing, particularly with the growing trend of legalization for medicinal and recreational use. Recent studies have raised concerns about the potential impact of cannabis on respiratory health, specifically the risk of asthma, a significant public health concern. This systematic review aimed to consolidate research on the association between cannabis use and the risk of asthma.

Solving unknown primary cancer with earlier diagnosis - the SUPER-ED trial: study protocol for a stepped-wedge cluster randomised controlled trial to support earlier diagnosis for people presenting with malignancy of undefined primary origin.

Background: People with malignancy of undefined primary origin (MUO) have a poor prognosis and may undergo a protracted diagnostic workup causing patient distress and high cancer related costs. Not having a primary diagnosis limits timely site-specific treatment and access to precision medicine. There is a need to improve the diagnostic process, and healthcare delivery and support for these patients.

Examining physical and technical performance among youth basketball national team development program players: a multidimensional approach.

This study aimed to examine and compare the anthropometric profiles, motor skills, game-related abilities, and functional capacities of under-15 (U-15) and under-16 (U-16) male basketball players, evaluate the impact of maturity offset, and predict performance across physical and sport-specific domains. A total of 234 athletes participated in a comprehensive test battery, assessing morphological (height, mass, standing reach), physical (sprinting, agility, jump height, endurance), technical (jump shot, free throws, dribbling), and functional movement screen variables. The U-16 group outperformed U-15 players in physical characteristics and jump height.

Unveiling microbial diversity in slightly and moderately magnesium deficient acidic soils.

Magnesium (Mg) an essential plant nutrient is widespread deficient in the acidic soils of Nilgiris of Tamil nadu, India. The vegetable yield and quality is especially affected due to deficiency of nutrients like Mg. This study investigates soil characteristics and bacterial diversity in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu, India, with respect to Mg deficiency.

Sanger validation of WGS variants.

With the development of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies it became possible to simultaneously analyze millions of variants. Despite the quality improvement, it is generally still required to confirm the variants before reporting. However, in recent years the dominant idea is that one could define the quality thresholds for "high quality" variants which do not require orthogonal validation.

Increased plasma DOPA decarboxylase levels in Lewy body disorders are driven by dopaminergic treatment.

DOPA Decarboxylase (DDC) has been proposed as a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarker with increased concentrations in Lewy body disorders (LBDs) and highest levels in patients receiving dopaminergic treatment. Here we evaluate plasma DDC, measured by proximity extension assay, and the effect of dopaminergic treatment in three independent LBD (with a focus on dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Parkinson's disease (PD)) cohorts: an autopsy-confirmed cohort (n = 71), a large multicenter, cross-dementia cohort (n = 1498) and a longitudinal cohort with detailed treatment information (n = 66, median follow-up time[IQR] = 4[4, 4] years). Plasma DDC was not altered between different LBDs and other disease groups or controls in absence of treatment.

Non-clinical Psychosocial Mental Health Support Programmes for People with Diverse Language and Cultural Backgrounds: A Critical Rapid Review.

Low accessibility to mainstream psychosocial services disadvantages culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) populations, resulting in delayed care and high rates of unsupported psychological distress. Non-clinical interventions may play an important role in improving accessibility to psychosocial support, but what characterises best practice in this space remains unclear. This critical rapid review addressed this gap by searching for, and critically analysing, existing research on non-clinical psychosocial support services, drawing from a critical realist framework and Brossard and Chandler's (Brossard and Chandler, Explaining mental illness: Sociological perspectives, Bristol University Press, 2022) taxonomy of positions on culture and mental health.

Phenotypic outcomes of PKD1 compared with non-PKD1 genetically confirmed autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease.

Background: Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD) represents the most common monogenic cause of kidney failure. While identifying genetic variants predicts disease progression, characterization of recently described ADPKD-like variants is limited. We explored disease progression and genetic spectrum of genetically-confirmed ADPKD families with PKD1 and non-PKD1 variants.

The Relationship Between Differential Expression of Non-coding RNAs (TP53TG1, LINC00342, MALAT1, DNM3OS, miR-126-3p, miR-200a-3p, miR-18a-5p) and Protein-Coding Genes (PTEN, FOXO3) and Risk of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a rapidly progressive interstitial lung disease of unknown pathogenesis with no effective treatment currently available. Given the regulatory roles of lncRNAs (TP53TG1, LINC00342, H19, MALAT1, DNM3OS, MEG3), miRNAs (miR-218-5p, miR-126-3p, miR-200a-3p, miR-18a-5p, miR-29a-3p), and their target protein-coding genes (PTEN, TGFB2, FOXO3, KEAP1) in the TGF-β/SMAD3, Wnt/β-catenin, focal adhesion, and PI3K/AKT signaling pathways, we investigated the expression levels of selected genes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and lung tissue from patients with IPF. Lung tissue and blood samples were collected from 33 newly diagnosed, treatment-naive patients and 70 healthy controls.

The Role of Gut Microbiota in Shaping Immune Responses in Tephritidae Fruit Fly and Prospective Implications for Management.

The interaction of microbial communities with host immunity has become one of the most explored research areas with significant implications for pest control strategies. It has been found that the gut microbiota plays substantial roles in immune response regulation and host-gut microbiome symbiosis, as well as in pathogen resistance and overall fitness in Tephritidae fruit flies that are major pests of agricultural importance. In this review, we discuss the modulation of immune responses of Tephritidae fruit flies by the gut microbiota with particular emphasis on the general interactions between microbiota and the immune system.

The effect of pregnancy vitamin D supplementation on maternal blood pressure: real-world data analysis within the MAVIDOS randomised placebo-controlled trial.

Purpose: Observational studies have suggested negative associations between maternal 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) status and risk of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy [pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) and preeclampsia (PET)]. Data from intervention studies are limited. We hypothesised that vitamin D supplementation would lower maternal blood pressure (BP) during pregnancy and reduce the incidence of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.

Expanding the human gut microbiome atlas of Africa.

Population studies provide insights into the interplay between the gut microbiome and geographical, lifestyle, genetic and environmental factors. However, low- and middle-income countries, in which approximately 84% of the world's population lives, are not equitably represented in large-scale gut microbiome research. Here we present the AWI-Gen 2 Microbiome Project, a cross-sectional gut microbiome study sampling 1,801 women from Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa.

Global meta-analysis shows action is needed to halt genetic diversity loss.

Mitigating loss of genetic diversity is a major global biodiversity challenge. To meet recent international commitments to maintain genetic diversity within species, we need to understand relationships between threats, conservation management and genetic diversity change. Here we conduct a global analysis of genetic diversity change via meta-analysis of all available temporal measures of genetic diversity from more than three decades of research.

The Ronne Ice Shelf survived the last interglacial.

The fate of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is the largest cause of uncertainty in long-term sea-level projections. In the last interglacial (LIG) around 125,000 years ago, data suggest that sea level was several metres higher than today, and required a significant contribution from Antarctic ice loss, with WAIS usually implicated. Antarctica and the Southern Ocean were warmer than today, by amounts comparable to those expected by 2100 under moderate to high future warming scenarios.

Warming and cooling catalyse widespread temporal turnover in biodiversity.

Turnover in species composition through time is a dominant form of biodiversity change, which has profound effects on the functioning of ecological communities. Turnover rates differ markedly among communities, but the drivers of this variation across taxa and realms remain unknown. Here we analyse 42,225 time series of species composition from marine, terrestrial and freshwater assemblages, and show that temporal rates of turnover were consistently faster in locations that experienced faster temperature change, including both warming and cooling.

Neural signatures of risk-taking adaptions across health, bipolar disorder, and lithium treatment.

Cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying bipolar disorder (BD) and its treatment are still poorly understood. Here we examined the role of adaptations in risk-taking using a reward-guided decision-making task. We recruited volunteers with high (n = 40) scores on the Mood Disorder Questionnaire, MDQ, suspected of high risk for bipolar disorder and those with low-risk scores (n = 37).

Wanting and liking of Facebook functions and their correlation to problematic use.

A key question about social media use is whether it constitutes an addiction. A possible frame of reference to investigate this question is the Incentive Sensitizations Theory (IST), as it provides a solid empirical background to understand the motivational and hedonic aspects of problematic behaviors. A central assumption of IST that addiction-related cues play a pivotal role in addictive behaviors has remained relatively understudied in the context of social media use.

Examining the physical and psychological effects of combining multimodal feedback with continuous control in prosthetic hands.

Myoelectric prosthetic hands are typically controlled to move between discrete positions and do not provide sensory feedback to the user. In this work, we present and evaluate a closed-loop, continuous myoelectric prosthetic hand controller, that can continuously control the position of multiple degrees of freedom of a prosthesis while rendering proprioceptive feedback to the user via a haptic feedback armband. Twenty-eight participants without and ten participants with upper limb difference (ULD) were recruited to holistically evaluate the physical and psychological effects of the controller via isolated control and sensory tasks, dexterity assessments, embodiment and task load questionnaires, and post-study interviews.

Improving Tracking of Selective Attention in Hearing Aid Users: The Role of Noise Reduction and Nonlinearity Compensation.

Hearing impairment (HI) disrupts social interaction by hindering the ability to follow conversations in noisy environments. While hearing aids (HAs) with noise reduction (NR) partially address this, the "cocktailparty problem" persists, where individuals struggle to attend to specific voices amidst background noise. This study investigated how NR and an advanced signal processing method for compensating for nonlinearities in EEG signals can improve neural speech processing in HI listeners.

Neuropathic corneal pain following refractive surgery: risk factors, clinical manifestations, imaging and proteomic characteristics.

Background/aims: To identify the risk factors for neuropathic corneal pain (NCP) following corneal refractive surgery and to report its clinical manifestations, imaging and proteomic characteristics.

Methods: This 1 year prospective cohort study included 100 eyes that underwent small incision lenticule extraction (SMILE) or laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (LASIK). Ocular surface assessments, in-vivo confocal microscopy scans, tear neuromediators and proteomics analyses were performed.

Exploring the Fluorescence Bioactive Compounds in the Coelomic Fluid of Earthworms: Insights into Their Structural, Spectroscopic, and Functional Properties for Biomedical Applications.

Coelomic fluid of earthworms is a valuable source of novel bioactive compounds with therapeutic applications. To gain insight into the bioactive compounds in the coelomic fluid, this study used Perionyx excavatus, a tropical earthworm distinguished for its remarkable ability for regeneration. This study aimed to identify fluorescent bioactive compounds in the coelomic fluid of P.

Antithrombotic resumption after middle meningeal artery embolization or surgery for chronic subdural hematoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: The periprocedural management of antithrombotic medications in patients with chronic subdural hematoma (cSDH) after middle meningeal artery embolization (MMAE) or surgical evacuation is uncertain.

Methods: A systematic review was conducted across Medline, Embase, and Web of Science databases. We pooled proportions and risk ratios (RRs) for the meta-analysis with the corresponding 95% CIs.