Multiplatform metabolomic interlaboratory study of a whole human stool candidate reference material from omnivore and vegan donors.

Introduction: Human metabolomics has made significant strides in understanding metabolic changes and their implications for human health, with promising applications in diagnostics and treatment, particularly regarding the gut microbiome. However, progress is hampered by issues with data comparability and reproducibility across studies, limiting the translation of these discoveries into practical applications.

Objectives: This study aims to evaluate the fit-for-purpose of a suite of human stool samples as potential candidate reference materials (RMs) and assess the state of the field regarding harmonizing gut metabolomics measurements.

COG database update 2024.

The Clusters of Orthologous Genes (COG) database, originally created in 1997, has been updated to reflect the constantly growing collection of completely sequenced prokaryotic genomes. This update increased the genome coverage from 1309 to 2296 species, including 2103 bacteria and 193 archaea, in most cases, with a single representative genome per genus. This set covers all genera of bacteria and archaea that included organisms with 'complete genomes' as per NCBI databases in November 2023.

Long-term motor learning in focal hand dystonia.

Objective: Because focal hand dystonia usually occurs in the over-learned stage, it would be valuable to know long-term motor learning characteristics and underlying pathophysiological features that might predispose to dystonia.

Methods: We conducted a case-control exploratory study of 15 visits over 12 weeks in the non-affected hand of a 4-finger sequence of 8 key presses in eight patients with FHD compared with eight age- and sex-matched, healthy volunteers (HVs). We studied the behavioral data and the physiological changes of the brain, including motor cortical excitability and cortical oscillations.

Representativeness of Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network (BMT CTN) Trial Participants.

Underrepresentation by race and ethnicity in oncology clinical trials, including those of hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), is a known challenge. This analysis studied accrual on Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network (BMT CTN) trials conducted in 2014 to 2020 by race/ethnicity, age, and sex, comparing these characteristics with those of potentially eligible patients identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) and Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) databases for the disease, age, and years of interest of BMT CTN studies. Five BMT CTN trials met the inclusion criteria, including 1 autologous HCT trial and 4 allogeneic HCT trials.

Safety and implementation of a phase 1 randomized GLA-SE-adjuvanted CH505TF gp120 HIV vaccine trial in newborns.

Background: The neonatal immune system is uniquely poised to generate broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) and thus infants are ideal for evaluating HIV vaccine candidates. We present the design and safety of a novel glucopyranosyl lipid A (GLA)-stable emulsion (SE) adjuvant admixed with a first-in-infant CH505 transmitter-founder (CH505TF) gp120 immunogen designed to induce precursors for bnAbs against HIV.

Methods: HVTN 135 is a phase I randomized, placebo-controlled trial of CH505TF+GLA-SE or placebo.

Pyrimidine Azepine Targets the Complex and Displays Multistage Antimalarial Activity.

Malaria control and elimination efforts would benefit from the identification and validation of new malaria chemotherapeutics. Recently, a transgenic line was used to perform a series of high-throughput in vitro screens for new antimalarials acting against the parasite sexual stages. The screens identified pyrimidine azepine chemotypes with potent activity.

Informatics assessment of COVID-19 data collection: an analysis of UK Biobank questionnaire data.

Background: There have been many efforts to expand existing data collection initiatives to include COVID-19 related data. One program that expanded is UK Biobank, a large-scale research and biomedical data collection resource that added several COVID-19 related data fields including questionnaires (exposures and symptoms), viral testing, and serological data. This study aimed to analyze this COVID-19 data to understand how COVID-19 data was collected and how it can be used to attribute COVID-19 and analyze differences in cohorts and time periods.

Comparing methods for risk prediction of multicategory outcomes: dichotomized logistic regression vs. multinomial logit regression.

Background: Medical outcomes of interest to clinicians may have multiple categories. Researchers face several options for risk prediction of such outcomes, including dichotomized logistic regression and multinomial logit regression modeling. We aimed to compare these methods and provide guidance needed for practice.

The Context of Poverty and Cancer: Denying Human Potential.

Poverty is a carcinogen and a leading cause of cancer disparities and overall mortality in the United States. Poverty is often viewed as an individual failure for "being poor," but in fact, poverty is structurally driven, intergenerational, and place-based that socially deprives and denies human potential. Disparities in timely cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment, survivorship, and survival disproportionally impact people living in poverty and especially in persistent poverty areas, an extreme form of place-based poverty that affects communities over multiple generations.

Correlation of dynamic blood dose with clinical outcomes in radiotherapy for head-and-neck cancer.

Background And Purpose: Radiation-induced lymphopenia (RIL) during cancer radiotherapy is receiving growing attention due to its association with adverse clinical outcomes. Correlations between RIL and poorer locoregional control (LRC), distant-metastasis-free survival (DMFS), and overall survival (OS) have been demonstrated across multiple treatment sites. Estimates of radiation delivered to circulating blood or lymphocytes have been shown to be correlated with severe RIL.

The Drosophila ribonucleoprotein Clueless is required for ribosome biogenesis in vivo.

As hubs of metabolism, mitochondria contribute critical processes to coordinate and optimize energy and intermediate metabolites. Drosophila Clueless (Clu) and vertebrate CLUH are ribonucleoproteins critical for supporting mitochondrial function; yet do so in multiple ways. Clu-CLUH bind mRNAs, and CLUH regulates mRNA localization and translation of mRNAs encoding proteins destined for mitochondrial import.

Overview of ACTIV trial-specific lessons learned.

Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) was an extraordinary example of a public-private partnership (PPP) that brought together over thirty organizations and hundreds of individuals to address one of the most pressing global health needs in recent decades. In particular, ACTIV provided a key avenue for testing numerous therapeutics for their potential benefit in treating the SARS-CoV-2 virus or the resulting symptoms of acute COVID-19 infection. Given the speed and scale at which ACTIV designed and implemented master protocols across global networks that it was simultaneously working to create, the PPP can provide valuable lessons for best practices and avoiding pitfalls the next time the world is faced with a global pandemic of a novel pathogen.

ACTIV trials: Lessons learned in trial design in the setting of an emergent pandemic.

Accelerating COVID-19 Treatment Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) was initiated by the US government to rapidly develop and test vaccines and therapeutics against COVID-19 in 2020. The ACTIV Therapeutics-Clinical Working Group selected ACTIV trial teams and clinical networks to expeditiously develop and launch master protocols based on therapeutic targets and patient populations. The suite of clinical trials was designed to collectively inform therapeutic care for COVID-19 outpatient, inpatient, and intensive care populations globally.

Prevalence of nursing theory citations in non-nursing publications.

Background: It is not currently known how often nursing theory is cited in non-nursing publications.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to document citations of five nursing theories in non-nursing publications, including author discipline, type of publication, and publication discipline.

Methods: Over 75 non-nursing disciplines cited nursing theories and were consolidated for reporting purposes.

Supplemental breast cancer screening after negative mammography in U.S. women with dense breasts.

The extent and determinants of supplemental screening among women with dense breasts are unclear. We evaluated a retrospective cohort of 498,855 women aged 40-74 years with heterogeneously or extremely dense breasts who obtained 1,176,251 negative screening mammography examinations during 2011-2019 in the United States. Overall, 2.

A microfluidic hanging droplet as a programmable platform for mammalian egg vitrification.

Egg (oocyte) vitrification is the dominant method for preserving fertility for women of reproductive age. However, the method is typically performed by hand, requiring precise (∼0.1 to 10 μL) and time-sensitive (∼1 s) liquid exchange of cryoprotectants (CPA) around eggs as well as fine handling of eggs (∼100 μm) for immersion into liquid nitrogen (LN).