Mechanism of oxygen reduction chemical affinity in NiO/SiO interfaces irradiated with keV energy hydrogen and helium ions for heterostructure fabrication.

Low-energy light ion beams are an essential resource in lithography for nanopatterning magnetic materials and interfaces due to their ability to modify the structure and properties of metamaterials. Here we create ferromagnetic/non-ferromagnetic heterostructures with a controlled layer thickness and nanometer-scale precision. For this, hydrogen ion (H) irradiation is used to reduce the antiferromagnetic nickel oxide (NiO) layer into ferromagnetic Ni with lower fluence than in the case of helium ion (He) irradiation.

Machine Learning Predictions of Recovery in Bilingual Poststroke Aphasia: Aligning Insights With Clinical Evidence.

Background: Predicting treated language improvement (TLI) and transfer to the untreated language (cross-language generalization, CLG) after speech-language therapy in bilingual individuals with poststroke aphasia is crucial for personalized treatment planning. This study evaluated machine learning models to predict TLI and CLG and identified the key predictive features (eg, patient severity, demographics, and treatment variables) aligning with clinical evidence.

Methods: Forty-eight Spanish-English bilingual individuals with poststroke aphasia received 20 sessions of semantic feature-based naming treatment in either their first or second language.

Sex-Based Differences in Endovascular Thrombectomy Outcomes for Large Ischemic Stroke: A SELECT2 Subanalysis.

Background: Several social and biological factors are shown to differentially affect stroke outcomes between men and women. We evaluated whether clinical outcomes and endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) treatment effects differed between the sexes in patients presenting with large ischemic stroke.

Methods: The SELECT2 trial (A Randomized Controlled Trial to Optimize Patient's Selection for Endovascular Treatment in Acute Ischemic Stroke) was a randomized controlled trial assessing the efficacy and safety of EVT in patients with large strokes across the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand between October 2019 and September 2022.

Predictive models of post-prandial glucose response in persons with prediabetes and early onset type 2 diabetes: A pilot study.

Objective: Post-prandial glucose response (PPGR) is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Meal carbohydrate content is an important predictor of PPGR, but dietary interventions to mitigate PPGR are not always successful. A personalized approach, considering behaviour and habitual pattern of glucose excursions assessed by continuous glucose monitor (CGM), may be more effective.

A Rapid Methodology to Obtain Silver Selenide thin Films with Highly Enhanced Thermoelectric Performance.

Metal chalcogenides have been extensively studied for thermoelectric applications. Among other metal chalcogenides, silver selenide (AgSe) is considered one of the most promising n-type semiconducting materials for thermoelectric applications due to its low band gap value, Seebeck coefficient, and superior power factor (PF) rendered at room temperature. However, one of the main drawbacks of using AgSe as a thermoelectric material on a large scale is the time-consuming physical methods to obtain them, and the need for high vacuum synthesis conditions as well as high-cost.

ESAIC focused guidelines for the management of the failing epidural during labour epidural analgesia.

Background: Labour epidural analgesia reportedly fails in up to 10 to 25% of cases. A joint taskforce of European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care (ESAIC) experts was created to develop this focused guideline on the management of failing epidural analgesia in a previously well functioning epidural catheter.

Design: Six clinical questions were defined using a PICO (Population/Intervention/Comparison/Outcome) strategy to conduct a systematic literature search.

Effect and individual response to inspiratory muscle training program among instrumentalist musicians.

In this quasi-experimental before-after trial, we investigated the effects of a high-intensity, low-repetition inspiratory muscle training (HI-LRMT) protocol on respiratory muscle strength in instrumental musicians. In addition, was to estimate the prevalence of "non-responders" (NRs) in terms of muscle force after intervention. Healthy musicians ( = 48) were divided into 2 groups: HI-LRMT ( = 33) and a control group that did not train (CG, = 15).

From Dielectric to Electro-Responsive Thermoplastics: An Approach Based on Electro-Thermal Reorientation and Charged Gas Activation.

The transition from insulator to electro-responsive has been successfully achieved by earlier studies for some inorganic materials by applying external stimuli that modify their 3D and/or electronic structures. In the case of insulating polymers, this transition is frequently accomplished by mixing them with other electroactive materials, even though a few physical treatments that induce suitable chemical modifications have also been reported. In this work, a smart approach based on the application of an electro-thermal reorientation process followed by a charged gas activation treatment has been developed for transforming insulating 3D printed polymers into electro-responsive materials.

S100A proteins show a spatial distribution of inflammation associated with the glioblastoma microenvironment architecture.

Glioblastoma IDH wild type (GBM IDH wt) has a poor prognosis and a strongly associated with inflammatory processes. Inflammatory molecules generate positive feedback with tumor cells fueling tumor growth as well as recruitment of immune cells that promote aggressiveness. Although the role of many inflammatory molecules is well known, there are many macromolecules, such as the S100A proteins, whose role is only now beginning to be established.

New Horizons of Biomarkers in Metastatic Thyroid Cancer.

This review focuses on the latest advancements in using biomarkers to diagnose, predict outcomes, and guide the treatment of different types of thyroid cancer, such as anaplastic, papillary, medullary, and follicular thyroid carcinoma. We highlight the key role of both traditional and new biomarkers in improving the treatment of these cancers. For anaplastic thyroid cancer, biomarkers are crucial for detecting distant metastases and making treatment decisions.

Hybrid Model with Wavelet Decomposition and EfficientNet for Accurate Skin Cancer Classification.

Faced with anomalies in medical images, Deep learning is facing major challenges in detecting, diagnosing, and classifying the various pathologies that can be treated via medical imaging. The main challenges encountered are mainly due to the imbalance and variability of the data, as well as its complexity. The detection and classification of skin diseases is one such challenge that researchers are trying to overcome, as these anomalies present great variability in terms of appearance, texture, color, and localization, which sometimes makes them difficult to identify accurately and quickly, particularly by doctors, or by the various Deep Learning techniques on offer.

The Function of Memes in Political Discourse.

The use of memes has become increasingly widespread in political discourse. However, there is a dearth of philosophical discussion on memes and their impact on political discourse. This paper addresses this gap in the literature and bridges the divide between the empirical and philosophical work on memes by offering a functionalist account which allows for a more in-depth analysis of the role memes play in political discourse.

Cardiovascular risk profile with SCORE2 and SCORE2-OP: comparing Portugal, Spain, Italy, and France using the new European predictive models.

Introduction: This study aims to characterize the cardiovascular risk profile in countries with low-to-moderate cardiovascular mortality risk (Italy, Portugal, France, and Spain) using the SCORE2 and SCORE2-OP models. It also examines regional variations and the involvement of healthcare professionals in performing risk assessments.

Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted using data from 24,434 cardiovascular risk assessments performed between December 2022 and July 2023 through a digital application used by physicians.

Analysis of User-Generated Posts on Social Media of Adjuvant Analgesics: A Machine Learning Study.

Antiepileptics and antidepressants are frequently prescribed for chronic pain, but their efficacy and potential adverse effects raise concerns, including dependency issues. Increased prescriptions, sometimes fraudulent, prompted reclassification of antiepileptics in some countries. Our aim is to comprehend opinions, perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes towards co-analgesics from online discussions on X (formerly known as Twitter), offering insights closer to reality than conventional surveys.

Gut microbiome and clinical and lifestyle host factors associated with recurrent positive RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2.

Background: SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 are still active in the population. Some patients remained PCR-positive for more than 4 weeks, called "persistently PCR-positive". Recent evidence suggests a link between the gut microbiota and susceptibility to COVID-19, although no studies have explored persistent PCR conditions.

Developmental improvements in the ability to benefit from testing across middle childhood.

Extensive behavioral research on adults has shown that retrieval practice is highly beneficial for long-term memory retention. However, limited evidence exists on the developmental course of this benefit. Here, we present data from a behavioral study involving 7-14-year-old children who had to encode a total of 60 weakly semantically related cue-target word pairs using either repeated retrieval or repeated study encoding strategies.

Early oncological outcomes of delayed radical prostatectomy: A prospective, international, follow-up analysis of the COVIDSurg-Cancer study.

Objectives: The objective of this study is to compare the early oncological outcomes of delayed (>90 days) versus scheduled (≤90 days) radical prostatectomy (RP).

Patients And Methods: Patients with prostate cancer due to undergo surgery between March 2020 and June 2020 who were enrolled in the COVIDSurg-Cancer international, observational study were prospectively followed up for 1 year. Time to surgery was defined as the difference between the operation date and the multi-disciplinary team decision to offer surgery.

Systematic review and meta-analysis on the association of metabolic syndrome in women with overactive bladder.

Aims: A systematic review and meta-analysis were performed to determine the association of metabolic syndrome (METS) in women with and without overactive bladder (OAB).

Methods: PRISMA guidelines were followed and the protocol was registered at PROSPERO (CRD42024606398). We searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and LILACS databases to obtain relevant articles for studies reporting METS outcomes related to OAB published through October 2024.

What about language?

Myths about a remote shared past can certainly promote cooperation between distantly related people, seemingly via their impact on our social cognition, and ultimately facilitate the achievement of complex tasks in large-scale societies. Nonetheless, the creation and transmission of these complex narratives are not possible without the parallel development of sophisticated language(s), endowed with properties like displacement (enabling mental travels in space and time) and complex syntax (enabling the assembly and communication of complex thoughts).

How Do Microbial Metabolites Interact with Their Protein Targets?

The design of drugs and nutraceutics that mimic microbial metabolites is an emerging drug modality in medicinal chemistry that attempts to modulate the myriad of interactions that these molecules establish with host and microbial proteins. Understanding how microbial metabolites interact with their target proteins is key to perform a rational design of metabolite mimetic molecules for therapeutic usage. In the present work, we address this question by analyzing the functional groups of these molecules and the interactions they display in a set of more than 71K protein-metabolite interactions from the PDB.