Establishing consensus on nutrition competencies for medicine: a Delphi study.

Background: Significant research, regulatory bodies and even governmental resolutions have identified meaningful nutrition education for medical and other healthcare professionals as a priority. Doctors are well placed to provide nutrition care, yet nutrition education in medicine remains inadequate regardless of country, setting, or year of training. There remains a need to establish an accepted benchmark on nutrition competencies for medicine, as without consensus standards there is little likelihood of uniform adoption.

Need for a nutrition-specific scientific paradigm for research quality improvement.

Nutrition science has been criticised for its methodology, apparently contradictory findings and generating controversy rather than consensus. However, while certain critiques of the field are valid and informative for developing a more cogent science, there are also unique considerations for the study of diet and nutrition that are either overlooked or omitted in these discourses. The ongoing critical discourse on the utility of nutrition sciences occurs at a time when the burden of non-communicable cardiometabolic disease continues to rise in the population.

Measurable and immeasurable spread of knowledge for research impact: a reflection on the validated NutComp tool.

Background: Contemporary research now includes effort to generate impact beyond the creation of new knowledge.

Methods: This report provides an illustrative case study of tactful research planning and dissemination for impact and provides an emerging pathway for others to holistically track reach, spread and uptake, to create a nuanced impact narrative.

Results: Nutrition Competence Tool (NutComp) is a validated tool that assesses the self-perceived competence of health professionals in providing nutrition care.

Polar coordinate active-matrix digital microfluidics for high-resolution concentration gradient generation.

Automated concentration gradient generation is one of the most important applications of lab-on-a-chip devices. Digital microfluidics is a unique platform that can effectively achieve digitalized gradient concentration preparation. However, the dynamic range and concentration resolution of the prepared samples heavily rely on the size and the number of effective electrodes.

A CAG repeat threshold for therapeutics targeting somatic instability in Huntington's disease.

The Huntington's disease mutation is a CAG repeat expansion in the huntingtin gene that results in an expanded polyglutamine tract in the huntingtin protein. The CAG repeat is unstable and expansions of hundreds of CAGs have been detected in Huntington's disease post-mortem brains. The age of disease onset can be predicted partially from the length of the CAG repeat as measured in blood.

One-year follow-up after active aortic aneurysm sac treatment with shape memory polymer devices during endovascular aneurysm repair.

Objective: To determine the safety and efficacy of treating abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) sacs with polyurethane shape memory polymer (SMP) devices during endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR), using a technique to fully treat the target lumen after endograft placement (aortic flow volume minus the endograft volume). SMP devices self-expand in the sac to form a porous scaffold that supports thrombosis throughout its structure.

Methods: Two identical prospective, multicenter, single-arm studies were conducted in New Zealand and the Netherlands.

What predicts drug-free type 2 diabetes remission? Insights from an 8-year general practice service evaluation of a lower carbohydrate diet with weight loss.

Background: Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is often regarded as a progressive, lifelong disease requiring an increasing number of drugs. Sustained remission of T2D is now well established, but is not yet routinely practised. Norwood surgery has used a low-carbohydrate programme aiming to achieve remission since 2013.

Active aortic aneurysm sac treatment with shape memory polymer during endovascular aneurysm repair.

Preprocedural image analysis and intraprocedural techniques to fully treat infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm sacs outside of the endograft with shape memory polymer (SMP) devices during endovascular aneurysm repair were developed. Prospective, multicenter, single-arm studies were performed. SMP is a porous, self-expanding polyurethane polymer material.

Surgical treatment of a persistent right aortic arch with concurrent patent ductus arteriosus in a 4-month-old German shepherd dog.

A 4-month-old intact female German shepherd dog was presented with a history of postprandial regurgitation, a palpably distended cervical oesophagus after eating, and poor weight gain despite a ravenous appetite. Computed tomography angiography, esophagoscopy and echocardiography identified a persistent right aortic arch with a concurrent patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) causing extraluminal oesophageal compression leading to marked segmental megaoesophagus. A heart murmur was not detectable.

Effect of pituitary-dependent hypercortisolism on the survival of dogs treated with radiotherapy for pituitary macroadenomas.

Background: Radiotherapy (RT) is an effective treatment for dogs presented with neurologic signs caused by pituitary tumors. However, its impact on the outcome of concurrent pituitary-dependent hypercortisolism (PDH) is controversial.

Objectives: Determine whether dogs with PDH have longer survival after pituitary RT compared with dogs with nonhormonally active pituitary masses and to evaluate whether clinical, imaging, and RT variables affect survival.

Assessment of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Artefacts Caused by Equine Anaesthesia Equipment: A Cadaver Study.

Acquisition of magnetic resonance images of the equine limb is still sometimes conducted under general anaesthesia. Despite low-field systems allow the use of standard anaesthetic equipment, possible interferences of the extensive electronic componentry of advanced anaesthetic machines on image quality is unknown. This prospective, blinded, cadaver study investigated the effects of seven standardised conditions (Tafonius positioned as in clinical cases, Tafonius on the boundaries of the controlled area, anaesthetic monitoring only, Mallard anaesthetic machine, Bird ventilator, complete electronic silence in the room (negative control), source of electronic interference [positive control]) on image quality through the acquisition of 78 sequences using a 0.

Stratification of asthma by lipidomic profiling of induced sputum supernatant.

Background: Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease with significant heterogeneity in its clinical presentation and pathobiology. There is need for improved understanding of respiratory lipid metabolism in asthma patients and its relation to observable clinical features.

Objective: We performed a comprehensive, prospective, cross-sectional analysis of the lipid composition of induced sputum supernatant obtained from asthma patients with a range of disease severities, as well as from healthy controls.

Discovery, Characterization, and Structure-Based Optimization of Small-Molecule In Vitro and In Vivo Probes for Human DNA Polymerase Theta.

Human DNA polymerase theta (Polθ), which is essential for microhomology-mediated DNA double strand break repair, has been proposed as an attractive target for the treatment of BRCA deficient and other DNA repair pathway defective cancers. As previously reported, we recently identified the first selective small molecule Polθ in vitro probe, (ART558), which recapitulates the phenotype of Polθ loss, and in vivo probe, (ART812), which is efficacious in a model of PARP inhibitor resistant TNBC in vivo. Here we describe the discovery, biochemical and biophysical characterization of these probes including small molecule ligand co-crystal structures with Polθ.

CT and MRI characterization of presumed persistent ossiculum terminale in dogs.

Anecdotally, during the review of CT and MRI studies of canine patients including the cranial cervical spine, authors have identified a small osseous structure between the atlas (C1) and axis (C2) with no relevant clinical signs. This structure appeared comparable to a "persistent ossiculum terminale" in humans. The aim of this retrospective, multi-center, case series study was to describe the CT and MRI features of presumed persistent ossiculum terminale in a group of dogs presented with unrelated medical conditions.

Cost-effectiveness of vitamin D supplementation in older adults with vitamin D deficiency in Ireland.

Background: This study investigated the cost-effectiveness of vitamin D supplementation in older adults in Ireland, with year-round vitamin D deficiency (serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration <30 nmol/L) (13% of Irish adults), from the perspective of the Health Service Executive.

Methods: Three age groups were investigated: (1) ≥50 years, (2) ≥60 years and (3) ≥70 years. Based on the clinical literature, vitamin D supplementation may: (1) decrease all-cause mortality by 7% and (2) reduce hip fractures by 16% and non-hip fractures by 20%.

Fish and human health: an umbrella review of observational studies.

Fish represents one of the most important dietary sources of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are known to be associated with various health benefits. This study aimed to systematically review existing meta-analyses of observational studies exploring the association between fish intake and various health outcomes. A systematic search of electronic databases was conducted to retrieve a total of 63 studies.

Congenital Limb Deformities in a Neonatal Crossbred Pig.

Purpose: To describe the pathology and imaging findings in two neonatal piglets with congenital limb deformities.

Methods: The litter from a second parity crossbred sow presented with four mummified fetuses, three stillborn piglets, and two live piglets with notable limb deformities that were unable to effectively ambulate. The piglets were euthanized and submitted for gross and histological evaluation.