IL-7 promotes integrated glucose and amino acid sensing during homeostatic CD4 T cell proliferation.

Interleukin (IL)-7 promotes T cell expansion during lymphopenia. We studied the metabolic basis in CD4 T cells, observing increased glucose usage for nucleotide synthesis and oxidation in the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle. Unlike other TCA metabolites, glucose-derived citrate does not accumulate upon IL-7 exposure, indicating diversion into other processes.

Assessment of the proficiency level of novices in distal intramedullary nail interlocking achieved through training with Digitally Enhanced Hands-on Surgical Training (DEHST).

Background: Digitally Enhanced Hands-on Surgical Training (DEHST) platform was introduced to overcome the lack of training capabilities for the challenging task of freehand distal interlocking of intramedullary nails. It demonstrates high perceived realism for surgeons, and novices perform significantly better after DEHST training. However, characterization of how performance improves remained unexplored.

An integrated framework to guide evidence-informed public health policymaking.

Evidence-informed policymaking emphasizes that policy decisions should be informed by the best available evidence from research and follow a systematic and transparent approach. For public health policymaking we can learn from existing practices of transparent, evidence-informed decision-making for clinical practice, medicines, and medical technology. We review existing evidence-to-decision frameworks, as well as frameworks and theories for policymaking to address the political dimension of policymaking, and use this analysis to propose an integrated framework to guide evidence-informed policymaking.

Using an inferior decoy alternative to nudge COVID-19 vaccination.

Optimizing vaccine uptake is a public health challenge that requires the implementation of effective strategies. The asymmetric dominance (or decoy) effect describes the increasing likelihood of selecting an option when a clearly inferior alternative is offered. Therefore, we aimed to test the impact of offering decoy alternatives-less convenient vaccination appointments-on vaccination intentions.

The role of direct air capture in achieving climate-neutral aviation.

Growing demand for air travel and limited scalable solutions pose significant challenges to the mitigation of aviation's climate change impact. Direct air capture (DAC) may gain prominence due to its versatile applications for either carbon removal (direct air carbon capture and storage, DACCS) or synthetic fuel production (direct air carbon capture and utilization, DACCU). Through a comprehensive and time-dynamic techno-economic assessment, we explore the conditions for synthetic fuels from DACCU to become cost-competitive with an emit-and-remove strategy based on DACCS under 2050 CO and climate neutrality targets.

Impact of diabetes mellitus on postoperative complications in patients undergoing pancreatic surgery.

Background: Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocols decrease postoperative complications, but data on their effect on diabetic patients undergoing pancreatectomy are scarce. This study assessed whether diabetes mellitus (DM) was a morbidity predictor after pancreatectomy within an ERAS program.

Methods: A cross-sectional study including all patients who underwent pancreatectomy (2012-2022) and followed an ERAS pathway was performed.

Real-World Treatment Patterns and Clinical Outcomes in Patients With Multiple Myeloma Previously Treated With Lenalidomide and an Anti-CD38 Monoclonal Antibody.

Background: This analysis explored real-world characteristics, treatment patterns and clinical outcomes in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) previously treated with lenalidomide and an anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody (mAb) and requiring subsequent treatment.

Materials And Methods: The PREAMBLE and Connect MM prospective registries of patients with multiple myeloma (MM), and the US nationwide Flatiron Health electronic health record-derived de-identified database were analysed. MM-specific treatment patterns (prior/index therapies) and outcomes (progression-free survival [PFS]/overall survival [OS]) were assessed.

Loss of Insight in Syndromes Associated with Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration: Clinical and Imaging Features.

Objectives: The present study aims to assess the prevalence, associated clinical symptoms, longitudinal changes, and imaging correlates of Loss of Insight (LOI), which is still unexplored in syndromes associated with Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration (FTLD).

Design: Retrospective longitudinal cohort study, from Oct 2009 to Feb 2023.

Setting: Tertiary Frontotemporal Dementia research clinic.

Systematic Analysis of the Design, Methodology and Patient Population Characteristics of the Pediatric Direct Oral Anticoagulant (DOAC) Trials of Venous Thromboembolism Treatment.

Introduction: The pediatric direct oral anticoagulation (DOAC) trials provide an opportunity to evaluate and characterize challenges in their design and execution to inform future antithrombotic trials.

Objective: To perform a systematic review of pediatric DOAC trials for the treatment of venous thromboembolism to critically appraise their methodology and understand the feasibility and challenges.

Methods: Systematic search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library and ClinicalTrials.

Individual patient and donor seroprofiles in convalescent plasma treatment of COVID-19 in REMAP-CAP clinical trial.

Objectives: Convalescent plasma (CP) treatment of COVID-19 has shown significant therapeutic effect only when administered early. We investigated the importance of patient and CP seroprofiles on treatment outcome in REMAP-CAP CP trial.

Methods: We evaluated neutralising antibodies (nAb), anti-spike (S) IgM, IgG, IgG avidity, IgG fucosylation and respiratory viral loads in a sub-set of patients (n=80) and controls (n=51) before and after transfusion, comparing them to those in the CP units (n=157) they received.

Vulvar Developmental Stages During Puberty: A Systematic Review.

Study Objective: Puberty is associated with important changes in secondary sexual characteristics, but the changes occurring in female external genitalia are not thoroughly described. The aim of this systematic review is to summarize and assess the current scientific knowledge regarding vulvar changes and development during puberty.

Methods: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane were searched, using keywords related to "puberty", "vulva", and "morphology".

The effectiveness of two doses of recombinant hepatitis E vaccine in response to an outbreak in Bentiu, South Sudan: a case-control and bias indicator study.

Background: Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a leading cause of acute viral hepatitis, particularly in Asia and Africa, where HEV genotypes 1 and 2 are prevalent. Although a recombinant vaccine, Hecolin, is available, it has not been used to control outbreaks. The licensed three-dose regimen might pose challenges for it to be an impactful outbreak control tool.

A novel interleukin-10 antibody graft to treat inflammatory bowel disease.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) consists of chronic conditions that severely impact a patient's health and quality of life. Interleukin-10 (IL-10), a potent anti-inflammatory cytokine has strong genetic links to IBD susceptibility and has shown strong efficacy in IBD rodent models, suggesting it has great therapeutic potential. However, when tested in clinical trials for IBD, recombinant human IL-10 (rhIL-10) showed weak and inconsistent efficacy due to its short half-life and pro-inflammatory properties that counteract the anti-inflammatory efficacy.

Nivolumab combination therapies in patients with advanced gastric and gastroesophageal junction cancer: the phase II FRACTION gastric cancer study.

Background: Nivolumab-based therapies are efficacious with acceptable safety in patients with gastric cancer (GC) and gastroesophageal junction cancer (GEJC). Novel nivolumab-based combination immunotherapies may offer enhanced efficacy in these indications. FRACTION-GC was a signal-seeking, randomized, open-label, phase II adaptive-design trial assessing efficacy and safety of nivolumab in combination with ipilimumab [cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4) antibody], relatlimab (lymphocyte-activation gene 3 antibody), or IDO1i (BMS986205, an indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase-1 inhibitor) in patients with unresectable, advanced/metastatic GC/GEJC.

DCS-RISR: Dynamic channel splitting for efficient real-world image super-resolution.

Real-world image super-resolution (RISR) has received increased focus for improving the quality of SR images under unknown complex degradation. Existing methods rely on the heavy SR models to enhance low-resolution (LR) images of different degradation levels, which significantly restricts their practical deployments on resource-limited devices. In this paper, we propose a novel Dynamic Channel Splitting scheme for efficient Real-world Image Super-Resolution, termed DCS-RISR.

Transport mechanisms of the anthropogenic contaminant sulfamethoxazole in volcanic ash soils at equilibrium pH evaluated using the HYDRUS-1D model.

The volcanic soils in Chile, where a significant portion of agricultural activities take place, are impacted by the presence of veterinary drugs, including sulfamethoxazole (SMX). The study examines how different soil types influence the movement and retention of sulfamethoxazole (SMX) across four regions of Chile, focusing on conditions at a neutral pH of 7.0.

Intermodulation frequencies reveal common neural assemblies integrating facial and vocal fearful expressions.

Effective social communication depends on the integration of emotional expressions coming from the face and the voice. Although there are consistent reports on how seeing and hearing emotion expressions can be automatically integrated, direct signatures of multisensory integration in the human brain remain elusive. Here we implemented a multi-input electroencephalographic (EEG) frequency tagging paradigm to investigate neural populations integrating facial and vocal fearful expressions.

A Phase 2b, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of intravenous prasinezumab in early-stage Parkinson's disease (PADOVA): Rationale, design, and baseline data.

Introduction: Prasinezumab was shown to potentially delay motor progression in individuals with early-stage Parkinson's disease (PD) who were either treatment-naïve or on monoamine oxidase type B inhibitor (MAO-Bi) therapy in the PASADENA study. We report the rationale, design, and baseline patient characteristics of the PADOVA study, designed to evaluate prasinezumab in an early-stage PD population receiving standard-of-care (SOC) symptomatic medications.

Methods: PADOVA (NCT04777331) is a Phase 2b, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group study, in which individuals with early-stage PD on SOC stable symptomatic monotherapy (levodopa or MAO-Bi) receive intravenous prasinezumab 1500 mg every 4 weeks.

Feasibility, trueness and precision of intraoral scanners in digitizing maxillectomy defects with exposed zygomatic implants in situ: An in vitro 3D comparative study.

Objectives: To in-vitro evaluate the feasibility and accuracy (trueness and precision) of various intraoral scanners (IOS) to digitize maxillectomy defect models with exposed zygomatic implants in situ.

Material And Methods: Six partially edentulous and edentulous maxillectomy defect models with 2 zygomatic implants each were obtained. References scans were obatined by using a laboratory scanner (inEos X5; Dentsply Sirona).

Distinct and redundant roles of the Arabidopsis OCTOPUS gene family in plant growth beyond phloem development.

The Arabidopsis root apical meristem is an excellent model for studying plant organ growth that involves a coordinated process of cell division, elongation, and differentiation, while each tissue type develops on its own schedule. Among these tissues, the protophloem is particularly important, differentiating early to supply nutrients and signalling molecules to the growing root tip. The OCTOPUS (OPS) protein and its homolog OPS-LIKE 2 (OPL2) are essential for proper root protophloem differentiation and, likely through this role, indirectly promote root growth.

tagtango: an application to compare single-cell annotations.

Summary: In this article, we present tagtango, an innovative R package and web application designed for robust and intuitive comparison of single-cell clusters and annotations. It offers an interactive platform that simplifies the exploration of differences and similarities among different clustering and annotation methods. Leveraging single-cell data analysis and different visualizations, it allows researchers to dissect the underlying biological differences across groups.