Aiming for precision: personalized medicine through sepsis subtyping.

According to the latest definition, sepsis is characterized by life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to an infection. However, this definition fails to grasp the heterogeneous nature and the underlying dynamic pathophysiology of the syndrome. In response to this heterogeneity, efforts have been made to stratify sepsis patients into subtypes, either based on their clinical presentation or pathophysiological characteristics.

The influence of the number of postoperative radiological outliers on the survival and clinical outcome of total knee arthroplasty.

Introduction: After total knee arthroplasty (TKA), dissatisfaction rates are described up to 30 %. Optimal alignment of the prosthesis in TKA is believed to improve clinical outcome and survival rates. Radiological outliers after TKA are used to define this alignment.

Propensity Score Analysis of Possible Medication Effects on Outcomes in Patients With Systemic Right Ventricles.

Background: Patients with systemic right ventricle (SRV), either d-transposition of the great arteries following an atrial switch procedure or congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries, develop severe right ventricular dysfunction, prompting appropriate medical therapy. However, the efficacy of beta-blockers and angiotensin receptor blockers or angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) in SRV patients is unproven.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the effects of ACEI/ARB and beta-blockers on outcomes in SRV patients after accounting for likely cofounders affecting their use.

China as data coloniser? rethinking cultural production, cultural mediation, and consumer agency on Kenyan and Chinese e-commerce platforms.

Has China become a neo-colonizer, exporting its cultural and economic power to the world based on its agenda of building soft power? Existing scholarship on neocolonialism and data colonialism largely focuses on how China's infrastructural expansion and increasingly platformised cultural sectors can achieve its ambitious platformised cultural sectors overseas. Yet, how China's cultural power is manifested, negotiated, or resisted in people's daily lives in a South-South setting remains under-researched and under-theorised. This article uses everyday fashion in Kenya as a case study to investigate China's cultural and economic power expansion in the Global South.

Investigation of growth and sporulation during larval rearing.

Insects are increasingly used as an alternative protein source for feed and food production. One of the main biological hazards associated with edible insects is the bio-accumulation of foodborne pathogenic microorganisms. In this study, the interaction of larvae of the black soldier fly (BSFL, (L.

Genetic Variation in MiRNA Processing Machinery Genes and Susceptibility to Colorectal Cancer in the Iranian Population.

Background: We aimed to elucidate the potential correlation between single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in miRNA machinery genes and colorectal cancer (CRC) risk in an Iranian cohort.

Methods: We conducted a robust case-control study involving 507 participants, which included 213 patients diagnosed with CRC and 294 healthy controls at Research Institute for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases in Tehran Province, Iran in 2018. The study focused on genotyping four specific SNPs, (rs14035), (rs197412), (rs2740348), and (rs3742330), using advanced ARMS-PCR and Tetra-primer ARMS-PCR techniques.

Biometric Technology at the Borders of Citizenship: Identifying Technical Standards for Introducer-Based Remote Onboarding in Global Contexts of Statelessness, Nomadism, Displacement, and Refuge.

All throughout the so-called "Global South", hundreds of millions of individuals from entire communities in the rural, poorer, or most peripheral areas are not officially recorded by the States they are citizens of or they habitually reside in. This is why several of such States are resorting to extensive and purportedly "universal" digital remote onboarding programs, pioneered by India's Aadhaar, whereby individuals are centrally recorded onto a public database with their identity (and possibly citizenship) confirmed. Whenever paper documents are obsolete, inaccurate, deteriorated, or inexistent, individuals may have their identity confirmed through an "introducer", who mediates between marginalised communities and central authorities and is entrusted by both with this delicate task.

Research team diversity impacts scientific output in allergy and immunology programs.

Background: This study examined the relationship between the disciplinary diversity of research teams and research output (RO) in allergy and immunology programs funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States, Medical Research Council (MRC) in the United Kingdom, and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).

Methods: Using a dataset containing 1243, 3645, and 1468 articles funded by the NIH, MRC, and JSPS, respectively, we analyzed the correlation between disciplinary diversity and RO in allergy and immunology programs that received grants from 2017 to 2021. Diversity was measured using All Science Journal Classification codes counts, Shannon-Wiener index, and newly developed Omnidisciplinary index (o-index).

Dichroism-sensitive photoacoustic imaging for in-depth estimation of the optic axis in fibrous tissue.

Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) is a developing image modality that benefits from light-matter interaction and low acoustic attenuation to provide functional information on tissue composition at relatively large depths. Several studies have reported the potential of dichroism-sensitive photoacoustic (DS-PA) imaging to expand PAI capabilities by obtaining morphological information of tissue regarding anisotropy and predominant orientation. However, most of these studies have limited their analysis to superficial scanning of samples, where fluence effects are negligible.

Impact of Native and Nonnative Study Partners on Medical Students' Confidence and Collaborative Strategies in Second Language Medical Dutch Learning.

Objective: This study explored how native and nonnative study partners impact medical students' confidence, learning strategies, and perceptions of learning experiences in second language (L2) medical Dutch learning using Kolb's experiential learning framework.

Methods: Twelve third-year international bachelor medical students participated in a mixed-methods pre-post quasi-experimental design. Four students were paired with highly proficient native Dutch partners in a mixed group, and eight nonnative students formed pairs in a homogeneous group.

School autonomy with accountability as a cross-national policy model: diverse adoptions, practices and impacts.

This special issue examines the policy model of School Autonomy with Accountability (SAWA) and its diverse configurations . The focus is on understanding how SAWA reforms shape governance practices and influence educational systems in different educational settings. Drawing on a range of theoretical perspectives, the issue explores how political factors, administrative traditions, and local professional frameworks shape the adoption and evolution of these policies.

Exploring Quality of Life in Adults Living With Late-onset Pompe Disease: A Combined Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis of Patient Perceptions from Australia, France, Italy, and the Netherlands.

Late-onset Pompe disease (LOPD) is a rare, autosomal recessive metabolic disorder that is heterogeneous in disease presentation and progression. People with LOPD report a significantly lower physical, psychological, and social quality of life (QoL) than the general population. This study investigated how individuals' self-reported LOPD status (improving, stable, declining) relates to their QoL.

Prevalence of lower extremity edema following inguinal lymphadenectomy: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Lower extremity lymphedema (LEL) can develop because of inguinal lymph node dissection in the treatment of gynecologic, genitourinary, and dermatological malignancies. To optimize patient counseling and patient selection for microsurgical interventions aimed at preventing or treating LEL, its prevalence and associated patient characteristics must be accurately documented. This systematic review and meta-analysis provides a comprehensive overview of literature on the reported prevalence of LEL in patients undergoing inguinal lymphadenectomy.

Massive weight loss may facilitate otherwise impossible flap designs in phalloplasty: The first description of a tube-in-tube design of a pedicled SCIA-based flap.

Introduction: Phalloplasty with urethral lengthening (UL) is a complex procedure with a high complication rate.

Case: A 44-year-old transgender man with a surgical history of mastectomy, hysterectomy, bilateral oophorectomy, colpectomy and metadoioplasty with UL wished to undergo phalloplasty with UL. He had lost 50 kgs of weight for this procedure.

Higher physical activity levels are related to faecal microbiota diversity and composition in young adults.

Increasing physical activity (PA) is recognised as an efficacious approach for preventing and treating cardiometabolic diseases. Recently, the composition of microorganisms living within the gut has been proposed as an important appropriate target for treating these diseases. Whether PA is related to faecal microbiota diversity and composition in humans remains to be ascertained.

Fixing the earth: whole-systems thinking in Silicon Valley's environmental ideology.

Today, American tech actors express optimistic ideas about how to fix the Earth and halt climate change. Such "green" initiatives have in common that they capture the world in systems and propose large systemic, and mostly technological, solutions. Because of their reliance on techno-fixes, representatives of Silicon Valley express an ideology of ecomodernism, which believes that human progress can be "decoupled" from environmental decline.

The Associations Between Temperament and Self-Oriented, Other-Oriented, and Dual-Harmful Behaviors in Emerging Adults.

Self- and other-oriented harmful behaviors are common among emerging adults. Individuals who engage in both forms of behavior, termed dual-harm, experience more adverse outcomes in comparison to individuals who engage in either. This study examines temperamental traits, defined as reactive and regulative temperament, as transdiagnostic factors underlying engagement in self-oriented, other-oriented, and dual-harmful behaviors.

Surgical Management of Intracerebral Hemorrhage: New Light on the Horizon?

After 30 years of disappointment, 2 randomized controlled trials investigating the effect of neurosurgical treatment on functional outcome in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage were published in 2024. The ENRICH trial (Early Minimally Invasive Removal of Intracerebral Hemorrhage) studied the efficacy of early minimally invasive hematoma removal in patients with lobar or anterior basal ganglia intracerebral hemorrhage, whereas the SWITCH trial investigated the effect of decompressive craniectomy without hematoma removal in severe deep intracerebral hemorrhage. In this critique article, we will discuss the main findings of these trials, their implications and future perspectives.

Predicting Antidepressant Treatment Response From Cortical Structure on MRI: A Mega-Analysis From the ENIGMA-MDD Working Group.

Accurately predicting individual antidepressant treatment response could expedite the lengthy trial-and-error process of finding an effective treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD). We tested and compared machine learning-based methods that predict individual-level pharmacotherapeutic treatment response using cortical morphometry from multisite longitudinal cohorts. We conducted an international analysis of pooled data from six sites of the ENIGMA-MDD consortium (n = 262 MDD patients; age = 36.

Epidemiology of invasive disease in adults in England, 2013-2017.

Extraintestinal pathogenic (ExPEC) causes invasive disease (IED), including bacteraemia and (uro)sepsis, resulting in a high disease burden, especially among older adults. This study describes the epidemiology of IED in England (2013-2017) by combining laboratory surveillance and clinical data. A total of 191 612 IED cases were identified.