Research advances in branched-chain amino acid metabolism in tumors.

The metabolic reprogramming of amino acids is an important component of tumor metabolism. Branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) perform important functions in tumor progression. They are the important amino donor and are involved in the synthesis of various non-essential amino acids, nucleotides, and polyamines to satisfy the increased demand for nitrogen sources.

Interpretable medical image Visual Question Answering via multi-modal relationship graph learning.

Medical Visual Question Answering (VQA) is an important task in medical multi-modal Large Language Models (LLMs), aiming to answer clinically relevant questions regarding input medical images. This technique has the potential to improve the efficiency of medical professionals while relieving the burden on the public health system, particularly in resource-poor countries. However, existing medical VQA datasets are small and only contain simple questions (equivalent to classification tasks), which lack semantic reasoning and clinical knowledge.

Assessing Target Specificity of the Small Molecule Inhibitor MARIMASTAT to Snake Venom Toxins: A Novel Application of Thermal Proteome Profiling.

New treatments that circumvent the pitfalls of traditional antivenom therapies are critical to address the problem of snakebite globally. Numerous snake venom toxin inhibitors have shown promising cross-species neutralization of medically significant venom toxins in vivo and in vitro. The development of high-throughput approaches for the screening of such inhibitors could accelerate their identification, testing, and implementation and thus holds exciting potential for improving the treatments and outcomes of snakebite envenomation worldwide.

Safety and Academic Outcomes of College Campus-Based Advocacy Services.

Intimate partner violence (IPV), sexual assault, and stalking are consequential public health and safety issues with wide reaching impacts on emerging adults, including those on college campuses in the United States. In response to high rates of violence among college student populations, universities are developing campus-based advocacy (CBA) programs, which aim to support survivors of interpersonal violence through supportive connections, resource acquisition, and safety planning. However, little data exists related to their impact on key student-survivor outcomes.

Linear regression: A beginner's guide for nursing research.

Linear regression is one of the most basic regression techniques used in research statistics, particularly nursing research. This article explains linear regression in detail.

Single-Cell Heterogeneity in Snake Venom Expression Is Hardwired by Co-Option of Regulators from Progressively Activated Pathways.

The ubiquitous cellular heterogeneity underlying many organism-level phenotypes raises questions about what factors drive this heterogeneity and how these complex heterogeneous systems evolve. Here, we use single-cell expression data from a Prairie rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis) venom gland to evaluate hypotheses for signaling networks underlying snake venom regulation and the degree to which different venom gene families have evolutionarily recruited distinct regulatory architectures. Our findings suggest that snake venom regulatory systems have evolutionarily co-opted trans-regulatory factors from extracellular signal-regulated kinase and unfolded protein response pathways that specifically coordinate expression of distinct venom toxins in a phased sequence across a single population of secretory cells.

Quantitation of small molecules from liquid chromatography-mass spectrometric accurate mass datasets using CycloBranch.

Gaussian and exponentially modified Gaussian functions were incorporated into integrating algorithms used by an open-source, cross-platform tool called CycloBranch. The quantitation is demonstrated on bacterial pyoverdines separated by fine isotope features. Using our algorithm, we can separate the m/z values 694.

Telomerase RNA plays a major role in the completion of the life cycle in Ustilago maydis and shares conserved domains with other Ustilaginales.

The RNA subunit of telomerase is an essential component whose primary sequence and length are poorly conserved among eukaryotic organisms. The phytopathogen Ustilago maydis is a dimorphic fungus of the order Ustilaginales. We analyzed several species of Ustilaginales to computationally identify the TElomere RNA (TER) gene ter1.

Investigating the impact of stigma, accessibility and confidentiality on STI/STD/HIV self-testing among college students in the USA: protocol for a scoping review.

Introduction: In 2019, there were 2.5 million reported cases of chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in the USA, young people aged 15-24 made up 61% and 42% of chlamydia and gonorrhoea cases, respectively.

Longitudinal modes of a surface bonded piezoelectric wafer active transducer (PWaT) and their influences on PWaT resonances.

This work investigates the longitudinal modes of surface-bonded piezoelectric wafer active transducers (PWaTs) and how they influence the PWaT resonances. Unlike conventional one-dimensional bar structures that essentially have only one non-dispersive longitudinal mode, the bonded PWaT has two dispersive longitudinal modes, with one evanescent (non-propagating) wave mode below a cut-off frequency. Their propagation characteristics, such as wave numbers, attenuations, and mode conversion at the PWaT edges, clarify two research questions raised from the time-frequency analysis of the PWaT electromechanical impedance (EMI) signature and the associated broadband pitch-catch signal.

Tropical and Temperate Lineages of Rhipicephalus sanguineus s.l. Ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) Host Different Strains of Coxiella-like Endosymbionts.

Nonpathogenic bacteria likely play important roles in the biology and vector competence of ticks and other arthropods. Coxiella, a gram-negative gammaproteobacterium, is one of the most commonly reported maternally inherited endosymbionts in ticks and has been associated with over 40 tick species. Species-specific Coxiella-like endosymbionts (CLEs) have been reported in the brown dog tick, Rhipicephalus sanguineus sensu lato (Acari: Ixodidae), throughout the world, while recent research suggests low Coxiella diversity among tick species.

Origins, genomic structure and copy number variation of snake venom myotoxins.

Crotamine, myotoxin a and homologs are short peptides that often comprise major fractions of rattlesnake venoms and have been extensively studied for their bioactive properties. These toxins are thought to be important for rapidly immobilizing mammalian prey and are implicated in serious, and sometimes fatal, responses to envenomation in humans. While high quality reference genomes for multiple venomous snakes are available, the loci that encode myotoxins have not been successfully assembled in any existing genome assembly.

Comparative analysis of fat composition in marrow, serum, and muscle from aging C57BL6 mice.

Osteosarcopenia is an age-related condition characterized by fragile bone and low muscle mass and function. Fat infiltration concomitantly contributes to age-related bone and muscle decline. Fat-secreted factors could be locally secreted in the muscle and bone marrow milieu affecting cell function and survival.

Nurse practitioner preceptor education to increase role preparedness.

Background: The public has become aware of the need for nurses and nurse practitioners in primary care with the widespread public health crisis. As the need for nurses and nurse practitioners grows, there is a need for the clinical educator and preceptor. However, preceptors have noted barriers to precepting such as time constraints, lack of preceptor role education, and role preparedness.

Modification of Lipid-Based Nanoparticles: An Efficient Delivery System for Nucleic Acid-Based Immunotherapy.

Lipid-based nanoparticles (LBNPs) are biocompatible and biodegradable vesicles that are considered to be one of the most efficient drug delivery platforms. Due to the prominent advantages, such as long circulation time, slow drug release, reduced toxicity, high transfection efficiency, and endosomal escape capacity, such synthetic nanoparticles have been widely used for carrying genetic therapeutics, particularly nucleic acids that can be applied in the treatment for various diseases, including congenital diseases, cancers, virus infections, and chronic inflammations. Despite great merits and multiple successful applications, many extracellular and intracellular barriers remain and greatly impair delivery efficacy and therapeutic outcomes.

Supporting Individuals and Families Impacted by Dementia in Counseling: Case Report.

As more than 6 million people in the United States are living with dementia, it is important to foster and train counselors who are specialized in dementia. This case report explores the process and benefits of counseling when individuals and families are impacted by dementia. By understanding multiple changes in the individual and the family system, a counselor can provide guidance and resources to navigate and adapt changes during the disease process.

It Takes Three to Tango - the length of the oligothiophene determines the nature of the long-lived excited state and the resulting photocytotoxicity of a Ru(II) photodrug.

Unlabelled: TLD1433 is the first Ru(II) complex to be tested as a photodynamic therapy agent in a clinical trial. In this contribution we study TLD1433 in the context of structurally-related Ru(II)-imidozo[4,5-f][1,10]phenanthroline (ip) complexes appended with thiophene rings to decipher the unique photophysical properties which are associated with increasing oligothiophene chain length. Substitution of the ip ligand with ter- or quaterthiophene changes the nature of the long-lived triplet state from metal-to-ligand charge-transfer to ππ* character.

Interlaboratory study of a supercritical fluid chromatography method for the determination of pharmaceutical impurities: Evaluation of multi-systems reproducibility.

Modern supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) is now a well-established technique, especially in the field of pharmaceutical analysis. We recently demonstrated the transferability and the reproducibility of a SFC-UV method for pharmaceutical impurities by means of an inter-laboratory study. However, as this study involved only one brand of SFC instrumentation (Waters®), the present study extends the purpose to multi-instrumentation evaluation.

A review of ASTM D7979 for the analysis of per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances in non-potable water by co-solvation with methanol and using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

Per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances are large class of man-made compounds known in the media as "forever chemicals". In 2015, ASTM International published ASTM D7979, for the analysis of per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances in non-potable water samples. This method extracts the substances by co-solvation with methanol and measures targeted compounds using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

Genome-wide data implicate terminal fusion automixis in king cobra facultative parthenogenesis.

Facultative parthenogenesis (FP) is widespread in the animal kingdom. In vertebrates it was first described in poultry nearly 70 years ago, and since then reports involving other taxa have increased considerably. In the last two decades, numerous reports of FP have emerged in elasmobranch fishes and squamate reptiles (lizards and snakes), including documentation in wild populations of both clades.

Layer-specific strain in patients with heart failure using cardiovascular magnetic resonance: not all layers are the same.

Background: Global longitudinal strain (GLS), most commonly measured at the endocardium, has been shown to be superior to left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (LVEF) for the identification of systolic dysfunction and prediction of outcomes in heart failure (HF). We hypothesized that strains measured at different myocardial layers (endocardium = ENDO, epicardium = EPI, average = AVE) will have distinct diagnostic and predictive performance for patients with HF.

Methods: Layer-specific GLS, layer-specific global circumferential strain (GCS) and global radial strain (GRS) were evaluated by cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) feature tracking in the Alberta HEART study.