Fractionated low-dose radiotherapy primes the tumor microenvironment for immunotherapy in a murine mesothelioma model.

Combination immune checkpoint inhibitors (nivolumab and ipilimumab) are currently a first-line treatment for mesothelioma; however, not all patients respond. The efficacy of treatment is influenced by the tumor microenvironment. Murine mesothelioma tumors were irritated with various radiotherapy doses.

Automated abdominal aortic calcification and major adverse cardiovascular events in people undergoing osteoporosis screening: the Manitoba Bone Mineral Density Registry.

Vertebral fracture assessment (VFA) images from bone density machines enable the automated machine learning assessment of abdominal aortic calcification (ML-AAC), a marker of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. The objective of this study was to describe the risk of a major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE, from linked health records) in patients attending routine bone mineral density (BMD) testing and meeting specific criteria based on age, BMD, height loss, or glucocorticoid use have a VFA in the Manitoba Bone Mineral Density Registry. The cohort included 10 250 individuals (mean 75.

Global, regional, and national burden of primary liver cancer attributable to metabolic risks: an analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 1990-2021.

Background: The global burden of metabolic diseases is increasing, but estimates of their impact on primary liver cancer are uncertain. We aimed to assess the global burden of primary liver cancer attributable to metabolic risk factors, including high body mass index (BMI) and high fasting plasma glucose (FPG) levels, between 1990 and 2021.

Methods: The total number and age-standardized rates of deaths and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) from primary liver cancer attributable to each metabolic risk factor were extracted from the Global Burden of Disease Study 1990-2021.

Nanoparticle-Based gene therapy strategies in retinal delivery.

Vision loss and blindness are significant issues in both developed and developing countries. There are a wide variety of aetiologies that can cause vision loss, which are outlined in this review. Although treatment has significantly improved over time for some conditions, nearly half of all people with vision impairment are left untreated.

Organic ionic plastic crystals having colossal barocaloric effects for sustainable refrigeration.

Barocaloric (BC) materials offer the potential for highly energy-efficient refrigeration by generating heat absorption through the effect of pressure on a solid-solid phase transition. However, very few of the known materials have the required phase transition in the temperature regions necessary for domestic refrigeration or air conditioning. We introduce organic ionic plastic crystals (OIPCs) as a new family of BC materials.

A Framework for Implementing Community-Based Dental Education.

Community-based dental education (CBDE) is essential for equipping dental students with the practical skills required for independent practice while simultaneously addressing the oral health needs of the community through real-world experiential learning. The success of CBDE initiatives rely on effective collaboration across stakeholders, including educational institutions, community organisations, and students, to address both faculty educational goals and community oral health needs. This paper introduces a practical toolbox to support CBDE program implementation.

The crop mined phosphorus nutrition via modifying root traits and rhizosphere micro-food web to meet the increased growth demand under elevated CO.

Elevated CO (eCO) stimulates productivity and nutrient demand of crops. Thus, comprehensively understanding the crop phosphorus (P) acquisition strategy is critical for sustaining agriculture to combat climate changes. Here, wheat ( L) was planted in field in the eCO (550 µmol mol) and ambient CO (aCO, 415 µmol mol) environments.

Comparative Algorithms for Identifying and Counting Hospitalisation Episodes of Care for Coronary Heart Disease Using Administrative Data.

Purpose: Measures of disease burden using hospital administrative data are susceptible to over-inflation if the patient is transferred during their episode of care. We aimed to identify and compare measures of coronary heart disease (CHD) and myocardial infarction (MI) episodes using six algorithms that account for transfers.

Patient And Methods: We used person-linked hospitalisations for CHD and MI for 2000-2016 in Western Australia based on the interval between discharge and subsequent admission (date, datetime algorithms), pathway (admission source, discharge destination) and any combination to generate machine learning models (random forest [RF], gradient boosting machine [GBM]).

Correlation of Preclinical Imaging Modalities and Immunohistochemistry for Tumor Hypoxia and Vasculature.

Background/aim: Tumors exhibit impaired blood flow and hypoxic areas, which can reduce the effectiveness of treatments. Characterizing these tumor features can inform treatment decisions, including the use of vasculature modulation therapies. Imaging provides insight into these characteristics, with techniques varying between clinical and preclinical settings.

The status of dental sleep medicine education in Australia and New Zealand in 2024.

Background: This study aimed to evaluate the current status of dental sleep medicine education across dental schools in Australia and New Zealand and gain further insights into the educational background of dentists who have sat the Australasian Sleep Association Fellow of Dental Sleep Medicine examination in 2023.

Methods: Online surveys were carried out, and descriptive statistics were used to analyse data.

Results: All dental schools responded to the survey.

Stress-inducible phosphoprotein 1 (Sti1/Stip1/Hop) sequesters misfolded proteins during stress.

Co-chaperones are key elements of cellular protein quality control. They cooperate with the major heat shock proteins Hsp70 and Hsp90 in folding proteins and preventing the toxic accumulation of misfolded proteins upon exposure to stress. Hsp90 interacts with the co-chaperone stress-inducible phosphoprotein 1 (Sti1/Stip1/Hop) and activator of Hsp90 ATPase protein 1 (Aha1) among many others.

Competing effects of activation history on force and cytosolic Ca in intact single mice myofibers.

The purpose was to investigate the changes in cytosolic Ca and force output during post-tetanic potentiation (PTP) during pre-fatigue and during prolonged low-frequency force depression (PLFFD) following fatigue. Intact single myofibers from the flexor digitorum brevis of mice were electrically stimulated to record force (n = 8) and free cytosolic Ca concentration ([Ca]) with FURA-2 (n = 6) at 32 °C. Initially, force and [Ca] were measured during brief (350 ms) trains of stimuli at 30, 50, 70, and 200 Hz at ~ 2 s intervals (Force-frequency protocol, FFP).

Strontium isoscape of sub-Saharan Africa allows tracing origins of victims of the transatlantic slave trade.

Strontium isotope (Sr/Sr) analysis with reference to strontium isotope landscapes (Sr isoscapes) allows reconstructing mobility and migration in archaeology, ecology, and forensics. However, despite the vast potential of research involving Sr/Sr analysis particularly in Africa, Sr isoscapes remain unavailable for the largest parts of the continent. Here, we measure the Sr/Sr ratios in 778 environmental samples from 24 African countries and combine this data with published data to model a bioavailable Sr isoscape for sub-Saharan Africa using random forest regression.

Audiology Through a Psychologically Informed Practice Lens.

Psychologically informed practice is a structural framework originating in physiotherapy, that aids clinicians to identify, consider, and address the psychological factors related to chronic conditions and their management. Hearing loss is a chronic condition associated with a variety of psychosocial impacts, and psychological factors are known to heavily influence the engagement, adherence, and success of hearing rehabilitation. This framework could provide a structured method to manage these factors by using evidence-based psychological theory and applications.

Investigating health care pathways for anaphylaxis: Seeing the bigger picture through linked data.

Background: Anaphylaxis is increasing in Australia involving all levels of the health care system. Although guidelines recommend calling an ambulance and 4-hour observation, knowledge gaps exist regarding where people experiencing anaphylaxis receive care.

Objective: We sought to examine care pathways for anaphylaxis in Western Australia and factors associated with seeking care from ambulance versus the emergency department (ED), and subsequent hospital admission.

Patterns of the left thalamus embedding into the connectome associated with reading skills in children with reading disabilities.

We examined how thalamocortical connectivity structure reflects children's reading performance. Diffusion-weighted MRI at 3 T and a series of reading measures were collected from 64 children (33 girls) ages 8-14 years with and without dyslexia. The topological properties of the left and right thalamus were computed based on the whole-brain white matter network and a hub-attached reading network, and were correlated with scores on several tests of children's reading and reading-related abilities.

No evidence for phenotypic condition-dependent ejaculate allocation in response to sperm competition in a seed beetle.

Sperm competition is known to favor the evolution of male traits that confer an advantage in gaining fertilizations when females mate multiply. Ejaculate production can be costly and the strategic allocation of sperm in relation to the sperm competition environment is a taxonomically widespread phenomenon. However, variation among males in their ability to adjust ejaculate allocation has rarely been explored.

The Feasibility of Personalized Endpoints in Assessing Treatment Outcomes in Rare Disease: A Pilot Study of Goal Attainment Scaling in SCN2A-Associated Developmental Epileptic Encephalopathy.

Objectives: For individuals living with rare neurodevelopmental disorders, especially those who are at the most severe end of the spectrum, standardized outcome measures may lack the sensitivity to capture small but meaningful changes. Personalized endpoints such as Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) allow the assessment of treatment response across variable baseline states and disease manifestations and thus provide a highly sensitive measure of efficacy. The current study tested the feasibility of using GAS in rare SCN2A-associated developmental and epileptic encephalopathy (SCN2A-DEE).

A postbiotic exopolysaccharide synergizes with Lactobacillus acidophilus to reduce intestinal inflammation in a mouse model of colitis.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is an inflammatory bowel disease marked by gut inflammation and microbial dysbiosis. Exopolysaccharides (EPS) from probiotic bacteria have been shown to regulate microbial composition and metabolism, but their role in promoting probiotic growth and alleviating inflammation in UC remains unclear. Here, we investigate BLEPS-1, a novel EPS derived from Bifidobacterium longum subsp.

Coupling of response biomarkers between tumor and peripheral blood in patients undergoing chemoimmunotherapy.

Platinum-based chemotherapy in combination with anti-PD-L1 antibodies has shown promising results in mesothelioma. However, the immunological mechanisms underlying its efficacy are not well understood and there are no predictive biomarkers to guide treatment decisions. Here, we combine time course RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) of peripheral blood mononuclear cells with pre-treatment tumor transcriptome data from the single-arm, phase 2 DREAM trial (N = 54).

Useful or merely convenient? On the issue of a suitability of enzymatic antioxidant activity as a proxy for abiotic stress tolerance.

During their lifespan, plants are often exposed to a broad range of stresses that change their redox balance and lead to accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The traditional view is that this comes with negative consequences to cells structural integrity and metabolism and, to prevent this, plants evolved a complex and well-coordinated antioxidant defence system that relies on the operation of a range of enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants (AO). Due to the simplicity of measuring their activity, and in the light of the persistent dogma that stress-induced ROS accumulation is detrimental for plants, it is not surprising that enzymatic AO have often been advocated as suitable proxies for stress tolerance, as well as potential targets for improving tolerance traits.