Strategies to Optimise the Engagement of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Populations in Cardiac Research: A Systematic Review.

Aims: Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) populations remain underrepresented in cardiovascular disease (CVD) research despite their higher disease burden compared to non-CALD populations. The purpose of this review is to synthesize the available literature on strategies to engage CALD participants in CVD research.

Methods And Results: Four electronic databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and PsycINFO) were searched for literature up until May 2024.

Novel pain assessment tool specific for pulp symptoms to aid diagnosis.

Aim: Although many pain assessment tools exist, none are specific to the relatively unique presentation of pulpal pain. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a novel pain assessment tool based on pulp symptoms.

Methodology: A preliminary list of items best-describing pulpitis was developed based on deductive and inductive approaches and the preliminary tool was piloted (n = 80).

Elucidating stearoyl metabolism and NCOA4-mediated ferroptosis in gastric cancer liver metastasis through multi-omics single-cell integrative mendelian analysis: advancing personalized immunotherapy strategies.

Background: The metabolism of stearoyl-GPE plays a key role in the liver metastasis of gastric cancer. This investigation delves into the mechanisms underlying the intricate tumor microenvironment (TME) heterogeneity triggered by stearoyl metabolism in gastric cancer with liver metastasis (LMGC), offering novel perspectives for LMGC.

Objective: Utilizing Mendelian randomization, we determined that stearoyl metabolism significantly contributes to the progression of gastric cancer (GC).

Taming chimeras in coupled oscillators using soft actor-critic based reinforcement learning.

We propose a universal method based on deep reinforcement learning (specifically, soft actor-critic) to control the chimera state in the coupled oscillators. The policy for control is learned by maximizing the expectation of the cumulative reward in the reinforcement learning framework. With the aid of the local order parameter, we design a class of reward functions for controlling the chimera state, specifically confining the spatial position of coherent and incoherent domains to any desired lateral position of oscillators.

Family Poultry Farming in Sri Lanka: An Integral Component of Protein Security, Poverty Alleviation and Public Health.

Family poultry farming plays a crucial role in ensuring protein availability and household income, particularly in low-income families. This study investigates the knowledge, attitudes and practices of family poultry farmers regarding poultry diseases, biosecurity and vaccinations. The research involved surveying 150 farmers in a selected area in Sri Lanka's western province, revealing significant knowledge gaps, particularly in understanding poultry diseases, their causes, transmission pathways and potential impacts on humans.

Intraprosthetic Dislocation Following Dual Mobility Total Hip Arthroplasty: A Retrieval Analysis Study.

Background: Dual mobility (DM) implants in total hip arthroplasty provide excellent range of motion with low dislocation rates. A complication of this design is intraprosthetic dislocation (IPD), where the polyethylene (PE) liner dissociates from the femoral head. In older designs, IPD occurred due to a small head size and late PE wear with head-capture-mechanism failure.

Vedolizumab serum trough concentrations with and without thiopurines in ulcerative colitis: The prospective VIEWS pharmacokinetics study.

Background: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory condition requiring continuous treatment and monitoring. There is limited pharmacokinetic data on vedolizumab during maintenance therapy and the effect of thiopurines on vedolizumab trough concentrations is unknown.

Aim: To investigate the exposure-response relationship of vedolizumab and the impact of thiopurine withdrawal in UC patients who have achieved sustained clinical and endoscopic remission during maintenance therapy.

Longitudinal Assessment of Structural and Functional Changes in Rod-cone Dystrophy: A 10-year Follow-up Study.

Purpose: Emerging clinical trials for inherited retinal disease (IRD) require an understanding of long-term progression. This longitudinal study investigated the genetic diagnosis and change in retinal structure and function over 10 years in rod-cone dystrophies (RCDs).

Design: Longitudinal observational follow-up study.

Beyond bronchial thermoplasty - where to now?

With the impending 'retirement' of bronchial thermoplasty (BT) for the treatment of patients with asthma, there is much to learn from this real-world experiment that will help us develop more effective future therapies with the same primary target i.e., airway smooth muscle (ASM) remodelling.

Kneeling tolerance when using quadriceps tendon autograft for anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction is superior to hamstring tendon autograft.

Purpose: To investigate kneeling tolerance in patients undergoing hamstring (HT) versus quadriceps (QT) anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) and investigate correlation with patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs).

Methods: After recruitment and randomisation, 112 patients (HT = 55; QT = 57) underwent ACLR. Patients were assessed at 6, 12 and 24 months using the Kneeling Tolerance Test, which evaluates patient-reported pain in a position of both 90 (KT90) and 110 (KT110) degrees of knee flexion.

The current clinical approach to feeding and eating disorders aimed to increase personalization of management.

Feeding and eating disorders (FEDs) are a heterogeneous grouping of disorders at the mind-body interface, with typical onset from childhood into emerging adulthood. They occur along a spectrum of disordered eating and compensatory weight management behaviors, and from low to high body weight. Psychiatric comorbidities are the norm.

Mind the Data Gap: Using a Multi-Measurement Synthesis for Identifying the Challenges and Opportunities in Studying Plant Drought Response and Recovery.

Understanding and predicting plant water dynamics during and after water stress is increasingly important but challenging because the high-dimensional nature of the soil-plant-atmosphere system makes it difficult to identify mechanisms and constrain behaviour. Datasets that capture hydrological, physiological and meteorological variation during changing water availability are relatively rare but offer a potentially valuable resource to constrain plant water dynamics. This study reports on a drydown and re-wetting experiment of potted Populus trichocarpa, which intensively characterised plant water fluxes, water status and water sources.

Pseudohaematuria Due to Mesalazine: A Case Report.

The symptom of macroscopic or 'visible' haematuria can cause significant patient distress, largely due to its' potential association with urinary tract malignancy, infection or glomerular disease. This lesson from practice describes the case of a 19-year-old female patient for whom the cause of red/brown urinary discolouration was found to relate to a reaction between renally excreted mesalazine and domestic bleach in the toilet bowel. Recognition of this phenomenon in patients taking mesalazine for inflammatory colitis is important to minimise patient distress and unnecessary investigation for a urinary tract cause.

Phonological Feature Abstraction Before 6 Months: Amodal Recognition of Place of Articulation Across Multiple Consonants.

The classical view is that perceptual attunement to the native language, which emerges by 6-10 months, developmentally precedes phonological feature abstraction abilities. That assumption is challenged by findings from adults adopted into a new language environment at 3-5 months that imply they had already formed phonological feature abstractions about their birth language prior to 6 months. As phonological feature abstraction had not been directly tested in infants, we examined 4-6-month-olds' amodal abstraction of the labial versus coronal place of articulation distinction between consonants.

The status of care for youth with type 1 diabetes within and coming from humanitarian crises settings: a narrative review.

Background: Humanitarian crises bring unique, and potentially growing challenges to people with type 1 diabetes (T1D). We aimed to determine, in youth with T1D (mean age (± 1SD) 0-17.9 years) within and coming from humanitarian crises settings (HCS), the reported prevalence that meet international consensus targets for glycaemic, blood pressure and lipid management, and incidence of severe hypoglycaemia or diabetic ketoacidosis.

Motivations and perceptions for physical activity in women living with metastatic breast cancer: a qualitative interview study.

Background: The beneficial role of physical activity for people living with cancer is well established. However, the importance of physical activity to women living with metastatic breast cancer is not known. As motivations and perceptions around physical activity influence behavioural uptake, a qualitative study was undertaken to explore the motivations and perceptions towards physical activity of this group.

Exploring the plant-growth promoting bacterium Herbaspirillum seropedicae as catalyst of microbiome remodeling and metabolic changes in wheat plants.

Inoculation with the PGPB Herbaspirillum seropedicae shapes both the structure and putative functions of the wheat microbiome and causes changes in the levels of various plant metabolites described to be involved in plant growth and health. Plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB) can establish metabolic imprints in their hosts, contributing to the improvement of plant health in different ways. However, while PGPB imprints on plant metabolism have been extensively characterized, much less is known regarding those affecting plant indigenous microbiomes, and hence it remains unknown whether both processes occur simultaneously.

Refractory pyoderma gangrenosum-like ulcerations in granulomatosis with polyangiitis treated successfully with rituximab.

Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) is a small-to-medium vessel vasculitis that can affect the skin, respiratory tract, kidneys and other organs. A rare cutaneous manifestation of GPA is pyoderma gangrenosum (PG)-like ulcerations, which can have debilitating and disfiguring consequences. We report the case of a man in his 40s with refractory PG-like ulcerations secondary to GPA, not responsive to conventional immunosuppression, who was successfully treated with rituximab.

A Density Functional Theory (DFT) Modeling Study of NO Reduction by CO over Graphene-Supported Single-Atom Ni Catalysts in the Presence of CO, SO, O, and HO.

The mechanisms of NO reduction by CO over nitrogen-doped graphene (N-graphene)-supported single-atom Ni catalysts in the presence of O, HO, CO, and SO have been studied via density functional theory (DFT) modeling. The catalyst is represented by a single Ni atom bonded to four N atoms on N-graphene. Several alternative reaction pathways, including adsorption of NO on the Ni site, direct reduction of NO by CO, decomposition of NO to NO followed by reduction of NO to N, formation of active oxygen radical O*, and reduction of O* by CO, were hypothesized and the energy barrier corresponding to each of the reaction steps was calculated using DFT.

Implementation of a data-driven quality improvement program in primary care for patients with coronary heart disease: a mixed methods evaluation of acceptability, satisfaction, barriers and enablers.

Background The study aimed to understand the acceptability, satisfaction, uptake, utility and feasibility of a quality improvement (QI) intervention to improve care for coronary heart disease (CHD) patients in Australian primary care practices and identify barriers and enablers, including the impact of COVID-19. Methods Within the QUality improvement for Effectiveness of care for people Living with heart disease (QUEL) study, 26 Australian primary care practices, supported by five Primary Health Networks (PHN) participated in a 1-year QI intervention (November 2019 - November 2020). Data were collected from practices and PHNs staff via surveys and semi-structured interviews.

Lateral End-Range Movement Profile and Shot Effectiveness During Grand Slam Tennis Match-Play.

End-range movements are among the most demanding but least understood in the sport of tennis. Using male Hawk-Eye data from match-play during the 2021-2023 Australian Open tournaments, we evaluated the speed, deceleration, acceleration, and shot quality characteristics of these types of movement in men's Grand Slam tennis. Lateral end-range movements that incorporated a change of direction (CoD) were identified for analysis using k-means (end-range) and random forest (CoD) machine learning models.

Perioperative Management of Patients with Preeclampsia: A Comprehensive Review.

Preeclampsia is a common condition of pregnancy characterized by hypertension complicated by cerebral, cardiac, hepatic, renal, hematologic, and placental dysfunction. Patients with preeclampsia frequently undergo cesarean delivery, the most common major surgical procedure in the world. They represent a high-risk perioperative cohort suffering significant preventable morbidity and mortality.

Optimizing automated photo identification for population assessments.

Several legal acts mandate that management agencies regularly assess biological populations. For species with distinct markings, these assessments can be conducted noninvasively via capture-recapture and photographic identification (photo-ID), which involves processing considerable quantities of photographic data. To ease this burden, agencies increasingly rely on automated identification (ID) algorithms.

Recruitment of Adolescents to Virtual Clinical Trials: Recruitment Results From the Health4Me Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Preventive interventions are needed to provide targeted health support to adolescents to improve health behaviors. Engaging adolescents in preventive interventions remains a challenge, highlighting the need for innovative recruitment strategies. Given adolescents' lives are intertwined with digital technologies, attention should be focused on these avenues for recruitment.

Experiences of African women who migrate to a developed country and encounter intimate partner violence: a systematic review of qualitative evidence.

Objective: The objective of this review was to synthesize the available evidence on the experiences of African women who migrated to a developed country and encountered intimate partner violence (IPV).

Introduction: IPV is a significant public health issue, and migrant women living in developed countries are particularly vulnerable to IPV, experiencing disproportionately higher rates of IPV. Understanding the experiences of these women can inform health policy and decision-making in clinical practice to minimize IPV.