Denoising complex-valued diffusion MR images using a two-step, nonlocal principal component analysis approach.

Purpose: To propose a two-step, nonlocal principal component analysis (PCA) method and demonstrate its utility for denoising complex diffusion MR images with a few diffusion directions.

Methods: A two-step denoising pipeline was implemented to ensure accurate patch selection even with high noise levels and was coupled with data preprocessing for g-factor normalization and phase stabilization before data denoising with a nonlocal PCA algorithm. At the heart of our proposed pipeline was the use of a data-driven optimal shrinkage algorithm to manipulate the singular values in a way that would optimally estimate the noise-free signal.

Prediction of dementia using CT imaging in stroke (PRODUCTS).

Introduction: A better understanding of who will develop dementia can inform patient care. Although MRI offers prognostic insights, access is limited globally, whereas CT-imaging is readily available in acute stroke. We explored the prognostic utility of acute CT-imaging for predicting dementia.

iBCS: 4. Application of the Inhalation Biopharmaceutics Classification System to the Development of Orally Inhaled Drug Products.

This is the fourth paper in a series describing an inhalation biopharmaceutics classification system (iBCS), an initiative supported by the Product Quality Research Institute. The paper examines the application of the inhalation Biopharmaceutics Classification System (iBCS) through the drug discovery, development, and postapproval phases for orally inhaled drug products (OIDP) and for the development of generic OIDPs. We consider the implication of the iBCS class in terms of product performance and identify the practical gaps that must be filled to enable the classification system to be adopted into day-to-day practice.

Developing and Implementing a Colorectal Cancer Screening Program in Uganda: Stakeholder Perceived Barriers and Opportunities.

Introduction: Colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence is increasing in Uganda. Despite this, and the disproportionately high burden of early onset and late-stage CRC cases, no CRC screening program exists in Uganda. To guide and inform future CRC prevention efforts, interviews with key stakeholders were undertaken to better understand the perceived barriers and opportunities relevant to the development and implementation of a CRC screening program in Uganda.

Ethical issues surrounding the implementation of long-acting injectable antiretroviral therapy in sub-Saharan Africa.

Background: This article discusses the ethical issues surrounding the integration of long-acting injectable antiretroviral therapy (LA-ART) in the programmatic management of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). As the medical landscape evolves, implementing LA-ART introduces many ethical issues that should be considered for the success of scale-up in diverse settings.

Methods: This article examines key issues such as bioethical concerns around the rollout of LA-ART, including regulatory requirements, a person's autonomy, informed consent, privacy and confidentiality; the societal implications of providing LA-ART, including the impact on stigma and discrimination; ethics around who receives LA-ART, financial accessibility, equitable access, inclusive decision-making and cultural sensitivity; and the ethics of providing an expensive intervention, including cost-effectiveness, supply chain sustainability and resource allocation.

Assessment of compliance with tetracycline eye ointment treatment to accelerate the elimination of trachoma in Yobe State, Nigeria.

Background: Trachoma, a neglected tropical disease, remains a significant public health concern in many regions, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and in Yobe State, Nigeria. One approach for elimination involves administering tetracycline eye ointment (TEO) to children <6 months of age as part of annual mass drug administration (MDA), aligning with the World Health Organization's 'A' component of the SAFE (Surgery, Antibiotics, Facial hygiene and Environmental sanitation) strategy for elimination of trachoma as a public health problem. However, suboptimal compliance rates in affected populations pose challenges, potentially serving as a reservoir for reinfection and hindering progress toward trachoma elimination.

"The Spirits Drink Cassava Beer": The More-Than-Human Politics of Self-Help in Amazonian Guyana.

This article concerns vernacular practices of "self-help" among the indigenous Makushi people of Amazonian Guyana. Contrasted with "Western" self-care, the article examines , a traditional system of communal work grounded in a collaborative ethic of "helping each other out." A convivial event, is always accompanied by feasting, drinking, and the celebration of social relationships.

Testing syndemic models along pathways to psychotic spectrum disorder: implications for population-level preventive interventions.

Background: Population-level preventive interventions are urgently needed and may be effective for psychosis due to social determinants. We tested three syndemic models along pathways from childhood adversity (CA) to psychotic spectrum disorder (PSD) and their implications for prevention.

Methods: Cross-sectional data from 7461 British men surveyed in 5 population subgroups.

Injectable Nanocomposite Hydrogels for Intervertebral Disc Degeneration: Combating Oxidative Stress, Mitochondrial Dysfunction, and Ferroptosis.

Intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD) is a major cause of low back pain, where oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction are key contributors. Additionally, ferroptosis, an iron-dependent form of cell death, is identified as a critical mechanism in IVDD pathogenesis. Herein, the therapeutic potential of gallic acid (GA)-derived PGA-Cu nanoparticles, enhanced with functional octapeptide (Cys-Lys-His-Gly-d-Arg-d-Tyr-Lys-Phe, SS08) to build the mitochondria-targeted nanoparticles (PGA-Cu@SS08), and embedded within a hydrogel matrix to form a nanocomposite hydrogel, is explored.

Role of metal(ii) hexacyanocobaltate(iii) surface chemistry for prebiotic peptides synthesis.

Double metal cyanide (DMC), a heterogeneous catalyst, provides a surface for the polymerization of amino acids. Based on the hypothesis, the present study is designed to evaluate favorable environmental conditions for the chemical evolution and origin of life, such as the effects of temperature and time on the oligomerization of glycine and alanine on metal(ii) hexacyanocobaltate(iii), MHCCo. A series of MHCCo complexes were synthesized and characterized by XRD and FT-IR techniques.

The genome sequence of a flea beetle, (Marsham, 1802).

We present a genome assembly from a male specimen of (flea beetle; Arthropoda; Insecta; Coleoptera; Chrysomelidae). The genome sequence has a total length of 671.30 megabases.

The genome sequence of the Coppice Mining Bee, (Linnaeus, 1758).

We present a genome assembly from a female (Coppice Mining Bee; Arthropoda; Insecta; Hymenoptera; Andrenidae). The genome sequence has a total length of 442.47 megabases.

The genome sequence of the Dotted Footman moth, (Hufnagel, 1767).

We present a genome assembly from a male (Dotted Footman; Arthropoda; Insecta; Lepidoptera; Erebidae). The genome sequence has a total length of 500.49 megabases.

Collider-flavour complementarity from the bottom to the top.

Motivated by recently observed anomalies in the flavour sector, we analyse the potential of measurements of top quarks at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to provide complementary constraints on interactions that shape low-energy precision investigations in the sector. The measurement of top quark properties, such as the top width and the abundant top pair production channels, are already reaching the percent level at this relatively early stage of the LHC phenomenology program. A focused analysis of four-fermion interactions, employing effective field theory without flavour structure assumptions and incorporating renormalization group evolution effects, bridges meson scale phenomena with key top quark measurements.

Extinction studies in focus: Reflections on photography at a time of ecological decline.

Through compositional inclusion or exclusion, the photograph can assert and communicate what belongs in a picture, in a landscape, in an ecosystem. It can illuminate what we deem conservation-worthy, or, on a larger scale, which extinctions are attention-worthy. Photographic practice helps to illuminate the active nature of extinction, and our choices as actors and witnesses within that process.

Parasites and plantations: Disease, environment and society in efforts to induce extinction of hookworm in Jamaica, 1919-1936.

Studies of extinction typically focus on unintended losses of biodiversity and culture. This study, however, examines an attempt to induce extinction of a parasite: human hookworm ( and ). Our interdisciplinary approach integrates medical history and epidemiology using records created by the Jamaica Hookworm Commission of 1919-1936.

Effectiveness of Switching from Multiple-Inhaler to Once-Daily Single-Inhaler Triple Therapy in Patients with COPD in a Real-World Setting in Japan.

Purpose: Following the relatively recent introduction of single-inhaler triple therapies in Japan, this study compared the effectiveness of switching from multiple-inhaler triple therapy (MITT) to once-daily fluticasone furoate/umeclidinium/vilanterol (FF/UMEC/VI) by investigating COPD exacerbations and adherence among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Japan.

Methods: This retrospective, pre-post cohort study using the Medical Data Vision Co. Ltd database identified patients with ≥1 inpatient diagnosis and/or ≥2 outpatient diagnoses of COPD at age ≥40 years prior to the index date (first/earliest date of single-inhaler FF/UMEC/VI initiation from May 1, 2019-February 28, 2022, following a switch from MITT).

Threshold uncertainty, early warning signals and the prevention of dangerous climate change.

The goal of the Paris Agreement is to keep global temperature rise well below 2°C. In this agreement-and its antecedents negotiated in Copenhagen and Cancun-the fear of crossing a dangerous climate threshold is supposed to serve as the catalyst for cooperation among countries. However, there are deep uncertainties about the location of the threshold for dangerous climate change, and recent evidence indicates this threshold uncertainty is a major impediment to collective action.

The world's oldest cerapodan ornithischian dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic of Morocco.

The cerapodan dinosaurs were an ornithischian clade that achieved a global distribution in the Cretaceous Period. The ichnological record suggests that these dinosaurs had evolved by the Middle Jurassic, but only a single cerapodan body fossil, an isolated femur from the Callovian of the UK, is known from this interval. In order to elucidate the early stages of cerapodan evolution and help to resolve the many phylogenetic inconsistencies in the clade, new specimens, particularly from historically undersampled localities, are needed.

Perceived value of video games, but not hours played, predicts mental well-being in casual adult Nintendo players.

Studies on video games and well-being often rely on self-report measures or data from a single game. Here, we study how 703 casually engaged US adults' time spent playing for over 140 000 h across 150 Nintendo Switch games relates to their life satisfaction, affect, depressive symptoms and general mental well-being. We replicate previous findings that playtime over the past two weeks does not predict well-being, and extend these findings to a wider range of timescales (1 h to 1 year).

Medical image classification by incorporating clinical variables and learned features.

Medical image classification plays an important role in medical imaging. In this work, we present a novel approach to enhance deep learning models in medical image classification by incorporating clinical variables without overwhelming the information. Unlike most existing deep neural network models that only consider single-pixel information, our method captures a more comprehensive view.

Real-time organ perfusion monitoring of human kidney transplants using normothermic perfusion and reflectance spectroscopy.

Transplantation is the standard treatment for end-stage kidney disease but carries with it a non-trivial risk of post-operative complication. There is a need for a continuous, real-time, not additionally invasive method of monitoring organ perfusion. We present an approach to allograft perfusion monitoring using a human kidney model using normothermic perfusion (EVNP) and custom spectroscopic optical reflectance probes.

Comparison of the behaviour of pro-oxidant additive containing plastic degradation in the unmanaged natural environment and in the laboratory.

Pro-oxidant additive containing (PAC) plastics are designed to degrade in the unmanaged natural environment through oxidation and biological processes. In 2020, the British Standard Institution published the PAS 9017:2020 standard designed to ensure that PAC plastic tested under a specific set of protocols would successfully biodegrade in the environment. In this article, we compare the outcomes of laboratory tests carried out according to PAS 9017:2020 with field tests in an open unmanaged environment in the UK over 24 months.

Examining Predictors of Environmental Health Knowledge and Competences in a Sample of Catalan Paediatricians.

Background And Aims: Their close contact with the cokes paediatricians a key group of healthcare professionals for the dissemination of environmental health (EH) notions and the protection of children and families. However, international studies show that their knowledge and competences in EH matters are limited.

Methods: We recruited a sample of 293 paediatricians (80% women, mean age 47 years) working in Catalonia (Spain).