Reptile and Amphibian Gastroenterology.

Reptile and amphibian veterinarians are frequently presented with patients exhibiting clinical signs suggestive of gastrointestinal (GI) disease. Understanding the normal structure and function of the GI tract is essential to aid appropriate diagnosis. This article will concentrate on the approach to a patient with GI signs and the problems affecting the GI tract from the esophagus to the colon.

Improving outcomes for very preterm babies in England: does place of birth matter? Findings from OPTI-PREM, a national cohort study.

Objective: Babies born between 27 and 31 weeks of gestation contribute substantially towards infant mortality and morbidity. In England, their care is delivered in maternity services colocated with highly specialised neonatal intensive care units (NICU) or less specialised local neonatal units (LNU). We investigated whether birth setting offered survival and/or morbidity advantages to inform National Health Service delivery.

Anterograde amnesia recurrence in temporal lobe epilepsy with amygdala-enlargement.

Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) can cause different types of memory impairments. Here, we report a case of immediate improvement of memory impairment following antiepileptic drug (AED) treatment in a patient with TLE with amygdala enlargement (TLE-AE), who rapidly developed recurrence. The patient was a man in his 60s whose family members complained of his amnesia.

Hyperkaliaemic cardiac arrest in Angelman's syndrome following suxamethonium.

We present a case of hyperkaliaemic cardiac arrest in a patient with Angelman's syndrome after administration of suxamethonium in rapid sequence intubation. The patient was admitted to the critical care unit in with aspiration pneumonia and intestinal obstruction. They had a cardiac arrest after suxamethonium administration.

Myxobacteria from soil can substantially reduce the bacterial load in a wound infection model.

Aims: Myxobacteria are non-pathogenic, saprophytic, soil-dwelling predatory bacteria known for their antimicrobial potential. Many pathogenic bacteria form biofilms to protect themselves from antimicrobial agents and the immune system. This study has investigated the predatory activities of myxobacteria against pathogenic bacteria in biofilms.

Current Approaches to Optimize Donor Heart for Transplantation.

Heart transplantation remains a critical therapy for patients with end-stage heart failure, offering incremental survival and improved quality of life. One of the key components behind the success of heart transplantation is the condition and preservation of the donor heart. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of ischemic reperfusion injury, risk factors associated with primary graft dysfunction, current use of various preservation solutions for organ procurement and recent advancements in donor heart procurement technologies.

Perceived fatigue does not alter effort-based decision making but does undermine confidence in the ability to perform physical actions.

Fatigue may affect the decision to deploy effort (cost) for a given rewarded outcome (benefit). However, it remains unclear whether these fatigue-associated changes can be attributed to simply feeling fatigued. To investigate this question, twenty-two healthy males made a series of choices between two rewarded options: a fixed, no effort option, where no physical effort was required to obtain a set, low reward vs.

Grading the Evidence for Physical Activity and any Outcome in Cancer Survivors: an Umbrella Review of 740 Meta-analytic associations.

Background: To contribute to the refinement of future physical activity (PA) guidelines, which have remained mostly generic until now, we performed an umbrella review of meta-analyses for PA in cancer survivors.

Methods: Medline and Scopus databases were searched in January 2024 for systematic reviews and meta-analyses on the association/effect of any type of PA in every cancer type and for any studied outcome. Statistically significant meta-analyses were categorized into four evidence groups (strong, highly suggestive, suggestive, weak) using pre-established grading criteria.

Guidelines for Diagnosis of Noise-Induced Hearing Loss and Their Specificity.

Objectives: A recent paper by Moore, Lowe and Cox has proposed guidelines for diagnosing noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). It is referred to here as the MLC guidelines. Our aim was to assess the specificity of those guidelines (i.

Spatiotemporal single-cell roadmap of human skin wound healing.

Wound healing is vital for human health, yet the details of cellular dynamics and coordination in human wound repair remain largely unexplored. To address this, we conducted single-cell multi-omics analyses on human skin wound tissues through inflammation, proliferation, and remodeling phases of wound repair from the same individuals, monitoring the cellular and molecular dynamics of human skin wound healing at an unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution. This singular roadmap reveals the cellular architecture of the wound margin and identifies FOSL1 as a critical driver of re-epithelialization.

G3BP-driven RNP granules promote inhibitory RNA-RNA interactions resolved by DDX3X to regulate mRNA translatability.

Ribonucleoprotein (RNP) granules have been linked to translation regulation and disease, but their assembly and regulatory mechanisms are not well understood. Here, we show that the RNA-binding protein G3BP1 preferentially interacts with unfolded RNA, driving the assembly of RNP granule-like condensates that establish RNA-RNA interactions. These RNA-RNA interactions limit the mobility and translatability of sequestered mRNAs and stabilize the condensates.

Development of a New Score Based on Image Defined Risk Factors to Standardize Surgical Risk in Neuroblastoma Resection - A SIOPEN Collaborative Study.

Background And Aims: Image Defined Risk Factors (IDRFs) assess surgical risk in neuroblastoma (NB) and guide neoadjuvant therapy. Despite chemotherapy IDRFs may persist in 70 % of cases. Several studies have suggested that not all IDRFs hold equal significance and that the presence of an IDRF does not inherently signify unresectability.

How is process tracing applied in health research? A systematic scoping review.

Complex health system questions often have a case study (such as a country) as the unit of analysis. Process tracing, a method from policy studies, is a flexible approach for causal analysis within case studies, increasingly used in applied health research. The aim of this study was to identify the ways in which process tracing methods have been used in health research, and provide insights for best practice.

Interpreting statistical significance in hominin dimorphism: Power and Type I error rates for resampling tests of univariate and missing-data multivariate size dimorphism estimation methods in the fossil record.

The degree of sexual size dimorphism in fossil hominins is important evidence for the evaluation of evolutionary hypotheses, but it is also difficult/impossible to measure directly. Multiple methods have been developed to estimate dimorphism in univariate and multivariate datasets, including when data are missing. This paper introduces 'dimorph', an R package that implements many of these methods and associated resampling-based significance tests and evaluates their performance in terms of Type I error rates and power.

Effects of a liquefied petroleum gas stove and fuel intervention on head circumference and length at birth: A multi-country household air pollution intervention network (HAPIN) trial.

Background: Air pollution may impair child growth and cognitive development, with potential markers including birth length and head circumference.

Methods: The Household Air Pollution Intervention Network (HAPIN) trial was an open label multi-country-randomized controlled trial, with 3200 pregnant women aged 18-34 years (9-19 weeks of gestation) randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) stove intervention compared to women continuing to cook with solid fuels for 18 months. Particulate matter ≤ 2.

Assessing the concentration, distribution and characteristics of suspended microplastics in the Malaysian indoor environment.

This study examines the concentration, distribution, and characteristics of suspended microplastics (MPs) across various indoor environments in Malaysia, including offices, classrooms, landed homes, and apartments. Over a six-week period, MPs were collected using a vacuum pump and analyzed through gravimetric analysis, stereomicroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. The results revealed significant variability in MPs concentrations among different locations, with fibers identified as the predominant morphological type.

Outcomes in patients with thrombotic microangiopathy associated with a trigger following plasma exchange: A systematic literature review.

Plasma exchange (PE) outcomes in patients with trigger-associated thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) have not been comprehensively reviewed. Embase and MEDLINE® were searched on 03/14/2022 for English language articles published after 2007, alongside a congress materials search (2019-2022; PROSPERO: CRD42022325170). Studies with patients with trigger-associated TMA (excluding thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, 'typical' hemolytic uremic syndrome caused by Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli, post-partum TMA, and TMAs with known genetic cause) who received PE or plasma infusion (PI) and reported treatment response (including measures), safety, patient-/caregiver-reported outcomes, or economic burden data were examined.

The effects of a psychoeducational intervention on caregivers of colorectal cancer patients: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Purpose: To investigate the impacts of psychoeducational interventions in adjusting the physical and psychological statuses of caregivers of CRC patients.

Methods: Nine electronic databases, including Medline, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane Library, CINAHL Complete, CNKI, Wan Fang Database, VIP Database, and CBM, were searched to identify eligible randomized controlled trials from January 2000 to July 2023. From 1498 articles, 9 articles that met the inclusion criteria were identified and systematically analyzed.

Dynamic self-assembled meso-structures formed across a wide concentration range in aqueous solutions of propranolol hydrochloride.

Hypothesis: Nanoscale characterisation of the self-associated species formed by amphiphilic pharmaceuticals in aqueous solution carries relevance across their entire journey from development through to manufacture - relevant, therefore, not only as regards formulation of the drug products as medicines, but also potentially relevant to their bioavailability, activity, and clinical side effects. Such knowledge and understanding, however, can only be fully secured by applying a range of experimental and theoretical methodologies.

Experiments: Herein, we apply a synergistic combination of solubility, surface tension, SANS, NMR and UV spectroscopic studies, together with MD simulation and QM calculations, to investigate the meso-structures of propranolol hydrochloride aggregates in bulk aqueous solutions, at concentrations spanning 2.

A qualitative exploration of the interaction between mental illness stigma and preparedness for practice in pharmacy students.

Introduction: Mental illness stigma can result in discriminative practice in pharmacy, such as providing less pharmaceutical care to people living with mental illness (PMI) than those with physical illness. Pharmacy education should aim to reduce the impact of mental illness stigma on the pharmaceutical care of PMI. Whilst previous research has shown that some interventions can reduce stereotyping and prejudice in pharmacy students, the impact on subsequent discrimination is questionable and the reasons for successful and unsuccessful outcomes are unclear.

The MINDSPACE Expanded Framework (MINDSPACE X): Behavioral insights to improve adherence to psychiatric medications.

The MINDSPACE framework has made it easier to incorporate insights from behavioral science into policy, including health policy, but lacks granularity. Difficult policy problems such as adherence to psychiatric medication can benefit from judicious selection of nudges. We present a MINDSPACE Expanded Framework including 34 insights from behavioral science in the 9 MINDSPACE principles to support a more detailed integration of behavioral science into policy.