The Association Between Hearing Loss and Depression in a Large Electronic Health Record System.

Objective: Hearing loss (HL) is associated with depression, but existing datasets are limited by the type of data available for both hearing and mental health conditions. The purpose of this study is to determine if there is an association between HL and depressive disorders within a large bi-institutional electronic health record (EHR) system containing more granular diagnostic information.

Study Design: Cross-sectional epidemiologic study.

Bioactive Functionalized Chitosan Thermo-Responsive Hydrogels as Promising Platforms for Therapeutic, Regenerative Oral, and Maxillofacial Applications.

Due to their superior physicochemical features, chitosan thermosensitive hydrogels are multipurpose platforms that are frequently used in the biomedical industry. Many investigations have been conducted recently to modify their pore dimensions, expansion, biodegradability, stimulus-reaction characteristics, and other characteristics in order to better tailor them to the complex craniofacial tissues. They have been the focus of various studies that have attempted to load biological cargos for therapeutic and regenerative uses in the oro-facial tissues.

Conformational dynamics in specialized CH zinc finger domains enable zinc-responsive gene repression in S. pombe.

Loz1 is a zinc-responsive transcription factor in fission yeast that maintains cellular zinc homeostasis by repressing the expression of genes required for zinc uptake in high zinc conditions. Previous deletion analysis of Loz1 found a region containing two tandem CH zinc-fingers and an upstream "accessory domain" rich in histidine, lysine, and arginine residues to be sufficient for zinc-dependent DNA binding and gene repression. Here we report unexpected biophysical properties of this pair of seemingly classical CH zinc fingers.

Maternal Western Diet Programmes Bile Acid Dysregulation and Hepatic Fibrosis in Fetal and Juvenile Macaques.

Background And Aims: Maternal obesity increases the risk of the paediatric form of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), affecting up to 30% of youth, but the developmental origins remain poorly understood.

Methods: Using a Japanese macaque model, we investigated the impact of maternal Western-style diet (mWSD) or chow diet followed by postweaning WSD (pwWSD) or chow diet focusing on bile acid (BA) homeostasis and hepatic fibrosis in livers from third-trimester fetuses and 3-year-old juvenile offspring.

Results: Juveniles exposed to mWSD had increased hepatic collagen I/III content and stellate cell activation in portal regions.

Transcriptomic Profiling Reveals 17β-Estradiol Treatment Represses Ubiquitin-Proteasomal Mediators in Skeletal Muscle of Ovariectomized Mice.

Background: With a decline of 17β-estradiol (E2) at menopause, E2 has been implicated in the accompanied loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength. We aimed at characterizing transcriptomic responses of skeletal muscle to E2 in female mice, testing the hypothesis that genes and pathways related to contraction and maintenance of mass are differentially expressed in ovariectomized mice with and without E2 treatment.

Methods: Soleus and tibialis anterior (TA) muscles from C57BL/6 ovariectomized mice treated with placebo (OVX) or E2 (OVX + E2) for 60 days, or from skeletal muscle-specific ERα knockout (skmERαKO) mice and wild-type littermates (skmERαWT), were used for genome-wide expression profiling, quantitative real-time PCR and immunoblotting.

Deployment and transcriptional evaluation of nitisinone, an FDA-approved drug, to control bed bugs.

Background: Bed bugs are blood-feeders that rapidly proliferate into large indoor infestations. Their bites can cause allergies, secondary infections and psychological stress, among other problems. Although several tactics for their management have been used, bed bugs continue to spread worldwide wherever humans reside.

Point-of-care nucleic acid testing - a step forward in controlling the HIV epidemic: A review.

Introduction: The HIV/AIDS epidemic, with 85.6 million infections and 40.4 million AIDS-related deaths globally, remains a critical public health challenge.

Comparison of conventional coagulation tests and ROTEM in identifying trauma-induced coagulopathy for massive haemorrhage protocol activation.

Objectives: Trauma-induced coagulopathy (TIC) can be fatal but preventable if recognised early. With emerging uses of rotational thromboelastometry (ROTEM) to guide transfusions in trauma, patient outcomes with TIC-defined by initial ROTEM and conventional coagulation tests (CCTs) during massive haemorrhage protocol (MHP) activations were evaluated at a primary trauma centre in British Columbia.

Methods: This retrospective observational study included adult trauma patients requiring MHP from June 1, 2020, to May 31, 2022.

NumSimEX: A method using EXX hydrogen exchange mass spectrometry to map the energetics of protein folding landscapes.

Hydrogen exchange mass spectrometry (HXMS) is a powerful tool to understand protein folding pathways and energetics. However, HXMS experiments to date have used exchange conditions termed EX1 or EX2 which limit the information that can be gained compared to the more general EXX exchange regime. If EXX behavior could be understood and analyzed, a single HXMS timecourse on an intact protein could fully map its folding landscape without requiring denaturation.

Insights into the flexibility of the domain-linking loop in actinobacterial coproheme decarboxylase through structures and molecular dynamics simulations.

Prokaryotic heme biosynthesis in Gram-positive bacteria follows the coproporphyrin-dependent heme biosynthesis pathway. The last step in this pathway is catalyzed by the enzyme coproheme decarboxylase, which oxidatively transforms two propionate groups into vinyl groups yielding heme b. The catalytic reaction cycle of coproheme decarboxylases exhibits four different states: the apo-form, the substrate (coproheme)-bound form, a transient three-propionate intermediate form (monovinyl, monopropionate deuteroheme; MMD), and the product (heme b)-bound form.

A novel method for expressing and purifying large quantities of functional and stable human voltage-gated proton channel (hH1).

Purifying membrane proteins has been the limiting step for studying their structure and function. The challenges of the process include the low expression levels in heterologous systems and the requirement for their biochemical stabilization in solution. The human voltage-gated proton channel (hH1) is a good example of that: the published protocols to express and purify hH1 produce low protein quantities at high costs, which is an issue for systematically characterizing its structure and function.

Exploring Individual Differences in Interoception Among Athletes Based on a Three-Dimensional Construct of Interoception.

Previous studies demonstrated that sensorimotor training enhances interoceptive abilities. Athletes are highly engaged in performance-driven physical training and often incorporate-to varying degrees-sensorimotor training into their routines. In this study, we investigated the role of individual differences in interoception by comparing professional athletes of different performance levels and both sexes with recreational athletes and controls, applying a three-dimensional model of interoception.

Attix free-air chamber correction factors computed using EGSnrc.

Background: A cylindrical free-air chamber, the Attix FAC, is used for absolute air-kerma measurements of low-energy photon beams at the University of Wisconsin Medical Radiation Research Center. Correction factors for air-kerma measurements of specific beams were determined in the 1990s. In order to measure air-kerma rates of beams in development, new correction factors must be computed.

The efficacy of pulsed radiofrequency ablation of the dorsal root ganglion in the setting of failed spinal neuromodulation: A case report.

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is an interventional procedure that has been used to treat chronic back pain for over 50 years; this unique case report demonstrates the effectiveness of pulsed radiofrequency ablation (PRFA) on the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) in the treatment of chronic radicular pain (Russo et al., 2021, J Pain Res, 14, 3897). The RFA provides pain relief by using thermal energy to disrupt peripheral nerves carrying nociceptive signals back to the central nervous system (Abd-Elsayed et al.

Adjusting for Ascertainment Bias in Meta-Analysis of Penetrance for Cancer Risk.

Multi-gene panel testing allows efficient detection of pathogenic variants in cancer susceptibility genes including moderate-risk genes such as ATM and PALB2. A growing number of studies examine the risk of breast cancer (BC) conferred by pathogenic variants of these genes. A meta-analysis combining the reported risk estimates can provide an overall estimate of age-specific risk of developing BC, that is, penetrance for a gene.

Precision in Liver Diagnosis: Varied Accuracy Across Subgroups and the Need for Variable Thresholds in Diagnosis of MASLD.

Background And Aims: The performance of non-invasive liver tests (NITs) is known to vary across settings and subgroups. We systematically evaluated whether the performance of three NITs in detecting advanced fibrosis in patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) varies with age, sex, body mass index (BMI), type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) status or liver enzymes.

Methods: Data from 586 adult LITMUS Metacohort participants with histologically characterised MASLD were included.

CaML: Chemistry-informed machine learning explains mutual changes between protein conformations and calcium ions in calcium-binding proteins using structural and topological features.

Proteins' flexibility is a feature in communicating changes in cell signaling instigated by binding with secondary messengers, such as calcium ions, associated with the coordination of muscle contraction, neurotransmitter release, and gene expression. When binding with the disordered parts of a protein, calcium ions must balance their charge states with the shape of calcium-binding proteins and their versatile pool of partners depending on the circumstances they transmit. Accurately determining the ionic charges of those ions is essential for understanding their role in such processes.

Engineered protein G variants for multifunctional antibody-based assemblies.

We have developed a portfolio of antibody-based modules that can be prefabricated as standalone units and snapped together in plug-and-play fashion to create uniquely powerful multifunctional assemblies. The basic building blocks are derived from multiple pairs of native and modified Fab scaffolds and protein G (PG) variants engineered by phage display to introduce high pair-wise specificity. The variety of possible Fab-PG pairings provides a highly orthogonal system that can be exploited to perform challenging cell biology operations in a straightforward manner.

Likes and Hashtags: Exploring the Potential Relationship Between Social Media use and the Emotional Wellbeing of Oncology Professionals.

Purpose: To explore the potential relationship between social media (SoMe) and burnout or overall wellbeing within the field of oncology.

Design: A cross-sectional study of adult and pediatric oncology professionals conducted using an anonymous electronic survey. The survey was disseminated through the Children's Oncology Group (COG) and the SWOG Cancer Research Network (SWOG) member listservs.

Progressive Approaches in Oncological Diagnosis and Surveillance: Real-Time Impedance-Based Techniques and Advanced Algorithms.

Cancer remains a formidable global health challenge, necessitating the development of innovative diagnostic techniques capable of early detection and differentiation of tumor/cancerous cells from their healthy counterparts. This review focuses on the confluence of advanced computational algorithms with noninvasive, label-free impedance-based biophysical methodologies-techniques that assess biological processes directly without the need for external markers or dyes. This review elucidates a diverse array of state-of-the-art impedance-based technologies, illuminating distinct electrical signatures inherent to cancer vs healthy tissues.

Modeling the response to interleukin-21 to inform natural killer cell immunotherapy.

Natural killer (NK) cells are emerging agents for cancer therapy. Several different cytokines are used to generate NK cells for adoptive immunotherapy including interleukin (IL)-2, IL-12, IL-15 and IL-18 in solution, and membrane-bound IL-21. These cytokines drive NK cell activation through the integration of signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT) and nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) pathways, which overlap and synergize, making it challenging to predict optimal cytokine combinations for both proliferation and cytotoxicity.

Super-resolution imaging of proteins inside live mammalian cells with mLIVE-PAINT.

Super-resolution microscopy has revolutionized biological imaging, enabling the visualization of structures at the nanometer length scale. Its application in live cells, however, has remained challenging. To address this, we adapted LIVE-PAINT, an approach we established in yeast, for application in live mammalian cells.