An exploratory analysis of differences in serum protein expression by sex in patients with systemic sclerosis associated interstitial lung disease.

Background: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a rare connective tissue disease, frequently affecting the skin, lungs, and pulmonary vasculature. Approximately 30-50% of SSc patients develop interstitial lung disease (SSc-ILD), with 30-35% of related deaths attributed to it. Even though men are less likely to develop systemic sclerosis, they have a higher incidence of SSc-ILD than women, and they tend to develop it at a younger age with a higher mortality rate.

Plastome data provides new insights into population differentiation and evolution of Ginkgo in the Sichuan Basin of China.

Background: Ginkgo biloba L., an iconic living fossil, challenges traditional views of evolutionary stasis. While nuclear genomic studies have revealed population structure across China, the evolutionary patterns reflected in maternally inherited plastomes remain unclear, particularly in the Sichuan Basin - a potential glacial refugium that may have played a crucial role in Ginkgo's persistence.

Solu: a cloud platform for real-time genomic pathogen surveillance.

Background: Genomic surveillance is extensively used for tracking public health outbreaks and healthcare-associated pathogens. Despite advancements in bioinformatics pipelines, there are still significant challenges in terms of infrastructure, expertise, and security when it comes to continuous surveillance. The existing pipelines often require the user to set up and manage their own infrastructure and are not designed for continuous surveillance that demands integration of new and regularly generated sequencing data with previous analyses.

Genetic inbreeding load and its individual prediction for milk yield in French dairy sheep.

Background: The magnitude of inbreeding depression depends on the recessive burden of the individual, which can be traced back to the hidden (recessive) inbreeding load among ancestors. However, these ancestors carry different alleles at potentially deleterious loci and therefore there is individual variability of this inbreeding load. Estimation of the additive genetic value for inbreeding load is possible using a decomposition of inbreeding in partial inbreeding components due to ancestors.

Predicting breast cancer prognosis using PR and PIK3CA biomarkers: a comparative analysis of diagnostic groups.

Purpose: To evaluate the prognostic significance of progesterone receptor (PR) expression and the PIK3CA mutation status in HR+/HER2 - breast cancer patients, with the goal of screening patients who may derive the greatest benefit from PI3K-targeted therapy.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 152 HR+/HER2 - breast cancer patients stratified by PR expression levels and PIK3CA mutation status. The study population was divided into groups on the basis of a median PR threshold of 50% and further subdivided by PIK3CA mutation status.

Aura phenomenon: a proposal for an etiology-based clinical classification.

Background: The term "aura" refers to a well-defined pattern of usually positive, progressive, and reversible neurological symptoms, with spreading depolarization as the underlying mechanism. While commonly associated with migraine, aura can also occur in other neurological disorders (i.e.

Assessment of a Single-Element Scanning System for Enhanced Photoacoustic Imaging of Brain Hemorrhage.

The use of photoacoustic brain imaging for hemorrhage detection holds significant clinical importance. This study focuses on the performance of sensitivity and detection capabilities of a single-element scanning system, considering the remarkable signal-to-noise ratio of photoacoustic signals generated by a single-element transducer. By employing blood vessel-like phantoms and ex vivo brain phantoms, we demonstrated the superior efficacy of the single-element scanning method over the transducer array system in the context of brain hemorrhage detection.

Career Choices for Graduates of Combined Medicine-Pediatrics Residency Programs: A Multi-year Survey.

Background: Combined medicine-pediatrics training was formally established in 1967 by the American Board of Pediatrics and the American Board of Internal Medicine. More than 8000 physicians have completed dual training. Their career choices are not well-described.

Advances in surgical management of chronic lymphedema: current strategies and future directions.

Lymphedema is a chronic condition caused by the accumulation of protein-rich fluid in the interstitial tissue, resulting in edema and a diminished quality of life. When first-line treatments like complete decongestive therapy (CDT) fail, surgical options are considered. These include physiological procedures like lymphaticovenous anastomosis (LVA) and vascularized lymph node transfer (VLNT), which aim to restore lymphatic function, as well as reductive procedures such as liposuction and excisional techniques, which reduce limb volume.

The impact of co-housing on murine aging studies.

Analysis of preclinical lifespan studies often assume that outcome data from co-housed animals are independent. In practice, treatments, such as controlled feeding or putative life-extending compounds, are applied to whole housing units, and as a result, the outcomes are potentially correlated within housing units. We consider intra-class (here, intra-cage) correlation in three published and two unpublished lifespan studies of aged mice encompassing more than 20,000 observations.

Mitochondrial dysfunction is a major cause of thromboinflammation and inflammatory cell death in critical illnesses.

Background: Mitochondria generate the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) necessary for eukaryotic cells, serving as their primary energy suppliers, and contribute to host defense by producing reactive oxygen species. In many critical illnesses, including sepsis, major trauma, and heatstroke, the vicious cycle between activated coagulation and inflammation results in tissue hypoxia-induced mitochondrial dysfunction, and impaired mitochondrial function contributes to thromboinflammation and cell death.

Methods: A computer-based online search was performed using the PubMed and Web of Science databases for published articles concerning sepsis, trauma, critical illnesses, cell death, mitochondria, inflammation, coagulopathy, and organ dysfunction.

The Impact of Peer-Based Recovery Support Services: Mediating Factors of Client Outcomes.

Research demonstrates a positive impact of Peer Based Recovery Support Services (PBRSS) facilitated by peer recovery specialists (PRS), who are people in recovery from behavioral health conditions (e.g., substance use disorders [SUD] and mental health conditions).

Social Determinants, Mental Well-Being, and Disrupted Life Transitions Among Young Adults with Disabling Mental Health Conditions.

This study sought to understand how young adults (age 18-25) with histories of mental health disorders are coping with disrupted transitions to adulthood during the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional web survey was conducted in March-June 2021 of 967 US young adults with pre-pandemic psychiatric disability to assess their current psychiatric status, interrupted transitions, and associations with social determinants including income, community participation, and social context. Mental health was assessed with the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), and PTSD Checklist-Civilian Version.

Exploring a shared vision for success in permanent supportive housing: a community-partnered study in Colorado, USA.

In the United States and within Colorado, the number of persons experiencing homelessness has risen, with over 600,000 counted on a single night in 2023. Limited data integration across healthcare and social services hinders understanding of how permanent supportive housing (PSH) affects health outcomes. Our study in partnership with healthcare experts, housing providers, and a community advisory panel aimed to integrate data from health records, the justice system, and housing case manager notes to create a multidimensional measure of PSH success.

Prevalence of processed foods in major US grocery stores.

The offering of grocery stores is a strong driver of consumer decisions. While highly processed foods such as packaged products, processed meat and sweetened soft drinks have been increasingly associated with unhealthy diets, information on the degree of processing characterizing an item in a store is not straightforward to obtain, limiting the ability of individuals to make informed choices. GroceryDB, a database with over 50,000 food items sold by Walmart, Target and Whole Foods, shows the degree of processing of food items and potential alternatives in the surrounding food environment.

Predictive equation derived from 6,497 doubly labelled water measurements enables the detection of erroneous self-reported energy intake.

Nutritional epidemiology aims to link dietary exposures to chronic disease, but the instruments for evaluating dietary intake are inaccurate. One way to identify unreliable data and the sources of errors is to compare estimated intakes with the total energy expenditure (TEE). In this study, we used the International Atomic Energy Agency Doubly Labeled Water Database to derive a predictive equation for TEE using 6,497 measures of TEE in individuals aged 4 to 96 years.

Population Pharmacokinetics of Sotorasib in Healthy Subjects and Advanced Solid Tumor Patients Harboring a KRAS Mutation from Phase 1 and Phase 2 Studies.

Sotorasib is a novel KRAS inhibitor that has shown robust efficacy, safety, and tolerability in patients with KRAS mutation. The objectives of the population pharmacokinetic (PK) analysis were to characterize sotorasib population PK in healthy subjects and patients with advanced solid tumors with KRAS mutation from 6 clinical studies, evaluate the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic factors on PK parameters, and perform simulations to further assess the impact of identified covariates on sotorasib exposures. A two-compartment disposition model with three transit compartments for absorption and time-dependent clearance and bioavailability well described sotorasib PK.

Loss of Kmt2c or Kmt2d primes urothelium for tumorigenesis and redistributes KMT2A-menin to bivalent promoters.

Members of the KMT2C/D-KDM6A complex are recurrently mutated in urothelial carcinoma and in histologically normal urothelium. Here, using genetically engineered mouse models, we demonstrate that Kmt2c/d knockout in the urothelium led to impaired differentiation, augmented responses to growth and inflammatory stimuli and sensitization to oncogenic transformation by carcinogen and oncogenes. Mechanistically, KMT2D localized to active enhancers and CpG-poor promoters that preferentially regulate the urothelial lineage program and Kmt2c/d knockout led to diminished H3K4me1, H3K27ac and nascent RNA transcription at these sites, which leads to impaired differentiation.

Prevalence and Temporal Trends of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Medication Fills During Pregnancy and Breastfeeding in Denmark.

Background And Objectives: Females of reproductive age are increasingly using attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medication, but its use during pregnancy and breastfeeding is largely unknown. The aim of this study is to examine the prevalence of ADHD medication fills during pregnancy and breastfeeding, including characteristics of these females and cohort differences over time.

Methods: We conducted a descriptive study using Danish nationwide registers.

Detecting early cognitive deficits in preclinical Alzheimer's disease using a remote digital multi-day learning paradigm.

Remote, digital cognitive testing on an individual's own device provides the opportunity to deploy previously understudied but promising cognitive paradigms in preclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD). The Boston Remote Assessment for NeuroCognitive Health (BRANCH) captures a personalized learning curve for the same information presented over seven consecutive days. Here, we examined BRANCH multi-day learning curves (MDLCs) in 167 cognitively unimpaired older adults (age = 74.

Review of Impact of Risk Reduction Sessions on Sexual Behaviors in HIV Prevention Trials: Insights from Africa.

Over the past two decades, numerous HIV prevention trials have targeted thousands of young African women, aiming not only to reduce transmissions through biomedical interventions but also to promote safe sexual practices through intensive risk reduction sessions. The primary objective of this study was to review the impact of risk reduction sessions in HIV prevention trials conducted in Africa. We assessed changes in sexual behaviors among women enrolled in various biomedical intervention trials across the African region using both visual and quantitative evaluations.