Cardioesophageal Reflex. Should it trigger clinician's response?

Cardiologists and gastroenterologists often encounter the coexistence of symptoms and functional abnormalities, but determining causation is more difficult.​​ In 1962 Smith and Papp first coined the term "linked angina". Their statement was preceded by the experiment whereby increase in bile duct pressure elicited the typical chest pain in patients with ischemic heart disease.

Endothelial Growth Media Components Alters SARS-CoV-2 Spike-Directed Growth Kinetics.

Direct SARS-CoV-2 infection of endothelial cells is challenging to study in vitro. To examine whether endothelial cell culture conditions impact the ability of SARS-CoV-2 to infect cells, we evaluated the effects of commercial cell culture media composition on SARS-CoV-2 Spike-directed viral infection. In African Green Monkey kidney epithelial cells (VeroE6), we found that commercial cell culture media (EGM2) produced inhibitory effects on recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV-SARS-CoV-2) growth that is not seen in Dulbecco's Modified Eagle Medium (DMEM).

The Shab family potassium channels are highly enriched at the presynaptic terminals of human neurons.

The Shab family voltage-gated K channels (i.e., Kv2.

The common murine retroviral integration site activating Hhex marks a distal regulatory enhancer co-opted in human Early T-cell precursor leukemia.

The Hhex gene encodes a transcription factor that is important for both embryonic and post-natal development, especially of hematopoietic tissues. Hhex is one of the most common sites of retroviral integration in mouse models. We found the most common integrations in AKXD (recombinant inbred strains) T-ALLs occur 57-61kb 3' of Hhex and activate Hhex gene expression.

The yeast checkpoint kinase Dun1p represses transcription of RNR genes independently of catalytic activity or Rad53p during respiratory growth.

One of the key events in DNA damage response (DDR) is activation of checkpoint kinases leading to activation of ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) and increased synthesis of deoxyribonucleotide triphosphates (dNTPs), required for DNA repair. Among other mechanisms, the activation of dNTP synthesis is driven by derepression of genes encoding RNR subunits RNR2, RNR3, and RNR4, following checkpoint activation and checkpoint kinase Dun1p-mediated phosphorylation and inactivation of transcriptional repressor Crt1p. We report here that in the absence of genotoxic stress during respiratory growth on nonfermentable carbon source acetate, inactivation of checkpoint kinases results in significant growth defect and alters transcriptional regulation of RNR2-4 genes and genes encoding enzymes of the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) and glyoxylate cycles and gluconeogenesis.

A conserved chaperone protein is required for the formation of a non-canonical type VI secretion system spike tip complex.

Type VI secretion systems (T6SS) are dynamic protein nanomachines found in Gram-negative bacteria that deliver toxic effector proteins into target cells in a contact-dependent manner. Prior to secretion, many T6SS effector proteins require chaperones and/or accessory proteins for proper loading onto the structural components of the T6SS apparatus. However, despite their established importance, the precise molecular function of several T6SS accessory protein families remains unclear.

A novel FOXM1-BCL2A1 axis determines unfavourable response to venetoclax in AML.

Forkhead box M1 (FOXM1), a Forkhead family transcription factor, is often overexpressed in a variety of human cancers, including AML and strongly associated with therapy resistance and unfavourable outcomes. In AML with NPM1 mutations NPM1/FOXM1 complex sequesters FOXM1 in the cytoplasm and confers favourable treatment outcomes for AML patients, because of FOXM1 inactivation. Inhibition of FOXM1 in AML cell lines and animal models of AML sensitizes AML cells to the Bcl2-inhibitor, venetoclax.

Localized K63 ubiquitin signaling is regulated by VCP/p97 during oxidative stress.

Under stress conditions, cells reprogram their molecular machineries to mitigate damage and promote survival. Ubiquitin signaling is globally increased during oxidative stress, controlling protein fate and supporting stress defenses at several subcellular compartments. However, the rules driving subcellular ubiquitin localization to promote concerted response mechanisms remain understudied.

Instrumented Facet Fusion in the Lumbosacral Spine: Long-Term Clinical and Radiographic Results.

Objective: Surgical treatments for degenerative lumbar spinal disorders involve decompression of neural structures and arthrodesis to address pain from unstable intervertebral segments. Lumbar instrumented facet fusion (IFF), a less invasive technique, has shown positive short-term outcomes, but reports on its long-term outcomes are scarce. This study aims to report its long-term biomechanical stability and clinical outcomes.

Autophagy activation within inflammatory microenvironment improved the therapeutic effect of MSC-Derived extracellular Vesicle in SLE.

Introduction: Developing strategies to improve the therapeutic efficacy of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) in autoimmune diseases have garnered increased attention.

Objectives: To evaluate whether rapamycin-induced autophagy within the systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) inflammatory microenvironment (Rapa-SLE) augments the therapeutic effects of MSC-derived EVs in SLE.

Methods: The therapeutic potential of the resulting EVs (Rapa-SLE-EV) was assessed in MRL/lpr mice.

A Deep Learning Tool for Minimum Joint Space Width Calculation on Anteroposterior Knee Radiographs.

Background: Minimum joint space width (mJSW) is an important continuous quantitative metric of osteoarthritis progression in the knee. The purpose of this study was to develop an automated measurement algorithm for mJSW in the medial and lateral compartments of the knee that can flexibly handle native knees as well as knees after arthroplasty.

Methods: We developed an end-to-end algorithm consisting of a deep learning segmentation model plus a computer vision algorithm to measure mJSW in the medial and lateral compartments of the knee.

Outpatient Total Knee Arthroplasty Has Become More Frequent Since the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic Without an Increase in Early Post-Operative Complications.

Introduction: Outpatient total knee arthroplasty (TKA) has quickly grown in popularity, largely driven by policy shifts and the recent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The aim of this study was to compare 30-day complications between outpatient TKA (oTKA) versus inpatient TKA (iTKA) before and after the COVID-19 pandemic to elucidate the effect of the pandemic on utilization and short-term outcomes.

Methods: Patients who underwent primary TKA between 2008 and 2021 were identified through Current Procedural Terminology codes in a national database.

Website Transparency and Information Dissemination among Urology Residency Programs.

Objective: To evaluate the transparency and quality of information dissemination among urology residency program websites and provide a checklist. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, urology residency programs have had to adjust their typical practices, including the adoption of virtual recruiting. Such efforts have included improving program websites, which are often the starting point for potential applicants to obtain information about programs.

Molecular basis of vitamin K driven γ-carboxylation at membrane interface.

The γ-carboxylation of glutamate residues enables Ca-mediated membrane assembly of protein complexes that support broad physiological functions including hemostasis, calcium homeostasis, immune response, and endocrine regulation. Modulating γ-carboxylation level provides prevalent treatments for hemorrhagic and thromboembolic diseases. This unique posttranslational modification requires vitamin K hydroquinone (KH) to drive highly demanding reactions catalyzed by the membrane-integrated γ-carboxylase (VKGC).

Examining the human-centred challenges of human-swarm interaction.

We adopt a tripart approach in describing the human-centred challenges with human-swarm interaction. First, the results of large-N laboratory studies will be discussed which found evidence of trust biases (e.g.

Performance prediction of hub-based swarms.

There are powerful tools for modelling swarms that have strong spatial structures like flocks of birds, schools of fish and formations of drones, but relatively little work on developing formalisms for other swarm structures like hub-based colonies doing foraging, maintaining a nest or selecting a new nest site. We present a method for finding low-dimensional representations of swarm state for simulated homogeneous hub-based colonies solving the best-of-N problem. The embeddings are obtained from latent representations of convolution-based graph neural network architectures and have the property that swarm states which have similar performance have very similar embeddings.

Swarm systems as a platform for open-ended evolutionary dynamics.

Artificial swarm systems have been extensively studied and used in computer science, robotics, engineering and other technological fields, primarily as a platform for implementing robust distributed systems to achieve pre-defined objectives. However, such swarm systems, especially heterogeneous ones, can also be utilized as an ideal platform for creating open-ended evolutionary dynamics that do not converge toward pre-defined goals but keep exploring diverse possibilities and generating novel outputs indefinitely. In this article, we review Swarm Chemistry and its variants as concrete sample cases to illustrate beneficial characteristics of heterogeneous swarm systems, including the cardinality leap of design spaces, multi-scale structures/behaviours and their diversity, and robust self-organization, self-repair and ecological interactions of emergent patterns, all of which serve as the driving forces for open-ended evolutionary processes.

Patterns of reflux in patients with CEAP C2 disease compared to patients with C6 venous ulceration.

Objective: CEAP categorizes patients based on disease progression and severity. Whether disease severity is associated with specific patterns of reflux is currently unknown. We hypothesize that patterns of reflux in patients with C2 and C5/6 disease will differ.

The evening complex component ELF3 recruits H3K4me3 demethylases to repress PHYTOCHROME INTERACTING FACTOR4 and 5 in Arabidopsis.

In Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), light and circadian clock signaling converge on PHYTOCHROME-INTERACTING FACTORS (PIFs) 4 and 5 to produce a daily rhythm of hypocotyl elongation. PIF4 and PIF5 expression is repressed at dusk by the evening complex (EC), consisting of EARLY FLOWERING3 (ELF3), ELF4, and LUX ARRHYTHMO (LUX). Here, we report that ELF3 recruits the JUMONJI (JMJ) H3K4me3 demethylases JMJ17 and JMJ18 to the PIF4 and PIF5 loci in the evening to remove their H3K4me3 marks.

Xanomeline-Trospium for Adults with Schizophrenia Experiencing Acute Psychosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Safety and Tolerability Outcomes.

The United States Food and Drug Administration approved the xanomeline-trospium combination in September 2024 for treating schizophrenia, based in part on three double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled trials in adults with schizophrenia experiencing acute psychosis. This random-effects model pairwise meta-analysis of those three trials found that xanomeline-trospium was comparable to placebo in terms of all-cause discontinuation, discontinuation rate due to adverse events, Simpson-Angus Scale score change, Barnes Akathisia Rating Scale score change, body weight change, body mass index change, blood pressure change, serum total cholesterol change, blood glucose change, QTc interval changes, and the incidence of headache, somnolence, insomnia, dizziness, akathisia, agitation, tachycardia, gastroesophageal reflux disease, diarrhea, increased weight, and decreased appetite. However, xanomeline-trospium was associated with a higher incidence of at least one adverse event, dry mouth, hypertension, nausea, vomiting, dyspepsia, and constipation, and increased serum triglyceride compared with placebo.

Latest clinical frontiers related to autism diagnostic strategies.

The diagnosis of autism is currently based on the developmental history, direct observation of behavior, and reported symptoms, supplemented by rating scales/interviews/structured observational evaluations-which is influenced by the clinician's knowledge and experience-with no established diagnostic biomarkers. A growing body of research has been conducted over the past decades to improve diagnostic accuracy. Here, we provide an overview of the current diagnostic assessment process as well as of recent and ongoing developments to support diagnosis in terms of genetic evaluation, telemedicine, digital technologies, use of machine learning/artificial intelligence, and research on candidate diagnostic biomarkers.

Gene and phenome-based analysis of the shared genetic architecture of eye diseases.

While many eye disorders are linked through defects in vascularization and optic nerve degeneration, genetic correlation studies have yielded variable results despite shared features. For example, glaucoma and myopia both share optic neuropathy as a feature, but genetic correlation studies demonstrated minimal overlap. By leveraging electronic health record (EHR) resources that contain genetic variables such as genetically predicted gene expression (GPGE), researchers have the potential to improve the identification of shared genetic drivers of disease by incorporating knowledge of shared features to identify disease-causing mechanisms.