Automated system for diagnosing pulmonary fibrosis using crackle analysis in recorded lung sounds based on iterative envelope mean fractal dimension filter.

Patients with pulmonary fibrosis (PF) often experience long waits before getting a correct diagnosis, and this delay in reaching specialized care is associated with increased mortality, regardless of the severity of the disease. Early diagnosis and timely treatment of PF can potentially extend life expectancy and maintain a better quality of life. Crackles present in the recorded lung sounds may be crucial for the early diagnosis of PF.

A mixed methods study investigating factors affecting adherence to Plasmodium vivax malaria primaquine radical cure regimens among migrants along the Myanmar-Thailand border.

Background: The countries within the Greater Mekong Region of Southeast Asia have pledged to eliminate malaria by 2030. Elimination of Plasmodium vivax malaria is challenging as it requires radical cure to prevent relapse. Understanding and facilitating adherence to primaquine radical cure regimens is necessary for malaria elimination.

Transmission of transgenic mosquito-killing fungi during copulation.

Entomopathogenic fungi engineered to express insect-specific neurotoxins have demonstrated potential as microbial control agents against malaria mosquitoes. Currently, the primary application method is via direct contact of spores with indoor resting mosquitoes. However, many malaria-transmitting mosquitoes feed and rest outdoors.

The ECOLANG Multimodal Corpus of adult-child and adult-adult Language.

Communication comprises a wealth of multimodal signals (e.g., gestures, eye gaze, intonation) in addition to speech and there is a growing interest in the study of multimodal language by psychologists, linguists, neuroscientists and computer scientists.

Factors influencing virtual reality use in paediatric acquired brain injury upper limb rehabilitation: a qualitative study.

Objective: Upper limb movement difficulties in children with acquired brain injury (ABI) result in longer recovery times compared with lower limb. Intensive neurorehabilitation promotes a good long-term functional outcome. Virtual reality (VR) and video game technologies are invaluable adjuncts to traditional neurological rehabilitation as they help to motivate, engage and gain children's compliance in goal-directed therapy.

Tracking Persistent Symptoms in Scotland (TraPSS): a longitudinal prospective cohort study of COVID-19 recovery after mild acute infection.

Background: COVID-19 disease results in disparate responses between individuals and has led to the emergence of long coronavirus disease (Long-COVID), characterised by persistent and cyclical symptomology. To understand the complexity of Long-COVID, the importance of symptom surveillance and prospective longitudinal studies is evident.

Methods: A 9-month longitudinal prospective cohort study was conducted within Scotland (n=287), using a mobile app to determine the proportion of recovered individuals and those with persistent symptoms and common symptoms, and associations with gender and age.

How can more women with pre-existing type 1 and type 2 diabetes be supported to prepare for pregnancy after a baby loss? A qualitative exploration of lived experiences in the UK.

Objectives: Explore, understand and analyse how women with pre-existing diabetes can be better supported during the inter-pregnancy interval-the time after a baby loss and before a subsequent pregnancy.

Design: Qualitative, semi-structured online interviews took place between November 2020 and July 2021. Data were analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis.

Development and external validation of the SMASHERS risk prediction model for aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage in the general population: a population-based prospective cohort study.

Objectives: Aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage (ASAH) is a severe stroke type, preventable by screening for intracranial aneurysms followed by treatment in high-risk individuals. We aimed to develop and validate a risk prediction model for ASAH in the general population to identify high-risk individuals.

Design: We used the population-based prospective cohort studies of the United Kingdom (UK) Biobank for model development and the Trøndelag Health (HUNT) Study for model validation.

Does candidate race influence simulated patient ratings in standardised assessments of clinical practice? A single-blinded randomised study in UK medical schools.

Objectives: Standardisation of medical examinations involves minimising assessor stereotyping and bias for a fair process. This study aimed to determine whether being a non-white candidate affected scoring by simulated patients, compared with a white candidate, at three different performance grades in the same history-taking station.

Design: Single-blinded, video-based, randomised study.

A Digital Tool for Clinical Evidence-Driven Guideline Development by Studying Properties of Trial Eligible and Ineligible Populations: Development and Usability Study.

Background: Clinical guideline development preferentially relies on evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs). RCTs are gold-standard methods to evaluate the efficacy of treatments with the highest internal validity but limited external validity, in the sense that their findings may not always be applicable to or generalizable to clinical populations or population characteristics. The external validity of RCTs for the clinical population is constrained by the lack of tailored epidemiological data analysis designed for this purpose due to data governance, consistency of disease or condition definitions, and reduplicated effort in analysis code.

Evaluating the transcriptional regulators of arterial gene expression via a catalogue of characterized arterial enhancers.

The establishment and growth of the arterial endothelium requires the coordinated expression of numerous genes. However, regulation of this process is not yet fully understood. Here, we combined analysis with transgenic mice and zebrafish models to characterize arterial-specific enhancers associated with eight key arterial identity genes (/, , and .

Prevalence and patient characteristics associated with cardiovascular disease risk factor screening in UK primary care for people with severe mental illness: an electronic healthcare record study.

Background: People with severe mental illness (SMI) are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), and initiatives for CVD risk factor screening in the UK have not reduced disparities.

Objectives: To describe the annual screening prevalence for CVD risk factors in people with SMI from April 2000 to March 2018, and to identify factors associated with receiving no screening and regular screening.

Methods: We identified adults with a diagnosis of SMI (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or 'other psychosis') from UK primary care records in Clinical Practice Research Datalink.

Identification of Southeast Asian Anopheles mosquito species with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry using a cross-correlation approach.

Background: Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) is proposed for mosquito species identification. The absence of public repositories sharing mass spectra and open-source data analysis pipelines for fingerprint matching to mosquito species limits the widespread use of this technology. The objective of this study was to develop a free open-source data analysis pipeline for Anopheles species identification with MALDI-TOF MS.

Antimicrobial resistance profiles and molecular epidemiology of isolates from Scottish bovine mastitis cases.

are opportunistic pathogens which can cause mastitis in dairy cattle. mastitis often has a poor cure rate and can lead to the development of chronic infection, which has an impact on both health and production. However, there are few studies which aim to fully characterize by whole-genome sequencing from bovine mastitis cases.

Prevalence and clinical impact of the London classification: a prospective, international, multicenter study from the Lower Gastrointestinal International Consortium (LoGIC).

Introduction: The London classification provides standardization for characterization of disorders of anorectal function, although prevalences and clinical impact of these disorders are unclear.

Methods: An international research consortium was established, including five specialist centers. Prospective data were collected in consecutive adults referred for refractory chronic constipation (CC), fecal incontinence (FI) or coexistent CC/FI over 18 months.

Electrical Impedance Tomography meets Reduced Order Modelling: a framework for faster and more reliable electrical conductivity estimations.

Objective: Inclusion of individualised electrical conductivities of head tissues is crucial for the accuracy of electrical source imaging techniques based on electro/magnetoencephalography and the efficacy of transcranial electrical stimulation. Parametric electrical impedance tomography (pEIT) is a method to cheaply and non-invasively estimate them using electrode arrays on the scalp to apply currents and measure the resulting potential distribution. Conductivities are then estimated by iteratively fitting a forward model to the measurements, incurring a prohibitive computational cost that is generally lowered at the expense of accuracy.

Diabetes complications in people with alcohol use disorder and type 2 diabetes.

Background: People living with alcohol use disorder (AUD) who develop Type 2 Diabetes (T2DM) may be at higher risk of diabetes-complications.

Aim: Our aims were to compare diabetes-monitoring and incidence of diabetes-complications between people with and without AUD prior to T2DM diagnosis attending primary care in England.

Design & Setting: We used the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) Aurum linked with Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) and Office for National Statistics (ONS) mortality data.

Irreversible electroporation as an intraoperative adjunctive treatment for locally advanced pancreatic cancer after neoadjuvant therapy: An initial clinical experience.

Backgrounds/aims: Irreversible electroporation (IRE) may have a potential application as either a "back-up therapy" or for margin accentuation during trial dissection of locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC). The aim of this report was to describe our experience with IRE in terms of its potential applications mentioned above.

Methods: A clinical policy to use IRE in LAPC patients undergoing exploratory surgery after neoadjuvant therapy (NAT) was initiated in 2017.

Diagnosing anaemia via smartphone colorimetry of the eye in a population of pregnant women.

Objective Screening for disease using a smartphone camera is an emerging tool for conditions such as jaundice and anaemia, which are associated with a colour change (yellowing in jaundice; pallor in anaemia) of the external tissues. Based on this, we aimed to test a technique to non-invasively screen for anaemia in a population highly affected by anaemia: pregnant women in India. In this group, anaemia can have severe health consequences for both the mother and child.

PET-Based Risk Stratification in Primary Mediastinal B-Cell Lymphoma: A Comparative Analysis of Different Segmentation Methods in the IELSG37 Trial Patient Cohort.

Standardizing tumor measurement on F-FDG PET is crucial for the routine clinical use of powerful PET-derived lymphoma prognostic factors such as metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and total lesion glycolysis (TLG). The recent proposal of an SUV of 4 as a new reference segmentation threshold for most aggressive lymphomas may homogenize volume-based metrics and facilitate their clinical application. This study compared MTV and TLG in primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL) patients estimated using an SUV of 4 and the current threshold at 25% of SUV Baseline PET metrics were evaluated in 501 PMBCL patients from the IELSG37 trial.

Do orthodontists consider endodontic complications in their orthodontic management of teeth with a history of dental trauma? A vignette survey.

Background: Dental trauma is a frequent injury seen commonly in young children. There is a link between malocclusion and the incidence of traumatic dental injuries. Orthodontic therapy has been suggested as a preventative measure in correcting unfavourable malocclusions and potentially avoiding traumatic dental injuries.

The development and evaluation of multiple regression equations based on four common nutritional analysis packages to predict the metabolisable energy density of diets fed to grower/finisher and adult pigs and their use for rat and mouse diets.

We have used multiple regression analyses to develop a series of metabolisable energy (ME) prediction equations from chemical analyses of pig diets that can be extended to murine diets. We compiled four datasets from an extensive range of published metabolism studies with grower/finisher and adult pigs. The analytes in the datasets were increasingly complex, comprising: 1.

Detection of low frequency artemisinin resistance mutations, C469Y, P553L and A675V, and fixed antifolate resistance mutations in asymptomatic primary school children in Kenya.

Background: To understand the emergence and spread of drug-resistant parasites in malaria-endemic areas, accurate assessment and monitoring of antimalarial drug resistance markers is critical. Recent advances in next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have enabled the tracking of drug-resistant malaria parasites.

Methods: In this study, we used Targeted Amplicon Deep Sequencing (TADS) to characterise the genetic diversity of the Pfk13, Pfdhfr, Pfdhps, and Pfmdr1 genes among primary school-going children in 15 counties in Kenya (Bungoma, Busia, Homa Bay, Migori, Kakamega, Kilifi, Kirinyaga, Kisii, Kisumu, Kwale, Siaya, Tana River, Turkana, Vihiga and West Pokot).

Prolactin-mediates a lactation-induced suppression of arcuate kisspeptin neuronal activity necessary for lactational infertility in mice.

The specific role that prolactin plays in lactational infertility, as distinct from other suckling or metabolic cues, remains unresolved. Here, deletion of the prolactin receptor (Prlr) from forebrain neurons or arcuate kisspeptin neurons resulted in failure to maintain normal lactation-induced suppression of estrous cycles. Kisspeptin immunoreactivity and pulsatile LH secretion were increased in these mice, even in the presence of ongoing suckling stimulation and lactation.