Peptide nucleic acid (PNA) clamps reduce amplification of host chloroplast and mitochondria rRNA gene sequences and increase detected diversity in 16S rRNA gene profiling analysis of oak-associated microbiota.

Background: Acquiring representative bacterial 16S rRNA gene community profiles in plant microbiome studies can be challenging due to the excessive co-amplification of host chloroplast and mitochondrial rRNA gene sequences that reduce counts of plant-associated bacterial sequences. Peptide Nucleic Acid (PNA) clamps prevent this by blocking PCR primer binding or binding within the amplified region of non-target DNA to stop the function of DNA polymerase. Here, we applied a universal chloroplast (p)PNA clamp and a newly designed mitochondria (m)PNA clamp to minimise host chloroplast and mitochondria amplification in 16S rRNA gene amplicon profiles of leaf, bark and root tissue of two oak species (Quercus robur and Q.

Brain drain in Emergency Medicine in Lebanon, building locally and exporting globally.

Objective: Despite the growth of Emergency Medicine (EM) globally, shortages of EM-trained physicians persist in many countries, disproportionately affecting lower middle/low-income countries (LMIC/LIC). This study examines the career paths of graduates of an Emergency Medicine residency-training program established in Lebanon with the aim of building local capacity in EM.

Design And Patients: This descriptive study utilizes secondary data sourced from an alumni database that includes nine cohorts of graduates from an Emergency Medicine residency program at the American University of Beirut Medical Center in Lebanon.

Experiences, perceptions and ethical considerations of the malaria infection study in Thailand.

Background: Thailand has made significant progress in malaria control efforts in the past decade, with a decline in the number of reported cases. However, due to cross-border movements over the past 5 years, reported malaria cases in Thailand have risen. The Malaria Infection Study in Thailand (MIST) involves deliberate infection of healthy volunteers with Plasmodium vivax malaria parasites, and the assessment of the efficacy of potential vaccine and drug candidates in order to understand acquired protection against malaria parasites.

Barriers and facilitators to engagement with between-session work for low-intensity Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)-based interventions: a qualitative exploration of practitioner perceptions.

Background: To address the growing demand for psychological treatment, healthcare providers are increasingly utilising low-intensity interventions, characterised by reduced practitioner contact and emphasis on independent patient engagement with therapeutic materials through between-session work (BSW). While BSW is critical for maximising treatment outcomes, patients and practitioners report challenges with its completion. Research identifying factors influencing between-session engagement in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) has largely focused on high-intensity CBT, limiting understanding within low-intensity contexts.

Artificial intelligence methods applied to longitudinal data from electronic health records for prediction of cancer: a scoping review.

Background: Early detection and diagnosis of cancer are vital to improving outcomes for patients. Artificial intelligence (AI) models have shown promise in the early detection and diagnosis of cancer, but there is limited evidence on methods that fully exploit the longitudinal data stored within electronic health records (EHRs). This review aims to summarise methods currently utilised for prediction of cancer from longitudinal data and provides recommendations on how such models should be developed.

The disparities and development trajectories of nations in achieving the sustainable development goals.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a comprehensive framework for societal progress and planetary health. However, it remains unclear whether universal patterns exist in how nations pursue these goals and whether key development areas are being overlooked. Here, we apply the product space methodology, widely used in development economics, to construct an 'SDG space of nations'.

Infertility and risk of ovarian cancer in the women's health initiative.

Purpose: There is a consistent relationship with greater ovulation frequency and increased risk of ovarian cancer. However, prior research on infertility, which may be associated with ovulation frequency through multiple mechanisms, and ovarian cancer has yielded conflicting results, possibly due to prior research conflating fertility treatment with infertility and restricting follow-up to premenopausal cases. Our objective was to determine the association between infertility and risk of postmenopausal ovarian cancer, overall and by histotype, in a population that had not received treatment with IVF.

Hearing loss and risk of major osteoporotic fracture: a population-based cohort study in the United Kingdom.

Unlabelled: Using the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink, our cohort study matched 237,297 individuals with hearing loss (HL) to 829,431 without HL. The study found an 8-10% higher risk of major osteoporotic fracture in individuals with HL compared to those without. Additionally, within the HL cohort, we identified risk factors for potential inclusion in fracture risk models.

Who drives weight stigma? A multinational exploration of clustering characteristics behind weight bias against preconception, pregnant, and postpartum women.

Background: Weight bias is a global health challenge and community members are endorsed as the most common source of weight bias. The nature of weight biases specifically against preconception, pregnant, and postpartum (PPP) women from the perspective of community members is not known, especially in terms of cross-cultural trends. We investigated the magnitude of explicit and implicit weight bias and profiles of characteristics associated with harbouring weight bias.

Investigating time-independent and time-dependent diffusion phenomena using steady-state diffusion MRI.

Diffusion MRI is a leading method to non-invasively characterise brain tissue microstructure across multiple domains and scales. Diffusion-weighted steady-state free precession (DW-SSFP) is an established imaging sequence for post-mortem MRI, addressing the challenging imaging environment of fixed tissue with short T and low diffusivities. However, a current limitation of DW-SSFP is signal interpretation: it is not clear what diffusion 'regime' the sequence probes and therefore its potential to characterise tissue microstructure.

A phenotype-based AI pipeline outperforms human experts in differentially diagnosing rare diseases using EHRs.

Rare diseases, affecting ~350 million people worldwide, pose significant challenges in clinical diagnosis due to the lack of experienced physicians and the complexity of differentiating between numerous rare diseases. To address these challenges, we introduce PhenoBrain, a fully automated artificial intelligence pipeline. PhenoBrain utilizes a BERT-based natural language processing model to extract phenotypes from clinical texts in EHRs and employs five new diagnostic models for differential diagnoses of rare diseases.

A morphometric signature to identify ductal carcinoma in situ with a low risk of progression.

Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) may progress to ipsilateral invasive breast cancer (iIBC), but often never will. Because DCIS is treated as early breast cancer, many women with harmless DCIS face overtreatment. To identify features associated with progression, we developed an artificial intelligence-based DCIS morphometric analysis pipeline (AIDmap) on hematoxylin-eosin-stained (H&E) tissue sections.

Hypertensive load predicts recovery of renal function for patients undergoing revascularisation for renal artery stenosis.

Renal ischaemia due to renal artery stenosis produces two differing responses - a juxtaglomerular hypertensive response and cortical renal dysfunction. The reversibility of renal impairment is not predictable, and thus renal revascularisation is controversial. This study aims to test the hypothesis that the hypertensive response to renal ischaemia reflects viable renal parenchyma, and thus could be used to predict the recovery in renal function.

Bias-corrected serum creatinine from UK Biobank electronic medical records generates an important data resource for kidney function trajectories.

Loss of kidney function is a substantial personal and public health burden. Kidney function is typically assessed as estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) based on serum creatinine. UK Biobank provides serum creatinine measurements from study center assessments (SC, n = 425,147 baseline, n = 15,314 with follow-up) and emerging electronic Medical Records (eMR, "GP-clinical") present a promising resource to augment this data longitudinally.

Molecular Insights into α-Synuclein Fibrillation: A Raman Spectroscopy and Machine Learning Approach.

The aggregation of α-synuclein is crucial to the development of Lewy body diseases, including Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies. The aggregation pathway of α-synuclein typically involves a defined sequence of nucleation, elongation, and secondary nucleation, exhibiting prion-like spreading. This study employed Raman spectroscopy and machine learning analysis, alongside complementary techniques, to characterize the biomolecular changes during the fibrillation of purified recombinant wild-type α-synuclein protein.

High prevalence of veterinary drugs in bird's nests.

The environmental impact of insecticides used as ectoparasitic treatments for companion animals is not well understood, since they are not subject to detailed environmental risk assessment. Many of these treatments include active ingredients such as fipronil and imidacloprid that are banned from agricultural use in the EU. These treatments are applied topically and can remain on the animal's fur for an extended period of time.

The financial cost of injuries and their association with team success in professional men's cricket.

Objectives: To quantify the direct and indirect costs associated with injuries in professional men's cricket from 2015/16 to 2021/22 and to report the association between the cost of injuries and team success.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Methods: Injury insurance claims were obtained for cricket-related injuries to determine direct costs.

Measuring parents' awareness, identification, and communication practices about acquaintance abuse against children in Pakistan.

Background: Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) is a growing healthcare issue worldwide. However, the acquittance rape is one of the underrepresented phenomena due to certain social and cultural concerns. Consequently, the role of parents is of greater significance to ensure the safety of their children outside and insider of their homes.

A practical approach to investigating nosocomial acquisition of Aspergillus.

Invasive mould disease (IMD) has a high mortality in immunosuppressed patients. Invasive aspergillosis (IA) is the most common IMD. A guideline for preventing IA has been published jointly by the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention, the Infectious Disease Society of America, and the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation.

Neonatal unit admission and offspring mental health trajectories across childhood and adolescence: a nationally representative UK cohort study.

Objective: To investigate the associations between neonatal unit admission (NNU) and subsequent emotional and behavioural difficulties during childhood and adolescence.

Design: Longitudinal general population cohort study.

Setting: The Millennium Cohort Study: nationally representative UK-based cohort.

A United Kingdom-wide audit of the laboratory investigation of primary aldosteronism.

Objectives: Primary Aldosteronism (PA) is a common but under-recognised cause of secondary hypertension. Early diagnosis with targeted medical and/or surgical intervention is important to prevent irreversible end-organ damage. An Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline was used to define audit standards against which to assess current United Kingdom (UK) laboratory practice.

Tactical Behaviors in Men's and Women's Middle-Distance Global Championship Track Finals.

Purpose: To analyze tactical behaviors associated with performance in track middle-distance global championship finals.

Methods: Finalists' season-best finishing race time, 100-m section times, and intermediate positions were obtained from 800- and 1500-m men's and women's finals in 2 Olympic Games and 5 World Championships. Differences between medalists, fourth- to eighth-ranked (T8), and ninth- to 12th/13th-ranked finalists in relative performance (relative to season-best), race time, and section times were determined.

Bone Stress Injury Epidemiology and Risk Factors in Female Off-Road Runners: A Systematic Review.

Background: Off-road running is a growing sport with little research investigating injury profiles of female participants. Bone stress injuries (BSIs) are a particularly detrimental injury with little known about their incidence and risk factors in female off-road runners.

Objective: Collate and review the available evidence reporting epidemiological data and risk factors associated with BSI in female off-road runners.

Whole genome sequencing and phylogenetic analysis to examine acquisition of Escherichia coli clones during international travel.

International travel facilitates the acquisition and carriage of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli (ESBL-E). We describe genomes of predominant ESBL-E clones detected before and after travel among subjects departing from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during 2015-2021, and genomes publicly available from countries visited by travelers. WGS (Illumina NovaSeq) was performed on 70 ESBL-E isolates from 66 travelers (18 pre- and 52 post-travel).