Preserved ratio impaired spirometry, airflow obstruction, and their trajectories in relationship to chronic kidney disease: a prospective cohort study.

Spirometry findings, such as restrictive spirometry and airflow obstruction, are associated with renal outcomes. Effects of spirometry findings such as preserved ratio impaired spirometry (PRISm) and its trajectories on renal outcomes are unclear. This study aimed to investigate the impact of baseline and trajectories of spirometry findings on future chronic kidney disease (CKD) events.

Patients with neurological or psychiatric complications of COVID-19 have worse long-term functional outcomes: COVID-CNS-A multicentre case-control study.

It is established that patients hospitalised with COVID-19 often have ongoing morbidity affecting activity of daily living (ADL), employment, and mental health. However, little is known about the relative outcomes in patients with COVID-19 neurological or psychiatric complications. We conducted a UK multicentre case-control study of patients hospitalised with COVID-19 (controls) and those who developed COVID-19 associated acute neurological or psychiatric complications (cases).

Phosphorylation-dependent WRN-RPA interaction promotes recovery of stalled forks at secondary DNA structure.

The WRN protein is vital for managing perturbed replication forks. Replication Protein A strongly enhances WRN helicase activity in specific in vitro assays. However, the in vivo significance of RPA binding to WRN has largely remained unexplored.

Splicing accuracy varies across human introns, tissues, age and disease.

Alternative splicing impacts most multi-exonic human genes. Inaccuracies during this process may have an important role in ageing and disease. Here, we investigate splicing accuracy using RNA-sequencing data from >14k control samples and 40 human body sites, focusing on split reads partially mapping to known transcripts in annotation.

Patterns, timing and predictors of recurrence following pancreaticoduodenectomy for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: an international multicentre retrospective cohort study.

Background: Most patients undergoing pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) develop recurrence. No previous studies have investigated predictors of local-only recurrence following PD for PDAC. Our study aimed to determine timing, pattern and predictors of any-site and local-only recurrence following PD for PDAC.

Exploring the Use of Smartwatches and Activity Trackers for Health-Related Purposes for Children Aged 5 to 11 years: Systematic Review.

Background:  Digital health interventions targeting behavior change are promising in adults and adolescents; however, less attention has been given to younger children. The proliferation of wearables, such as smartwatches and activity trackers, that support the collection of and reflection on personal health data highlights an opportunity to consider novel approaches to supporting health in young children (aged 5-11 y).

Objective:  This review aims to investigate how smartwatches and activity trackers have been used across child health interventions (for children aged 5-11 y) for different health areas, specifically to identify the population characteristics of those being targeted, describe the characteristics of the devices being used, and report the feasibility and acceptability of these devices for health-related applications with children.

Appetite-Control and Eating-Behavior Traits Might Not Be Impacted by a Single Weight-Cycling Episode in Weight-Cycling Athletes: Results of the Wave Study.

Purpose: The impact of weight cycling (WC)-successive weight loss (WL) and weight regain (WG)-on athlete performance is well documented, but effects on appetite are not. This study assessed the impact of a WC episode on dietary and appetitive profiles in athletes, considering sex and sport type.

Methods: Athletes (28 male, 20 female) from combat (n = 23), strength (n = 12), and endurance (n = 13) sports participated in 3 conditions during a WC episode (baseline, WL, WG).

NIRS-BIDS: Brain Imaging Data Structure Extended to Near-Infrared Spectroscopy.

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is an increasingly popular neuroimaging technique that measures cortical hemodynamic activity in a non-invasive and portable fashion. Although the fNIRS community has been successful in disseminating open-source processing tools and a standard file format (SNIRF), reproducible research and sharing of fNIRS data amongst researchers has been hindered by a lack of standards and clarity over how study data should be organized and stored. This problem is not new in neuroimaging, and it became evident years ago with the proliferation of publicly available neuroimaging datasets.

The Soundtrack of a Clinic Day.

There is a hum and drum to the clinical day, sounds and rhythms that pervade physician and patient's soundscape. We hear but we do not listen. The soundtrack of the daily grind is experienced as an audio blanket of white noise.

Do final-year medical students in Scotland have the knowledge and confidence to deliver the physical activity guidelines? A cross-sectional online survey to evaluate changes over a decade.

Objectives: This study assessed knowledge of physical activity (PA) guidelines and confidence to deliver PA advice, across current final-year medical students in Scotland. This follows a 2013 survey finding that this cohort lacked this knowledge and confidence; thus, authors recommended improvements to undergraduate medical PA education and re-evaluation of these measures thereafter.

Design: A cross-sectional online survey.

How to: share and reuse data - challenges and solutions from PrIMAVeRa project.

Background: Data sharing accelerates scientific progress and improves evidence quality. Even though journals and funding institutions require investigators to share data, only a small part of studies made their data publicly available upon publication. The procedures necessary to share retrospective data for re-use in secondary data analysis projects can be cumbersome.

Pitfalls and practical suggestions for using local field potential recordings in DBS clinical practice and research.

Local field potential (LFP) recordings using chronically implanted sensing-enabled stimulators are a powerful tool for indexing symptom presence and severity in neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders, and for enhancing our neurophysiological understanding of brain processes. LFPs have gained interest as input signals for closed-loop deep brain stimulation (DBS) and can be used to inform DBS parameter selection. LFP recordings using chronically implanted sensing-enabled stimulators have various implementational challenges.

Cattle on the rocks: Understanding cattle mobility, diet, and seasonality in the Iberian Peninsula. The Middle Neolithic site of Cova de les Pixarelles (Tavertet, Osona).

Reconstructing past herd mobility, reproduction, and diet is crucial for understanding animal management practices among the first sedentary farming communities. It can also shed light on how domestic animals were integrated into the existing exchange networks of goods, products, and raw materials, and how they contributed to broader economic and social changes during the Neolithic. Despite the longstanding importance of cattle (Bos taurus) to herders, the role of cattle in the daily, seasonal, and annual cycle of activities of early farming communities remains relatively poorly understood.

Pulse-by-pulse treatment planning and its application to generic observations of ultra-high dose rate (FLASH) radiotherapy with photons and protons.

The exact temporal characteristics of beam delivery affect the efficacy and outcome of ultra-high dose rate (UHDR or "FLASH") radiotherapy, mainly due to the influence of the beam pulse structure on mean dose rate. Single beams may also be delivered in separate treatment sessions to elevate mean dose rate. This paper therefore describes a model for pulse-by-pulse treatment planning and demonstrates its application by making some generic observations of the characteristics of FLASH radiotherapy with photons and protons.

Mean-field approximation for networks with synchrony-driven adaptive coupling.

Synaptic plasticity plays a fundamental role in neuronal dynamics, governing how connections between neurons evolve in response to experience. In this study, we extend a network model of θ-neuron oscillators to include a realistic form of adaptive plasticity. In place of the less tractable spike-timing-dependent plasticity, we employ recently validated phase-difference-dependent plasticity rules, which adjust coupling strengths based on the relative phases of θ-neuron oscillators.

Singularity of Lévy walks in the lifted Pomeau-Manneville map.

Since groundbreaking works in the 1980s it is well-known that simple deterministic dynamical systems can display intermittent dynamics and weak chaos leading to anomalous diffusion. A paradigmatic example is the Pomeau-Manneville (PM) map which, suitably lifted onto the whole real line, was shown to generate superdiffusion that can be reproduced by stochastic Lévy walks (LWs). Here, we report that this matching only holds for parameter values of the PM map that are of Lebesgue measure zero in its two-dimensional parameter space.

Cross-Cultural Sense-Making of Global Health Crises: A Text Mining Study of Public Opinions on Social Media Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Developed and Developing Economies.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic reshaped social dynamics, fostering reliance on social media for information, connection, and collective sense-making. Understanding how citizens navigate a global health crisis in varying cultural and economic contexts is crucial for effective crisis communication.

Objective: This study examines the evolution of citizen collective sense-making during the COVID-19 pandemic by analyzing social media discourse across Italy, the United Kingdom, and Egypt, representing diverse economic and cultural contexts.

Effects of daylong exposure to indoor overheating on enterocyte damage and inflammatory responses in older adults: A randomized crossover trial.

We evaluated enterocyte damage (IFABP), microbial translocation (sCD14), and inflammatory responses (TNF-α, IL-6, CRP) in 16 older adults (66-78 years) during 8 hours rest in conditions simulating homes maintained at 22°C (control), the 26°C indoor temperature upper limit proposed by health agencies, and homes without air-conditioning during heatwaves (31°C, 36°C). Relative to 22°C, IFABP was elevated ~181 pg/mL after exposure to 31°C (P=0.07), and by ~378 pg/mL (P<0.

Elective Discontinuation of Larotrectinib in Pediatric Patients With TRK Fusion Sarcomas and Related Mesenchymal Tumors.

Larotrectinib is a highly selective tropomyosin receptor kinase (TRK) inhibitor with efficacy in children with TRK fusion tumors. We evaluated patient outcomes after elective discontinuation of larotrectinib in the absence of disease progression in a protocol-defined wait-and-see subset analysis of eligible patients where treatment resumption with larotrectinib was allowed if disease progressed. We also assessed the safety and efficacy of larotrectinib in all pediatric patients with sarcoma.

Botensilimab (Fc-enhanced anti-cytotoxic lymphocyte-association protein-4 antibody) Plus Balstilimab (anti-PD-1 antibody) in Patients With Relapsed/Refractory Metastatic Sarcomas.

Purpose: Outcomes for patients with advanced sarcomas are poor and there is a high unmet need to develop novel therapies. The purpose of this phase I study was to define the safety and efficacy of botensilimab (BOT), an Fc-enhanced anti-cytotoxic lymphocyte-association protein-4 antibody, plus balstilimab (BAL), an anti-PD-1 antibody, in advanced sarcomas.

Methods: BOT was administered intravenously (IV) at 1 mg/kg or 2 mg/kg once every 6 weeks in combination with BAL IV at 3 mg/kg once every 2 weeks for up to 2 years.

Frontline treatment of follicular lymphoma: What will it take to change current practice?

Follicular lymphoma is the most common subtype of indolent lymphoma. Despite multiple trials over the past decade showing improved progression-free survival with new first-line therapeutic strategies -such as anti-CD20 maintenance therapy and new glycoengineered anti-CD20 antibodies- no standardized approach has been widely adopted in routine clinical practice. Several factors may explain this, including the increased incidence of infectious adverse events associated with these therapies, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the lack of overall survival benefit despite long-term follow-up.

Prey depletion, interspecific competition, and the energetics of hunting in endangered African wild dogs, .

Large herbivores are in decline in much of the world, including sub-Saharan Africa, and true apex carnivores like the lion () decline in parallel with their prey. As a consequence, competitively subordinate carnivores like the African wild dog () are simultaneously experiencing a costly reduction in resources and a beneficial reduction in dominant competitors. The net effect is not intuitively obvious, but wild dogs' density, survival, and reproduction are all low in areas that are strongly affected by prey depletion.