Generation Z in Plastic Surgery: Challenges, Solutions and New Horizons - A European and transatlantic overview.

Introduction:   The entrance of Generation Z (born 1997-2012) into professional life, including the practice of medicine, marks a transformational shift in priorities and values. This generation, shaped by digital immersion and a strong focus on work-life balance, is redefining the landscape of Plastic Surgery. Their preferences for inclusivity, innovation, and structured working hours challenge traditional models of mentorship, patient care, and surgical training.

Differential Diagnosis of Age-Related Macular Degeneration.

A diagnosis of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) may have a significant impact on a patient's life. Therefore, it is important to consider differential diagnoses, as these can differ considerably from AMD regarding prognosis, inheritance, monitoring and therapy. Differential diagnoses include other macular diseases with drusen, drusen-like changes, monogenic retinal dystrophies, as well as a wide range of other, often rare macular diseases.

Association between psychophysically measured olfactory dysfunction and mental health status in long COVID patients.

Background: Long COVID frequently presents with persistent olfactory dysfunction (OD), affecting both physical and psychological well-being. This study aims to evaluate the mental health consequences of OD in long COVID patients.

Methodology: A cross-sectional study involved 86 adult patients.

The CASPAR study protocol. Can cervical stiffness predict successful vaginal delivery after induction of labour? a feasibility, cohort study.

Background: Induction of labour (IOL) is a common obstetric intervention in the UK, affecting up to 33% of deliveries. IOL aims to achieve a vaginal delivery prior to spontaneous onset of labour to prevent harm from ongoing pregnancy complications and is known to prevent stillbirths and reduce neonatal intensive care unit admissions. However, IOL doesn't come without risk and overall, 20% of mothers having an induction will still require a caesarean section birth and in primiparous mothers this rate is even higher.

Recent Advances in the Genetics of Ataxias: An Update on Novel Autosomal Dominant Repeat Expansions.

Purpose Of Review: Autosomal dominant cerebellar ataxias, also known as spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs), are genetically and clinically diverse neurodegenerative disorders characterized by progressive cerebellar dysfunction. Despite advances in sequencing technologies, a large proportion of patients with SCA still lack a definitive genetic diagnosis. The advent of advanced bioinformatic tools and emerging genomics technologies, such as long-read sequencing, offers an unparalleled opportunity to close the diagnostic gap for hereditary ataxias.

Personalized Dynamic Prediction Model for Biopsy Timing in Patients With Prostate Cancer During Active Surveillance.

Importance: Active surveillance (AS) for patients with prostate cancer (PC) often includes fixed repeat prostate biopsies that do not account for the varying risk of reclassification to significant disease. Given the invasive nature and potential complications of biopsies, a personalized approach is needed to balance the burden of biopsies with the risk of missing disease progression.

Objective: To develop and externally validate a dynamic model that predicts an individual's risk of PC reclassification during AS.

Colorectal Cancer and Central Obesity.

Importance: The proportion of colorectal cancer (CRC) cases attributable to excess weight, known as population attributable fraction (PAF), has been commonly based on measures of body mass index (BMI). Central obesity metrics, such as waist circumference (WC) and waist to hip ratio (WHR), are potentially better indicators of adiposity and have demonstrated stronger associations with CRC incidence.

Objectives: To examine PAFs of CRC cases that are attributable to high WC and WHR and compare them to those attributable to high BMI.

Why is implementing remote monitoring in virtual wards (Hospital at Home) for people living with frailty so hard? Qualitative interview study.

Background: There is relatively low uptake of remote monitoring on frailty virtual wards (Hospital at Home) compared to virtual wards caring for people with other medical conditions. However, reasons for low uptake are poorly understood.

Objectives: To explore the views and experiences of frailty virtual wards stakeholders involved in implementing remote monitoring.

Multidimensional vulnerability and financial risk protection in health in contexts of protracted conflict: Evidence from the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

This paper proposes a multidimensional vulnerability index for a setting of protracted conflict, which is applied to study the relationship between financial vulnerability and catastrophic healthcare expenditure (CHE) incidence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory in 2018. We find that our index better captures the extent of financial risk protection in health compared to conventional measures of financial welfare. Results indicate that the most vulnerable groups experience a significantly higher likelihood of incurring CHE, and this likelihood is increased for those living in the West Bank compared to the Gaza Strip.

Tyrosine supplementation is ineffective in facilitating soccer players' physical and cognitive performance during high-intensity intermittent exercise in hot conditions.

Tyrosine has been proposed to potentially provide ergogenic benefits to cognitive and physical performance in physiologically demanding environments. However research into its effectiveness on cognitive and physical performance during exercise in the heat has revealed mixed findings. This study examined the effects of a commonly employed dosage of tyrosine supplementation on soccer players' physical and decision-making performance, cognitive appraisal, and affective states, during prolonged high-intensity intermittent exercise in hot conditions.

Antioxidative and anticancer effects of Tacca chantrieri extract enhancing cisplatin sensitivity in cholangiocarcinoma cells.

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) poses a significant healthcare challenge due to the limited effects of chemotherapeutic drugs. Natural products have gained widespread attention in cancer research according to their promising anti-cancer effects with minimal adverse side effects. This study explored the potential of Tacca chantrieri (TC), a plant rich in bioactive compounds, as a therapeutic agent for CCA.

Household food insecurity, living conditions, and individual sense of security: A cross-sectional survey among Burkina Faso refugees in Ghana.

Food insecurity and achieving adequate nutrition is a major global challenge, especially in vulnerable groups such as refugee communities. In West Africa, thousands of Burkina Faso refugees have crossed the border into northern Ghana due to conflict and instability in their home country. We conducted a one-off cross-sectional survey to assess household food insecurity, living conditions, and sense of security among Burkina Faso refugees currently residing in the Upper East region of Ghana.

A narrative review of occupational solar ultraviolet radiation in Britain and skin cancer.

Background: Occupational exposure to solar ultraviolet (UV) is known to cause malignant melanoma (MM) and non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC). However, knowledge of the causal associations has developed erratically.

Aims: This review aims to identify when it was accepted that workplace solar UV exposure could cause skin cancer and when it was recognized that there was a risk for outdoor workers in Britain, identifying the steps employers should have taken to protect their workers.

Formal Thought Disorder in Schizophrenia: A Problematic History.

Background And Hypothesis: Formal thought disorder (FTD), studied even before the inception of the concept of schizophrenia, remains a deeply isolating experience for patients as well as a difficult one for their interlocutors, including clinicians.

Study Design: The views on language, paralinguistic, and extralinguistic features exhibited by patients with severe mental ill health are reviewed, including the contributions from 19th-century European authors to the last third of the 20th century.

Study Results: Stages in the construction of FTD are described, including its merging with Dementia Praecox, and its subsequently being shaped by notions such as primitive archaic thinking, paralogical or autistic thinking, concretism, overinclusive thinking, and the return of the efforts to describing it with increased reliability.

Trial of Labor After Cesarean Delivery in Individuals With Twin Pregnancies and Two Prior Cesarean Deliveries.

Objective: To investigate short-term maternal and neonatal outcomes in individuals with twin pregnancies and two prior cesarean deliveries who underwent trial of labor after cesarean (TOLAC).

Methods: A cross-sectional study of live-birth data was conducted between 2014 and 2021 in the United States. Individuals with more than two prior cesarean deliveries and multiple gestations higher than twins were excluded.

Nanopore sequencing reveals that DNA replication compartmentalisation dictates genome stability and instability in Trypanosoma brucei.

The Trypanosoma brucei genome is structurally complex. Eleven megabase-sized chromosomes each comprise a transcribed core flanked by silent subtelomeres, housing thousands of Variant Surface Glycoprotein (VSG) genes. Additionally, hundreds of sub-megabase chromosomes contain 177 bp repeats of unknown function, and VSG transcription sites localise to many telomeres.

Sexual and reproductive health needs of women with severe mental illness in low- and middle-income countries: A scoping review.

Background: This scoping review aimed to understand the extent and type of evidence in relation to sexual and reproductive health needs of women with severe mental illness (SMI) in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) and to summarise those needs.

Methods: Inclusion criteria were 1) focus on sexual and reproductive health needs 2) women or girls with SMI, professionals, caregivers of women with SMI and community members 3) study set in a LMIC 4) peer reviewed literature (no restriction on study date or design). Studies were identified from comprehensive searches of Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL and PsycINFO (to July 2023).

The dengue disquisition: A low-cost public housing conundrum in Klang Valley, Malaysia.

Dengue remains the most rapidly advancing vector-borne disease in the world, and while the disease burden is predominantly in low-to-middle-income countries, the association with poverty remains in question. Consequently, a study was undertaken to evaluate the prevalence of anti-dengue antibodies among individuals residing in the People's Housing Program (PPR), a government-sponsored low-cost housing initiative targeting low-income earners. This type of public housing often faces challenges, including substandard housing facilities.

Signalling pathways involved in urotensin II induced ventricular myocyte hypertrophy.

Sustained pathologic myocardial hypertrophy can result in heart failure(HF); a significant health issue affecting a large section of the population worldwide. In HF there is a marked elevation in circulating levels of the peptide urotensin II(UII) but it is unclear whether this is a result of hypertrophy or whether the high levels contribute to the development of hypertrophy. The aim of this study is to investigate a role of UII and its receptor UT in the development of cardiac hypertrophy and the signalling molecules involved.

Long-term health consequences and costs of changes in alcohol consumption in England during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background And Aims: The COVID-19 pandemic led to changes in alcohol consumption in England. Evidence suggests that one-fifth to one-third of adults increased their alcohol consumption, while a similar proportion reported consuming less. Heavier drinkers increased their consumption the most and there was a 20% increase in alcohol-specific deaths in England in 2020 compared with 2019, a trend continuing through 2021 and 2022.

A systematic review of machine learning applications in predicting opioid associated adverse events.

Machine learning has increasingly been applied to predict opioid-related harms due to its ability to handle complex interactions and generating actionable predictions. This review evaluated the types and quality of ML methods in opioid safety research, identifying 44 studies using supervised ML through searches of Ovid MEDLINE, PubMed and SCOPUS databases. Commonly predicted outcomes included postoperative opioid use (n = 15, 34%) opioid overdose (n = 8, 18%), opioid use disorder (n = 8, 18%) and persistent opioid use (n = 5, 11%) with varying definitions.

Moderate full-fat and low-fat yoghurt consumption correlates with reduced mortality risk: a large-scale prospective analysis.

Background: Yoghurt is a commonly consumed fermented food recommended by many guidelines. Yoghurt consumption can contribute to the intake of multiple nutrients and reduce the risk of several diseases. However, prospective evidence is limited on the associations between full/low-fat yoghurt consumption and mortality risk.

Generative adversarial networks with fully connected layers to denoise PPG signals.

Objective: The detection of arterial pulsating signals at the skin periphery with Photoplethysmography (PPG) are easily distorted by motion artifacts. This work explores the alternatives to the aid of PPG reconstruction with movement sensors (accelerometer and/or gyroscope) which to date have demonstrated the best pulsating signal reconstruction.

Approach: A generative adversarial network with fully connected layers (FC-GAN) is proposed for the reconstruction of distorted PPG signals.

Impact of the COVID-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom on adolescent's time use (CONTRAST study).

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to major changes in everyone's lives, including adolescents. Given that adolescence is a crucial developmental stage, designing strategies to alleviate the impact of the COVID-19 on adolescents is critical. Furthermore, there is a growing literature on the relationship between how adolescents spend their time and impact upon health, nutrition, educational attainment and overall well-being outcomes, and the existence of a socioeconomic gradient with how time is allocated.