Structural insights into the role of the prosegment binding loop in a papain-superfamily cysteine protease from Treponema denticola.

Periodontal diseases afflict 20-50% of the global population and carry serious health and economic burdens. Chronic periodontitis is characterized by inflammation of the periodontal pocket caused by dysbiosis. This dysbiosis is coupled with an increase in the population of Treponema denticola, a spirochete bacterium with high mobility and invasivity mediated by a number of virulence factors.

Burnout in the female surgical trainee; is it time to consider a more global approach to tackle this issue?

Workplace related burnout is rampant in medicine. Prevalence is even higher in surgical specialties, higher during various stages of training, and higher still in females in these specialties. There has been a concerted effort by various deliberative bodies to institute policies to combat this.

Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Phase 1 Safety Study of Oral Mucosal Immunotherapy in Peanut Allergic Adults.

Background: Oral Mucosal Immunotherapy (OMIT) uses a specifically formulated toothpaste to deliver allergenic proteins to immunologically active areas of the oral cavity. This represents a new delivery mechanism with several features designed to improve food allergy desensitization. OMIT presents advantages over other approaches to allergy immunotherapy due to its targeted delivery and simplified administration.

Seasonal and periodic patterns in US COVID-19 mortality using the Variable Bandpass Periodic Block Bootstrap.

Since the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, research into the existence, extent, and pattern of seasonality has been of the highest importance for public health preparation. This study uses a novel bandpass bootstrap approach called the Variable Bandpass Periodic Block Bootstrap to investigate the periodically correlated components including seasonality within US COVID-19 mortality. Bootstrapping to produce confidence intervals for periodic characteristics such as the seasonal mean requires preservation of the periodically correlated component's correlation structure during resampling.

Life satisfaction around the world: Measurement invariance of the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) across 65 nations, 40 languages, gender identities, and age groups.

The Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) is a widely used self-report measure of subjective well-being, but studies of its measurement invariance across a large number of nations remain limited. Here, we utilised the Body Image in Nature (BINS) dataset-with data collected between 2020 and 2022 -to assess measurement invariance of the SWLS across 65 nations, 40 languages, gender identities, and age groups (N = 56,968). All participants completed the SWLS under largely uniform conditions.

Association between magnetic resonance imaging use and recovery time following concussion: a CARE consortium study.

Researchers may implement magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to evaluate neurophysiological metrics (e.g. connectivity) in athletes with sports-related concussion (SRC).

Catalytic Serine Labeling in Nonaqueous, Acidic Media.

Chemoselective modification of alkylalcohols (e.g., serine residues) on proteins has been a daunting challenge especially in aqueous media.

Stepwise reduction of an asymmetric π-expanded pyracylene towards the crystalline radical trianion.

The chemical reduction of a pyracylene-hexa--hexabenzocoronene-(HBC)-fused nanographene TPP was investigated with K and Rb metals to reveal its multi-electron acceptor abilities. The reaction of TPP with the above alkali metals, monitored by UV-vis-NIR and H NMR spectroscopy, evidenced the stepwise reduction process. The use of different solvents and secondary ligands enabled isolation of single crystals of three different reduced states of TPP with 1, 2, and 3 electrons added to its π-system.

Using NMR Spectroscopy to Evaluate Metal-Ligand Bond Covalency for the f Elements.

ConspectusUnderstanding f element-ligand covalency is at the center of efforts to design new separations schemes for spent nuclear fuel, and is therefore of signficant fundamental and practical importance. Considerable effort has been invested into quantifying covalency in f element-ligand bonding. Over the past decade, numerous studies have employed a variety of techniques to study covalency, including XANES, EPR, and optical spectroscopies, as well as X-ray crystallography.

Measurements of groundwater, hydrodynamics, and sand characteristics at a dissipative sea turtle nesting beach.

Beach groundwater and nearshore hydrodynamic data were collected during a field experiment along two dissipative beach transects on Galveston Island, Texas, in the fall of 2023. The monitored beaches serve as nesting habitat for the critically endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtle. Conditions ranged from calm to stormy, with two storms occurring during the experiment, inundating the entire beach up to the dune toe.

More than a token photo: humanizing scientists enhances student engagement.

Despite broad consensus that highlighting counter-stereotypical scientist role models in educational materials promotes equity and success, the specific elements that make these materials effective remain untested. Are pictures of counter-stereotypical scientists enough to communicate to students that scientists come from a variety of backgrounds, or is additional information required? To parse the effects of including visual depictions and humanizing information about scientists featured in biology course materials, we distributed three randomized versions of assignments over several academic terms across 36 undergraduate institutions ( > 3700 students). We found that including humanizing information about scientists was key to increasing student engagement with the biology course materials.

Parsing the existential isolation-outcome association into its within- and between-patient components in naturalistic psychotherapy.

Complementing the oft-studied construct of isolation, research has increasingly focused on existential isolation (EI), or the subjective feeling of separateness in one's experience. In the clinical realm, several studies have demonstrated that higher EI is associated with more severe mental health problems at a single cross-section of time. Moreover, one study showed that higher pretreatment EI predicted worse psychotherapy outcomes.

Tripartite organization of brain state dynamics underlying spoken narrative comprehension.

Speech comprehension involves the dynamic interplay of multiple cognitive processes, from basic sound perception, to linguistic encoding, and finally to complex semantic-conceptual interpretations. How the brain handles the diverse streams of information processing remains poorly understood. Applying Hidden Markov Modeling to fMRI data obtained during spoken narrative comprehension, we reveal that the whole brain networks predominantly oscillate within a tripartite latent state space.

Neighborhood opportunity and residential instability: associations with mental health in middle childhood.

Background: Neighborhood quality may contribute to child mental health, but families with young children often move, and residential instability has also been tied to adverse mental health. This study's primary goal was to disentangle the effects of neighborhood quality from those of residential instability on mental health in middle childhood.

Methods: 1,946 children from 1,652 families in the Upstate KIDS cohort from New York state, US, were followed prospectively from birth to age 10.

Substrate curvature influences cytoskeletal rearrangement and modulates macrophage phenotype.

Introduction: Inflammation is a vital immune response, tightly orchestrated through both biochemical and biophysical cues. Dysregulated inflammation contributes to chronic diseases, highlighting the need for novel therapies that modulate immune responses with minimal side effects. While several biochemical pathways of inflammation are well understood, the influence of physical properties such as substrate curvature on immune cell behavior remains underexplored.

Resilience Among Caregivers of People With Multiple Sclerosis: Exploring the Influence of Personality Traits, Coping, and Caregiver Burden.

Background: Resilience has been recognized as a vital protective factor in coping with stress and adversity. Multiple sclerosis (MS) caregiving is a complex and demanding role, often characterized by challenges.

Methods: Caregivers of people with MS were recruited through health care professionals affiliated with the Jacobs MS Center for Treatment and Research in Buffalo, New York.

"Where There's a Will There's a Way": The Impact of State Variations in the Implementation of Continuous Coverage on Access to Postpartum Care During the Pandemic Emergency.

Objectives: To explore how the Medicaid continuous coverage requirement and unwinding process was implemented in three states with diverse existing policy environments and implications for the implementation of post-emergency 12-month postpartum extensions.

Data Sources: State data on unwinding performance and qualitative in-depth interviews with 48 stakeholders and patient-facing healthcare workers in Texas, New York and New Jersey.

Study Design: State Medicaid stakeholders and patient-facing healthcare workers in each state were interviewed with the goal of gaining insights into: (1) How the continuous coverage requirement was implemented; (2) What effects continuous coverage had on access to care for postpartum mothers; (3) How states are implementing the pandemic unwinding and postpartum extensions.

The proneural transcription factor Atoh1 promotes odontogenic differentiation in human dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs).

Background: Bioengineering of human teeth for replacement is an appealing regenerative approach in the era of gene therapy. Developmentally regulated transcription factors hold promise in the quest because these transcriptional regulators constitute the gene regulatory networks driving cell fate determination. Atonal homolog 1 (Atoh1) is a transcription factor of the basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) family essential for neurogenesis in the cerebellum, auditory hair cell differentiation, and intestinal stem cell specification.

Population-Based vs. Health System and Insurer Records: Significant Underdiagnosis of Pcos - A Systematic Review.

Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is one of the most prevalent cardio-metabolic disorders in women. However, PCOS diagnosis is often missed or delayed, which may have serious physical and mental health consequences. The extent of underdiagnosis remains unknown.

High prevalence of soil-transmitted helminths among primary students in Ha Giang, Vietnam: A descriptive cross-sectional study.

Despite improvements in environmental sanitation and healthcare, the infection rate of soil-transmitted helminths (STHs) remains high in low socioeconomic regions of developing countries including Vietnam. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and intensity of STH infections among primary school children in Meo Vac, Ha Giang: a poor mountainous province in Vietnam. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from October to November 2023, involving 400 participants.

Atomically Fine-Tuning Organic-Inorganic Carbon Molecular Sieve Membranes for Hydrogen Production.

Polymeric membranes with great processability are attractive for the H/CO separation required for hydrogen production from renewable biomass with carbon capture for utilization and sequestration. However, it remains elusive to engineer polymer architectures to obtain desired sub-3.3 Å ultramicropores to efficiently sieve H from CO.

Cognitive and neural underpinnings of friend-prioritization in a perceptual matching task.

Previous findings of better behavioral responses to self- over other-related stimuli suggest prioritized cognitive processes of self-related information. However, it is unclear whether the processing of information related to important others (e.g.