Internet-Based Dementia Prevention Intervention (DementiaRisk): Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial and Knowledge Translation.

Background: Research has shown that engaging in a range of healthy lifestyles or behavioral factors can help reduce the risk of developing dementia. Improved knowledge of modifiable risk factors for dementia may help engage people to reduce their risk, with beneficial impacts on individual and public health. Moreover, many guidelines emphasize the importance of providing education and web-based resources for dementia prevention.

Clinical Activity of Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Inhibitors in Patients With MAP2K1 (MEK1)-Mutated Metastatic Cancers.

Purpose: MAP2K1/MEK1 mutations are potentially actionable drivers in cancer. MAP2K1 mutations have been functionally classified into three groups according to their dependency on upstream RAS/RAF signaling. However, the clinical efficacy of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway inhibitors (MAPKi) for MAP2K1-mutant tumors is not well defined.

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.

Impact of molecular diagnostic techniques on the acute respiratory infection sentinel surveillance program, Antioquia, Colombia, 2022.

Objectives: Surveillance of acute respiratory infection (ARI) informs vaccination, preventive, and management decisions. In many countries, immunofluorescence is the cornerstone for ARI surveillance. We aimed to determine the effect of adding multiplex polymerase chain reaction (mPCR) to conventional surveillance in ARI.

Methodological Approaches to Comparative Trend Analyses: The Case of Adolescent Toothbrushing.

Objectives: Research questions about how and why health trends differ between populations require decisions about data analytic procedure. The objective was to document and compare the information returned from stratified, fixed effect and random effect approaches to data modelling for two prototypical descriptive research questions about comparative trends in toothbrushing.

Methods: Data included five cycles of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children 2006 to 2022, which provided a sample of 980192 11- to 15- year olds from 35 countries.

Relative age effects in ice hockey extends to coaching.

Date of birth influences the chances of success in sports. Compared to players born just before a cutoff date for marking the admissibility in a category (age groups), players born soon after are overrepresented. However, it is not yet known whether the effect of date of birth in sports applies beyond the players' active participation in the game.

Development of a Prandtl-Ishlinskii hysteresis model for a large capacity magnetorheological fluid damper.

Magnetorheological (MR) fluid (MRF) dampers, serving as fail-safe semi-active devices, exhibit nonlinear hysteresis characteristics, emphasizing the necessity for accurate modeling to formulate effective control strategies in smart systems. This paper introduces a novel stop operator-based Prandtl-Ishlinskii (PI) model, featuring a reduced parameter set (seven), designed to estimate the nonlinear hysteresis properties of a large-scale bypass MRF damper with variable stiffness capabilities under varying applied current. With only seven parameters, the model realizes current, displacement, and rate dependencies.

Landscapes-a lens for assessing sustainability.

Context: There are urgent calls to transition society to more sustainable trajectories, at scales ranging from local to global. Landscape sustainability (LS), or the capacity for landscapes to provide equitable access to ecosystem services essential for human wellbeing for both current and future generations, provides an operational approach to monitor these transitions. However, the complexity of landscapes complicates how and what to consider when assessing LS.

Imputation for Lipidomics and Metabolomics (ImpLiMet): a web-based application for optimization and method selection for missing data imputation.

Motivation: Missing values are prevalent in high-throughput measurements due to various experimental or analytical reasons. Imputation, the process of replacing missing values in a dataset with estimated values, plays an important role in multivariate and machine learning analyses. The three missingness patterns, including missing completely at random, missing at random, and missing not at random, describe unique dependencies between the missing and observed data.

Oxygenation and function of endocrine bioartificial pancreatic tissue constructs under flow for preclinical optimization.

Islet transplantation and more recently stem cell-derived islets were shown to successfully re-establish glycemic control in people with type 1 diabetes under immunosuppression. These results were achieved through intraportal infusion which leads to early graft losses and limits the capacity to contain and retrieve implanted cells in case of adverse events. Extra-hepatic sites and encapsulation devices have been developed to address these challenges and potentially create an immunoprotective or immune-privileged environment.

Hyperthyroidism in a Twin Pregnancy With a Hydatidiform Mole and a Coexisting Live Fetus: Management Dilemmas.

Hyperthyroidism in twin pregnancies involving a hydatidiform mole and a coexisting live fetus is a rare condition requiring careful management. We present a 34-year-old pregnant woman at 12 weeks' gestation with severe nausea, vomiting, and mild vaginal bleeding. A transvaginal ultrasound revealed a dichorionic diamniotic twin pregnancy with 1 normal fetus and 1 hydatidiform mole, leading to hyperthyroidism from elevated β human chorionic gonadotropin levels.

Revisiting the Last Ice Area projections from a high-resolution Global Earth System Model.

The Last Ice Area-located to the north of Greenland and the northern Canadian Arctic Archipelago-is expected to persist as the central Arctic Ocean becomes seasonally ice-free within a few decades. Projections of the Last Ice Area, however, have come from relatively low resolution Global Climate Models that do not resolve sea ice export through the waterways of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and Nares Strait. Here we revisit Last Ice Area projections using high-resolution numerical simulations from the Community Earth System Model, which resolves these narrow waterways.

Association between frailty index and mortality in depressed patients: results from NHANES 2005-2018.

This study investigated the relationship between the frailty index and all-cause and cause-specific mortality in patients with depression. We recruited 2,669 participants with depression from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2005 to 2018 and quantified their frailty status using a 53-item frailty index. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and their 95% confidence intervals (CI).

A collagen-based laboratory model to mimic sex-specific features of calcific aortic valve disease.

Calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) shows in the deposition of calcium phosphates in the collagen-rich layer of the valve leaflets. This stiffens the leaflets and eventually leads to heart failure. Recent research suggests that CAVD follows sex-specific pathways: at the same severity of the disease, women tend to have fewer and less crystalline calcifications, and the phases of their calcifications are decidedly different than those of men; namely, dicalcium phosphate dihydrate (DCPD) - one of the mineral phases in CAVD - occurs almost exclusively in females.

Genome-wide association study on chronic postsurgical pain in the UK Biobank.

Background: Chronic postsurgical pain (CPSP) persists beyond the expected healing period after surgery, imposing a substantial burden on overall patient well-being. Unfortunately, CPSP often remains underdiagnosed and undertreated. To better understand the mechanism of CPSP development, we aimed to identify genetic variants associated with CPSP.

Longitudinal integrated proteomic and metabolomic skin changes in atopic dermatitis patients treated with dupilumab.

Background: Inhibition of IL-4/IL-13 driven inflammation by dupilumab has shown significant clinical benefits in treatment of atopic dermatitis (AD).

Objective: To assess longitudinal protein and metabolite composition in AD skin during dupilumab treatment.

Methods: Skin tape strip (STS) were collected from lesional/non-lesional skin of 20 AD patients during 16-week dupilumab treatment and from 20 healthy volunteers (HV) followed for 16-weeks.

Apixaban versus aspirin for stroke prevention in people with subclinical atrial fibrillation and a history of stroke or transient ischaemic attack: subgroup analysis of the ARTESiA randomised controlled trial.

Background: People with subclinical atrial fibrillation are at increased risk of stroke, albeit to a lesser extent than those with clinical atrial fibrillation, leading to an ongoing debate regarding the benefit of anticoagulation in these individuals. In the ARTESiA trial, the direct-acting oral anticoagulant apixaban reduced stroke or systemic embolism compared with aspirin in people with subclinical atrial fibrillation, but the risk of major bleeding was increased with apixaban. In a prespecified subgroup analysis of ARTESiA, we tested the hypothesis that people with subclinical atrial fibrillation and a history of stroke or transient ischaemic attack, who are known to have an increased risk of recurrent stroke, would show a greater benefit from oral anticoagulation for secondary stroke prevention compared with those without a history of stroke or transient ischaemic attack.

Intranasal oxytocin for apathy in people with frontotemporal dementia (FOXY): a multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, adaptive, crossover, phase 2a/2b superiority trial.

Background: No treatments exist for apathy in people with frontotemporal dementia. Previously, in a randomised double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose-finding study, intranasal oxytocin administration in people with frontotemporal dementia improved apathy ratings on the Neuropsychiatric Inventory over 1 week and, in a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study, a single dose of 72 IU oxytocin increased blood-oxygen-level-dependent signal in limbic brain regions. We aimed to determine whether longer treatment with oxytocin improves apathy in people with frontotemporal dementia.

A forward genetic screen identifies potassium channel essentiality in SHH medulloblastoma maintenance.

Distinguishing tumor maintenance genes from initiation, progression, and passenger genes is critical for developing effective therapies. We employed a functional genomic approach using the Lazy Piggy transposon to identify tumor maintenance genes in vivo and applied this to sonic hedgehog (SHH) medulloblastoma (MB). Combining Lazy Piggy screening in mice and transcriptomic profiling of human MB, we identified the voltage-gated potassium channel KCNB2 as a candidate maintenance driver.

Recyclability and recovery of carbon from waste printed circuit boards within a circular economy perspective: A review.

Waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs) are a significant component of electronic waste (e-waste) and are among the fastest-generating waste flows. The potentially negative impacts caused by e-waste on the environment and human health pose an increasingly apparent threat to people's everyday lives and well-being. The nonmetallic fraction (predominantly carbon) of WPCBs is characterized by heavy weight, low resource value, and complex composition, and these characteristics significantly restrict the recycling of the WPCBs to achieve a circular economy.

Resilience Amidst Adversity: Experiences of Black Older Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background And Objectives: The paucity of research and policy on the impact of COVID-19 on the experiences of Black older adults in Canada and around the world has intensified the enduring impacts of racism on their health and well-being. To bridge this gap, our study explored the mental health of Black older adults in Montreal during the early period of the pandemic.

Research Design And Methods: Using an Afro-emancipatory mixed-method research design, we collected and analyzed data from three sources: a survey, focus group interview with service providers from Black community organizations, and individual interviews with Black older adults.

Caution when using network partners for target identification in drug discovery.

Identifying novel, high-yield drug targets is challenging and often results in a high failure rate. However, recent data indicates that leveraging human genetic evidence to identify and validate these targets significantly increases the likelihood of success in drug development. Two recent papers from Open Targets claimed that around half of FDA-approved drugs had targets with direct human genetic evidence.

In Shift and In Variance: Assessing the Robustness of HAR Deep Learning Models Against Variability.

Deep learning (DL)-based Human Activity Recognition (HAR) using wearable inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensors can revolutionize continuous health monitoring and early disease prediction. However, most DL HAR models are untested in their robustness to real-world variability, as they are trained on limited lab-controlled data. In this study, we isolated and analyzed the effects of the subject, device, position, and orientation variabilities on DL HAR models using the HARVAR and REALDISP datasets.

The Role of Body Image Perception on a Continuum from Dysfunctional to Healthy Eating Attitudes and Behaviors Among People Seeking Treatment.

Body image disturbance has been associated with various health conditions and has the potential to trigger the development of unhealthy behaviors, including dysfunctional attitudes and eating behaviors, which may evolve into eating disorders. This study explores the relationship between body image variables-such as global self-worth, physical self-worth, and physical attractiveness-and the continuum of eating attitudes and behaviors. A canonical correlation analysis was performed to assess the multivariate relationship between attitudinal and perceptual variables and the continuum of eating behaviors, with a total of 113 cases analyzed.