Can gut microbiota explain acute diverticulitis occurrence in patients with symptomatic uncomplicated diverticular disease?

Why patients with symptomatic uncomplicated diverticular disease (SUDD) may develop acute diverticulitis (AD) is still unknown. We analyzed the gut microbiota (GM) in two SUDD patients, one who did experience SUDD recurrence but not AD occurrence (case 1) and one who did experience AD occurrence during follow-up (case 2). The GM of these patients showed differences in terms of phyla (Firmicutes and Bacteroidota in case 1; Actinobacteriota and Proteobacteria in case 2) and subgenera ( and in case 1 and , , , , group, and in case 2).

Obstructive Sleep Apnoea-Associated Factors in Children and Adolescents Diagnosed by Polysomnography: A Scoping Review.

Purpose: This scoping review aimed to map research on factors associated with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) in children and adolescents undergoing overnight polysomnography (PSG) and questionnaire-based diagnostic assessments.

Methods: Searches were conducted in three electronic databases up to May 2023, including nine observational studies, including 3482 individuals.

Results: Among the included studies, nine reported on sex, six on obesity, five on tonsillar hypertrophy, three on mouth breathing, two on allergic rhinitis, and three on smoking exposure.

Structural and Functional Insights into UDP-N-acetylglucosamine-enolpyruvate Reductase (MurB) from Brucella ovis.

The peptidoglycan biosynthetic pathway involves a series of enzymatic reactions in which UDP-N-acetylglucosamine-enolpyruvate reductase (MurB) plays a crucial role in catalyzing the conversion of UDP-N-acetylglucosamine-enolpyruvate (UNAGEP) to UDP-N-acetylmuramic acid. This reaction relies on NADPH and FAD and, since MurB is not found in eukaryotes, it is an attractive target for the development of antimicrobials. MurB from Brucella ovis, the causative agent of brucellosis in sheep, is characterized here.

Achievements, priorities and strategies in pediatric nephrology in Europe: need for unifying approaches or acceptance of differences?

Background: There is a lack of information on the current healthcare systems for children with kidney diseases across Europe. The aim of this study was to explore the different national approaches to the organization and delivery of pediatric nephrology services within Europe.

Methods: In 2020, the European society for Paediatric Nephrology (ESPN) conducted a cross-sectional survey to identify the existing pediatric nephrology healthcare systems in 48 European countries covering a population of more than 200 million children.

How does Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) develop in the engineering domain: A bibliometric analysis with critical review.

In recent years, Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) have been considered in broad industrial areas to improve the effectiveness of maintenance activities. In chemical engineering domains, PHM is regarded to have big potential for reliability and safety management of complex systems. In this study, a bibliometric analysis has been conducted to explore the evolution of PHM by retrieving 2351 publications from the Web of Science Core Collection (Retrieve date: 12/05/2023).

Optical coherence tomography angiography enables visualization of microvascular patterns in chronic venous insufficiency.

Chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) is a global health concern with significant public health and individual impact. Currently available diagnostic methods cannot visualize microvenous pathologies that have shown to result in severe forms of CVI and also affect the skin. Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) may close the CVI diagnostic gap by providing a fast, label-free, and non-invasive solution to visualize cutaneous microvasculature.

The Road to the Hoop: Relative Age Effects and Game-Related Performance in Youth Basketball.

Relative Age Effects (RAEs) have been widely reported trends in basketball participation, but research on the relationship between RAEs and competitive performance has been contradictory. We aimed to determine the magnitude of RAEs in elite youth basketball players and to analyze RAEs on key performance indicators (KPIs). We recorded and analyzed the incidence of early birthdates and the KPIs of 2487 youth basketball players (aged 16-19 years).

Systemic metabolic crosstalk as driver of cancer cachexia.

Cachexia is a complex metabolic disorder characterized by negative energy balance due to increased consumption and lowered intake, leading to progressive tissue wasting and inefficient energy distribution. Once considered as passive bystander, metabolism is now acknowledged as a regulator of biological functions and disease progression. This shift in perspective mirrors the evolving understanding of cachexia itself, no longer viewed merely as a secondary consequence of cancer but as an active process.

Patient-reported outcomes following ciltacabtagene autoleucel or standard of care in patients with lenalidomide-refractory multiple myeloma (CARTITUDE-4): results from a randomised, open-label, phase 3 trial.

Background: In CARTITUDE-4, ciltacabtagene autoleucel (cilta-cel) significantly improved progression-free survival (primary endpoint; previously reported) versus standard of care in patients with relapsed, lenalidomide-refractory multiple myeloma. We report here patient-reported outcomes.

Methods: In the ongoing, phase 3, open-label CARTITUDE-4 study, patients were recruited from 81 sites in the USA, Europe, Asia, and Australia, and were randomly assigned 1:1 to cilta-cel (target, 0·75 × 10 CAR-T cells/kg) or standard of care (daratumumab, pomalidomide, and dexamethasone; pomalidomide, bortezomib, and dexamethasone).

Trauma surgeons: Have we achieved gender equality?

Purpose: Several concerns regarding gender equality in orthopedic surgery do exists. The aim of this study was to (1) compare operative times, (2) compare mortality rates, (3) investigate gender disparities in hip fracture surgeries, and (4) analyze gender distribution among attending and resident surgeons performing Closed Reduction Internal Fixation (CRIF) and Hemiarthroplasty (HA) METHODS: All patients >75 years old treated for proximal femur fractures in a level-one trauma center in a four-year timeframe were retrospectively enrolled. Exclusion criteria were follow-up <3 years, incomplete data, active patients treated with total hip arthroplasty (THA) and other surgeries performed during the same anesthesia.

Work Group Competition and Performance Dynamics.

Besides consultants and practitioners, some contributions in the organizational economics literature have advocated substituting internal firms' bureaucracies with markets to regulate internal transactions. However, usually the effects of competition on performance are considered in terms competition across firms or industries. By contrast, other contributions point out that competition is pervasive inside firms as well.

Early noninvasive ventilation in general wards for acute respiratory failure: an international, multicentre, open-label, randomised trial.

Background: The impact of noninvasive ventilation (NIV) managed outside the intensive care unit in patients with early acute respiratory failure remains unclear. We aimed to determine whether adding early NIV prevents the progression to severe respiratory failure.

Methods: In this multinational, randomised, open-label controlled trial, adults with mild acute respiratory failure (arterial oxygen partial pressure/fraction of inspiratory oxygen [Pao/FiO] ratio ≥200) were enrolled across 11 hospitals in Italy, Greece, and Kazakhstan.

20∗20∗60: A multilevel climate change analysis framework.

Cities worldwide have established plans and policies to achieve climate-neutral and climate-resilient objectives in recent decades. Researches have demonstrated that Climate Change Action Plans generally fail to include mitigation and adaptation approaches in their planning processes, despite their importance. A proposed multilevel assessment of Climate Change Action Plans, urban regeneration, and building projects was used to analyze the ten cities most sustainable in terms of developing environmental strategies, including local climate action to determine the degree of adaptation and mitigation integration in cutting-edge contexts and to identify measures that show synergies and co-benefits for urban design practices.

A European Survey to Identify Challenges in the Management of Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease.

Background And Aims: Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and its more severe subtype, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), are highly prevalent and strongly associated with obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D). This study sought to identify challenges to the diagnosis, treatment and management of people living with MASLD and MASH and understand the key barriers to adopting relevant clinical guidelines.

Methods: A real-world, cross-sectional study (BARRIERS-MASLD) consisting of a quantitative survey and qualitative interviews of physicians in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom was conducted from March to September 2023.

Detecting a Long-Lived False Vacuum with Quantum Quenches.

Distinguishing whether a system supports alternate low-energy (locally stable) states-stable (true vacuum) versus metastable (false vacuum)-by direct observation can be difficult when the lifetime of the state is very long but otherwise unknown. Here we demonstrate, in a tractable model system, that there are physical phenomena on much shorter timescales that can diagnose the difference. Specifically, we study the time evolution of the magnetization following a quench in the tilted quantum Ising model, and show that its magnitude spectrum is an effective diagnostic.

Not all stains are made equal: impact of stain normalization on prostate cancer diagnosis.

Objective: Stain normalization is a technique used to standardize the color appearance of digital whole slide images (WSIs). This study aimed to assess the impact of digital stain normalization on prostate cancer diagnosis by pathologists.

Methods: A multi-institutional board of four pathologists evaluated 407 hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) prostate WSIs before and after stain normalization.

Intratumor heterogeneity of EGFR expression mediates targeted therapy resistance and formation of drug tolerant microenvironment.

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors are commonly used to treat non-small cell lung cancers with EGFR mutations, but drug resistance often emerges. Intratumor heterogeneity is a known cause of targeted therapy resistance and is considered a major factor in treatment failure. This study identifies clones of EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung tumors expressing low levels of both wild-type and mutant EGFR protein.

Anatomic vs. Ischemia-Driven Strategies for Percutaneous Coronary Revascularization in Chronic Coronary Syndrome: A Network Meta-Analysis.

Introduction: In patients with chronic coronary syndromes (CCS), the benefit of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) added to optimal medical therapy (OMT) remains unclear. The indication to PCI may be driven either by angiographic evaluation or ischemia assessment, thus depicting different potential strategies which have not yet been thoroughly compared.

Methods: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing OMT versus PCI angio-guided or versus PCI non-invasive or invasive ischemia guided were identified and compared via network meta-analysis.

Chemotherapy plus immunotherapy as first line combination in older patients with extensive stage small cell lung cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) accounts for 10%-15% of all lung cancers. At diagnosis, nearly two thirds of patients with SCLC have extensive stage (ES), with a median overall survival (OS) less than 12 months. The combination of protein-death-1/protein-death-ligand-1 (PD-1/PD-L1) immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) with first-line platinum plus etoposide chemotherapy has changed the therapeutic landscape for ES-SCLC.