Monitoring M-Protein, Therapeutic Antibodies, and Polyclonal Antibodies in a Multiparametric Mass Spectrometry Assay Provides Insight into Therapy Response Kinetics in Patients with Multiple Myeloma.

Multiple Myeloma (MM) is a hematologic malignancy caused by clonally expanded plasma cells that produce a monoclonal immunoglobulin (M-protein), a personalized biomarker. Recently, we developed an ultra-sensitive mass spectrometry method to quantify minimal residual disease (MS-MRD) by targeting unique M-protein peptides. Therapeutic antibodies (t-Abs), key in MM treatment, often lead to deep and long-lasting responses.

Nanoparticle-in-Hydrogel Delivery System for the Sequential Release of Two Drugs.

Background/objectives: Glioblastoma is the most common and lethal primary brain tumor. Patients often suffer from tumor- and treatment induced vasogenic edema, with devastating neurological consequences. Intracranial edema is effectively treated with dexamethasone.

What Is the Optimal Geometry of Dissolving Microneedle Arrays? A Literature Review.

The application of dissolving microneedle arrays (DMNAs) is an emerging trend in drug and vaccine delivery as an alternative for hypodermic needles or other less convenient drug administration methods. The major benefits include, amongst others, that no trained healthcare personnel is required and that the recipient experiences hardly any pain during administration. However, for a successful drug or vaccine delivery from the DMNA, the microneedles should be inserted intact into the skin.

Development of an Adaptable Qualification Test Set for Personnel Involved in Visual Inspection Procedures of Parenteral Drug Products Manufactured Under Good Manufacturing Practice Conditions in Hospital Pharmacy Compounding Facilities.

Parenteral drug products manufactured under GMP conditions should be visually inspected for defects and particulate contamination by trained and qualified personnel. Although personnel qualification is required, no practical protocols or formal guidelines are available for the development of qualification test sets (QTSs) used for qualification procedures. The current practice is to either procure a standardized QTS from a commercial supplier or amass sufficient manufacturing rejects during visual inspection procedures to compile in-house QTSs.

Production of Hydrophobic Microparticles at Safe-To-Inject Sizes for Intravascular Administration.

Hydrophobic microparticles are one of the most versatile structures in drug delivery and tissue engineering. These constructs offer a protective environment for hydrophobic or water-sensitive compounds (e.g.

GWAS Identifies SNP Markers and Candidate Genes for Off-Flavours and Protein Content in Faba Bean ( L.).

Faba bean ( L.) is a valuable ingredient in plant-based foods such as meat and dairy analogues. However, its typical taste and aroma are considered off-flavours in these food applications, representing a bottleneck during processing.

Exploring Nutrient-Adequate Sustainable Diet Scenarios That Are Plant-Based but Animal-Optimized.

: Transitions toward more sustainable food systems may become rather polarized, particularly in the plant-based vs. animal-based debate. These discussions, however, are often based on environmental impact data from individual products or product groups and do not consider that the products together should form a nutrient-adequate diet that is also affordable.

Trajectories of Nutritional Quality, Diet-Related Environmental Impact, and Diet Cost in China: How Much Does Ultra-Processed Food and Drink Consumption Matter?

Background: Rapid socio-economic developments confront China with a rising consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) and ultra-processed drinks (UPDs). This study aims to evaluate their potential impact on diet transformation towards sustainability including nutrition, environmental sustainability, and diet-related cost.

Methods: Dietary intake was assessed by 24 h recalls in 27,311 participants (age: 40.

Profiles of 71 Human Milk Oligosaccharides and Novel Sub-Clusters of Type I Milk: Results from the Ulm SPATZ Health Study.

Background/objectives: Although approximately 160 human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) have been identified, current studies on HMO quantitation are limited to the 10-19 most abundant HMOs. We assessed the variations in the relative concentrations of 71 HMO structures over lactation in human milk samples by an advanced liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry approach.

Methods: Samples were collected from 64 mothers at 6 weeks, 6 months, and 12 months of lactation in the Ulm SPATZ Health Study, a German birth cohort.

Relative Validity of the Groningen IBD Nutritional Questionnaire (GINQ-FFQ): A Food Frequency Questionnaire Designed to Assess Nutritional Intake in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

To assess nutritional intake of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a disease-specific food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) was developed: the Groningen IBD Nutritional Questionnaire (GINQ-FFQ). Aim of this study was to assess the relative validity of the GINQ-FFQ. Between 2019 and 2022, participants of the 1000IBD cohort were included and filled out a 3-day food diary and the GINQ-FFQ.

Sleep Posture Detection via Embedded Machine Learning on a Reduced Set of Pressure Sensors.

Sleep posture is a key factor in assessing sleep quality, especially for individuals with Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), where the sleeping position directly affects breathing patterns: the side position alleviates symptoms, while the supine position exacerbates them. Accurate detection of sleep posture is essential in assessing and improving sleep quality. Automatic sleep posture detection systems, both wearable and non-wearable, have been developed to assess sleep quality.

Integrated Spectral Sensitivity as Physics-Based Figure of Merit for Spectral Transducers in Optical Sensing.

The design of optical sensors aims at providing, among other things, the highest precision in the determination of the target measurand. Many sensor systems rely on a spectral transducer to map changes in the measurand into spectral shifts of a resonance peak in the reflection or transmission spectrum, which is measured by a readout device (e.g.

Nighttime Cough Characteristics in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Patients.

Coughing is a symptom of many respiratory diseases. An increased amount of coughs may signal an (upcoming) health issue, while a decreasing amount of coughs may indicate an improved health status. The presence of a cough can be identified by a cough classifier.

Image-Based Detection and Classification of Malaria Parasites and Leukocytes with Quality Assessment of Romanowsky-Stained Blood Smears.

Malaria remains a global health concern, with 249 million cases and 608,000 deaths being reported by the WHO in 2022. Traditional diagnostic methods often struggle with inconsistent stain quality, lighting variations, and limited resources in endemic regions, making manual detection time-intensive and error-prone. This study introduces an automated system for analyzing Romanowsky-stained thick blood smears, focusing on image quality evaluation, leukocyte detection, and malaria parasite classification.

Passive Monitoring of Parkinson Tremor in Daily Life: A Prototypical Network Approach.

Objective and continuous monitoring of Parkinson's disease (PD) tremor in free-living conditions could benefit both individual patient care and clinical trials, by overcoming the snapshot nature of clinical assessments. To enable robust detection of tremor in the context of limited amounts of labeled training data, we propose to use prototypical networks, which can embed domain expertise about the heterogeneous tremor and non-tremor sub-classes. We evaluated our approach using data from the Parkinson@Home Validation study, including 8 PD patients with tremor, 16 PD patients without tremor, and 24 age-matched controls.

Reusable Biosensor for Easy RNA Detection from Unfiltered Saliva.

Biosensors are transforming point-of-care diagnostics by simplifying the detection process and enabling rapid, accurate testing. This study introduces a novel, reusable biosensor designed for direct viral RNA detection from unfiltered saliva, targeting SARS-CoV-2. Unlike conventional methods requiring filtration, our biosensor leverages a unique electrode design that prevents interference from saliva debris, allowing precise measurements.

Structural Fatigue Life Monitoring with Piezoelectric-Based Sensors: Fundamentals, Current Advances, and Future Directions.

Structural fatigue can lead to catastrophic failures in various engineering applications and must be properly monitored and effectively managed. This paper provides a state-of-the-art review of recent developments in structural fatigue monitoring using piezoelectric-based sensors. Compared to alternative sensing technologies, piezoelectric sensors offer distinct advantages, including compact size, lightweight design, low cost, flexible formats, and high sensitivity to dynamic loads.

Sex-Specific Sensory Profiles Discriminate Between Sensitization at Twelve Weeks in Patients with Acute Low Back Pain: A Retrospective Study.

Low back pain (LBP) is the leading cause of disability worldwide, resulting in enormous socio-economic and personal consequences. Sensory profiles during the acute back pain stage will predict central sensitization symptoms in the chronic pain stage, as central sensitization is the main mechanism behind nociplastic pain and pain chronicity. Therefore, our objective was to establish overall and sex-specific sensory profile cut-off points that distinguish symptoms of central sensitization at 12 weeks, using a retrospective prognostic cohort study design.

Alcohol, Tobacco and Illicit Drug Use During Pregnancy in the Longitudinal BELpREG Cohort in Belgium Between 2022 and 2024.

Substance use during pregnancy is associated with adverse outcomes for both mother and child. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and determinants of alcohol, tobacco and illicit drug use before and during pregnancy in Belgium. An observational study was conducted using data from the longitudinal BELpREG registry.

The Cell-Specific Effects of JAK1 Inhibitors in Ulcerative Colitis.

JAK1 inhibitors have become an important addition to the therapeutic options for ulcerative colitis (UC), targeting key inflammatory pathways mediated by cytokines such as the IL-6 family, interferons, IL-2 family, IL-10 family, and G-CSF. However, not all patients respond equally, and chronic inflammation persists in a subset of individuals. The variability in treatment response may reflect the heterogeneity of UC.

The Use of Multifrequency Tympanometry in Ménière's Disease. Comment on Tsilivigkos et al. Can Multifrequency Tympanometry Be Used in the Diagnosis of Meniere's Disease? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. 2024, , 1476.

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Assessing the Validity of Diffusion Weighted Imaging Models: A Study in Patients with Post-Surgical Lower-Grade Glioma.

Diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) is used for monitoring purposes for lower-grade glioma (LGG). While the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) is clinically used, various DWI models have been developed to better understand the micro-environment. However, the validity of these models and how they relate to each other is currently unknown.

Evaluation of Perineal Descent Measurements on Pelvic Floor Imaging.

The aim of this study is to validate a uniform method for measuring perineal descent which can be used for different imaging methods, to establish cut-off values for this measurement, and to assess diagnostic test accuracy (DTA) of imaging techniques using these cut-off values. Secondly, the study aims to correlate perineal descent to symptoms, signs and imaging findings in women with obstructed defaecation syndrome (ODS) to assess its clinical relevance. Cross-sectional study of 131 women with symptoms of ODS.

The External Validation of a Multivariable Prediction Model for Recurrent Pelvic Organ Prolapse After Native Tissue Repair: A Prospective Cohort Study.

: A prediction model for anatomical cystocele recurrence after native tissue repair was developed and internally validated in 2016. This model estimates a patients' individual risk of recurrence and can be used for counseling. Before implementation in urogynecological clinical practice, external validation is needed.

Post COVID-19 and Long COVID Symptoms in Otorhinolaryngology-A Narrative Review.

Post/Long COVID (syndrome) is defined as a condition with symptoms persisting for more than 12 weeks after the onset of SARS-CoV-2 infection that cannot be explained otherwise. The prevalence of self-reported otorhinolaryngological Post/Long COVID symptoms is high. The aim of this review was to analyze the current literature regarding the actual prevalence, knowledge of the etiopathology, and evidence-based treatment recommendations of otorhinolaryngology-related Post/Long COVID symptoms.