Optimal placement of high-channel visual prostheses in human retinotopic visual cortex.

Recent strides in neurotechnology show potential to restore vision in individuals afflicted with blindness due to early visual pathway damage. As neuroprostheses mature and become available to a larger population, manual placement and evaluation of electrode designs becomes costly and impractical. An automatic method to optimize the implantation process of electrode arrays at large-scale is currently lacking.

Prioritizing performance and outcome indicators for quality assessment of cancer screening programs in the EU.

Objectives: A key element in ensuring appropriate balance of harms and benefits in cancer screening is to develop a priority set of performance and outcome indicators to be used in screening data evaluation systems. These indicators need to be equity-focused, aligned to new screening approaches and broad-based to cover possible opportunistic screening, but at the same time as limited as possible.

Study Design: Indicators for breast, colorectal and cervical cancer screening programs were chosen through a consensus building Delphi methodology involving a panel of cancer screening experts.

Environmental impact of peat alternatives in growing media for European mushroom production.

Button mushrooms are an important protein source with a production of >48 million metric tonnes in 2021. Several life cycle assessments (LCAs) have been employed in assessing mushroom cultivation. This paper assessed potential impacts of relevant alternatives (sphagnum moss, grass fibres, spent casing and bark) to peat as casing materials for mushroom production across Europe by using LCA using a cradle to farm gate approach.

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy in locally advanced colon cancer: A systematic review with proportional meta-analysis.

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is suggested in locally advanced colon cancer. Data on improved long-term oncological outcomes are lacking, which hampers the implementation in clinical practice. This systematic review provides an overview of the benefits and drawbacks of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with locally advanced colon cancer.

Mass Casualty Incident Training in Immersive Virtual Reality: Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of Multimethod Performance Indicators.

Background: Immersive virtual reality (iVR) has emerged as a training method to prepare medical first responders (MFRs) for mass casualty incidents (MCIs) and disasters in a resource-efficient, flexible, and safe manner. However, systematic evaluations and validations of potential performance indicators for virtual MCI training are still lacking.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate whether different performance indicators based on visual attention, triage performance, and information transmission can be effectively extended to MCI training in iVR by testing if they can discriminate between different levels of expertise.

Translation of a Dutch Version of the Total Shoulder Arthroplasty Postoperative Satisfaction Questionnaire.

To our knowledge, no Dutch questionnaires exist to administer patient satisfaction after total shoulder arthroplasty. The goal of this study is to develop a Dutch translation of the satisfaction questionnaire used by Swarup et al. (2017)1, into Dutch.

A Dutch Translation of the Hospital for Special Surgery Shoulder Expectation Survey (HSS-ES) for Preoperative Assessment in Total Shoulder Arthroplasty Patients.

To date, no Dutch questionnaire exists to administer preoperative patient expectations in patients scheduled to undergo a total shoulder arthroplasty. The aim of this study is to develop a Dutch translation of the Hospital for Special Surgery Expectations Survey using a standardized translation procedure, to use both in clinical practice and in scientific research. Translation is performed on the basis of a forward - backward translation.

Prevalence of Pathogenic Variants and Eligibility Criteria for Genetic Testing in Patients Who Visit a Memory Clinic.

Background And Objectives: Identifying genetic causes of dementia in patients visiting memory clinics is important for patient care and family planning. Traditional clinical selection criteria for genetic testing may miss carriers of pathogenic variants in dementia-related genes. This study aimed identify how many carriers we are missing and to optimize criteria for selecting patients for genetic counseling in memory clinics.

Platelet activation and signaling in thrombus formation.

In thrombosis and hemostasis, the formation of a platelet-fibrin thrombus or clot is a highly controlled process that varies, depending on the pathological context. Major signaling pathways in platelets are well established. However, studies with genetically modified mice have identified the contribution of hundreds of additional platelet-expressed proteins in arterial thrombus formation and bleeding.

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.

Prey depletion, interspecific competition, and the energetics of hunting in endangered African wild dogs, .

Large herbivores are in decline in much of the world, including sub-Saharan Africa, and true apex carnivores like the lion () decline in parallel with their prey. As a consequence, competitively subordinate carnivores like the African wild dog () are simultaneously experiencing a costly reduction in resources and a beneficial reduction in dominant competitors. The net effect is not intuitively obvious, but wild dogs' density, survival, and reproduction are all low in areas that are strongly affected by prey depletion.

Effects of endometrial embryokines on the preimplantation bovine embryo to create a gene expression signature consistent with a high competence phenotype†.

Optimal embryonic development depends upon cell-signaling molecules released by the maternal reproductive tract called embryokines. Identity of specific embryokines that enhance competence of the embryo for sustained survival is largely lacking. The current objective was to evaluate effects of three putative embryokines in cattle on embryonic development to the blastocyst stage.

Alternative models of funding curiosity-driven research.

Funding of curiosity-driven science is the lifeblood of scientific and technological innovation. Various models of funding allocation became institutionalized in the 20th century, shaping the present landscape of research funding. There are numerous reasons for scientists to be dissatisfied with current funding schemes, including the imbalance between funding for curiosity-driven and mission-directed research, regional and country disparities, path-dependency of who gets funded, gender and race disparities, low inter-reviewer reliability, and the trade-off between the effort and time spent on writing or reviewing proposals and doing research.

How can we make sound replication decisions?

Replication and the reported crises impacting many fields of research have become a focal point for the sciences. This has led to reforms in publishing, methodological design and reporting, and increased numbers of experimental replications coordinated across many laboratories. While replication is rightly considered an indispensable tool of science, financial resources and researchers' time are quite limited.

Is Ockham's razor losing its edge? New perspectives on the principle of model parsimony.

The preference for simple explanations, known as the parsimony principle, has long guided the development of scientific theories, hypotheses, and models. Yet recent years have seen a number of successes in employing highly complex models for scientific inquiry (e.g.

The misalignment of incentives in academic publishing and implications for journal reform.

For most researchers, academic publishing serves two goals that are often misaligned-knowledge dissemination and establishing scientific credentials. While both goals can encourage research with significant depth and scope, the latter can also pressure scholars to maximize publication metrics. Commercial publishing companies have capitalized on the centrality of publishing to the scientific enterprises of knowledge dissemination and academic recognition to extract large profits from academia by leveraging unpaid services from reviewers, creating financial barriers to research dissemination, and imposing substantial fees for open access.

Emergence and evolution of heterocyte glycolipid biosynthesis enabled specialized nitrogen fixation in cyanobacteria.

Heterocytes, specialized cells for nitrogen fixation in cyanobacteria, are surrounded by heterocyte glycolipids (HGs), which contribute to protection of the nitrogenase enzyme from oxygen. Diverse HGs preserve in the sediment and have been widely used as evidence of past nitrogen fixation, and structural variation has been suggested to preserve taxonomic information and reflect paleoenvironmental conditions. Here, by comprehensive HG identification and screening of HG biosynthetic gene clusters throughout cyanobacteria, we reconstruct the convergent evolutionary history of HG structure, in which different clades produce the same HGs.

Nexus: A versatile console for advanced low-field MRI.

Purpose: To develop a low-cost, high-performance, versatile, open-source console for low-field MRI applications that can integrate a multitude of different auxiliary sensors.

Methods: A new MR console was realized with four transmission and eight reception channels. The interface cards for signal transmission and reception are installed in PCI Express slots, allowing console integration in a commercial PC rack.

Minimization of the Bacillus subtilis divisome suggests FtsZ and SepF can form an active Z-ring, and reveals the amino acid transporter BraB as a new cell division influencing factor.

Bacterial cytokinesis begins with polymerization of the tubulin homologue FtsZ into a ring-like structure at midcell, the Z-ring, which recruits the late cell division proteins that synthesize the division septum. Assembly of FtsZ is carefully regulated and supported by a dozen conserved cell division proteins. Generally, these proteins are not essential, but removing more than one is in many cases lethal.

Factors associated with receiving a Functional Disorder diagnostic label: A systematic review.

Objectives: Functional Disorders (FD) are highly prevalent conditions that are diagnosed based on the presence of specific patterns of somatic symptoms. Examples of FDs include Fibromyalgia and Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Many patients who meet the criteria do not receive a formal diagnostic label.

Psychosocial burden and sociodemographic characteristics of cancer survivors seeking support for work-related issues in outpatient cancer counseling centers.

Introduction: Outpatient cancer counseling centers (OCCs) are important social work facilities that provide support for cancer survivors who have psychosocial and sociolegal challenges. This paper explores clinical and sociodemographic characteristics, psychosocial burden as well as access routes of clients in OCCs seeking work-related counseling.

Methods: Between May 2022 and December 2023, data were collected in 19 OCCs, using questionnaires and documentation by counselors.

The association of physical function and physical performance with DNA methylation clocks in oldest-old living in Singapore - the SG90 cohort.

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) methylation (DNAm) clocks estimate biological age according to DNA methylation. This study investigated the associations between measures of physical function and physical performance and ten DNAm clocks in the oldest-old in Singapore. The SG90 cohort included a subset of community-dwelling oldest-old from the Singapore Chinese Health Study (SCHS) and Singapore Longitudinal Ageing Study (SLAS).

An MRI assessment of mechanisms underlying lesion growth and shrinkage in multiple sclerosis.

Objective: To assess the pathological mechanisms contributing to white matter (WM) lesion expansion or contraction and remyelination in multiple sclerosis (MS).

Methods: We assessed 1,613 lesions in 49 people with relapsing-remitting MS in the CCMR-One bexarotene trial (EudraCT 2014-003145-99). We measured lesion orientation relative to WM tracts, surface-in gradients and veins.