Impact of Antibiotic Shortages on Antibiotic Utilisation in the Community.

Background: Drug shortages are an increasing and worldwide problem. Oral antibiotics are one of the most used medicines worldwide and have recently been affected by drug shortages. Despite this, little is known about the impact of antibiotic shortages on prescribing practices.

Unexpected finding of encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis: mind the cocoon.

Here, we present a fatal case of a man in his 40s with encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis (EPS). In retrospect, a spot diagnosis on the abdominal CT scan. The patient presented with progressive abdominal complaints of pain and vomiting over the last 2 months.

Two unrelated distal genes activated by a shared enhancer benefit from localizing inside the same small topological domain.

Enhancers are tissue-specific regulatory DNA elements that can activate transcription of genes over distance. Their target genes most often are located in the same contact domain-chromosomal entities formed by cohesin DNA loop extrusion and typically flanked by CTCF-bound boundaries. Enhancers shared by multiple unrelated genes are underexplored but may be more common than anticipated.

Informed Consent and Shared Decision-Making in Modern Medicine. Case-based Approach, Current Gaps and Practical Proposal.

Advances in personalized medicine and Systems Biology have introduced probabilistic models and error discovery to cardiovascular care, aiding disease prevention and procedural planning. However, clinical application faces cultural, technical, and methodological hurdles. Patient autonomy remains essential, with shared decision-making (SDM) gaining importance in managing complex cardiovascular treatment options.

Protein glycation compromises the bioavailability of milk protein-derived lysine in vivo in healthy adult males: a double-blind randomized cross-over trial.

Background: Industrial processing and storage of milk products can strongly increase protein glycation level. Previously, we have reported that ingestion of highly glycated milk protein attenuates the post-prandial rise in plasma lysine concentrations when compared to the ingestion of an equivalent amount of milk protein with a low glycation level. Whether the attenuated increase in plasma lysine availability is attributed to compromised protein digestion and subsequent lysine absorption remains to be established.

Advances in the therapeutic potentials of ligands of the apelin receptor APJ.

Angiotensin II protein J receptor, APJ, is a type A G protein coupled receptor. Endogenous apelin and elabela peptides stimulate APJ via distinct signalling profiles. A complex signalling map of elabela-stimulated APJ was published in 2022.

Time-dependent fear memory generalization triggered by phosphodiesterase 5 inhibition during reconsolidation.

Fear generalization, a lack of discrimination between safe and unsafe cues, is a hallmark of posttraumatic stress disorder. The phosphodiesterase 5 (PDE5) regulates the cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) pathway, which has been proposed to be involved in fear memory generalization. However, whether PDE5 activity underlies fear memory generalization remains unexplored.

Long term outcome after surgical tetralogy of Fallot repair at young age: Longitudinal follow-up up to 50 years after surgery.

Background: Little is known about the very long-term outcome in Tetralogy of Fallot (ToF) patients.

Objectives: To prospectively evaluate clinical outcome and quality-of-life after surgical repair of ToF.

Methods: Single-centre, longitudinal cohort-study evaluating every decade 144 ToF patients who underwent surgical repair <15 years of age between 1968 and 1980.

Electrophysiological correlates of selective speech adaptation.

Selective speech adaptation refers to the phenomenon where repeated exposure to identical speech sounds temporarily reduces sensitivity to that sound. We used EEG to track the time-course of this effect. Participants were first exposed to the Dutch vowels /e/ or /ø/ and subsequently identified ambiguous sounds halfway between these phonemes.

Pitfalls and practical suggestions for using local field potential recordings in DBS clinical practice and research.

Local field potential (LFP) recordings using chronically implanted sensing-enabled stimulators are a powerful tool for indexing symptom presence and severity in neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders, and for enhancing our neurophysiological understanding of brain processes. LFPs have gained interest as input signals for closed-loop deep brain stimulation (DBS) and can be used to inform DBS parameter selection. LFP recordings using chronically implanted sensing-enabled stimulators have various implementational challenges.

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.