Synthesis, Characterization, and Enzyme Conjugation of Polycaprolactone Nanofibers for Tissue Engineering.

: A nanostructured membrane of polycaprolactone (a synthetic polymer) was synthesized using an electrospinning technique aiming to enhance its hydrophilicity and rate of degradation by surface modification via aminolysis. Since polycaprolactone nanofibrous films are naturally hydrophobic and with slow degradation, which restricts their use in biological systems, amino groups were added to the fiber surface using the aminolysis technique, greatly increasing the wettability of the membranes. : Polycaprolactone nanofibrous membranes were synthesized via the electrospinning technique and surface modification by aminolysis.

Assessing the performance of the Iceland screens, treats, or prevents multiple myeloma (iStopMM) model in a multicultural Bronx cohort: implications for monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance risk stratification.

The Iceland Screens, Treats, or Prevents Multiple Myeloma (iStopMM) risk stratification model, developed to predict ≥10% abnormal plasma cells in the bone marrow in monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) patients, was developed in a predominantly White and genetically homogeneous Icelandic population, lacking external validation. Our study aimed to externally validate this model in a racially and ethnically diverse Bronx population. The medical records of patients at Montefiore Medical Center (2002-2023) were searched to identify patients with MGUS who had undergone a bone marrow biopsy.

Clinical approach to respiratory failure in the obstetric patient: a comprehensive clinical review.

Pregnancy-related complications can lead to respiratory failure, which includes failure to oxygenate and/or ventilate. While there are normal physiologic changes in respiratory status in pregnant women, respiratory depression and hypoxia can still place the mother and fetus in jeopardy. In this paper, we propose an approach to managing and treating pregnant women with respiratory failure.

'Viewpoint Diversity': heterogeneity is critical to the integrity of science.

This editorial discusses the importance of maintaining diversity within science, noting especially its significance to research in psychiatry. It follows a recent directive that was issued by the US administration that places unreasonable constraints on US government-funded scientific inquiry. The article draws attention to the harmful intended consequences of the directive.

Green Synthesis of Copper Oxide Nanoparticles using Dolichandrone falcata (Wall.ex DC.) Seem. Leaf Extract and Assessment of Antioxidant, Antimicrobial, Anti-diabetic and Anticancer Potentials.

Phyto-synthesis of Copper Oxide Nanoparticles (CuO NPs) was carried out using Dolichandrone falcata leaves. The NPs were characterised using Ultraviolet-Visible spectroscopy (UV), UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-DRS), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and dynamic light scattering (DLS). The synthesised CuO NPs UV-Vis spectra revealed that a high absorption peak at 380 nm with optical band gap was 2.

Aurora 2.0: A fluorogenic dye library for expanding the capability of protein-adaptive differential scanning fluorimetry (paDSF).

Differential Scanning Fluorimetry (DSF) is a biophysical assay that is used to estimate protein stability in vitro. In a DSF experiment, the increased fluorescence of a solvatochromatic dye, such as Sypro Orange, is used to detect the unfolding of a protein during heating. However, Sypro Orange is only compatible with a minority of proteins (< 30 %), limiting the scope of this method.

Effect of Ultrasound-Guided Subacromial Bursa Injections With Various Doses of Corticosteroid in Subacromial Bursitis: A Retrospective Study.

Background: Subacromial bursitis is a common cause of shoulder pain and functional limitation, due to inflammation of the subacromial bursa. Corticosteroid injections are widely used in cases unresponsive to conservative treatments. However, the optimal dose for achieving sustained symptom relief with minimal adverse effects, especially when administered under ultrasound guidance, remains a topic of clinical interest.

Association of Intestinal Amino Acid Absorption with the Uptake of Lactulose and Rhamnose in Adults with Environmental Enteropathy.

It is not clear whether impaired amino acid (AA) absorption occurs in adults with environmental enteropathy (EE). Therefore, we set out to determine the association between intestinal 13C615N-allo-isoleucine absorption (reflecting neutral AA transport) and lactulose-rhamnose ratio (LRR, reflecting permeability) in healthy adult volunteers (aged 18-35 years; N = 6) from India, and in those with biopsy-confirmed EE (N = 20) from Zambia. A 3-hour oral bolus protocol using 13C615N-allo-isoleucine (M), co-administered with lactulose and rhamnose sugars, was used to estimate AA absorption (as M area under the curve [AUC]) and LRR.

Validation of the ToDay, a simplified diagnostic algorithm for deep vein thrombosis.

Background: The current deep vein thrombosis (DVT) diagnostic algorithms are rarely followed in clinical practice due to complexity and time constraints. Simplified alternatives are needed to enhance adherence while maintaining diagnostic accuracy. The ToDay algorithm was developed to address these concerns by combining physician implicit assessment of DVT likelihood with D-dimer testing.

Cellular crosstalk mediated by TGF-β drives epithelial-mesenchymal transition in patient-derived multi-compartment biliary organoids.

Deficiencies in the development of epithelial structures and delays in cellular maturation can increase the susceptibility of neonates to disease early in life. To investigate human biliary development and its vulnerability to biliary atresia, a severe pediatric cholangiopathy, we engineered multi-compartment biliary organoids (MBOs) from co-cultures of human liver-derived epithelial organoid cells with human endothelial and mesenchymal cells. MBOs derived from normal livers effectively replicated the epithelial structure of the bile duct epithelium and peribiliary glands (PBGs).

Large-scale evaluation of proteomic and polygenic risk scores reveals complementary contributions to incident disease prediction.

Plasma proteins capture dynamic physiological processes and may offer more immediate insight into disease risk than static genetic predictors. We evaluated the predictive utility of proteomic risk scores (ProRS) versus polygenic risk scores (PRS) across 301 phenotypes in 39,843 participants from the UK Biobank Pharma Proteomics Project. ProRS, trained on prevalent cases, were tested for incident disease and benchmarked against PRS derived from genome-wide association statistics.

Fixation Task: A Simple Eye Movement Task Reveals an Impairment in Schizophrenia.

Background: Fixation stability (FS) is a basic substrate of visuomotor processing that can be assessed by tracking eye movements during a simple, easy-to-perform task of gazing at a visual stimulus. We studied FS with and without distractors for its potential as an endophenotype marker in antipsychotic-naïve/free schizophrenia (SCZ), SCZ first-degree relatives (FDRs), and healthy controls (HC).

Method: Monocular high-frequency eye tracking data were recorded during a fixation stability task in 69 antipsychotic-naïve/free SCZ, 49 FDRs, and 76 HCs.

Fast and flexible minimizer digestion with digest.

Summary: Minimizer digestion is an increasingly common component of bioinformatics tools, including tools for de Bruijn graph assembly and sequence classification. We describe a new open source tool and library to facilitate efficient digestion of genomic sequences. It can produce digests based on the related ideas of minimizers, modimizers or syncmers.

Performance of clinical decision rules in patients presenting with suspected recurrent venous thromboembolism: a multicenter prospective cohort study.

Background: Diagnosing venous thromboembolism (VTE) in patients with previous VTE is challenging. Only approximately 15% of these patients have a VTE recurrence ruled out without imaging, as compared with >30% in patients with a suspected first episode. Clinical decision rules (CDRs) are not well studied in this population.

Advances in prognostic biomarkers for biliary atresia: Current insights and future directions.

Biliary atresia (BA) is a progressive, fibrosing cholangiopathy of infancy characterized by inflammatory obstruction of the bile ducts, ultimately leading to end-stage liver disease if untreated. Early diagnosis and timely surgical intervention via hepatoportoenterostomy (HPE) are critical for improving outcomes; however, prognostication remains challenging due to heterogeneous responses to surgery and variable clinical trajectories. This review provides a comprehensive synthesis of current research on prognostic biomarkers in BA, encompassing clinical indicators, routine laboratory parameters, novel serum biomarkers, histopathologic features, hepatic gene expression profiles, imaging modalities, and both in vitro and computational prognostic modeling systems.

Unmasking Renal Artery Pseudoaneurysm: A Rare and Elusive Cause of Hypertension.

A 49-year-old man with hypertension for 2 years, was incidentally found to have right intrarenal aneurysms during a routine abdominal ultrasound examination. He reported fluctuating blood pressure readings over the past 18 months. Laboratory parameters were within normal limits, with a serum creatinine level of 1.

Emerging trends in polymeric mucoadhesive nanocarriers: a promising option for intravaginal HIV preexposure prophylaxis.

The emergence of novel long-acting and antiretroviral (ARV) drug delivery systems has reshaped the landscape of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Intravaginal delivery platforms are increasingly recognised for their ability to deliver ARVs directly at the portal of viral entry. These systems are well retained at the portal, ensuring sustained local inhibitory levels, minimising systemic exposure.

Mumemto: efficient maximal matching across pangenomes.

Aligning genomes into common coordinates is central to pangenome construction, though computationally expensive. Multi-sequence maximal unique matches (multi-MUMs) help to frame and solve the multiple alignment problem. We introduce Mumemto, a tool that computes multi-MUMs and other match types across large pangenomes.

Targeting CA2 Perineuronal Nets Restores Recognition Memory and Theta Oscillations in Aged Mice.

Remembering familiar versus novel stimuli is fundamental to survival, but it is compromised in several neurodegenerative disorders where aging is a key factor. Although the components of the extracellular matrix (ECM) have been suggested to be implicated in memory maintenance, the mechanistic and behavioral roles of ECM during the aging process remain unclear. Here, we employed an accelerated mouse model of aging to elucidate the causal link between ECM dynamics and recognition memory during aging.

Effects of high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) on resting brain functional connectivity in schizophrenia patients with persistent auditory verbal hallucinations.

High-definition transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (HD-tDCS) is an emerging neuromodulation technique for treating auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) in schizophrenia (SZ) that do not respond adequately to psychotropic treatments. We are unaware of any functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) study examining the neural effect of HD-tDCS on AVH in SZ. In this study, we examined the effect of MRI-neuronavigated HD-tDCS on functional brain connectivity using fMRI in SZ patients (N = 34) with persistent AVH.