Forest Topsoil Organic Carbon Declines Under Ash Dieback.

Tree diseases are increasingly affecting woodland ecosystems across the world. However, the impact of these diseases upon the soil, and in particular soil carbon, is still poorly understood. Here we present the results of a field survey of ~100 woodlands across Great Britain measured in 1971, 2001 and 2022 and evaluate the fifty-year trend in topsoil (0-15 cm) carbon based upon measurements of soil organic matter (SOM) and the impact of Hymenoscyphus fraxineus (ash dieback).

Simulated Emergency Room Sign-outs: What They Tell Us About Diagnostic Accuracy and Opportunities for Improvement.

Objective: Emergency department (ED) sign-outs provide continuity of care for patients at shift changes. However, these periods have been associated with communication breakdowns and medical errors. We explored information factors (stage-of-the-case and the explicitness of the sign-out narrative) to determine their impact on clinicians' diagnostic accuracy and confidence.

De Novo Designed β-Hairpin Peptides Mimicking the Copper-Binding Histidine Brace Motif of Lytic Polysaccharide Monooxygenases.

Lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) are Cu-containing enzymes that play a crucial role in lignocellulosic biomass degradation for use in biofuel production. These enzymes carry out the selective oxidation of C─H bonds in the sugar units, leading to the cleavage of the glycosidic bond. Creating LPMO mimics facilitates the study of the mechanism of action, the characterisation of the reactive species responsible for the C─H bond activation and the potential scale up for industrial application.

Association Between Food Desert Residence and Ischemic Stroke Risk: A Population-Based Study.

Background And Objectives: Food deserts (FDs) are low-income areas with poor access to healthy foods. FD residents have higher rates of several cardiovascular risk factors, but the link between FDs and stroke has not been well studied. We evaluated whether FD residence was associated with incident ischemic stroke within the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Stroke Study (GCNKSS) and whether this association was due to low income, poor food access, or both.

Circulating biomarkers and ischemic stroke risk in adults with atrial fibrillation taking anticoagulation: the Reasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke study.

Background: Anticoagulation reduces ischemic stroke risk in atrial fibrillation (AF), but "breakthrough" stroke occurs. Blood biomarkers might help identify patients at risk for this, but existing studies are limited in examining few biomarkers in select populations.

Objectives: To determine whether established biomarkers of ischemic stroke risk will be associated with ischemic stroke risk in people with AF on anticoagulation sampled from the general population.

Improving stroke risk prediction in atrial fibrillation with circulating biomarkers: the CHADS-VASc-Biomarkers model.

Background: Anticoagulation reduces ischemic stroke in atrial fibrillation (AF) but increases bleeding. Existing risk calculators guiding anticoagulation decisions in AF have substantial limitations.

Objectives: To determine whether biomarkers of stroke risk for general populations are associated with stroke risk in AF and improve predictive performance of the CHADS-VASc (Congestive heart failure, Hypertension, Age >74, Diabetes, prior Stroke or transient ischemic attack or thromboembolism, Vascular disease, Age 65-74, Sex category) score.

Glaucoma case finding and management among optometrists in Ghana and Nigeria.

Significance: This research contributes to the understanding of glaucoma case finding and management in Ghana and Nigeria. As areas of high glaucoma prevalence, gaining insight into this is paramount to identify barriers and better understand how to improve the detection of this blinding eye disease in an at-risk population.

Purpose: This study was designed to investigate limiting factors to glaucoma case finding and management that exist within Ghana and Nigeria, including equipment and resource availability, management and referral options, optometrist skillset, and perceived socioeconomic barriers.

Antitrypanosomal quinazolines targeting lysyl-tRNA synthetase show partial efficacy in a mouse model of acute Chagas disease.

The protozoan parasite causes Chagas disease, which is among the deadliest parasitic infections in Latin America. Current therapies are toxic and lack efficacy against the chronic stage of infection; thus, new drugs are urgently needed. Here, we describe a previously unidentified series of quinazoline compounds with potential against and the related trypanosomatid parasites and .

Microprotein SMIM26 drives oxidative metabolism via serine-responsive mitochondrial translation.

Mitochondrial small open reading frame (ORF)-encoded microproteins (SEPs) are key regulators and components of the electron transport chain (ETC). Although ETC complex I assembly is tightly coupled to nutrient availability, including serine, the coordinating mechanism remains unknown. A genome-wide CRISPR screen targeting SEPs revealed that deletion of the LINC00493-encoded microprotein SMIM26 sensitizes cells to one-carbon restriction.

Identification of HIF1A as a therapeutic target during SARS-CoV-2-associated lung injury.

Hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs) promote lung protection and pathogen eradication during acute lung injury. We, therefore, tested the theory that pharmacologic stabilization of HIFs dampens lung injury during SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia. Initial studies in murine SARS-CoV-2 models showed improved outcomes after treatment with the FDA-approved HIF stabilizer vadadustat.

Reusable Generic Clinical Decision Support System Module for Immunization Recommendations in Resource-Constraint Settings.

Clinical decision support systems (CDSS) are routinely employed in clinical settings to improve quality of care, ensure patient safety, and deliver consistent medical care. However, rule-based CDSS, currently available, do not feature reusable rules. In this study, we present CDSS with reusable rules.

Global tracking of marine megafauna space use reveals how to achieve conservation targets.

The recent Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) sets ambitious goals but no clear pathway for how zero loss of important biodiversity areas and halting human-induced extinction of threatened species will be achieved. We assembled a multi-taxa tracking dataset (11 million geopositions from 15,845 tracked individuals across 121 species) to provide a global assessment of space use of highly mobile marine megafauna, showing that 63% of the area that they cover is used 80% of the time as important migratory corridors or residence areas. The GBF 30% threshold (Target 3) will be insufficient for marine megafauna's effective conservation, leaving important areas exposed to major anthropogenic threats.

Complementary foraging of roots and mycorrhizal fungi among nutrient patch types in four subtropical monospecific broadleaved tree plantations.

Foraging in soil nutrient-rich patches is a key nutrient acquisition strategy for plants. However, how arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) and ectomycorrhizal (EM) trees integrate root and mycorrhizal fungal responses in exploring different nutrient patches is poorly understood, especially in generally phosphorus-limited subtropical forests. We established five nutrient patch treatments (control; nitrogen addition; phosphorus addition; nitrogen + phosphorus addition; and organic residue addition) using ingrowth root bags in monoculture plantations of four subtropical tree species (two AM and two EM (Castanopsis)) to investigate the foraging responses of absorptive roots and mycorrhizal fungi.

Vaccination Schedules Recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: From Human-Readable to Machine-Processable.

Background: Reusable, machine-processable clinical decision support system (CDSS) rules have not been widely achieved in the medical informatics field. This study introduces the process, results, challenges faced, and lessons learned while converting the United States of America Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-recommended immunization schedules (2022) to machine-processable CDSS rules.

Methods: We converted the vaccination schedules into tabular, charts, MS Excel, and clinical quality language (CQL) formats.

Differences in In-Hospital and Post-Discharge Ischemic Stroke Care According to Prestroke Functional Status.

Background: Limited data exist regarding differences in ischemic stroke care across the care continuum between patients with and without prestroke disability. We investigated differences in in-hospital and postdischarge ischemic stroke cause evaluation and treatment between patients with and without prestroke disability using population-based data in the United States.

Methods: We ascertained all adult patients (≥18 years) hospitalized with acute ischemic stroke within the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky population between January 1, 2015, and December 31, 2015.

Untargeted proteomics enables ultra-rapid variant prioritisation in mitochondrial and other rare diseases.

Background: Only half of individuals with suspected rare diseases receive a genetic diagnosis following genomic testing. A genetic diagnosis allows access to appropriate care, restores reproductive confidence and reduces the number of potentially unnecessary interventions. A major barrier is the lack of disease agnostic functional tests suitable for implementation in routine diagnostics that can provide evidence supporting pathogenicity of novel variants, especially those refractory to RNA sequencing.

Prostate cancer incidence in Sweden before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Population-based study.

N/A.

Ideal Features of Clinical Decision Support System and Rules in Primary Care Settings.

We conducted an online survey and structured interviews with a convenience sample of primary care providers in the USA to identify requirements related to the clinical decision support systems (CDSS) in primary care settings.

Recurrent Chronic Idiopathic Urticaria Post-hysterectomy and Loss of Xolair Effectiveness: A Case Report.

We present the case of a 44-year-old woman with a history of chronic idiopathic urticaria (CIU) who initially achieved remission with omalizumab (Xolair) but experienced a relapse following a hysterectomy. Despite reinitiating treatment, her symptoms persisted, requiring escalating doses of antihistamines and systemic corticosteroids. This case highlights the potential role of hormonal shifts and surgical stress in triggering urticaria recurrence and contributing to biologic treatment failure, though causality remains unproven due to the lack of objective hormonal or immunologic data.

An active learning pipeline to automatically identify candidate terms for a CDSS ontology-measures, experiments, and performance.

Objective: To explore new strategies to make the document selection process more transparent, reproducible, and effective for the active learning process. The ultimate goal is to leverage active learning in identifying keyphrases to facilitate ontology development and construction, to streamline the process, and help with the long-term maintenance.

Methods: The active learning pipeline used a BILSTM-CRF model and over 2900 abstracts retrieved from PubMed relevant to clinical decision support systems.

Ara h 2-Specific TH2A Cells Drive Peanut Allergy in DRB1*15:01 Individuals: A Detailed Epitope Analysis.

Background: The IgE-mediated CD4 T-cell response to peanut (Arachis hypogaea) is heterogeneous, yet TH2 cells remain central drivers of pathology. This study aimed to dissect this complexity at the epitope level by focusing on the HLA-DRB1*15:01-DRB5*01:01 haplotype. Specifically, we examined how distinct epitope-specific T-cell subsets shape the immunological landscape of peanut allergy in peanut-allergic (PA) versus non-peanut-allergic (NPA) individuals.

METTL14 promotes intimal hyperplasia through m6A-mediated control of vascular smooth muscle dedifferentiation genes.

Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) possess significant phenotypic plasticity, shifting between a contractile phenotype and a synthetic state for vascular repair/remodeling. Dysregulated VSMC transformation, marked by excessive proliferation and migration, primarily drives intimal hyperplasia. N6-methyladenosine (m6A), the most prevalent RNA modification in eukaryotes, plays a critical role in gene expression regulation; however, its impact on VSMC plasticity is not fully understood.

Urgency to treat and early optimized treatment in major depressive disorder: consequences of delayed treatment, barriers to implementation, and practical strategies for clinicians.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a serious and often chronic illness that requires early and urgent treatment. Failing to provide effective treatment of MDD can worsen the illness trajectory, negatively impact physical health, and even alter brain structure. Early optimized treatment (EOT) of MDD, with a measurement-based approach to diagnosis, rapid treatment initiation with medication dosage optimization, frequent monitoring, and prompt adjustments in treatment planning when indicated, should proceed with a sense of urgency.