Lacrimal gland ultrasonography shows superior reliability of OMERACT colour Doppler scoring compared to B-mode, in patients with clinically suspected Sjögren's disease.

Objective: To investigate the reliability of lacrimal gland ultrasound (LGUS) in patients with clinically suspected Sjögren's disease (SjD).

Method: Of 41 consecutive patients with clinically suspected SjD, 28 were diagnosed with SjD and 13 were classified as non-SjD. Forty patients were scored for bilateral lacrimal gland (LG) B-mode evaluation; LGs were 'not visible' in one case.

Mutualism, herbivory, and invasive ants as seasonally dependent drivers of root surface area in a foundational savanna ant-plant.

Many plants are defended from herbivory by costly insect mutualists. Understanding positive associations between plants and mutualists requires a whole-plant perspective including roots. We hypothesized that root surface area increases with mutualist activity (to a saturation threshold) and recent rainfall but that this relationship shifts when herbivores are excluded.

Measles transmission risk during commercial air travel.

Background: Measles transmission on aircraft has been well-documented, and many countries perform contact investigations after exposure events during air travel. This review summarized and updated available evidence for measles transmission risk during commercial air travel to inform best practices for public health response after such exposures.

Methods: We searched eight databases for articles and pre-prints about measles and air travel published during 2004-2023.

The impact of shade on whole-plant carbon allocation in a dominant East African tree sapling.

Plasticity in resource allocation can be beneficial for plants under stress. In savannas, tree-grass competition forces tree saplings growing in the grass layer to compete for water, nutrients, and light. Savanna tree saplings are also vulnerable to fire and herbivory, which may favour investment in storage belowground to support regrowth aboveground.

Creating connections: a new referral pathway for tissue viability nursing in care homes through quality improvement.

Background: Chronic wounds are highly prevalent among older adults in care homes and place significant demands on healthcare systems. This article reports on the design, implementation and early impact of a new tissue viability nursing referral pathway for care homes in NHS Lothian, developed through quality improvement methodologies.

Aims: The initiative aimed to increase direct access for registered nurses in care homes to specialist tissue viability nursing advice via a secure e-clinic referral process, supported by training, standardised equipment and a bespoke data tracker.

National Beef Quality Audit - 2022: Instrument grading assessments of carcass characteristics of fed steers and heifers.

The instrument grading assessment portion of the National Beef Quality Audit -2022 allowed for the evaluation of beef carcass traits over a 12-mo period. One week of instrument grading data was collected each month from 6 major beef processing companies from July 2021 to June 2022 ( = 4,418,768 carcasses). The sample pool was composed of 58.

A Review of Reports to CDC of Travelers Who Flew While Infectious With Pertussis From April 2013 to February 2024.

Context: Pertussis is endemic worldwide, and exposure can occur anywhere, including commercial aircraft. Travelers exposed to an infectious person with pertussis may receive post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for up to 21 days after exposure to decrease risk of infection. This is accomplished through the identification of infectious travelers and their aircraft contacts (a process called aircraft contact investigation [Air CIs]).

Tenascin-c functionalised self-assembling peptide hydrogels for critical-sized bone defect reconstruction.

Critical-sized bone defects cannot heal spontaneously and receive poor clinical prognosis due to limitations in modern treatment strategies. Next-generation therapies are applying biomaterials incorporating BMP-2 to effectively promote and support bone regeneration, but adverse effects are linked to uncontrolled BMP-2 egress from the biomaterial. Implementing extracellular matrix proteins to biomaterials is a favourable approach to alleviate these drawbacks, and self-assembling peptide hydrogels are rapidly emerging as modulable and versatile biomaterials.

Invasive golden oyster mushrooms are disrupting native fungal communities as they spread throughout North America.

Earth's biodiversity is in decline, and invasive species are among the greatest threats to local ecosystems. While the impacts of invasive plants, animals, and pathogens are increasingly well documented, the impacts of invasive nonpathogenic microbes are not. The golden oyster mushroom (GOM; Pleurotus citrinopileatus) is a white-rot wood decay fungus and grows primarily on hardwoods.

A protocol for the evaluation of the PneumoWave biosensor in supported accommodation settings: A study on feasibility and acceptability (RESCU-2).

Background: People who overdose on opioids when they are alone or unmonitored are at heightened risk of death as other people do not know they should provide an emergency response. Wearable technology provides an opportunity to continuously measure respiratory function and ultimately send an alert if respiratory depression occurs.

Objective: This study evaluates the feasibility and acceptability of PneumoWave DC in UK homeless hostels or supported accommodation settings (equivalent to Housing First in the USA) for individuals at high risk of opioid overdose.

Collimator angle selection for prostate and lymph node volumes on the Varian halcyon machine.

Volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT), in conjunction with the split-jaw technique, has been widely used on TrueBeam linear accelerators to enhance dose conformity and mitigate the physical limitations of multileaf collimators (MLCs) when treating large, complex volumes. A new linear accelerator from Varian called the Halcyon does not have jaws and poses challenges in treating such volumes due to its unique MLC configuration. The goal of this study was to determine collimator angles effective in sparing organs at risk (OAR) and improving plan conformity for prostate and pelvic lymph node volumes exceeding 20 cm in length.

Drivers of physical connectivity between coral reefs along the Southeast African coastline.

The resilience and persistence of coral reef metapopulations strongly depend on their dispersal potential. Larval dispersal influences the diversity and genetic structure of coral populations and contributes to population recovery following disturbances. We assessed the connectivity of coral reefs in the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) during peak spawning periods between 1994 and 2014.

Death One Hour After Terminal Extubation in Children: Validation of a Machine Learning Model to Predict Cardiac Death After Withdrawal of Life-Sustaining Treatment in a Multicenter Cohort, 2009-2021.

Objectives: In the PICU, predicting death within 1 hour after terminal extubation (TE) is valuable in augmenting family counseling and in identifying suitable candidates for organ donation after circulatory determination of death (DCDD). The objective of this study was to train and validate a machine learning model to predict death within 1 hour after TE.

Design: The Death One Hour After Terminal Extubation (DONATE) database was generated using multicenter retrospective data from 2009 to 2021.

Assessing individual physiological variability and future performance phenotypes is essential for predicting the resilience of fish populations to anthropogenic climate change.

Changes in ocean temperature are expected to have a considerable effect on fishes through the impact of temperature on physiological performance, vital energetic processes (i.e. metabolism, foraging and swimming style) and reproductive fitness.

Clade II Mpox Infections Among Cruise Ship Passengers and Crew Members - United States, 2024.

During the global clade II mpox outbreak, cases have disproportionately affected gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM). Cruise ship travel-associated mpox infections have not been previously described. During January 25-April 18, 2024, CDC was notified of eight mpox cases among cruise travelers on four ships: four among crew members and four among passengers.

Drivers of genetic diversity across the marine tree of life.

Why do some species have more genetic diversity than others? This question is one of the greatest remaining mysteries in evolutionary biology, and is particularly urgent in marine species, which are experiencing catastrophic anthropogenic impacts. We address this critical gap by estimating genetic diversity for 93 marine species sampled over 9,000 localities. For each species, we aggregate biotic traits and abiotic geographic data for their ranges.

Anthropogenic climate change will likely outpace coral range expansion.

Past coral range expansions suggest that high-latitude environments may serve as refugia, potentially buffering coral biodiversity loss due to climate change. We explore this possibility for corals globally, using a dynamic metacommunity model incorporating temperature, photosynthetically available radiation, pH, and four distinct, interacting coral assemblages. This model reasonably reproduces the observed distribution and recent decline of corals across the Indo-Pacific and Caribbean.

Optimizing the Role of Registered Practical Nurses in the Operating Room: A Two-Phase Qualitative Descriptive Study.

BackgroundCurrent nursing shortages are shifting approaches to health human resource planning. Broad changes are being implemented to support system planning, however, there is a need to engage in targeted strategies that address shortages in specialty nursing areas, such as the operating room.PurposeThe purpose of this study was to explore how Registered Practical Nurses (RPNs) are currently utilized within operating room settings in Ontario, Canada.

Barriers and Enablers for Physical Activity in Culturally Deaf Adults: A Qualitative Thematic Analysis.

Physical activity (PA) is vital for everyone's health and wellbeing; however, there is, a paucity of research amongst culturally deaf adults. Especially, to understand the needs of deaf adults and how to get them involved in shaping interventions that would help deaf people to be physically active. The current study aimed to explore barriers and facilitators for engaging in PA amongst deaf adults.

An Investigation into the Perspectives and Experiences of Physically Active Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Contemporary physical activity (PA) strategies emphasise the PA needs of sedentary and inactive groups, with less emphasis placed on physically active groups. Understanding the needs of physically active groups is important in helping people to keep active. This study investigated the perspectives and experiences of physically active adults ('Actives') during the COVID-19 pandemic, including their PA levels, barriers and facilitators to/for PA, the strategies they deployed to keep active and their experiences of the messaging of Government health and PA guidelines.

Opportunities and challenges for monitoring terrestrial biodiversity in the robotics age.

With biodiversity loss escalating globally, a step change is needed in our capacity to accurately monitor species populations across ecosystems. Robotic and autonomous systems (RAS) offer technological solutions that may substantially advance terrestrial biodiversity monitoring, but this potential is yet to be considered systematically. We used a modified Delphi technique to synthesize knowledge from 98 biodiversity experts and 31 RAS experts, who identified the major methodological barriers that currently hinder monitoring, and explored the opportunities and challenges that RAS offer in overcoming these barriers.

A Pure Rotational Spectroscopic Study of Two Nearly-Equivalent Structures of Hexafluoroacetone Imine, (CF)C=NH.

Rotational spectra for hexafluoroacetone imine, the singly substituted C isotopologues, and the N isotopologue, have been recorded using both cavity and chirped pulse Fourier transform microwave spectrometers. The spectra observed present as being doubled with separations between each pair of transitions being on the order of a few tens of kilohertz which is consistent with a large amplitude motion producing two torsional substates. The observed splitting is most likely due to the combined motions of the CF3 groups, for which the calculated barrier is small.

Surgical approach to subretinal washout biopsy for primary vitreoretinal lymphoma (PVRL).

Introduction: We describe a case of primary vitreoretinal lymphoma (PVRL) masquerading as vitritis with subretinal lesions. We employed a subretinal washout and aspiration approach in addition to the standard vitreous biopsy.

Methods: An anterior chamber tap followed by a dry vitreous biopsy were performed.

Refining necrotising otitis externa management: A follow-up study on a departmental algorithm and the role of nuclear medicine imaging.

Objective: This study evaluates the effectiveness of a departmental diagnostic and treatment algorithm for necrotising otitis externa (NOE), with a particular focus on the role of nuclear medicine imaging in improving diagnostic accuracy and patient outcomes.

Methods: A retrospective cohort analysis was conducted on patients admitted with suspected NOE to a major UK general hospital over a two-year period. Clinical presentation, imaging modalities, and treatment outcomes were reviewed to assess the algorithm's impact, with a focus on the diagnostic yield of CT, Technetium scans, and MRI, as well as treatment success rates and recurrence.

An international real-world study of primary vitreoretinal lymphoma from the Australasian lymphoma alliance and collaborators.

Primary vitreoretinal lymphoma (PVRL) is a high-grade extranodal non-Hodgkin lymphoma, with limited prospective data to inform practice. High rates of central nervous system (CNS) relapse contribute to its poor prognosis. This international multicentre retrospective cohort study aimed to characterise real-world contemporary practice and outcomes in PVRL (2010-2022).