Long-term trajectories of community integration after spinal cord injury in a Mediterranean setting: identification, characterisation and trajectory predictors.

Meaningful participation in occupations or employment and/or the ability to engage in societal roles holds significant implications for one's wellbeing and is internationally recognised as a fundamental right for all persons, nowadays representing an emerging policy-making goal. We aimed to identify novel classes of individuals with chronic spinal cord injury (SCI) having similar long-term trajectories of community integration and relate them to their demographic and clinical features using a retrospective observational design. Community Integration Questionnaire (CIQ) follow-up assessments, motor Functional Independence Measure (mFIM) categorised as poor, fair or good, and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) were analysed.

Epidemiology of traumatic spinal cord injury in Catalonia, Spain: a 50 years' experience of a referral center.

Study Design: Hospital-based retrospective epidemiological research.

Objectives: To describe the epidemiological and demographic characteristics of patients with traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) in Catalonia from 1972-2022.

Setting: Neurological university hospital in Catalonia.

Palliative long-term abdominal drains vs. large volume paracentesis for refractory ascites secondary to cirrhosis: protocol for a definitive randomised controlled trial (REDUCe2 study).

Background: Ascites remains the most common complication of cirrhosis and a frequent reason for hospitalisation in advanced chronic liver disease (ACLD). Ascites is associated with significant symptom burden, caregiver workload and poor health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Once refractory to treatment, median survival is poor.

Impact of accurate initial discharge planning and inpatient transfers of care on discharge delays: a retrospective cohort study.

Objective: To investigate the association between initial discharge planning and transfers of inpatient care with discharge delay. To identify operational changes which could expedite discharge within the Discharge to Assess (D2A) model.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

(Hymenoptera: Eulophidae), an Ectoparasitoid Proposed for Biological Control of the Destructive Erythrina Gall Wasp, , in Hawai'i.

Prinsloo & Kelly (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) was identified as one of four hymenopteran ectoparasitoids utilizing three erythrina gall wasps, , , and ) (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) in the native eastern Africa. In Hawai'i, the eurytomid wasp, Gates & Delvare (Hymenoptera: Eurytomidae), was introduced and approved for statewide release in 2008 to control the erythrina gall wasp (EGW) Kim. EGW has devastated the wiliwili trees, Degener (Fabaceae), an ecologically and culturally important native Hawaiian tree species.

Predicting onward care needs at admission to reduce discharge delay using explainable machine learning.

Early identification of patients who require onward referral to social care can prevent delays to discharge from hospital. We introduce an explainable machine learning (ML) model to identify potential social care needs at the first point of admission. This model was trained using routinely collected data on patient admissions, hospital spells and discharge at a large tertiary hospital in the UK between 2017 and 2023.

Healthcare resilience in the climate crisis: Do we have any?

The UK is increasingly being affected by unpredictable weather events with flooding, heatwaves and storms impacting on physical and mental health and livelihoods. All of these will become increasingly common as the climate crisis accelerates. Efforts made to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are slow.

Functional Independence and Elbow Strength in Tetraplegia: Analysis of Tendon Transfers.

BackgroundOver half of spinal cord injuries result in tetraplegia, profoundly impairing daily activities (ADLs).ObjectiveTo evaluate biceps-to-triceps (B-T) and deltoids-to-triceps (D-T) tendon transfers, comparing their impacts on elbow extension strength and ADL independence.MethodsRetrospective review of tendon transfers performed between 2003 and 2023 at a neurorehabilitation center.

Tetraspanin CD37 regulates platelet hyperreactivity and thrombosis.

Aims: To investigate how psychosocial stress contributes to accelerated thrombosis, focusing on platelet activation and hyperreactivity. The specific objective was to identify novel platelet regulators involved in stress-mediated thrombosis, with a particular emphasis on the tetraspanin CD37.

Methods And Results: To explore how stress contributes to platelet hyperreactivity, platelets were isolated from (i) mice that experienced chronic variable stress and stress-free controls (n = 8/group) and (ii) human subjects with self-reported high- and no-stress levels (n = 18/group), followed by RNA-sequencing.

Non-invasive cerebral and spinal cord stimulation for motor and gait recovery in incomplete spinal cord injury: systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to gait impairment and loss of motor function and can be traumatic or non-traumatic in nature. Recently there has been important progress in the field of non-invasive central nervous stimulation, which can target the brain or spinal cord. In this review we aim to compare the effect of non-invasive cerebral and spinal cord stimulation on gait recovery and motor strength of lower limbs in subjects with SCI.

Life Cycle Inventory Availability: Status and Prospects for Leveraging New Technologies.

The demand for life cycle assessments (LCA) is growing rapidly, which leads to an increasing demand of life cycle inventory (LCI) data. While the LCA community has made significant progress in developing LCI databases for diverse applications, challenges still need to be addressed. This perspective summarizes the current data gaps, transparency, and uncertainty aspects of existing LCI databases.

Assessing readability of explanations and reliability of answers by GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 in non-traumatic spinal cord injury education.

Purpose: Our study aimed to: i) Assess the readability of textbook explanations using established indexes; ii) Compare these with GPT-4's default explanations, ensuring similar word counts for direct comparisons; iii) Evaluate GPT-4's adaptability by simplifying high-complexity explanations; iv) Determine the reliability of GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 in providing accurate answers.

Material And Methods: We utilized a textbook designed for ABPMR certification.

The different serum albumin assays influence calcium status in haemodialysis patients: a comparative study against free calcium as a reference method.

Objectives: Accurate assessment of calcium levels is crucial for optimal management of regular Haemodialysis (HD) patients. Different calcium adjustment equations and albumin methods; including bromocresol purple (BCP) and bromocresol green (BCG) assays are employed by laboratories, which cause considerable discrepancies between reported results. The aim of this study is to assess the influence of albumin assays on calcium status in stable haemodialysis patients against free calcium (fCa) as a gold standard test.

Sniffing out morphological convergence in the turbinal complex of myrmecophagous placentals.

The length of the snout in mammals has important evolutionary consequences for the functional systems housed within the rostrum. However, whether increased snout lengths lead to expanded olfactory performance has rarely been examined. Here, we investigate inner rostral function among 10 species of myrmecophagous (ant- and/or termite-eating) placental mammals and 10 closely related species.

A radiation therapy platform to enable upright cone beam computed tomography and future upright treatment on existing photon therapy machines.

Background: The conventional lying down position for radiation therapy can be challenging for patients due to pain, swallowing or breathing issues. To provide an alternative upright treatment position for these patients, we have developed a portable rotating radiation therapy platform which integrates with conventional photon treatment machines. The device enables cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) imaging of patients in an upright position, and the future delivery of therapeutic radiation.

Adjuvanted Modified Bacterial Antigens for Single-Dose Vaccines.

Alum is the most used vaccine adjuvant, due to its safety, low cost and adjuvanticity to various antigens. However, the mechanism of action of alum is complex and not yet fully understood, and the immune responses elicited can be weak and antigen-dependent. While several antigens rapidly desorb from alum upon exposure to serum, phosphorylated proteins remain tightly bound through a ligand-exchange reaction with surface hydroxyls on alum.

A need for systems thinking and the appliance of (complexity) science in healthcare.

Hospitals represent complex adaptive systems where interactions and relationships of different components both affect and shape the way they work simultaneously. Pressures on hospitals determine how they behave and many of the problems seen in the NHS and indeed other health services can be viewed through the lens of complexity science and systems thinking. 'Flow' of patients through the hospital can be seen as an indicator of how well the hospital 'system' is working.

A hybrid PCA acceleration method for rapid real-time 2D MRI.

To develop a 2D MR acceleration method utilizing principal component analysis (PCA) in a hybrid fashion for rapid real-time applications.Retrospective testing was performed on 10 lung, 10 liver and 10 prostate 3T MRI data sets for image quality and target contourability. Sampling of k-space is performed by acquiring central (low-frequency) data in every frame while the high-frequency data is incoherently undersampled such that all of k-space is acquired in a pre-determined number of frames.

Falls characteristics experienced by working-age adults during inpatient post-stroke rehabilitation and their impact on length of stay, discharge functional status, ambulation and destination.

Background: In-hospital falls are frequent post-stroke medical complications and will remain of concern because it may not be possible to prevent all of them. We aimed to i) compare admission clinical and sociodemographic characteristics between fallers and non-fallers ii) determine falls characteristics iii) compare length of stay (LOS), discharge functional independence, ambulation and destination between fallers and non-fallers.

Methods: A matched case-control study, comparing individuals (n = 302) who fell during inpatient post-acute rehabilitation, matched (on time to admission, age and motor Functional Independence Measure (mFIM)) to individuals (n = 302) who didn´t fall, admitted within 3 months post-injury to a center between 2008 and 2023.