Tie2 Cre mediated changes in antioxidant activity modulates blood pressure and vascular reactivity: a role for Nrf2.

Background: Excessive oxidative stress is well known to participate in the pathogenesis of hypertension. A major regulator of oxidative stress is the transcription factor Nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2). However, the role of Nrf2 in the pathogenesis of hypertension is not completely understood, especially at the endothelial cell level.

Do mini-fragment T-plates allow for more proximal rafting than pre-contoured anatomic plates in lateral split-depression tibial plateau fractures?

Purpose: To compare the proximity of rafting screws to the articular surface in lateral split-depression (LSD) tibial plateau fractures using mini-fragment (MF) and pre-contoured anterolateral (AL) proximal tibia plates. Secondary aims included comparing patient-reported outcome scores and rates of hardware failure and reoperation.

Methods: Design Retrospective review.

Retrograde Ischiopubic Ramus Screw Internal Fixation of a Periprosthetic T-type Acetabular Fracture: A Case Report.

Case: A 79-year-old man with a left total hip arthroplasty presented with left hip pain following a fall. Radiographs and CT scan demonstrated a displaced, T-type, periprosthetic acetabular fracture involving the anterior and posterior columns and disruption of the ischiopubic segment. The inferior pubic ramus and the posterior column fractures were stabilized with percutaneous internal fixation using retrograde fully-threaded 6.

Modelling the potential clinical benefit of mobile stroke units in England.

Background: Intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) and mechanical thrombectomy (MT) are well-established emergency reperfusion treatments for stroke caused by clots. Both reduce disability but effectiveness is highly time-dependent, declining in the first few hours after stroke onset. Mobile stroke units (MSUs) have been proposed as a way of improving outcomes after stroke.

Evidence of postnatal neglect-dependent resiliency in thymic, gut, and behavioral outcomes in a mouse model of early life stress.

Background: Early life is an impressionable period often regarded as the window of opportunity. Environmental exposures, such as stress, in the early postnatal period can influence developmental trajectory and long-term health. The brain and immune systems continue to develop after birth and are shaped by postnatal exposures.

Variations in Methodological Approaches to Measuring Health Inequalities and Inequities: A Scoping Review of Acute Stroke Pathways.

Background: There are a lot of advances that may affect the way treatment is delivered prehospital, including mobile stroke units and point-of-care diagnostics. These have the potential to affect populations differently and therefore affect the distribution of health outcomes.

Objectives: We aimed to address the following research questions: (1) Which geographic and socioeconomic inequalities have been included when evaluating access to acute stroke treatment (including reperfusion therapies)? (2) How have the identified measures been considered/assessed/calculated? (3) We also report any methodological approaches that have been proposed that might further improve the way in which acute stroke care interventions are analysed, specified relating to inequalities.

Prognostic Significance of Delays in Initiation of Adjuvant Trastuzumab-Based Therapy in Patients with HER2-Positive Breast Cancer.

Adjuvant trastuzumab therapy has improved outcomes in HER2-positive breast cancer, but the impact of the timing of its initiation remains unclear. This study evaluates the effect of time to adjuvant trastuzumab-based therapy (TTAT) after surgery on survival in HER2-positive breast cancer. In this retrospective study, HER2-positive breast cancer patients treated with surgery followed by adjuvant trastuzumab without prior neoadjuvant therapy were analyzed.

A SIMPL Model of Phage-Bacteria Interactions Accounting for Mutation and Competition.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistically pathogenic bacteria that causes fatal infections and outbreaks in hospital environments. Due to the increasing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant strains of P. aeruginosa, the need for alternative therapies is critical.

Autogenous bone graft collection by acetabular reamers at the ilium yielded comparable volume with less blood loss and lower costs compared to the Reamer-Irrigator-Aspirator 2 system at the femur.

Objective: To compare autogenous bone graft volume, blood loss, transfusion rate, complications, and costs by collection using acetabular reamers at the ilium (ARI) to Reamer-Irrigator-Aspirator (RIA2) at the femur.

Materials And Methods: Adults who underwent long bone or sacral nonunion repair with autogenous bone graft collection by either unilateral ARI or RIA2 from femur from November 2020 to May 2023 at two academic trauma referral centers were retrospectively identified. Outcomes included graft volume, estimated blood less (EBL), perioperative change in hematocrit (ΔHct) and hemoglobin (ΔHgb), red blood cells (pRBC) units transfused intra- or postoperatively, infection, iatrogenic fracture, pathologic fracture, venous thromboembolism, and equipment costs per procedure.

Longitudinal and Concurrent Changes in Brain and Gut due to Morphine Self-Administration.

Opioid agonists are known for their effects on the opioid and dopaminergic systems; however, new research points to complementary changes in the gut underlying maladaptive changes associated with opioid use. The gut-brain axis (GBA) is a bidirectional signaling process that permits feedback between the brain and gut and is altered in subjects with opioid use disorders, but the spatiotemporal correspondence between quantitative translational measures of gut and brain health is not clear. In this work, we determined longitudinal and concurrent changes in the brain and gut of rodents trained to self-administer morphine for 14 days.

Usability testing a web application to support evidence-based commissioning decisions for implementing mobile stroke units.

Commissioning of innovations in healthcare is a complex socio-technical process, ideally informed by high quality evidence. However, evidence is not always prepared and presented in a format usable for commissioning decisions. Agile methodology, combined with qualitative co-design, were used to develop a digital web application incorporating machine learning models of stroke outcomes to inform commissioning decisions for the implementation of mobile stroke units (MSUs) in England, followed by usability testing using think aloud methodology.

Quantitative stable isotope probing (qSIP) and cross-domain networks reveal bacterial-fungal interactions in the hyphosphere.

Background: Interactions between fungi and bacteria have the potential to substantially influence soil carbon dynamics in soil, but we have yet to fully identify these interactions and partners in their natural environment. In this study, we stacked two powerful methods, C quantitative stable isotope probing (qSIP) and cross-domain co-occurrence network, to identify interacting fungi and bacteria in a California grassland soil. We used in-field whole plant CO labeling along with sand-filled ingrowth bags (that trap fungi and hyphae-associated bacteria) to amplify the signal of fungal-bacterial interactions, separate from the bulk soil background.

Cytochrome b5 occurrence in giant and other viruses belonging to the phylum Nucleocytoviricota.

Cytochrome b5 is an electron transport protein found in eukaryotes and bacteria, and plays roles in energy production, lipid biosynthesis and cytochrome P450 biochemistry. Here we report that genes for cytochrome b5 occur broadly among viruses in the class Megaviricetes isolated from the deep ocean, freshwater and terrestrial sources, and human patients. Transcriptional analysis showed that Mimivirus bradfordmassiliense cytochrome b5 is expressed in the host and has characteristic spectral properties.

Evidence for the long-distance transport of ticks and tick-borne pathogens by human travellers to Texas, USA.

Background: The incidence of tick-borne diseases in the USA has surged in recent years, with >50 000 cases reported from an estimated half-million cases annually. While domestic vectors are well characterized, the role of human travel in transporting exotic ticks and pathogens remains poorly understood.

Methods: We analysed 4808 submissions of ticks removed from individuals to the Tick-Borne Disease Research Laboratory in Texas, USA, from 2004 to 2024.

Machine learning to predict stroke risk from routine hospital data: A systematic review.

Purpose: Stroke remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Despite this, current risk stratification tools such as CHADS-VASc and QRISK3 are of limited accuracy, particularly in those without a diagnosis of atrial-fibrillation. Hence, there is a need for more accurate stroke risk prediction models.

Practitioner, patient and public views on the acceptability of mobile stroke units in England and Wales: A mixed methods study.

Background: Evidence for Mobile Stroke Units (MSUs) demonstrates that onset to treatment times for intravenous thrombolysis can be reduced and access to mechanical thrombectomy might be improved. Despite growing use of MSUs internationally, to date there have been no studies in NHS England and NHS Wales exploring the acceptability of MSUs to clinicians, patient and public representatives and other key stakeholders, which are important when considering potential feasibility and implementation.

Methods: This study used a mixed methods design with a cross-sectional survey and qualitative workshops and interviews between October 2023 to May 2024.

The Microenvironment in DCIS and Its Role in Disease Progression.

Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) accounts for ~20% of all breast cancer diagnoses but whilst known to be a precursor of invasive breast cancer (IBC), evidence suggests only one in six patients will ever progress. A key challenge is to distinguish between those lesions that will progress and those that will remain indolent. Molecular analyses of neoplastic epithelial cells have not identified consistent differences between lesions that progressed and those that did not, and this has focused attention on the tumour microenvironment (ME).

Effects of Concentrate Feed Starch Source Offered Twice a Day on Feed Intake and Milk Production of Cows During the Early Postpartum Period.

This experiment determined the effects of two different starch sources when offered twice a day to cows during the early postpartum period (1 to 23 d postpartum, treatment period) on dry matter intake (DMI), feeding behavior, and milk production. The subsequent effects on milk production in the carryover period (24 to 72 d) where cows received a common diet (grazed perennial ryegrass pasture plus concentrate supplements) were also measured. Thirty-two multiparous dairy cows were offered concentrate feed (8 kg DM/d) containing 5 kg DM of crushed wheat grain or ground corn grain (7 h in vitro starch digestibility of 65.

Vulnerability of Arctic Ocean microbial eukaryotes to sea ice loss.

The Arctic Ocean (AO) is changing at an unprecedented rate, with ongoing sea ice loss, warming and freshening impacting the extent and duration of primary productivity over summer months. Surface microbial eukaryotes are vulnerable to such changes, but basic knowledge of the spatial variability of surface communities is limited. Here, we sampled microbial eukaryotes in surface waters of the Beaufort Sea from four contrasting environments: the Canada Basin (open ocean), the Mackenzie Trough (river-influenced), the Nuvuk region (coastal) and the under-ice system of the Canada Basin.

Cytochromes b5 Occurrence in Viruses Belonging to the Order Megavirales.

Cytochrome b5 is a small electron transport protein that is found in animals, plants, fungi and photosynthetic proteobacteria where it plays key metabolic roles in energy production, lipid and sterol biosynthesis and cytochrome P450 biochemistry. Previously it was shown that a gene encoding a soluble and functional cytochrome b5 protein was encoded in the large double stranded DNA virus OtV2 that infects the unicellular marine green alga , the smallest free-living eukaryote described to-date. This single gene represented a unique finding in the virosphere.

A lifetime economic model of mortality and secondary care use for patients discharged from hospital following acute stroke.

Background: The long-term health-economic consequences of acute stroke are typically extrapolated from short-term outcomes observed in different studies, using models based on assumptions about longer-term morbidity and mortality. Inconsistency in these assumptions and the methods of extrapolation can create difficulties when comparing estimates of lifetime cost-effectiveness of stroke care interventions.

Aims: To develop a long-term model consisting of a set of equations to estimate the lifetime effects of stroke care interventions to promote consistency in extrapolation of short-term outcomes.