Gut microbiome communities demonstrate fine-scale spatial variation in a closed, island bird population.

Environmental variation is a key factor shaping microbial communities in wild animals. However, most studies have focussed on separate populations distributed over large spatial scales. How ecological factors shape inter-individual microbiome variation within a single landscape and host population remains poorly understood.

Time-varying impact of established prognostic factors in resected pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

Background: Prognostic factors in resected pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) have been determined under the assumption that hazard ratios (HRs) remain static. However, PDAC is a dynamic disease with evolving conditional survival. The aim of this study was to determine if the impact of prognostic factors in PDAC is time-varying.

Intraoperative renal and cerebral tissue oxygen saturation measurements to predict postoperative acute kidney injury in pediatric cardiac surgery: a prospective observational study.

Purpose: Pediatric patients undergoing cardiac surgery are at risk of developing postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI). We hypothesized that a reduction in intraoperative renal (SrO) or cerebral (ScO) tissue oxygen saturation is associated with postoperative AKI.

Methods: We conducted a prospective observational study including fifty pediatric patients with non-cyanotic heart disease undergoing elective surgical repair with cardiopulmonary bypass.

Sentence Production in Standard Indonesian Agrammatism.

For individuals with agrammatic aphasia, producing sentences with non-canonical word orders is a challenging feat. Studies on different languages report deficits in this area of sentence production: some citing problems related to retrieval of verb morphology while others pursue a more holistic approach by attributing the root of the deficit towards the process of thematic role assignment. It has been shown that agrammatic speakers of Standard Indonesian are relatively unimpaired in the use (in spontaneous speech) and comprehension of passive constructions.

Parameter Estimation from Phylogenetic Trees Using Neural Networks and Ensemble Learning.

Species diversification is characterized by speciation and extinction, the rates of which can, under some assumptions, be estimated from time-calibrated phylogenies. However, maximum likelihood estimation methods (MLE) for inferring rates are limited to simpler models and can show bias, particularly in small phylogenies. Likelihood-free methods to estimate parameters of diversification models using deep learning have started to emerge, but how robust neural network methods are at handling the intricate nature of phylogenetic data remains an open question.

People With Haemophilia as Data Coordinators: An Analysis of the Ethics and Feasibility of Self-Management With Personal Health Records.

Background: People with haemophilia perform various self-management tasks, supported by multiple health apps. Personal health records will enable individuals to access and add health information from different institutions in a single digital tool, providing an integrated overview of data. Later, individuals will also be able to share their data with health care providers and relatives.

Improving mental health literacy in secondary school educational professionals in the netherlands: adaptation of an existing intervention using Intervention Mapping Adapt.

Background: Advanced interventions to enhance the mental health literacy (MHL) of educational professionals are now available, though their effectiveness varies, likely due to contextual differences. To adapt these interventions for use in other countries, a systematic and tailored approach is required to maintain the logical framework. This study describes the systematic process of selecting and adapting an intervention to improve MHL of Dutch secondary school educational professionals, using Intervention Mapping (IM) Adapt.

Exploring the Reliability of Detecting Drug-Drug Interactions that Increase the Risk of Gestational Diabetes in Adverse Event Reporting Systems.

Background: Adverse event reporting systems are an important source of safety signals for drug use in pregnancy, but their usefulness in the identification of potential drug-drug interactions (DDIs) remains unclear.

Objective: Our objective was to explore the reliability of signal detection for pharmacokinetic DDIs during pregnancy in adverse event reporting systems, focusing on potential interactions between antipsychotics (APs) or antidepressants (ADs) and drugs modifying cytochrome P450 (CYP450) activity, increasing the occurrence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).

Methods: Reports related to the use of drugs during pregnancy were identified in VigiBase, the World Health Organization (WHO) global database of adverse event reports.

Propofol-based versus sevoflurane-based anaesthesia for deceased donor kidney transplantation: the VAPOR-2 study protocol for an international multicentre randomised controlled trial.

Introduction: Ischaemia reperfusion injury (IRI) is inevitable in kidney transplantation and negatively affects patient and graft outcomes. Anaesthetic conditioning (AC) refers to the use of anaesthetic agents to mitigate IRI. AC is particularly associated with volatile anaesthetic (VA) agents and to a lesser extent to intravenous agents like propofol.

Age- and sex-dependent associations between the number of older siblings and early-life survival in pre-industrial humans.

Siblings are an important part of an individual's early-life environment and may therefore play an important role in shaping an individual's survival. The quantification of sibling effects on survival is challenging, however, especially in long-lived species with extended parental care and overlapping generations, such as humans. Here, we use historical parish data from Switzerland to quantify how the number of older siblings and their survival status, age and sex are associated with childhood survival.

Tailoring for Health Literacy in the Design and Development of eHealth Interventions: Systematic Review.

Background: Tailoring is an important strategy to improve uptake and efficacy of medical information and guidance provided through eHealth interventions. Given the rapid expansion of eHealth, understanding the design rationale of such tailored interventions is vital for further development of and research into eHealth interventions aimed at improving health and healthy behavior.

Objective: This systematic review examines the use of health literacy concepts through tailoring strategies in digital health interventions (eHealth) aimed at improving health and how these elements inform the overall design rationale.

Imaging changes with or without neurological symptoms after proton therapy in pediatric posterior fossa tumors; initial experience of the Dutch national cohort.

Background And Purpose: The incidence of proton therapy (PT)-related imaging changes in the central nervous system, and associated symptoms, varies widely in literature. The aim of this study was to assess imaging changes after implementation of intensity-modulated pencil beam scanning in a national cohort of pediatric posterior fossa (PF) tumors.

Materials And Methods: All pediatric PF tumor patients treated in the XXX with PT between 06-2018 and 12-2022 were analyzed.

Vericiguat in patients with chronic heart failure and reduced ejection fraction (VICTOR): a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomised, phase 3 trial.

Background: Vericiguat is indicated to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death and hospitalisation for heart failure in patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) following a recent worsening event. The aim of the VICTOR trial was to assess the effect of vericiguat in patients with HFrEF without recent heart failure worsening.

Methods: In this double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial, conducted at 482 sites across 36 countries, patients aged 18 years or older with HFrEF (left ventricular ejection fraction of ≤40%) without heart failure hospitalisation within 6 months or outpatient intravenous diuretic use within 3 months before randomisation were randomly assigned (1:1) using an intervention randomisation system with interactive response technology to oral vericiguat (target 10 mg dose) or matching placebo.

Vericiguat for patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction across the risk spectrum: an individual participant data analysis of the VICTORIA and VICTOR trials.

Background: Following completion of the VICTORIA trial, vericiguat was approved for the treatment of worsening heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) and received a class IIb recommendation in European and North American guidelines. The subsequent VICTOR trial evaluated the use of vericiguat in patients with HFrEF and no recent worsening. We aimed to assess the effect of vericiguat on clinical endpoints through pooled analyses of patient-level data from the VICTORIA and VICTOR trials.

Urinary exposure to liquid crystal monomers (LCMs) in children near e-waste recycling sites: Occurrence and implications for physical growth.

Liquid crystal monomers (LCMs) are emerging contaminants extensively used in electronic displays, yet human exposure assessment studies remain scarce, particularly among children. This study presents the first comprehensive assessment of urinary LCMs in 194 children living near e-waste recycling areas in South China. Eighteen of thirty target LCMs were detected, with significantly higher concentrations in exposed children (median = 8.

Maximising naphtha-range hydrocarbons from thermal pyrolysis of polyolefin-rich mixed plastic waste by split-plot response surface methodology.

The pyrolysis of polyolefin (PO)-rich mixed plastic waste represents a promising pathway for recycling plastic waste into liquid hydrocarbons, particularly in the naphtha range, for use as a refinery input. However, assessments of naphtha production from complex plastic waste remain limited. This work systematically investigates the batch pyrolysis of a PO-rich mixed plastic waste derived from a sorted household waste stream (DKR-350) using Design of Experiments (DoE) and response surface methodology (RSM).

Effects of walking training with and without a robot and standard care on clinical and mobility outcomes: A randomized clinical trial in acute ischemic stroke patients.

Background: Stroke incidence rises with age. A stroke can severely affect walking ability, requiring therapy. Robot-assisted walking therapy (ROB) has been advocated as one form of walking rehabilitation in stroke patients.

Night shift work and sleep duration among middle and older age adults: The role of individual, social, and environmental moderators.

Sleep is a critical yet often overlooked outcome in sociological inquiries into health disparities, acting as a crucial mechanism through which stress translates into health problems. This study investigates the impact of night shift work on sleep duration, a significant but under-explored area in social science research. Utilizing data from 217,863 participants in the UK Biobank, we examine how night shift work impacts sleep duration among middle-aged and older adults in the UK.

Mapping diversity in gender identity and gender roles across sex and age in the Dutch general population: a large-scale cohort study.

Background: Knowledge of diversity in gender identity and gender roles in the general population is limited. This study aimed to report the prevalence estimates of gender identity and gender roles among the adult general population, stratified by age and sex.

Methods: In the third general assessment of the prospective Dutch Lifelines Cohort Study, conducted between 2019 and 2023, sex and current gender identity were assessed using a self-reported categorical item, in which participants aged 18 years and older could indicate their sex assigned at birth (male or female) and current gender identity (man or woman), or select the option with a free-text field.

Associations of Genetically Predicted CKD With Urinary Tract Cancer and Lung Cancer: A Mendelian Randomization Analysis.

Rationale & Objective: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is reported to be associated with cancer, especially for urinary tract and lung cancer. However, whether this suggests causality has not been resolved. This study aimed to investigate the causal relation of CKD to overall, urinary tract, and lung cancer.

Smart bacteria-responsive coatings for combating catheter-associated urinary tract infections.

As one of the leading hospital-acquired infections (HAI), catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) can not only give rise to high treatment costs, but may also lead to serious after effects like pyelonephritis, sepsis, bacteremia, and even death. In order to reduce the infection risk, a lot of efforts have been devoted to the development of antibacterial urinary catheters such as antibiotic-coated catheters. With the emergence of antibiotic resistance, the design of alternative antibacterial strategies such as stimuli-responsive coatings for combating CAUTIs has attracted increasing interest in recent years.

Epicardial adipose tissue, functional status and invasive hemodynamics in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.

Background: EAT may play a role in the pathophysiology of HFpEF.

Objectives: This study examined associations between increased epicardial adipose tissue (EAT), functional status and invasive exercise hemodynamics in a large cohort of heart failure (HF) with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) patients.

Methods: All patients underwent echocardiography, 6-minute walk distance (MWD) test, Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ) and invasive hemodynamic assessment at rest and during ergometry.

Effect of Vericiguat on Worsening Heart Failure in Compensated Outpatients with HFrEF: Insights from VICTOR.

Background: In the VICTOR trial, in a contemporary ambulatory cohort with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) and no recent hospitalization, the primary outcome of hospitalization for heart failure (HHF) and cardiovascular death was not statistically significantly reduced with vericiguat. Vericiguat reduced risk of mortality but not HHF. In this ambulatory compensated cohort, time to first HHF may underestimate the overall worsening HF burden by failing to consider the high proportion of outpatient worsening HF events.