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The growing significance of social media in research demands new ethical standards and practices. Although a substantial body of literature on social media ethics exists, studies on the ethics of conducting research using social media are scarce. The emergence of new evidence sources, like social media, requires innovative methods and renewed consideration of research ethics. Therefore, we pose the following question: What are the defining characteristics of ethics papers on social media research? Following a modified version of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocol, we analyzed 34 publications based on ten variables: author gender, publication year, region, academic discipline, type, design, methodology, social media platform in focus, positionality statement, and ethical issues. Our findings suggest contemporary social media research ethics primarily reflects the ethical ideals of the Global North, with limited representation from the Global South. Women authors have published more papers than men authors. Previous studies have prioritized ethical concerns such as privacy, informed consent, and anonymity while overlooking researchers' risks and the ethics of social media sites. We particularly emphasized the lack of researchers' positionality statements in research. Our findings will pave the way to understanding social media ethics better, especially with the rapid growth of social media research in global scholarship.

Abstract Epileptogenesis is the process by which a normal brain becomes hyperexcitable and capable of generating spontaneous recurrent seizures. The extensive dysregulation of gene expression associated with epileptogenesis is shaped, in part, by microRNAs (miRNAs) – short, non-coding RNAs that negatively regulate protein levels. Functional miRNA-mediated regulation can, however, be difficult to elucidate due to the complexity of miRNA-mRNA interactions. Here, we integrated miRNA and mRNA expression profiles sampled over multiple time-points during and after epileptogenesis in rats, and applied bi-clustering and Bayesian modelling to construct temporal miRNA-mRNA-mRNA interaction networks. Network analysis and enrichment of network inference with sequence- and human disease-specific information identified key regulatory miRNAs with the strongest influence on the mRNA landscape, and miRNA-mRNA interactions closely associated with epileptogenesis and subsequent epilepsy. Our findings underscore the complexity of miRNA-mRNA regulation, can be used to prioritise miRNA targets in specific systems, and offer insights into key regulatory processes in epileptogenesis with therapeutic potential for further investigation.

Aggression toward peers who are perceived as weaker or different is a widespread problem for middle school students including those attending Catholic middle schools. Middle school students' normative beliefs about the acceptability of various types of aggressive behavior influences their own potential involvement in bullying. Therefore, how middle schoolers decide to respond to situations of peer aggression may affect their standing as either victims, bystanders to bullies, or as bully-victims in school environments over time. This study looks at how middle schoolers (sixth, seventh, and eighth grade girls and boys) in Catholic schools think it best to respond to peer aggression by examining their decision-making preferences for how targeted peers (from a vulnerable group) should respond to physical, verbal, or cyber aggression situations. Although significant effects regarding gender, grade, and type of peer aggression were found for the decision-making of the middle schoolers, findings reveal that overall middle schoolers' preferences were well developed for resisting peer aggression. The study provides important insights for how to supplement commonly existing curricula on social emotional learning in Catholic Schools with decision-making training inputs for the design of future school-based bullying prevention programs. Preparing middle schoolers in Catholic schools to respond to stop peer aggression in a proactive way supports the mission of Catholic schools to create safe and caring school environments.

IntroductionCancer patients may have increased risk for adverse cardiac events, but our understanding of cardiovascular risk in thymic cancer patients is not clear. We sought to characterize baseline cardiometabolic risk factors before thymic cancer diagnosis and the potential association between cancer treatment and subsequent cardiac events.MethodsThis was a retrospective cohort study evaluating patients with thymic cancer from 2003 to 2020 compared to age- and sex-matched controls without cancer. Baseline cardiovascular risk factors, cancer characteristics, and incidence of cardiac events were collected from the health information exchange. Multivariable regression was used to examine the impact of cardiovascular risk factors and cancer therapies.ResultsWe compared 296 patients with pathology-confirmed thymic cancer to 2,960 noncancer controls. Prior to cancer diagnosis, thymic cancer patients (TCPs) had lower prevalence of hypertension, dyslipidemia, and diabetes mellitus and similar rates of obesity, tobacco use, and pre-existing cardiovascular disease (CVD) compared to controls. After diagnosis, high-risk TCPs (>2 cardiovascular risk factors or pre-existing CVD) had higher risk for cardiac events (HR 3.73, 95% CI 2.88–4.83, p

Background: Children had been affected less by COVID-19 than adults. But as the pandemic progressed more cases of severe pediatric COVID infection were reported. Aim of this study is to describe the clinical characteristics, laboratory parameters, treatments, and predictors of pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) admission among hospitalized children with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Subjects and Methods: This was a retrospective, observational study performed in a tertiary care COVID referral hospital among hospitalized children aged from 1 month to 12 years, from May 2020 to March 2021. Children treated in the pediatric ward were compared with those admitted in the PICU to assess predictors of intensive care admission. Results: Out of 447 hospitalized patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection, 92 (20.58%) required admission in the PICU. Mean age of the study population was 44.58 (16.77–72.39) months. Thirty-eight patients (8.50%) fulfilled multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) diagnostic criteria. Invasive mechanical ventilation and inotropic support were needed for 28.26% and 36.96% of PICU-admitted patients, respectively. The mortality rate was 1.57%. Independent risk factors for PICU admission were infant age group, longer duration of fever (>5 days), shortness of breath, presence of shock, underlying comorbidities and higher pediatric early warning score (PEWS ≥5), poor Glasgow coma scale (GCS 50 mg/L), neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio (NLR ≥4.5), and hypoalbuminemia (

Histone phosphorylation is a ubiquitous post-translational modification. Here the authors present a programmable chromatin kinase, dCas9-dMSK1, that enables controlled histone phosphorylation and specific gene activation.

We investigate the impact of money illusion on the investment strategy and retirement outcomes of pre-retirees. Money illusion refers to the tendency of individuals to overlook the effects of inflation and focus on nominal rather than real terms. We solve and compare the optimal investment strategies for a pre-retiree who exhibits money illusion and aims to maximize the expected power utility of wealth at retirement, subject to a minimum guarantee constraint. While money illusion leads to welfare losses, implementing a minimum guarantee helps suppress these losses. However, guarantee constraints set under money illusion are ineffective in meeting inflation-adjusted constraints. Our findings emphasize the significant impact of money illusion on pre-retirees' investment strategy and retirement outcomes in the form of utility loss and the risk of falling short of the minimum guarantee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundMethodResultsConclusionsAlthough older adults with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities face high risks of maltreatment, there are few interventions available to reduce these risks. This study describes the development of a research-based intervention that aims to reduce the risks of maltreatment for this population.The development involved close collaboration with a program advisory board (PAB). It used a three-phase approach with a cross-cultural perspective: (1) performing a needs assessment, (2) determining content and design, and (3) evaluating the usability of the intervention.The needs assessment results and input from the PAB yielded critical information that helped shape the intervention’s development. Feedback from the trainers confirmed the intervention’s usefulness and revealed suggestions for enhancing its usability.The intervention developed appears to be promising for enhancing the knowledge and skills of older populations to reduce their exposure to maltreatment risks; future research should be conducted to assess its efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To plan for retirement, it is important to understand how needs and purchases may change. We use data from a survey of elderly Australians to see how needs and purchases changed in different categories of goods and services. We looked especially at those who had experienced financial or health shocks. Our analysis shows variation in people's experiences, particularly for health costs, which increase with age. Having private health insurance appears to increase the level and volatility of health costs – presumably as a result of out‐of‐pocket costs. This information can be useful for financial advisors and superannuation trustees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several biologic agents have been approved for use in dermatology and other disciplines of medicine. However, based on the mechanism of action and a track record of the response, these agents are being increasingly used for off-label purposes to garner control of more remote and difficult disease processes. Herein, we present three difficult to treat patients where innovative uses of biologics beyond their approved indications have yielded good responses. Our first patient was a case of bullous pemphigoid, who showed excellent response to omalizumab. The second case was a patient of lepromatous leprosy with tenosynovitis and erythema nodosum leprosum, who was treated effectively with infliximab. Our third case was a treatment-resistant pyoderma gangrenosum, where infliximab showed a very good response. In the present study, we report the cases to highlight the usefulness of biologics that can expand much beyond the routine FDA approved indications.

Background Gastrointestinal route is considered for feeding in subjects who are unable to swallow, either as a temporary or permanent option. Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) is the preferred mode for long-term enteral nutrition. The aim was to study the outcome of protocol-based PEG placement in a tertiary medical center. Materials and Methods All the patients who underwent PEG placement between January 2017 and December 2019 were included in the retrospective study. Study variables were entered into a uniform structured proforma. The procedure was done by two people using Ponsky-Gauderer pull-technique. Fluoroscopy guidance was considered for placement in special situations. Post-procedure, all the patients were regularly followed as per protocol to evaluate for adverse events. Results One hundred and eighteen patients with placement of PEG were included in the study. The mean age of the patients was 49.6 ± 7 years with 67.8% males. The most common indication of PEG was inability to swallow associated with head injury (43, 36.4%), followed by carcinoma esophagus (35, 29.8%) and stroke (24, 20.3%). Fluoroscopy was useful in 38 (32%) for PEG site identification. Tube dislodgement (16, 13.5%) and aspiration pneumonia (20, 16.9%) were the common adverse events. Age more than 60 years and dysphagia in neurologic disorders accounted for more than 60% of adverse events. Forty-nine (42%) of the PEG patients expired due to either primary illness or due to sepsis after a median time of 139 days (range: 32–288 days). There was no difference in the survival in patients with or without PEG-related complications (p = 0. 74). Conclusions Fluoroscopy assistance helps in accurate PEG placement in one third. Age > 60 years and dysphagia in neurologic disorders were independent risk factors associated with PEG tube complications.

Goal directed behavior requires the sequential retrieval and evaluation of the multiple choices for action and their deterministic outcomes. Here, the authors report sequential, decodable probabilistic outcome representations in magnetoencephalography (MEG) signals during a risky foraging task.

Background: In the recent years, the frequency, severity, clinical characteristics, treatment response, and relapse rate of dermatophytosis have dramatically changed in India. Given the surge in dermatophytosis, we had undertaken a study to isolate and identify the common species causing dermatophyte infection and to know the in vitro efficacy of the common antifungals against them. Materials and Methods: total of 103 new cases that were not on any treatment for the past 3 months were included. Skin scrapings were collected for direct microscopic examination and for fungal culture in Sabouraud 4% dextrose agar (SDA) with chloramphenicol and cycloheximide slant tubes, and dermatophyte test media. Fungi were identified on the basis of their macroscopic and microscopic features with the help of lactophenol cotton blue staining and urease test. Also, the drug sensitivity of the dermatophytes was tested with the common antifungals. Results: Of the 55 cases (53.4%) that were positive for dermatophytes in the culture, 29 showed possible contamination. Trichophyton was the predominant organism (49 cases) with T. verrucosum being the commonest species (26 cases), followed by T. rubrum (15 patients), and T. mentagrophytes(8 cases). All species of Trichophyton were found to be most sensitive to itraconazole amongst systemic antifungals and luliconazole amongst topical antifungals. Conclusion: This study concluded that the causative agent for the dermatophytosis was changing in India and in our subset, T. verrucosum caused the maximum number of infections. Itraconazole and luliconazole had the highest sensitivity amongst systemic and topical antifungals, respectively. It also showed that terbinafine had comparatively less sensitivity to most organisms.

The Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has presented an unprecedented challenge globally. It is much bigger than a bio-medical concern now with the multitudes of socio-economic, socio-political, socio-cultural, and psycho-social impact, which are likely to outlast the pandemic itself by far and long. The pandemic and the resulting challenges across societies highlighted the existing social injustices in a neoliberal world for historically marginalized populations like homeless persons with mental illness (HPMI). The nationwide lockdown in India to resist the spread of the virus posed a unique challenge to this vulnerable population. The present study thus attempts to understand the experience of HPMI during the COVID-19 induced lockdown through the theoretical framework of social justice vis-à-vis injustice. Semi-structured interviews have been conducted on seven HPMI rehabilitated in the community through an NGO situated in Kolkata, India. Seven stakeholders have also been interviewed to understand their experience in providing services to the HPMI during the COVID-19 induced lockdown. Analyses of the narratives have been done using initial coding, focused coding and axial coding through the process of constant comparison of constructivist grounded theory (CGT) methodology. Critical insights from the study bring out experiences of HPMI during COVID-19 as a victim of structural violence, highlighting their exclusion and victimization due to the existing marginalized status, living closer to the edge as a consequence of the lockdown, lack of awareness of the gravity of the pandemic situation. The experiences of the stakeholders, on the other hand, pointed out the role of community members and social workers in partially mitigating the challenges. This study indicates that to mitigate the aftermaths, stakeholders, including community members, need to work together for rebuilding and enhancing the strength and resilience of the marginalized populations like HPMI, who are historically victims of social injustice in the neoliberal pandemic era.