Search

The letter discusses the use of multifrequency tympanometry (MFT) as a diagnostic tool for Ménière's disease (MD) or similar symptoms. While some studies found a significant difference in G-width in MFT results between patients with MD and controls, other studies, including one by de Jong et al., did not find a significant correlation. The authors suggest that MFT, particularly the G-width at 2 kHz, may be more useful in diagnosing endolymphatic hydrops rather than MD itself, and further research is needed to understand pressure changes in MD and define the condition accurately. The letter emphasizes the importance of considering asymptomatic endolymphatic hydrops in healthy individuals when interpreting MFT results for MD diagnosis. [Extracted from the article]

Giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) are ideal for studying cellular mechanisms due to their cell-mimicking morphology and size. The formation, stability, and immobilization of these vesicles are crucial for drug delivery and bioimaging studies. Separately, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are actively researched owing to their unique and varied properties, yet little is known about the interaction between MOFs and phospholipids. This study investigates the influence of the metal–phosphate interface on the formation, size distribution, and stability of GUVs with different lipid compositions. GUVs were electroformed in the presence of a series of MOFs. The results show Al, Zn, Cu, Fe, Zr, and Ca metal centers of MOFs can coordinate to phospholipids on the surface of GUVs, leading to the formation of functional GUV@MOF constructs, with stablilities over 12 hours. Macroscopically, society has seen biology (people, plants, microbes) interacting with inorganic materials regularly. We now explore how microscopic biological models behave in the presence of inorganic constructs. This research opens new avenues for advanced biomedical applications interacting tailored frameworks with liposomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) has become the most prevalent chronic liver disease worldwide, but effective treatments are still lacking. Metabolic disorders such as iron overload, glycolysis, insulin resistance, lipid dysregulation, and glutaminolysis are found to induce liver senescence and ferroptosis, which are hot topics in the research of MASLD. Recent studies have shown that Hippo–YAP1/TAZ pathway is involved in the regulations of metabolism disorders, senescence, ferroptosis, inflammation, and fibrosis in MASLD, but their complex connections and contrast roles are also reported. In addition, therapeutics based on the Hippo–YAP1/TAZ pathway hold promising for MASLD treatment. In this review, we highlight the regulation and molecular mechanism of the Hippo–YAP1/TAZ pathway in MASLD and summarize potential therapeutic strategies for MASLD by regulating Hippo–YAP1/TAZ pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bone marrow microenvironment plays a crucial role in the development of multiple myeloma. As the disease progresses, malignant myeloma cells can evolve to survive outside the bone marrow. However, the processes underlying bone marrow independence and their consequences for immune control remain poorly understood. Here, we conducted single-cell and spatial multiomics analyses of bone marrow–confined intramedullary disease and paired breakout lesions that disrupt the cortical bone. These analyses revealed a distinct cellular microenvironment and architectural features of breakout lesions, characterized by extensive areas of malignant plasma cells interspersed with lesion-specific solitary natural killer and macrophage populations, as well as focal accumulations of immune cell agglomerates. Within these agglomerates, spatially confined T cell clones expanded alongside various immune cells, coinciding with the local genomic evolution of tumor cells. These analyses identify breakout lesions as a hotspot for tumor-immune cell interactions and diversification, representing a key event in myeloma pathogenesis. Editor's summary: Multiple myeloma (MM) is a plasma cell malignancy that develops in the bone marrow but, as disease progresses, can form "breakout lesions" that expand into the soft tissues surrounding bone. Using single-cell and spatial multiomics, Lutz et al. compared the cellular composition of bone marrow–confined MM and breakout lesions in patients with newly diagnosed MM. Breakout lesions contained a distinct microenvironment characterized by plasma cell–dominated regions infiltrated by macrophages and NK cells and focal regions rich in immune cells. T cell clonal expansion was heterogeneous and coincided with tumor genomic diversification, suggesting that MM breakout lesions represent an important site for tumor–immune cell interactions. —Claire Olingy [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Appetitive and aversive motivation are prominent in theories of dysregulated behaviors. The authors conducted a meta-analysis of the association between individual differences in appetitive and aversive motivation and several dysregulated behaviors (i.e., alcohol use, marijuana use, tobacco use, binge eating, aggression, gambling, and nonsuicidal self-injury). Alcohol use (r =.17, k = 141), marijuana use (r =.13, k = 23), aggression (r =.22, k = 52), and gambling (r =.08, k = 55) were all significantly positively related to appetitive motivation. Binge eating (r =.28, k = 34) and self-injury (r =.17, k = 10) were significantly positively related to aversive motivation. Effect sizes were similar to the median effect size in personality research. Together, these results provide some evidence that some dysregulated behaviors are more correlated with approach motivation, whereas others are more correlated with aversive motivation, which may indicate distinct etiological pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. The accuracy of material decomposition in spectral computed tomography (CT) depends on the information quality captured in image acquisition, a factor that cannot be adequately assessed using conventional image quality metrologies due to the multi-energy nature of spectral CT. This work used metrologies specific to spectral CT to evaluate the impact of acquisition conditions on the quality of spectral CT images and accuracy of material decomposition techniques. Approach. Computational phantoms were created with cylindrical shapes and variable sizes (20–40 cm), containing inserts of iodine and gadolinium (1–8 mg ml−1). The phantoms were imaged using a validated CT simulator modeling a clinical photon-counting CT scanner. The acquisitions were done at different detector energy thresholds (50–90 keV) and tube currents (25–250 mAs). The images were used to develop and train a data-driven material identification and quantification algorithm. Two spectral metrologies, multivariate contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and separability index, were used to characterize the impact of energy threshold, tube current, phantom size, and material concentration on signal quality. The results were interpreted in terms of figures of merit of accuracy for classification and mean absolute error (MAE) and root mean squared error (RMSE) for regression. Main results. Signal quality for iodine and gadolinium was maximized with a low energy threshold, high tube current, and small phantom size. While conventional CNR terms predicted variable image quality for two-thirds of all conditions, multivariate CNR was above 10 for half of those. Separability index showed that for a phantom size greater than 30 cm, a minimum of 75–110 mAs is required to separate 2 mg ml−1 of iodine and gadolinium. For both classification and regression tasks, a random forest model with a local statistics dataset provided the best performance. Across conditions, classification performance was 0.66–0.99 for I accuracy, 0.72–0.99 for Gd accuracy. Regression performance was 0.02–0.91 mg ml−1 I and 0.02–0.59 mg ml−1 Gd for MAE and 0.11–1.08 mg ml−1 I and 0.07-0.76 mg ml−1 Gd for RMSE. Significance. Multivariate CNR and separability index metrologies can predict material decomposition performance. Theses metrics demonstrated that the decomposition of iodine and gadolinium have higher separability when the acquisition is done at a lower energy threshold, with a higher tube current, and when the imaged object has a smaller size. Object size had the largest impact on metrics and decomposition performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to analyze and describe the various forms of collaborative work that teachers and university students in the province of Cusco accomplish together using the descriptive methodology. All professionals must know their area of work as well as lead in all work environments. The participation was anonymous and voluntary. The participating students are from the first cycle to the third cycle of the different professional careers between males and females from the rural and urban areas of the province of Cusco, Peru. The findings indicate that university teachers play an effective and significant pedagogical role in designing the collaborative work model that assigns group work in their respective classrooms with the various careers they supervise. Additionally, the findings show that the teacher fulfils the social role of motivating students by performing as a tutor in the classroom. Therefore, it has a positive and significant effect among university students. This has implied that the formation of working groups in university students generates student leaders and demonstrates broad knowledge in communication and information technologies which will generate many expectations in their professional training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Internal workplace coaches are employees who, in addition to their main job, volunteer to provide coaching to work colleagues who are not their direct reports. The purpose of this paper is to explore what motivates these individuals to volunteer to be an internal workplace coach and to continue carrying out the role. Design/methodology/approach: To explore the experiences of internal coaches, a questionnaire was devised and issued; it attracted 484 responses – the largest survey response to date from this population. Following analysis of the questionnaire data, semi-structured interviews were carried out with 20 internal coaches from private, public and not-for-profit UK organisations. The responses were analysed in relation to motivation theory, principally self-determination theory. Findings: Individuals were motivated to volunteer for the role, and to continue to practise as coaches, in the most part to satisfy intrinsic needs for competence, relatedness and autonomy. The research presents rich information about how coaches perceived these needs were satisfied by coaching. In general, there were only moderate or poor levels of support and recognition for individual coaches within their organisation, indicating limited extrinsic motivation. Practical implications: The practical implications are that organisations can draw on the findings from this study to motivate individuals to volunteer to be internal coaches and to continue to act in that role. Originality/value: Many organisations use internal coaches, but there is very little research into what motivates these volunteers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Woody biomass can be converted into a synthesis gas, a mixture of H2, CO, and CO2, by gasification. Removal of refractory tars, produced during biomass gasification, requires highly active catalysts that can be applied in-situ during gasification or in secondary catalytic tar cracking reactors. Subsequently, the water-gas-shift (WGS) reaction adjusts the H2 to CO ratio, prior to the synthesis of the desired products (CH4 as renewable natural gas or RNG, alcohols, hydrocarbons, and olefins). Catalysts play a pivotal role in all processing steps, with recent advances in catalyst development discussed herein with an emphasis on catalyst stability, reaction mechanisms, and structure–activity relationships. The economic viability of biomass conversion to fuels and chemicals is also reviewed and shown to be dependent on end-product, location, and government incentives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When used in organic solar cells, poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly (styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) aligns interfacial energy levels, promotes hole extraction, blocks electrons, and optimizes the active layer's morphology. However, with an optimal thickness of approximately 30-40 nm, PEDOT:PSS has insufficient layer thickness tolerance, owing to its low conductivity and hole extraction property. Herein, a hole-selective-molecule doping strategy is proposed to enhance the properties of PEDOT:PSS by introducing MPA2FPh-BT-BA (abbreviated as 2F) into its layer. 2F assembles at the anode to form interfacial dipoles due to its unique donor-acceptor-anchor molecular configuration, altering the anode work function and hole-selective extraction. Additionally, 2F improves the aggregation properties of PEDOT:PSS by forming hydrogen bonds with the PSS group, enhancing the conductivity characteristics. These changes in the PEDOT:PSS layer further influence the overlaying morphology, leading to increased crystalline features of PM6 and the bulk heterojunction of PM6:Y6. When a 2F-PEDOT:PSS (2FPP) layer is used, power conversion efficiencies of 18.3%, 19.2%, and 19.1% are achieved in PM6:Y6, PM6:BTP-eC9, and PM6:L8-BO devices, respectively, outperforming counterparts with PEDOT:PSS. Specifically, the performance of PM6:Y6 devices with a 2FPP layer of 170 nm remains at > 15%, providing valuable guidance for designing a thickness-insensitive hole transport layer for high-efficiency organic solar cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]