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Abstract Ultra-low-dose computed tomography (ULD-CT) may combine the high sensitivity of conventional computed tomography (CT) in detecting sarcoma pulmonary metastasis, with a radiation dose in the same magnitude as chest X-ray (CXR). Fifty patients with non-metastatic high-grade soft tissue sarcoma treated with curative intention were recruited. Their follow-up involved both CXR and ULD-CT to evaluate their different sensitivity. Suspected findings were confirmed by conventional CT if necessary. Patients with isolated pulmonary metastases were treated with surgery or stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) with curative intent if possible. The median effective dose from a single ULD-CT study was 0.27 mSv (range 0.12 to 0.89 mSv). Nine patients were diagnosed with asymptomatic lung metastases during the follow-up. Only three of them were visible in CXR and all nine in ULD-CT. CXR had therefore only a 33% sensitivity compared to ULD-CT. Four patients were operated, and one had SBRT to all pulmonary lesions. Eight of them, however, died of the disease. Two patients developed symptomatic metastatic recurrence involving extrapulmonary sites+/−the lungs between two imaging rounds. ULD-CT has higher sensitivity for the detection of sarcoma pulmonary metastasis than CXR, with a radiation dose considerably lower than conventional CT. Clinical trial registration: NCT05813808. 04-14-2023.

Abstract Background The purpose of this study was to determine whether radiological measurements of radial fracture position made in cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) projection images are comparable to those made on traditional radiographs and could potentially substitute them. Methods Sixteen patients with fractures of the distal radius referred for radiographs were recruited for an additional CBCT scan which was performed immediately afterwards. Projection images and volumetric data were saved from the CBCT scans. Measurements of ulnar variance, radial inclination and volar tilt were made from all three sets of images. Results Agreement of projection image based measurements with radiographs was nearly as good as as the agreement of cross sectional image measurements with radiographs. The average difference between the results for projection images and radiographs were -1.2 mm (SD 1.9 mm), for radial inclination 0.7° (SD 2.9°) and for volar tilt 1.9° (SD 5.6°). Conclusion Differences between radiological measurements between the modalities studied are small and projection images could be used for the assessment of distal radial fractures.

Children at increased genetic risk for type 1 diabetes (T1D) after environmental exposures may develop pancreatic islet autoantibodies (IA) at a very young age. Metabolic profile changes over time may imply responses to exposures and signal development of the first IA. Our present research in The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (TEDDY) study aimed to identify metabolome-wide signals preceding the first IA against GAD (GADA-first) or against insulin (IAA-first). We profiled metabolomes by mass spectrometry from children's plasma at 3-month intervals after birth until appearance of the first IA. A trajectory analysis discovered each first IA preceded by reduced amino acid proline and branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), respectively. With independent time point analysis following birth, we discovered dehydroascorbic acid (DHAA) contributing to the risk of each first IA, and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABAs) associated with the first autoantibody against insulin (IAA-first). Methionine and alanine, compounds produced in BCAA metabolism and fatty acids, also preceded IA at different time points. Unsaturated triglycerides and phosphatidylethanolamines decreased in abundance before appearance of either autoantibody. Our findings suggest that IAA-first and GADA-first are heralded by different patterns of DHAA, GABA, multiple amino acids, and fatty acids, which may be important to primary prevention of T1D.

Introduction: Oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC) is the most common cancer of the oral cavity. Contradictory results have been observed on the involvement of herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) in oral squamous cell carcinomas. Here, we aimed to study the predominance of HSV-1 or HSV-2 in oral HSV infections and to investigate the presence of HSV-1 in OTSCC and its effect on carcinoma cell viability and invasion.Methods: The distribution of HSV types one and two in diagnostic samples taken from suspected oral HSV infections was determined from the Helsinki University Hospital Laboratory database. We then analysed 67 OTSCC samples for HSV-1 infection using immunohistochemical staining. We further tested the effects of HSV-1 using six concentrations (0.00001–1.0 multiplicity of infection [MOI]) on viability and two concentrations (0.001 and 0.1 MOI) on invasion of highly invasive metastatic HSC-3 and less invasive primary SCC-25 OTSCC cell lines using MTT and Myogel-coated Transwell invasion assays.Results: Altogether 321 oropharyngeal samples were diagnosed positive for HSV during the study period. HSV-1 was the predominant (97.8%) HSV type compared with HSV-2 (detected in 2.2% of samples). HSV-1 was also detected in 24% of the OTSCC samples and had no association with patient survival or recurrence. OTSCC cells were viable even after 6 days with low viral load (0.00001, 0.0001, 0.001 MOI) of HSV-1. In both cell lines, 0.001 MOI did not affect cell invasion. However, 0.1 MOI significantly reduced cell invasion in HSC-3 cells.Discussion: HSV-1 infection is predominant compared with HSV-2 in the oral cavity. HSV-1 is detected in OTSCC samples without clinical significance, and OTSCC cell survival or invasion was not affected at low doses of HSV-1.

Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 NM_001370259.2(MEN1):c.466G>C(p.Gly156Arg) is characterized by tumors of various endocrine organs. We report on a rare, growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH)-releasing pancreatic tumor in a MEN1 patient with a long-term follow-up after surgery. A 22-year-old male with MEN1 syndrome, primary hyperparathyroidism and an acromegalic habitus was observed to have a pancreatic tumor on abdominal CT scanning, growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) were elevated and plasma GHRH was exceptionally high. GHRH and GH were measured before the treatment and were followed during the study. During octreotide treatment, IGF1 normalized and the GH curve was near normal. After surgical treatment of primary hyperparathyroidism, a pancreatic tail tumor was enucleated. The tumor cells were positive for GHRH antibody staining. After the operation, acromegaly was cured as judged by laboratory tests. No reactivation of acromegaly has been seen during a 20-year follow-up. In conclusion, an ectopic GHRH-producing, pancreatic endocrine neoplasia may represent a rare manifestation of MEN1 syndrome.

Abstract We present a facile method to prepare flexible, transparent, biodegradable, and fast resistive heaters by applying silver (Ag) nanowires onto fractal-like leaf skeletons. The fractal-like structure of the leaf skeleton maximizes its surface area, improving the transfer of heat to its surroundings and thus making the heater fast, without compromising transparency. Ag ion layer on the leaf skeleton helps to conformally cover the surface with Ag nanowires. The sheet resistance of the heater can be controlled by the loading of Ag nanowires, without sacrificing the optical transmittance (~80% at 8 Ω sq−1). The heating is uniform and the surface temperature of a 60 mm × 60 mm heater (8 Ω sq−1) can quickly (5–10 s) raise to 125 °C with a low voltage (6 V). The heater displays excellent mechanical flexibility, showing no significant change in resistance and heating temperature when bent up to curvature of 800 m−1. Finally, we demonstrate the potential of the bioinspired heater as a thermotherapy patch by encapsulating it in a biodegradable tape and mounting it on the human wrist and elbow. This study shows that fractal-like structures from nature can be repurposed as fractal designs for flexible electronics.

Abstract While suction cups prevail as common gripping tools for a wide range of real‐world parts and surfaces, they often fail to seal the contact interface when engaging with irregular shapes and textured surfaces. In this work, the authors propose a suction‐based soft robotic gripper where suction is created inside a self‐sealing, highly conformable and thin flat elastic membrane contacting a given part surface. Such soft gripper can self‐adapt the size of its effective suction area with respect to the applied load. The elastomeric membrane covering edge of the soft gripper can develop an air‐tight self‐sealing with parts even smaller than the gripper diameter. Such gripper shows 4 times higher adhesion than the one without the membrane on various textured surfaces. The two major advantages, underactuated self‐adaptability and enhanced suction performance, allow the membrane‐based suction mechanism to grip various three‐dimensional (3D) geometries and delicate parts, such as egg, lime, apple, and even hydrogels without noticeable damage, which can have not been gripped with the previous adhesive microstructures‐based and active suction‐based soft grippers. The structural and material simplicity of the proposed soft gripper design can have a broad use in diverse fields, such as digital manufacturing, robotic manipulation, transfer printing, and medical gripping.

A 3D‐printed pneumatically actuated soft suction gripper with an elastomer film is proposed. Suction in such gripper is actively controlled by applying a negative pressure behind the film. The elastomeric gripper body is 3D‐printed, making it easy to customize and integrate into future robotic gripping systems. The gripper can pick a wide variety of objects, such as delicate fruits, small parts, and parts with uneven loads, with high pull‐off forces (over 7.4 N with ∅ 20 mm/55 kPa). The achieved pull‐off forces are significantly higher than the previously reported suction cup grippers with films and more comparable with commercial vacuum grippers. The pull‐off forces show no significant differences with surfaces of varying roughness (up to root‐mean‐square roughness of 5.66 μm) and the gripper is able to pick and release target objects repeatedly. The gripper is also compared with a commercial vacuum gripper with comparable dimensions. It outperforms the commercial gripper in the case of fragile objects, objects smaller than the gripper diameter, and objects with uneven loads. It can apply high pull‐off forces while having controllable release, and is suitable for gripping a wide variety of real‐world objects, including heavy, rough, small, thin, and fragile ones.

Five different 2-alkoxypropan-2-yl groups are introduced as acid-labile protecting groups for the 5’- and 3’-hydroxy groups of a 2’-deoxynucleoside. All studied protecting groups were readily introduced with good to excellent yields using the appropriate enol ether as a reagent and 0.5 to 1 mol % p-toluenesulfonic acid as a catalyst. The protected compounds could be purified by silica gel column chromatography without degradation. The compatibility of these protecting groups in parallel use with benzoyl and silyl groups was verified. The stabilities of the different alkoxy acetal protecting groups were compared by following the kinetics of their hydrolysis at 25.0 °C in buffered solutions through an HPLC method. In the pH range 4.94 to 6.82 the hydrolysis reactions are of first order in the hydronium ion. The rate of hydrolysis correlates with the electron-donating or electron-withdrawing ability of the corresponding alkoxy group. The studied 2-alkoxypropan-2-yl groups and the relative rate constants for their cleavage from the 5’-hydroxy group of 2’-deoxythymidine were: cyclohexyloxy (krel = 7.7), isopropoxy (7.4), methoxy (1), benzyloxy (0.6) and 2,2,2-trifluoroethyloxy (0.04). The attachment of the same groups to the 3’-hydroxy group are from 1.3 to 1.9-fold more stable. The most reactive of these acetone-based acetal groups are faster removed than a dimethoxytrityl group, and they are easier to cleave completely in solution. The structural variation allows steering of the stability and lipophilicity of the compounds in some range.

Background: Blood biomarkers may enhance outcome prediction performance of head computed tomography scores in traumatic brain injury (TBI).Objective: To investigate whether admission levels of eight different protein biomarkers can improve the outcome prediction performance of the Helsinki computed tomography score (HCTS) without clinical covariates in TBI.Materials and methods: Eighty-two patients with computed tomography positive TBIs were included in this study. Plasma levels of β-amyloid isoforms 1–40 (Aβ40) and 1–42 (Aβ42), glial fibrillary acidic protein, heart fatty acid-binding protein, interleukin 10 (IL-10), neurofilament light, S100 calcium-binding protein B, and total tau were measured within 24 h from admission. The patients were divided into favorable (Glasgow Outcome Scale—Extended 5–8, n = 49) and unfavorable (Glasgow Outcome Scale—Extended 1–4, n = 33) groups. The outcome was assessed 6–12 months after injury. An optimal predictive panel was investigated with the sensitivity set at 90–100%.Results: The HCTS alone yielded a sensitivity of 97.0% (95% CI: 90.9–100) and specificity of 22.4% (95% CI: 10.2–32.7) and partial area under the curve of the receiver operating characteristic of 2.5% (95% CI: 1.1–4.7), in discriminating patients with favorable and unfavorable outcomes. The threshold to detect a patient with unfavorable outcome was an HCTS > 1. The three best individually performing biomarkers in outcome prediction were Aβ40, Aβ42, and neurofilament light. The optimal panel included IL-10, Aβ40, and the HCTS reaching a partial area under the curve of the receiver operating characteristic of 3.4% (95% CI: 1.7–6.2) with a sensitivity of 90.9% (95% CI: 81.8–100) and specificity of 59.2% (95% CI: 40.8–69.4).Conclusion: Admission plasma levels of IL-10 and Aβ40 significantly improve the prognostication ability of the HCTS after TBI.