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OBJECTIVE: This pilot study was conducted to clinically evaluate 2 different concentrations of sodium hypochlorite for the control of dental unit biofilms and to evaluate the efficacy of pasteurizing dental treatment water for patient care. METHOD AND MATERIALS: Two dental units with no prior chemical treatment were retrofitted with self-contained water systems for this study. One dental unit was treated with 5,000 ppm of sodium hypochlorite and the other with 1,500 ppm. Treatment consisted of a 10-minute contact with the dental unit water lines, followed by a flush with a buffer solution. A pasteurizer was equipped with autoclavable spigots to provide dental treatment water. Heterotrophic Plate Count Samplers (Millipore) water sampler kits were used to quantify microbial contamination as absolute colony-forming units per millimeter. Scanning electron micrographs were taken of water line lumens to compare pretreatment and posttreatment biofilms. RESULTS: Pasteurized water was significantly less contaminated than was tap water. No significant difference in contamination was found between the 5,000 ppm and 1,500 ppm treatment chairs, either in the reservoir water or effluent water. Scanning electron micrographs demonstrated removal of the biofilms after sodium hypochlorite treatments, regardless of the concentration used. CONCLUSION: There was no significant difference between the abilities of 5,000- and 1,500-ppm concentrations of sodium hypochlorite to control contamination of dental treatment water and biofilms. Pasteurization of tap water can reduce contamination; this water can be used as acceptable dental treatment water (< 200 CFU/mL). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some T cells react with lipid antigens bound to antigen-presenting molecule CD1d. Numbers and functions of a subset of such lipid-reactive T cells are reduced in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and their relatives, as well as in genetically susceptible and chemically induced animal models of lupus-like disease. We have reported that the germline deletion of CD1d exacerbates lupus, suggesting a protective role of these cells in the development of lupus. The use of a knockout mouse model in this study, however, did not allow examination of the role of these cells at different stages of disease. Here, we describe an approach to deplete CD1d-dependent T cells, which allowed us to investigate the role of these cells at different stages of disease in genetically lupus-prone NZB/NZW F1 (BWF1) mice. Repeated intravenous injections of large numbers of CD1d-transfected cells resulted in ∼50–75% reduction in these cells, as defined by the expression of CD4, NK1.1 and CD122, and lack of expression of CD62 ligand. TCR γδ +NK1.1+ cells were also reduced in the recipients of CD1d-transfected cells as compared with control recipients. Such depletion of CD1d-reactive T cells in preclinical BWF1 mice resulted in disease acceleration with a significant increase in proteinuria and mortality. In older BWF1 mice having advanced nephritis, however, such depletion of CD1d-reactive T cells resulted in some disease improvement. Taken together, these data as well as our published studies suggest that CD1d-reactive T cells protect against the development of lupus in animal models. However, these cells appear to be unable to suppress established lupus nephritis in these animals, and might even play a disease aggravating role in late stages of disease. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: A low level of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) is strongly associated with cardiovascular events. However, the significance of HDL-C after statin therapy on the outcome of patients who have undergone percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with drug eluting stents (DES) is unclear.Objectives: To investigate the significance of HDL-C after statin therapy on cardiovascular events in patients with coronary artery disease after DES implantation.Methods: Patients who underwent PCI with DES from January 2004 to December 2009 were prospectively enrolled. The follow-up lipid panel of 2693 patients (median lab follow-up duration 225 days) who had continued using statins after PCI and who attained low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) <100 mg/dl was analysed. Major adverse cardiac events (MACE), including all-cause death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, and target vessel revascularisation according to follow-up HDL-C level (40 mg/dl for men or 50 mg/dl for women) were compared with the use of propensity scores matching.Results: Median follow-up duration was 832 days. 1585 (58.9%) patients had low follow-up HDL-C and 1108 had high follow-up HDL-C. The low follow-up HDL-C group had significantly higher rates of MACE. Low follow-up HDL-C was a significant independent predictor of MACE (adjusted HR 1.404, 95% CI 1.111 to 1.774, p=0.004). In further analysis with propensity scores matching, overall findings were consistent.Conclusions: Raising HDL-C levels may be a subsequent goal after achieving target LDL-C levels in patients with DES implantation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate the impact of (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) on management of patients with apparently isolated plasmacytoma. Methods and Materials: Twenty-one patients with apparently solitary plasmacytoma who underwent FDG-PET for staging or restaging were identified from a central PET database. They were either candidates for or had received definitive radiation therapy (RT). Results: Seventeen patients had initial staging scans for bone (n = 11) or soft tissue (n = 6) plasmacytomas, and 11 had PET scans after RT. Only 1 of 14 known untreated sites of plasmacytoma was not identified on staging PET (lesion sensitivity = 93%). Three plasmacytomas were excised before PET. Staging PET influenced management in 6 of 17 patients (35%) by showing multiple myeloma (n = 1), discouraging RT after complete resection (n = 1), excluding plasmacytoma at a second site (n = 1), by increasing RT fields (n = 2), or by suggesting sarcoidosis (n = 1). Fifteen of 17 patients with initial staging PET scans received definitive RT. Restaging PET scans after RT showed complete metabolic response in 8 of 11 cases and progressive disease in 2. Two patients with either no response or partial metabolic response had late responses. Staging sestamibi and PET scans were concordant in five of six occasions (one sestamibi scan was false negative). Conclusions: FDG-PET has value for staging and RT planning in plasmacytoma and potentially could have a role in response-assessment after RT. Slow resolution of FDG uptake posttreatment does not necessarily imply an adverse prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To determine whether the sensitivity of screening tests that miss small cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) 2 or worse (e.g., acetic acid-aided visual inspection) is inflated when the criterion standard (colposcopic-directed biopsy) misses the same small CIN 2 or worse.Materials and Methods: One thousand nine hundred twenty-eight women were screened using acetic acid-aided visual inspection, self-tests, and direct tests for high-risk human papillomavirus, and using liquid-based cytologic screening. All women underwent colposcopy with biopsy. If a cervical quadrant had no lesion, a random biopsy at the squamocolumnar junction within that quadrant was obtained. All patients underwent endocervical curettage (ECC). Differences in sensitivity for CIN 2 or worse of screening tests were compared with criterion standards of colposcopically directed biopsy and colposcopically directed biopsy, random biopsy, plus ECC.Results: Sixty-two of 83 women with CIN 2 or worse were diagnosed by colposcopically directed biopsy, 19 by random biopsy, and 2 solely by ECC. Fifty-six of the 83 women had CIN 2 or worse involving 0 to 2 quadrants (2 with 0 quadrants were diagnosed solely by positive ECC) and 27 of 83 had CIN 2 or worse results involving 3 to 4 quadrants. Colposcopically directed biopsy detected 35 of 56 women (62.5%) with CIN 2 or worse involving 0 to 2 cervical quadrants and 27 of 27 women (100%) with CIN 2 or worse involving 3 to 4 quadrants (p < .005). Acetic acid-aided visual inspection and cytologic analysis of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion or cancer detected 35 of 56 (62.5%) and 36 of 56 (64.3%) lesions involving 0 to 2 quadrants and 27 of 27 (100%) (p < .005) and 24 of 27 (88.9%; p < .05) lesions involving 3 to 4 quadrants. The sensitivity of direct human papillomavirus tests (97.6%) and cytologic analysis of atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance or worse (94.0%) for CIN 2 or worse were high and unaffected by lesion size. When the criterion standard was changed from colposcopically directed biopsy, random biopsy, plus ECC to colposcopically directed biopsy, the sensitivity of acetic acid-aided visual inspection and cytologic analysis of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion or worse for CIN 2 or worse increased from 75.9% to 85.5% (p > .1) and from 71.1% to 79.0% (p > .25). Sensitivities of other screening tests were unaffected by changing the criterion standard.Conclusions: Criterion standards that miss the same CIN 2 or worse as the screening tests likely cause inflation of the sensitivity of those tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

microRNAs (miRNAs) have a broad influence on gene expression; however, we have limited insights into their contribution to rate of cognitive decline over time or Alzheimer's disease (AD). Given this, we tested associations of 528 miRNAs with cognitive trajectory, AD hallmark pathologies, and AD clinical diagnosis using small RNA sequencing from the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of 641 community-based donors. We found 311 miRNAs differentially expressed in AD or its endophenotypes after adjusting for technical and sociodemographic variables. Among these, 137 miRNAs remained differentially expressed after additionally adjusting for several co-occurring age-related cerebral pathologies, suggesting that some miRNAs are associated with the traits through co-occurring pathologies while others through mechanisms independent from pathologies. Pathway enrichment analysis of downstream targets of these differentially expressed miRNAs found enrichment in transcription, postsynaptic signalling, cellular senescence, and lipoproteins. In sex-stratified analyses, five miRNAs showed sex-biased differential expression for one or more AD endophenotypes, highlighting the role that sex has in AD. Lastly, we used Mendelian randomization to test whether the identified differentially expressed miRNAs contribute to the cause or are the consequence of the traits. Remarkably, 15 differentially expressed miRNAs had evidence consistent with a causal role, laying the groundwork for future mechanistic studies of miRNAs in AD and its endophenotypes., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Methanogens play an important role in the demethylation of arsenic. Soil amendments that inhibit methanogens can increase dimethylarsinic acid (DMA), which is responsible for straighthead disease in rice. A decrease in methanogenesis caused by silicate fertilizer may increase DMA concentration in paddy soils and rice grains; the relationship between these two factors and their impacts on DMA concentration remains unclear. We applied silicate fertilizer (2 Mg ha -1 ) to japonica and indica rice grown on arsenic-spiked soils and found a simultaneous reduction in methane emissions and pore-water DMA concentration, compared to no-silicate fertilization. Gene and transcript copies of mcrA and arsM, as well as dominant methanogens and arsenic-methylating microbes decreased significantly with silicate fertilization. However, the sulfate-reducing bacteria and the gene and transcript copies of dsrB did not change significantly in response to the application of silicate fertilizer to paddy soils. The abundance of arsenic methylating microbes was significantly and positively correlated with the abundance of methanogens, but not with the abundance of sulfate-reducing bacteria. Methylomonas and Methylobacter, which harbor the arsM gene, were suppressed under silicate fertilization, suggesting that they have the potential to methylate As and play a crucial role in reducing pore-water DMA in As-enriched flooded paddy soils. Increasing Fe concentration, soil pH, and Eh value decreased pore-water DMA concentration, while decreasing arsenite concentration, arsM and mcrA gene abundance decreased it. While silicate fertilization decreased arsenite and DMA concentrations in pore-water, it had no significant effect on rice DMA content, but significantly decreased arsenite content. Results reveal that methanogens and arsenic-methylating microbes have a synergistic relationship under silicate fertilization that facilitates a significant reduction in methane emissions and DMA concentration in As-enriched paddy soils., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: There is currently no consensus on the efficacy of operative reinnervation at the time of post-mastectomy reconstruction. This review compares postoperative sensation between innervated and non-innervated flaps in breast reconstruction through systematic review and meta-analysis., Methods: EMBASE, Ovid, and CENTRAL were searched from inception to December 6, 2023. The primary outcome was level of sensation postoperatively. Secondary outcomes included presence of sensation, breast-related complications, operative time, and quality of life. Meta-analysis was conducted using mean difference (MD) or standardized mean difference (SMD) for continuous outcomes and odds radio (OR) for dichotomous outcomes. Quality of evidence was appraised using RoB-2/ROBINS-I. Certainty of evidence was assessed with Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations., Results: Twenty-eight studies were included; studies were observational studies except one randomized controlled trial. Common flaps were deep inferior epigastric perforator (11/28, 39.3%) and transversus rectus abdominis muscle (9/28, 32.1%). Innervated flaps were significantly associated with improved level of postoperative sensation (SMD: -0.94, 95% CI: [-1.35; -0.53], I 2 : 78%, p < 0.01), presence of postoperative sensation (OR: 11.4, 95% CI: [5.09; 24.5], I 2 : 0%, p < 0.01), and improved postoperative BREAST-Q scores (MD: 8.11, 95% CI: [4.33; 11.89], I 2 : 27%, p < 0.01). However, certainty of evidence was low/very low for all outcomes. Most studies had moderate risk of bias (56.5%). There were no statistically significant differences in breast-related complications or operative time., Conclusions: Operative reinnervation in breast reconstruction is significantly associated with improved level and presence of postoperative sensation and BREAST-Q scores without significant increase in breast-related complications/operative time. More high-quality studies are required to improve the certainty of outcomes., (Copyright © 2024 British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Pathologic antibody mediated rejection (pAMR) evaluation and donor specific antibody (DSA) testing are recommended in the first year after heart transplantation (HTx) in adult patients. Whether DSA testing adds prognostic information to contemporary pAMR surveillance has not been fully studied., Methods: This was a single center study of consecutive endomyocardial biopsies (EMB) performed between November 2010 and February 2023 in adult HTx patients. The primary objective was to evaluate whether DSA testing contributes additional information to pAMR surveillance to better predict overall survival. Secondary endpoints included cardiac allograft dysfunction and loss., Results: A total of 6,033 EMBs from 544 HTx patients were reviewed for the study. The pAMR+/DSA+ group had significantly lower overall survival versus the pAMR-/DSA- group (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.63; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.35-5.11; p c = 0.013). In the pAMR+/DSA+ group, patients with cardiac allograft dysfunction, compared to those without allograft dysfunction, had significantly lower overall and cardiac survival (p c < 0.001 for both). In contrast, pAMR+/DSA+ and pAMR-/DSA- patients without cardiac allograft dysfunction showed no difference in overall and cardiac survival. Primary graft dysfunction (PGD) was a novel risk factor for development of de novo DSAs (dnDSA) three weeks post-HTx (p = 0.007)., Conclusions: DSA testing as the primary surveillance method can identify high-risk pAMR+/DSA+ patients. Surveillance pAMR testing in the contemporary era may need to be reevaluated. Earlier DSA testing at 10-14 days post-HTx should be considered in PGD patients.

Silicon is a promising alternative to graphite anodes for achieving high-energy-density in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) because of its high theoretical capacity (3579 mAh g -1 ). However, silicon anode must be developed to address its disadvantages, such as volume expansion and low electronic conductivity. Therefore, the use of silicon as composed with graphite and carbon anode materials is investigated, which requires properties such as a spherical morphology for high density and encapsulation of silicon particles in the composite. Herein, a graphite@silicon@carbon (Gr@Si@C) micro-sized spherical anode composite is synthesized by mechanofusion process. This composite comprises an outer surface, middle layer, and core pore, which are formed by the capillary force arising from 2D structured graphite and pitch properties. This structure effectively addresses the intrinsic issues associated with Si. Gr@Si@C exhibits a high capacity of 1622 mAh g -1 and capacity retention of 72.2% after 100 cycles, with a high areal capacity 4.2 mAh cm -2 . When Gr@Si@C is blended with commercial graphite, the composite exhibits high capacity retention and average Coulombic efficiency after cycling. The Gr@Si@C blended electrode exhibits a high energy density of 820 Wh L -1 with ≈16% metallic Si in the electrode (40 wt.% composite), enabling the realization of practical commercial LIBs., (© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

MicroRNAs are essential post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression and involved in many biological processes; however, our understanding of their genetic regulation and role in brain illnesses is limited. Here, we mapped brain microRNA expression quantitative trait loci (miR-QTLs) using genome-wide small RNA sequencing profiles from dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) samples of 604 older adult donors of European ancestry. miR-QTLs were identified for 224 miRNAs (48% of 470 tested miRNAs) at false discovery rate < 1%. We found that miR-QTLs were enriched in brain promoters and enhancers, and that intragenic miRNAs often did not share QTLs with their host gene. Additionally, we integrated the brain miR-QTLs with results from 16 GWAS of psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases using multiple independent integration approaches and identified four miRNAs that contribute to the pathogenesis of bipolar disorder, major depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, and Parkinson's disease. This study provides novel insights into the contribution of miRNAs to the complex biological networks that link genetic variation to disease.

Background: Clustering lifestyle risk behaviors is important for predicting cardiovascular disease risk. However, it is unclear which behavior mediates other ones to influence cardiovascular disease risk. We aimed to assess the causal inference of each lifestyle risk behavior for the atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk of the general population., Methods: We performed a Bayesian network mediation analysis using data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2014 to 2019. The main exposure was a combination of lifestyle risk behaviors including unhealthy weight, heavy alcohol consumption, inadequate sleep, physical inactivity, excessive sodium intake, and current smoking among subjects 40 to 79 years of age. The high risk of ASCVD (≥7.5% for the 10-year risk) was assessed using logistic regression, Bayesian networks, and structural equational models to examine the causal relationships between these six lifestyle risk behaviors., Results: Among all participants, the most prevalent lifestyle risk behavior for those at high risk for ASCVD was excessive sodium intake (95.6%), followed by inadequate sleep (49.9%) and physical inactivity (43.8%). Older age (65-79 years) and male sex were directly associated with a high risk for ASCVD. Physical inactivity, current smoking, excessive sodium intake, and unhealthy weight indirectly mediated the effects of older age (8.2% of the older age) and male sex (39.9% of males) to high ASCVD risk. Physical inactivity, current smoking, excessive sodium intake, and unhealthy weight particularly mediated the high ASCVD risk sequentially. Heavy alcohol consumption and inadequate sleep were not directly associated with high ASCVD risk and did not indirectly mediate the effects of older age and males on the high ASCVD risk., Conclusion: Lifestyle risk behaviors mediated the atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk in a different manner. Especially, physical inactivity preceded current smoking, excessive sodium intake, and unhealthy weight in relation to high ASCVD risk, and this causal relationship was different according to age and sex. Therefore, tailored strategies according to specific target populations may be needed to effectively reduce the high ASCVD risk., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Lee et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Prosthesis-induced pathological calcification is a significant challenge in biomaterial applications and is often associated with various reconstructive medical procedures. It is uncertain whether the fibrous extracellular matrix (ECM) adjacent to biomaterials directly triggers osteogenic trans-differentiation in nearby cells. To investigate this possibility, we engineered a heterogeneous polystyrene fibrous matrix (PSF) designed to mimic the ECM. Our findings revealed that the myoblasts grown on this PSF acquired osteogenic properties, resulting in mineralization both in vitro and in vivo . Transcriptomic analyses indicated a notable upregulation in the expression of the long noncoding RNA metastsis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 ( Malat1 ) in the C2C12 myoblasts cultured on PSF. Intriguingly, silencing Malat1 curtailed the PSF-induced mineralization and downregulated the expression of bone morphogenetic proteins ( Bmps ) and osteogenic markers. Further, we found that PSF prompted the activation of Yap1 signaling and epigenetic modifications in the Malat1 promoter, crucial for the expression of Malat1 . These results indicate that the fibrous matrix adjacent to biomaterials can instigate Malat1 upregulation, subsequently driving osteogenic trans-differentiation in myoblasts and ectopic calcification through its transcriptional regulation of osteogenic genes, including Bmps . Our findings point to a novel therapeutic avenue for mitigating prosthesis-induced pathological calcification, heralding new possibilities in the field of biomaterial-based therapies., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2024 The Authors.)

Background: The test-retest (TRT) reliability of FACE-Q Aesthetic scales is yet to be assessed. The aim of this study was to establish the TRT reliability of 17 FACE-Q Aesthetic scales and determine the smallest detectable change (SDC) that can be identified using these scales., Methods: Data were collected from an online international sample platform (Prolific). Participants ≥20 years old, who had been to a dermatologist or plastic surgeon for a facial aesthetic treatment within the past 12 months were asked to provide demographic and clinical information and complete an online REDcap survey consisting of 17 FACE-Q Aesthetic scales. Participants were asked if they would be willing to complete the survey again in 7 days. Only the participants who reported no important change in the scale construct and completed the retest within 14 days were included., Results: A total of 342 unique participants completed the TRT survey. The mean age of the sample was 36.6 (±11.5) years, and 82.4% were female. With outlier data removed, all FACE-Q scales demonstrated an intraclass correlation coefficient >0.70 indicating "good" TRT reliability. The standard error of measurement for the included scales ranged from 3.37 to 11.87, corresponding to a range of SDC group from 0.95 to 3.23 and SDC ind from 9.34 to 32.91., Conclusion: All included FACE-Q scales demonstrated sufficient TRT reliability and stability overall after the outlier data were removed. Moreover, the authors calculated the values for the SDC for these scales., (Copyright © 2024 British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Tissue barriers in a body, well known as tissue-to-tissue interfaces represented by endothelium of the blood vessels or epithelium of organs, are essential for maintaining physiological homeostasis by regulating molecular and cellular transports. It is crucial for predicting drug response to understand physiology of tissue barriers through which drugs are absorbed, distributed, metabolized and excreted. Since the FDA Modernization Act 2.0, which prompts the inception of alternative technologies for animal models, tissue barrier chips, one of the applications of organ-on-a-chip or microphysiological system (MPS), have only recently been utilized in the context of drug development. Recent advancements in stem cell technology have brightened the prospects for the application of tissue barrier chips in personalized medicine. In past decade, designing and engineering these microfluidic devices, and demonstrating the ability to reconstitute tissue functions were main focus of this field. However, the field is now advancing to the next level of challenges: validating their utility in drug evaluation and creating personalized models using patient-derived cells. In this review, we briefly introduce key design parameters to develop functional tissue barrier chip, explore the remarkable recent progress in the field of tissue barrier chips and discuss future perspectives on realizing personalized medicine through the utilization of tissue barrier chips.

Soil organic matter (SOM) plays a pivotal role in enhancing physical and biological characteristics of soil. Humic substances constitute a substantial proportion of SOM and their increase can improve crop yields and promote agricultural sustainability. While previous research has primarily assessed the influence that humic acids (HAs) derived from natural water have on soil structure, our study focuses on the impact of HAs on soil aggregation under different fertilizer regimes. During the summer cropping season, maize was cultivated under organic and synthetic fertilizer treatments. The organic fertilizer treatment utilized barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) and hairy vetch (Vicia villosa R.) as an organic amendment five days prior to maize planting. The synthetic treatment included a synthetic fertilizer (NPK) applied at South Korea's recommended rates. The organic treatment resulted in significant improvements in the soil aggregates and stability (mean weight diameter, MWD; p < 0.05) compared to the synthetic fertilizer application. These improvements could be primarily attributed to the increased quantity and quality of HAs in the soil derived from the organic amendment. The amount of extracted HAs in the organic treatment was nearly twice that of the synthetic treatment. Additionally, the organic treatment had a 140 % larger MWD and a 40 % increase in total phenolic content compared to the synthetic treatment. The organic treatment also had an increased macronutrient uptake (p < 0.001), an 11 % increase in aboveground maize biomass, and a 21 % increase in grain yield relative to the synthetic treatment. Thus, the enhancement of HA properties through the incorporation of fresh organic manure can both directly and indirectly increase crop productivity., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: The reference standard of detecting acute rejection (AR) in adult heart transplant (HTx) patients is an endomyocardial biopsy (EMB). The majority of EMBs are performed in asymptomatic patients. However, the incidence of treated AR compared with EMB complications has not been compared in the contemporary era (2010-current)., Methods: The authors retrospectively analyzed 2769 EMBs obtained in 326 consecutive HTx patients between August 2019 and August 2022. Variables included surveillance versus for-cause indication, recipient and donor characteristics, EMB procedural data and pathological grades, treatment for AR, and clinical outcomes., Results: The overall EMB complications rate was 1.6%. EMBs performed within 1 mo after HTx compared with after 1 mo from HTx showed significantly increased complications (OR, 12.74, P  < 0.001). The treated AR rate was 14.2% in the for-cause EMBs and 1.2% in the surveillance EMBs. We found the incidence of AR versus EMB complications was significantly lower in the surveillance compared with the for-cause EMB group (OR, 0.05, P  < 0.001). We also found the incidence of EMB complications was higher than treated AR in surveillance EMBs., Conclusions: The yield of surveillance EMBs has declined in the contemporary era, with a higher incidence of EMB complications compared with detected AR. The risk of EMB complications was highest within 1 mo after HTx. Surveillance EMB protocols in the contemporary era may need to be reevaluated., (Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

Background: Literature on pediatric flexor tendon repairs remains sparse. Given the various repair techniques and rehabilitation protocols available, the aim of this systematic review is to investigate outcomes of primary pediatric flexor tendon repairs., Methods: MEDLINE, Embase, PubMed, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials databases were searched from inception to June 2022 in concordance with PRISMA guidelines. Studies were included if patients were under the age of 18, sustained a flexor tendon injury repaired primarily, and had documented functional outcomes. Quality assessment was completed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. The study was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42018089089)., Results: This study includes 20 articles representing 577 patients with 748 injured digits, most frequently injured by a laceration from glass. The number of tendon injuries in zones I, II, III, IV, and V were 78, 431, 62, 2, and 19, respectively. In total, 594 FDP, 374 FDS, and 77 FPL tendons were lacerated. Concurrent digital nerve injuries occurred in 251 digits. Time of repair was 15 ​h-187 days post-injury, most commonly via the modified Kessler (n ​= ​266 digits) and Kessler (n ​= ​162 digits). Post-operatively, 170 patients were immobilized and 261 patients underwent early active (n ​= ​96) or passive (n ​= ​165) protocols. Functional outcomes were reported in 466 digits (excellent ​= ​306, good ​= ​132, fair ​= ​19, and poor ​= ​9, per the respective assessment tool used). There were 15 tendon ruptures., Conclusions: Despite heterogeneity in both operative and post-operative protocols, there is low level evidence that low complication rates and good outcomes are expected following primary repair of pediatric flexor tendons., (Crown Copyright © 2024 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.)

Background: HOCl (eg, pHAp) preserved solutions have antimicrobial properties and are considered safe and effective for wound management. NPWTi-d (or NPWTi) is an established adjunctive wound modality for a variety of wound etiologies in various anatomic locations in which an instillate solution dwells on the surface of the wound to assist in wound bed preparation. A variety of solutions have been used, including 0.9% normal saline wound cleansers and antiseptics. pHAp is growing in popularity as the solution of choice for NPWTi-d., Objective: To evaluate consensus statements on the use of NPWTi-d with pHAp., Methods: A 15-member multidisciplinary panel of expert clinicians in the United States, Canada, and France convened in person in April 2023 in Washington, D.C. and/or corresponded later to discuss 10 statements on the use of pHAp with NPWTi-d. The panelists then replied "agree" or "disagree" to each statement and had the option to provide comments., Results: Ten consensus statements are presented, along with the proportion of agreement or disagreement and summary comments. Although agreement with the statements on NPWTi-d with pHAp varied, the statements appear to reflect individual preferences for use rather than concerns about safety or efficacy., Conclusion: The consensus indicates that NPWTi-d with pHAp can have a beneficial effect in wound care.

Obtaining institutional review board (IRB) approval can be an overwhelming task, especially for new researchers. IRB approval can require many documents and steps. It is important to start the submission early, have patience throughout the process, and determine what can help expedite the process. Research cannot begin without IRB approval, which is necessary when working with human subjects. Ultimately, the researchers and IRB have the same goal of enabling good research with minimal subject risk. The goal of this article is to give an overview of the IRB for practitioners performing research in podiatric medicine and surgery., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Managing complex traumatic soft tissue wounds involving a large surface area while attempting to optimize healing, avoid infection, and promote favorable cosmetic outcomes is challenging. Regenerative materials such as ECMs are typically used in wound care to enhance the wound healing response and proliferative phase of tissue formation., Case Report: The case reported herein is an example of the efficacious use of an SEFM in the surgical management of a large complex traumatic wound involving the left lower extremity and lower abdominal region. The wound bed was successfully prepared for skin grafting over an area of 1200 cm2, making this among the largest applications of the SEFM reported in the literature., Conclusion: This case report demonstrates the clinical versatility of the SEFM and a synergistic approach to complex traumatic wound care. The SEFM was successfully used to achieve tissue granulation for a successful skin graft across a large surface in an anatomic region with complex topography.

This Phase 1b study was designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of pravibismane, a novel broad-spectrum topical anti-infective, in managing moderate or severe chronic diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) infections. This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter study consisted of 39 individuals undergoing pravibismane treatment and 13 individuals in the placebo group. Assessment of safety parameters included clinical observations of tolerability and pharmacokinetics from whole blood samples. Pravibismane was well-tolerated and exhibited minimal systemic absorption, as confirmed by blood concentrations that were below the lower limit of quantitation (0.5 ng/mL) or in the low nanomolar range, which is orders of magnitude below the threshold of pharmacological relevance for pravibismane. Pravibismane treated subjects showed approximately 3-fold decrease in ulcer size compared to the placebo group (85% vs. 30%, p = 0.27). Furthermore, the incidence of ulcer-related lower limb amputations was approximately 6-fold lower (2.6%) in the pooled pravibismane group versus 15.4% in the placebo group (p = 0.15). There were no treatment emergent or serious adverse events related to study drug. The initial findings indicate that topical pravibismane was safe and potentially effective treatment for improving recovery from infected chronic ulcers by reducing ulcer size and facilitating wound healing in infected DFUs (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT02723539)., (© 2024 Microbion Corporation. International Wound Journal published by Medicalhelplines.com Inc and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

TMEM106B is a risk modifier of multiple neurological conditions, where a single coding variant and multiple non-coding SNPs influence the balance between susceptibility and resilience. Two key questions that emerge from past work are whether the lone T185S coding variant contributes to protection, and if the presence of TMEM106B is helpful or harmful in the context of disease. Here, we address both questions while expanding the scope of TMEM106B study from TDP-43 to models of tauopathy. We generated knockout mice with constitutive deletion of TMEM106B, alongside knock-in mice encoding the T186S knock-in mutation (equivalent to the human T185S variant), and crossed both with a P301S transgenic tau model to study how these manipulations impacted disease phenotypes. We found that TMEM106B deletion accelerated cognitive decline, hind limb paralysis, tau pathology, and neurodegeneration. TMEM106B deletion also increased transcriptional correlation with human AD and the functional pathways enriched in KO:tau mice aligned with those of AD. In contrast, the coding variant protected against tau-associated cognitive decline, synaptic impairment, neurodegeneration, and paralysis without affecting tau pathology. Our findings reveal that TMEM106B is a critical safeguard against tau aggregation, and that loss of this protein has a profound effect on sequelae of tauopathy. Our study further demonstrates that the coding variant is functionally relevant and contributes to neuroprotection downstream of tau pathology to preserve cognitive function., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This study aimed to develop a deep learning (DL) model for predicting the recurrence risk of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) based on its histopathological features. Clinicopathological data and whole slide images from 164 LUAD cases were collected and used to train DL models with an ImageNet pre-trained efficientnet-b2 architecture, densenet201, and resnet152. The models were trained to classify each image patch into high-risk or low-risk groups, and the case-level result was determined by multiple instance learning with final FC layer's features from a model from all patches. Analysis of the clinicopathological and genetic characteristics of the model-based risk group was performed. For predicting recurrence, the model had an area under the curve score of 0.763 with 0.750, 0.633 and 0.680 of sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy in the test set, respectively. High-risk cases for recurrence predicted by the model (HR group) were significantly associated with shorter recurrence-free survival and a higher stage (both, p < 0.001). The HR group was associated with specific histopathological features such as poorly differentiated components, complex glandular pattern components, tumor spread through air spaces, and a higher grade. In the HR group, pleural invasion, necrosis, and lymphatic invasion were more frequent, and the size of the invasion was larger (all, p < 0.001). Several genetic mutations, including TP53 (p = 0.007) mutations, were more frequently found in the HR group. The results of stages I-II were similar to those of the general cohort. DL-based model can predict the recurrence risk of LUAD and identify the presence of the TP53 gene mutation by analyzing histopathologic features., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Redox chemistry involving the quinone/phenol cycling of natural organic matter (NOM) is known to modulate microbial respiration. Complexation with metals or minerals can also affect NOM solubilization and stability. Inspired by these natural phenomena, a new soil amendment approach was suggested to effectively decrease methane emissions in flooded rice paddies. Structurally stable forms of NOM such as lignin and humic acids (HAs) were shown to decrease methane gas emissions in a vial experiment using different soil types and rice straw as a methanogenic substrate, and this inhibitory behavior was likely enhanced by ferric ion-NOM complexation. A mechanistic study using HAs revealed that complexation facilitated the slow release of the humic components. Interestingly, borohydride-based reduction, which transformed quinone moieties into phenols, caused the HAs to lose their inhibitory capacity, suggesting that the electron-accepting ability of HAs is vital for their inhibitory effect. In rice field tests, the humic-metal complexes were shown to successfully mitigate methane generation, while carbon dioxide emissions were relatively unchanged. Microbial community analysis of the rice fields by season revealed a decrease in specific cellulose-metabolizing and methanogenic genera associated with methane emissions. In contrast, the relative abundance of Thaumarchaeota and Actinomycetota, which are associated with NOM and recalcitrant organics, was higher in the presence of Fe-stabilized HAs. These microbial dynamics suggest that the slow release of humic components is effective in modulating the anoxic soil microbiome, possibly due to their electron-accepting ability. Given the simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and soil-friendly nature of complexation processes, Fe-stabilized NOM represents a promising approach for the mitigation of methane emissions from flooded rice paddies., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no competing financial interest., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Aerobic methanotrophs are a specialized microbial group, catalyzing the oxidation of methane. Disturbance-induced loss of methanotroph diversity/abundance, thus results in the loss of this biological methane sink. Here, we synthesized and conceptualized the resilience of the methanotrophs to sporadic, recurring, and compounded disturbances in soils. The methanotrophs showed remarkable resilience to sporadic disturbances, recovering in activity and population size. However, activity was severely compromised when disturbance persisted or reoccurred at increasing frequency, and was significantly impaired following change in land use. Next, we consolidated the impact of agricultural practices after land conversion on the soil methane sink. The effects of key interventions (tillage, organic matter input, and cover cropping) where much knowledge has been gathered were considered. Pairwise comparisons of these interventions to nontreated agricultural soils indicate that the agriculture-induced impact on the methane sink depends on the cropping system, which can be associated to the physiology of the methanotrophs. The impact of agriculture is more evident in upland soils, where the methanotrophs play a more prominent role than the methanogens in modulating overall methane flux. Although resilient to sporadic disturbances, the methanotrophs are vulnerable to compounded disturbances induced by anthropogenic activities, significantly affecting the methane sink function., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of FEMS.)

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) developed soil surface nutrient balance and made it mandatory for member countries to report annual nutrient budgets since 1990. This study aimed to evaluate the status of nitrogen (N) management in member countries and to figure out why N surplus levels differ across countries and how they relate to other agri-environmental indicators, by analyzing the N budgets from 35 OECD countries over the last 30 years. Of the three factors determining N balance (agricultural land area, N input, and N output), agricultural land area decreased in most OECD countries, negatively affecting N balance reduction. However, OECD's average N balance highly decreased from 91 to 46 kg ha -1 over the last 30 years due to the decrease in N input through inorganic fertilizers and manure, especially in EU countries with high N input levels, while N output did not meaningfully change. In comparison, in Japan and Korea, the N balance slightly increased and they became the highest N balance country recently. A higher N balance led to lower N use efficiency and higher ammonia (NH 3 ) and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emission intensities. More densely populated countries with smaller agricultural land per capita (ranging from 0.03 to 0.47 ha capita -1 ) showed a higher N balance (228-80 kg ha -1 ), presumably due to higher N input for more agricultural production on limited land. The most densely populated countries among OECD members (Belgium, the Netherlands, Korea, and Japan) had similar N input levels. However, two EU countries had much higher N output than two Asian countries due to higher pasture production, which led to a lower N balance and higher N use efficiency. Therefore, highly populated countries with small arable land areas per capita might need multilateral efforts to alleviate agricultural N balance., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the long-term cumulative survival rate (CSR) of dental implants with micro-threads in the neck over a 10-year follow-up period and to examine the factors influencing the survival rate of dental implants., Methods: This retrospective study was based on radiographic and dental records. In total, 151 patients received 490 Oneplant ® dental implants with an implant neck micro-thread design during 2006-2010 in the Department of Periodontology of Seoul National University Dental Hospital. Implant survival was evaluated using Kaplan-Meier analysis. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was used to identify the factors influencing implant failure., Results: Ten out of 490 implants (2.04%) failed due to fixture fracture. The CSR of the implants was 97.9%, and no significant difference was observed in the CSR between external- and internal-implant types (98.2% and 97.6%, respectively, P =0.670). In Cox regression analysis, 2-stage surgery significantly increased the risk of implant failure (hazard ratio: 4.769, P =0.039). There were no significant differences in influencing factors, including sex, age, implant diameter, length, fixture type, location, surgical procedure, bone grafting, and restoration type., Conclusions: Within the limitations of this retrospective study, the micro-thread design of the implant neck was found to be favorable for implant survival, with stable clinical outcomes., Competing Interests: No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported., (Copyright © 2024. Korean Academy of Periodontology.)

Lithium (Li) metal is considered an ultimate anode owing to its high specific capacity and energy density. However, uncontrolled Li dendrite growth and low Coulombic efficiency have limited the application of Li metal. Among various strategies introduced to address these limitations, the surface modification of polyolefin separators with functional materials has been widely adopted for improving the mechanical and thermal stabilities of polymer separators and to protect the separator from the penetration of Li dendrites. Herein, we report a new functional polymer separator that is surface-altered with a graphene-based Li-ion flux regulator (GLR) to homogenize the Li-ion flux and suppress the growth of sharp dendritic Li in Li metal batteries. The nanopores distributed through the GLR structure serve as channels for ion transport and junctions for electron transfer, facilitating efficient electrolyte penetration and rapid charge transfer between graphene (Gr) sheets. Owing to these favorable features of porous GLR, a Li-Cu cell with the GLR surface-altered polypropylene separator (GLR-PP) delivers excellent cycle and rate performances compared to a Li-Cu cell with a Gr surface-altered polypropylene separator. In addition, among the tested cells, Li-sulfur cells with GLR-PP exhibit the most stable cycle performance over 500 cycles. These results demonstrate that the concept of tailoring the surface of a polymer separator with porous 2D materials is an effective strategy for improving the long-term cycle stability and electrochemical kinetics of Li metal-based batteries and would trigger further relevant studies.

The Michaelis-Menten (MM) rate law has been the dominant paradigm of modeling biochemical rate processes for over a century with applications in biochemistry, biophysics, cell biology, systems biology, and chemical engineering. The MM rate law and its remedied form stand on the assumption that the concentration of the complex of interacting molecules, at each moment, approaches an equilibrium (quasi-steady state) much faster than the molecular concentrations change. Yet, this assumption is not always justified. Here, we relax this quasi-steady state requirement and propose the generalized MM rate law for the interactions of molecules with active concentration changes over time. Our approach for time-varying molecular concentrations, termed the effective time-delay scheme (ETS), is based on rigorously estimated time-delay effects in molecular complex formation. With particularly marked improvements in protein-protein and protein-DNA interaction modeling, the ETS provides an analytical framework to interpret and predict rich transient or rhythmic dynamics (such as autogenously-regulated cellular adaptation and circadian protein turnover), which goes beyond the quasi-steady state assumption., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Lim et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Purpose: The aim of this study was to retrospectively evaluate the survival and failure rates of RESTORE ® implants over a follow-up period of 10-15 years at a university dental hospital and to investigate the factors affecting the survival rate of these dental implants., Methods: A total of 247 RESTORE ® dental implants with a resorbable blast media (RBM) surface inserted in 86 patients between March 2006 and April 2011 at the Department of Periodontology of Seoul National University Dental Hospital were included. Patients with follow-up periods of less than 10 years were excluded, and data analysis was conducted based on dental records and radiographs., Results: Over a 10- to 15-year period, the cumulative survival rate of the implants was 92.5%. Seventeen implants (6.88%) were explanted due to implant fracture (n=10, 4.05%), peri-implantitis (n=6, 2.43%), and screw fracture (n=1, 0.4%). The results of univariate regression analysis using a Cox proportional hazards model demonstrated that implants placed in male patients (hazard ratio [HR], 4.542; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.305-15.807; P =0.017) and implants that supported removable prostheses (HR, 15.498; 95% CI, 3.105-77.357; P =0.001) showed statistically significant associations with implant failure., Conclusions: Within the limitations of this retrospective study, the RESTORE ® dental implant with an RBM surface has a favorable survival rate with stable clinical outcomes., Competing Interests: No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported., (Copyright © 2023. Korean Academy of Periodontology.)

Plants are usually provoked by a variety of heavy metal (HM) stressors that have adverse effects on their growth and other biochemical characterizations. Among the HMs, chromium has been considered the most toxic for both plants and animals. The present study was conducted to compare the phytotoxic effects of increasing chromium (VI) salt and nanoparticles (NPs) concentrations on various growth indexes of rice (Oryza sativa L. var. swat 1) seedlings grown in a hydroponic system. The 7-day rice seedlings were exposed to Cr (VI) salt and NPs hydroponic suspensions which were adjusted to the concentration of 0, 50, 100, 150, 200 and 250 mg/L. Both the Cr (VI) salt and NPs with lower concentrations (up to 100mg/L) exerted minimum inhibitory effects on the growth performance of rice seedlings. However, a significant decrease in shoot and root length and their fresh and dry weight was recorded at higher doses of Cr (VI) salt (200 mg/L) and NPs (250 mg/L). The stress induced by Cr (VI) salt has drastically affected the roots, whereas, Cr (VI) NPs significantly affected the shoot tissues. Photosynthetic pigments decreased significantly in a dose-dependent manner, and the reduction was more pronounced in rice seedlings exposed to Cr (VI) NPs compared to Cr (VI) salt. Cr (VI) NPs enhanced the membrane permeability in shoots and roots as compared to that of Cr (VI) salt, which resulted in higher concentration of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and increased lipid peroxidation. The activities of antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) increased significantly in shoot/root tissue following exposure to higher doses of Cr (VI) salt (200 mg/L) and NPs stress (250 mg/L), while minor changes in CAT and APX activities were observed in root and shoot tissues after exposure to higher concentration of Cr (VI) NP. Furthermore, the increasing concentrations of Cr (VI) NPs increased the length of stomatal guard cells. Conclusively, Cr (VI) salt and NPs in higher concentrations have higher potential to damage the growth and induce oxidative stress in rice plants., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: There has been an increasing need to update the recommended values of Korean exposure factors for adults aged 19 and older, as using exposure factors developed over a decade ago could reduce risk assessment reliability., Objective: Exposure factor data have been compiled and standardized using the latest national statistical reports and academic literature, as well as studies conducted from 2016 to 2018., Methods: The updated data contained anthropometric parameters, inhalation rates, food and drinking water ingestion rates, and time-activity patterns and provided technical information on Koreans' exposure factors classified by sex, age group, per capita and general population, and doer-only for various exposure assessments., Results: Although the average life expectancy, body weight, body surface area, and inhalation rate increased slightly compared to the 2007 Korean Exposure Factor Handbook, differences various in food consumption were remarkable. Because of Asians' similar food preferences, the intake rate of grain products and vegetables in Koreans, Chinese, and Japanese contributed much toward total intake. Koreans spent half their times outdoors compared to Americans and Chinese., Significance: This study provided the currently updated exposure factor information for Koreans and could be compared with recommendations provided by exposure factor resources in various countries., Impact Statement: Exposure to environmental pollutants may significantly vary depending on the exposure factors related to human behaviors and characteristics. Therefore the exposure factors need to be continuously updated along with more extensive survey areas and improved measurement methods. We utilized the existing data with the aim to develop general exposure factors for risk assessment in Korean aged ≥19 years. Measurements and questionnaire surveys were also performed if there were no existing data. This study provided the currently updated exposure factor information for Koreans and could be compared to those of other countries., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

The lysosomal protein TMEM106B was identified as a risk modifier of multiple dementias including frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease. The gene comes in two major haplotypes, one associated with disease risk, and by comparison, the other with resilience. Only one coding polymorphism distinguishes the two alleles, a threonine-to-serine substitution at residue 185 (186 in mouse), that is inherited in disequilibrium with multiple non-coding variants. Transcriptional studies suggest synaptic, neuronal, and cognitive preservation in human subjects with the protective haplotype, while murine in vitro studies reveal dramatic effects of TMEM106B deletion on neuronal development. Despite this foundation, the field has not yet resolved whether coding variant is biologically meaningful, and if so, whether it has any specific effect on neuronal phenotypes. Here we studied how loss of TMEM106B or expression of the lone coding variant in isolation affected transcriptional signatures in the mature brain and neuronal structure during development in primary neurons. Homozygous expression of the TMEM106B T186S variant in knock-in mice increased cortical expression of genes associated with excitatory synaptic function and axon outgrowth, and promoted neurite branching, dendritic spine density, and synaptic density in primary hippocampal neurons. In contrast, constitutive TMEM106B deletion affected transcriptional signatures of myelination without altering neuronal development in vitro . Our findings show that the T186S variant is functionally relevant and may contribute to disease resilience during neurodevelopment., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Nguyen, Wood, Kim and Jankowsky.)