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As post-secondary institutions assume more responsibility for the language abilities of their graduates, more attention is being paid to post-admission language support to enhance student success. Previous research has indicated that a post-admission language diagnostic assessment procedure, when coupled with language support services, can be an effective model in helping students meet language expectations in post-secondary settings. This paper outlines the development and validation of a screening-diagnostic assessment procedure to recommend students to language support services in college diploma programs. Our key findings suggest that students who receive a recommendation through the procedure and subsequently attend language support (LS) classes have higher communication grades than those who do not attend, and that testing vocabulary can be an effective measure for screening language abilities. These results offer validity evidence for using this procedure while ongoing research is being conducted to validate its testing measures.

Proficient communication, particularly reading comprehension, is vital for career progression, yet many college-level English as an Additional Language (EAL) students encounter hurdles in this area. Weak reading skills can impede job prospects, underscoring the need for tailored interventions during students' studies. Therefore, post-entry language assessments (PELAs) can serve as essential tools for post-secondary institutions, aiding in identifying and supporting students struggling with English proficiency. PELAs adopt a diagnostic approach, facilitating language development while maintaining educational experiences. Despite increased interest in PELAs, few diagnostic assessments cater specifically to reading proficiency. This paper explores the creation of a PELA for first-year college students in Canada, designed to prepare them for diverse workplaces. Utilizing Evidence-Centered Design (ECD) ensures validity in assessment development, emphasizing inference-based reasoning from individuals' responses. Insights from a task survey with 12 professionals underscored the significance of understanding instructional texts for academic and professional success, informing the development of a diagnostic reading assessment beneficial to both multilingual and L1 literacy students.

In 2011, the UK medical research charity Cure Parkinsons set up the international Linked Clinical Trials (iLCT) committee to help expedite the clinical testing of potentially disease modifying therapies for Parkinsons disease (PD). The first committee meeting was held at the Van Andel Institute in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 2012. This group of PD experts has subsequently met annually to assess and prioritize agents that may slow the progression of this neurodegenerative condition, using a systematic approach based on preclinical, epidemiological and, where possible, clinical data. Over the last 12 years, 171 unique agents have been evaluated by the iLCT committee, and there have been 21 completed clinical studies and 20 ongoing trials associated with the initiative. In this review, we briefly outline the iLCT process as well as the clinical development and outcomes of some of the top prioritized agents. We also discuss a few of the lessons that have been learnt, and we conclude with a perspective on what the next decade may bring, including the introduction of multi-arm, multi-stage clinical trial platforms and the possibility of combination therapies for PD.

Abstract Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is commonly used to obtain year‐round continuous data on marine soundscapes harboring valuable information on species distributions or ecosystem dynamics. This continuously increasing amount of data requires highly efficient automated analysis techniques in order to exploit the full potential of the available data. Here, we propose a benchmark, which consists of a public dataset, a well‐defined task and evaluation procedure to develop and test automated analysis techniques. This benchmark focuses on the special case of detecting animal vocalizations in a real‐world dataset from the marine realm. We believe that such a benchmark is necessary to monitor the progress in the development of new detection algorithms in the field of marine bioacoustics. We ultimately use the proposed benchmark to test three detection approaches, namely ANIMAL‐SPOT, Koogu and a simple custom sequential convolutional neural network (CNN), and report performances. We report the performance of the three detection approaches in a blocked cross‐validation fashion with 11 site‐year blocks for a multi‐species detection scenario in a large marine passive acoustic dataset. Performance was measured with three simple metrics (i.e., true classification rate, noise misclassification rate and call misclassification rate) and one combined fitness metric, which allocates more weight to the minimization of false positives created by noise. Overall, ANIMAL‐SPOT performed the best with an average F metric of 0.83, followed by the custom CNN with an average fitness metric of 0.79 and finally Koogu with an average fitness metric of 0.59. The presented benchmark is an important step to advance in the automatic processing of the continuously growing amount of PAM data that are collected throughout the world's oceans. To ultimately achieve usability of developed algorithms, the focus of future work should be laid on the reduction of the false positives created by noise.

Background: Limited information is available on factors that affect the burden tinnitus. The aim of this study is to investigate the association between tinnitus burden and demographic, patient-specific and tinnitus characteristics. Secondly, it was examined which variables could predict a change in tinnitus burden after 12 months. Method: In a prospective Dutch cohort of 383 tinnitus patients seeking medical help, tinnitus complaints, demographics, tinnitus characteristics, psychological wellbeing and quality of life were assessed using an online self-report survey at three timepoints (start, 6 months, 12 months). The main outcome variables for tinnitus burden are the Tinnitus Questionnaire (TQ) and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for tinnitus burden and loudness. Results: Several variables (time, sex, education level, life events, anxiety and depression, sleep issues, tinnitus loudness, hearing impairment and treatment) were significantly associated with tinnitus burden. Additionally, tinnitus burden after 12 months was associated with anxiety, following treatment, sleep issues, negative life events and hearing impairment (increase) and anxiety, total of life events and environmental quality of life (decrease) predicted the tinnitus burden after 12 months. Conclusions: Several factors, such as education level, life events, psychological factors and sleep quality, are related to tinnitus burden and can predict tinnitus burden over time.

Abstract Background The burgeoning field of regenerative medicine has significantly advanced with recent findings on biotherapies using human platelet lysates (HPLs), derived from clinical-grade platelet concentrates (PCs), for treating brain disorders. These developments have opened new translational research avenues to explore the neuroprotective effects of platelet-extracellular vesicles (PEVs). Their potential in managing neurodegenerative conditions like traumatic brain injury (TBI) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) warrants further exploration. We aimed here to characterize the composition of a PEV preparation isolated from platelet concentrate (PC) supernatant, and determine its neuroprotective potential and neurorestorative effects in cellular and animal models of TBI and PD. Methods We isolated PEVs from the supernatant of clinical-grade PC collected from healthy blood donors utilizing high-speed centrifugation. PEVs were characterized by biophysical, biochemical, microscopic, and LC–MS/MS proteomics methods to unveil biological functions. Their functionality was assessed in vitro using SH-SY5Y neuronal cells, LUHMES dopaminergic neurons, and BV-2 microglial cells, and in vivo by intranasal administration in a controlled cortical impact (CCI)-TBI model using 8-weeks-old male C57/BL6 mice, and in a PD model induced by MPTP in 5-month-old male C57/BL6 mice. Results PEVs varied in size from 50 to 350 nm, predominantly around 200 nm, with concentrations ranging between 1010 and 1011/mL. They expressed specific platelet membrane markers, exhibited a lipid bilayer by cryo-electron microscopy and, importantly, showed low expression of pro-coagulant phosphatidylserine. LC–MS/MS indicated a rich composition of trophic factors, including neurotrophins, anti-inflammatory agents, neurotransmitters, and antioxidants, unveiling their multifaceted biological functions. PEVs aided in the restoration of neuronal functions in SH-SY5Y cells and demonstrated remarkable neuroprotective capabilities against erastin-induced ferroptosis in dopaminergic neurons. In microglial cells, they promoted anti-inflammatory responses, particularly under inflammatory conditions. In vivo, intranasally delivered PEVs showed strong anti-inflammatory effects in a TBI mouse model and conserved tyrosine hydroxylase expression of dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra in a PD model, leading to improved motor function. Conclusions The potential of PEV-based therapies in neuroprotection opens new therapeutic avenues for neurodegenerative disorders. The study advocates for clinical trials to establish the efficacy of PEV-based biotherapies in neuroregenerative medicine. Graphical Abstract

Abstract Distributed collaborative learning is a promising approach for building predictive models for privacy-sensitive biomedical images. Here, several data owners (clients) train a joint model without sharing their original data. However, concealed systematic biases can compromise model performance and fairness. This study presents MyThisYourThat (MyTH) approach, which adapts an interpretable prototypical part learning network to a distributed setting, enabling each client to visualize feature differences learned by others on their own image: comparing one client’s 'This’ with others’ 'That’. Our setting demonstrates four clients collaboratively training two diagnostic classifiers on a benchmark X-ray dataset. Without data bias, the global model reaches 74.14% balanced accuracy for cardiomegaly and 74.08% for pleural effusion. We show that with systematic visual bias in one client, the performance of global models drops to near-random. We demonstrate how differences between local and global prototypes reveal biases and allow their visualization on each client’s data without compromising privacy.

This study explores whether the relationship between departmental leadership (i.e. group-oriented and development-oriented departmental leadership) and the interpersonal characteristics of professional learning communities (PLC) (i.e. collective responsibility and reflective dialogue) varies between departments, depending on whether teachers display traditional or constructivist beliefs. The data were collected from 197 teachers in 30 departments in 26 Flemish (Belgian) secondary schools via an online teacher survey and then analysed using multi-group path analyses. The results show no differences depending on teachers' educational beliefs. However, teachers with a group-oriented departmental leader experience more collective responsibility and report a higher frequency of reflective dialogue in their department.

The primary purpose of this study is to map the temporal impact of a transformational leadership development intervention on leaders' awareness in the two public universities. Deans and heads from the two universities were involved in a six-week-long intervention. To study the short-term impact, an evaluation was conducted three months after the initial intervention with leaders of University A, and one year later, the next evaluation was conducted with leaders from University B to study the long-term impact. Semi-structured interviews and a case study method were adopted for data collection, and content analysis was carried out to identify indicators of awareness levels in leadership behaviours. Compared to the immediate post-intervention evaluation results, awareness levels decreased, but the results were still sufficiently robust compared to the baseline awareness levels measured in a control group. Implications and recommendations for future research will be discussed.

Pneumocystis colonization may play a role in transmission and local inflammatory response. It was explored in patients with respiratory diseases in North Lebanon. Overall prevalence reached only 5.2% (95% CI 2.13–10.47) but it was higher (17.3%) in the subpopulation of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). COPD was the only factor associated with a significantly increased risk of colonization. mtLSU genotyping revealed predominance of genotype 2, identified in five patients (71.4%), including one patient who had co-infection with genotype 3. These first data in North Lebanon confirm Pneumocystis circulation among patients with respiratory diseases and the potential for transmission to immunocompromised patients.

International Society of Urological Pathology grade group 1 (GG 1) prostate cancer (PCa) is generally considered insignificant, with recent suggestions that it should even be considered as “noncancerous”. We evaluated outcomes for patients with GG 1 PCa on biopsy (bGG 1) and high-risk features (prostate-specific antigen [PSA] >20 ng/ml and/or cT3–4 stage) to challenge the hypothesis that every case of bGG 1 PCa has a benign disease course. We used the multi-institutional EMPaCT database, which includes data for 9508 patients with high-risk PCa undergoing surgery. We included patients with bGG 1 PCa (n = 848) in our analysis and divided them into three groups according to PSA >20 ng/ml, cT3–4 stage, or both. The estimated 10-yr cancer-specific survival (CSS) rate was 96% in the overall population, 88% in the group with both PSA >20 ng/ml and cT3–4 stage, 97% in the group with PSA >20 ng/ml alone, and 98% in the group with cT3–4 stage alone. Similar CSS outcomes were found in subgroups with GG 1 PCa on pathology (n = 502) and with GG 1 on biopsy diagnosed after 2005 (n = 253). Study limitations include the lack of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) staging and MRI-targeted biopsies. In conclusion, patients with GG 1 and either PSA >20 ng/ml or cT3–4 stage have a low risk of dying from their cancer after surgery. However, patients with GG 1 PCa and both PSA >20 ng/ml and cT3–4 stage are at higher risk of cancer-specific mortality and active treatment should be discussed for this subgroup. Patient summary: We assessed outcomes for patients diagnosed with low-grade prostate cancer on biopsy who also had one or two factors associated with high risk disease. Men with both of those risk factors had a higher risk of dying from their prostate cancer. Active treatment should be discussed for this subgroup of patients.

Clearing and construction activities related to the Maya Train (Tren Maya) project resulted in potential and inevitable impacts to archaeological caves sites in largely undeveloped areas of Quintana Roo. An effort coordinated by Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) involved accelerated digital documentation of two caves – via SLAM-enabled mobile LiDAR scanning and targeted photogrammetry – to facilitate prompt visualization and evaluation of terrestrial and subterranean geospatial relationships. Mobile LiDAR is well suited to the challenges of capturing the complex, multilevel morphology of caves and was readily deployed across and through priority environments. Specific archaeological features – such as ancient Maya rock art and masonry shrines – were documented via photogrammetry, and the resulting higher-resolution models co-referenced with the georeferenced mobile LiDAR-generated point clouds of each cave and the surrounding topographic context. This integrative approach contributed to a more informed decision-making process, with respect to conservation and construction, and provided baseline data for future monitoring of the affected cave sites.

This is a study of lipid metabolic gene expression patterns to discover precision medicine for sepsis.ObjectivesSepsis patients experience poor outcomes including chronic critical illness (CCI) or early death (within 14 d). We investigated lipid metabolic gene expression differences by outcome to discover therapeutic targets.Design setting and particitpantsSecondary analysis of samples from prospectively enrolled sepsis patients (first 24 hr) and a zebrafish endotoxemia model for drug discovery. Patients were enrolled from the emergency department or ICU at an urban teaching hospital. Enrollment samples from sepsis patients were analyzed. Clinical data and cholesterol levels were recorded. Leukocytes were processed for RNA sequencing and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. A lipopolysaccharide zebrafish endotoxemia model was used for confirmation of human transcriptomic findings and drug discovery.Main outcomes and measuresThe derivation cohort included 96 patients and controls (12 early death, 13 CCI, 51 rapid recovery, and 20 controls) and the validation cohort had 52 patients (6 early death, 8 CCI, and 38 rapid recovery).ResultsThe cholesterol metabolism gene 7-dehydrocholesterol reductase (DHCR7) was significantly up-regulated in both derivation and validation cohorts in poor outcome sepsis compared with rapid recovery patients and in 90-day nonsurvivors (validation only) and validated using RT-qPCR analysis. Our zebrafish sepsis model showed up-regulation of dhcr7 and several of the same lipid genes up-regulated in poor outcome human sepsis (dhcr24, sqlea, cyp51, msmo1, and ldlra) compared with controls. We then tested six lipid-based drugs in the zebrafish endotoxemia model. Of these, only the Dhcr7 inhibitor AY9944 completely rescued zebrafish from lipopolysaccharide death in a model with 100% lethality.ConclusionsDHCR7, an important cholesterol metabolism gene, was up-regulated in poor outcome sepsis patients warranting external validation. This pathway may serve as a potential therapeutic target to improve sepsis outcomes.

Finger millet is a key food security crop widely grown in eastern Africa, India and Nepal. Long considered a 'poor man's crop', finger millet has regained attention over the past decade for its climate resilience and the nutritional qualities of its grain. To bring finger millet breeding into the 21st century, here we present the assembly and annotation of a chromosome-scale reference genome. We show that this ~1.3 million years old allotetraploid has a high level of homoeologous gene retention and lacks subgenome dominance. Population structure is mainly driven by the differential presence of large wild segments in the pericentromeric regions of several chromosomes. Trait mapping, followed by variant analysis of gene candidates, reveals that loss of purple coloration of anthers and stigma is associated with loss-of-function mutations in the finger millet orthologs of the maize R1/B1 and Arabidopsis GL3/EGL3 anthocyanin regulatory genes. Proanthocyanidin production in seed is not affected by these gene knockouts.