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BMJ Open 2022 May 17;12(5):e057399. Epub 2022 May 17.

Department of Life Sciences and Public Health, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy.

Introduction: In primary care, almost 75% of outpatient visits by family doctors and general practitioners involve continuation or initiation of drug therapy. Due to the enormous amount of drugs used by outpatients in unmonitored situations, the potential risk of adverse events due to an error in the use or prescription of drugs is much higher than in a hospital setting. Artificial intelligence (AI) application can help healthcare professionals to take charge of patient safety by improving error detection, patient stratification and drug management. Read More

Brief Bioinform 2022 May 18. Epub 2022 May 18.

Multiscale Research Institute of Complex Systems, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China.

Health Place 2022 May 14;75:102816. Epub 2022 May 14.

Faculty of Sport Sciences, Waseda University, Tokorozawa, Japan. Electronic address:

In the context of rapid urbanization, public open spaces in dense urban areas are critical built environment elements to support active lifestyles. Several reviews have explored the associations of public open space attributes with physically active and sedentary behavior. However, few reviews have included studies from Asia, and no studies have focused on dense urban areas. Read More

Comp Immunol Microbiol Infect Dis 2022 May 11;86:101819. Epub 2022 May 11.

Razi Vaccine & Serum Research Institute, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization, Mashhad, Iran. Electronic address:

Livestock are commonly affected by gastrointestinal protozoan parasites, including Giardia duodenalis. In small ruminants, G. duodenalis infection may decrease carcass weight and dressing percentage. Read More

J Psychiatr Res 2022 Apr 28;151:391-398. Epub 2022 Apr 28.

The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China; The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China; High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China. Electronic address:

Superiority illusion (SI) is a positive cognitive bias related to self, manifested as overestimated self-appraisal. Negative self-schema is a core feature of the cognitive model of depression, including bipolar depressive disorder (BDD). However, only little research has explored the impaired self-processing in BDD. Read More

JCO Oncol Pract 2022 May 17:OP2100789. Epub 2022 May 17.

Division of Hematology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN.

Purpose: Patients' concerns regarding clinical trial (CT) participation include apprehension about side effects, quality of life (QoL), financial burden, and quality of care.

Methods: We prospectively evaluated the experience of patients with multiple myeloma or lymphoma who were treated on CTs (CT group, n = 35) versus patients treated with standard approaches (non-CT group, n = 88) focusing on QoL, financial burden of care, and patients' perception of quality of care over a 1-year period.

Results: There were no significant differences in any of the patient-reported outcomes in CT versus non-CT groups. Read More

PLoS One 2022 17;17(5):e0268510. Epub 2022 May 17.

Obstetrics and Gynecology, Section of Family Planning, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon, United States of America.

American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth are strong in culture and rich in heritage and experience unique strengths and challenges throughout adolescence. Documenting conditions that protect against risk factors associated with poor health outcomes are needed. We explored scales that measure self-esteem, culture, social support, and community from a sample of 1,456 youth involved in Native STAND, a culturally-relevant evidence-based sexual health intervention. Read More

Artif Life 2022 May 19:1-3. Epub 2022 May 19.

Monash University, Australia, Department of Data Science and AI.

Elife 2022 May 17;11. Epub 2022 May 17.

Laboratory of Chemical Pharmacology, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.

The medial prefrontal cortex and amygdala are involved in the regulation of social behavior and associated with psychiatric diseases but their detailed neurophysiological mechanisms at a network level remain unclear. We recorded local field potentials (LFPs) from the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) and basolateral amygdala (BLA) while male mice engaged on social behavior. We found that in wild-type mice, both the dmPFC and BLA increased 4-7 Hz oscillation power and decreased 30-60 Hz power when they needed to attend to another target mouse. Read More

J Pathol 2022 May 17. Epub 2022 May 17.

Department of Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA.

Lung diseases carry a significant burden of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The advent of digital pathology (DP) and an increase in computational power have led to the development of artificial intelligence (AI) based tools that can assist pathologists and pulmonologists in improving clinical workflow and patient management. While previous works have explored the advances in computational approaches for breast, prostate, and head and neck cancers, there has been a growing interest in applying these technologies to lung diseases as well. Read More

Emerg Microbes Infect 2022 May 17:1-57. Epub 2022 May 17.

Department of Infectious Diseases, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Infectious Diseases and Biosafety Emergency Response, National Medical Center for Infectious Diseases, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200040, China.

The pathogenesis of liver in patients with hepatitis B virus-associated acute - chronic liver failure (HBV-ACLF) remains largely unknown. We aimed to elucidate the molecular mechanism underlying the pathogenesis of liver in HBV-ACLF patients by using multiple approaches including transcriptome analysis. We performed transcriptomic sequencing analysis on the liver of HBV-ACLF patients (n = 6), chronic hepatitis B (n = 6), liver cirrhosis (n = 6) and normal control (n = 5), then explored the potential pathogenesis mechanism in liver specimen from another 48 subjects and further validated the molecular and cellular mechanism using THP-1 cells. Read More

Emerg Microbes Infect 2022 May 17:1-22. Epub 2022 May 17.

Department of Respiratory Diseases, Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.

Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 has become the predominant variant worldwide. VV116 is an oral drug with robust anti-SARS-CoV-2 efficacy in preclinical studies. We conducted an open, prospective cohort study to evaluate its safety and effectiveness in Chinese participants infected with SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant from March 8th, 2022 to Marth 24th, 2022. Read More

Drug Saf 2022 May 17;45(5):511-519. Epub 2022 May 17.

Institute of Health Management, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China.

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, and the large amount of pharmacovigilance-related data stored in an electronic manner, data-driven automatic methods need to be urgently applied to all aspects of pharmacovigilance to assist healthcare professionals. However, the quantity and quality of data directly affect the performance of AI, and there are particular challenges to implementing AI in limited-resource settings. Analyzing challenges and solutions for AI-based pharmacovigilance in resource-limited settings can improve pharmacovigilance frameworks and capabilities in these settings. Read More

Drug Saf 2022 May 17;45(5):429-438. Epub 2022 May 17.

US Food and Drug Administration, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Office of Surveillance and Epidemiology, Silver Spring, MD, USA.

There is great interest in the application of 'artificial intelligence' (AI) to pharmacovigilance (PV). Although US FDA is broadly exploring the use of AI for PV, we focus on the application of AI to the processing and evaluation of Individual Case Safety Reports (ICSRs) submitted to the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS). We describe a general framework for considering the readiness of AI for PV, followed by some examples of the application of AI to ICSR processing and evaluation in industry and FDA. Read More

Drug Saf 2022 May 17;45(5):407-418. Epub 2022 May 17.

Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, Oxford, UK.

The tools of artificial intelligence (AI) have enormous potential to enhance activities in pharmacovigilance. Pharmacovigilance experts need not be AI experts, but they should know enough about AI to explore the possibilities of collaboration with those who are. Modern concepts of AI date from Alan Turing's work, especially his paper on "the imitation game", in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Read More

Elife 2022 May 17;11. Epub 2022 May 17.

Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, United States.

Interleukin 27 (IL-27) is a heterodimeric cytokine that functions to constrain T cell-mediated inflammation and plays an important role in immune homeostasis. Binding of IL-27 to cell surface receptors IL-27Rα and gp130 results in activation of receptor-associated Janus Kinases and nuclear translocation of Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 1 (STAT1) and STAT3 transcription factors. Despite the emerging therapeutic importance of this cytokine axis in cancer and autoimmunity, a molecular blueprint of the IL-27 receptor signaling complex, and its relation to other gp130/IL-12 family cytokines, is currently unclear. Read More

Elife 2022 May 17;11. Epub 2022 May 17.

Department of Microbial Pathogenesis, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, United States.

Typhoid toxin is an essential virulence factor for Typhi, the cause of typhoid fever in humans. This toxin has an unusual biology in that it is produced by Typhi only when located within host cells. Once synthesized, the toxin is secreted to the lumen of the -containing vacuole from where it is transported to the extracellular space by vesicle carrier intermediates. Read More

Curr Med Imaging 2022 May 16. Epub 2022 May 16.

Department of Radiology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430022, China.

Background: Advanced Modeling Iterative Reconstruction (ADMIRE) algorithm has 5 intensity levels, it is important to study which algorithm is better for brain CT scanning.

Objective: To compare the influence of different strength levels of ADMIRE and traditional Filtered Back Projection (FBP) on image quality in brain CT scanning.

Methods: 60 patients were retrospectively collected, and each data from these patients' brains was reconstructed by four different reconstruction methods (FBP, ADMIRE1, ADMIRE3, ADMIRE5, called four groups). Read More

Elife 2022 May 17;11. Epub 2022 May 17.

Laboratory for Immune Homeostasis, RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences, Yokohama, Japan.

Medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) are critical for self-tolerance induction in T cells via promiscuous expression of tissue-specific antigens (TSAs), which are controlled by the transcriptional regulator, AIRE. Whereas AIRE-expressing (Aire) mTECs undergo constant turnover in the adult thymus, mechanisms underlying differentiation of postnatal mTECs remain to be discovered. Integrative analysis of single-cell assays for transposase-accessible chromatin (scATAC-seq) and single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) suggested the presence of proliferating mTECs with a specific chromatin structure, which express high levels of Aire and co-stimulatory molecules, CD80 (AireCD80). Read More

Trials 2022 May 16;23(1):407. Epub 2022 May 16.

Division of Infectious Diseases, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA.

Background: Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia is a life-threatening infection and leading cause of infective endocarditis, with mortality rates of 15-50%. Treatment typically requires prolonged administration of parenteral therapy, itself associated with high costs and potential catheter-associated complications. Dalbavancin is a lipoglycopeptide with potent activity against Staphylococcus and a long half-life, making it an appealing potential therapy for S. Read More

BMC Infect Dis 2022 May 16;22(1):472. Epub 2022 May 16.

Thai Red Cross Emerging Infectious Diseases Clinical Centre, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand.

Background: Interactions between humans and animals are the key elements of zoonotic spillover leading to zoonotic disease emergence. Research to understand the high-risk behaviors associated with disease transmission at the human-animal interface is limited, and few consider regional and local contexts.

Objective: This study employed an integrated behavioral-biological surveillance approach for the early detection of novel and known zoonotic viruses in potentially high-risk populations, in an effort to identify risk factors for spillover and to determine potential foci for risk-mitigation measures. Read More

J Cardiovasc Transl Res 2022 May 16. Epub 2022 May 16.

Cardiac Regeneration and Ageing Laboratory, Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Organ Repair, School of Medicine, Shanghai University, 333 Nan Chen Road, Shanghai, 200444, China.

Sci Rep 2022 May 16;12(1):8068. Epub 2022 May 16.

Department of Nuclear Medicine, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Hugstetter Straße 55, 79106, Freiburg, Germany.

Patients with asymmetric hearing loss show an asymmetry of glucose metabolism of the primary auditory cortex (PAC). We investigated whether this asymmetry could serve as an objective predictor for speech recognition with CI. Nine patients underwent FDG PET prior to CI surgery. Read More

Sci Rep 2022 May 16;12(1):8033. Epub 2022 May 16.

Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.

Assessment of gestational age (GA) is key to provide optimal care during pregnancy. However, its accurate determination remains challenging in low- and middle-income countries, where access to obstetric ultrasound is limited. Hence, there is an urgent need to develop clinical approaches that allow accurate and inexpensive estimations of GA. Read More

Sci Rep 2022 May 16;12(1):8075. Epub 2022 May 16.

School of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University, 251 S. School St., Normal, IL, 61761, USA.

Understanding the relationship of population dynamics to density is central to many ecological investigations. Despite the importance of density-dependence in determining population growth, the empirical relationship between density and per capita growth remains understudied in most systems and is often assumed to be linear. In experimental studies of interspecific competition, investigators often evaluate the predicted outcomes by assuming such linear relationships, fitting linear functions, and estimating parameters of competition models. Read More

Sci Data 2022 May 16;9(1):208. Epub 2022 May 16.

Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 73019, USA.

Malaria epidemics can be triggered by fluctuations in temperature and precipitation that influence vector mosquitoes and the malaria parasite. Identifying and monitoring environmental risk factors can thus provide early warning of future outbreaks. Satellite Earth observations provide relevant measurements, but obtaining these data requires substantial expertise, computational resources, and internet bandwidth. Read More

Nat Commun 2022 May 16;13(1):2692. Epub 2022 May 16.

Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

Soluble aggregates of the microtubule-associated protein tau have been challenging to assemble and characterize, despite their important role in the development of tauopathies. We found that sequential hyperphosphorylation by protein kinase A in conjugation with either glycogen synthase kinase 3β or stress activated protein kinase 4 enabled recombinant wild-type tau of isoform 0N4R to spontaneously polymerize into small amorphous aggregates in vitro. We employed tandem mass spectrometry to determine the phosphorylation sites, high-resolution native mass spectrometry to measure the degree of phosphorylation, and super-resolution microscopy and electron microscopy to characterize the morphology of aggregates formed. Read More

J Fr Ophtalmol 2022 May 13. Epub 2022 May 13.

Foshan-Aier Eye Hospital, 528000 Foshan, Guangdong Province, China. Electronic address:

Purpose: To evaluate changes in macular blood flow in patients with various stages of diabetic retinopathy (DR) by optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA).

Materials And Methods: The data of 94 patients (122 eyes) with type 2 diabetes mellitus admitted from January 2018 to May 2021 were recorded, including 31 patients (42 eyes) with no DR (NDR group), 33 patients (40 eyes) with mild non-proliferative DR (mild NPDR group) and 30 patients (40 eyes) with moderate NPDR (moderate NPDR group). Forty healthy patients (40 eyes) who were examined during the same period were selected as control group. Read More

RMD Open 2022 May;8(1)

Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, Melbourne Medical School, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Objective: To assess the antibody response to disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) therapy after the first and second dose of the ChAdOx1nCov-19 (AstraZeneca (AZ)) and BNT162b (Pfizer) vaccines in patients with immune-mediated inflammatory disease (IMID) compared with controls and if withholding therapy following the first vaccination dose has any effect on seroconversion and SARS-CoV-2 antibody (Ab) levels.

Methods: A multicentre three-arm randomised controlled trial compared the immunogenicity of the Pfizer and AZ vaccines in adult patients on conventional synthetic (csDMARD), biologic (bDMARD) or targeted synthetic (tsDMARD) therapy for IMID (n=181) with a control group (n=59). Patients were randomised to continue or withhold DMARD therapy for 1-2 weeks post first dose vaccination only. Read More

Neurospine 2022 May 12. Epub 2022 May 12.

Department of Neurosurgery, Medical Research Institute, Pusan National University Hospital, Busan, Korea.

Objective: The purpose of our study is to develop a spoken dialogue system (SDS) for pain questionnaire in patients with spinal disease. We evaluate user satisfaction and validated the performance accuracy of the SDS in medical staff and patients.

Methods: The SDS was developed to investigate pain and related psychological issues in patients with spinal diseases based on the pain questionnaire protocol. Read More