Search Our Scientific Publications & Authors

eNeuro 2022 May 19. Epub 2022 May 19.

Department of Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA

Electroencephalography (EEG) has long been used to index brain states, from early studies describing activity in the presence and absence of visual stimulation to modern work employing complex perceptual tasks. These studies have shed light on brain-wide signals but often lack explanatory power at the single neuron level. Similarly, single neuron recordings can suffer from an inability to measure brain-wide signals accessible using EEG. Read More

Ann Fam Med 2022 May-Jun;20(3):204-210

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.

Purpose: We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a virtual community of practice (vCoP) in improving primary health care professionals' (HCPs') attitudes toward empowering patients with chronic disease.

Methods: We conducted a cluster randomized controlled trial. Practices were units of randomization, and primary HCPs and patients were units of analysis. Read More

Ann Fam Med 2022 May-Jun;20(3):255-261

Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois.

Purpose: Despite the growing popularity of stepped-wedge cluster randomized trials (SW-CRTs) for practice-based research, the design's advantages and challenges are not well documented. The objective of this study was to identify the advantages and challenges of the SW-CRT design for large-scale intervention implementations in primary care settings.

Methods: The EvidenceNOW: Advancing Heart Health initiative, funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, included a large collection of SW-CRTs. Read More

Ann Fam Med 2022 May-Jun;20(3):262-265

eConsult Centre of Excellence, The Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

This paper reports on a multimethod cross-sectional study of the Ontario electronic consultation (eConsult) service. Utilization and closeout survey data from July 2018 through June 2020 were analyzed using the Reach Effectiveness Adoption Implementation Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework. Requesting clinicians submitted 60,474 eConsults, and monthly cases increased from 1,487 in July 2018 to 4,179 in June 2020. Read More

J Phys Act Health 2022 May 23:1-10. Epub 2022 May 23.

Lifestyle, Exercise and Nutrition Improvement (LENI) Research Group, College of Health, Wellbeing and Life Sciences, Sheffield Hallam University, Collegiate Campus, Sheffield,United Kingdom.

Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a complex, heterogeneous endocrinopathy. Women with PCOS often present with cardiovascular disease risk factors. Physical activity (PA) interventions reduce cardiovascular disease risk factors in women with PCOS. Read More

Atherosclerosis 2022 May;349:42-52

Section of Cardiovascular Research, Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA; Health Policy, Quality & Informatics Program, Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center Health Services Research and Development Center for Innovations, USA. Electronic address:

The initial studies focusing on lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] and its role in atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease were conducted exclusively in Whites. Subsequently, multiple large-scale, independent investigations have established clear race/ethnic differences in plasma Lp(a) concentration and population distribution over the last four decades. Blacks have the highest Lp(a) level of all race/ethnic groups studied followed by South Asians, Whites, Hispanics and East Asians. Read More

BMJ Open Respir Res 2022 May;9(1)

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.

Introduction: Regular, low-dose, sustained-release morphine is effective in reducing chronic breathlessness in people with advanced disease, particularly in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Despite experiencing a reduction in breathlessness, some patients choose not to continue long-term treatment.

Aim: This study aimed to explore patients' and caregivers' experiences with regular, low-dose, sustained-release morphine for chronic breathlessness associated with COPD. Read More

BMJ Open Respir Res 2022 May;9(1)

Faculty of Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Respiratory Medicine and Allergology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.

Introduction: Breathlessness is debilitating and increases in prevalence with age, with people progressively reducing their everyday activities to 'self-manage' it. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of breathlessness on function in terms of activities that have been reduced or ceased ('compromised') in older men.

Methods: A cross-sectional postal survey of Swedish 73-year-old man in the VAScular and Chronic Obstructive Lung disease study self-reporting on demographics, breathlessness (modified Medical Research Council (mMRC) scale, Dyspnoea-12, Multidimensional Dyspnea Scale) and its duration, anxiety/depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), performance status (WHO Performance Status), everyday activities reduced/ceased and exertion. Read More

J Med Ethics 2022 May 23. Epub 2022 May 23.

Health Research Institute-Fundación Jiménez Díaz University Hospital, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, large-scale research and pharmaceutical regulatory processes have proceeded at a dramatically increased pace with new and effective, evidence-based COVID-19 interventions rapidly making their way into the clinic. However, the swift generation of high-quality evidence and the efficient processing of regulatory authorisation have given rise to more specific and complex versions of well-known research ethics issues. In this paper, we identify three such issues by focusing on the authorisation of molnupiravir, a novel antiviral medicine aimed at reducing the ability of SARS-CoV-2 to multiply in the body, for clinical use by the National Health Service in England and the concomitant testing of molnupiravir through the large-scale Platform Adaptive trial of Novel antiviRals for eArly treatMent of COVID-19 In the Community randomised control trial. Read More

Soft Matter 2022 May 24. Epub 2022 May 24.

Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal de Alagoas, Maceió, AL, Brazil.

The present study investigates dumbbell-shaped nematic liquid crystal shells. Using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, we consider the effects of an external electric field on nematic ordering by computing the average molecular alignment's time evolution and equilibrium configuration. We show that the number and location of topological defects are strongly affected by the external field, with the orientational ordering's equilibrium configuration depending on field direction about the shell's long axis. Read More

Org Biomol Chem 2022 May 24. Epub 2022 May 24.

Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, U. P., 208016, India.

A visible-light-mediated synthesis of α,β-diamino esters has been developed the cross coupling of ,-dimethylanilines with glyoxalic oxime ethers. This protocol involves the generation of α-aminoalkyl radicals under mild reaction conditions, provides α,β-diamino esters in good to excellent yields, and can be performed on a gram-scale. Read More

J Phys Chem B 2022 May 23. Epub 2022 May 23.

Department of Chemical Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel.

Thermally induced shape memory poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL)-based polymers are one of the most extensively researched families of biocompatible materials. They are degradable under physiological conditions and have high applicability in general biomedical engineering, with cross-linked PCL networks being particularly useful for tissue engineering. In this study, we used the optimized potentials for liquid simulations (OPLS) force field, which is well suited for describing intermolecular interactions in biomolecules, and the class II polymer consistent force field (PCFF) to investigate the properties of telechelic PCL with diacrylates as reactive functionalities on its end groups. Read More

J Acad Nutr Diet 2022 May 20. Epub 2022 May 20.

Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; R&D department, Division of Mental Health Services, Akershus University Hospital, Lørenskog, Norway; Department of Psychiatry, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 22 (Välskärinkatu 12), FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland.

Background: Depression and diet quality appear to be associated in the general population. Nevertheless, little is known about their relationship among pregnant females.

Objective: The aims of this study were: first, to investigate longitudinally whether diet quality is associated with depressive symptoms during pregnancy; second, to examine whether variation in diet quality during pregnancy predicts variation in depressive symptoms; and third, to explore how individual dietary components are associated with depressive symptoms. Read More

Biochim Biophys Acta Gene Regul Mech 2022 May 19:194826. Epub 2022 May 19.

Laboratory of Systems and Synthetic Biology, Wageningen University & Research, Stippeneng 4, 6708 WE Wageningen, the Netherlands. Electronic address:

Multiple synonymous codons code for the same amino acid, resulting in the degeneracy of the genetic code and in the preferred used of some codons called codon bias usage (CBU). We performed a large-scale analysis of codon usage bias analysing the distribution of the codon adaption index (CAI) and codon relative adaptiveness index (RA) in 4868 bacterial genomes. We found that CAI values differ significantly between protein functional domains and part of the protein outside domains and show how CAI, GC content and preferred usage of polymerase III alpha subunits are related. Read More

World Neurosurg 2022 May 20. Epub 2022 May 20.

Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA; Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle WA, USA; Stroke & Applied Neurosciences Center, University of Washington, Seattle WA, USA; Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle WA, USA. Electronic address:

Objective: To determine the effectiveness of the modified frailty index-5 (mFI-5) in predicting postoperative functional outcome after microsurgical resection of ruptured brain arteriovenous malformations (bAVMs).

Methods: Retrospective review of patients undergoing microsurgical resection of acutely ruptured bAVMs. Demographics, bAVM characteristics, mFI-5, ruptured arteriovenous malformation grading scale (RAGS), and Spetzler-Martin grade (S-M) were recorded. Read More

Neuroscience 2022 May 20. Epub 2022 May 20.

Department of Psychiatry, Affiliated Nanjing Brain Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China. Electronic address:

The neurodevelopmental hypothesis states that schizophrenia is a brain disease. Exploring abnormal brain activities can improve understanding of the neural pathologic mechanism of clinical characteristics and determine subjective biomarkers to differentiate patients with schizophrenia from healthy controls. We collected clinical characteristics (i. Read More

Sci Total Environ 2022 May 20:156088. Epub 2022 May 20.

Social Systems Division, National Institute for Environmental Studies, 16-2 Onogawa, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8506, Japan.

Although long-term ecosystem monitoring provides essential knowledge for practicing ecosystem management, analyses of the causal effects of ecological impacts from large-scale observational data are still in an early stage of development. We used causal impact analysis (CIA)-a synthetic control method that enables estimation of causal impacts from unrepeated, long-term observational data-to evaluate the causal impacts of extreme water-level drawdowns during summer on subsequent water quality. We used more than 100 years of transparency and water level monitoring data from Lake Biwa, Japan. Read More

Sci Total Environ 2022 May 20:156080. Epub 2022 May 20.

Agri-Environment Branch, Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Belfast, UK.

In river catchments used as drinking water sources, high pesticide concentrations in abstracted waters require an expensive treatment step prior to supply. The acid herbicide 2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid (MCPA) is particularly problematic as it is highly mobile in the soil-water environment following application. Here, an agri-environmental scheme (AES) was introduced to a large-scale catchment (384 km) to potentially reduce the burden of pesticides in the water treatment process. Read More

Sci Total Environ 2022 May 20:156126. Epub 2022 May 20.

Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry (DAGRI), Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy.

Sand dams are impermeable water harvesting structures built to collect and store water within the volume of sediments transported by ephemeral rivers. The artificial sandy aquifer created by the sand dam reduces evaporation losses relative to surface water storage in traditional dams. Recent years have seen a renaissance of studies on sand dams as an effective water scarcity adaptation strategy for drylands. Read More

Sci Total Environ 2022 May 20:156056. Epub 2022 May 20.

Department of Forest Management, College of Forestry, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot 010019, China.

Measurement and analysis of CO concentration at the ecosystem scale is the basis for studying ecosystem feedback to global climate change, and it is particularly useful for understanding the processes and mechanisms of ecosystem C exchange. Through observation of CO concentration at different heights, this study examined whether a CO lake phenomenon exists in the Larix gmelinii ecosystem of the Greater Khingan Mountains (China), and how it might be changed and what might represent its driving factors if such a phenomenon were found to exist. Plants and soils were sampled regularly to determine δC and to quantify the proportion of C released by each component of the ecosystem. Read More

Peptides 2022 May 20:170813. Epub 2022 May 20.

INSERM U1239, University of Rouen Normandy, Laboratory of Neuroendocrine Endocrine and Germinal Differentiation and Communication (NorDiC), Rouen, France; INSERM US51, University of Rouen Normandy, Cell Imaging Platform of Normandy (PRIMACEN), Rouen, France.

Plasma membrane calcium ATPases (PMCAs) are a family of transmembrane proteins responsible for the extrusion of cytosolic Ca to the extracellular milieu. They are important players of the calcium homeostasis possibly implicated in some important diseases. The reference inhibitors of PMCA extruding activity are on one hand ortho-vanadate (IC in the 30mM range), and on the other a series of 12- to 20-mer peptides named caloxins (IC in the 100µM scale). Read More

Neuroimage 2022 May 20:119325. Epub 2022 May 20.

Institute of Behavioural Sciences, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary; National Institute of Clinical Neuroscience, Budapest, Hungary.

Slow waves are major pacemakers of NREM sleep oscillations. While slow waves themselves are mainly generated by cortical neurons, it is not clear what role thalamic activity plays in the generation of some oscillations grouped by slow waves, and to what extent thalamic activity during slow waves is itself driven by corticothalamic inputs. To address this question, we simultaneously recorded both scalp EEG and local field potentials from six thalamic nuclei (bilateral anterior, mediodorsal and ventral anterior) in fifteen epileptic patients (age-range: 17-64 years, 7 females) undergoing Deep Brain Stimulation Protocol and assessed the temporal evolution of thalamic activity relative to scalp slow waves using time-frequency analysis. Read More

Ann Oncol 2022 May 20. Epub 2022 May 20.

Laboratory for Translational Breast Cancer Research (LTBCR), Department of Oncology, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. Electronic address:

Background: Invasive Lobular breast cancer (ILC) is the second most common type of breast cancer after invasive breast cancer of no special type (NST), representing up to 15% of all breast cancers.

Design: Latest data on ILC are presented, focusing on diagnosis, molecular make-up according to the ESMO Scale for Clinical Actionability of molecular Targets (ESCAT) guidelines, treatment in the early and metastatic setting and ILC-focused clinical trials.

Results: At the imaging level, MRI-based and novel PET/CT-based techniques can overcome the limitations of currently used imaging techniques for diagnosing ILC. Read More

Microb Pathog 2022 May 20:105586. Epub 2022 May 20.

Animal Science College, Tibet Agriculture & Animal Husbandry University, Linzhi, China.

Cystic Echinococcosis (hydatidosis) is caused by the larval stage of Echinococcus sp. It is an animal-borne zoonotic parasitic disease with local epidemic and natural foci, which is very common in northwest China. In recent years, a considerable attention has been paid to the epidemic investigation of hydatid disease in humans and sheep, but there are few large-scale epidemic investigation and data analysis of bovine hydatid disease. Read More

Magn Reson Imaging 2022 May 19. Epub 2022 May 19.

Department of Radiology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48201, USA; Department of Neurology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48201, USA. Electronic address:

Background: Recent evidence suggests that the presence of magnetic susceptibility changes in MS lesions correlates with patients' expanded disability status scale (EDSS).

Purpose: This study evaluated the presence of ring lesions (RLs) and non-RLs, as well as changes in lesion susceptibility and lesion volume over a two-year time period in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) patients and compared these measures to the EDSS.

Study Type: Longitudinal cohort. Read More

J Affect Disord 2022 May 20. Epub 2022 May 20.

Division of Nephrology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, National Clinical Research Center for Kidney Disease, State Key Laboratory of Organ Failure Research, Guangdong Provincial Institute of Nephrology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Renal Failure Research, Guangzhou 510515, China. Electronic address:

Background: Depression and chronic kidney disease (CKD) often coexist. However, both the relations of depression with CKD development and CKD with depression risk were still elusive. We aimed to investigate the bidirectional relations between renal function and depression in a cohort of young and middle-aged adults. Read More

J Affect Disord 2022 May 20. Epub 2022 May 20.

Department of Psychology, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy. Electronic address:

Background: During pregnancy women experience rapid and unique changes in body weight, shape and size over a relatively short time period. While research focused on the role of external bodily modifications during pregnancy, research on internal bodily variations is missing.

Methods: In a longitudinal study, we recruited healthy pregnant women and measured whether and how depressive symptoms, body image dissatisfaction and the subjective tendency to focus on one's own internal bodily sensations, i. Read More

Exp Eye Res 2022 May 20:109121. Epub 2022 May 20.

Ophthalmology Department, Hospital Clínico San Carlos, Madrid, Spain. Electronic address:

Validated biomarkers to be used as biological tools for managing ocular surface diseases (OSDs) are still an unmet need in daily clinical practice. Many studies have contributed to the already extensive list of candidate biomarkers for these disorders. Dry eye (DE) and ocular allergy (OA) are complex and multifactorial diseases, often coexisting and with overlapping symptoms. Read More

Lancet Child Adolesc Health 2022 May 20. Epub 2022 May 20.

Kenya Medical Research Institute, Centre for Global Health Research, Kisumu, Kenya; Department of Clinical Sciences, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, UK. Electronic address:

Background: Severe anaemia is associated with high in-hospital mortality among young children. In malaria-endemic areas, surviving children also remain at increased risk of mortality for several months after hospital discharge. We aimed to compare the risks of morbidity and mortality among children discharged from hospital after recovery from severe anaemia versus other health conditions in malaria-endemic settings in Africa. Read More

Laryngorhinootologie 2022 May 23;101(S 01):103-113. Epub 2022 May 23.

Several neurostimulation devices exist for the treatment of various sleep-related breathing diseases. The most data for hypoglossal nerve stimulation (HNS) in the therapy of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) derive the HNS with respiratory sensing. Herewith, daytime sleepiness measured with the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) was improved in several publications by 5 points with a stability shown for up to several years. Read More