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Scientific knowledge of cancer has advanced greatly throughout the years, with most recent studies findings includes many hallmarks that capture disease's multifaceted character. One of the novel approach utilized for the delivery of anti-cancer agents includes mesenchymal stem cell mediated drug delivery. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are non-hematopoietic progenitor cells that may be extracted from bone marrow, tooth pulp, adipose tissue and placenta/umbilical cord blood dealing with adult stem cells. MSCs are mostly involved in regeneration of tissue, they have also been shown to preferentially migrate to location of several types of tumor in-vivo ...

PURPOSE: We examine the potential for curative approaches among metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients by exploring the recent literature on local ablative therapies like surgery and stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) in patients with oligometastatic (OM) breast cancer. We also cover therapies for MBC patients with oligoprogressive (OP) disease. KEY FINDINGS: Surgery and SBRT have been studied for OM and OP breast cancer, mainly in retrospective or non-randomized trials...

INTRODUCTION: Current treatment of spinal metastases (SM) aims on preserving spinal stability, neurological status, and functional status as well as achieving local control. It consists of spinal surgery followed by radiotherapy and/or systemic treatment. Adjuvant therapy usually starts with a delay of a few weeks to prevent wound healing issues. Intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) has previously been successfully applied during brain tumor, breast and colorectal carcinoma surgery but not in SM, including unstable one, to date...

Expanding in both scope and scale, ecosystem restoration needs to embrace complex social-ecological dynamics. To help scientists and practitioners navigate ever new demands on restoration, we propose the "social-ecological ladder of restoration ambition" as a conceptual model to approach dynamically shifting social and ecological restoration goals. The model focuses on three dynamic aspects of restoration, namely degrading processes, restoration goals and remedial actions. As these three change through time, new reinforcing and balancing feedback mechanisms characterize the restoration process...

Amaryllidaceae alkaloid (AAs) biosynthesis has garnered significant attention in recent years, particularly with the commercialisation of galanthamine as a treatment for the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. A significant amount of research work over the last 8 decades has focused on the understanding of AA biosynthesis, starting from early radiolabelling studies to recent multi-omics analysis with modern biotechnological advancements. Those studies enabled the identification of hundreds of metabolites, the characterisation of biochemical pathway, an understanding of the environmental stimuli, and of the molecular regulation of these pharmaceutically and agriculturally important metabolites...

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic inflammatory skin condition characterized by painful inflammatory lesions, predominantly affecting areas of the skin rich in apocrine glands, such as inguinal, axillary, submammary, and anogenital regions, with an estimated global prevalence between 1%-4%. The treatment of HS is challenging with various treatment modalities employed to control the disease. Since the condition is chronic and life-impairing, many patients have looked for ways to complement their conventional treatment procedures with non-medical interventions, among which dietary interventions have been of particular interest...

BACKGROUND: The expanding options in advanced therapies for ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD) present challenges in treatment selection. Persistence analysis assesses drug durability in real-world settings, acting as a surrogate marker for medication efficacy and tolerance. Unlike traditional comparative studies, persistence analysis provides insights extending beyond the initial year of treatment. AIM: To provide real-world evidence on treatment effectiveness, tolerability and preferences of physicians and patients regarding various advanced therapies for IBD...

PURPOSE: The effectiveness of prospective motion correction (PMC) is often evaluated by comparing artifacts in images acquired with and without PMC (NoPMC). However, such an approach is not applicable in clinical setting due to unavailability of NoPMC images. We aim to develop a simulation approach for demonstrating the ability of fat-navigator-based PMC in improving perivascular space (PVS) visibility in T2 -weighted MRI. METHODS: MRI datasets from two earlier studies were used for motion artifact simulation and evaluating PMC, including T2 -weighted NoPMC and PMC images...

Attachment theory proposes that young children's experiences with their caregivers has a tremendous influence on how children navigate their social relationships. By the end of early childhood, intergroup contexts play an important role in their social life and children build strong ties to their ingroups. Although both domains relate to the same psychological processes-children's affective ties to others-surprisingly very little research has addressed how children's attachment relates to their intergroup attitudes and behavior...

A group co-design was held in March 2021 with six blind and low-vision individuals (BLIs) from the United States. Participants were asked to discuss problems related to travel during the COVID-19 pandemic and make recommendations for possible solutions. Two probes (prototypes) of a non-visual neighborhood travel map and a non-visual COVID-19 choropleth map (a map using colors or sounds over each state to represent different values) of COVID-19 state data were shown to participants for inspiration. The participants expressed that COVID-19 had significantly increased their apprehension and discomfort associated with activities such as venturing outside, traveling, engaging with strangers, communicating, adapting to changes in familiar environments, and wearing masks...

Intra-operative navigation has revolutionized spinal instrumentation. The O-arm (a mobile X-ray system; Medtronic, Minneapolis, MN) is uniquely capable of enabling visualization of the spine in axial planes. The application of this technology is wide yet underutilized in terms of its capacity to image spinal vascular anatomy. We completed a retrospective chart review of the following case studies. A 24-year-old neurologically intact female presented with a Jefferson fracture without vertebral artery dissection after a motor vehicle accident...

Adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD) is a rare systemic autoinflammatory disorder characterized by fever, rash, and joint pain. Despite primarily affecting young adults, it can occur at any age, presenting diagnostic challenges due to its heterogeneous nature and lack of specific laboratory findings. The subset of AOSD with positive antinuclear antibody (ANA) adds complexity, potentially overlapping with other autoimmune conditions. We describe a case of a 30-year-old female with a two-year history of fever, weight loss, and joint pain, initially misdiagnosed as seronegative arthritis with hypothyroidism...

Robot animals, designed to mimic living beings, pose ethical challenges in the context of caring for vulnerable patients, specifically concerning deception. This paper explores how emotions become a resource for dealing with the misinformative nature of robot animals in dementia care homes. Based on observations of encounters between residents, care workers, and robot animals, the study shows how persons with dementia approach the ambiguous robots as either living beings, material artifacts, or something in-between...

Dopamine neurons signal the salience of environmental stimuli and influence learning, although it is less clear if these neurons also determine the salience of memories. Ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine neurons increase their firing in the presence of new objects and reduce it upon repeated, inconsequential exposures, marking the shift from novelty to familiarity. This study investigates how dopamine neuron activity during repeated familiar object exposure affects an animal's preference for new objects in a subsequent novel object recognition (NOR) test...

PURPOSE: This study investigated the scope of patient navigation studies on women's health care for maternal health and noncancerous gynecologic conditions and aimed to report the characteristics of the identified patient navigation programs. METHODS: A scoping review was conducted following Arksey and O'Malley's framework. Five electronic databases were searched for relevant studies published in English: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, and PsycInfo. There were no restrictions on the publication date and the search was completed in July 2023...

STUDY DESIGN: Qualitative Cohort Study. OBJECTIVES: Many people with long-term spinal cord injury (SCI) develop adaptation strategies to succeed. Understanding the factors that support their capacity to adapt and develop is important to enhance quality of life of others with SCI. This study aims to learn how these factors influence how people with SCI attain and maintain optimal quality of life as time since injury grows. SETTING: IL, USA...

Deforestation in the tropics remains a significant global challenge linked to carbon emissions and biodiversity loss. Agriculture, forestry, wildfires, and urbanization have been repeatedly identified as main drivers of tropical deforestation. Understanding the underlying mechanisms behind these direct causes is crucial to navigate the multiple tradeoffs between competing forest uses, such as food and biomass production (SDG 2), climate action (SDG 13), and life on land (SDG 15). This paper develops and implements a global-scale empirical approach to quantify two key factors affecting land use decisions at tropical forest frontiers: agricultural commodity prices and national governance...

BACKGROUND: Photoimmunotherapy is a treatment modality that induces targeted cell death by binding a molecular-targeted drug activated by infrared light to the tumor cells and subsequently illuminating the lesion with infrared light. For deep lesions, a needle catheter is used to puncture the tumor, and an illumination fiber (cylindrical diffuser) is inserted into the catheter lumen for internal illumination. However, it can be challenging to place the cylindrical diffusers in an appropriate position as the deep lesions cannot be often confirmed accurately during surgery...

INTRODUCTION: Total hip arthroplasty implant choice profoundly affects survivorship, complications, and failure modes. This study evaluates the long-term (average 18 year) outcomes of ceramic-on-ceramic hip arthroplasty using uncemented shells and stems. Despite an impressive 20-year cumulative percent revision (CPR) of 5.9%, the hydroxyapatite proximally coated femoral components evaluated in this study have seen declining use since 2003. METHODS: A review of 349 consecutive total hip arthroplasties from 1999 to 2007 were matched to 272 cases with registry data...

OBJECTIVE: To assess injured military veterans' experiences, beliefs and daily physical and psychosocial functioning in relation to food and nutrition. DESIGN: We used a convergent mixed-methods study design, and the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health to operationalize the core constructs and influencing factors related to physical and psychosocial functioning, and food and nutrition. SETTING: Three Veterans Affairs Polytrauma Rehabilitation Centers...