Critical Rest

BACKGROUND: Digital inequity refers to the inequality and exclusion experienced by those who lack the same opportunities or circumstances to support the development of digital skills as the rest of modern society. One rapidly growing and highly vulnerable group to digital inequity is older people attempting to reintegrate into society after release from prison, where technology access is limited. Inadequate support for digital skills in this population entails widespread consequences for public health, human rights, social welfare and recidivism...

Although histone proteins are widely known for their intranuclear functions where they organize DNA, all five histone types can also be released into the extracellular space from damaged cells. Extracellular histones can interact with pattern recognition receptors of peripheral immune cells, including toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), causing pro-inflammatory activation, which indicates they may act as damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) in peripheral tissues. Very limited information is available about functions of extracellular histones in the central nervous system (CNS)...

BACKGROUND: Older patients with constipation are at higher risk for inadequate bowel preparation, but there are currently no targeted strategies. This study aims to develop an abdominal vibration combined with walking exercise (AVCWE) program and assess its feasibility among older patients with constipation. METHODS: Phase I: Using the Delphi technique, eight experts across three professional fields were consulted to develop the AVCWE program. The experts evaluated and provided recommendations on demonstration videos and detailed descriptions of the preliminary protocol...

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is an essential cause of tuberculosis treatment failure and death of tuberculosis patients. The rapid and reliable profiling of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) drug resistance in the early stage is a critical research area for public health. Then, most traditional approaches for detecting MTB are time-consuming and costly, leading to the inappropriate therapeutic schedule resting on the ambiguous information of MTB drug resistance, increasing patient economic burden, morbidity, and mortality...

Phosphatidylinositol (PI) is the precursor lipid for the minor phosphoinositides (PPIns), which are critical for multiple functions in all eukaryotic cells. It is poorly understood how phosphatidylinositol, which is synthesized in the ER, reaches those membranes where PPIns are formed. Here, we used VT01454, a recently identified inhibitor of class I PI transfer proteins (PITPs), to unravel their roles in lipid metabolism, and solved the structure of inhibitor-bound PITPNA to gain insight into the mode of inhibition...

INTRODUCTION: The United States Institute of Medicine defines patient centred care (PCC), a core element of healthcare quality, as care that is holistic and responsive to individual needs. PCC is associated with better patient satisfaction and improved clinical outcomes. Current conceptualizations of PCC are mainly from Europe and North America. This systematic review summarises the perceived dimensions of PCC among patients and healthcare workers within hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)...

BACKGROUND: Sleep is a critical component of recovery, but it can be disrupted following prolonged endurance exercise. The objective of this study was to examine the capacity of male and female professional cyclists to recover between daily race stages while competing in the 2022 Tour de France and the 2022 Tour de France Femmes, respectively. The 17 participating cyclists (8 males from a single team and 9 females from two teams) wore a fitness tracker (WHOOP 4.0) to capture recovery metrics related to night-time sleep and autonomic activity for the entirety of the events and for 7 days of baseline before the events...

Introduction: Maternal blood pressure (BP) is a critical cardiovascular marker with profound implications for maternal and fetal well-being, particularly in the detection of hypertensive disorders during pregnancy. Although conventional clinic-based BP (CBP) measurements have traditionvally been used, monitoring 24-hour ambulatory BP (ABP) has emerged as a more reliable method for assessing BP levels and diagnosing conditions such as gestational hypertension and preeclampsia/eclampsia. This study aimed to assess the feasibility and acceptability of 24-hour ABP monitoring in pregnant women and report on various ABP parameters, including ambulatory blood pressure variability (ABPV)...

Rapid mixing and precise timing are key for accurate biomedical assay measurement, particularly when the result is determined as the rate of a reaction: for example rapid immunoassay in which the amount of captured target is kinetically determined; determination of the concentration of an enzyme or enzyme substrate; or as the final stage in any procedure that involves a capture reagent when an enzyme reaction is used as the indicator. Rapid mixing and precise timing are however difficult to achieve in point-of-care devices designed for small sample volumes and fast time to result...

Always-on, upper-body input from sensors like accelerometers, infrared cameras, and electromyography hold promise to enable accessible gesture input for people with upper-body motor impairments. When these sensors are distributed across the person's body, they can enable the use of varied body parts and gestures for device interaction. Personalized upper-body gestures that enable input from diverse body parts including the head, neck, shoulders, arms, hands and fingers and match the abilities of each user, could be useful for ensuring that gesture systems are accessible...

BACKGROUND: Informed by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Indian government replaced the 1987 Mental Health Act with the transformative "Indian Mental Healthcare Act, 2017" (IMHCA 2017), which gained presidential approval on April 7, 2017. While the new act aligns with CRPD guidelines, emphasizing the promotion, protection and realization of complete and equitable human rights, legal capacity, equality and dignity for persons with mental illness, it has faced diverse criticism from various stakeholders, particularly psychiatrists...

Both male and female athletes experience acute fatigue and decreased performance from intense training sessions and training cycles with inadequate recovery. The concept of training with insufficient recovery time is known as overtraining syndrome (OTS). Primary stressors leading to OTS include excessive training, environmental factors, and inadequate levels of sleep. Sleep is a critical component of rest, recovery, memory, and cognitive function in collegiate athletes, known as male and female athletes between 18 and 22 years old...

Water management and early detection of faults in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are among the most critical constraints that limit the optimal spread of this type of energy. Consequently, it is necessary to enhance the reliability and durability of PEMFCs by developing an approach to diagnose and identify water failure modes. This paper proposes an effective and simple method to detect, diagnose, and classify various water failure modes in PEMFCs using a hybrid diagnostic approach. This approach combines the PEMFC fractional order impedance model (FOIM) with fast Fourier transform pulse width modulation (FFT-PWM) techniques and artificial neural network pattern recognition (ANN-PR) classification...

Despite its widespread use, resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) has been criticized for low test-retest reliability. To improve reliability, researchers have recommended using extended scanning durations, increased sample size, and advanced brain connectivity techniques. However, longer scanning runs and larger sample sizes may come with practical challenges and burdens, especially in rare populations. Here we tested if an advanced brain connectivity technique, dynamic causal modeling (DCM), can improve reliability of fMRI effective connectivity (EC) metrics to acceptable levels without extremely long run durations or extremely large samples...

This chapter discusses comprehensive neurophysiological biomarkers utilised in motor neuron disease (MND) and, in particular, its commonest form, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). These encompass the conventional techniques including nerve conduction studies (NCS), needle and high-density surface electromyography (EMG) and H-reflex studies as well as novel techniques. In the last two decades, new methods of assessing the loss of motor units in a muscle have been developed, that are more convenient than earlier methods of motor unit number estimation (MUNE),and may use either electrical stimulation (e...

Atrial myxoma, though the most common primary cardiac tumor, often presents with nonspecific symptoms that can obscure its diagnosis. This case report details an unusual presentation of dyspnea on exertion (DOE) in a patient initially considered to have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a common pulmonary etiology of DOE. The diagnostic journey underscores the critical importance of considering atrial myxoma in patients with DOE, especially when symptoms are not fully explained by apparent pulmonary conditions...

Managing municipal solid waste (MSW) is a critical for Indonesia, as the country produces a substantial amount of waste annually. However, Indonesia's recycling rate remains limited, less than 25% of its waste, with the rest ending up in landfills. To address this, waste banks have emerged as a community-based solution to enhance MSW management through recycling. Although waste banks currently contribute only 7% to recyclable waste management, they hold promising potential, especially considering their close ties to households, the primary waste producers in Indonesia...

Research suggests that pain negatively affects body image, and body image may also influence reported pain levels. This review aims to summarize the literature on differences in body image distortion between individuals with pain compared to pain-free individuals. The review was conducted according to the PRISMA 2020 statement and an a priori pre-registered protocol. The literature was searched using five electronic databases. Studies assessing body image with the Fremantle Awareness Questionnaire (FAQ) in individuals with and without pain were eligible for inclusion...

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the sleep and circadian health of critical survivors 12 months after hospital discharge and to evaluate a possible effect of the severity of the disease within this context. DESIGN: Observational, prospective study. SETTING: Single-center study. PATIENTS: Two hundred sixty patients admitted to the ICU due to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection. INTERVENTIONS: None...

OBJECTIVES: Despite recent advancements in endovascular technology and proven durability of open surgeries, managing extensive aortoiliac occlusive disease (AIOD) with concurrent severe lower extremity (LE) arterial occlusion remains a formidable challenge. This paper introduces a comprehensive approach to addressing recurrent AIOD and LE occlusive diseases by employing modified-CERAB, inferior mesenteric artery (IMA) snorkel, and LE bypass in a challenging case. METHODS: A 56-year-old male patient presented with subacute bilateral lower extremity rest pain with dry gangrene in the left great toe and a complex medical history...