Seminal

Ascertaining the utility of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) in pregnancy complicated by diabetes is a rapidly evolving area, as the prevalence of type 1 diabetes (T1D), type 2 diabetes (T2D), and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) escalates. The seminal randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluating CGM use added to standard care in pregnancy in T1D demonstrated significant improvements in maternal glycemia and neonatal health outcomes. Current clinical guidance recommends targets for percentage time in range (TIR), time above range (TAR), and time below range (TBR) during pregnancy complicated by T1D that are widely used in clinical practice...

PURPOSE: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided radiotherapy enables adaptive treatment plans based on daily anatomical changes and accurate organ visualization. However, the bias field artifact can compromise image quality, affecting diagnostic accuracy and quantitative analyses. This study aims to assess the impact of bias field correction on 0.35 T pelvis MRIs by evaluating clinical anatomy visualization and generative adversarial network (GAN) auto-segmentation performance. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 3D simulation MRIs from 60 prostate cancer patients treated on MR-Linac (0...

BACKGROUND: Certain widely used pathological outcome prediction models that were developed in tertiary centers tend to overpredict outcomes in the community setting; thus, the Michigan Urological-Surgery Improvement Collaborative (MUSIC) model was developed in general urology practice to address this issue. Additionally, the development of these models involved a relatively small proportion of Black men, potentially compromising the accuracy of predictions in this patient group. We tested the validity of the MUSIC and three widely used nomograms to compare their overall and race-stratified predictive performance...

Structure-based virtual screening can be a valuable approach to computationally select hit candidates based on their predicted interaction with a protein of interest. The recent explosion in the size of chemical libraries increases the chances of hitting high-quality compounds during virtual screening exercises but also poses new challenges as the number of chemically accessible molecules grows faster than the computing power necessary to screen them. We review here two novel approaches rapidly gaining in popularity to address this problem: machine learning-accelerated and synthon-based library screening...

Obstructive azoospermia is a kind of common clinical disease, which often happens in epididymis, vas deferens and ejaculatory duct obstruction and accounts for male infertility. Azoospermia, which is caused by obstruction of the ejaculatory duct, is relatively rare. but the development of endoscopic technology now allows the disease to be resolved by surgery. In the past, transurethral resection of ejaculatory duct (TURED) has been used to treat patients with ejaculatory duct obstruction and azoosperm-free disease...

OBJECTIVE: To explore the value of systematic male reproductive system ultrasonography in the diagnosis of azoospermia etiology. METHODS: Retrospective analysis and classification statistics were conducted on the data of azoospermia cases who underwent systematic male reproductive system ultrasound examination at the First Affiliated Hospital of Ningbo University from January 2013 to January 2023. RESULTS: A total of 375 cases were included in the group, of which 303 cases could be diagnosed by ultrasound, including 161 cases of obstructive causes, 110 cases of non obstructive causes, and 32 cases of mixed causes...

Introduction : Transcutaneous osseointegration following amputation (TOFA) confers better mobility and quality of life for most patients versus socket prosthesis rehabilitation. Peri-TOFA infection remains the most frequent complication and lacks an evidence-based diagnostic algorithm. This study's objective was to investigate preoperative factors associated with positive intraoperative cultures among patients suspected of having peri-TOFA infection in order to create an evidence-based diagnostic algorithm...

BACKGROUND: Further study is warranted to determine the association between estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) or albuminuria and the risk of death from diverse causes. METHODS: We screened >10 million general health screening examinees who received health examinations conducted in 2009 using the claims database of Korea. After the exclusion of those previously diagnosed with renal failure and those with missing data, 9,917,838 individuals with available baseline kidney function measurements were included...

The aim of this study was to evaluate two cryoprotectants, dimethylformamide (DMF) and methylformamide (MF) in two concentrations (5 and 7%) in vitro in donkey semen using a rapid freezing technique and the effect on pregnancy rates in mares. Twenty-four ejaculates from 8 jacks (n=8; r=3) were divided into 4 extenders: BotuSemen Gold with 5% or 7% MF and 5% or 7% DMF, all containing 11% lactose, 20% egg-yolk and 0.5% Equex. Post-thaw evaluations included: sperm motility, membrane function and acrosome status...

Walter Eichler (1904-1942) performed the first in situ nerve conduction studies in humans. Eichler's work has been largely overlooked and there have been no biographical accounts written of him. His 1937 paper, Über die Ableitung der Aktionspotentiale vom menschlichen Nerven in situ (On the recording of the action potentials from human nerves in situ) was translated and reviewed. Archival material was obtained on his career that was housed predominantly at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau. He had memberships in Nazi organizations but did not appear to be politically active...

The engineering of new 3D bioprinting approaches has shown great promise in the field of tissue engineering and disease modelling. However, the high cost of commercial 3D bioprinters has limited their accessibility, especially to those laboratories in resource-limited settings. Moreover, the need for a 3D bioprinting system capable of dispensing multiple materials is growing apace. Therefore, the development of a Microfluidic-assisted Open Source 3D bioprinting System (MOS3S) for the engineering of hierarchical tissues is needed to progress in fabricating functional tissues, but with a technology accessible to a wider range of researchers...

PURPOSE: Segmentation of the prostate and surrounding organs at risk from computed tomography is required for radiation therapy treatment planning. We propose an automatic two-step deep learning-based segmentation pipeline that consists of an initial multi-organ segmentation network for organ localization followed by organ-specific fine segmentation. APPROACH: Initial segmentation of all target organs is performed using a hybrid convolutional-transformer model, axial cross-attention UNet...

The Bloom syndrome (BLM) helicase is critical for alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT), a homology-directed repair (HDR)-mediated telomere maintenance mechanism that is prevalent in cancers of mesenchymal origin. The DNA substrates that BLM engages to direct telomere recombination during ALT remain unknown. Here, we determine that BLM helicase acts on lagging strand telomere intermediates that occur specifically in ALT-positive cells to assemble a replication-associated DNA damage response. Loss of ATRX was permissive for BLM localization to ALT telomeres in S and G2, commensurate with the appearance of telomere C-strand-specific single-stranded DNA (ssDNA)...

Clinical features of 22q11.2 microdeletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) are highly variable between affected individuals and frequently include a subset of conotruncal and aortic arch anomalies. Many are diagnosed with 22q11.2DS when they present as a fetus, newborn or infant with characteristic cardiac findings and subsequently undergo genetic testing. The presence of an aortic arch anomaly with characteristic intracardiac anomalies increases the likelihood that the patient has 22q11.2 DS, but those with an aortic arch anomaly and normal intracardiac anatomy are also at risk...

Classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations represent a very popular and powerful tool for materials modeling and design. The predictive power of MD hinges on the ability of the interatomic potential to capture the underlying physics and chemistry. There have been decades of seminal work on developing interatomic potentials, albeit with a focus predominantly on capturing the properties of bulk materials. Such physics-based models, while extensively deployed for predicting the dynamics and properties of nanoscale systems over the past two decades, tend to perform poorly in predicting nanoscale potential energy surfaces (PESs) when compared to high-fidelity first-principles calculations...

Receptor kinases DRUS1 ( Dwarf and Runtish Spikelet1 ) and DRUS2 are orthologues of the renowned Arabidopsis thaliana gene FERONIA , which play redundant roles in rice growth and development. Whether the two duplicated genes perform distinct functions in response to environmental stress is largely unknown. Here, we found that osmotic stress (OS) and ABA increased DRUS1 expression while decreasing DRUS2 . When subjected to osmotic stress, the increased DRUS1 in drus2 mutants suppresses the OsIAA repressors, resulting in a robust root system with an increased number of adventitious and lateral roots as well as elongated primary, adventitious, and lateral roots, conferring OS tolerance...

Since Hofmeister's seminal studies in the late 19th century, it has been known that salts and buffers can drastically affect the properties of peptides and proteins. These Hofmeister effects can be conceived of in terms of three distinct phenomena/mechanisms: water-salt interactions that indirectly induce the salting-out of a protein by water sequestration by the salt, and direct salt-protein interactions that can either salt-in or salt-out the protein. Unfortunately, direct salt-protein interactions responsible for Hofmeister effects are weak and difficult to quantify...

BACKGROUND: The etiology of chronic prostatitis remains unclear; consequently, this disease is associated with recurrence and ineffective clinical therapy. Therefore, there is an urgent need to investigate the underlying pathogenesis of chronic prostatitis in order to develop more efficacious treatments. OBJECTIVE: The previous study found that knocking out of PEBP4 leads to chronic prostatitis in the male mice. This research aimed to identify the role of PEBP4 in prostatitis, determine the molecular pathogenic mechanisms associated with chronic prostatitis, and provide guidelines for the development of new treatment strategies for chronic prostatitis...

While mortality is often the primary focus of pathogen virulence, non-lethal consequences, particularly for male reproductive fitness, are less understood; however, they are essential for understanding how sexual selection contributes to promoting resistance. We investigated how the fungal pathogen Metarhizium brunneum affects mating ability, fertility, and seminal fluid protein (SFP) expression of male Drosophila melanogaster paired with highly receptive virgin females in non-competitive settings. Depending on sex and dose, there was a 3-6-day incubation period after infection, followed by an abrupt onset of mortality...

BACKGROUND: A few studies have examined the ultrastructure of prostatic neuroendocrine cells (NECs), and no study has focused on their ultrastructure in three dimensions. In this study, three-dimensional ultrastructural analysis of mouse prostatic NECs was performed to clarify their anatomical characteristics. METHODS: Three 13-week-old male C57BL/6 mice were deeply anesthetized, perfused with physiological saline and 2% paraformaldehyde, and then placed in 2.5% glutaraldehyde in 0...