Experience

OBJECTIVE: Intraoperative liver deformation poses a considerable challenge during liver surgery, causing significant errors in image-guided surgical navigation systems. This study addresses a critical non-rigid registration problem in liver surgery: the alignment of intrahepatic vascular trees. The goal is to deform the complete vascular shape extracted from preoperative Computed Tomography (CT) volume, aligning it with sparse vascular contour points obtained from intraoperative ultrasound (iUS) images...

Contemporary neurocognitive frameworks propose that conceptual and perceptual content of autobiographical memories-personal past experiences-are processed by dissociable neural systems. Other work has proposed a central role of the anterior hippocampus in initially constructing autobiographical memories, regardless of the content. Here, we report on an fMRI study that utilized a repeated retrieval paradigm to test these ideas. In a magnetic resonance imaging scanner, participants retrieved autobiographical memories at three timepoints...

Humans can extract statistical regularities of the environment to predict upcoming events. Previous research recognized that implicitly acquired statistical knowledge remained persistent and continued to influence behavior even when the regularities were no longer present in the environment. Here, in an fMRI experiment, we investigated how the persistence of statistical knowledge is represented in the brain. Participants (n = 32) completed a visual, four-choice, RT task consisting of statistical regularities...

The assessment of mental effort is increasingly relevant in neurocognitive and life span domains. Pupillometry, the measure of the pupil size, is often used to assess effort but has disadvantages. Analysis of eye movements may provide an alternative, but research has been limited to easy and difficult task demands in younger adults. An effort measure must be sensitive to the whole effort profile, including "giving up" effort investment, and capture effort in different age groups. The current study comprised three experiments in which younger (n = 66) and older (n = 44) adults listened to speech masked by background babble at different signal-to-noise ratios associated with easy, difficult, and impossible speech comprehension...

Glomerella leaf spot (GLS), caused by the fungus Colletotrichum fructicola, is considered one of the most destructive diseases affecting apples. The VQ-WRKY complex plays a crucial role in the response of plants to biotic stresses. However, our understanding of the defensive role of the VQ-WRKY complex on woody plants, particularly apples, under biotic stress, remains limited. In this study, we elucidated the molecular mechanisms underlying the defensive role of the apple MdVQ37-MdWRKY100 module in response to GLS infection...

As a powerful social signal, a body, face, or gaze facing toward oneself holds an individual's attention. We asked whether, going beyond an egocentric stance, facingness between others has a similar effect and why. In a preferential-looking time paradigm, human adults showed spontaneous preference to look at two bodies facing toward (vs. away from) each other (Experiment 1a, N = 24). Moreover, facing dyads were rated higher on social semantic dimensions, showing that facingness adds social value to stimuli (Experiment 1b, N = 138)...

Surface gel layers on commercially available contact lenses have been shown to reduce frictional shear stresses and mitigate damage during sliding contact with fragile epithelial cell layers in vitro. Spencer and co-workers recently demonstrated that surface gel layers could arise from oxygen-inhibited free-radical polymerization. In this study, polyacrylamide hydrogel shell probes (7.5 wt % acrylamide, 0.3 wt % N,N' -methylenebisacrylamide) were polymerized in three hemispherical molds listed in order of decreasing surface energy and increasing oxygen permeability: borosilicate glass, polyether ether ketone (PEEK), and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)...

In goals of care conversations and through the care trajectory, to avoid insensitive or discriminatory care, it is vital clinicians recognize lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer+ patients' values and wishes. In clinical settings, implicit bias operating within unconscious awareness may challenge the commitment to equitable care, negatively affecting patient outcomes. In this composite case, during a conversation with a social worker/nurse team, a cisgender woman repeatedly expressed her wishes for her female partner to be her decision maker instead of her biological family...

Prediction during language processing has been hypothesized to lead to processing benefits. These possible benefits have led to several prominent theories that center around prediction as an essential mechanism in language processing. Such theories typically assume predicting is better than not predicting at all, but do not always account for the potential processing costs from failed predictions. Predicting wrongly can be costly, but the cost may depend on how wrong the prediction was. Across three experiments, we manipulate cloze probability, semantic relatedness, and language modality (production vs...

The guides for diagnosis and treatment prepared by scientific medical societies constitute a very useful tool for the professional practice of the specialty. Supported by an updated bibliography, they represent material of enormous value with recommendations from experts on the various topics of the specialty. This article attempts to determine if they could be designed as "Evidence - Based Clinical Practice Guidelines" (CPG BE), for which the stages in their development and the requirements that they reviewed...

INTRODUCTION: Meningeal cryptococcosis (MC) is a frequent cause of meningoencephalitis in people living with HIV (PLHIV), leading to substantial morbidity (20-55%). Clinical characteristics, lethality and adverse prognostic factors in PLHIV with MC admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) are described. METHODS: A retrospective observational study. Period from 11/21/2006 to 05/24/2023. It involved 154 adult PLHIV diagnosed with MC and admitted to ICUs. Percentages and absolute values were compared by Chi-Square or Fisher's test and medians by Mann-Whitney test...

PURPOSE: To evaluate the variables influencing the therapeutic choice toward oral versus subcutaneous semaglutide in a cohort of diabetic subjects. METHODS: We retrospectively collected data of 292 patients followed at the Diabetes Unit of the University Hospital of Siena and the Hospital of Grosseto, who were prescribed oral (n = 115) or subcutaneous (n = 177) semaglutide between October 2021 and October 2022. RESULTS: Oral semaglutide was preferentially prescribed in older subjects with longer disease duration in replacement of other antidiabetic drugs, while subcutaneous semaglutide was preferentially prescribed in add-on to metformin in subjects with higher body weight and BMI...

Stimulator of interferon gene (STING) plays critical roles in the cytoplasmic DNA-sensing pathway and in the induction of inflammatory response. Aberrant cytoplasmic DNA accumulation and STING activation are implicated in numerous inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Here, we reported the discovery of a series of thiazolecarboxamide-based STING inhibitors through a molecular planarity/symmetry disruption strategy. The privileged compound 15b significantly inhibited STING signaling and suppressed immune-inflammatory cytokine levels in both human and murine cells...

INTRODUCTION: Radiation oncology is a pivotal modality in the treatment of hematologic malignancies. To enable state-of-the-art patient care, structured education during residency is essential. However, given the lack of detailed data, the scope of educational opportunities available to trainees remains elusive. This prompted our group to perform a national survey amongst radiation oncology residents in Germany assessing the status quo of competences in the treatment of lymphoma and leukemia patients...

This article describes how to extract chemical compounds from Sambucus nigra and make multifunctional nanofabric doping/undoping nano-zinc oxide particles using an electrospinning apparatus. The created sample was examined using field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), which revealed that the manufactured fibers have an approximate diameter of 35 nm. An elemental mapping study also demonstrated the excellent distribution of nano-ZnO over the surface of the nanocomposite. The anti-nociceptive effect of the samples was studied, and the results suggested that the presence of Sambucus nigra caused pain prevention, and this effect demonstrated the anti-nociceptive effect in the samples studied by tail-flick experiments...

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common type of cancer that ranks first in cancer-associated death worldwide. Carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase 2, aspartate transcarbamylase, and dihydroorotase (CAD) are the key components of the pyrimidine pathway, which promotes cancer development. However, the function of CAD in HCC needs to be clarified. In this study, the clinical and transcriptome data of 424 TCGA-derived HCC cases were analyzed. The results demonstrated that high CAD expression was associated with poor prognosis in HCC patients...

BACKGROUND: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have the ability to self-renew and are multi-potent. They are a primary candidate for cell-based therapy due to their potential anti-cancer effects. The aim of this study was to evaluate the in vitro anti-leukemic effect of Wharton's Jelly-derived MSC (WJ-MSC) on the leukemic cell lines K562 and HL-60. METHODS: In this present study, WJ-MSCs were isolated from human umbilical cord. The cells were incubated according to the standard culture conditions and characterized by flow cytometry...

OBJECTIVE: Pain is among the most unpleasant experience during fixed orthodontic therapy. This study compared the effectiveness of low-level laser therapy (LLLT) and laser acupuncture therapy (LAT) in pain reduction after initial archwire placement. METHODS: This randomized, parallel-group, single-blind clinical trial included 60 female patients who required four premolar extractions to relieve crowding. The subjects were randomly designated into four groups of 15...

PURPOSE: Ebstein anomaly (EA) and tricuspid valve dysplasia (TVD) represent uncommon congenital malformations of the tricuspid valve. The purpose of this study is to report on current perinatal outcomes of EA/TVD in our center and to investigate clinical and fetal echocardiographic predictors of perinatal mortality. METHODS AND RESULTS: We performed a retrospective study among fetuses diagnosed from January 2014 to December 2023. Clinical and echocardiographic data were obtained from hospital records of Research and Education Hospital...

Self-incompatibility studies have revealed a potential use of Tunisian apple resources for crop improvement and modern breeding programs and a likely correlation between the pollen tube growth and flowering period. Apples [Malus domestica. Borkh] exhibit an S-RNase-based gametophytic self-incompatibility (GSI) system. Four primer combinations were used to S-genotype eighteen Tunisian local apple accessions and twelve introduced accessions that served as references. Within the Tunisian local accessions, S2, S3, S7, and S28 S-alleles were the most frequent and were assigned to 14 S-genotypes; among them, S7S28, S3S7, S2S5, and S2S3 were the most abundant...