Becker Technologies (Germany)

Asthma, allergic rhinitis, and eczema are widespread chronic allergic disorders in children. Understanding their prevalence and symptoms among school-aged populations is essential for effective public health interventions. This study aims to estimate the prevalence of these conditions among schoolchildren in the Peja Region of West Kosovo and to explore the diverse symptom-based phenotypes. In the 2017/2018 academic year, a cross-sectional survey was conducted in urban schools, utilizing a questionnaire based on the ISAAC protocol. The study involved 1432 children aged 10 to 14. The findings revealed a self-reported asthma prevalence of 5.6%, with 66.3% confirmed by a physician. Allergic rhinitis symptoms were noted in 14.1% of participants, with a confirmation rate of 53.5%, while eczema was reported by 5.7%, with a 35.8% confirmation rate. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the prevalence of asthma, allergic rhinitis, and eczema in the Peja Region. It highlights a low prevalence of asthma and eczema but a higher occurrence of allergic rhinitis, emphasizing the need for tailored public health strategies to address these varied allergic conditions.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains one of the most frequent cancers and a leading contributor to cancer-associated mortality globally. CRCs are often diagnosed at an advanced stage, which leads to high mortality and morbidity. This outcome is exacerbated by high rates of recurrence and postoperative complications that contribute substantially to poor prognosis. Advancements in endoscopic assessment have improved CRC prevention, early detection, and surveillance over the years. Yet, CRC remains one of the most significant health challenges of the 21st century. Label-free optical spectroscopy methods have long been explored as potential partners to endoscopy, not only to enhance diagnostic accuracy but also to confer predictive capabilities to endoscopic evaluations. We investigated the potential of time-resolved autofluorescence measurements excited at 375 and 445nm to correctly classify benign and malignant tissues in CRC surgical specimens from 117 patients. Multiparametric autofluorescence lifetime data were collected in two distinct datasets, which were used for training ( ) and testing ( ) a supervised ensemble learning classification model, with standard histopathology assessment serving as ground truth. Using 5-fold cross-validation, we achieved sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and area under the curve (AUC) for training data. Evaluation of unseen test data yielded similar results, with 85.2% sensitivity, 84.5% specificity, 84.8% accuracy, and 0.915 AUC. Although preliminary, our findings underscore the potential impact of AI-assisted autofluorescence lifetime measurements in advancing CRC prevention, early detection, and surveillance efforts.

Physical assessment of obese patients is an essential clinical skill for identifying the numerous health problems of obese patients and monitoring treatment effectiveness. Use of simulation mannequins facilitates teaching and learning of physical assessment. Available bariatric simulation mannequins have poor functional design, unrealistic appearance, and limited assessment functions. We developed a bariatric mannequin simulation system and an associated education curriculum of seven case scenario and debriefing exercises focused on health problems experienced by individuals who are obese. An innovation of our mannequin is inclusion of programmable electronics that can be used with clinical tools that receive the electronic signals; together they provide ability to assess normal and abnormal signs of a wide variety of health problems. Ten nursing faculty and 51 nursing and medical students at a Midwestern university evaluated the features and satisfaction of a prototype bariatric mannequin in separate simulation sessions using Likert-scale questionnaires. Results showed that the majority of faculty (60%) and student participants (70%+) agreed/highly agreed that the bariatric mannequin was innovative, engaging, user-friendly, useful, and likely effective for teaching or learning. Satisfaction ratings of both groups were similar. Feedback from participants was incorporated into a final refined product that improved its realistic appearance.

Neuronal ceroid lipofuscinoses, also known as Batten disease, are comprised of a group of genetically heterogenous neurodegenerative conditions, characterized by dementia, epilepsy, motor deterioration, and blindness. The underlying pathology is a dysregulation of lysosomal catabolic protein metabolism, resulting in an accumulation of lipofuscein-like material within the lysosomes in neuronal tissue, which ultimately leads to atrophy in the central nervous system and in the retina. Ceroid lipofuscinosis type 2 (CLN2) is caused by biallelic pathogenic variants in the TPP1 gene, encoding lysosomal tripeptidyl peptidase 1 (TPP-1). The classic late-infantile phenotype of CLN2 disease has an age of onset between 2 and 4 years and manifests with seizures and speech delay, followed by progressive cognitive and motor decline, vision loss, and early death. Vision loss occurs secondary to retinal degeneration and begins in the perifoveal ellipsoid zone, leading to bull's eye maculopathy, followed by generalized retinal thinning. In 2017, an intracerebroventricular enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) using recombinant human TPP1 (rhTPP1), cerliponase alfa, was approved as a disease-modifying treatment for CLN2 disease. The therapy slows psychomotor decline but fails to prevent loss of vision. In a canine model of CLN2 disease, intravitreal rhTPP1 was shown to halt retinal degeneration. A prospective, interventional, controlled, open-label compassionate-use study evidenced safety of 0.2 mg intravitreal rhTPP1 every 8 weeks in humans and its efficacy in reducing the rate of macular volume loss in patients who were still in the degenerative phase. One ongoing clinical phase I/II study is investigating the safety and efficacy of intravitreal rhTPP1 at 4 weekly intervals over 24 months (NCT05152914); another clinical phase II dose escalation trial is planned. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge on ERT for CLN2 retinopathy, complemented with our own experience from an individual treatment. The treatment now appears to be safe and markedly delays retinal degeneration, thereby preserving visual function and increasing the quality of life of the patient. This could be particularly relevant for those patients who were started on intracerebroventricular ERT early and still have good motor and language function. For this patient population, intravitreal ERT could be a valuable bridging therapy until other therapies such as gene therapy become available.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) ranks among the most prevalent malignancies worldwide, driving a quest for comprehensive characterization methods. We report a characterization of the ex vivo autofluorescence lifetime fingerprint of colorectal tissues obtained from 73 patients that underwent surgical resection. We specifically target the autofluorescence characteristics of collagens, reduced nicotine adenine (phosphate) dinucleotide (NAD(P)H), and flavins employing a fiber-based dual excitation (375 nm and 445 nm) optical imaging system. Autofluorescence-derived parameters obtained from normal tissues, adenomatous lesions, and adenocarcinomas were analyzed considering the underlying clinicopathological features. Our results indicate that differences between tissues are primarily driven by collagen and flavins autofluorescence parameters. We also report changes in the autofluorescence parameters associated with NAD(P)H that we tentatively attribute to intratumoral heterogeneity, potentially associated to the presence of distinct metabolic subpopulations. Changes in autofluorescence signatures of malignant tumors were also observed with lymphatic and venous invasion, differentiation grade, and microsatellite instability. Finally, we characterized the impact of radiative treatment in the autofluorescence fingerprints of rectal tissues and observed a generalized increase in the mean lifetime of radiated adenocarcinomas, which is suggestive of altered metabolism and structural remodeling. Overall, our preliminary findings indicate that multiparametric autofluorescence lifetime measurements have the potential to significantly enhance clinical decision-making in CRC, spanning from initial diagnosis to ongoing management. We believe that our results will provide a foundational framework for future investigations to further understand and combat CRC exploiting autofluorescence measurements.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-024-74224-8.

Heterogeneity of tumor metabolism is an important, but still poorly understood aspect of tumor biology. Present work is focused on the visualization and quantification of cellular metabolic heterogeneity of colorectal cancer using fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) of redox cofactor NAD(P)H. FLIM-microscopy of NAD(P)H was performed in vitro in four cancer cell lines (HT29, HCT116, CaCo2 and CT26), in vivo in the four types of colorectal tumors in mice and ex vivo in patients' tumor samples. The dispersion and bimodality of the decay parameters were evaluated to quantify the intercellular metabolic heterogeneity. Our results demonstrate that patients' colorectal tumors have significantly higher heterogeneity of energy metabolism compared with cultured cells and tumor xenografts, which was displayed as a wider and frequently bimodal distribution of a contribution of a free (glycolytic) fraction of NAD(P)H within a sample. Among patients' tumors, the dispersion was larger in the high-grade and early stage ones, without, however, any association with bimodality. These results indicate that cell-level metabolic heterogeneity assessed from NAD(P)H FLIM has a potential to become a clinical prognostic factor.

A work environment where employees feel comfortable taking chances without fear and with sufficient protection from retaliation is psychologically safe. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of leader training for nurse managers on psychological safety of clinical registered nurses. The study was designed a longitudinal outcomes approach to assess nurse leader intervention (classes on leadership methods and psychological safety) with pre- and post-intervention measurement of nurse psychological safety at each time point. The intervention and nurse leader rounding were shown to increase individual psychological safety climate scores of clinical nurses. Psychological safety is an important component to consider in a nursing leadership role. Leadership interventions that focus on the tenets of psychological safety and include methods of being present, such as nurse leader rounding, can foster a sense of a psychologically safe environment for clinical registered nurses.