Potential predation of a barred grass snake Natrix helvetica by a brown rat Rattus norvegicus, with a link to video evidence

The barred grass snake Natrix helvetica is a medium-sized snake species typically growing to 150 cm in length andfound throughout north-western Europe (Speybroeck et al., 2016). The brown rat Rattus norvegicus is a very widespread and highly adaptable mammal exploiting a wide range of food resources, especially cereals and their products. However, R. norvegicus may consume meat opportunistically and has been observed eating live snakes (Swanson, 1952; Fitch, 1963; Hummer & Tolley, 2008; Reynolds et al., 2023).</p

The role of sense of place in maintaining resilience in social-ecological systems: a case study of the sacred groves in the Western Ghats, India

The exclusion of people from conservation decision-making poses a significant challenge, affecting the effectiveness and efficiency of conservation actions. However, understanding the intricate social-ecological relationship between people and places necessitates a paradigm shift to address conservation challenges through a stewardship-focused resilience approach. Focusing on social-ecological systems (SES) such as the devrahati (sacred groves, SG) in the northern Western Ghats, India, this study explores the local community's sense of place (SoP), shaped by their lived experiences, emotions, and perceptions, as a crucial link between social and ecological aspects that foster resilience of these systems.Place-based concepts like place meanings, place attachments, and place attitudes were investigated using a qualitative approach combining semi-structured interviews and participatory observations. Data was collected from the local community members to gain insights into their knowledge, practices, and beliefs related to the devrahati. Thematic analysis was conducted to identify recurring patterns and themes that illustrate what shapes the SGs.The devrahatis are a complex sacred space deeply intertwined with the community’s history, spirituality, and identity. They have multifaceted meanings that seep deep into spiritual, ecological, and cultural aspects; however, changing relationships impact the frequency and nature of people-place interactions with the space. The shift from working-spiritual landscapes to primarily spiritual landscapes, along with generational and gender disconnects with the place, and weak governance, is leading to the erosion of knowledge and the weakening of ritual practices. This research provides valuable empirical evidence for using SoP to build stewardship-focused resilience in the devrahati.While the research establishes the deep-rooted significance of SoP in the people-place relationship, it also offers a useful tool, the linked SES-SoP framework (framework), for identifying and understanding opportunities to cultivate knowledge sharing, which can encourage social learning, fostering a sense of ownership, enhancing collective efficacy and empowering local actors to develop a shared understanding and vision for a resilient future. The framework's six enablers (understanding social-ecological diversity, connectivity, participation and partnership, governance, funding/ resources, and learning and evaluation) facilitate identifying the challenges and assist in making coherent decision-making for resilient SES.</p

Global incidence and prevalence of trigeminal neuralgia, 1945-2024: a systematic review and meta-analysis

No description supplied</p

Radical prostatectomy can cause penile hypoxia, fibrosis and calcifications: a pilot study

Background: Peyronie’s disease (PD) is defined as a fibrotic disease of the penis resulting in plaque formation and abnormal penile curvature. The incidence of PD has been suggested to increase after radical prostatectomy (RP). Hypoxia in the corpus cavernosum secondary to nerve injury has been suggested to be one of the causative factors for development of erectile dysfunction following RP. It is also known that hypoxia can cause fibrosis in vitro and in animal models. We therefore hypothesized that men who develop PD after RP do so due to hypoxia.Aim: To investigate if hypoxia and fibrotic changes can be detected in men undergoing RP.Methods: Erectile function and PD were assessed before, 3 and 6 months after RP using International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) and PD questionnaires, stretched penile length and nocturnal penile tumescence. Fibrosis was investigated by ultrasonography (USG) and tissue oxygen levels were measured using oximetry.Outcomes: The primary outcome was a significant decrease in flaccid penile oxygen levels in men as measured before and after RP.Results: All 24 men completing the study developed fibrotic changes and calcification confirmed by USG and showed significant decrease in penile oxygen levels after RP. The patients’ IIEF scores and Peyronie’s disease questionnaire also showed a significant decrease in erectile function without any patient-reported curvatures. Stretched penile length was also reduced significantly. There was a significant correlation between calcification and oxygen levels between post-op 3 months and 6 months.Clinical Implications: RP can cause penile fibrosis which may be due RP-associated hypoxia in the penis. Prostate surgeons should consider discussing this risk with their patients before the operation.Strengths and Limitations: USG and oximetry readings before and after the RP allowed us to observe the effect of the surgery within individual patients. A larger study with a longer follow up would be needed to confirm these findings and to investigate a correlation between plaque formation and oxygen levels.Conclusion: In this study, all the patients developed fibrotic changes, calcification and a decrease in penile oxygen levels following RP. This is the first demonstration of a significant decrease in penile oxygen levels following RP. A correlation between calcification and low oxygen levels suggests that hypoxia-induced fibrosis may be the cause of calcification during the progression of PD.</p

Factors influencing health-seeking behaviours and self-care practices among black-African Caribbean people living with type 2 diabetes: a community-focused qualitative study from Southwestern England

Background/Objective: To examine factors influencing health-seeking behaviours and self-care practices of diabetes, including the uptake and use of diabetic services among community-dwelling Black African-Caribbean people living in the UK.Design: Cross-sectional/qualitativeSetting: Community (Southwestern England)Participants: Nineteen individuals of African-Caribbean heritage, over the age of 50 years, diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.Methods: Three focus group discussions (FGDs), each of which lasted for approximately 90 minutes were held. These interviews were facilitated by a community-based health champion and a researcher of African-Caribbean heritage. Audio recordings were transcribed verbatim, coded in NVivo software, and analyzed using an inductive thematic approach.Primary outcome measures: Focus group discussion data.Results: A total of nine culturally specific and nonspecific (generic) themes were identified. Culturally specific themes included the normalization of diabetes at the community level, which was more pronounced among males than females. Participants were found to be inclined to either substitute or complement diabetes medications with cultural herbal remedies. There was a lack of trust in medical-centric advice received from healthcare practitioners. Participants also expressed that healthcare practitioners do not always listen to or understand their needs and reported that there was a lack of culturally appropriate diabetes education and training programs for their community members. Generic themes included difficulties and frustrations in getting doctor’s appointments, self-indiscipline, and poor motivation for engaging in physical exercise and healthy eating.Conclusion: Several cultural/community-related factors influence health-seeking behaviours and self-care practices of diabetes in African-Caribbean people living in the UK, often affecting men and women differently, alongside more general individual and healthcare system-related barriers. Addressing these factors is imperative in designing a culturally and demographically tailored diabetes education program for these people.</p

Signal detection between 5-alpha reductase inhibitors and the risk of suicidality and depression: an international pharmacovigilance analysis

Objective: This study aims to investigate the signal detection between the use of finasteride and dutasteride and the occurrence of suicidality, including suicidal ideation, attempts, and completed suicide, as well as the development of depression.Methods: This study utilized data from a global pharmacovigilance database encompassing over 35 million adverse event reports from more than 140 countries. Suicidality and depression were defined by MedDRA terms version 26.0. To analyze the data, two well-established pharmacovigilance indicators were applied: the information component (IC) and the reporting odds ratio (ROR).Results: A total of 395 and 1299 reports of suicidality and depression, respectively, were identified in signal detection with finasteride and dutasteride. Reporting trends showed that cases first emerged in 1992, with a notable increase after 2010. The main analysis identified signal detections between finasteride use and both suicidality (ROR, 7.28 [95% CI, 6.57–8.06]; IC, 2.82 [IC0.25, 2.65]) and depression (ROR, 28.18 [95% CI, 26.57–29.89]; IC, 4.68 [IC0.25, 4.58]), whereas dutasteride showed no significant signal for suicidality and a weaker signal with depression (ROR, 3.23 [95% CI, 2.61–4.00]; IC, 1.66 [IC0.25, 1.30]). In subgroup analysis, younger individuals (18–44 years) had particularly strong signals for suicidality (IC, 3.54 [IC0.25, 3.27]), and depression (IC, 5.25 [IC0.25, 5.05]) associated with finasteride, suggesting a heightened susceptibility in this age group. The time to onset of suicidality and depression was predominantly reported after 3 months of drug administration, with suicidality occurring at an average of 114.92 days and depression at 93.31 days.Conclusions: Although our study does not imply causality, this findings suggest a statistically significant disproportionality in reports of suicidality and depression associated with finasteride use and increased signal risks of suicidality and depression highlighting the need for further large-scale epidemiological studies to confirm these findings and investigate the underlying mechanisms.</p

Automated lightweight model for asthma detection using respiratory and cough sound signals

Background and objective: Chronic respiratory diseases, such as asthma and COPD, pose significant challenges to human health and global healthcare systems. This pioneering study utilises AI analysis and modelling of cough and respiratory sound signals to classify and differentiate between asthma, COPD, and healthy subjects. The aim is to develop an AI-based diagnostic system capable of accurately distinguishing these conditions, thereby enhancing early detection and clinical management. Our study, therefore, presents the first AI system that leverages dual acoustic signals to enhance the diagnostic ACC of asthma using automated, lightweight deep learning models. Methods: To build an automated, lightweight model for asthma detection, tested separately with respiratory and cough sounds to assess their suitability for detecting asthma and COPD, the proposed AI models integrate the following ML algorithms: RF, SVM, DT, NN, and KNN, with an overall aim to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed method for future clinical use. Model training and validation were performed using 5-fold cross-validation, wherein the dataset was randomly divided into five folds and the models were trained and tested iteratively to ensure robust performance. We evaluated the model outcomes with several performance metrics: ACC, precision, recall, F1 score, and area under the AUC. Additionally, a majority voting ensemble technique was employed to aggregate the predictions of the various classifiers for improved diagnostic reliability. We applied Gabor time–frequency transformation for feature extraction and NCA) for feature selection to optimise predictive accuracy. Independent comparative experiments were conducted, where cough-sound subsets were used to evaluate asthma detection capabilities, and respiratory-sound subsets were used to evaluate COPD detection capabilities, allowing for targeted model assessment. Results: The proposed ensemble approach, facilitated by a majority voting approach for model efficacy evaluation, achieved acceptable ACC values of 94.05% and 83.31% for differentiating between asthma and normal cases utilising separate respiratory sounds and cough sounds, respectively. The results highlight a substantial benefit in integrating multiple classifier models and sound modalities while demonstrating an unprecedented level of ACC and robustness for future diagnostic predictions of the disease. Conclusions: The present study sets a new benchmark in AI-based detection of respiratory diseases by integrating cough and respiratory sound signals for future diagnostics. The successful implementation of a dual-sound analysis approach promises advancements in the early detection and management of asthma and COPD.We conclude that the proposed model holds strong potential to transform asthma diagnostic practices and support clinicians in their respiratory healthcare practices.</p

Comparative energy analysis of static and automated switching configurations in lead-acid battery systems

The widespread deployment of lead-acid batteries in energy storage systems necessitates the optimization of circuit configurations to enhance power efficiency. In this study, we experimentally compare static (series/parallel) and automated switching configurations in lead-acid battery systems using 5 Ah and 20 Ah VRLA packs under a constant resistive load. Energy is computed from synchronized voltage–current logs. Across five switching intervals (15–120 min), dynamic operation consistently yields higher energy than static baselines. In 5 Ah tests, the 60-min interval delivered 318.39 Wh (+ 47% vs. best static); in 20 Ah tests, the 90-min interval delivered 706.64 Wh (+ 42% vs. best static; + 59% vs. series). The data indicate an optimal interval of 60–90 min, explained by a balance between diffusion-limited voltage recovery during rest and rate-dependent Peukert losses during discharge. These results demonstrate a simple, low-cost path to enhance energy utilization without changing battery chemistry or capacity, informing storage design for renewable and distributed DC systems. These findings underscore the potential of dynamic switching strategies to enhance battery energy utilization, particularly in renewable energy integration and distributed power management applications. Notably, this study focuses on output energy performance resulting from circuit design variations, without examining the internal electrochemical characteristics of the batteries.</p

High-order consensus graph learning for incomplete multi-view clustering

Incomplete Multi-View Clustering (IMVC) aims to partition data with missing samples into distinct groups. However, most IMVC methods rarely consider the high-order neighborhood information of samples, which represents complex underlying interactions, and often neglect the weights of different views. To address these issues, we propose a High-order Consensus Graph Learning (HoCGL) model. Specifically, we integrate a reconstruction term to recover the incomplete multi-view data. High-order proximity matrices are constructed, and the self-representation similarity matrices and multiple high-order proximity matrices are learned mutually, allowing the similarity matrices to incorporate complex high-order information. Finally, the consensus graph representation is derived from the similarity matrices through a self-weighted strategy. An efficient algorithm is designed to solve the proposed model. The excellent clustering performance of the proposed model is validated by comparing it with eight state-of-the-art models across nine datasets.</p

Understanding the relationship of sleep-related problems with positive affect and negative affect in young people: insights from the EHDLA study

Background: The prevalence of sleep-related problems in adolescents has been recognized as a public health issue. Research on how specific sleep-related problems may be related to mood and affect variations in this age group is scarce. Therefore, the current study aims to explore the relationships between sleep-related problems and positive and negative affect in a sample of Spanish adolescents.Methods: The present study uses a cross-sectional design based on secondary data collected in the Eating Healthy and Daily Life Activities (EHDLA) study. The sample consisted of 645 Spanish adolescents (Median age = 14.0) attending secondary schools in the Valle de Ricote in the Region of Murcia (Spain) during the 2021 and 2022 academic years. The BEARS (B = bedtime issues, E = excessive daytime sleepiness, A = night awakenings, R = regularity and duration of sleep, and S = snoring) sleep screening tool was used to assess sleep-related problems, whereas the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule 10-Children (PANAS-C10) was used to examine positive and negative affect.Results: The findings show that the presence of sleep-related problems is associated with a lower positive affect score and a greater negative affect score. Specifically, the presence of bedtime problems (unstandardized beta coefficient [B] = −2.82; 95 % confidence interval [CI] −3.77 to −1.86; p Conclusions: The presence of sleep-related problems and their increased frequency are associated with lower positive affect, whereas having these problems and experiencing multiple problems simultaneously are linked to greater negative affect. Future research should explore specific sleep-related problems and their potential impact on different health-related outcomes in this age group while considering other covariates or confounding variables. Public health efforts should be aimed at providing education on sleep and promoting sleep hygiene, improving the health of adolescents and young adults.</p