• Book : 18(1)
• Pub. Date : 2025
• Page : pp.101204
• Keyword :

• Book : 18(1)
• Pub. Date : 2025
• Page : pp.101200
• Keyword :

How does one’s connectedness in their social relationships affect their health? For a long time, this question has piqued the interest of sociologists. From Durkheim’s theory of suicide to recent empirical studies in medical sociology, the positive association between social integration and well-being has been well established. In this paper, we revisited this topic by focusing on how different sources of social contact is associated with self-rated health in Turkey. To do so, we examined how contact with a close friend, a parent, a sibling, and other family member - outside of one’s nuclear family - compares in terms of their association with self-rated health by using ISSP Social Network Data. We found that frequency of contact with a parent and other family member showed statistically significant and positive associations with self-rated health in some models, which was not the case for a sibling. In the full model accounting for all contact variables, however, only the frequency of contact with a close friend had a statistically significant and positive association with self-rated health. This study aims to start a discussion about the growing importance of non-kin ties in people’s lives in Turkey despite the increasing familialism in Turkish politics and social policymaking. Policymakers and social workers tackling issues such as social isolation, social exclusion, and loneliness in Turkey should consider the prevalence of non-kin networks on individuals’ well-being.

• Book : 42(1)
• Pub. Date : 2025
• Page : pp.227-242
• Keyword :

Abstract

Background

Persistent metaiodobenzylguanidine (mIBG)‐positive skeletal metastases post induction in high‐risk neuroblastoma correlate with a poor outcome. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential rationale for a prospective randomized study evaluating the impact on event‐free survival of the irradiation of residual oligo‐skeletal metastases.

Procedure

Patients over 1 year with a stage M neuroblastoma treated between 2000 and 2020 at Gustave Roussy were identified. Patients with a positive mIBG scan at diagnosis and persistent skeletal metastases after high‐dose chemotherapy (HDC) were included. Data were retrospectively collected and mIBG scans reviewed by two nuclear medicine physicians.

Results

Persistent skeletal uptake after HDC was observed in 30/201 patients (15%). Four patients reached a complete response at the end of maintenance treatment and did not relapse (median follow‐up [FU] 8 years [1.8-11.8]), while two patients had progressive disease during maintenance. Among the 24 patients with persistent skeletal uptakes at the end of treatment, seven had a persistent response (median FU 8.2 years [4-15.6]). Median SIOPEN (International Society of Paediatric Oncology European Neuroblastoma) scores post consolidation and at the end of treatment were, respectively, 2 [1-6] and 2 [0-4] for patients with persistent responses compared to 4 [1-28] and 2 [1-17] for patients with progressive diseases. Median SIOPEN score at progression was 34 [2-56].

Conclusions

Our study underlines that only a minority of patients had persistent skeletal mIBG‐positive scans after HDC. Recurrence mainly occurred in disease sites present at diagnosis that cleared with chemotherapy. On‐therapy control of the disease is the main challenge. These results highlight the complexity of conducting a randomized study exploring this strategy.

• Book : 72(1)
• Pub. Date : 2025
• Page : pp.e31350
• Keyword :

Radiolabeled peptides play a key role in nuclear medicine to selectively deliver radionuclides to malignancies for diagnosis (imaging) and therapy. Yet, their efficiency is often compromised by low metabolic stability. The use of 1,4‐disubstituted 1,2,3‐triazoles (1,4‐Tzs) as stable amide bond bioisosteres can increase the half‐life of peptides in vivo while maintaining their biological properties. Previously, the amide‐to‐triazole substitution strategy was used for the stabilization of the pansomatostatin radioligand [¹¹¹In]In‐AT2S, resulting in the mono‐triazolo‐peptidomimetic [¹¹¹In]In‐XG1, a radiotracer with moderately enhanced stability in vivo and retained ability to bind multiple somatostatin receptor (SSTR) subtypes. However, inclusion of additional 1,4‐Tz led to a loss of affinity towards SST2R, the receptor overexpressed by most SSTR‐positive cancers. To enhance further the stability of [¹¹¹In]In‐XG1, alternative modifications at the enzymatically labile position Thr¹⁰‐Phe¹¹ were employed. Three novel 1,4,7,10‐tetraazacyclododecane‐1,4,7,10‐tetraacetic acid (DOTA)‐peptide conjugates were synthesized with a 1,4‐Tz (Asn⁵‐Ψ[Tz]‐Phe⁶) and either a β‐amino acid (β‐Phe¹¹), reduced amide bond (Thr¹⁰‐Ψ[NH]‐Phe¹¹), or N‐methylated amino acid (N‐Me‐Phe¹¹). Two of the new peptidomimetics were more stable in blood plasma in vitro than [¹¹¹In]In‐XG1. Yet none of them retained high affinity towards SST2R. We demonstrate for the first time the combination of the amide‐to‐triazole substitution strategy with alternative stabilization methods to improve the metabolic stability of tumor‐targeting peptides.

• Book : 31(1)
• Pub. Date : 2025
• Page : pp.e3654
• Keyword :

• Book : 242(pd)
• Pub. Date : 2025
• Page : pp.116086
• Keyword :

• Book : 258(1)
• Pub. Date : 2025
• Page : pp.124536
• Keyword :

• Book : 156(pb)
• Pub. Date : 2025
• Page : pp.104863
• Keyword :

Abstract

Semiconductor devices contain defects and localized mechanical stress even in their pristine states, persisting after post-fabrication annealing. We hypothesize that these pre-existing conditions, with their lower threshold energy for defect proliferation and/or ionization, may serve as nuclei for radiation damage. To test this hypothesis, we adopted a two-pronged approach: (a) performing electron wind force (EWF) annealing preemptively on pristine Zener diodes to eliminate pre-existing defects before radiation exposure, and (b) applying EWF annealing restoratively on devices already damaged by radiation. The EWF process is non-thermal and can eliminate defects below 30 °C that persist through conventional thermal annealing. Both pristine and EWF-annealed pristine devices were exposed to 15 MeV protons with a fluence of 10¹⁴ cm⁻². Radiation damage increased the ideality factor from 1 to 2.33 in the pristine devices, while the preemptively EWF-annealed devices showed remarkable resilience, with an ideality factor of 1.5. Similar performance improvements were observed with restorative EWF annealing on radiation-damaged devices. This resilience and recovery in performance are further supported by Raman spectroscopy indicating enhanced crystallinity compared to the pristine condition. These findings demonstrate the potential of EWF annealing as both a protective and restorative treatment for semiconductor devices in high-radiation environments.

• Book : 100(1)
• Pub. Date : 2025
• Page : pp.015904
• Keyword :

The brain-related phenotypes observed in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (DS) patients are highly variable, and their origin is poorly understood. Changes in brain metabolism might contribute to these phenotypes, as many of the deleted genes are involved in metabolic processes, but this is unknown. This study shows for the first time thatTbx1haploinsufficiency causes brain metabolic imbalance. We studied two mouse models of 22q11.2DS using mass spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and transcriptomics. We found thatTbx1^+/−mice andDf1/⁺mice, with a multigenic deletion that includesTbx1, have elevated brain methylmalonic acid, which is highly brain-toxic. Focusing onTbx1mutants, we found that they also have a more general brain metabolomic imbalance that affects key metabolic pathways, such as glutamine-glutamate and fatty acid metabolism. We provide transcriptomic evidence of a genotype-vitamin B12 treatment interaction. In addition, vitamin B12 treatment rescued a behavioural anomaly inTbx1^+/−mice. Further studies will be required to establish whether the specific metabolites affected byTbx1haploinsufficiency are potential biomarkers of brain disease status in 22q11.2DS patients.

• Book : 8(2)
• Pub. Date : 2025
• Page : pp.e202403075
• Keyword :