VANIA KASPER, MD

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This review summarizes the current understanding of how cystic fibrosis damages the liver and bile ducts, ranging from fat buildup to scarring and bile duct strictures. The exact causes of this variability across patients remain unclear, but genetic modifiers and environmental factors both play roles. Emerging treatments targeting the underlying CFTR protein defect may offer new hope for this underaddressed complication.

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This study examined how much information a quantum perceptron — a quantum computing version of a basic neural network unit — can store, using tools from statistical mechanics and spin glass theory. The analysis finds that the storage capacity is tied to the complex physics of quantum systems, connecting artificial intelligence concepts to fundamental quantum theory. The work helps clarify what quantum hardware can realistically offer for machine learning tasks.

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Researchers found that all cases of type 2 diabetes in children under 11 years old at a Rhode Island children's hospital occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic — none before it. These very young patients also had significantly higher BMI and more diastolic hypertension than older children with the same diagnosis. The findings point to pandemic-related lifestyle disruptions as a driver of a troubling new trend in early-onset metabolic disease.

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The annual rate of new type 2 diabetes diagnoses in children nearly tripled during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to before, and continued rising into the second year. In the first pandemic year, affected children were younger and more likely to present with severe complications like diabetic ketoacidosis. Clinicians need to be alert to this escalating trend to avoid missed or delayed diagnoses.

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A 10-year retrospective study of 291 children with inflammatory bowel disease on infliximab found that only 12% stopped the drug over the follow-up period, demonstrating strong long-term durability. Children with ulcerative colitis or more extensive disease had lower durability despite starting at higher doses. High drug trough levels above 20 µg/mL were linked to more adverse events, mostly mild infusion reactions and skin conditions.

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This theoretical physics study examines what happens when bosons condense in a flat-band kagome lattice system, finding that the type of condensate that forms determines whether the resulting quasiparticles have topologically nontrivial properties. One condensate type exhibits nontrivial topology with edge states, while the other does not — and extended interactions can trigger a topological phase transition. The work reveals how flat-band systems can host rich topological physics relevant to quantum materials.

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This position paper from the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology provides clinical guidance on diagnosing and managing acute liver failure in children, a rare and rapidly life-threatening condition. It covers an age-based diagnostic approach, treatment strategies, and methods for monitoring complications while decisions about liver transplantation are made. A key challenge highlighted is the lack of reliable tools to predict which children will recover without transplant.

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This review explores using bosons instead of fermions to simulate quantum field theory models relevant to particle physics, particularly focusing on lattice gauge theories. Bosonic systems are experimentally more tractable and also reveal new physics around confinement and the transition from confined to deconfined states. The article surveys the Quantum Optics Theory group's work at ICFO on building practical atomic simulators for these models.

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A mesocosm study in Alpine stream flumes examined how combined temperature and flow velocity pulses — simulating hydropower releases — affect periphyton communities of algae and bacteria. Even short cold temperature drops with increased flow spurred diatom growth, while riffle sections showed less algal biomass and activity overall. The results underscore that stream bed heterogeneity with pool-riffle sequences is important to buffer the ecological damage from hydropeaking.

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Among 170 overweight or obese adolescents entering a weight management program, those who experienced more stressful childhood events had worse weight and more disordered eating behaviors. Depression mediated the link between stressful experiences and disordered eating, but not between stress and weight or insulin sensitivity. These findings suggest routine screening for stressful life events and depressive symptoms in pediatric weight management settings.

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A randomized trial in 154 hip replacement patients found that spinal anesthesia with mepivacaine allowed 70% of patients to walk within 3–3.5 hours of surgery, compared to 38% with hyperbaric bupivacaine and 18% with isobaric bupivacaine. Mepivacaine patients were also more than twice as likely to be discharged the same day. The tradeoff was slightly higher early post-op pain, but mepivacaine is a strong candidate for outpatient hip replacement programs.

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A prospective study of 60 patients undergoing outpatient foot and ankle surgery compared two nerve block strategies and found that patients with continuous catheters in both the popliteal and saphenous nerves used significantly less opioid medication and reported better pain control through day 3 compared to those with only a single popliteal catheter. The dual-catheter group had lower pain scores at all measured time points. Dual peripheral nerve catheter placement is a superior analgesic strategy for this type of surgery.

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This case series of five gender nonconforming adolescents with eating disorders highlights the complex, high-risk nature of managing both gender dysphoria and disordered eating simultaneously. Key themes included elevated suicide and self-harm risk, delays in treatment for either condition worsening outcomes, and the need for coordinated interdisciplinary care. The authors argue for collaborative management frameworks to improve outcomes in this underserved group.

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A 12-year-old boy who had received a liver transplant as an infant developed a stone in his intestine that blocked food from moving through his bowel, cutting off blood flow to that section of intestine and causing it to die. Doctors had to remove the damaged intestine and rebuild his surgical connection between the liver and intestine to fix the problem. **Why it matters:** This rare complication should be on doctors' radar when transplant patients develop fever and stomach pain, and it shows that sometimes fixing the underlying anatomy—not just treating the stone—prevents the problem from happening again.

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Researchers measured quantum correlation functions up to 10th order in a pair of tunnel-coupled one-dimensional superfluids and used these to characterize the system's physics, including its quasiparticles and interactions. The data showed the system behaves like a quantum simulator of the sine-Gordon model, a theoretical framework relevant to particle physics and condensed matter physics alike. The technique of analyzing high-order correlations is generalizable to other quantum many-body systems.

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In 98 pediatric IBD patients, those with more extensive disease who started on the standard 5 mg/kg infliximab dose were far more likely to need dose escalation than those with limited disease — and escalation often failed in the most severe cases. All patients started at the higher 10 mg/kg dose remained on that dose without needing further escalation. The results suggest patients with moderate to extensive disease benefit from starting at the higher dose.

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A 12-month follow-up study comparing activating physiotherapy versus traditional therapy in 80 stroke patients found both groups improved physically, but those in the activating group were better able to live independently and travel farther outdoors. Cognitive functions also improved significantly only in the activating group, with memory gains that were statistically superior to the traditional group. Activating physiotherapy appears to better support long-term functional recovery and independent living after stroke.

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Researchers developed and validated a stability-indicating chemical assay for a radiosensitizer drug candidate and used it to characterize the drug's pharmaceutical properties, including its solubility, stability, and oil-water partitioning behavior. Three prototype injectable formulations were prepared and shown to be stable for at least 3 months. This preformulation work lays the groundwork for advancing the compound toward clinical drug development.

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This study examined how water temperature affects the immune response in summer flounder, finding that fish could produce antibodies across a wide range from 7.5 to 27°C, but cooler temperatures delayed when antibodies appeared in circulation. Lowering the temperature after an immune response was already underway did not stop it, but fish kept at cold temperatures failed to mount a secondary (memory) immune response. The findings define the temperature limits within which this fish species can mount effective immunity.