Objective Assessment and Quantification of Skin Color and Melanin in Neonates and Infants: A State-Of-The-Art Review.

Neonatal skin color, especially melanin assessment, remains an underexplored topic in neonatology and dermatology literature. Growing concerns about racial bias in pulse oximeters in adults highlight the need for objective assessment of skin color to investigate if skin pigmentation contributes to the inaccuracy. While skin color scales and cutaneous colorimetric devices have been utilized in adult dermatology for various applications, their use and effectiveness in neonates and infants are not well understood.

"I'm Ready This Time": Investigating physiological and emotional habituation to repetitive social stress.

Background: Repetitive stress is at the nexus of acute and chronic stress, and there is limited knowledge about how physiological and emotional responses change with repeated exposure.

Purpose: We examined stress-related biomarkers and emotional responses to repeated social stressors, and we tested behavioral moderators.

Methods: In Study 1, 42 adults completed the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) twice, 4 months apart.

Alcohol impairs learning and timing of conditioned eyeblink responses.

Alcohol impairs motor performance, but it remains unclear precisely why this is the case. Here, we examine the effects of alcohol intoxication on conditioned eyeblink responses, a form of classical conditioning dependent on the cerebellum. In experiment 1, the conditioned responses of 18 students before and after alcohol consumption up to 1 ‰ were compared against the performance of 26 non-drinking controls.

Clinical Decision Support for Patient Cases with Asymptomatic Carotid Artery Stenosis Using AI Models and Electronic Medical Records.

An artificial intelligence (AI) analysis of electronic medical records (EMRs) was performed to analyze the differences between patients with carotid stenosis who developed symptomatic disease and those who remained asymptomatic. The EMRs of 872 patients who underwent a carotid endarterectomy between 2009 and 2022 were analyzed with AI. This included 408 patients who had carotid intervention for symptomatic carotid disease and 464 patients for asymptomatic, >70% stenosis.

Clinical Utility of Liquid-based Comprehensive Genomic Profiling (CGP) in Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors (GIST).

Treatment for GIST focuses on tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI), whose selection depends on specific mutations. We sought to determine the clinical utility of liquid biopsy in advanced GIST. Liquid (n=181) (FoundationOne®Liquid CDx) and tissue (n=2,198) (FoundationOne® and FoundationOne®CDx) CGP of GIST were evaluated.

Pediatric antiphospholipid syndrome: expanding our understanding of antiphospholipid syndrome in children.

Purpose Of Review: Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is an autoimmune, thromboinflammatory disease, which affects children and adults. There are particular features of the disease and nuances to diagnosis and management in a pediatric population, which must be appreciated to improve clinical care.

Recent Findings: Pediatric-specific epidemiological studies highlight that pediatric APS is quite rare with incidence in some populations of 0.

Challenging Paradigms Around the Role of Colony Size, Taxa, and Environment on Bleaching Susceptibility.

Understanding how bleaching severity varies across space and among and within taxa helps predict changes in community composition due to climate change and informs conservation efforts. Photogrammetry offers a non-invasive and time effective method for quantifying attributes of thousands of coral colonies across large, environmentally diverse reef areas. This approach circumvents the limitations of traditional survey methods, where detailed tracking of individual colonies comes at the expense of large sampling areas and sample sizes.

Leveraging Radiotherapy Data for Precision Oncology: Veterans Affairs Granular Radiotherapy Information Database.

Purpose: Despite the frequency with which patients with cancer receive radiotherapy, integrating radiation oncology data with other aspects of the clinical record remains challenging because of siloed and variable software systems, high data complexity, and inconsistent data encoding. Recognizing these challenges, the Veterans Affairs (VA) National Radiation Oncology Program (NROP) is developing Granular Radiotherapy Information Database (GRID), a platform and pipeline to combine radiotherapy data across the VA with the goal of both better understanding treatment patterns and outcomes and enhancing research and data analysis capabilities.

Methods: This study represents a proof-of-principle retrospective cohort analysis and review of select radiation treatment data from the VA Radiation Oncology Quality Surveillance Program (VAROQS) initiative.

TDCM: An R Package for Estimating Longitudinal Diagnostic Classification Models.

Diagnostic classification models (DCMs) are psychometric models designed to classify examinees according to their proficiency or non-proficiency of specified latent attributes. Longitudinal DCMs have recently been developed as psychometric models for modeling changes in examinee proficiency statuses over time. Currently, software programs for estimating longitudinal DCMs are limited in functionality and generality, expensive, or cumbersome for applied researchers.

Hydralazine-Induced Vasculitis: An Unusual Presentation of Drug-Induced Antineutrophilic Cytoplasmic Autoantibody-Associated Vasculitis.

Hydralazine is a commonly used blood pressure medication that has been associated with rheumatologic manifestations such as drug-induced lupus. However, it is rarely associated with antineutrophilic cytoplasmic autoantibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV). Here we present a case of a 72-year-old female with hemoptysis, dyspnea, and palpable purpura, ultimately diagnosed with hydralazine-induced AAV.

Sexual minority stress and epigenetic aging.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ + ) individuals have poorer mental and physical health than heterosexuals, and bisexuals fare worse than individuals who identify as lesbian and gay. However, data on stress biology among sexual minorities are critically insufficient. The current pilot study utilized data from 32 bisexual women - a subset of the National Couples' Health and Time Study - who completed questionnaires and provided blood samples to index biological aging from DNA methylation data (DunedinPACE, GrimAge2).

A didactic illustration of writing skill growth through a longitudinal diagnostic classification model.

Introduction: Diagnostic classification models (DCMs) have received increasing attention in cross-sectional studies. However, L2 learning studies, tracking skill development over time, require models suited for longitudinal analyses. Growth DCMs offer a promising framework for such analyses.

18F-Sodium Fluoride PET/CT as a Tool to Assess Enthesopathies in X-Linked Hypophosphatemia.

X-linked hypophosphatemia (XLH) is a rare metabolic disorder characterized by elevated FGF23 and chronic hypophosphatemia, leading to impaired skeletal mineralization and enthesopathies that are associated with pain, stiffness, and diminished quality of life. The natural history of enthesopathies in XLH remains poorly defined, partly due to absence of a sensitive quantitative tool for assessment and monitoring. This study investigates the utility of 18F-NaF PET/CT scans in characterizing enthesopathies in XLH subjects.

Fixation-related potentials during a virtual navigation task: The influence of image statistics on early cortical processing.

Historically, electrophysiological correlates of scene processing have been studied with experiments using static stimuli presented for discrete timescales where participants maintain a fixed eye position. Gaps remain in generalizing these findings to real-world conditions where eye movements are made to select new visual information and where the environment remains stable but changes with our position and orientation in space, driving dynamic visual stimulation. Co-recording of eye movements and electroencephalography (EEG) is an approach to leverage fixations as time-locking events in the EEG recording under free-viewing conditions to create fixation-related potentials (FRPs), providing a neural snapshot in which to study visual processing under naturalistic conditions.

More Than a Game: Heparin Run as a Learning Strategy.

This article describes an interactive heparin drip learning exercise for nurse residents using concepts similar to "The Amazing Race." The goal of the exercise was to strengthen critical thinking related to heparin drip setup and maintenance in the acute care setting. The game consisted of a start line and five pit stops to solve a puzzle, perform a skill, perform a medication calculation, perform an intervention, and complete a short quiz.

Advancing plant science through precision 3D bioprinting: new tools for research and biotech applications.

The integration of 3D bioprinting into plant science and biotechnology is revolutionizing research and applications. While many high-throughput techniques have advanced plant biology, replicating the complex 3D organization and cellular environments of plant tissues remains a significant challenge. Traditional 2D culture systems fall short of capturing the necessary spatial context for accurate studies of cell behavior, gene expression, and tissue development.

C-reactive protein as a possible indicator of PTSD prognosis and comorbid anhedonia.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is often chronic, which is costly to the individual and society. Easy-to-measure prognostic indicators can help to ensure that those with the greatest symptoms receive treatment. Inflammatory biomarkers may precede and predict depression chronicity and worsening, as well as PTSD.

Physicians preference for carotid revascularization impacts postoperative stroke and death outcomes.

Objective: Transcarotid artery revascularization (TCAR) is a safe minimally invasive option for patients with carotid artery stenosis who are not appropriate candidates for carotid endarterectomy (CEA). Many physicians have not yet adopted this technique in the management of carotid artery stenosis. The aim of this study is to explore overall outcomes of carotid revascularization based on physicians' practices in the Vascular Quality Initiative (VQI).

Association of same-day antiplatelet loading and outcomes after transcarotid artery revascularization.

Objective: Prior studies have emphasized the importance of compliance with preoperative dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) in patients undergoing transcarotid artery revascularization (TCAR). This investigation examines differences in perioperative outcomes after TCAR in those receiving a loading dose of antiplatelet medications on the day of the procedure vs those already maintained on DAPT.

Methods: Consecutive TCAR procedures from the Vascular Quality Initiative (2016-2022) were identified.

1,4-dihydroxy-2-naphthoic acid prevents 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine-induced motor function deficits.

Parkinson's disease (PD), characterized by death of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, is the second most prevalent progressive neurodegenerative disease. However, the etiology of PD is largely elusive. This study employed the 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) rodent model to examine the effectiveness of 1,4-dihydroxy-2-naphthoic acid (1,4-DHNA), an aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) active gut bacteria-derived metabolite, in mitigating MPTP's motoric deficits, and the role of AhR in mediating these effects.

Resident Performance on the Obstetrics and Gynecology In-Training Examination After Implementation of a New Academic Curriculum.

Background The goals of the annual Council on Resident Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology In-Training Examination (CREOG-ITE) are to provide residents with an assessment of their knowledge and program directors an assessment of their residency programs. Research has shown that a score greater than 200 is correlated with passing the qualifying board examination. We observed a substantial number of our residents were not performing well on the exam, which prompted the implementation of a new academic program aimed at determining the impact of an academic curriculum addition on CREOG-ITE scores in an American College of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) accredited obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN) residency program.

Demonstration of magnetically silent optically pumped magnetometers for the TUCAN electric dipole moment experiment.

We report the performance of a magnetically silent optically pumped cesium magnetometer with a statistical sensitivity of 3.5 pT/ at 1 Hz and a stability of 90 fT over 150 s of measurement. Optical pumping with coherent, linearly-polarized, resonant light leads to a relatively long-lived polarized ground state of the cesium vapour contained in a measurement cell.

Pilot implementation and qualitative evaluation of a financial hardship screening among Native American patients with cancer.

Purpose: Native American (NA) patients with cancer are at increased risk of financial hardship due to lack of private health insurance coverage, medical comorbidities, and higher poverty rates. We aimed to implement and evaluate a pilot financial hardship screening (FHS) program among NA patients with cancer.

Methods: In 2022, we piloted the implementation of FHS among adult NA patients with cancer referred by NA-specific health facilities to an NCI-designated cancer center using the COmprehensive Score for financial Toxicity-Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (COST-FACIT) tool.

Expert Perspective: Diagnostic Approach to Differentiating Juvenile Dermatomyositis From Muscular Dystrophy.

Clinical tools that can aid in the diagnostic differentiation of juvenile dermatomyositis from muscular dystrophy.