Publications by authors named "Aaron Wang"

Introduction: Although the clinical benefits of pelvic lymph node dissection (PLND) at the time of radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer remain uncertain, major guidelines recommend PLND based on risk profile. Thus, the objective of this study was to examine the association between PLND and survival among patients undergoing RP stratified by Gleason grade group (GG) with the aim of allowing patients and physicians to make more informed care decisions about the potential risks and benefits of PLND.

Materials And Methods: From the SEER-17 database, we examined overall (OS) and prostate cancer-specific (PCSS) survival of prostate cancer patients who underwent RP from 2010 to 2015 stratified by GG.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Rapid learning confers significant advantages to animals in ecological environments. Despite the need for speed, animals appear to only slowly learn to associate rewarded actions with predictive cues. This slow learning is thought to be supported by a gradual expansion of predictive cue representation in the sensory cortex.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In type-II Weyl semimetals (WSMs), the tilting of the Weyl cones leads to the coexistence of electron and hole pockets that touch at the Weyl nodes. These electrons and holes experience the Berry curvature generated by the Weyl nodes, leading to an anomalous Hall effect that is highly sensitive to the Fermi level position. Here we have identified field-induced ferromagnetic MnBiSbTe as an ideal type-II WSM with a single pair of Weyl nodes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background :   Incidence of hepatocellular cancer (HCC) in the Bronx is 61% higher than the rest of New York State. Underserved populations are not well represented in clinical trials of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI).

Methods: Demographics were tabulated for 194 patients treated with ICI at the Montefiore-Einstein Comprehensive Cancer Center (MECCC) between 2017 and 2022.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: ChatGPT is a commonly used source of information by patients and clinicians. However, it can be prone to error and requires validation. We sought to assess the quality and accuracy of information regarding corneal transplantation and Fuchs dystrophy from 2 iterations of ChatGPT, and whether its answers improve over time.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Electromyographic (EMG) control relies on supervised-learning algorithms that correlate EMG to motor intent. The quality of the training dataset is critical to the runtime performance of the algorithm, but labeling motor intent is imprecise and imperfect. Traditional EMG training data is collected while participants mimic predetermined movements of a virtual hand with their own hand.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Chronic pain negatively impacts a range of sensory and affective behaviors. Previous studies have shown that the presence of chronic pain not only causes hypersensitivity at the site of injury but may also be associated with pain-aversive experiences at anatomically unrelated sites. While animal studies have indicated that the cingulate and prefrontal cortices are involved in this generalized hyperalgesia, the mechanisms distinguishing increased sensitivity at the site of injury from a generalized site-nonspecific enhancement in the aversive response to nociceptive inputs are not well known.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Peritonitis is a major cause of morbidity and technique failure in patients receiving peritoneal dialysis. Complicated peritonitis that manifests as multiple or unresolving episodes is classified as refractory, recurrent, relapsing, or repeat peritonitis, and often possesses higher risk of technique failure and mortality as well as lower complete cure rates than primary or uncomplicated episodes. While these peritonitis subtypes affect a considerable portion of PD patients, details regarding their epidemiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, clinical sequelae, and management have not yet been fully elucidated.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Dialysis is complicated in the setting of acute brain injury (ABI) due to several factors including acute solute shifts, acid base changes, need for anticoagulation, and changes in intracranial pressure. For these reasons, continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) is often the chosen modality for renal replacement needs in these patients. Peritoneal dialysis (PD) is less discussed but shares many of the benefits often attributed to CRRT.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The clinical spectrum of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the strain of coronavirus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, is broad, extending from asymptomatic infection to severe immunopulmonary reactions that, if not categorized properly, may be life-threatening. Researchers rate COVID-19 patients on a scale from 1 to 8 according to the severity level of COVID-19, 1 being healthy and 8 being extremely sick, based on a multitude of factors including number of clinic visits, days since the first sign of symptoms, and more. However, there are two issues with the current state of severity level designation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Medical schools have faced various challenges in preparing their clinical students for the frontlines of a pandemic. This study investigated medical students' satisfaction with their institutions during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic with the intention of guiding educators in future public health crises.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study surveying students in clinical rotations, the primary outcome was overall satisfaction regarding medical schools' responses to the pandemic, and the four secondary outcomes were school communication, exposure to COVID-19, availability of personal protective equipment, and access to COVID-19 testing.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Inactivating mutations in human ecto-nucleotide pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterase-1 (ENPP1) may result in early-onset osteoporosis (EOOP) in haploinsufficiency and autosomal recessive hypophosphatemic rickets (ARHR2) in homozygous deficiency. ARHR2 patients are frequently treated with phosphate supplementation to ameliorate the rachitic phenotype, but elevating plasma phosphorus concentrations in ARHR2 patients may increase the risk of ectopic calcification without increasing bone mass. To assess the risks and efficacy of conventional ARHR2 therapy, we performed comprehensive evaluations of ARHR2 patients at two academic medical centers and compared their skeletal and renal phenotypes with ENPP1-deficient Enpp1 mice on an acceleration diet containing high phosphate treated with recombinant murine Enpp1-Fc.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

CrBr is a layered van der Waals material with magnetic ordering down to the 2D limit. For decades, based on optical measurements, it is believed that the energy gap of CrBr is in the range of 1.68-2.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: Our objective was to describe the variability of research methodology teaching among English-speaking Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada emergency medicine (RCPSC-EM) residency programs. We also aimed to identify barriers to teaching research methodology curricula.

Methods: An electronic survey was sent by email to program directors and residents of English-speaking RCPSC-EM training programs countrywide.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) causes millions of illnesses every year, threatening the success of lifesaving antibiotic therapy and, thus, public health. To examine the rise and spread of antimicrobial resistance around the world, our study performs a multivariate statistical analysis of antimicrobial resistance gene data from eight different countries: the US, the UK, China, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, Australia, and South Africa. Multi-dimensional data points were projected onto a two-dimensional plane using principal component analysis and organized into a dendrogram utilizing hierarchical clustering to identify significant AMR genes and pathogens.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We describe the use of Google Cardboard for indirect ophthalmoscopy without dedicated ophthalmic equipment and with minimal cost. A smartphone is loaded with the camera and light extruding laterally, and the image centered on the examiner’s dominant eye. The second acrylic lens, measuring approximately 22D, serves as an indirect lens.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Vascular ultrasound can provide quick and reliable diagnosis of arterial bleeding but it requires trained and experienced personnel. Development of automated sonographic bleed detection methods would potentially be valuable for trauma management in the field. We propose a detection method that (1) measures blood flow in a trauma victim, (2) determines the victim's expected normal limb arterial flow using a power law biofluid model where flow is proportional to the vessel diameter taken to a power of k and (3) quantifies the difference between measured and expected flow with a novel metric, flow split deviation (FSD).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The purpose of this study was to assess fundamental differences between the mechanics of the posterior sclera in paired eyes using uniaxial and whole globe inflation testing, with an emphasis on the relationship between testing conditions and observed tissue behavior. Twenty porcine eyes, consisting of matched pairs from 10 pigs, were used in this study. Within pairs, one eye was tested with 10 cycles of globe pressurization to 150 mmHg (∼10× normal IOP) while biaxial strains were tracked via an optical system at the posterior sclera.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

New detection methods for vascular injuries can augment the usability of an ultrasound (US) imager in trauma settings. The goal of this study was to evaluate a potential-detection strategy for internal bleeding that employs a well-established theoretical biofluid model, the power law. This law characterizes normal blood-flow rates through an arterial tree by its bifurcation geometry.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To compare extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) activity in response to interleukin-1 (IL-1) in chondrocytes under various culture configurations designed for the study of cartilage biology and repair, and also in response to dynamic load for chondrocytes in cartilage.

Methods: Isolated bovine articular chondrocytes were maintained in serum-supplemented medium under 4 culture configurations: high-density monolayer, attached to a cut surface of cartilage, within tissue-engineered constructs, or within intact cartilage explants. Samples were subjected to a change of medium with or without IL-1.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF