When Should Patients With Less Than 6 Months Sobriety Be Transplanted?

Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) and alcohol-induced deaths have increased dramatically over the last 2 decades. Patients are often referred to liver transplant programs critically ill with a life expectancy of less than 6 months. Historically, less than 6 months sobriety has been an absolute contraindication for transplant listing as ALD is stigmatized as a choice, as patients are responsible for their condition because they did not stop drinking.

Major Metropolitan Area COVID-19 - Positive Patients Undergoing Emergency and Elective Orthopaedic Surgeries: A Case-matched Control Study.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic affected surgical management in Orthopaedics. This study explores the effect of COVID-19-positive patients on time to surgery from admission, total time spent in preoperative preparation, costs of orthopaedic care, and inpatient days in COVID-19-positive patients. The authors' case-matched study was based on the surgeon, procedure type, and patient demographics.

Effect of positive social comparative feedback on the resting state connectivity of dopaminergic neural pathways: A preliminary investigation.

Positive social comparative feedback is hypothesized to generate a dopamine response in the brain, similar to reward, by enhancing expectancies to support motor skill learning. However, no studies have utilized neuroimaging to examine this hypothesized dopaminergic mechanism. Therefore, the aim of this preliminary study was to investigate the effect of positive social comparative feedback on dopaminergic neural pathways measured by resting state connectivity.

Pelvic Ring Fracture Management and Subsequent Pregnancy: A Summary of Current Literature.

Introduction: The incidence of pelvic ring injuries is 34.3% per 100,000 capita. No studies have determined the ability of a female patient to have a vaginal delivery after undergoing pelvic fracture fixation.

An adaptive information-theoretic experimental design procedure for high-to-low fidelity calibration of prostate cancer models.

The use of mathematical models to make predictions about tumor growth and response to treatment has become increasingly prevalent in the clinical setting. The level of complexity within these models ranges broadly, and the calibration of more complex models requires detailed clinical data. This raises questions about the type and quantity of data that should be collected and when, in order to maximize the information gain about the model behavior while still minimizing the total amount of data used and the time until a model can be calibrated accurately.

Thermotolerant coral-algal mutualisms maintain high rates of nutrient transfer while exposed to heat stress.

Symbiotic mutualisms are essential to ecosystems and numerous species across the tree of life. For reef-building corals, the benefits of their association with endosymbiotic dinoflagellates differ within and across taxa, and nutrient exchange between these partners is influenced by environmental conditions. Furthermore, it is widely assumed that corals associated with symbionts in the genus tolerate high thermal stress at the expense of lower nutrient exchange to support coral growth.

Data driven mixed effects modeling of the dual process framework of addiction among individuals with alcohol use disorder.

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) comprises a continuum of symptoms and associated problems that has led AUD to be a leading cause of morbidity and mortality across the globe. Given the heterogeneity of AUD from mild to severe, consideration is being given to providing a spectrum of interventions that offer goal choice to match this heterogeneity, including helping individuals with AUD to moderate or control their drinking at low-risk levels. Because so much remains unknown about the factors that contribute to successful moderated drinking, we use dynamical systems modeling to identify mechanisms of behavior change.

Formal recognition of host-generalist species of dinoflagellate (Cladocopium, Symbiodiniaceae) mutualistic with Indo-Pacific reef corals.

The existence of widespread species with the capacity to endure diverse, or variable, environments are of importance to ecological and genetic research, and conservation. Such "ecological generalists" are more likely to have key adaptations that allow them to better tolerate the physiological challenges of rapid climate change. Reef-building corals are dependent on endosymbiotic dinoflagellates (Family: Symbiodiniaceae) for their survival and growth.

Effects of positive social comparative feedback on motor sequence learning and performance expectancies.

Introduction: Positive social comparative feedback indicates to the learner that they are performing better than others. While this type feedback supports motor skill learning in some tasks, the effect of social comparative feedback on implicit motor sequence learning remains unknown. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of positive social comparative feedback on the learning of and expectancies for a motor sequence task.

Upregulation of the EGFR/MEK1/MAPK1/2 signaling axis as a mechanism of resistance to antiestrogen‑induced BimEL dependent apoptosis in ER breast cancer cells.

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is commonly upregulated in multiple cancer types, including breast cancer. In the present study, evidence is provided in support of the premise that upregulation of the EGFR/MEK1/MAPK1/2 signaling axis during antiestrogen treatment facilitates the escape of breast cancer cells from BimEL‑dependent apoptosis, conferring resistance to therapy. This conclusion is based on the findings that ectopic BimEL cDNA overexpression and confocal imaging studies confirm the pro‑apoptotic role of BimEL in ERα expressing breast cancer cells and that upregulated EGFR/MEK1/MAPK1/2 signaling blocks BimEL pro‑apoptotic action in an antiestrogen‑resistant breast cancer cell model.

Designing experimental conditions to use the Lotka-Volterra model to infer tumor cell line interaction types.

The Lotka-Volterra model is widely used to model interactions between two species. Here, we generate synthetic data mimicking competitive, mutualistic and antagonistic interactions between two tumor cell lines, and then use the Lotka-Volterra model to infer the interaction type. Structural identifiability of the Lotka-Volterra model is confirmed, and practical identifiability is assessed for three experimental designs: (a) use of a single data set, with a mixture of both cell lines observed over time, (b) a sequential design where growth rates and carrying capacities are estimated using data from experiments in which each cell line is grown in isolation, and then interaction parameters are estimated from an experiment involving a mixture of both cell lines, and (c) a parallel experimental design where all model parameters are fitted to data from two mixtures (containing both cell lines but with different initial ratios) simultaneously.

Multiple Light-Dark Signals Regulate Expression of the DEAD-Box RNA Helicase CrhR in PCC 6803.

Since oxygenic photosynthesis evolved in the common ancestor of cyanobacteria during the Archean, a range of sensing and response strategies evolved to allow efficient acclimation to the fluctuating light conditions experienced in the diverse environments they inhabit. However, how these regulatory mechanisms are assimilated at the molecular level to coordinate individual gene expression is still being elucidated. Here, we demonstrate that integration of a series of three distinct light signals generate an unexpectedly complex network regulating expression of the sole DEAD-box RNA helicase, CrhR, encoded in sp.

Addressing immunizations in nursing education: Immunization resources for undergraduate nursing.

Nursing faculty are challenged to integrate immunization content in prelicensure nursing curricula. Historically, most immunization content has been delivered in pediatrics courses, with less emphasis on other populations across the lifespan. Skills related to vaccine administration may be prioritized over the most current immunization science, such as pathophysiology, immunology, and epidemiology.

Effect of behavioural practice targeted at the motor action selection network after stroke.

Motor action selection engages a network of frontal and parietal brain regions. After stroke, individuals activate a similar network, however, activation is higher, especially in the contralesional hemisphere. The current study examined the effect of practice on action selection performance and brain activation after stroke.

Active Participation of Care Partners in a Physical Activity Intervention Alongside People with Stroke: A Feasibility Study.

This study investigated the feasibility of a physical activity intervention for people with stroke and their care partners and the role social support plays in physical activity adherence. The study used a single-group, pretest-posttest design with follow-up. Participants were adults with chronic stroke and their care partners.

Different functional traits among closely related algal symbionts dictate stress endurance for vital Indo-Pacific reef-building corals.

Reef-building corals in the genus Porites are one of the most important constituents of Indo-Pacific reefs. Many species within this genus tolerate abnormally warm water and exhibit high specificity for particular kinds of endosymbiotic dinoflagellates that cope with thermal stress better than those living in other corals. Still, during extreme ocean heating, some Porites exhibit differences in their stress tolerance.

Comparison of corticospinal tract integrity measures extracted from standard versus native space in chronic stroke.

Background: Fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) are measures derived from diffusion-weighted imaging that represent the integrity of the corticospinal tract (CST) after stroke. Some studies of the motor system after stroke extract FA and MD from native space while others extract from standard space making comparison across studies challenging.

New Method: The purpose was to compare CST integrity measures extracted from standard versus native space in individuals with chronic stroke.

Expert camouflage-breakers can accurately localize search targets.

Camouflage-breaking is a special case of visual search where an object of interest, or target, can be hard to distinguish from the background even when in plain view. We have previously shown that naive, non-professional subjects can be trained using a deep learning paradigm to accurately perform a camouflage-breaking task in which they report whether or not a given camouflage scene contains a target. But it remains unclear whether such expert subjects can actually detect the target in this task, or just vaguely sense that the two classes of images are somehow different, without being able to find the target per se.

Self-organization of organoids from endoderm-derived cells.

Organoids constitute biological systems which are used to model organ development, homeostasis, regeneration, and disease in vitro and hold promise for use in therapy. Reflecting in vivo development, organoids form from tissue cells or pluripotent stem cells. Cues provided from the media and individual cells promote self-organization of these uniform starting cells into a structure, with emergent differentiated cells, morphology, and often functionality that resemble the tissue of origin.

Bayesian Information-Theoretic Calibration of Radiotherapy Sensitivity Parameters for Informing Effective Scanning Protocols in Cancer.

With new advancements in technology, it is now possible to collect data for a variety of different metrics describing tumor growth, including tumor volume, composition, and vascularity, among others. For any proposed model of tumor growth and treatment, we observe large variability among individual patients' parameter values, particularly those relating to treatment response; thus, exploiting the use of these various metrics for model calibration can be helpful to infer such patient-specific parameters both accurately and early, so that treatment protocols can be adjusted mid-course for maximum efficacy. However, taking measurements can be costly and invasive, limiting clinicians to a sparse collection schedule.

Test-retest reliability and minimal detectable change of corticospinal tract integrity in chronic stroke.

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) can be used to index white matter integrity of the corticospinal tract (CST) after stroke; however, the psychometric properties of DTI-based measures of white matter integrity are unknown. The purpose of this study was to examine test-retest reliability as determined by intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) and calculate minimal detectable change (MDC) of DTI-based measures of CST integrity using three different approaches: a Cerebral Peduncle approach, a Probabilistic Tract approach, and a Tract Template approach. Eighteen participants with chronic stroke underwent DTI on the same magnetic resonance imaging scanner 4 days apart.

Modeling the stem cell hypothesis: Investigating the effects of cancer stem cells and TGF-β on tumor growth.

We propose a mathematical model to describe the interaction of cancer stem cells, tumor cells, and the immune system in order to better understand tumor growth in the presence of cancer stem cells. We consider the system in two scenarios: with no-treatment and with a chemotherapy treatment regimen. We develop a system of differential equations, fit the parameters to experimental data, and perform sensitivity and stability analysis.

Evidence for convergent sensing of multiple abiotic stresses in cyanobacteria.

Background: Bacteria routinely utilize two-component signal transduction pathways to sense and alter gene expression in response to environmental cues. While cyanobacteria express numerous two-component systems, these pathways do not regulate all of the genes within many of the identified abiotic stress-induced regulons.

Methods: Electron transport inhibitors combined with western analysis and measurement of chlorophyll a fluorescent yield, using pulse amplitude modulation fluorometry, were used to detect the effect of a diverse range of abiotic stresses on the redox status of the photosynthetic electron transport chain and the accumulation and degradation of the Synechocystis sp.