Administration of a bacterial lysate to the airway compartment is sufficient to inhibit allergen-induced lung eosinophilia in germ-free mice.

The nexus between eosinophils and microbes is attracting increasing attention. We previously showed that airway administration of sterile microbial products contained in dust collected from traditional dairy farms virtually abrogated bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) eosinophilia and other cardinal asthma phenotypes in allergen-sensitized specific pathogen-free (SPF) mice. Interestingly, comparable inhibition of allergen-induced BAL eosinophilia and promotion of airway barrier integrity were found upon administration of a sterile, pharmacological-grade bacterial lysate, OM-85, to the airway compartment of allergen-sensitized SPF mice.

The Pulmonary Endothelial Glycocalyx Modifications in Glypican 1 Knockout Mice Do Not Affect Lung Endothelial Function in Physiological Conditions.

The endothelial glycocalyx is a dynamic signaling surface layer that is involved in the maintenance of cellular homeostasis. The glycocalyx has a very diverse composition, with glycoproteins, proteoglycans, and glycosaminoglycans interacting with each other to form a mesh-like structure. Due to its highly interactive nature, little is known about the relative contribution of each glycocalyx constituent to its overall function.

Functional annotation of proteins for signaling network inference in non-model species.

Molecular biology aims to understand cellular responses and regulatory dynamics in complex biological systems. However, these studies remain challenging in non-model species due to poor functional annotation of regulatory proteins. To overcome this limitation, we develop a multi-layer neural network that determines protein functionality directly from the protein sequence.

Asthma-protective agents in dust from traditional farm environments.

Background: Growing up on traditional European or US Amish dairy farms in close contact with cows and hay protects children against asthma, and airway administration of extracts from dust collected from cowsheds of those farms prevents allergic asthma in mice.

Objectives: This study sought to begin identifying farm-derived asthma-protective agents.

Methods: Our work unfolded along 2 unbiased and independent but complementary discovery paths.

Acute Spontaneous Colonic Perforation in a Case of Newly Confirmed Scleroderma: Case Report.

Scleroderma is a group of autoimmune diseases that principally affects the skin, blood vessels, muscles, and viscera. One of the more well-known subgroups of scleroderma is the limited cutaneous form of the multisystem connective tissue disorder known as CREST (calcinosis, Raynaud phenomenon, esophageal dysmotility, sclerodactyly, and telangiectasis) syndrome. In this report, we present a case of a spontaneous colonic bowel perforation in a patient with incomplete features of CREST.

Status Migrainosus and Endometriosis: A Case Report and Review of the Literature.

Status migrainosus is a migraine complication describing an attack lasting longer than 72 hours. In this paper, we present a case of a 34-year-old female with a history of severe endometriosis and hypercoagulable factor type II disease who presented to the emergency department (ED) with a three-week history of new-onset intractable migraine with aura. Imaging findings revealed a frontal T2/FLAIR hyperintensity, venous anomaly, and bilateral optic nerve thickening.

The OM-85 bacterial lysate inhibits SARS-CoV-2 infection of epithelial cells by downregulating SARS-CoV-2 receptor expression.

Background: Treatments for coronavirus disease 2019, which is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), are urgently needed but remain limited. SARS-CoV-2 infects cells through interactions of its spike (S) protein with angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and transmembrane protease serine 2 (TMPRSS2) on host cells. Multiple cells and organs are targeted, particularly airway epithelial cells.

Airway administration of OM-85, a bacterial lysate, blocks experimental asthma by targeting dendritic cells and the epithelium/IL-33/ILC2 axis.

Background: Microbial interventions against allergic asthma have robust epidemiologic underpinnings and the potential to recalibrate disease-inducing immune responses. Oral administration of OM-85, a standardized lysate of human airways bacteria, is widely used empirically to prevent respiratory infections and a clinical trial is testing its ability to prevent asthma in high-risk children. We previously showed that intranasal administration of microbial products from farm environments abrogates experimental allergic asthma.

Assessing Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Residency Education Using the Neurological Assessment Competency Evaluation System.

Competent neurologic examination and clinical skills are essential components in the care for patients in acute hospital and rehabilitation settings. To enhance the evaluation and education of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation residents, the authors developed an educational objective structured clinical examination, the Neurological Exam Assessment Competency Evaluation System, and gathered 2 yrs of baseline data. The Neurological Exam Assessment Competency Evaluation System consisted of nine 9-min examination stations, seven with written clinical scenario with instructions for junior residents to complete the appropriate examination (stations: Altered Mental Status, Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, Dementia, Stroke, Falls, and the International Standards for Neurological Classification of Spinal Cord Injury Sensory and Motor Examinations).

Intrathecal Drug Delivery for Chronic Pain Syndromes: A Review of Considerations in Practice Management.

Background: Chronic pain syndromes are poorly understood and challenging to treat. However, intrathecal drug delivery systems (IDDS) have been shown to have good efficacy in treating various pain subtypes and patient populations. The success of IDDS interventions is largely dependent on consideration of and adherence to varying practice patterns.

Night-time measurements of astronomical seeing at Dome A in Antarctica.

Seeing-the angular size of stellar images blurred by atmospheric turbulence-is a critical parameter used to assess the quality of astronomical sites at optical/infrared wavelengths. Median values at the best mid-latitude sites are generally in the range of 0.6-0.

Fast Charge Extraction in Perovskite-Based Core-Shell Nanowires.

Realizing nanostructured interfaces with precise architectural control enables one to access properties unattainable using bulk materials. In particular, a nanostructured interface ( e. g.

Building Better Bridges into STEM: A Synthesis of 25 Years of Literature on STEM Summer Bridge Programs.

Summer bridge programs are designed to help transition students into the college learning environment. Increasingly, bridge programs are being developed in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines because of the rigorous content and lower student persistence in college STEM compared with other disciplines. However, to our knowledge, a comprehensive review of STEM summer bridge programs does not exist.

Using Expectancy Value Theory as a Framework to Reduce Student Resistance to Active Learning: A Proof of Concept.

There has been a national movement to transition college science courses from passive lectures to active learning environments. Active learning has been shown to be a more effective way for students to learn, yet there is concern that some students are resistant to active learning approaches. Although there is much discussion about student resistance to active learning, few studies have explored this topic.

A Bridge to Active Learning: A Summer Bridge Program Helps Students Maximize Their Active-Learning Experiences and the Active-Learning Experiences of Others.

National calls to improve student academic success in college have sparked the development of bridge programs designed to help students transition from high school to college. We designed a 2-week Summer Bridge program that taught introductory biology content in an active-learning way. Through a set of exploratory interviews, we unexpectedly identified that Bridge students had developed sophisticated views of active learning, even though this was not an explicit goal of the program.

Templated Synthesis of Uniform Perovskite Nanowire Arrays.

While the chemical composition of semiconducting metal halide perovskites can be precisely controlled in thin films for photovoltaic devices, the synthesis of perovskite nanostructures with tunable dimensions and composition has not been realized. Here, we describe the templated synthesis of uniform perovskite nanowires with controlled diameter (50-200 nm). Importantly, by providing three examples (CH3NH3PbI3, CH3NH3PbBr3, and Cs2SnI6), we show that this process is composition general and results in oriented nanowire arrays on transparent conductive substrates.

Solution-Dispersible Metal Nanorings with Deliberately Controllable Compositions and Architectural Parameters for Tunable Plasmonic Response.

We report a template-based technique for the preparation of solution-dispersible nanorings composed of Au, Ag, Pt, Ni, and Pd with control over outer diameter (60-400 nm), inner diameter (25-230 nm), and height (40 nm to a few microns). Systematic and independent control of these parameters enables fine-tuning of the three characteristic localized surface plasmon resonance modes of Au nanorings and the resulting solution-based extinction spectra from the visible to the near-infrared. This synthetic approach provides a new pathway for solution-based investigations of surfaces with negative curvature.

Advances in bionanomaterials for bone tissue engineering.

Bone is a specialized form of connective tissue that forms the skeleton of the body and is built at the nano and microscale levels as a multi-component composite material consisting of a hard inorganic phase (minerals) in an elastic, dense organic network. Mimicking bone structure and its properties present an important frontier in the fields of nanotechnology, materials science and bone tissue engineering, given the complex morphology of this tissue. There has been a growing interest in developing artificial bone-mimetic nanomaterials with controllable mineral content, nanostructure, chemistry for bone, cartilage tissue engineering and substitutes.

Exceptional astronomical seeing conditions above Dome C in Antarctica.

One of the most important considerations when planning the next generation of ground-based optical astronomical telescopes is to choose a site that has excellent 'seeing'--the jitter in the apparent position of a star that is caused by light bending as it passes through regions of differing refractive index in the Earth's atmosphere. The best mid-latitude sites have a median seeing ranging from 0.5 to 1.