Publications by authors named "BERGER J"

Evidence suggests that planning and execution of speech and limb movement are subserved by common neural substrates. However, less is known about whether they are supported by a common inhibitory mechanism. P3 event-related potentials (ERPs) is a neural signature of motor inhibition, which are found to be generated by several brain regions including the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC).

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Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN), which consistently improves limb motor functions, shows mixed effects on speech functions in Parkinson's disease (PD). One possible explanation for this discrepancy is that STN neurons may differentially encode speech and limb movement. However, this hypothesis has not yet been tested.

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Macromolecules organize themselves into discrete membrane-less compartments. Mounting evidence has suggested that nucleosomes as well as DNA itself can undergo clustering or condensation to regulate genomic activity. Current in vitro condensation studies provide insight into the physical properties of condensates, such as surface tension and diffusion.

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Background: Implant-based breast reconstruction (IBR) is the most common method of reconstruction for breast cancer. Bacterial infection is a well-known risk with reported rates ranging from 1% to 43%. The most common pathogens of breast implant infection described in the literature are Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and coagulase-negative staphylococci.

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Background: Perioperative bleeding is a common and potentially life-threatening complication after surgery. We sought to identify the frequency, patient characteristics, causes, and outcomes of perioperative bleeding in patients undergoing noncardiac surgery.

Methods: In a retrospective cohort study of a large administrative database, adults aged ≥45 years hospitalized for noncardiac surgery in 2018 were identified.

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Guidance around maternity care practices and infant feeding during the COVID-19 pandemic changed over time and was sometimes conflicting. Hospital maternity practices influence breastfeeding, an important preventive strategy against viral illness. Most birthing hospitals in Mississippi are enrolled in CHAMPS, a quality improvement initiative to support breastfeeding and continuously collect maternity care data.

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Background: It is very difficult to find a consensus that will be accepted by most players when creating health care legislation. The Czech electronic prescription system was launched in 2011 and new functions were introduced in 2018. To ensure that these functions will not conflict with any other existing law, a process modeling tool based on the patent "Method and system for automated requirements modeling" was used successfully in the Czech Republic for the first time.

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Objective: To explore the knowledge and attitudes of psychiatrists about psychedelics therapies.

Method: Access to a cross-sectional survey was distributed to psychiatrists through social media channels. Attitudes and knowledge about psychedelic therapies were recorded using Likert scales and ranking questions.

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Article Synopsis
  • DNA gyrase, a vital protein in all bacteria, is crucial for antibiotics targeting Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) and functions by adding supercoils to DNA using an ATP-hydrolyzing process.
  • This study utilizes single-molecule rotor bead tracking (RBT) to compare the supercoiling dynamics of gyrase from MTB and Escherichia coli (EC), revealing that both are processive but MTB gyrase operates at about 5.5 times slower velocity than EC gyrase.
  • The findings indicate that while there are shared features in the conformational states of both gyrases, MTB gyrase shows a stronger tendency to adopt an intermediate state when interacting with DNA, highlighting potential differences in their cellular
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Background: It is essential that treatment effects reported from retrospective observational studies are as reliable as possible. In a retrospective analysis of spine surgery patients, we obtained a spurious result: tranexamic acid (TXA) had no effect on intraoperative blood loss. This statistical tutorial explains how this result occurred and why statistical analyses of observational studies must consider the effects of individual surgeons.

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Inherited deficiency in ether lipids, a subgroup of glycerophospholipids with unique biochemical and biophysical properties, evokes severe symptoms in humans resulting in a multi-organ syndrome. Mouse models with defects in ether lipid biosynthesis have widely been used to understand the pathophysiology of human disease and to study the roles of ether lipids in various cell types and tissues. However, little is known about the function of these lipids in cardiac tissue.

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Etoposide is a broadly employed chemotherapeutic and eukaryotic topoisomerase II poison that stabilizes cleaved DNA intermediates to promote DNA breakage and cytotoxicity. How etoposide perturbs topoisomerase dynamics is not known. Here we investigated the action of etoposide on yeast topoisomerase II, human topoisomerase IIα and human topoisomerase IIβ using several sensitive single-molecule detection methods.

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Article Synopsis
  • Controlling thermal expansion (TE) is essential for enhancing the lifespan of materials exposed to temperature shifts, and while the TE behavior of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) is well-studied, the effects of surface-mounted nanoparticles (NPs) on this property have not been thoroughly investigated.
  • This study focuses on the impact of platinum nanoparticles on the TE properties of a specific MOF composite, Pt@Zn(DP-bdc)dabco, revealing that low levels of platinum maintain TE, while high levels lead to reduced TE at elevated temperatures.
  • The research suggests that nanoparticles restrict the MOF's deformation, indicating that these composite materials could have better TE properties, making them more suitable for applications requiring temperature fluctuations, such
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Article Synopsis
  • Renal fibrosis is a significant issue in chronic kidney disease (CKD) and can lead to end-stage renal disease (ESRD), with few effective clinical treatments currently available.* -
  • This study tested the effectiveness of neutralizing antibodies against endotrophin in a mouse model, finding that treatment significantly reduced renal fibrosis and improved kidney function and inflammation.* -
  • The results suggest that targeting endotrophin could be a promising therapeutic strategy for treating renal fibrosis in CKD and potentially other similar chronic diseases.*
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Patients with HIV exhibit platelet activation and increased risk of cardiovascular disease, the prevention of which is not fully known. Fifty-five HIV-positive patients were randomized to clopidogrel, aspirin, or no-treatment for 14 days, and the platelet phenotype and ability to induce endothelial inflammation assessed. Clopidogrel as opposed to aspirin and no-treatment reduced platelet activation (P-selectin and PAC-1 expression).

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Introduction: The healthcare resource utilization (HRU) and costs of oral anticoagulant-naïve patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) and diabetes initiated on rivaroxaban or warfarin in the United States (US) has not been previously evaluated.

Methods: This retrospective study used data from the Optum's de-identified Clinformatics Data Mart Database (1 January, 2012 to 30 September, 2021) to evaluate the HRU and costs of adult patients with NVAF and diabetes newly initiated on rivaroxaban or warfarin (on or after January 2013). Inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) was used to adjust for confounding between cohorts.

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Objective: Frailty is an emerging risk factor for adverse outcomes. However, perioperative frailty assessments derived from electronic health records have not been studied on a large scale. We aim to estimate the prevalence of frailty and the associated incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) among adults hospitalized for noncardiac surgery.

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Background: Uterine clear cell carcinoma is a rare and aggressive subtype of endometrial carcinoma. Prospective clinical trials have not been feasible for this rare tumor, and data regarding the optimal adjuvant treatment regimen for early-stage uterine clear cell carcinomas is limited. Our study's objective was to determine if adjuvant chemotherapy or radiation therapy improves patients' outcomes in stage I and II uterine clear cell carcinoma.

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Background:  Monocyte-platelet aggregates (MPAs) represent the crossroads between thrombosis and inflammation, and targeting this axis may suppress thromboinflammation. While antiplatelet therapy (APT) reduces platelet-platelet aggregation and thrombosis, its effects on MPA and platelet effector properties on monocytes are uncertain.

Objectives:  To analyze the effect of platelets on monocyte activation and APT on MPA and platelet-induced monocyte activation.

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Background: Early life stress (ELS) is associated with increased morbidity and mortality across the lifecourse. Studies observing a relationship between ELS and stress physiology (cortisol), may help explain the connection to poor health outcomes, but have been limited by cortisol measures used.

Purpose: We examined the association between ELS measured by a Risky Family (RF) environment questionnaire, and adult diurnal cortisol profile inclusive of multiple cortisol measures.

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On the basis of findings that cultured rat hepatocytes secrete lipoprotein with a high plasmalogen content and the occurrence of this lipid in human serum, it has been suggested that hepatocytes play a role in the supply of plasmalogens to tissues. We tested this hypothesis in a mouse with a hepatocyte-specific defect in peroxisomes, an organelle essentially required for plasmalogen biosynthesis. We analyzed plasmalogens in lipid extracts of forebrain, liver and five further tissues and in plasma by reaction with dansylhydrazine in hydrochloric acid, which cleaves the vinyl ether of plasmalogens and forms a fluorescent dansylhydrazone, which we quantified by reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography.

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Countless social problems demand solutions, from climate change and gun control to poverty and systemic racism. But while some of these problems inspire action (e.g.

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Background: Cyclin E1 (CCNE1) is a potential predictive marker and therapeutic target in tubo-ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC). Smaller studies have revealed unfavorable associations for CCNE1 amplification and CCNE1 overexpression with survival, but to date no large-scale, histotype-specific validation has been performed. The hypothesis was that high-level amplification of CCNE1 and CCNE1 overexpression, as well as a combination of the two, are linked to shorter overall survival in HGSC.

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