Publications by authors named "Brian Davis"

Purpose: To assess the efficacy of moderately hypofractionated intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT) targeting the prostate/seminal vesicles and pelvic lymph nodes for high-risk (HR) or unfavorable intermediate-risk (UIR) prostate cancer (PCa) MATERIALS/METHODS: A prospective study (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCTXXX) of moderately hypofractionated IMPT accrued a target sample size of 56 patients with HR or UIR-PCa . The prostate/seminal vesicles and pelvic lymph nodes were treated simultaneously with 67.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - Approximately 15% of the US population suffers from cat allergies, primarily caused by the allergen Fel d 1, which triggers IgE antibody responses and can lead to severe symptoms like asthma.
  • - A comparative analysis of Fel d 1 genes across various domestic and exotic cat species revealed over 100 distinct protein sequence variations and indicated that Fel d 1 has undergone positive selection, indicating greater variability over time.
  • - The significant variability in Fel d 1 genes (41-58% of amino acid differences) suggests that its biological function might differ among cat species or may not be essential, potentially offering evolutionary advantages by enabling the allergen to interact with various physiological ligands.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Wetlands play a crucial role in enhancing groundwater quality, mitigating natural hazards, controlling erosion, and providing essential habitats for unique flora and wildlife. Despite their significance, wetlands are facing decline in various global locations, underscoring the need for effective mapping, monitoring, and predictive modeling approaches. Recent advances in machine learning, time series earth observation data, and cloud computing have opened up new possibilities to address the challenges of large-scale wetlands mapping and dynamics forecasting.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Alcohol use disorder is prevalent within the Veterans Health System, especially in patients being seen in hepatology clinics, and needs a point-of-care strategy. A brief alcohol intervention based on AUDIT-C (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test) may be needed for the management of hazardous alcohol intake, but feasibility is unclear. We aimed to define predictors of readiness to cease alcohol intake (0-10, 10 being ready to quit now) and continued drinking after using a brief alcohol intervention in veterans seen in hepatology clinics cross-sectionally and longitudinally over 6 months.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Chromosomal inversions are associated with local adaptation in many species. However, questions regarding how they are formed, maintained and impact various other evolutionary processes remain elusive. Here, using a large genomic dataset of long-read and short-read sequencing, we ask these questions in one of the most abundant vertebrates on Earth, the Atlantic herring.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The fetal liver is a hematopoietic organ, hosting a diverse and evolving progenitor population. While human liver organoids derived from pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) mimic aspects of embryonic and fetal development, they typically lack the complex hematopoietic niche and the interaction between hepatic and hematopoietic development. We describe the generation of human Fetal Liver-like Organoids (FLOs), that model human hepato-hematopoietic interactions previously characterized in mouse models.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: This practice parameter for the performance of proton beam radiation therapy was revised collaboratively by the American College of Radiology (ACR) and the American Radium Society (ARS). This practice parameter was developed to serve as a tool in the appropriate application of proton therapy in the care of cancer patients or other patients with conditions in which radiation therapy is indicated. It addresses clinical implementation of proton radiation therapy, including personnel qualifications, quality assurance (QA) standards, indications, and suggested documentation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The accurate detection and monitoring of supraglacial lakes in high mountainous regions are crucial for understanding their dynamic nature and implications for environmental management and sustainable development goals. In this study, we propose a novel approach that integrates multisource data and machine learning techniques for supra-glacial lake detection in the Passu Batura glacier of the Hunza Basin, Pakistan. We extract pertinent features or parameters by leveraging multisource datasets such as radar backscatter intensity VH and VV parameters from Sentinel-1 Ground Range Detected (GRD) data, near-infrared (NIR), NDWI_green, NDWI_blue parameters from Sentinel-2 Multi-spectral Instrument (MSI) data, and surface slope, aspect, and elevation parameters from topographic data.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The Greying with age phenotype in horses involves loss of hair pigmentation whereas skin pigmentation is not reduced, and a predisposition to melanoma. The causal mutation was initially reported as a duplication of a 4.6 kb intronic sequence in Syntaxin 17.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: CFTR modulators are approved for approximately 90% of people with cystic fibrosis in the USA and provide substantial clinical benefit. N1303K (Asn1303Lys), one of the most common class 2 CFTR defects, has not been approved for these therapies by any regulatory agency. Preclinical investigation by our laboratories showed N1303K CFTR activation with elexacaftor-tezacaftor-ivacaftor (ETI).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Intramedullary straight nail fixation for proximal humeral fractures has several benefits over plating, including reduced soft-tissue damage, enhanced stability for complex fractures, and shorter surgery time for easier cases.
  • The procedure involves positioning the patient in a beach-chair position, reducing the fracture using closed methods or percutaneously, and making a small incision near the acromioclavicular joint to insert a guide-pin for nail placement.
  • After confirming the proper alignment via fluoroscopy, proximal and distal locking screws are inserted through a targeting jig, followed by irrigation and closure of the incision for postoperative care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Telomere-to-telomere (T2T) assemblies reveal new insights into the structure and function of the previously 'invisible' parts of the genome and allow comparative analyses of complete genomes across entire clades. We present here an open collaborative effort, termed the 'Ruminant T2T Consortium' (RT2T), that aims to generate complete diploid assemblies for numerous species of the Artiodactyla suborder Ruminantia to examine chromosomal evolution in the context of natural selection and domestication of species used as livestock.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Chromosomal abnormalities are a common cause of human miscarriage but rarely reported in any other species. As a result, there are currently inadequate animal models available to study this condition. Horses present one potential model since mares receive intense gynecological care.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Conspecific and interspecific brood parasitism are alternate reproductive strategies more pervasive in waterfowl than in any other group of birds. While previous research has measured costs incurred by nest hosts incubating parasitized clutches, few studies have focused on the relative success of parasites. Here, we evaluated the success of wood duck () and hooded merganser () eggs laid parasitically in Louisiana and Mississippi.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Prostate cancer lung metastasis represents a clinical conundrum due to its implications for advanced disease progression and the complexities it introduces in treatment planning. As the disease progresses to distant sites such as the lung, the clinical management becomes increasingly intricate, requiring tailored therapeutic strategies to address the unique characteristics of metastatic lesions. This review seeks to synthesize the current state of knowledge surrounding prostate cancer metastasis to the lung, shedding light on the diverse array of clinical presentations encountered, ranging from subtle radiological findings to overt symptomatic manifestations.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: To report clinical and dosimetric characteristics of 5-fraction stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) using intensity modulated proton therapy (IMPT) for localized prostate cancer.

Materials And Methods: All patients receiving IMPT SABR from 2017 to 2021 for localized prostate cancer at our institution were included. Five fractions were delivered every other day to the prostate +/- seminal vesicles [clinical target volume (CTV)] with 3 mm/3% robustness.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Thoroughbred stallions that carry a double-homozygous genotype A/A-A/A for SNPs rs397316122 and rs69101140 in exon 5 of the FKBP6 gene (chr13; EquCab3.0) are uniquely subfertile due to impaired acrosomal exocytosis (IAE). In this study, the sperm proteome in frozen/thawed semen from subfertile Thoroughbred stallions was studied and compared to that of frozen/thawed sperm from fertile Thoroughbred stallions.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Chiari Malformation (Chiari) is a congenital condition occurring from an inferior herniation of the cerebellar tonsils into the foramen magnum. Given the role of the cerebellum in postural control, it is reasonable to expect joint motion to be affected in this patient population. In fact, joint stiffness is a common self-reported symptom of Chiari, however it has never been assessed in these individuals.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Diet can affect ammoniagenesis in cirrhosis and hepatic encephalopathy (HE), but the impact of dietary preferences on metabolomics in cirrhosis is unclear. As most Western populations follow meat-based diets, we aimed to determine the impact of substituting a single meat-based meal with an equal protein-containing vegan/vegetarian alternative on ammonia and metabolomics in outpatients with cirrhosis on a meat-based diet.

Methods: Outpatients with cirrhosis with and without prior HE on a stable Western meat-based diet were randomized 1:1:1 into 3 groups.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome (WAS) is a serious genetic disorder caused by mutations in a gene that affects immune system function, particularly impacting blood cells.
  • - The study aimed to develop a gene correction technique that could work for most WAS patients by integrating a corrective gene sequence into their own cells, specifically targeting their hematopoietic stem cells.
  • - The researchers successfully demonstrated that this approach restored normal protein function in immune cells from WAS patients, suggesting a promising method for future treatments using the patients' own modified cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF