Frequent Emergency Department Visitors Associated With a Pain-Discharge Diagnosis.

Background: Emergency departments (EDs) have experienced an increase in annual patient visits and length of stay over the past decade. Management of frequent-user patients with pain-related diagnoses are challenging in a time-limited setting.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to describe characteristics of frequent ED users with pain-related diagnoses.

Solid-state NMR spectroscopy for disentangling structural and motional features of lyophilized ripened cheese water-soluble extracts related to antimicrobial activity.

Present work comprises the use of different solid-state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance strategies for characterizing structural and motional aspects of the peptide matrix that compose a set of four lyophilized Mexican cheese aqueous soluble extracts, each with a controlled ripening. Heteronuclear dipolar coupling modulation schemes allowed to characterize local mobility and structural homogeneity of cheeses' peptide segments in the solid-state as a function of ripening. Results suggest that ripened samples with certain local flexibility but important structural homogeneity present efficient microbial inhibition against tested bacterial strains, whilst high local rigidity of peptides within ripened cheese soluble fractions could partially explain the observed lack of antimicrobial activity.

Exposures to uranium and arsenic alter intraepithelial and innate immune cells in the small intestine of male and female mice.

Human exposures to environmental metals, including uranium (U) and arsenic (As) are a global public health concern. Chronic exposures to U and As are linked to many adverse health effects including, immune suppression and autoimmunity. The gastrointestinal (GI) tract is home to many immune cells vital in the maintenance of systemic immune health.

Assessment of stress markers in restrained individuals following physical stress with and without sham CED activation.

Introduction: Law enforcement and pre-hospital care personnel often confront individuals who must be physically restrained. Many are under the influence of illicit substances, and law enforcement officers may need to use a controlled electrical device (CED) to gain control of the individual and they are often placed into the prone maximum restraint (PMR) position. These techniques have previously been evaluated for their physiologic effects.

Deep convolutional neural networks for automatic segmentation of thoracic organs-at-risk in radiation oncology - use of non-domain transfer learning.

Purpose: Segmentation of organs-at-risk (OARs) is an essential component of the radiation oncology workflow. Commonly segmented thoracic OARs include the heart, esophagus, spinal cord, and lungs. This study evaluated a convolutional neural network (CNN) for automatic segmentation of these OARs.

Electric scooter craniofacial trauma.

Objective: The use of standing electronic scooters associated with micromobility applications (e-scooters) has risen nationally. The aim of this study was to obtain a detailed view of soft tissue and bony craniofacial injury associated with e-scooter-related trauma.

Methods: Single-institution retrospective case series of patients presenting to a level 1 trauma center emergency department or trauma unit with documented e-scooter-related craniofacial injury.

Medicinal plants and natural products as neuroprotective agents in age-related macular degeneration.

The retina may suffer neurodegenerative damages, as other tissues of the central nervous system do, and serious eye diseases may develop. One of them is age-related macular degeneration, which causes progressive loss of vision due to retina degeneration. Treatment of age-related macular degeneration focuses on antioxidant agents and anti-vascular endothelial growth factor compounds, among others, that prevent/diminish oxidative stress and reduce neovascularisation respectively.

Reconsidering Systems-Based Practice: Advancing Structural Competency, Health Equity, and Social Responsibility in Graduate Medical Education.

Health inequities stem from systematic, pervasive social and structural forces. These forces marginalize populations and create the circumstances that disadvantage these groups, as reflected in differences in outcomes like life expectancy and infant mortality and in inequitable access to and delivery of health care resources. To help eradicate these inequities, physicians must understand racism, sexism, oppression, historical marginalization, power, privilege, and other sociopolitical and economic forces that sustain and create inequities.

Comparative study of acute and short-term triiodothyronine treatments on the contractile activity of isolated rat thoracic aortas.

We aimed to characterize the participation of rapid non-genomic and delayed non-genomic/genomic or genomic mechanisms in vasoactive effects to triiodothyronine (T3), emphasizing functional analysis of the involvement of these mechanisms in the genesis of nitric oxide (NO) of endothelial or muscular origin. Influences of and T3 treatments on contractile and relaxant responsiveness of isolated rat aortas were studied. T3-treatment was 500 μg·kg·d, subcutaneous injection, for 1 (T3) and 3 (T3) days.

Association of the Triglyceride/High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Index with Insulin Resistance in a Pediatric Population in Northeast Mexico.

The present study aimed to determine the association of the triglyceride/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (TG/HDL-C) index with IR in pediatric patients with overweight (OW) and OB, to assess the ability of the TG/HDL-C index to predict IR, and to estimate the prevalence of IR and metabolic syndrome (MetS). A cross-sectional study comprised 628 Mexican children (2-16 years old) from the OB clinic. IR was estimated using the HOMA-IR index (‡2.

The role of B cells in heart failure and implications for future immunomodulatory treatment strategies.

Despite numerous demonstrations that the immune system is activated in heart failure, negatively affecting patients' outcomes, no definitive treatment strategy exists directed to modulate the immune system. In this review, we present the evidence that B cells contribute to the development of hypertrophy, inflammation, and maladaptive tissue remodelling. B cells produce antibodies that interfere with cardiomyocyte function, which culminates as the result of recruitment and activation of a variety of innate and structural cell populations, including neutrophils, macrophages, fibroblasts, and T cells.

Micromechanobiology: Focusing on the Cardiac Cell-Substrate Interface.

Engineered, in vitro cardiac cell and tissue systems provide test beds for the study of cardiac development, cellular disease processes, and drug responses in a dish. Much effort has focused on improving the structure and function of engineered cardiomyocytes and heart tissues. However, these parameters depend critically on signaling through the cellular microenvironment in terms of ligand composition, matrix stiffness, and substrate mechanical properties-that is, matrix micromechanobiology.

The role of sex in the innate and adaptive immune environment of metastatic colorectal cancer.

Background: Women with colorectal cancer (CRC) have a significant survival advantage over men. Sex influences on the tumour microenvironment (TME) are not well characterised, despite the importance of immune response in CRC. We hypothesised that sex-divergent immune responses could contribute to survival.

Deep Learning Provides Exceptional Accuracy to ECoG-Based Functional Language Mapping for Epilepsy Surgery.

The success of surgical resection in epilepsy patients depends on preserving functionally critical brain regions, while removing pathological tissues. Being the gold standard, electro-cortical stimulation mapping (ESM) helps surgeons in localizing the function of eloquent cortex through electrical stimulation of electrodes placed directly on the cortical brain surface. Due to the potential hazards of ESM, including increased risk of provoked seizures, electrocorticography based functional mapping (ECoG-FM) was introduced as a safer alternative approach.

Analysis of Gene Expression in Fasciola hepatica Juveniles and Adults by In Situ Hybridization.

In situ hybridization (ISH) is a technique used for the spatial localization of nucleic acids within tissues and cells. It is based on the ability of labeled nucleic acids (probes) to hybridize under the right conditions with the nucleic acids present in fixed biological specimens. In this chapter, we describe protocols for detection of RNA by ISH using digoxigenin (DIG)-labeled probes for Fasciola hepatica adults (in cryosections, given their large size) and for newly excysted juveniles (NEJs, which are ideally suited given their small size for whole-mount ISH).

Gene Silencing in the Liver Fluke Fasciola hepatica: RNA Interference.

The chronic infection with the liver fluke of the genus Fasciola spp. is the most prevalent foodborne trematodiasis, affecting at least one-fourth of the world livestock grazing in areas where the parasite is present. Moreover, fascioliasis is considered a major zoonosis mainly in rural areas of central South America, Northern Africa, and Central Asia.

Amorphous SiO2 nanoparticles promote cardiac dysfunction via the opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore in rat heart and human cardiomyocytes.

Background: Silica nanoparticles (nanoSiO) are promising systems that can deliver biologically active compounds to tissues such as the heart in a controllable manner. However, cardiac toxicity induced by nanoSiO has been recently related to abnormal calcium handling and energetic failure in cardiomyocytes. Moreover, the precise mechanisms underlying this energetic debacle remain unclear.

Radioiodine-Induced Salivary Gland Damage Detected by Ultrasonography in Patients Treated for Papillary Thyroid Cancer: Radioactive Iodine Activity and Risk.

An important side effect of radioactive iodine (RAI) therapy in patients treated for papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is chronic sialadenitis. Neck ultrasonography (US) easily recognizes radioiodine-induced salivary gland abnormalities. The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of US-detected sialadenitis caused by RAI and to identify the risk factors associated with this damage.

A Novel Approach to Describe the Time-Temperature Conversion among Relaxation Curves of Viscoelastic Materials.

Time and temperature, besides pressure in a lesser extent, represent the most significant variables influencing the rheological behavior of viscoelastic materials. These magnitudes are each other related through the well-known Time-Temperature Superposition (TTS) principle, which allows the master curve referred to relaxation (or creep) behavior to be derived as a material characteristic. In this work, a novel conversion law to interrelate relaxation curves at different temperatures is proposed by assuming they to be represented by statistical cumulative distribution functions of the normal or Gumbel family.

Further study on the physiological effects of an alternative spit mask.

Objectives: Spit masks are used by law enforcement officers and healthcare providers to protect themselves from the spread of communicable disease by subjects who pose a potential risk of biological exposure by spitting. Little research is available regarding the safety of these masks. However, concerns surround the ability of subjects to properly ventilate while wearing these masks as there are several anecdotal incidents of asphyxiation.

Vaccination during pregnancy: Canadian maternity care providers' opinions and practices.

A number of countries have implemented vaccination in pregnancy as a strategy to reduce the burden of influenza and pertussis. The aim of this study was to assess the involvement of Canadian maternity care providers in administration of vaccines to their pregnant patients. A cross-sectional web-based survey was sent to family physicians, obstetricians-gynecologists, midwives, pharmacists, and nurses.

Assessment of mining activity on arsenic contamination in surface water and sediments in southwestern area of Santurbán paramo, Colombia.

The current emphasis of developing countries on policies that favor the intensification of mining exploitation as the main source of incomes, has generated negative consequences for ecosystems and rural communities, mainly due to the release of highly toxic elements into the environment. This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of the Vetas-California gold mining district on As distribution in stream sediments and surface water samples from Suratá River, located in the southwestern area of Santurbán paramo, Colombia. With this aim, samples distributed along the high Suratá River basin in areas near and far from mining areas were selected.

Altered integrity of corpus callosum in generalized epilepsy in relation to seizure lateralization after corpus callosotomy.

Objective: Generalized-onset seizures are usually conceptualized as engaging bilaterally distributed networks with no clear focus. However, the authors previously reported a case series demonstrating that in some patients with generalized-onset seizures, focal seizure onset could be discovered after corpus callosotomy. The corpus callosum is considered to be a major pathway for seizure generalization in this group of patients.

Preliminary Results of Initial Testing for Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the Emergency Department.

Introduction: On March 10, 2020, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic due to widespread infection of the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). We report the preliminary results of a targeted program of COVID-19 infection testing in the ED in the first 10 days of its initiation at our institution.

Methods: We conducted a review of prospectively collected data on all ED patients who had targeted testing for acute COVID-19 infection at two EDs during the initial 10 days of testing (March 10-19, 2020).

High expression of Helicobacter pylori VapD in both the intracellular environment and biopsies from gastric patients with severity.

Helicobacter pylori is a Gram-negative bacterium that causes chronic atrophic gastritis and peptic ulcers and it has been associated with the development of gastric adenocarcinoma and mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT). One of the more remarkable characteristics of H. pylori is its ability to survive in the hostile environment of the stomach.