Differential substrate specificity of ERK, JNK, and p38 MAP kinases toward Connexin 43.

Phosphorylation of connexin 43 (Cx43) is an important regulatory mechanism of gap junction (GJ) function. Cx43 is modified by several kinases on over 15 sites within its ∼140 amino acid-long C-terminus (CT). Phosphorylation of Cx43CT on S255, S262, S279, and S282 by ERK has been widely documented in several cell lines, by many investigators.

A benchmark for computational analysis of animal behavior, using animal-borne tags.

Background: Animal-borne sensors ('bio-loggers') can record a suite of kinematic and environmental data, which are used to elucidate animal ecophysiology and improve conservation efforts. Machine learning techniques are used for interpreting the large amounts of data recorded by bio-loggers, but there exists no common framework for comparing the different machine learning techniques in this domain. This makes it difficult to, for example, identify patterns in what works well for machine learning-based analysis of bio-logger data.

Processes of obstetrical care and outcomes among Ontario physicians versus non-physicians: a population-based study.

Objective: We compared processes of antepartum, intrapartum and postpartum care and obstetrical outcomes between physicians and non-physicians.

Design: This is a population-based retrospective matched cohort study.

Setting: The study was conducted in Ontario, Canada.

Pituitary neuroendocrine tumors treated with stereotactic radiosurgery.

Purpose: Pituitary neuroendocrine tumors (pitNETs) are benign tumors that may recur after surgical resection or persist following medical management. The objective of this study was to evaluate outcomes and toxicities of patients with pitNETs treated with stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) at a single institution.

Methods: We completed a retrospective, single-institution study of patients with pitNETs treated with frame-based, single-fraction, cobalt-60 SRS between September 2005 and June 2023.

Educating residents in spine surgery: A study of Entrustable professional activities in neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery.

Background: Surgery for spinal disorders represents some of the commonest surgical procedures performed in many countries worldwide, carried out by neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons. Residency training is shifting to competency-based medical education, which requires setting standards for graduating residents and their assessments. However, gaps exist in the literature regarding the parameters used for assessment and the mastery levels expected of graduating residents in the performance of common spinal procedures as defined in Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs).

Listening with generative models.

Perception has long been envisioned to use an internal model of the world to explain the causes of sensory signals. However, such accounts have historically not been testable, typically requiring intractable search through the space of possible explanations. Using auditory scenes as a case study, we leveraged contemporary computational tools to infer explanations of sounds in a candidate internal generative model of the auditory world (ecologically inspired audio synthesizers).

Causal Forest Machine Learning Analysis of Parkinson's Disease in Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

In recent years, Artificial Intelligence has been used to assist healthcare professionals in detecting and diagnosing neurodegenerative diseases. In this study, we propose a methodology to analyze functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging signals and perform classification between Parkinson's disease patients and healthy participants using Machine Learning algorithms. In addition, the proposed approach provides insights into the brain regions affected by the disease.

Quality of Life Factors and Measurement in Adult Meningioma Patients: A Systematic Review.

Background: Meningiomas are common brain neoplasms that can significantly influence health-related quality of life (HRQOL), yet the factors influencing HRQOL in adult patients remain unclear. We aimed to bridge this knowledge gap by determining these key factors.

Methods: We conducted a systematic review, searching EMBASE, MEDLINE, CINAHL, Scopus and PsycINFO up to February 2024.

Impact of Automated Prognostication on Traumatic Brain Injury Care: A Focus Group Study.

Background: Prognosticating outcomes for traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients is challenging due to the required specialized skills and variability among clinicians. Recent attempts to standardize TBI prognosis have leveraged machine learning (ML) methodologies. This study evaluates the necessity and influence of ML-assisted TBI prognostication through healthcare professionals' perspectives via focus group discussions.

Validity and reliability International Classification of Diseases-10 codes for all forms of injury: A systematic review.

Background: Intentional and unintentional injuries are a leading cause of death and disability globally. International Classification of Diseases (ICD), Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes are used to classify injuries in administrative health data and are widely used for health care planning and delivery, research, and policy. However, a systematic review of their overall validity and reliability has not yet been done.

Development of a Multimodal Machine Learning-Based Prognostication Model for Traumatic Brain Injury Using Clinical Data and Computed Tomography Scans: A CENTER-TBI and CINTER-TBI Study.

Computed tomography (CT) is an important imaging modality for guiding prognostication in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, because of the specialized expertise necessary, timely and dependable TBI prognostication based on CT imaging remains challenging. This study aimed to enhance the efficiency and reliability of TBI prognostication by employing machine learning (ML) techniques on CT images.

Differential substrate specificity of ERK, JNK, and p38 MAP kinases toward Connexin 43.

Phosphorylation of connexin 43 (Cx43) is an important regulatory mechanism of gap junction (GJ) function. Cx43 is modified by several kinases on over 15 sites within its ~140 amino acid-long C terminus (CT). Phosphorylation of Cx43CT on S255, S262, S279, and S282 by ERK has been widely documented in several cell lines, by many investigators.

Autonomic Dysreflexia in Spinal Cord Injury: Mechanisms and Prospective Therapeutic Targets.

High-level spinal cord injury (SCI) often results in cardiovascular dysfunction, especially the development of autonomic dysreflexia. This disorder, characterized as an episode of hypertension accompanied by bradycardia in response to visceral or somatic stimuli, causes substantial discomfort and potentially life-threatening symptoms. The neural mechanisms underlying this dysautonomia include a loss of supraspinal control to spinal sympathetic neurons, maladaptive plasticity of sensory inputs and propriospinal interneurons, and excessive discharge of sympathetic preganglionic neurons.

Sentinel lymph node mapping in endometrial cancer: Current evidence and practice.

Surgical staging with total hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, and lymph node assessment is the standard of care for patients with clinical early-stage endometrial cancer. Traditionally, complete pelvic and para-aortic lymphadenectomy (LND) was performed to assess for nodal metastases; however, numerous prospective studies have demonstrated that sentinel lymph node biopsy has similar diagnostic accuracy, and is an acceptable alternative to complete LND. This has led to a paradigm shift in endometrial cancer staging.

Effect of Cobalt-60 Treatment Dose Rate on Arteriovenous Malformation Obliteration After Stereotactic Radiosurgery With Gamma Knife.

Background And Objectives: Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) marginal dose is associated with successful obliteration of cerebral arteriovenous malformations (AVM). SRS dose rate-how old the cobalt-60 sources are-is known to influence outcomes for some neurological conditions and benign tumors. The objective of this study was to determine the association between cobalt-60 treatment dose rate and cerebral AVM obliteration in patients treated with SRS.

Astrogliosis marker 11C-SL25.1188 PET in traumatic brain injury with persistent symptoms.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is common but little is known why up to a third of patients have persisting symptoms. Astrogliosis, a pathophysiological response to brain injury, may be a potential therapeutic target, but demonstration of astrogliosis in the brain of humans with TBI and persistent symptoms is lacking. Astroglial marker monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B) total distribution volume (11C-SL25.

The effect of recreational cannabis legalization and commercialization on substance use, mental health, and injury: a systematic review.

Objective: To determine the effect of recreational cannabis legalization (RCL) and/or recreational cannabis commercialization (RCC) on emergency department (ED) visits, hospitalizations, and deaths due to substance use, injury, and mental health among those aged 11 years and older.

Methods: A systematic review of six electronic databases up to February 1, 2023. Original, peer-reviewed articles with interrupted time series or before and after designs were included.

Levels of nasal nitric oxide and nitric oxide synthase expression in chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyposis.

CRSwNP patients had decreased nNO and increased SNOT-22, endoscopy, and CT scores. CRSwNP patients exhibited decreased nNO despite elevated iNOS and eNOS mRNA expression. The mechanism behind lowered nNO in CRSwNP may not be related to NOS expression.

Automated screening of computed tomography using weakly supervised anomaly detection.

Background: Current artificial intelligence studies for supporting CT screening tasks depend on either supervised learning or detecting anomalies. However, the former involves a heavy annotation workload owing to requiring many slice-wise annotations (ground truth labels); the latter is promising, but while it reduces the annotation workload, it often suffers from lower performance. This study presents a novel weakly supervised anomaly detection (WSAD) algorithm trained based on scan-wise normal and anomalous annotations to provide better performance than conventional methods while reducing annotation workload.