Gender and Intersecting Barriers and Facilitators to Access the HIV Cascade of Care in Manitoba, Canada, Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study.

Marginalized groups in Manitoba, Canada, especially females and people who inject drugs, are overrepresented in new HIV diagnoses and disproportionately affected by HIV and structural disadvantages. Informed by syndemic theory, our aim was to understand people living with HIV's (PLHIV) gendered and intersecting barriers and facilitators across the cascade of HIV care before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study was co-designed and co-led alongside people with lived experience and a research advisory committee.

Impact of chronic intranasal oxytocin administration on face expression processing in autistic children: a randomized controlled trial using fMRI.

Background: Difficulties with (non-verbal) social communication, including facial expression processing, constitute a hallmark of autism. Intranasal administration of oxytocin has been considered a potential therapeutic option for improving social difficulties in autism, either by enhancing the salience of social cues or by reducing the social stress and anxiety experienced in social encounters.

Methods: We recorded fMRI brain activity while presenting neutral, fearful and scrambled faces, to compare the neural face processing signature of autistic children (n = 58) with that of matched non-autistic controls (n = 38).

Biomarker Discovery in Liver Disease Using Untargeted Metabolomics in Plasma and Saliva.

Chronic liver diseases, including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), continue to be a global health burden with a rise in incidence and mortality, necessitating a need for the discovery of novel biomarkers for HCC detection. This study aimed to identify novel non-invasive biomarkers for these different liver disease states. We performed untargeted metabolomics in plasma (Healthy = 9, NAFLD = 14, Cirrhosis = 10, HCC = 34) and saliva samples (Healthy = 9, NAFLD = 14, Cirrhosis = 10, HCC = 22) to test for significant metabolite associations with each disease state.

Opportunities for change and levelling up: a trust wide retrospective analysis of 8 years of laparoscopic and abdominal myomectomy.

Background: Laparoscopic myomectomy is increasingly considered the gold standard uterine preserving procedure and has well documented benefits over the open approach. Barriers that women have in accessing the most appropriate treatment need to be addressed to ensure optimal patient care and outcomes.

Objectives: To analyse rates of open and laparoscopic myomectomy at a large NHS trust and identify how many cases could potentially have been performed laparoscopically, and any variation between sites.

Oral microbiota in autistic children: Diagnosis-related differences and associations with clinical characteristics.

Similar to the gut microbiome, oral microbiome compositions have been suggested to play an important role in the etiology of autism. However, empirical research on how variations in the oral microbiome relate to clinical-behavioral difficulties associated with autism remains sparse. Furthermore, it is largely unknown how potentially confounding lifestyle variables, such as oral health and nutrition, may impact these associations.

Subtle microstructural alterations in white matter tracts involved in socio-emotional processing after very preterm birth.

Children born very preterm (VPT, < 32 weeks of gestation) have an increased risk of developing socio-emotional difficulties. Possible neural substrates for these socio-emotional difficulties are alterations in the structural connectivity of the social brain due to premature birth. The objective of the current study was to study microstructural white matter integrity in VPT versus full-term (FT) born school-aged children along twelve white matter tracts involved in socio-emotional processing.

Chronic oxytocin improves neural decoupling at rest in children with autism: an exploratory RCT.

Background: Shifts in peak frequencies of oscillatory neural rhythms are put forward as a principal mechanism by which cross-frequency coupling/decoupling is implemented in the brain. During active neural processing, functional integration is facilitated through transitory formations of "harmonic" cross-frequency couplings, whereas "nonharmonic" decoupling among neural oscillatory rhythms is postulated to characterize the resting, default state of the brain, minimizing the occurrence of spurious, noisy, background couplings.

Methods: Within this exploratory, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, we assessed whether the transient occurrence of nonharmonic and harmonic relationships between peak-frequencies in the alpha (8-14 Hz) and theta (4-8 Hz) bands is impacted by intranasal administration of oxytocin, a neuromodulator implicated in improving homeostasis and reducing stress/anxiety.

Insulin signaling and pharmacology in humans and in corals.

Once thought to be a unique capability of the Langerhans islets in the pancreas of mammals, insulin (INS) signaling is now recognized as an evolutionarily ancient function going back to prokaryotes. INS is ubiquitously present not only in humans but also in unicellular eukaryotes, fungi, worms, and . Remote homologue identification also supports the presence of INS and INS receptor in corals where the availability of glucose is largely dependent on the photosynthetic activity of the symbiotic algae.

At the Head and Heart of Oxytocin's Stress-Regulatory Neural and Cardiac Effects: A Chronic Administration RCT in Children with Autism.

Introduction: Intranasal administration of oxytocin presents a promising new approach to reduce disability associated with an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis. Previous investigations have emphasized the amygdala as the neural foundation for oxytocin's acute effects. However, to fully understand oxytocin's therapeutic potential, it is crucial to gain insight into the neuroplastic changes in amygdala circuitry induced from chronic oxytocin administrations, particularly in pediatric populations.

Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Diversity Among Academic Surgical Leaders in the US.

Importance: Surgical department chairs remain conspicuously nondiverse despite the recognized importance of diverse physician workforces. However, the extent of diversity among non-chair leadership remains underexplored.

Objective: To evaluate racial, ethnic, and gender diversity of surgical department chairs, vice chairs (VCs), and division chiefs (DCs) in the US.

Feedback based on experience sampling data: Examples of current approaches and considerations for future research.

Methodologies such as the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) or Ecological Momentary Assessment allow the gathering of fine-graded, dynamic, personal data within a patient's daily life. Currently, it is studied whether feedback based on experience sampling data (ESM-based feedback) can be used as a clinical tool to inform shared decision-making in clinical practice. Although the potential of feedback is recognized, little is known on how to generate, use, and implement it.

In their own words: a qualitative study of coping mechanisms employed by patients with acute myeloid leukemia.

Purpose: Positive coping mediates improved outcomes from integrated palliative care in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). We qualitatively explored patients' coping mechanisms to better understand this relationship.

Methods: We enrolled patients with high-risk AML admitted to Duke Hospital's inpatient hematologic malignancy service for intensive chemotherapy.

Endogenous oxytocin levels in children with autism: Associations with cortisol levels and oxytocin receptor gene methylation.

Alterations in the brain's oxytocinergic system have been suggested to play an important role in the pathophysiology of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but insights from pediatric populations are sparse. Here, salivary oxytocin was examined in the morning (AM) and afternoon (PM) in school-aged children with (n = 80) and without (n = 40) ASD (boys/girls 4/1), and also characterizations of DNA methylation (DNAm) of the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) were obtained. Further, cortisol levels were assessed to examine links between the oxytocinergic system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis signaling.

Can repeated intranasal oxytocin administration affect reduced neural sensitivity towards expressive faces in autism? A randomized controlled trial.

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by difficulties in social communication and interaction. Crucial for efficient social interaction is the ability to quickly and accurately extract information from a person's face. Frequency-tagging electroencephalography (EEG) is a novel tool to quantify face-processing sensitivity in a robust and implicit manner.

Effects of multiple-dose intranasal oxytocin administration on social responsiveness in children with autism: a randomized, placebo-controlled trial.

Background: Intranasal administration of oxytocin is increasingly explored as a new approach to facilitate social development and reduce disability associated with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The efficacy of multiple-dose oxytocin administration in children with ASD is, however, not well established.

Methods: A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial with parallel design explored the effects of a 4-week intranasal oxytocin administration (12 IU, twice daily) on parent-rated social responsiveness (Social Responsiveness Scale: SRS-2) in pre-pubertal school-aged children (aged 8-12 years, 61 boys, 16 girls).

A multimodal analysis of genomic and RNA splicing features in myeloid malignancies.

RNA splicing dysfunctions are more widespread than what is believed by only estimating the effects resulting by splicing factor mutations (SF) in myeloid neoplasia (MN). The genetic complexity of MN is amenable to machine learning (ML) strategies. We applied an integrative ML approach to identify co-varying features by combining genomic lesions (mutations, deletions, and copy number), exon-inclusion ratio as measure of RNA splicing (percent spliced in, PSI), and gene expression (GE) of 1,258 MN and 63 normal controls.

Transfer of knowledge from model organisms to evolutionarily distant non-model organisms: The coral Pocillopora damicornis membrane signaling receptome.

With the ease of gene sequencing and the technology available to study and manipulate non-model organisms, the extension of the methodological toolbox required to translate our understanding of model organisms to non-model organisms has become an urgent problem. For example, mining of large coral and their symbiont sequence data is a challenge, but also provides an opportunity for understanding functionality and evolution of these and other non-model organisms. Much more information than for any other eukaryotic species is available for humans, especially related to signal transduction and diseases.

"More than conquerors": a qualitative analysis of war metaphors for patients with cancer.

Purpose: Meaning-making is fundamental to the cancer experience and communication within cancer care is saturated with metaphors. The objective of this study was to better understand the impact and function of war metaphors among patients with cancer.

Methods: Patients at the Duke Cancer Center were purposively sampled for inclusion based on type and stage of their cancer.

How to use experience-sampling technology to understand daily functioning: A practical guide for mental health professionals.

Satisfying daily life functioning is essential in mental healthcare. Standard assessments focus on symptoms and are designed to detect underlying vulnerabilities. However, they offer insufficient insight into patterns of contextual variability and resilience.

MEDFORD: A human- and machine-readable metadata markup language.

Reproducibility of research is essential for science. However, in the way modern computational biology research is done, it is easy to lose track of small, but extremely critical, details. Key details, such as the specific version of a software used or iteration of a genome can easily be lost in the shuffle or perhaps not noted at all.