Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) remains a pressing public health concern. Despite advancements in antidiabetic medications, suboptimal medication adherence persists among many individuals with T2D, often due to the high cost of medications. To combat this issue, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana (Blue Cross) introduced the $0 Drug Copay (ZDC) program, providing $0 copays for select drugs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Grain storage facility entrapments continue to be of concern in the agricultural industry, with nearly 1,500 documented incidents recorded over the last 45 years. Previous research studies have shown that attempting to extricate a full-size pulling test dummy from a grain mass requires a substantial amount of tensile or pull force - e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe present a pipeline to quantify biomechanical environment of the brain using solely MRI-derived data in order to elucidate the role of biomechanical factors in neurodegenerative disorders. Neurological disorders, like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, are associated with physical changes, including the accumulation of amyloid-β and tau proteins, damage to the cerebral vasculature, hypertension, atrophy of the cortical gray matter, and lesions of the periventricular white matter. Alterations in the external mechanical environment of cells can trigger pathological processes, and it is known that AD causes reduced stiffness in the brain tissue during degeneration.
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