Implementation of An Advance Care Planning Intervention in Dialysis Clinics.

Rationale & Objective: Sharing Patient's Illness Representations to Increase Trust (SPIRIT) is an evidence-based advance care planning intervention targeting dialysis patients and their surrogate decision-makers. To address SPIRIT's implementation potential, we report on a process evaluation in our recently completed five-state cluster-randomized trial.

Study Design: A descriptive study of implementation within a randomized clinical trial.

Quantitative profiling and mapping of small molecules by laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry: combinations of carbon-based nano-matrices and sample preparation protocols.

The choices of matrices and protocols for sample deposition are critical factors, which impact each other in the matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry imaging (MSI). Previous reports on MALDI MS matrices have only compared their performances in terms of their MS signal intensities and provided optical microphotos or MALDI MS images of sample spots but typically lacked quantitative evaluation. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop a multivariate model to evaluate the performance of different combinations of matrices and sample protocols.

Foldable, Stretchable, Superelastic, and Tunable Wettability Aramid Nanofiber Aerogels for Efficient Thermal Insulation and Oil-Water Separation.

Aerogels hold great potential in thermal insulation, catalytic supports, adsorption, and separation, due to their low density, high porosity, and low thermal conductivity. However, their inherent mechanical fragility and limited control functionality pose substantial challenges that hinder their practical use. In this study, a strategy is developed for the fabrication of cross-linked aramid nanofiber aerogels (cANFAs) by combining internanofiber surface cross-linking with ice-templating techniques.

Estimating the impacts of calorie labels in fast-food settings using a novel comparison: Comparing California drive-through and in-store purchases.

Prior studies assessing the impact of calorie labels in fast-food settings have relied on comparisons across local and state jurisdictions with and without labeling mandates; several well-designed studies indicate a small reduction of calories purchased as a result of the labels. This study exploits a staggered roll-out of calorie labels in California to study the same issue using a novel comparison of in-store purchases with calorie information and drive-through purchases without calorie information at the same locations. With this design, consumers in both the treatment and comparison groups have been subject to the same social signals associated with the policy change and may have been exposed to calorie information during prior purchases, narrowing the intervention under study to the impact of posted menu labels at the point of purchase.

Prospective Multi-Site Validation of AI to Detect Tuberculosis and Chest X-Ray Abnormalities.

Background: Using artificial intelligence (AI) to interpret chest X-rays (CXRs) could support accessible triage tests for active pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) in resource-constrained settings.

Methods: The performance of two cloud-based CXR AI systems - one to detect TB and the other to detect CXR abnormalities - in a population with a high TB and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) burden was evaluated. We recruited 1978 adults who had TB symptoms, were close contacts of known TB patients, or were newly diagnosed with HIV at three clinical sites.