Point-of-care HCV RNA testing improves hepatitis C testing rates and allows rapid treatment initiation among people who inject drugs attending a medically supervised injecting facility.

Background: To achieve hepatitis C virus (HCV) elimination targets, simplified care engaging people who inject drugs is required. We evaluated whether fingerstick HCV RNA point-of-care testing (PoCT) increased the proportion of clients attending a supervised injecting facility who were tested for hepatitis C.

Methods: Prospective single-arm study with recruitment between 9 November 2020 and 28 January 2021 and follow-up to 31 July 2021.

Effects of concentration of hydrophobic component and swelling in saline solutions on mechanical properties of a stretchable hydrogel.

An elastic biopolymer, resilin possesses exceptional qualities such as high stretchability and resilience. Such attributes are utilized in nature by many species for mechanical energy storage to facilitate movement. The properties of resilin are attributed to the balanced combination of hydrophilic and hydrophobic segments.

Graduate Student Literature Review: Reducing mortality and morbidity in transported preweaning dairy calves: Colostrum management and pretransport nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug administration.

Currently, mortality and morbidity rates for preweaning calves in the US dairy industry are high, with the major cause being digestive disorders and respiratory diseases. One of the most important management practices that can reduce calf mortalities and morbidities is the feeding of colostrum, provided its quantity, quality, and cleanliness, and timing of feeding are according to recommendations. However, other management practices similar to transportation, can also compromise calf health and production performance.

Eliminating hepatitis C in Australia: a novel model of hepatitis C testing and treatment for people who inject drugs at a medically supervised injecting facility.

Objective: To evaluate the feasibility of testing and treating people who inject drugs at a supervised injecting facility for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting, Participants: People who inject drugs who attended the Melbourne supervised injecting facility, 30 June 2018 - 30 June 2020.

Exploring Environmental Factors Contributing to Fluid Loss in Diapers Placed in Neonatal Incubators.

Purpose: Assessing fluid output for infants in the neonatal intensive care unit is essential to understanding fluid and electrolyte balance. Wet diaper weights are used as standard practice to quantify fluid output; yet, diaper changes are intrusive and physiologically distressing. Less frequent diaper changes may have physiologic benefits but could alter diaper weights following extended intervals.

Neurocutaneous melanocytosis-associated malignant melanoma presenting with peritoneal seeding.

Neurocutaneous melanocytosis (NCM) is characterized by melanocyte deposition in the leptomeninges and brain parenchyma, primarily occurring in children with large or giant congenital melanocytic nevi (LCMN) or multiple congenital melanocytic nevi. Patients with NCM may develop hydrocephalus and increased intracranial pressure, which can be managed with ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunting. We present the case of a 16-month-old girl who developed peritoneal carcinomatosis and malignant ascites following VP shunting for hydrocephalus secondary to NCM to increase awareness of this rare, but serious, complication of cerebrospinal fluid diversion.

Assessment of a COVID-19 Control Plan on an Urban University Campus During a Second Wave of the Pandemic.

Importance: The COVID-19 pandemic has severely disrupted US educational institutions. Given potential adverse financial and psychosocial effects of campus closures, many institutions developed strategies to reopen campuses in the fall 2020 semester despite the ongoing threat of COVID-19. However, many institutions opted to have limited campus reopening to minimize potential risk of spread of SARS-CoV-2.

DNA Repair Mechanisms and Therapeutic Targets in Glioma.

Purpose Of Review: This review discusses current and investigative strategies for targeting DNA repair in the management of glioma.

Recent Findings: Recent strategies in glioma treatment rely on the production of overwhelming DNA damage and inhibition of repair mechanisms, resulting in lethal cytotoxicity. Many strategies are effective in preclinical glioma models while clinical feasibility remains under investigation.

The reproducibility of measuring maximum abdominal aortic aneurysm diameter from ultrasound images.

Background: Accurate repeat assessment of the diameter of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is important. This study investigated the reproducibility of different methods of measuring AAA diameter from ultrasound images.

Methods: Fifty AAA patients were assessed by ultrasound.

Antibiotic Multidrug Resistance of Escherichia coli Causing Device- and Procedure-related Infections in the United States Reported to the National Healthcare Safety Network, 2013-2017.

Background: Escherichia coli is one of the most common causes of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs); multidrug resistance reduces available options for antibiotic treatment. We examined factors associated with the spread of multidrug-resistant E. coli phenotypes responsible for device- and procedure-related HAIs from acute care hospitals, long-term acute care hospitals, and inpatient rehabilitation facilities, using isolate and antimicrobial susceptibility data reported to the National Healthcare Safety Network during 2013-2017.

Trends in Indicators of Injection Drug Use, Indian Health Service, 2010-2014 : A Study of Health Care Encounter Data.

Objectives: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and HIV transmission in the United States may increase as a result of increasing rates of opioid use disorder (OUD) and associated injection drug use (IDU). Epidemiologic trends among American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) persons are not well known.

Methods: We analyzed 2010-2014 Indian Health Service data on health care encounters to assess regional and temporal trends in IDU indicators among adults aged ≥18 years.

Rape Myth Acceptance Reflects Perceptions of Media Portrayals as Similar to Others, but Not the Self.

Understanding the antecedents and consequences of rape myths is important for sexual assault prevention programming. We investigated whether general perceptions of media predict rape myth endorsement among community college students, a group with elevated sexual assault risk. Students who perceived greater similarity between people they know and people in media reported higher endorsement of rape myths that blame the victim and exonerate the accused.

An approach to evaluate myocardial perfusion defect assessment for projection-based DECT: A phantom study.

Introduction: Dual-energy CT (DECT) can improve the accuracy of myocardial perfusion CT with projection-based monochromatic (DECT-MCE) and quantification of myocardial iodine in material decomposition (DECT-MD) reconstructions. However, evaluation of multiple reconstructions is laborious and the optimal reconstruction to detect myocardial perfusion defects is unknown.

Methods: Left ventricular (LV) phantoms with artificial perfusion defects were scanned using DECT and single energy cardiac computed tomography angiography (SECT).

The antimalarial drug mefloquine enhances TP53 premature termination codon readthrough by aminoglycoside G418.

Nonsense mutations constitute ~10% of TP53 mutations in cancer. They introduce a premature termination codon that gives rise to truncated p53 protein with impaired function. The aminoglycoside G418 can induce TP53 premature termination codon readthrough and thus increase cellular levels of full-length protein.

Trends in Geographic Rates of HIV Diagnoses Among Black Females in the United States, 2010-2015.

Background: HIV diagnoses among females in the United States declined 22% from 2010 to 2015, including a 27% decline in diagnoses among black females. Despite this progress, disparities persist. Black females accounted for 60% of new HIV diagnoses among females in 2015.

Guiding People to Interpret Their Experienced Difficulty as Importance Highlights Their Academic Possibilities and Improves Their Academic Performance.

Does experiencing difficulty bolster or undermine future self-images, strategies to get there and actual performance? We build on four insights from prior research to predict that accessible interpretation-of-experienced-difficulty mindset shapes identity and performance. First, people have two different interpretation-of-experienced-difficulty mindsets available in memory; their difficulty-as-impossibility mindset focuses attention on difficulty as implying low odds and their difficulty-as-importance mindset focuses attention on difficulty as implying high value. Second, people are sensitive to contextual cues as to which mindset to apply to understand their experienced difficulty.

Reversing interferon-alpha neurotoxicity in a HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder mouse model.

Objective: Increased brain interferon-alpha (IFNα) is associated with neurodegenerative disorders, including HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND). HAND occurs in approximately 50% of individuals with HIV despite combined antiretroviral therapy (cART). Therefore, adjunctive therapies must be developed that prevent progression of mild forms of HAND to HIV-associated dementia.

Association between epicardial fat volume and fractional flow reserve: An analysis of the determination of fractional flow reserve (DeFACTO) study.

Background: This study examines the relationship between epicardial fat volume (EFV) and lesion-specific ischemia by fractional flow reserve (FFR).

Methods: In a study of 173 patients (63.0 ± 8.

Comparative diagnostic accuracy of dual-energy CT myocardial perfusion imaging by monochromatic energy versus material decomposition methods.

Purpose: To compare the diagnostic value of monochromatic and material decomposition (MD) dual- energy computed tomography (DECT) imaging for the evaluation of ischemia.

Methods: Patients with suspected coronary artery disease underwent rest-stress DECT and SPECT perfusion imaging. DECT images were reconstructed between 40 and 140keV and through MD of iodine/muscle.

Blood-borne virus transmission in an urban, culturally diverse neighbourhood: results from a cross-sectional bio-behavioural survey using innovative outreach methods in a hard-to-reach population.

Unlabelled: Background Following a HIV outbreak among Aboriginal people in a culturally diverse inner-city suburb of Melbourne, a blood-borne virus (BBV) screening program was conducted to inform public health interventions to prevent transmission and facilitate timely diagnosis and linkage to care.

Methods: In August-September 2014, community health workers recruited people who inject drugs (PWID) from a local needle and syringe program. Participants were tested for hepatitis C virus (HCV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), HIV and syphilis and completed a bio-behavioural questionnaire.

Exploring Factors Associated with Declining HIV Diagnoses Among African American Females.

HIV diagnoses among females in the USA declined 40% during 2005-2014 with the largest decline (42%) among Black/African Americans. African American females remain disproportionately affected. We explored contributions of STD rates and sexual risk behaviors among African American females, HIV diagnoses among potential male partners, and sexual risk behaviors and viral suppression rates among HIV-positive potential male partners to declining rates of HIV diagnoses among African American females.