Finnish Trial on Practices of Anterior Cervical Decompression and Fusion (FACADE): a protocol for a prospective randomised non-inferiority trial comparing outpatient versus inpatient care.

Introduction: Although a great majority of patients with cervical radiculopathy syndrome can successfully be treated non-operatively, a considerable proportion experience persistent symptoms, severe enough to require neurosurgical intervention. During the past decade, cervical spine procedures have increasingly been performed on an outpatient basis and retrospective database analyses have shown this to be feasible and safe. However, there are no randomised controlled studies comparing outpatient care with inpatient care, particularly with emphasis on the patients' perception of symptom relief and their ability to return to normal daily activities and work.

Preoperative Activities of Daily Living Dependency is Associated With Higher 30-Day Readmission Risk for Older Adults After Total Joint Arthroplasty.

Background: With recent Medicare payment changes, older adults are increasingly likely to be discharged home instead of to extended care facilities after total joint arthroplasty (TJA), and may therefore be at increased risk for readmissions. Identifying risk factors for readmission could help re-align care pathways for vulnerable patients; recent research has suggested preoperative dependency in activities of daily living (ADL) may increase perioperative and postoperative surgical complications. However, the proportion of older surgical patients with ADL dependence before TJA, and the impact of ADL dependency on the frequency and timing of hospital readmissions is unknown.

Visualizing reaction and diffusion in xanthan gum aerosol particles exposed to ozone.

Atmospheric aerosol particles with a high viscosity may become inhomogeneously mixed during chemical processing. Models have predicted gradients in condensed phase reactant concentration throughout particles as the result of diffusion and chemical reaction limitations, termed chemical gradients. However, these have never been directly observed for atmospherically relevant particle diameters.

Approaches to combat hypoxia in cancer therapy and the potential for in silico models in their evaluation.

Aim: The negative impact of tumour hypoxia on cancer treatment outcome has been long-known, yet there has been little success combating it. This paper investigates the potential role of in silico modelling to help test emerging hypoxia-targeting treatments in cancer therapy.

Methods: A Medline search was undertaken on the current landscape of in silico models that simulate cancer therapy and evaluate their ability to test hypoxia-targeting treatments.

The Potential Role of Radiomics and Radiogenomics in Patient Stratification by Tumor Hypoxia Status.

Background: Despite the clinical knowledge accumulated over a century about tumor hypoxia, this biologic parameter remains a major challenge in cancer treatment. Patients presenting with hypoxic tumors are more resistant to radiotherapy and often poor responders to chemotherapy. Treatment failure because of hypoxia is, therefore, very common.

Use of the Electrodiagnostic Entrustable Professional Activity for Competency Assessment in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Training Programs.

Entrustable professional activities have emerged as a means for the evaluation of resident competency that is expressed in terms of the assessed need for supervision. Recently, 19 physical medicine and rehabilitation-specific entrustable professional activities were published (Am J Phys Med Rehabil. 2017;96:762-764).

Continuous Blood Sampling in Small Animal Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography Enables the Measurement of the Arterial Input Function.

For quantitative analysis and bio-kinetic modeling of positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) data, the determination of the temporal blood time-activity concentration also known as arterial input function (AIF) is a key point, especially for the characterization of animal disease models and the introduction of newly developed radiotracers. The knowledge of radiotracer availability in the blood helps to interpret PET/CT-derived data of tissue activity. For this purpose, online blood sampling during the PET/CT imaging is advisable to measure the AIF.

Incorporating Specific Functional Strength Integration Techniques to Improve Functional Performance for Veterans After Total Hip Arthroplasty: Protocol for a Randomized Clinical Trial.

Background: Total hip arthroplasty (THA) is a common procedure, yet persistent deficits in functional performance exist after surgery. These deficits may be related to movement compensations observed after THA, which negatively affect quality of life and may increase morbidity and health care utilization, including in the veteran population. However, the best rehabilitative approach to remediating movement compensations and physical function deficits has not been determined.

Relationship between Neovascular Density in Swept Source-Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography and Signs of Activity in Exudative Age-Related Macular Degeneration.

Purpose: To assess the relationship between signs of activity in exudative neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) following anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) treatment and morphology of choroidal neovascularization (CNV) based on neovascular density as imaged using swept source-optical coherence tomography angiography (SS-OCTA) in a qualitative manner.

Methods: A single-cohort retrospective data analysis from one tertiary eye care center. Seventy-seven eyes of 72 patients were included and their charts reviewed which had been started on intravitreal injections with anti-VEGF for nAMD at least one year prior to enrollment.

Prader-Willi Syndrome - Clinical Genetics, Diagnosis and Treatment Approaches: An Update.

Background: Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) is a neurodevelopmental genomic imprinting disorder with lack of expression of genes inherited from the paternal chromosome 15q11-q13 region usually from paternal 15q11-q13 deletions (about 60%) or maternal uniparental disomy 15 or both 15s from the mother (about 35%). An imprinting center controls the expression of imprinted genes in the chromosome 15q11-q13 region. Key findings include infantile hypotonia, a poor suck, failure to thrive and hypogonadism/hypogenitalism.

Transcriptome profiling data reveals ubiquitin-specific peptidase 9 knockdown effects.

Ubiquitin specific peptidase 9 (USP9) is a deubiquitinase encoded by a sex-linked gene with a Y-chromosomal form () and an X-chromosomal form () that escapes X-inactivation. Since is a key regulatory gene with sex-linked expression in the human brain, the gene may be of interest for researchers studying molecular gender differences and ubiquitin signaling in the brain. To assess the downstream effects of knocking down and on a transcriptome-wide scale, we have conducted microarray profiling experiments using the human DU145 prostate cancer cell culture model, after confirming the robust expression of both and in this model.

Automated high-throughput high-content autophagy and mitophagy analysis platform.

Autophagic processes play a central role in cellular homeostasis. In pathological conditions, the flow of autophagy can be affected at multiple and distinct steps of the pathway. Current analyses tools do not deliver the required detail for dissecting pathway intermediates.

Conservation of genetic uniqueness in remaining populations of red squirrels ( L.) in the South of England.

The Eurasian red squirrel () is an emblematic species for conservation, and its decline in the British Isles exemplifies the impact that alien introductions can have on native ecosystems. Indeed, red squirrels in this region have declined dramatically over the last 60 years due to the spread of squirrelpox virus following the introduction of the gray squirrel (). Currently, red squirrel populations in Britain are fragmented and need to be closely monitored in order to assess their viability and the effectiveness of conservation efforts.

Stroke Incidence and Survival in American Indians, Blacks, and Whites: The Strong Heart Study and Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study.

Background American Indians ( AIs ) have high stroke morbidity and mortality. We compared stroke incidence and mortality in AI s, blacks, and whites. Methods and Results Pooled data from 2 cardiovascular disease cohort studies included 3182 AI s from the SHS (Strong Heart Study), aged 45 to 74 years at baseline (1988-1990) and 3765 blacks and 10 413 whites from the ARIC (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities) Study, aged 45 to 64 years at baseline (1987-1989).

Metabarcoding reveals a high diversity of woody host-associated spp. in soils at public gardens and amenity woodlands in Britain.

Forests and woodlands worldwide are being severely impacted by invasive species, with initial outbreaks in some cases occurring on host trees located in public parks and gardens. These highly disturbed sites with diverse planting practices may indeed act as harbours for invasive pathogens which are particularly well adapted to surviving in soil. High throughput Illumina sequencing was used to analyse species diversity in soil samples collected from 14 public garden/amenity woodland sites in northern Britain.

Reliability and precision of single frequency bioelectrical impedance assessment of lower extremity swelling following total knee arthroplasty.

Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is the most common elective orthopedic surgery performed in the United States. Following surgery patients experience significant lower extremity swelling that is related to poor satisfaction with surgery and is hypothesized to contribute to functional decline. However, in practice, precise and reliable methods for measuring lower extremity swelling do not exist.

Multi-omics characterization of the necrotrophic mycoparasite Saccharomycopsis schoenii.

Pathogenic yeasts and fungi are an increasing global healthcare burden, but discovery of novel antifungal agents is slow. The mycoparasitic yeast Saccharomycopsis schoenii was recently demonstrated to be able to kill the emerging multi-drug resistant yeast pathogen Candida auris. However, the molecular mechanisms involved in the predatory activity of S.

Progressive Multicomponent Intervention for Older Adults in Home Health Settings Following Acute Hospitalization: Randomized Clinical Trial Protocol.

Background: Hospitalization is a profound contributor to functional loss for older adults. Many modifiable risk factors (ie, weakness) may persist after hospitalization, representing portents of poor health, re-hospitalization, or death. Older adults frequently receive home health (HH) care after hospitalization to manage functional deficits that have worsened during hospital stays.

Coherent Excitation of Heterosymmetric Spin Waves with Ultrashort Wavelengths.

In the emerging field of magnonics, spin waves are foreseen as signal carriers for future spintronic information processing and communication devices, owing to both the very low power losses and a high device miniaturization potential predicted for short-wavelength spin waves. Yet, the efficient excitation and controlled propagation of nanoscale spin waves remains a severe challenge. Here, we report the observation of high-amplitude, ultrashort dipole-exchange spin waves (down to 80 nm wavelength at 10 GHz frequency) in a ferromagnetic single layer system, coherently excited by the driven dynamics of a spin vortex core.

Uncovering carbohydrate metabolism through a genotype-phenotype association study of 56 lactic acid bacteria genomes.

Owing to their unique potential to ferment carbohydrates, both homo- and heterofermentative lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are widely used in the food industry. Deciphering the genetic basis that determine the LAB fermentation type, and hence carbohydrate utilization, is paramount to optimize LAB industrial processes. Deep sequencing of 24 LAB species and comparison with 32 publicly available genome sequences provided a comparative data set including five major LAB genera for further analysis.

The Natural History of Postconcussion Recovery Among High School Athletes.

Objective: Evaluate postconcussive symptom reporting and recovery.

Setting: Public high school.

Participants: Unmatched controls (n = 760); students who sustained a sports-related concussion (n = 77); matched controls (gender, grade, sport) (n = 77).