Publications by authors named "Fung M"

Introduction: Thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) is a master regulator of allergic inflammation against pathogens at barrier surfaces of the lung, skin, and gut. However, aberrant TSLP activity is implicated in various allergic, chronic inflammation and autoimmune diseases and cancers. Biologics drugs neutralizing excess TSLP activity represented by tezepelumab have been approved for severe asthma and are being evaluated for the treatments of other TSLP-mediated diseases.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Allergic contact dermatitis cannot be reliably differentiated from other forms of spongiotic/eczematous dermatitis by histology alone. Textbooks and recent studies have variably supported the specificity of dermal eosinophils, eosinophilic spongiosis, and Langerhans cell collections, among other features.

Objective: To assess which histopathologic features favor a diagnosis of allergic contact dermatitis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Capping layers (CPLs) are commonly employed in top-emitting organic light-emitting diodes (TEOLEDs) due to their ability to optimize color purity, enhance external light out-coupling efficiency, and improve device stability. However, the mismatch in refractive index between CPLs and thin film encapsulation (TFE) often induces light trapping. This study introduces a novel approach by combining a low refractive index material, lithium fluoride (LiF), with the traditional TFE material, silicon nitride (SiN), to form a combined CPL (LiF/SiN), resulting in improved light outcoupling and light reflection properties.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Perovskite-based tandem solar cells (PTSCs) have made remarkable achievements in recent years, and the highest certified power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 33.9% has been achieved in perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells (PSTSCs), indicating their great commercialization potential. Nevertheless, the performance of PTSCs continues to be hindered by the compromised performance of wide-bandgap perovskite solar cells (WPSCs), particularly the high deficit of WPSCs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: A retrospective observational study was conducted at 3 health care organizations to identify clinical gaps in care for patients with stage 3 or 4 chronic kidney disease (CKD), and financial opportunity from U.S. risk adjustment payment systems.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to compare the image quality and visibility of lesions in zero echo time (ZTE) MRI using a deep learning (DL) algorithm against conventional reconstruction methods, and to evaluate DL ZTE's effectiveness in assessing bone loss for shoulder instability compared to CT scans.
  • Forty-four patients with shoulder instability underwent both ZTE MRI and CT scans, with images evaluated by two radiologists for clarity, resolution, and how well they showed lesions, using a rating scale.
  • Results indicated that DL ZTE MRI images had superior resolution and showed lesions more clearly than conventional methods, with excellent agreement between DL ZTE and CT scans for measuring bone parameters.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Wide-bandgap perovskite sub-cells (WPSCs), one of the most crucial components of perovskite-based tandem solar cells (PTSCs), play a critical role in determining the performance of tandem devices. However, confined by the compromised crystallization properties of wide-bandgap perovskites, WPSCs exhibit significantly lower efficiency than their theoretical limit. In particular, for n-i-p structured all-inorganic WPSCs (AIWPSCs), severe nonradiative recombination due to the buried interface defects severely decreases the photovoltaic performance.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - This study investigates the factors affecting the recruitment of primary care professionals (PCPs) in rural Vermont, aiming to improve healthcare for aging populations in these areas.
  • - Through interviews with Family Medicine residents and DNP students, it was found that personal and lifestyle factors, rather than just financial incentives, significantly influence their decisions to work in rural healthcare settings.
  • - The research concludes that recruitment strategies should focus on enhancing rural experiences during medical training and building stronger connections with rural healthcare environments to attract more PCPs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Patient-specific three-dimensional (3D) printed anatomic models are valuable clinical tools that facilitate enhanced visualization of pertinent anatomic structures and have demonstrated benefits of reduced surgical times, increased surgeon confidence, and improved operative results and subsequent patient outcomes. Medical image-based 3D printed anatomic models are generally created from computed tomography (CT), however magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which offers exquisite soft tissue characterization and flexible contrast avoiding the use of ionizing radiation, is an attractive alternative. Herein, the application of 3D printing incorporating both MR neurography and zero-echo time (ZTE) MRI for visualization of the brachial plexus anatomy in a subject with thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) is described.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: This article presents the culmination of a multiyear research project aimed at creating a comprehensive food literacy framework and corresponding measure. Specifically, this article documents the development and validation of a food literacy measure for young people facing social inequities.

Objectives: This study aimed to identify items to measure 12 attributes of food literacy; test the measure with the identified target groups, considering attribute, face, and content validity, inter-rater reliability and test-retest reliability; and refine the measure.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Evaluation of 3D bone morphology of the glenohumeral joint is necessary for pre-surgical planning. Zero echo time (ZTE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides excellent bone contrast and can potentially be used in place of computed tomography. Segmentation of shoulder anatomy, particularly humeral head and acetabulum, is needed for detailed assessment of each anatomy and for pre-surgical preparation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is an effective nonsurgical treatment for symptomatic benign thyroid nodules. Large-volume nodules (≥20-mL) often require 2 or more radiofrequency ablation sessions to achieve desirable shrinkage but the optimal interval between sessions remains unknown. We hypothesized that early (within 6 months) retreatment could improve nodule shrinkage.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * A 2D convolutional neural network (CNN) was trained on synthesized data and tested on various datasets, achieving notable precision (85%) and recall (80%) in identifying motion issues.
  • * The model demonstrated excellent agreement with a radiologist's assessments (93%) and correlates strongly with an image quality metric, aiming to streamline the quality assessment process, especially in low-resource environments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The transformative impact of modern computational paradigms and technologies, such as high-performance computing (HPC), quantum computing, and cloud computing, has opened up profound new opportunities for scientific simulations. Scalable computational chemistry is one beneficiary of this technological progress. The main focus of this paper is on the performance of various quantum chemical formulations, ranging from low-order methods to high-accuracy approaches, implemented in different computational chemistry packages and libraries, such as NWChem, NWChemEx, Scalable Predictive Methods for Excitations and Correlated Phenomena, ExaChem, and Fermi-Löwdin orbital self-interaction correction on Azure Quantum Elements, Microsoft's cloud services platform for scientific discovery.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cutaneous melanoma can lead to metastasis, and it is associated with high mortality. Currently, there are no widely accepted immunohistochemistry markers for melanoma prognosis in routine staging. Preferentially expressed antigen in melanoma (PRAME) is a possible biomarker for prognosis in several noncutaneous neoplasms.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: To evaluate urinary activated leucocyte cell adhesion molecule (ALCAM) and CD6 as predictors of lupus nephritis (LN) progression or disease resolution across a 1-year study.

Methods: Serum and urine samples from biopsy proven LN subjects (n = 122) were prospectively collected over the course of a year at 3- or 6-month intervals (weeks 0, 12, 26, and 52) across multiple study sites and assessed for soluble ALCAM and CD6 levels. Urine creatinine from the same urine sample was used to normalize the levels of urinary ALCAM and urinary CD6.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The COVID-19 pandemic raised significant healthcare issues and highlighted how the human immune system responds to viral infections and vaccinations.
  • This paper discusses two patients who experienced granulomatous skin lesions after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, noting one had generalized granuloma annulare (GA) and the other had localized GA.
  • Both patients responded well to treatment with systemic corticosteroids, and the paper reviews related literature on skin diseases associated with COVID-19, focusing on potential mechanisms for these granulomatous skin eruptions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The emergence of zero echo time (ZTE) imaging has transformed bone imaging, overcoming historical limitations in capturing detailed bone structures. By minimizing the time gap between radiofrequency excitation and data acquisition, ZTE generates CT-like images. While ZTE has shown promise in various applications, its potential in assessing skull base and calvarium lesions remains unexplored.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Non-infectious cutaneous vasculitis often leads to skin biopsies being tested with direct immunofluorescence (DIF), but the clinical value of this testing hasn't been thoroughly assessed.
  • This scoping review evaluated peer-reviewed literature from 1975 to 2023 on the utility of DIF in vasculitis to help develop guidelines for its appropriate use.
  • The review found DIF has a sensitivity of around 75% and can aid in diagnosing and distinguishing subtypes of vasculitis, but further research is needed to compare DIF's effectiveness against routine microscopy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

PD-1 is a key negative regulator of CD8 T cell activation and is highly expressed by exhausted T cells in cancer and chronic viral infection. Although PD-1 blockade can improve viral and tumor control, physiological PD-1 expression prevents immunopathology and improves memory formation. The mechanisms driving high PD-1 expression in exhaustion are not well understood and could be critical to disentangling its beneficial and detrimental effects.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * A survey distributed to physicians revealed that most institutions did not change their policies regarding the selection of pRBCs in RhD-negative patients during the pandemic, with 83.87% of policies remaining the same.
  • * Despite challenges in the supply of RhD-negative pRBCs, many respondents (53.85%) reported offering Rh immunoglobulin to Rh-negative patients who received RhD-positive pRBCs, indicating some variability in practices.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • This study investigates the impact of cervical plexus block (CPB), combined with local anesthesia and sedation, on post-operative pain in patients undergoing thermal ablation (TA) of thyroid nodules.
  • Patients were divided into two groups: one receiving standard pain management without CPB and the other receiving CPB, with results showing significantly lower pain scores immediately and four hours after the procedure in the CPB group.
  • The study concludes that adding CPB improves pain control without affecting recovery quality or discharge timing, indicating it's a beneficial addition to the pain management regimen for thyroid ablation patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: A non-numeric value encountered

Filename: controllers/Author.php

Line Number: 219

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/application/controllers/Author.php
Line: 219
Function: _error_handler

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: A non-numeric value encountered

Filename: libraries/Pagination.php

Line Number: 413

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/application/controllers/Author.php
Line: 274
Function: create_links

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once