Publications by authors named "Helm R"

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a severe anxiety disorder that affects women more than men. About 30% of patients suffering from PTSD develop the disorder by witnessing a traumatic event happen to someone else. However, as the focus has remained on those directly experiencing the traumatic event, whether indirectly acquired fear memories that underlie PTSD have the same molecular signature as those that are directly acquired remains unknown.

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Importance: In the US, approximately 10.55 million adults have atrial fibrillation (AF). AF is associated with significantly increased risk of stroke, heart failure, myocardial infarction, dementia, chronic kidney disease, and mortality.

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Over 90% of protein degradation in eukaryotic cells occurs through the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS). In this system, the ubiquitin protein can bind to a substrate on its own or it can form a chain with multiple ubiquitin molecules in a process called polyubiquitination. There are 8 different sites on ubiquitin at which polyubiquitin chains can be formed, the second most abundant of which, lysine-63 (K63), is independent of the degradation process, though this mark has rarely been studied in the brain or during learning-dependent synaptic plasticity.

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Background: The insertion of a PIVC is the most commonly performed invasive procedure in healthcare. Despite its frequency in placement in hospitalized patients, PIVCs are generally perceived as being safe; however, the prevalence of failure ranges from 35%-50%. Additionally, complications are common and often deemed 'acceptable' by clinicians.

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  • The study investigated the prevalence of cardiac arrhythmias among transgender and nonbinary (TGNB) adults using medical records from a specialized care center over a period from 2010 to 2021.
  • Out of 49,862 adults, 7121 identified as TGNB, showing a low prevalence of arrhythmias (ranging from 0.7% to 1.5%), with transgender individuals having similar odds of arrhythmias compared to cisgender men but higher odds compared to cisgender women.
  • The findings suggest that the prevalence of arrhythmias is similar among TGNB adults regardless of whether they were undergoing gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT), highlighting the need for further research on this topic
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Perceptual expertise is typically domain-specific and rarely generalises beyond an expert's domain of experience. Forensic feature-comparison examiners outperform the norm in domain-specific visual comparison, but emerging research suggests that they show advantages on other similar tasks outside their domain of expertise. For example, fingerprint examiners not only outperform novices in fingerprint comparison, but also in face comparison.

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Auxins are crucial signaling molecules that regulate the growth, metabolism, and behavior of various organisms, most notably plants but also bacteria, fungi, and animals. Many microbes synthesize and perceive auxins, primarily indole-3-acetic acid (IAA, referred to as auxin herein), the most prevalent natural auxin, which influences their ability to colonize plants and animals. Understanding auxin biosynthesis and signaling in fungi may allow us to better control interkingdom relationships and microbiomes from agricultural soils to the human gut.

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  • Most bacteria have a cell wall made of peptidoglycan, which consists of glycan strands linked by peptide cross-links, primarily classified as 4-3 and 3-3 based on their amino acid composition.
  • The majority of bacteria rely on 4-3 cross-links for survival, but in a specific intestinal pathogen, 3-3 cross-links are essential, making L,D-transpeptidases (LDTs) crucial for its viability.
  • This study identifies a new family of PG cross-linking enzymes, reveals the function of VanW domains, and highlights the potential of targeting LDTs for antibiotic development against this pathogen.
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Cu is an antimicrobial that is commonly applied to premise (i.e., building) plumbing systems for control, but the precise mechanisms of inactivation are not well defined.

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The ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) controls the majority of protein degradation in cells and dysregulation of the UPS has been implicated in the pathophysiology of numerous neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease. Further, strong evidence supports a critical role for the UPS in synaptic plasticity and memory formation. However, while proteasome function is known to decrease broadly in the brain across the lifespan, whether it changes in the hippocampus, a region critical for memory storage and among the first impacted in Alzheimer's disease, at rest and following learning in the aged brain remains unknown.

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The behavioral endocrinology associated with reproduction and uniparental male care has been studied in teleosts, but little is known about hormonal correlates of uniparental male care in other ectotherms. To address this gap, we are the first to document the seasonal steroid endocrinology of uniparental male hellbender salamanders during the transition from pre-breeding to nest initiation, and through the subsequent eight months of paternal care. In doing so, we investigated the correlates of nest fate and clutch size, exploring hellbenders' alignment with several endocrinological patterns observed in uniparental male fish.

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This case report documents the management of a 66-year old man with atrial fibrillation with recent placement of a WATCHMAN Flex atrial appendage occlusion device. The patient presented with renal failure, abdominal pain, and difficulty walking 2 months after placement. The WATCHMAN Flex device was found to have embolized to his abdominal aorta at the level of the renal arteries with associated thrombus.

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Background: Cognitive impairment is strongly associated with atrial fibrillation (AF). Rate and rhythm control are the two treatment strategies for AF and the effect of treatment strategy on risk of cognitive decline and frailty is not well established. We sought to determine how treatment strategy affects geriatric-centered outcomes.

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Objective: A mock jury experiment tested the effects of attorney guidance and jury deliberation to mitigate the challenges that civil juries face in assessing damages.

Hypotheses: We hypothesized that two types of attorney guidance (per diem, per diem + lump sum), theoretically based in the Hans-Reyna model of jury decision making, would improve jury decision making compared with no guidance against five key benchmarks: injury assessment, validity, reliability, verbatim-gist coherence, and metacognitive experience. We expected that deliberation would increase reliability of, confidence in, and polarization of awards compared with predeliberation.

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  • The text discusses a specific bacterium known for causing antibiotic-associated diarrhea, which strengthens its cell wall using 3-3 crosslinks created by L,D-transpeptidases (LDTs), unlike most bacteria that use 4-3 crosslinks.
  • Researchers found that 3-3 crosslinking is vital for the survival of this bacterium and discovered a new type of LDT that uses a VanW domain to facilitate this process.
  • The study suggests that targeting LDTs could lead to new antibiotics that effectively kill this bacterium while preserving the beneficial intestinal bacteria.
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Microbial extracellular proteins and metabolites provide valuable information concerning how microbes adapt to changing environments. In cyanobacteria, dynamic acclimation strategies involve a variety of regulatory mechanisms, being ferric uptake regulator proteins as key players in this process. In the nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium sp.

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  • Many studies on atrial fibrillation (AF) and COVID-19 haven't distinguished between new cases and existing ones, which this study aims to address by analyzing data from Veterans aged 65 and older who were hospitalized with COVID-19.
  • The research found that among over 23,000 patients, 5.3% had newly diagnosed AF, which was linked to higher in-hospital (16.5%) and 30-day mortality (22.7%) compared to those with pre-existing AF and patients without AF.
  • Newly-diagnosed AF significantly increased mortality risks, making it a crucial prognostic marker for COVID-19 patients, though it's still unclear if managing AF can improve outcomes for these individuals.
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Innovation is a key to evolutionary success and entrance into novel ecosystems. Species that float freely at the ocean's surface, termed obligate neuston (also called pleuston, here referred to simply as neuston), include highly specialized taxa from distinct evolutionary lineages that evolved floating morphologies. In 1958, Soviet scientist, A.

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Background: Sex differences have been observed in several brain regions for the molecular mechanisms involved in baseline (resting) and memory-related processes. The ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS) is a major protein degradation pathway in cells. Sex differences have been observed in lysine-48 (K48)-polyubiquitination, the canonical degradation mark of the UPS, both at baseline and during fear memory formation within the amygdala.

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Glycosidic linkages in oligosaccharides play essential roles in determining their chemical properties and biological activities. MS has been widely used to infer glycosidic linkages but requires a substantial amount of starting material, which limits its application. In addition, there is a lack of rigorous research on what MS protocols are proper for characterizing glycosidic linkages.

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Objectives: To date, most research on plea bargaining has used some form of the shadow of the trial (SOT) model to frame defendant decisions. In this research, we proposed and tested a new conceptual model of plea decision-making, based on fuzzy-trace theory (FTT), for the context in which a nondetained, guilty defendant chooses between a guilty plea or trial, where both the plea and potential trial sentence entail incarceration.

Hypotheses: We predicted that plea decisions would be affected by (a) meaningful, categorical changes in conviction probability (e.

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Females are more likely than males to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, the neurobiological mechanisms responsible for these sex differences remain elusive. The ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS) is involved in fear memory formation and implicated in PTSD development.

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Floating life (obligate neuston) is a core component of the ocean surface food web. However, only 1 region of high neustonic abundance is known so far, the Sargasso Sea in the Subtropical North Atlantic gyre, where floating life provides critical habitat structure and ecosystem services. Here, we hypothesize that floating life is also concentrated in other gyres with converging surface currents.

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